Race one quite well documented by those posting before me,all i would add was the final turn incident with Eck: I really had no idea where Eck was at that time,i knew he would be close like,he was showing strong there on me the previous couple of laps,i arrived there very manky and a bit too fast this time on rather shagged tyres,i really couldnt afford any of my thinking power to what Eck was up to behind,this was all just desperate scrabbling to survive,very close to going off but just scooped myself back together off the curb,my guess is Eck came rolling in at proper smooth under control race speed and was presented with a wobbly lary mess ahead to contend with,there was a small tangle and i was given time and space to recover,no harm no foul!,but for a little bit more space to work with Eck would have breezed past down the straight,but i think from then on he was too scared to get that close to me again
.
I was on for a nice qually lap in the Ferrari but went out too wide exiting the 2nd to last turn and the lap was disallowed,the first couple of laps are basically a big busy blur
,lots going on behind,either side,and just ahead,my progress was very gradual and steady until i eventually found myself breaking clear of the pack and in 3rd place,now was the time for the big push,all the time watching Tom and Stu go side by side more than inline with each other,but disturbingly losing very little time in process >:/,sure i was making inroads,but not as much as i thought given they were fighting it out so hard,so by the time i arrived i had used up a lot of tyre grip credits to get there,but the timing was all working out perfect for me,just getting ahead of Stu and now in 2nd,Tom had made a little break away while me and Stu exchanged 2nd spot,then it all went to buggery at T2 going up the hill,very obviously i was way too far back to have even silly remote thoughts of making any form of pass there,as always i like to try and make some ground in braking zones,and to be fair,often fail in that and usually loose ground in braking zones
,but i noticed Tom's car getting larger and larger at a silly rate of knots! :O,i was still confident by the time i did actually arrive there he would be clear of the apex,but sadly i did indeed get there in time to clip his back wing,at the time when we exited i wasnt sure who came out the other side behind me,but it was Stu that got past the recovering Tom,i was thinking of holding out for some more turns and see if Tom would get back to 2nd and then present him his lead back,but opted for an instant ease off and feather back in to 3rd place,and the order remained the same to the finish with very little between the 3 cars over the line.
Well done all there making two highly enjoyable fine races.
Thanks Carlos/Stu &
RD