Had to use the Porker some time, and this felt like a track where you might get away with it and live to tell about it..
Tantalizingly close to Ziu's pole time in qual, but the cosmic law stating that 'Aliens are always faster', assured him the pole position
Got best off the line, but Ziu had better momentum and arrived at T1 first. Cautious first lap on cold tyres let Daz tag along in the slower Beemer, but with some warmth in the tyres, I could pull away. Up front, Ziu set a pace I couldn't match - maybe he qualified on race fuel?
Race soon turned lonely, and I focused on not abusing my tyres too much, and keeping a wary eye on fuel consumption, as I knew from practice it would be tight - very tight. Surprised to pass Ziu in the pits halfways. That suggested he would change tyres, but even with fresh tyres and his quicker pace, I couldn't see how he could possibly make up for the pit stop. Given the length of a tyre change stop, which is usually around a minute, I reckoned he should have been at least 30 secs ahead at the time of the stop - not just the 15 secs as it was.
With 10 laps to go, I had a still growing 20+ secs gap to #2 (Michael), and was already popping the virtual Champagne, when the inevitable happened. Always on this track, no matter the car; while braking for the corner after the long back straight, car gets squirrely, rear steps out, I correct, car bites and snaps left, clouting the barrier. Steering bent and car now even more squirrely, getting worse with the tyre wear, so last 10 laps quite harrowing. Initially my gap dropped below 20 secs as a result, but then jumped to and stayed at 33 secs for a couple of laps, when Michael pitted and Daz became the chaser. Then it started dropping, when Ziu caught and passed Daz, but fortunately it was so large that I could afford to lose a fair bit over the remaining laps, bringing home the crippled car.
Grats to Ziu & Daz; commiserations to the early track/car victims.
