I came to this event unprepared, and spent all of practice time trying to unravel the weird behaviour of the Cobra. Why oh why did I let Mozza talk me into this monster. :flypig: , it clearly wasn't suited to me. As it turned out, I really should have at least tried the Pantera during practice.
Race 1, Cobra: Qualy P7. The start was comical. :lol: Ulli (in front) immediately went left, so I tried to follow thinking there must have been someone stalled up front, but as soon as I poured on the power, the Cobra lurched sideways and tapped Steven, making him bump Stuart, who then doughnutted across track into me. This spun me around so I was now stopped and facing the wrong way. By the time I turned around and got going, everyone was loooong gone. :doh: I guess I started it, so I got my just deserts :whistle: (see piccy).
After many laps, I was still hopelessly last and alone (amazingly no one had spun off yet), so I was resigned to a loooong lonely race. Eventually I passed a couple of dust clouds beside the road (Steven and Hans) and could see some other cars in the distance ahead (Stuart and Amir). While I battled with Amir, Hans cruised past both of us (nice going Hans :yo: ), then Stuart had a "moment" and dropped back to join the fun. Had some nice laps with Stu, including watching Amir take a spectacular rolling bounce over the fence into the grandstand :eek:.
I'm afraid the Cobra is not really my :tea:.
Race 2, Pantera: Oh my, I
REALLY should have done a bit of practice first , but opted to try to work it out as I raced.
Qualy P4 and started a bit better this time. Held P3 for a bit but was sliding horribly in places, so I think Carlos just waited patiently behind knowing the inevitable would soon happen. Amir spun off, giving me P2 for a while, but soon Carlos was rewarded for his patience. In turn 1, I put a tiny bit of inside rear wheel on the dirt, and that was it, off into the outside wall with a huge thump. I quickly followed this by slamming the wall a few turns later, but then had some clean laps in P5. Just as I thought I was getting the hang of the Pantera, I stupidly cut a tiny bit on the long sweeping right hander, and hit one of those nasty little tyre barriers (made of solid concrete). Bang, immediately stopped. Still the Pantera wasn't dead yet, so I had a long lonely run in P7 until the last lap or so when I caught Amir, who I assume slowed to wait for me, so we had a form finish.
Thanks all for the fun, these over-powered beasts can provide lots of fun when matched to the right track, and this one was a good'un. Thanks Stu.