I think if I was to describe last nights race in a single word I would have to choose 'Intense'!
Can't say I enjoyed it over much as I was concentrating too hard to do so.
Qualifying was a PITA. My first lap ended in a rather comedy impalement in the barriers at Parc, I could imagine hearing Evil chuckling at me as he motored past
I quit back to the pits and threw all the changes I'd made in creating my race setup onto the qualy one and set out again - Car was much better, first flying lap gave me pole
This had reduced to about 8th before I even finished the next lap due to people getting laps in with drafting and warm tyres to help them along.
I spent near enough the entire qualifying session on my own squeeking out the odd tenth here and there, If I caught anyone it was generally in the wrong place to be of use! With 3 minutes to go I found myself in 7th I think....
Finally at the end of the session I came out for last blast to find a car approaching from the rear, I let it pass on the approach to DD so as not to hold them up and found myself behind Jethro - I think he's covered the result of this quite well himself. Yes, I do owe you a beer or something for that
Got a cracking start to the race and exited the first corner complex far enough ahead of the pack to be safe from them catching my draft - the next 8 laps or so were spent concentrating and trying to eek out more space....
When Hristo appeared behind me my first thought was 'great' as I assumed this to mean a royal battle for 2nd had now commenced between him and Jethro - the one car behind setting ment it was several laps before I realised that I may not actually be that safe.
I pushed harder and concentrated harder, it worked for a bit as I managed to hold the gap for a lap or two. Then H started taking small bites out of my lead, only a tenth here and there but enough. He had caught my draft after 6 laps or so and then got past me, we then commenced swapping places every few laps until I totally missed my braking point into DD while alongside him
No, that wasn't some sort of demented heroic outbraking maneuver, I simply forgot where to brake
The resulting off somehow managed to do no more than very minor damage to my steering while dropping me to 3rd. I then had a good seat to watch Clive and H going at it for some 10 laps or so while following closely.
It all ended badly after one of Clive's attempts on Hristo into DD went wrong and he appeared to loose the backend - having been in exactly the same position in Clubmans on Sun with Phil loosing it in front of me and trapping me because I went wide - I decided to go as tight as possible so as to avoid Clive without being caught. Even put half the car on the grass to try and ensure I couldn't even achieve any sort of lag contact - Then unexpectedly Clive's car regained grip while still pointing towards the inside of the track and lurched infront of me. Thanks to my two wheels on the grass attempt at safety I couldn't slow enough as I simply locked up both right wheels and tapped Clive lightly on the rear spinning him
As I said after the race Clive, I'm sorry it ended that way - particularily as my position was largly choosen to avoid contact rather than instigate it
From here on it was a chase to the finish with Evil nipping at my heels and H slowly dissapearing into the distance at a pace my race weary Honda no longer seemed interested in trying to match.
Nice to have a 1-2-3 finish but not happy how it came about - I'll submit my replay of the bump if you want to take it to the moderators Clive, and let them make the decision. Must admit I was kind of hoping it was one of those cases where GPL hadn't drawn the angle of your car correctly and you'd spun before crossing my path, but it would appear not.
Roll on the next one
