Thanks to Billy for organising and to all finishers.
I almost did not turn up for this race as previous excursions in the Late 68's have hardly been encouraging for me. But the single car choice would at least mean that all of us were fighting the same problems .... as Clive found out with his Red Bull Cooper.
When I joined the server the only thing I was sure about was the circuit, at least I knew where that went. but no setup and no clue as to how it should look, with optimum tyre temps etc. TBH I almost did a "Loynes" and missed the wings too, luckily spotting them as I tweaked the gear ratios after my first run. " Oooo look it has wings!!"
Slowly I was finding some pace and small tweaks to roll bars and dampers improved my times, but I discovered that a small step too far made the car decidedly twitchy in the corners. I still think there are at least 2 secs hiding in there somewhere.
With just a few mins to go I hooked up a decent lap to get onto the second row. My quali had all been done with race fuel so I was not expecting any surprises in race mode and I could at least be sure that my race pace should be somewhere near that of Axel .
I still cannot believe the start.... I got a decent launch but not what I would call perfect ( far too much wheelspin) and jumped past Phil. Pete had passed Axel but he was basically IN MY WAY on the run down to T1 and I had to lift....why is everyone so slow?
? lol. I actually checked my fuel load to be sure that I had the correct setup loaded!!
I could not get around Pete because Axel was still too close on my inside so I had to wait and slot in behind for lap 1. I kept telling myself to "be patient".
A good exit from the final turn, and a little slipstream from Pete, gave me enough gap to keep Axel behind for the first few laps. Then I think Axel had a moment and dropped back. That was my cue to have a go at Pete without letting Axel jump me. A slipstream and inside line into T1 was relatively simple, just had to hold an inside line and not run wide. The one advantage of passing at T1 around Kyalami is that it gives a chance of drawing out enough lead to deny the car behind a chance of returning the move on the next lap....so I pushed like hell lol.
Slowly I eased away, Pete has described his probs and Axel was the biggest threat although he appeared to be making slightly more mistakes than me and would close the gap only to drop back again. Then Phil moved into 2nd and was annoyingly consistent. I was so focused on watching the gap that I threw away the lead and was lucky that only Phil passed me.
It took a few laps to drag Phil back to me but another slipstream and inside line into T1 regained the lead and I was able to sort of control things to the flag.
In hindsight maybe I should approach the 68's with a little more positivity?? I might even commit to joining the rest of these races
