I swear Mini Friday gets better every week.
I was desperate to have a good run 2nite as I fell asleep last week and missed the whole bloody thing:struggle:
Hadn't managed to turn any laps b4 on these tracks, but fortunately the Mini's are ideal to learn a track in. They turned out to be 3 excellent tracks, all very enjoyable.:wink2:
Race 1 AMS:
Qual: 12th
Having learnt the track by following a few guys in praccy I was very pleased with 12th.
Race: 4th
Made a good clean start and gained quite a few places in lap 1. Had a good battle to get up to 4th place. Rob and Ben were up ahead and I focused on trying to close on them. Ben was shadowing Rob fairly closely once I caught up and we had a good battle. I think Ben got a little wide which allowed me past and I fancied a bit of Thorpo bashing
. I closed in quite quickly, but then Rob decided to be difficult and hold on to his 3rd. We battled as close as we always seem to and had some exciting moments. But I had forgotten to pay attention to Ben lurking around behind us. He'd already made a couple of attempts to pass me b4 the last lap, but coming into the last chicane I was a little ginger on the brakes and he well and trully stuffed me up the inside. I got tight in just in case he ran wide coming out, but he kept it nice and tidy and the 3 of us finished very closely. Very pleased to have got that high up, but i was beaten by 2 very good fighters:wink2:.
Race 2 Vitus Gp: Wow what a track:good:.
A big thank you to Rob here:wink2:. I managed to follow him on my outlap in practice and managed to get a quick lesson on how to drive this track, although I couldn't match him for pace at the time, but I doubt I'd of been upto speed so quickly if I hadn't hooked onto him.
Qual: 1st OMG!!!!
How on earth did that happen. Pulled out of the garage and realised it was starting to rain. I though about escaping and getting wets, but I was behind Rob again so decided I'd try and follow him. What a gr8 idea that turned out to be.
Onto our flying lap and I had someone to follow in the slightly slippery conditions. This gave me confidence as I knew if we hit a very wet patch Thorpo would get it 1st. We blitzed around and halfway round this long lap the rain started falling harder and I knew this would be the quickest lap we'd get in. I was sure Rob was quicker and I even got a little out of shape in the last corner and I was totally stunned when I saw P1:shock:.
At last I'd managed a Pole position.:dance2:
Race: 1st woohoo
I managed a good start and everyone at the front was careful into T1.
At the end of the lap i slowed Rob down as I was a little deep into the last corner and it forced him into the clutches of the guys behind him, giving me a little breathing room. I tried to pull away , but Rob was straight back into 2nd and he was staying aroung a second behind me all the way. Then on lap 7 I first distracted myself by hitting a quick chat button telling Rob to "Pass Right":laugh2:, but fortunately he didn't try. Then my little girl came in having woken up and she was talking to me and I got a little scruffy and Rob started to turn the screw on me. Once again we did some side by side racing and I was just holding him off. My little girl settled down beside me to patiently watch the end of the race and I managed to get my focus back and just held Rob off on the last 2 laps to win by 0.058 seconds over the line:hypnotized:. Amazing stuff and my first win in the Mini's.:dance2:
Race 3 Sachsenring:
Got off to a bad start here and just couldn't get to grips with this twisty track.
Qual: 4th.
Having struggled in practice I tried the setup that Adam had uploaded and with that feeling much better and me finally switching my brain back on I started getting some laps in and popped it into 4th, though well off the front guys pace.
Race: 4th
Got away well, but so did everyone else. Tried to get in amongst the front 3, but instead dropped myself into the grasp of Rob. We tried our usual of going side by side, but this time we got it all wrong
arty2:. I probably could of stayed out a little wider, but it was quite a quick left hander and Rob was inside and we made contact and i had a trip in the kitty litter. I emerged back around 9th and Rob lost even more as he held back for me and I'm guessing he didn't see where I had returned to the track. Sorry mate. Managed to get upto 6th quite quickly, but was not gaining much on Dan infront. Then he and Lewis got together and it put me right past them. Though Lewis was not willing to let me go and he fought back past me. We exchanged positions a couple of times before my last attempt into T1. Lewis was braking late on the outside and it looked as though he just got a little wide and then he was no longer behind me. Pulled away from 5th, but was no where near quick enough to even keep up with the top 3 and finished a rather lonely 4th. I did manage to see Ben Tusting and Gary have a close finish ahead, but from a distance.
This managed to live upto and even better my last outing a couple of weeks ago in the Mini's where Rob and I managed to have some great battles.
Well done everyone for 2nites gr8 meeting and a big thanks to Andrew and RD again for this event.
