Thanks all for a fun evening at Crystal Palace and for all the congrats regarding the new grand daughter.
Race 1
Because the "plan" was not to be there, I had not bothered to even consider which cars to use, But, thanks to the class arrangements Tony had limited my choices anyway for the first race. I had used up all of my small cars, so it was between the Super Anglia ( having been around when the Anglia was a common sight on the UK roads I fail to remember anything "super" about it!!) and the Cooper S.
When Geoff did a few laps in the Cooper S I thought that it would be pointless to use the Mini against the Mini Maestro, so I would use the Anglebox and save the Mini for another race
. Imagine my disappointment when the cad switched to the Anglia just before qualifying!!
The first half of the race was frantic and I was just about able to stay with Geoff, until a small error allowed him some breathing space, but more of a problem was Fulvio in the 970 Mini who was now all over my boot lid!! Several laps defending against Fulvio dropped me further and further behind Geoff until Fulvio made an error and I pulled a gap. By then it was clear that 2nd in class was the best I could hope for.
Race 2
Lotus Cortina or proper muscle car??? I wanted to save the Alfa for faster venues.
A quick run with the Cortina proved that the setup I had, needed some serious work. So back to the transporter and rolled off the Mustang. My first few laps were 'orrible as I was still in Anglia driving mode and that clearly did not work with the Mustang. A few tweaks to the setup and a more considered approach to the corners ( The straights were no problem, oddly enough
) and the laptimes started to improve. It was then that I noticed Geoffers in the Falcon!! what an absolute bounder that chap is!!!! On my script he would 100% be in a Lotus Cortina.
Geoff was baulked off the line and that, in turn, hampered my start so that Matt could mug me at T1 with his Alfa. Also not in my copy of the script!
After strategically lightening my car by donating a few paint samples to an eager Tony I surprisingly found the extra pace to stay with Geoff's Falcon.
When he made his error I was able to capitalise and sneak past, but I was right at the ragged edge of sanity and his Falcon was most definitely quicker on the straights.The inevitable happened and I ran wide allowing him to restore the proper order of things and I settled in behind to wait for another opportunity.
All was well until we started lapping cars. Absolutely NO criticism of the other drivers is implied her, everyone behaved well as far as I could see, but such was the timing and my bad luck that I caught one or two cars were I wanted to be going considerably faster than they were able. Geoff was a little more fortunate ( some might call it skill ??) and stole a few tenths here and there. My efforts to close the gap again simply caused more errors and Geoff escaped until I screwed up big time at T1 and missed the braking point and a downshift. I wish that Tony would keep the windows closed on his race car as I found the bellows of laughter as he swept past quite disconcerting
Another 2nd in class, but it was fun throwing the Mustang at corners