The Lotus is probably fastest in general terms out of the Gp1 cars Jethro, But it makes up for it as soon as you make a mistake!
I did much better than expected after qualifying 6th, Originally had 3rd but never bettered my own time while everyone else proceeded to do so....
Spent the last 6 mins or so of practice on race fuel load adjusting to the decidedly different setup I would be using.
This payed off as I managed to easily stay with the lead pack from the let go. Was both happy and sad to see a pair of cars go off on lap 2.
It moved me upto 4th but looked terminal - I gather from Ken's post that it was in his case -
I spent a fair few laps trailing Evil close enough to capitalise on any mistakes while hopefully not distracting him too much from chasing down Mike - a task he was performing excellently. During this period Fulvio kept catching me then falling back due to errors, eventually we seemed to break free....
Evil then decided it would be a good time to loose it on the exit of T1 in front of me, he held it but in my efforts to go to the inside to avoid him I span big style. This let Fulvio through and he and Evil now had about 3-4 seconds over me.
I rejoined to find Jethro a long way back so tightened the fundoshi and pressed on, eventually I caught Fulvio and Clive and settled in for another waiting game. My luck came through when Fulvio got the wrong gear out of the hairpin while I had a very good exit - this let me through almost easily - thank you Fulvio
I was back to chasing Evil as he in turn continued slowly reeling Mike in.
Mike eventually made a mistake allowing us past. So after a lap or 2 showed us to be clear of any danger I decided to see if i could make 2nd, the Honda felt good and I was confident while Clive's Lotus was very skittish, if blindingly quick when he peddled faster.
Eventually he span on the approach to the 2nd hairpin so I took 2nd for a few laps. Clive tightened his own Fundoshi and caught me again, only to drop back once more through an error.
The 2nd time he caught me he got past on the run up the first part of the back straight, I followed through the turn about a foot from his gearbox and draft'd past onto the main straight - out braking him to begin the run back towards the S/F line. We continued in this order for the next lap or 2 until clive Misread my entry to the 2nd hairpin and impaled himself in the haybales while awestruck over my majestic recovery from a nasty case of understeer
Sadly that ended his battle for 2nd/3rd and allowed Mike through some distance behind. Realising he was catching I pressed on as hard as I dared while trying not to make any silly mistakes so near the finish.
Eventually i crossed the line just under a second ahead I think, Very pleased with the result
Congrats to all the finishers and condolences to those who didn't