Congratulations to Pat on his win and to Tris and Enrique for the podium places.
Like many drivers this was a new version of the track and I kind of thought that there might be incidents. So rather than risk tokens on an Eagle or Lotus I thought I would run the BRM which is a car that I cannot ever remember using in a league race before ( I just could not find a setup or the skill to drive it quickly!!). So the cunning plan was to just finish and maybe get one or two points??
The start was not good and too many cars were lost. I was behind Dimi on the grid and just like his Ferrari my BRM was moving quite quickly. I was following Dimi and initially looked like we would both overtake Dulima before T1. Then I saw the gap that Dimi had was closing and eased off slightly, but I did not expect what happened next.
I could not avoid the spinning cars and my BRM was launched into the air and I thought my race was going to be very short too. but it landed facing the right way with 4 wheels. So I pushed forward only to see yet another Ferrari contact a car and spin across my path
Again I had to back off and wait for a gap before accelerating through and then I saw Axel's engine explode on my right!!
By the time I was exiting T1 I had absolutely no idea of where I was in the field, other than Prib was telling me that Phil was behind in his Brabham. At the end of Lap 1 I was astounded, but not entirely surprised, to be up to 7th place!!! in a BRM??!! I knew from practice that it would take 3-4 laps to bring the tyres up to temp and to push too hard on cold tyres would exceed my skill level to control, so I did not put up too much of a fight against Phil. I let him pass and by then my tyres were getting warm so I was almost able to hold the gap at around 150mtrs for many laps.
Alain had recovered and was clearly faster so I allowed him a free pas to go and bother Phil. That worked
and their battle slowed them down so I closed the gap before alain squeezed past Phil and they pulled away again until...maybe 2 laps later Alain was limping off the track at the final turn.
There were a few other retirements and with 10 laps to go I was running 5th with Phil up ahead and a huge gap back to Claudio. The BRM was now much lighter having used up 2000 litres of fuel, plus I was getting a good feel for the handling ( after nearly 20yrs of GPL!!!). I started to push a little and the gap to Phil was coming down slowly...maybe 4th was a possibility?
Lap after lap I got closer and I think we lapped Syd's limping BRM twice. Once Phil gained some time and on the other I closed the gap. With just 4 laps to go I was inside slipstream range and ready to start the fight, but I had worked the rears too much and they gave up at T2 spinning me into the grass. Luckily I did not hit anything and I was able to continue, but Phil now had 400mtrs of safety with 3 laps left.
OK, 5th was about 3 times better than I could have expected so just cruise it home and take some points. Then on the final lap all the Marshall's flage were waving because Pat had finished his race. Arriving at the Bosch curve there was a pile of scrap metal parked on the track
!!
Phil had completely trashed his Brabham, but my trajectory was taking me straight towards his wreck and I could not avoid him. Another airborne moment to end the race, and again the BRM survived, to take the gift of 4th. Hard luck to Phil and commiserations to all who dropped out for whatever reasons.
