Another very enjoyable morning's GTL racing again.
Best news was that the Track Fix worked like a charm, well done Stu. This is fast becoming a favourite of mine, a great combo of long fast bits mixed with tight twisty bits, and also some nice undulations to keep everyone on their toes. A very classy design IMO.
After running the Mini last week, I was keen to try some heavy V8 power on this track, so started practice with an old favourite, the Mustang. On TS, someone started mentioning the Falcon, and since I don't recall driving it much (if at all), I decided to give it a go. It had even more grunt down that longish straight, but was less civilised on the twisty stuff. What the hell, let's try it out.
Race 1: Fluked pole. Even managed a decent start and rocketed away from the crowd to lead early, there's nothing like V8 power. My fellow "Falcon" Teammate, Roland, pulled off another of his ninja starts and grabbed P2. I thought, this might work out well, Roland should make life difficult for the other guys in their nimble Alfa's and Cortina's, the Falcon would be an ocean liner to pass here, especially with all that power on the straight. So it proved to be, for the first half of the race, Roland kept them tucked in behind while I scooted away to a sizeable lead. After about 8 laps I noticed that Eck and some others had finally cleared Roland, but I had about 13 secs on them by then, so it was now all about whether I could keep the beast on the road, or when would the tyres melt. With 2 laps to go, the tyres were screaming for mercy, but I was able to bring it home for a comfy win. It's been a long time since I did that.
Well done to Rupe and Tudor for the podium.
Race 2: Took the Cortina this time, didn't have the strength to run another v8. Fluked pole again
.
This time I had Roland beside me, and as usual, he jumped away in front. I managed to tuck in to his coat tails but had Tim hounding my rear end. The loooong pattern of the race then unfolded. I glued myself to Roland's boot but took ages to shake off Tim (he must have taken on board all the advice he received during the week
). Roland and I had a cracker of a race, I pestered his tail as best I could, it was amazing how closely matched his Alfa and my Cortina were around here. I had a tiny edge through the twisty uphill chicanes, but he always had slightly better drive out on to the main straight. For the entire race, all I saw was his boot and tail lights, but we were steadily opening a nice gap on those behind. So, I had to just wait and hope Roland would make a mistake. I waited, waited, waited, ........waited,..... nothing, Roland wasn't flinching, and driving an excellent race.
Sadly, with a few laps to go, I misjudged the gap as we entered the main straight, and ever so lightly touched his rear bumber, but it was enough to unsettle him and spin him into the fence. Very sorry Roland.
I waited for Roland to extracate himself from the barrier, and off we went again to resume our past fun. Chris had slipped past us by now, but we both caught him over the final lap and had a nice close finish.
Grats to Chris, a win in his first GTL event here.
Well done Roland for P2, and thanks for a really great battle.
Thanks all who joined these races, and special thanks to Stu for organising and solving the Track length issue. I assume this will now unlock a few more favourite tracks that have been plagued by this little bug.
