What a track, absolutely exhilarating!! Road courses like this are like magnets to me, but must admit I got worried when I realized only late Tuesday what kind of track this was
Thus a fair part of my Tuesday evening went like this: Start-lap, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart, wreck, restart and on and on...
Wiser heads might suggest to take some slow laps to familiarize yourself with the track, but I'm just not wired that way: The temptation to push full bore is just too irresistible, but then you find the limits and difficult spots the hard way...
As I gradually learned the track, it was also obvious that the Ferrari was a fantastic drive around here. Never tried the Aston, my only other option, as I had my hands more than full enough with learning the track with just one car.
Delighted with pole and retaining first place after the start - I expected the risk of incidents being very high, and running behind someone else almost invariably gets you involved on tracks like this (not that I wasn't perfectly capable of creating my own problems..). Well into L1 I seemed to have a great lead and things were looking good. Then I started hearing a faint echo of my own engine noise. Puzzled, but when it got louder, I had the bright idea to look behind: A black Ferrari had shown up. Of course Daz was going to be a problem - did I really think otherwise? He had apparently forgotten that he hadn't practiced, like the bumble bee that doesn't know it can't fly..
At the end of L1, he had caught up, and won the drag race from the final turn past the start line. I didn't fight it too hard - seemed wiser to let him run and wreck, or settle for 2nd if he kept it together; close racing just seemed too risky. Wasn't too far behind well into L2, when Daz kissed the wall in one of the places that gave me a hard time during praccy. Shortened the gap, and when he wrecked shortly after - ironically in one of the slowest corners, I couldn't avoid hitting his car. Sustained some damage, and the car was less keen to turn right after that. Daz was getting closer again when we reached the slower, uphill section, but suddenly his engine noise vanished. Didn't see what happened and wondered if he had wound up on the wrong side of a wall or fence. Replay shows it to be much worse, with a wheel ripped off. Shame Daz, as it was shaping up to be an exiting race.
Had a big enough gap to cruise home for the rest of the race, but still stupidly had a few close calls; just can't help trying to go fast on tracks like this.
Grats to Tony & Dan, the only other finishers I believe, and commiserations to all the victims of the track, and to Fulvio for missing it alltogether, great shame.