From the classic 1950's musical, Guys & Dolls...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69P_Vce9vwWell... Lady Luck was certainly on my side yesterday at Roswell. She was a positive bitch for the likes of Jonny and Ricky. And as for Leo, a slimy, stinky, diseased-laced whore.
GregT had us all nicely covered on speed for the day. Nice job for the win, GT. I'm elated with my P2 finish but as noted, it was only with bags of good luck. Bob a good job for a P3 placing that changed hands any number of times throughout the race.
Some time ago, I determined that I'd park the trusty Brabham for this round and try my hand with the Eagle. I used the BRM at Dundrod to get a bank of tokens to afford that and as it worked out, it paid off handsomely. Not in the least surprised that there were some other Blue Birds in the entry with Greg, Jonny and Leo thinking along the same lines. Quite pleased with my qualifying run to start P4.
Lap01 and a pucker moment as I lightly kissed the guardrail coming out of the Lagoon complex to find someone in the dirt off on my left. This was Ricky in the Lotus skating well off the road and desperately trying to find a safe way back. Up to P3 then. Even as all this was going down, Jonny was spinning away his chances with an off in the Lagoon complex to resume dead last. His challenge ended soon after with a blown engine. Bad luck all 'round there, JJ.
I could see Greg disappearing rapidly up the road but I was holding Leo quite well. Gradually, he inched away but was never completely out of sight. As the laps reeled off, I was pleased to be able to keep Leo in sight but never felt that I was in a position to actually challenge. In the early laps, I was impressed to see that my board was telling me that Alain was running in P4 with he in the BRM and only dropping back by several seconds per lap. Obviously, having a good run in the Tank. In the last laps, my vision was fading a bit and I was fearful of making a hash of things entering the Lagoon twisties at close on 200mph but I managed to avoid that. On the last lap, I did fall off the road to score a '64' in the Lagoon complex as I tried to move in on Leo. This error cost me a bit of time and I resigned to just take it easy over this last lap and not bungle away a good P3 finish. Only moments later, coming off the chicane at Junction Hwy #409, I caught sight of a car going quite slowly on the right. As I neared and passed, I realized that this was Leo. Good grief! Whatever could have happened here? Engine failure? Short on fuel? How cruel to have a good drive go up the spout so close to home. I immediately scaled back my engine revolutions thinking myself home-free for a P2 finish. Not so fast, Doni. Almost with passing Leo's stricken Eagle, my concentration started to fade and very rapidly. Found myself completely out of position for taking the final sweeper and could hardly believe it when I ran out of road. The Eagle spun to the outfield and I went for a long, wild ride before striking a barrier. This, at least, woke me up and I regained some measure of composure to get back onto the road and carry on to the flag. Lucky boy. That impact could have easily sheared off a rear wheel to leave me with a DNF.
Leo's efforts to get to the flag came to nought as the Weslake V-12 gave out completely with a couple of miles to run. He coasted as best he could to come within sight of the line before finally parking and fall to a P12 finish. No justice there.
Still holding P2 in the standings behind Greg. Time to put on a charge in the last two rounds!
