Anyway, on to the racing...
First up, thanks to Carlos for trying out the TVR on a suggestion, and throwing up such a nicely balanced event.
Race 1 - Elite
After there were a few "No Time" qualis, I ended up a bit higher than I was expecting on the grid, although I was pretty comfortable with my race pace. Got a decent start (especially compared to Race 2
) and it was pretty much as Knut describes it, me and him within a second or so for ages, swapping places a few times, side by side more than a few times. The gap ebbed and flowed, as we were quicker in different parts of the track as Knut said, so the splits would be something like 0.5, 1.1, 0.5 etc. It's always the mark of a good race when you check the lap counter, and it's almost double what you were expecting, and that's what happened here - no way had we done 16 laps already.
The final gap opened up as we encountered a bit of traffic, and I dropped a wheel on the grass out of the final turn to try and give myself enough room to get round cleanly. Brilliant racing Knut, despite that closeness for over 90% of the race, not even a touch. Top skills :good: During the race I managed a PB by over a second at 1:03.3, which I was pretty well chuffed with. WD to Bob as well for completing the podium.
Race 2 - TVR
Given the choice, I would have rather gone from the TVR to the Elite, which is not to say that the TVR isn't any good - far from it - it's just quite different and after the duel with Knut in the Elites it was hard to adjust. I couldn't quite dip under the 1:04 mark in prac & quali, then I suppose didn't do that in the Elite until the race anyway.
Decent quali again, but had a stinker on the start - TS had been talking about starts in 2nd, and I was caught between gears (ie in Neutral - Doh!) as the "Go!" appeared, me revving my tits off, but not actually moving anywhere. Sorry to Bob and everyone else behind - i know you were expecting an impromptu chicane to appear on the S/F line
Finally got going and had a nice couple of clean laps, staying out of trouble and ended up in 2nd chasing down Knut (again!). about halfway through the race I had a stinker in the (I think) uphill lefthander towards the end of the lap, letting Knut disappear into the sunset, and Carlos through into a clear second. I got going about 10 sec behind Carlos, and decided to try and catch him for P2 in the 12 or so laps left. I had a good go, chopping the difference down to about 4 sec with 4 laps to go, but took one chance too many in that uphill left again, and span out, letting Tom & Bob through. I had no chance to catch Bob in the time remaining, so I just coasted home the last couple of laps. Good stuff by Knut again, wd to Carlos for keeping it on the black stuff, and Tom for being there to take advantage after I spewed it.
Thanks to Carlos & RD for another corker.
As I've said previously, after next Tuesday's event in the (evil) Porsches, next Thursdays BMW Le Mans enduro, and next Saturday's RDHGP finale, Carlos and I will be changing things around, him doing some mini series on the Tuesdays, and me reverting to "open" events on the Thursdays.
Thanks to all the cracking events he's put up, I've now got one hell of an act to follow. I promise I'll do my best :good: