Nice to be back with the friendly GTL crowd again, even if I was rusty. With DST now finished in Europe, I should be more regular again.
Wow, what an action packed return for me.
Race 1 - Mini1310:
Qualified P2 behind a flying Nigel. I was hoping for a really good battle with Nigel, but early events conspired to change that but made for a very interesting race for me.
Thommo slipped past me after my usual sluggish start, but unfortunately, it looks like I squeezed Bob off track in turn 1 whislt trying to make sure Stuart had plenty of room. Sorry Bob. I managed to sneak past Stu down the main straight and later passed Nigel when he went wide in the turn 1 & 2 complex.
A couple of laps later, I had a wild ride, clipping the inside curb exiting the final turn, flipping onto two wheels down the straight. I tried feverishly to keep it upright as I impersonated a stunt driver, and managed to save it from rolling, but slid off into the grass sideways into the fence and bounced back onto the main straight. As I crawled back down the straight, I had Tim and Tom hurtling towards me side by side. :eek::eek: Thankfully, both flew past me, one left, the other right. Phew!!.
Tim went off in spectacular style, then I got tangled up with Tom as he recovered from a two wheel experience, but he was weaving all over the track, resulting in me spinning over the hump. Back to P5 now behind Carlos, with Bob now recovered and on my tail. I finally settled into some clean laps and moved into P2 (after a great scrap with Tom for a while
).
Late in the race, I had a terrible but unfortunate crash with Jack. Jack was catching Erling, just as I was about to lap Jack. We all converged onto the tricky turn 1, 2, 3 section at different speeds. Erling went right to let Jack pass, Jack went left to avoid Erling, and I clipped Jack as he moved across into my path. This launched Jack into the air like a rocket, with several twists and pikes, crashing back to earth in front of me. Very sorry Jack, not sure I could have missed you though, just one of those unlucky incidents. :sorry: As we all slowed to regroup, Bob almost became tangled up in it too.
I then followed Bob for the final few laps until he went wide on the last lap, letting me through to finish P2 after a race full of thrills and spills.
Grats to Nigel for a huge win and well done to Bob to recover for third. :good:
Race 2 - Fiat 131:
Much less eventful this time. Qualified P4. I managed to hold P4 for a few laps, getting a good view of the scrap in front between Nigel and Bob, whilst having Tom all over my tail. I then made two horrible mistakes (including parking it nose first into the tyre wall) and dropped to P6. From then on, it was a fairly lonely and uneventful run to the finish to remain P6.
Grats to Carlos for the win, and WD to Bob and Nigel for the podium.
All good fun, thanks to all for some interesting racing.
