I think it's only 20 more horses, Bobbo, old boy. 200 would be a hell of a mismatch.
Sorry in being so late in replying.
It may not be the biggest shock in the world that I like these cars.
However, I promise you that no-one, and I mean no-one, is more surprised than me about the results. I came into race 1 with about 3 or 4 practice laps in total under my belt - and only in the 2800 at that - bang on scheduled qualifying start, got the basics of Eck's setup over TS from Bob (thanks to both of you for that), and off I went.
Did OK, about mid way or so, thanks to some people having their respective mares.
I don't know whether it's just my driving style happens to dovetail nicely with the cars characteristics or what, but the Opels both felt pretty much planted to me, so I just drove it as clean as I could, I don't really like the car to slide about too much.
That seemed to be the most judicious method for me, and the car seemed to accept that pretty well, although I could keep it on the edge of drift under acceleration around T3 pretty much at will, it felt majestic :good:
The race was a bit of a blur, slowly easing through the pack as people made mistakes or making passes where it was safe to do so. Pretty soon I'm chasing down Tom, and slowly closing when he has a bit of a moment coming out of a corner (he mentioned it was cat related, I think - I can sympathise there, my Westie often comes and walks around my feet when I'm driving at the least opportune moments), and so I found myself in 1st.
From the quali time he set before his unfortunate disco, I knew Eck would be buzzing around me in pretty short order, and he soon was. I managed to keep him behind for a lap or two (great fun), but he was way faster than me out of the second, tightest chicane, and got a great run on me down that hill. I tried to brake early and switch back across his tail, but he kept it very neat and tidy and tight to the apex, not allowing me any daylight - great pass mate :good: Unfort, he then went into T1 too hot, and slowly came around, leaving me a fairly relaxed 2 or so laps for the win.
Grats to Bobbo for the maddest, earliest jump start ever as well :good:
I'd never ever driven the 3000 until that practice session, so I loaded up the 2800 setup, and it felt great, just as stable as the 2800, albeit a little bit livelier on the throttle. Eck mentioned he upped 5th one click, so I tried that and went a second faster.
Decent if not spectacular quali, but had a rotten start when I floored it and got some copious wheelspin, and so I ended up swamped and down in 7th or so into T1. Was following the lead group of 3 (I want to say Eck, Erling & Tom, but can't recall properly if I'm honest) for a while slowly, slowly catching up, but then they all had a few issues, and again, I kind of found myself in 1st, which was nice, if slightly surprising.
I had a few laps by myself, where my focus was again on being clean and not spinning, until Ralf cruised up behind with about 4 or 5 laps to go. Ralf really put me under pressure, not by throwing his nose up the inside or anything reckless like that, but by always getting things right, so I knew that any mistake I made would let him through. He had a couple of half chances, they weren't particularly clean or clear, and would almost inevitably have ended in contact, and so he kept station until something better presented itself. Luckily, I managed to keep it together to the end, but that was a fantastic few laps there Ralf, thanks.
Thanks to the boys who stuck around for the skin test, I'll put those screen shots up later on :good:
Thanks to Carlos & RD for the event.
