hmmm,
qualified a full half second slower than my pb. Blew 3 engines during qualy, so reverted to the default setup.
safe start to the race behind Phils Ferrari. I was a bit faster and we had a bit of a dice. I got ambitious on braking and rode onto the grass, letting a Brabham by in the process. At least I think it was a Brabham. Anyway, I had a fantastic battle with this dude, side by side down hangar and he forced me to try to pass on the outside. Still, we were side by side up the hill and the Brabham ran wide on the tight right hander and once again I pulled forward.
Now the tight left hander onto the back straight was next and I thought the brabham would ease off the throttle, because even though he had the inside line, I had the momentum and its a sweeper of a corner. Anyways, I eased out a little and left room on the inside, but we touched and....around we went.
I put this down to a racing accident and started an aggressive string of lappery to catch my team-mate. jack was quick here and going well. I caught him at one point and I wondered to myself 'is my team mate gonna let me by?'. Into T1 and he pulled to the right to block me and I almost creamed into the back of him
. Then I hesitated as he pulled over to let me by....and spun on acceleration
. What a dope I was!
Anyhow, a string of good laps hauled me towards him and this time I was by with no probs, although I had got used to following someone and had some leery oversteery moments as I tried to up the pace. Lap 18 and I'd pulled a big gap on Jack and I think (but not sure) that I was closing on P5 fractionally.
The BRM engine couldnae take any more and let go on me
. All my fault for pushing the old girl too hard, she really struggled for pace on this track. Think I need to work on my race-craft as I've had more than my share of contact recently!
Jim