That was a short one. Really annoying. I had done quite a lot of practice, and managed two corners.
Someone was slow to start so I was behind Fulvio waiting for him to find a way through, wasn't happening
so I went right as there didn't seem to be anyone there, pulled in front of Fulvio but not quite the Commodore
couldnt keep in front into the town and had no where to go except a lamp post, car wrecked
Apologies to those behind who got caught up in it.  

No. You may use a bonus drive as soon as a car is shown as N/A but, only use the bonus drive for the car shown as N/A

That was hilarious and daft all at the same time.

The Opel is a piece of total garbage by the way, was throwing fits and wobblies like my 2 teenage kids if I dared to ask it for more than 8/10ths it seemed. Horrible car to drive, and gearing was critical for laptime I think.

Messed up my first run at quali, just managed a single flying lap so was relieved to be on row 2. Tight up behind the rear of Manfred though, so had to be quick on the reactions as I did pull away a bit better. As we went through the gears, Erling got away with the V8 grunt, myself and Manfred duking it out into the town. Was very close to disaster, I flicked a hay bale on my way past a wall...Sped up behind Erling, who then pulled away once the Stang had sorted itself out. This was how we went around lap 1, Manfred getting past me later in the lap, but Erling staying ahead. Through the uphill twisty stuff, I had the luckiest escape ever when Manfred died after hitting a bale/post combo I guess, how I wasn't also a victim I have no idea....

This left myself and Erling, and obviously the cars had different strengths. I was hunting all the gaps in the twisty stuff, he was praying for the straights to come quicker. Unfortunately, Erling went just a touch wide, I stuck my nose in just to say hello, he decided it was me he was looking for, and the kissing of the cars ended him with him upside down. I had no idea how much of a racing incident it was, but felt it only right to wait. Our loss as Micha, Geoffers and Fulvio came past, and whilst Erling could use the speed on the straight to make his way past, my task was not so easy. Took about a lap and a half to make my way past Fulvio, and then Geoffers was a victim later the same lap. Bit of a rough pass that maybe Geoff, if it was too much then apologies of course, I just felt a bump at the rear of the car so I guess there was contact. Not easy to overtake here!

Closed in on Erling, desperately hoping he could do the same on Micha. And we nearly did at times, but never quite got there. My problem was the road was not much more than Mustang sized, making getting past impossible really. I did try, some small contacts here and there in a vain hope as the laps ticked by. I think Erling was struggling to go any faster with the pesky Opel in the mirrors, and all this was allowing Micha to keep himself just that few seconds down the road and out of our clutches. Then eventually I was close enough in the twisty uphill bit, and made a move around the outside stick. Hurrah! But then 2 corners later I decided the tarmac was too easy and tried to get drive off the grass, ending up facing the wrong way and allowing Erling to chuckle heartily as he went past me and pulled way away.

Did the fastest lap of the race in chase, mainly as there was no lardy Mustang in the way, but to no avail. It was fun all the way though, I laughed out loud many times at the ridiculousness of it in all honesty.

Grats to Micha, took your chance fantastically well. And grats to Erling for getting that thing to behave around here. Quite how you got through the town alive every time I do not know....

Grats to finishers and the podium.
I was also looking forward to an interesting race. Practice and quali had highlighted the difference between the quick Opels and the monster Mercedes with all its power available.

My biggest battle was getting that Merc to slow down and actually turn in to the corners, once that was achieved pouring on the power was also likely to provoke snap oversteer..........so the race was shaping up to be "eventful".

The power of the Merc fired it off the grid and I was also obliged to pull out and pass a few cars heading down to the town. Self preservation dictated that I should back off through the town, but as it opened out onto the straight I was able to use the gas to chase the leading 3 or 4 cars. Geoffers was ahead and it might have been possible to power past, but we were rapidly approaching the braking point for that tight right hander... so I lifted again. Just as well that I did, as two of the Opels made contact and performed a Pas de Deux forcing Geoff to lift and opening a lovely gap for me to nail the gas up the incline and through to 3rd place !!
The next long fast section obviously suited the Merc and again Ipulled away from those behind and shortened the gap to the cars ahead...until we reached the fast downhill right hander. I was trying to balance the power and oversteer to  negotiate that bend as fast as possible and it was all working perfectly until the oversteer dropped the inside front wheel into the grass 
Things went very wrong very quickly after that. The car snapped right straight into the barriers before bouncing back across the track and thoroughly testing the integrity of the armco on the other side of the track. The armco proved to be tougher than the Merc, and once I got it re-started and moving it was clear that damage was terminal so eventually I was forced to retire. Apologies to Kurt who was caught behind a smoking and weaving Merc for a while.
A little disappointed not to have gone further and enjoyed the challenge, but pleased to have ( almost) tamed the setup for the Merc.

No problem, Clive - ended up later in first lap with a write-off.

My apologies to seniordan as I could not avoid giving him the last, but decisive tab in the off in the confusion after the start.

I don't think you did anything wrong Fulvio, it's just that I had never tried to take that wide a line as I had to
and the merc wouldn't steer well enough.

Apologies Erling, it wasn't meant to look overly aggressive, more about making sure I appeared in as many of your mirrors as possible as many times as possible, all with a view to hopefully some kind of error allowing me through. Even on lap 2 I had realised there was going to be no way of easily getting past your car, the bits I was quicker on were just too narrow to go through, and the straights you were leaving me for dead. What didn't help were the huge problems I was having controlling the car on the brakes. Nevertheless, me putting my nose in where I did was too early in the race, 100% my bad and I should know better.


Oh my goodness yes. Following close into the braking zones was massively difficult from that point on, I even had to throw the car into a spin to try to avoid you once where I got caught out by it. Checked the replay, and the rear of my car did collect you, again apologies. Hard braking was just not the forte of the Opel in my hands.


It was totally my error and you deserved the place based on that. I was delighted to have such a long running battle, but unless the pass could possibly be made clean I wouldn't have kept the place. The fact is, I made 3 good passes from memory, 2 in the town section that you then blasted back past on the straight bits, and that one that should have allowed me to push away in that twisty section. Fact is I immediately pushed too hard, because I had to in order to gain a gap, but overcooked it in a car that wasn't playing nice. Again, my bad, you took the deserved 2nd place.