Phew, what a race!
Finally started to click in qualifying and got 3rd on the grid; figured I had a chance of keeping up with Bananaman until about half way into the stint when the tyres would start to go, but to my surprise I was able to keep up without too much trouble, helped in part by him looking like he was struggling with the balance of the car quite badly.
Mike was starting to pile on pressure from behind until going into turn 1 I omitted to downshift into 3rd and ran wide onto the asphalt strip on the outside; gathered it back up but then ran wide on the way into turn 2, letting Mike by, but luckily not Shark.
A few laps later Paul crashed, which left me fending off Shark until the pit stops. He stopped a lap early but was burning more fuel than me, so I gained a second or so there, and we resumed battle on fresh tyres. He pushed like crazy for a few laps and I had no choice but to respond, driving just a little beyond my comfort zone. To spice things up, we caught Ken, who hadn't stopped yet, and on such a tight track the DP had no real straight line speed advantage, so with Shark breathing down my neck, when I had a slightly better exit out of the final turn I threw myself into a do or die effort over the curbs in turn 1, somehow not spinning, running into Ken or bouncing off.
After about half the stint Shark's challenge faded, but only slightly, and I never really had a chance to relax until the last lap. Couldn't risk finishing both last in class
and behind him.
Grabbed Gizmo's setup, but felt too much like wrestling the car
Yeah, I felt like I was wrestling a brace of eels for most of the race. I've been trying to train myself to drive more unstable setups and it's starting to pay off.