That was certainly different to the norm, and quite a lot of fun.
Decided to choose the GT40, deep down wanted the Cobra, but after a quick test run, it scared me off as being too jittery. Maybe if I had time to practice it, but in the end I chickened out in favour of the more stable GT40. It's a loooong time since I tried the GT40, so it was good to get re-acquainted.
I also had forgotten how to do pitstops, so spent yesterday looking for my Tutorial post.
I knew the fuel wouldn't make the distance (the GT40 would be a guzzler), but had no idea if the tyres would last. So, I decided on a strategy of pitting very early to top the fuel up, and then driving conservatively in the hope of making the rubber last.
From practice / qualy, I knew I'd be slower than Neil, Bob M, and probably Eck & Knut, so I just wanted to be able to cruise consistently at my own pace. Of course, for once in my life, I managed a good start
, and jumped to the lead for the first few laps, but as Neil started to close the gap, I felt that I might get pushed to drive harder than my ideal tyre strategy, so as soon as Neil passed, I pitted to get it out of the way.
That put me at the tail, but made for some very interesting racing as I worked my way through the pack. I got to see a few spins / incidents on the way, and Jack even gave a sigh of relief as I passed him.
Unfortunately, as I passed Bob H, he took another liking to my rear end as I took the turn fairly gently, resulting in me spinning off into the grass, but luckily not much damage after bouncing off the fence. That put me behind Jack again, which he probably didn't want, and he selected the wrong gear exiting the hairpin and pulled off a spectacular spin. :oops:
After that, I finally could settle down to my preferred pace and was slowly gaining on Dmytro as the GT40 was quicker than his TVR. With two laps to go, I was on his tail and expected a nice battle to the finish, but Dmytro pulled into the pits for fuel (no doubt why I was gaining so fast, he was desperately trying to save fuel), leaving me to finish 2nd.
The tyres lasted the distance but were pretty shabby by the end.
Grats to Neil, very fast all race. Grats to Dmytro for winning the Class B group.
Thanks to Stu for organising, and to all who joined. It was a very interesting event.