Went well - thought I had pole sussed until the final 10 mins when H pipped me by a second
Luckily Mike's setup woes kept him behind me so at about the 7 minutes to go point I gave up trying to catch Hristo and just started practicing on the race setup.
In a very unusual turn of events Hristo near-enough equalled my start
Enough at anyrate to hold the inside line into T1 which forced me to take the outside line - The extra powahs of the Honda then came through for me giving me the whole road to play with by T2, with Hristo eventually settling in behind me after seeing off Mike's advances. I knew that Hristo was going to be a problem as he was clearly faster going by the Qually times - Mike was an unknown as Previously he'd slaughtered me here but didn't seem to have the pace last night. I know why now...
With this in mind I settled into the fastest rythem I felt I could risk, knowing that H wouldn't try anything silly this early in the race with the field so close behind. Somepoint in L2 the pack dropped back considerably and H seemed to be displaying an interest in getting by me - I continued as before knowing his best chance was to get a tow out of T1 and outbrake me into T2 as everywhere else was too tight. I imagine this was rather frustrating for him as I was clearly slower n some of the moe technical sections...
A lap or 2 later and Hristo struck somewhere I totally failed to anticipate - The braking zone into Virage de la Ferme
I was having a great race and after Tim was kind enough not to fight me too hard,
I was about to turn in as usual when I spotted him diving up the inside, Rather than hold my line I decided discretion was the better point of valour and made room for him to avoid potential contact. I still had a damn good (almost certain at the point) shot at 2nd so didn't want to push either of us to detruction that early in the race - especially as Hristo will sometimes bin it while trying for lap records ect
I assumed that that was what became of him when he disconnected, hadn't realised he'd mearly been dropped/lagged out - I shall write a letter of thanks to the relevant telephone/internet provider anyway
Oddly the red message informing me of his demise actualy resulted in my going faster rather than backing off to preserve car and tires. I still don't know why I did this - Mike had already retired and I was a minute clear of Natan/Fulvio.
I set my fastest lap of the race the following time round, this resulted in several slower ad more skittish laps due to the resultant heat in my rear tires - I than managed a gracefull piruette at the rear of the circuit on about lap 17/18 which gave me my slowest lap of the race, before finishing in style by putting in a pair of FL's on L19 and then L20. These were both 3:22.08 and about .003 seconds apart
All in all a good fun race for me - if slightly lonely after H ran off into the distance. Clermont is just so much fun I could have quite happily ran that distance on my own I think
I also dicovered Bilbo Baggins and his house when parking up after the race - I've been driving past Bag End for the last 5 years, and even knew of the tunnel and Abbey Road, but have somehow never noticed either him or his house
Anyway - SHE is pleased
All your races belong to HER!