That had to be some of the best racing I've been apart of. I had some real good fun and some nice fights in both races.
Though first off, really sorry Mark Guy and Matt Clark. I was avoiding Nicolas Hamilton as he braked early. I braked and moved left to avoid rear-ending him, but I just couldn't stop fast enough (if you were a few yards further into the corner, everything would've been okay). I tap you and you spin, where you spin into Matt. Really sorry dudes.
But once that was out of the way, I was having good fun tailing people likes of Nathan Magrath and Chris Sykes for a few laps until I pit on lap 6 to try and get some good laps in while others are on worse tyres. This track murdered my tyres, 3% a lap :eek:.
I jumped a few people from 18th to go to 14th. Unfortunatly, I decide to change only my lefts (after a horrible stop) and by lap 12, my right is destroyed and I just could not brake properly.
To make things even more interesting, I have Eric Plimmer on my ass. I hold him off for a while, but I had to brake so much earlier for the hairpins, and on lap 14 he's past me in the first hairpin, and to make things worse, I find that my 2nd gear is too long to counter attack into the next hairpin. End up 15th.
Race 2, was good as well. Start 15th, and get up to 13th by the end of lap one after a so so start. And others going off. By lap 3, I'm up to 11th due to an accident up front, but after old hairpin, I run wide and do some rallycross. I lose alot of ground on Simon Gardner and have Franck Bonnin close up on me. On lap6, Aristide Romanov pits from 7th. I decide to stay out seen as I have a clear track in front of me and try to jump him. But things don't go to plan, and I go wide at turn one, wide on the last corner, then next lap, wide at Old Hairpin. Argh.
So to minimise the amount of off-track moments, I pit on lap7 and make a much better pit stop this time, deciding to change both fronts this time and leave the rears. I exit in 15th. But not too far behind Romanov.
I then come across the Nick Deely, Cedric Germain, Oancea Gabriel incident, and have a right scare as I thread my car between the trio of Seats, rear sliding as I avoid a slow moving Oancea Gabriel. Now back in 12th, yippe.
I then jump Eric and Barry Morse in the stops and now up to 10th, so I'm aiming for a point now.
C'mon Alfa, C'mon.
I then inherent 9th place with Nicoles Hamilton having a stange accident and getting a DNF.
Unfortunatly, again, lap 12, my tyres are dying and I have to drop the pace not to fall off all the place, but this just allows Barry to catch up. So by the end of lap13, Barry is right on my arse, and maybe a little too close. He taps me coming out of the last corner, but that was due to me having a slow exit as I forgot to change my 2nd gear ratio, and my tyres aren't letting me get good enough exits out of slow corners. NP mate.
Lap 14 and 15 was interesting, Barry might have well had a bungie cord attached to my car he was so close to me. I hold him off until again, the dreaded hairpins. I brake early fir the first and try to make a tight line to close the gap. But my tyres are at low 70% so my braking is preety bad. So I run just a tad deep, and Barry gets up the inside of me. I get a decent exit and I think "right I'll try a dive up the inside," but Barry dives right to defend the line, and I just go straight in a panic to not avoid him. I lock both fronts up and run off onto the grass. Then drop to 11th as Cedric Germain goes past.
I had some great fun tonight. Especially after my races on Sunday at Nordschleife and Thunder Forest were such disasters.
Thanks to Matt Clark and Adam Vaughan helping set my Alfa up as it's the thing I've been struggling with to get it to drive to my style.
I look forward to the next events in my Alfa, as I should bet getting near the top 10 every race now that I have this car's chassis characteristics down.
:letsgoracing:
