An evening of contrasts, with one good and one very bad race.
Plan A was to use some of the slowest cars. Entered race 1 with the Abarth and initially things looked promising, as I had posted faster laps offline than my class competitors were showing.
'Class pole' and jumping Fulvio's faster Super Anglia at the start, but from then things went downhill fast. Got a bad wobble at Stirling's and Fulvio went bye bye. Stupidly I left plenty of space for Huggy to go past in his massive Falcon, only to be severely hampered by him at Clark - I even hit him, but with the equivalent of a fly smacking into an Elephant, he probably didn't even notice... Killed my momentum though, letting Tony go past, and after a less than stellar run by me through Paddock, Matt slipped past as well. Reclaimed the position later that lap, with a cheeky move when he ran a bit wide into Westfield. At Clark disaster struck, sealing the race for me. Got a couple of wheels outside the track, and even a full lock, the car went as straight as an arrow in the gravel. Only after kissing the wall, could I start to dig myself out, now 10 secs behind the rest of the field.
Set about the chase, catching and passing Matt midrace, when he was recovering from a very similar mistake as mine. Tried my damnest, but couldn't catch Tony before the race ended, so class 2nd was the best I could do.
For race 2, initial plan was the Anglia. Seeing my opponent being Geoffers in an Imp made me rethink however. While I was a little faster in the Anglia compared to the Imp, I had no illusions about being faster than Geoff would be. Wise enough it turned out, as his race laps were several seconds faster than my best offline
So another 2nd in class, or switch to something else? Daz appeared to stick with his Mini, so if I sacrificed my last Alfa, I might have a shot at class + overall win & fastest lap. Hadn't driven it since the last races here, so took a few laps to get reacquainted. Good start, retaining the lead. Daz was a constant shadow in the mirror over the first many laps. Only slowly did I stretch the gap. Kept pushing as hard as I could entire race, gunning for that elusive fastest lap. For a long time, I was unable to better the lap I set early on, so had no indications of whether I still retained it or not. Thankfully it seems to have played out.
Grats to all class winners & pods !!
