Another fine night's sprinting (I'm hoping to have the SprintPack ready for the next one), hopefully enjoyed by all.
I was qualifying pretty near the front of the grid for all the races, but as I said to Amir in the chat, I suspect that this was more to do with my familiarity with the tracks through my testing to make sure they were any good rather than any outright speed on my part. Anyway, to the races.
1. Birmingham Short
A cracking little track, and one that promises to be as much fun when we visit it next week in the Muscle Cars in it's long form. Had a couple of good laps up front with Ben, swapping positions a couple of time. He's quicker than me, and I have less experience in dicing for the lead on the edge like that. I had a couple of slides which allowed him to open up a few seconds gap, and then out of nowhere (unless I missed the warnings of course - enitrely possible), I got a stop n go. Went in and took that, came out last
. At the finish, I was informed that I'd been disqualified for ignoring a second S n G, again I possibly missed the warning. Quite funny in a way, but still a cracking drive :good:
2. Lakeside
Everyone was much closer here, pretty much all of us having visited it before but in the (and I don't think I'm wrong in saying this) slightly different handling Mustangs. Again followed Ben, who put in 2 or 3 amazing laps, which opened out a gap, but then the gap stabilised, neither of us making a mistake, and it was pretty much status quo to the end. High speed and high concentration levels right the way round.
3. Virgina Short
As Croucher memorably described it in Chat "This track has got the crazy". Practice and quali times were all over the place for everyone, basically because half of the laptimes weren't from clean laps. Again had some nice racing with Ben up front, he was quicker overall, but I was keeping him honest. I had a near spin off of the high kerb on the extremely tight left hander in the middle of the complex, and he drove off to a big lead. Couple of laps later I caught up to him going very slowly and weaving on the S/F straight. I thought he'd done a wrong 'un and was running out of fuel or something but as soon as I passed him he sped up again. I thought he had decided to say sod the fuel, let's have a couple of laps racing and I'll run out where I run out.
By the middle of lap 10, it was clear that this was not the case and he had just waited around for me to catch up to keep things close. Once I realised what was going on, I lifted off and coasted home in P2 leaving him to drive off for the deserved win. I just happen to think that if you're miles ahead and it gets a bit boring for you, well, that's the price you just have to pay.
4. Castle Combe Chicaned
Another new track, a more traditional layout than Virginia. Again some good racing with Ben up front, but I slid a bit wide @ the left right shimmy and on to the grass, killing my momentum before the first chicane. A small gap opened becuase of that, but immediately stabilised once I was back up to speed. We stayed like that for a few laps until Ben had a coming together with Bob near the second chicane, and I went through for a win. I think Castle Combe, especially with the chicanes in place, proves that you don't need intricate arabesques and curlicues in your layout to make a good, interesting, and race oriented track rather than testing or technically oriented one.
5. Knutstorp
This one was nice and fresh in everyone's memory after our Elite visit there, and as a result was much closer (hence my speculation about familiarity being my reason for being near the front). Quallied 3rd and then had the fantastic feeling of revving up and letting the clutch go only to move absolutely nowhere. apparently, Neutral is not the best gear to be in at a race start, so so once I was moving I was in last.
Got into a bit of a pickle in T1 with Hans, who started to drift a little bit, leaving me the options of smashing into the side of him, or braking and taking the inevitable drifty spin onto the grass, which I did. I rejoined the track and was following Bob up into the hairpin. I got past in the left hander out of the hairpin loop but then went into the right hand downhiller too deep and skittered off the track. Unfortunately I think Bob was following my line and went off a bit harder and caused a heavier impact - sorry again mate. A few uneventful laps for me until the end.
Again - another cracking night's driving which I hope everyone enjoyed. :good:
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