What a shame we had so many screnn freezes and discos
I know that this Goodwood circuit has a sad reputation for these problems and I have been in races where half the field vanishes in a single swipe!!.
Big thanks to Luis at Mybroga for firing up their server at the last minute and I hope Tim can get to the root cause of the probs on UKGPL-6, because it would have been even worse with the lag and frame dropping etc that was occuring during the first attempt at quali.
I was surprised ( and pleased
) to find myself on the ( tight) front row after quali, as I had been working long hours all weekend and had not really had the opportunity to sort a proper setup for the Eagle ( in fact I was asleep in the armchair only 45 mins before the start!!)
Ukgpl had managed to lock out the front row of the grid with great times from Tim and Jethro and things looked good.
The start was a little bit scary for me being on the outside and having Madgewicks to negotiate
, there was no way we were going around there 3 abreast!!! Once the flag fell, all I could hear was the scream of engines, so I stayed as close to the grass as I dared without putting a wheel onto the slippery stuff. This gave Tim and Jethro a reasonable run and as I backed off slightly, it allowed Sam of Mybroga to sneak his Brabham up the inside and into 3rd spot.
Not too bothered as my quali time had been done on full tanks.. and it had not been a good lap.. so I figured I would have good race pace. I held station about 2 secs back from Sam for the first few laps as he hassled the rear end of Jethro's Lotus, because with some of the fast sections around Goodwood the option of taking drastic avoiding action and maintaining control is not reccommended.
Once the tyres were up to temp I started to ease in on Sam by a few tenths per lap, but it was about then that Jethro went a bit wide and dropped back.
Tim meanwhile had got away and was carrying the flag for UKGPL in his shiny Fezza, so I thought about trying to join him. I had just eased up behind Sam's Brabham and was looking for an opening to pass when I locked up the fronts and missed a braking point sending me wide.
I rejoined without losing a place and set about closing the 10 sec gap !!
The gap was coming down very slowly for several laps and suddenly it halved , and then there was that pesky Brabham recovering from the outside of the chicane
....... 2nd place!
From then on it was a very lonely race except for Bernie who sacrificed himself so that I would have company every few laps
.
I actually thought that something was wrong with Prib as the number of cars seemed to dwindle, but reasoned eventually that there were only 4 cars running and they were all UKGPL!!
Then Al vanished...3 left....
By now I was feeling the effects of a long weekend and with no competitive element I was losing concentration.
The inevitable happend at the end of the 35th lap !! lol ( how about that for timing!
) and I totally messed up the entry to the chicane and wiped two wheels off.
Grats to Bernie and Tim for "going the distance".
All in all a bit of a lottery given all the discos but I hope Mybroga will race us again next year.
