I'm still coming to terms with "pro rules" and the level of competition in Div1 and Masters. It certainly is a step up in all areas!!
Much as I would have liked to take a Fez or Eagle around Rouen, I'm afraid the maths around the pitstops don't work out for me. Just not fast enough to make it work, so it was either a Cooper, BRM or Honda.
I figured that the Cooper was going to be the car of choice for the majority, the BRM I have not given enough attention to recently, so it was back to the White Whale, which at least I had come to know well last season in the Wazas.
My problem has always been that I cook rear tyres in the Honda after about 3 laps whilst the fronts stay stone cold!!, so I undertook a little research at the Murasama Institute for Mechanical Ineptitude in France ( Mimi for short ) during the last week experimenting with different setups. I wanted to make the fronts work harder so that there would be less for the rears to do. The assumption being that my driving style was sliding the rear end and putting excessive heat into the rubber, I do like the smell of burning rubber but thats another subject.
Last season I was running 47% bias on the brakes and taking the car deep into the corners with a very "oversteery" setup in an effort to get faster times which worked for the first 3 laps
then I was in trouble!!
I like to build my own setups and am still very much a novice stumbling around in the dark, but slowly there are chinks of light and a gradual understanding of what works for me.
The first half of qually I could not get a clear lap and was forced to abort a flyer on several occasions. No complaints it was just traffic and thats all part of GPL
.
Finally got two quick sectors on prib and a gap showing to the next car in front ( surprise! surprise! it was a Cooper! ). Caught whoever it was as we entered the start finish straight just enough to extract a small tow and a 4th spot on the grid
with a pb.
I was more than chuffed, but expected some of the more seasoned Div 1 guys to ease me out of that position in the last few minutes of qually, but no-one did.
It mean that I was probably saved from the usual log jam at Nouveau Monde on lap 1 and allowed the first few cars to escape a little. I knew that I would not be baulked by those in front as there were two aliens who were going to have their own battle and Brendan the flying Cooperman who was to be my target throughout the race.
In the first few laps I was close behind Brendan with Neil trailing me in another Honda until he overcooked it on the uphill section and dropped off the radar leaving a comfortable cushion behind me. Brendan seemed to be struggling with cold tyres and brakes into Nouveau Monde especially and I sniffed a chance to slip by there a couple of times until I made an error and allowed him to pull a second or so gap and relax. For the rest of the race I was teased by constant glimpses of Brendan just dissappearing around the next corner and although I could push and close fractionally from my 4th spot I was in danger of throwing it at the scenery or reverting to my old ass out style and cooking the tyres. So I settled to my own race and watched the gap behind and hoped ( hah! some hope!!) that Brendan might have an excursion into the French countryside, because any off would surely let me get past him as he was that tantalisingly close.
Last lap with about a 6-8 second lead over the recovering Neil, and my tyres had remained at a stable temp for the whole race ( a minor triumph in itself!!) cruising up the hill towards Sanson without a care in the world when bluuuuugh the engine note went all limp.
I was out of fuel!!!
Kept it going as smoothly as I could knowing that the chasing cars were at least a little way back..if I could just nurse it to the finish ..glanced in my mirrors before turning into the last corner .........agonisingly slowly...to see the nose of a Honda exiting Sanson...b****r this is going to be too close! The car was getting slower all the time but I was on the home straight I could almost knock it into neutral and coast across the line. I was keeping the car as straight as I could so as not to scrub off any speed when Neil loomed large in my mirrors. I'm not sure if he did not expect me to be going so slowly but I received a healthy nudge up the rear, a shame really because if it had been better aimed it might have propelled me across the line. Instaed we both tumbled onto the infield where I crawled away on 3 cylinders and an eggcup of fuel whilst Neil in his new Honda Robin Variant aimed his car at the line and went past me some 25 mtrs from the finish.
Running out of fuel could have been worse, in that I may not have made it to the finish and to finally get a setup that maintains tyre temps over race distance and at a competitive speed was a bonus. All in all a rewarding race, shame I could not get closer to Brendan and apply a little pressure
maybe at Monaco?
evilClive
