I had a great evening on another fine American track (the list keeps growing: Laguna, Watkins, Mid Ohio, Virginia, ...)
R1 - Boss:
I definitely got the hang of this beast now! Feeling the weight of the car and being able to have some extra oversteer by a blip of the throttle...great feeling! In Q I reached a 6th spot, but I had a blast of a start passing Tim L. & Stuart in the first meters.
Then came the best part of R1: Chasing and annoying Mr. Atkins
A few times I was able to get a better exit speed for a straight, but then it lacked me confidence to finish the move. It happened a few times I backed off while driving next to Nigel, but as I wanted to finish in a good position (points, points & more points
) I didn't want to risk sending us both to the litter. Then just when Nigel seemed to get some distance he spun out & I moved through to a 3rd position. Then some lonely tyre-conserving laps (2.35, not that slow), which I regret afterwards: Near the end (lap 8/9) Nigel returned to 2 seconds! I had to push the pedal pretty hard to the metal in order to stay ahead, a little too hard as the inevitable occurred when I had my only spin... in the final lap at 4 corners from the finish
Perhaps I f I had kept at full race-pace I would have had a sufficient gap to recover in front of Stuart. Still my confidence got a great boost & the first laps were superb: Epic moments there Nigel!
Edit: working in the garden with this beautiful weather, R2 review will be for tonight