Grats to Erling and Paul for their class wins
A strange race for me even with the depleted grid. The Toyota was never going to bother the other muscle cars and the speed with which Paul blew past on the straights was humiliating. I got out of my car to see what was holding me back!!
Daz had his Toyota hooked up in quali and was a good 4 secs ( YES!! 4 ruddy secs
) a lap quicker than I was achieving, and Matt was around my pace. So, second in class was possible, but it might all depend on the pitstops.
My plan was to run smooth and clean without any stops and hope that the tyres would last to lap 32. Matt was a rew tenths quicker in the race and slowly eased away, but I was hoping that he had only fuelled his car for half distance and would need to stop. I worked my little feet off trying to keep him in sight ( note to self " cut a bigger hole in the floor to allow longer strides and get thicker soles on boots") and was doing quite well with an 8 second gap until the GTL gods pulled, what I consider a very underhand move.
Early in the race on full fuel and cold tyres I had picked up a "Cut Track" warning swinging wide on to the main straight, but not too bothered as i knew with warmer tyres that would not happen again. All race I had happily bounced the Toyota across the kerbs at the T1 chicane clipping each one with 2 wheels and continued on my way when the gods did their thing. The normal dab on the brakes caused the car to snatch just slightly to the left at the end of the S/F straight and the trajectory took me further over the kerb than I had intended ......a deserved "Cut Track". But then, the heavy contact with the kerb dragged the car to clip the concrete wall and sent me to the right and over the second kerb.....and gave me yet another "Cut Track" within 0.5 secs demanding a SnG!!!
SnG's were not in MY Script.
Did my penance and exited the pits a long way back from my target Matt. Then I guess I was still seething over the double wammy and I collected another Cut Track, and of course, another SnG!!
Pulled into the pits and saw that Matt was just leaving...was that an SnG or had he stopped early for fuel and tyres??? Next lap Matt was in pits again?? and I was able to steal his 2nd place in class. Then Daz showed in pits and I fully expected him to leave and stay in front before I completed the lap. But he was still dunking Hob Nobs as i sailed past??
I had amassed a 40+ second lead over Matt and Daz somehow with around 12 laps to run and was waiting for Daz to turn on his turbo and close me down when Matt disco'd. Daz confirmed that he had "issues" with his car post race which explains his lack of pace, or the stewards discovered that Cosworth engine under the bonnet!!!
My fuel strategy showed that I would have 0.5 laps left if I did the full 32 laps, so when Erling was kind enough to lap me twice I was more than happy to move over and give him a clear road
In the end I cruised it home on rather worn tyres trying to avoid any of my usual dumb mistakes. But, just for the record I did test the concrete wall of the pitlane on one lap when I stood on the gas with an outside tyre on the grass out of the final corner and head butted that wall.
On to the final round of a great fun series...thanks Tony. Hope we get some of this type of thing on your Monday slots next season.
BTW If you are wondering how i get so far with such a small fuel tank, I used RAF tactics...........drop tanks under the wings