Grats to Axel and the podium places and of course to all finishers.
Castle Coombe is a deceptive circuit IMHO. Very fast with few ( none) overtaking opportunities unless the car ahead makes a mistake, and so it proved in this race.
The BT7 was always going to be a hard drive to gain any points......but likely to be fun keeping it at 10/10's. Unfortunately I was at 11/10's 0n a couple of occasions and that did not work so well
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Towards mid race I was about 300mtrs behind Phil and had got into a fast rhythm so that I could see the gap reducing...provided that I made no mistakes.
By hitting the peak torque in each gear I slowly reeled him in, and with 10 laps to go I had the slipstream tow rope attached. Now it was going to be a case of waiting for an error. but I did not want to get ahead too soon as Phil had the more powerful car. In an ideal world I would take the lead at Tower on the final lap...........in an ideal world
However, after following in the slipstream for a couple of laps my ideal world scenario was destroyed when I checked the fuel.
In qualifying I was getting around 5 laps per gallon, so I figured that 10 galls would yield around 50 laps. Somewhere during the race I had lost a load of fuel !! Probably chasing after Phil.
Now I had 8 laps to go and only 1.1 galls of fuel ??!!! If I stayed at Phil's pace I would clearly not reach the flag. So, it was extreme economy driving for the last laps never lower than 4th gear and barely using the accelerator.
As I started the last lap I had 0.1 galls of fuel, but Fulvio, along with Andreas, were closing very quickly, so I was sure to lose at least 2 more places even if I reached the flag...I almost quit right then as I did not think it was possible.
I could see Fulvio in my mirrors as I went up Avon Rise and expected him to pass me on the exit of Quarry. But all I saw in my mirrors was a car flying straight on
?? A check on Prib and both Fulvio and Andreas were now way behind....but I still had get to the finish to hang on to my points.
As I exited Tower and climbed up the straight the fuel gauge clicked to 0.0 and I though that was my race ended, so I waited for the engine to die.
I lifted and coasted into Camp and was amazed that the engine was still running to carry me over the finish line...........it went quiet about 20 mtrs past the flag !!!
I was lucky
very lucky!!