Well, that was fun.
I'm not putting massive amounts of practice in for the Indy cars as I simply don't have enough to go round. I managed to find a bit of consistency on race fuel in the practice session though and was aiming for a clean run. I was hoping to nip into the 31s for the first time in qually but a 31.63 was a little quicker than I was expecting and probably put me a bit out of position if I'm honest.
I was a little tardy off the start but held the inside line against Karsten and just had enough up the hill to hold him off. I saw Dan cut the chicane so was ready to nip by when he slowed down which gave me back the ground I'd lost on Simon at the start. Sadly I then gave it back with mistakes at the last two corners out of the Boot. The first let Karsten alongside me outside into the hairpin and then I managed to find a box full of neutrals round the hairpin which gave him the advantage down the straight forcing me to cede the next corner or take us both out by not braking.
After that Ken was behind me but I was comfortable and started to string a few corners together. Coming into the final corner next lap though I changed down and the back snapped round. I've studied the telemetry and can't see any reason whatsoever for it snapping like that. I took the corner identically many, many times through the race with no issues. I suspect it might have been a slight warp contact with Ken behind. He was well back and I didnlt get a 4x but that's what it felt like.
I hit the wall hard backwards with a big crunch and reset immediately. It was a good place to get a tow from and I was under way before the leaders came round so set off after the backmarkers. Robin was first up and I caught him just before the stop, then I chased down and passed Dan's crippled car after his stop leaving Ian about 10 seconds up the road with 7 to go. I chased him down to about 1.5 seconds at the finish but a couple of mistakes near the end prevented me having a go at 4th.
That was fun though. Did I say that? 5th is far better than I expected after the reset.
The podium was always going to be beyond me though given their pace. Nice pace guys.
Mmmm. Spa next. Might practice that.
Paul