Couldn't reproduce my excellent form from P2 in qually and had to settle for 12th on the grid, behind MJ and ahead of SbG.
Went with soft rears and hard fronts as the wear rates seemed pretty even and with rear wing of only 4 and the diff nearly on its most open settings I needed the balance to stay consistent.
Start went well and there wasn't
too much pressure from behind; I seemed to be able to match MJ's pace over a lap and whilst we were fast in different places I couldn't really get close enough to mount a proper attack and had to wait for a mistake. It was a long time coming but finally I was through; however, MJ wasn't going to give up without a fight and for a few laps he put me under intense pressure until Paul Richards caught him up and applied some pressure of his own. That gave me a small breather which usefully coincided with my tyres going through their slippery phase at about 7-8 wear on the XD monitor.
Soon PR was on my tail. I was having to brake much earlier than the Porkas for Goddards and he ran into my tail, luckily no real damage done. By this time I was up to about 6th, having lost Backo to his lack of self-control, Steve Holmes and Darren to something or other, Busi to a mistake, and probably a few others. Paul finally found a way by as Backo arrived having done a stop and go, only to get taken out by him at Goddards a lap later.
That left MJ on my tail, but Mark McClean arrived and started attacking him, which gave me a little break, but after a few laps he found a way by and was soon after me. Somehow I resisted and Brian's ill fortune handed me 5th a few seconds from the chequered flag,easily my best result of the season at a track where I wasn't expecting the Z to go so well, helped of course by others' problems and mistakes.
One of the most enjoyable dices I've had for ages - the battles with MJ and PR were top draw, and the short fight with Mark at the end was the icing on a delicious cake.
Then had a great battle with dave until a car at least a lap behind came out of the pits behind us. What happened next was simply unbelievable and i think stands out for me as the worst/inconsiderate/brainless bit of driving i have seen in this league. If anyone want a free lesson in how to ruin other peoples races for absolutely no reason or for any possible gain then this is it. Incident report to follow and it wont be pretty.
Action has already been taken to remove this particular person from the league.
