What an odd race. Prior to the start I was saying to Jon how I wanted it to be dry; I thought the Vertigo would really benefit from a wet track due to it's high grip, the tracks long corners and the Z handling rubbish, so when I saw wet weather in the server, I moaned a lot. Sorry
Practised a bit on hard wets and they seemed OK. In qually everyone went straight out and I waited almost 2 minutes to ensure a clear lap...only the rain came almost immediately, and really started to hammer down just as I came out of the last corner to start my flying lap! Nooo! I pushed ahead with the lap hoping to find grip. Slid around a lot through some corners, and being really pleasantly surprised with 2nd! My second flyer was 2 seconds slower so I was really lucky to make my first lap count, and to only have Jon in front of me.
Race came....wet
No idea what to do. With the track on wet I decided that hards would be safest, but with a dark grey sky I was worried it would rain more and make softs the way to go. Ran a really long 1st gear so was ready to defend into T1, but for the first time tried a new start technique of slipping the clutch in 1st gear....and it worked! Jumped from Busi and was closing on Jon! Went past Jon (not planned at all!) on the back straight and then pulled a gap. I was totally expecting Jon to scamper off so it was great to be leading. Then Jon made his customary mistake and pitted for slicks, even though the track was treacherous off line. With the weather having done a 180 and being bright blue sky, we were all driving off line to cool the tyres. I was happy in the lead.
Then I made the cock up that would haunt me through the race. I pitted with 40l left instead of 30l. I had a mega quick pitstop (37s - my fastest all season!) and thought blimey, the wet does help fuel consumption! Except I'd pitted a good 4 laps too soon. At first I didn't realise and went about overtaking the dudes who hadn't stopped, got the lead back from Prof (who had lead for about 6 corners!) and then pulled a gap to about 25 seconds. Then I worked out what I'd done and had to decide whether to push and make a splash and dash, or to go super-granny and short shift for the rest of the race. So I became super-granny.
Jon also had a lack of fuel and we were bizarrely both in p1 and p2, but cruising on straights, shifting really early to save fuel. I went to an extreme for a few laps, coming off the throttle altogether at the end of straight and coasting for 50 metres before braking, but was luckily not losing much as Jon was also being frugal. This went on until 2 laps from the end when I suddenly noticed I had 8l left and only 2 laps to do - plenty! So full revs for the penultimate lap and a mistake on the last lap meant my best lap was set on shagged tyres 1 lap from home. Same with Jon. What a weird way to pace yourself.
Jon needs to stop crashing, and I need to concentrate when I need to pit
I do love changeable weather normally, and hope we get more of these races. The strategy element makes them so much more fun to drive, second guessing the weather.
Nice 1 to Jon on an excellent fightback. Make sure you start from the beginning of S9 and you'll be fighting for the title
Well done to TT and Busi for the champ top 3 - some really close, fun and very tense fights with Busi in particular are the stand-out memories for me in this championship. Finally a big thanks to Dave for getting points at Zhuhai and Brands because
Nissan won the manufacturers champ! EEEEEEEEE! Didn't expect it at all and couldn't have done it without Dave getting points when my PC crashed twice this season. It's the only time it'll ever win a manu title with the Vertigo around, so enjoy!
Thanks for the racing peeps!
