Excellent night of racing overall !
First time on these cars and that track and I had a blast ! Thanks for organizing it Adam !
Q1 : Shabby lap. Nowhere near my PB. Put me 11th on the grid. I just couldn't find a "lonely" piece of track to push for it.
R1 : Shabby start put me 2nd to last. A huge apology to Steve O'Malley for the contact on lap 1, before the straight. I didn't felt any contact and when I saw you sideways in my rear view mirrors, I just thought you got a bit "right foot heavy" on the exit there. I could've waited for you otherwise. Then I tried to make a move on T. Matthews on the inside, but he closed the door on me and I couldn't stop in time. He spun out, but this time I waited for him, even beeped as an excuse for my move there. Then I did overtook him cleanly in the chicane before the start/finish, but couldn't pull away from him. He was getting ever closer and on lap 2 (I believe) he capitalized on mistake I've made. I ended up making another mistake shortly afterwards and O'Malley took advantage of that one. I've spend most of my time as his shadow, before I ended up spinning on the uphill chicane because I didn't expected him to break that much for it. I had to choose - his rear bumper on my front windscreen, or a bit of grass cutting. I ended up cutting the grass a bit. I them made a couple of clean laps, hoping to gain on the front runners, but I again messed up. To my surprise Steve O'Malley was again on my rear. Was a surprise coz I don't recall overtaking him. That mental shock took me off again once more and he (again) overtook me. I've spend the rest of the race on my own pretty much. Only letting the Top 3 cars lap me.
Q2 : Same story as Q1 ... This time 10th, so 1 position improvement.
R2 : Again not the best starts. Saw 2 cars on T2 kinda getting sideways, so I dodged to the far right. There I've found (or "discovered" if you'd like) T. Matthews and nudged him a bit. Got myself a bit of damage from that incident even thou it was pretty slow one (cars were running at around 55 km/h). That made my front a bit bumpy in high speeds, but nothing undriveable. I overtook him at the end of long straight, as we both watch B. Davis spinning away on our ride side. I've found myself on back of N. Robinson, just as we were heading into that uphill chicane and he just as O'Malley, braked a bit too much there and caught me by surprise. I had a small grass cutting affair again. Had to concede a place coz I've literally cut the track. I ended up giving away two places, but that wasn't an issue. Andy Bonar got stuck behind me and as the guys infront of us started fighting, we gained on them. On lap 3, we were right behind them, but I hesitated to overtake them on the long straight, because of my front wobble. So I made a mistake, overshoot a braking point and Andy picked up the place from me. No damage thou, so I could resume racing. Spent the next few laps in the high 29s/low 30s, trying to catch up to the guys in front and it payed off. On the end of lap 6 (I think), I took a place away from T. Matthews who spun at the last chicane and now Andy was in my sights. Around lap 9 I got stuck behind him and started applying pressure. I knew that overtaking in these cars is pretty tricky, so I wasn't to risk it all for a foolish maneuver. I just tried to make myself look big and mean in his rear view mirrors, but he didn't buy it. I almost ran into N. Middleton before the final chicane as he was clearly struggling with something, coz he was running very very slow. I jumped on the brakes thou and saved us both from having to pit in. Got passed him few meters after that and then I got back to Andy very quickly. Then I stole another place from Steve O'Malley who spun out, and that saw me rising to 7th place ! Given the fact that Andy was insights, I could hope for a really good finish at that point. Then N. Robinson got out of shape around the same spot where O'Malley spun out and I rook 6th. As Andy was still in reach, I tried to push myself a bit harder and that saw me spinning out from T1. Got some nasty right rear damage which made my car undriveable. From that point on, I was just giving away places and crawling towards the pit. Literally 1 lap before the finish, I dropped to last (running) spot. I was furious with myself. And then on the final chicane, just before I cross the checkered flag, I stepped to aggressively on the inner kerb and went sideways across the track. I've hit the outter wall on the straight/finish lane and my car was a no go. Just meters left for me to finish -.- Terrible luck !
But overall great fun - Thanks everyone for the clean races and sorry if I've caused few paint trades. First time on these cars and that track was a completely new one for me.
I'll be seeing you all next time