Well, that was interesting, and enlightening on various topics.
Race1 - I chose the Renault as I (correctly) suspected it wouldn't get a lot of love. It's default handling is evil, but some pretty extreme settings alleviated most of that evilness (for me) and downgraded it to "sulky". It's not miles off in pace compared to the other cars, but all the setup work in the world won't help if you stick the Renault on it's roof by hitting a kerb. Doh!
Was having a good scrap with Ralf in his Elite, he got away, then I closed up, then he got away, then I closed up, then I was upside down
But that was only the second best scrap of the night, as I'll come back to later.
Race2 - I went with the Abarth as I had to miss the recent Hilltop & Le Mas event. Yes it was a known quantity, but I hadn't driven it against anyone for ages. It was nice and perky around most of the corners, but that lack of guts in the engine was costing it on the straighter sections - never quite making the most of the time it had made up in the previous corner. I had a bit of a wobble, and closed up on Carlos, in his Abarth, and a recovering Nige, in his TVR. Absoultely brilliant 3-way fight there. Unfortunately Carlos went a bit wide and let me & Nige through, and we kept it nose to tail for a few more laps until we came across the stricken Lancia of Warren just past the last chicane. Nige managed to go wide without slowing, but my line meant I had to back right out to avoid Warren.
That opened up a 2.5 sec gap which again we kept constant, actually closing up on the leading Chris (manfully throwing the Jaaaaaag around like a getaway driver in a 1960's Ealing bank job caper) and Gary (nipping at his heels in his TVR). I then had a bit of a spin as I pushed too hard to try and catch Nige, opening up another chunk of gap, which stayed constant until the flag. A brilliant fight right the way through the race with Nige, if he'd had an off or even just a wobble, I'd have be all over his back, but he kept it rock solid all the way. Great stuff :good:
I think only me & Ralf (who had to leave before R2 anyway) didn't have the Fulvia 1600 on the menu for this event for either race, with 6 out of 9 drivers taking it for race 1.
But - it did seem to cement the thought that the Fulvia would be a great single make event choice, and possibly even using it in a FWD frenzy with/against the Mini. So keep your eyes out for that one in the not-too-distant once I can test out my theory.