2 good races for me. Loch Rannoch is such a crazy fun track, but can be frustrating as it's so easy to lose time (or lose it all), if you don't get your lines just right.
Started practice around 6 PM Wednesday, which was really too late to relearn track and deal with 3½ new car (used the Escort before). Thus just settled on two cars; Opel & Alfa. Not very good friends with the Opel; it can be understeery, it can be oversteery, it can be anything you want it to be - just not
when you want it, or
where you want it...
Race 1 initially looked set to get lonely, with growing gaps front & behind, but towards the end, mistakes from DD meant I caught up and even got ahead briefly, before a chase over the final laps. Too many errors from me trying to stay with him meant 2nd was the best I could do.
Had problems at the start of each race, with the car rolling. Thought I had worked out the sequence of clutch activation, throttle application & gear shift, but made a real faff of it in race 2, having to hold the car on the brake. You don't do that unpunished with Mr. Start himself; Dan, behind you, and of course he got ahead. Reclaimed the position through the first stretch, but lost it once more when losing momentum at the jump landing. Next got to be the meat in a Tony-Fulvio sandwich exiting the bridge. Initiated when Tony clipped the corner. I didn't wait as I didn't think I did anything wrong, but let me know if you guys have a different opinion.
A good chase after Dan over the following laps, while Clive regrettably dropped back after an incident. Slipped past Dan when he ran wide into gravel exiting the bridge. Chase still on with swapped places, but sadly ended before the bridge next lap, when he ran wide and hit the wall. DD was some 6 secs up the road at this point, but mistakes shortened the gap. Culminated with me grabbing the lead after he had a bad landing at the jump. Didn't know his car was damaged and expected him to stage a comeback, so desperately tried to go as fast as possible. Gap grew over the following laps, as he had catastrophic landings at the jump, so I could relax a little in the final laps.
Grats to DD on the win & podium, and to Tony & Fulvio on their podiums. Commiserations to the victims of the track.
Edit: Hope you'll feel better soon Kurt!