Once again Macau delivered lots of tension and drama, but some great racing. Anyone participating in races at Macau needs to come to the event with a calm mind and lots of patience. Some clearly didn't unfortunately.
Qualy went well for me with a 2.30.9 giving me P3.
Race 1: Started reasonably, but was still passed by Daniel and Richard by turn 3. I slotted into P5 behind Richard, but he was lagging quite a bit early in the race. So I decided to just stay behind him and keep the car clear of the walls, since I knew from experience that this would pay off later in the race. I picked up to P3 when Daniel pushed Michael into the wall, but not long after, I let the Chevy tail swing out through Mandarin, hit the wall and allowed Ryan through. I then dropped another spot as Daniel squeezed past through the twisty part at the top of the track. I regained P4 when Ryan went for a beer at Hotel Lisboa. On lap 8 I was tagged by MTommi and spun in a horrible spot, but he stopped and waited for me to recover. As I quickly tried to recover, I was hit by Marcel (sorry Marcel but I couldn't see you coming due to MTommi's car parked in the middle of the road). MTommi and I resumed our battle for P4, but on the last lap, we came across the aftermath of an accident between Daniel and Richard at Melco Hairpin. Daniel had hit Richard pushing him into the left hand wall, and had then impailed himself on the inside guard rail right on the hairpin. MTommi hit Richard, so I was gifted P2 to the finish.
Race 2: Even more drama filled.
Started P7, had a good start, and moved to P5 as we approached Mandarin. The cars in front were being careful and a little slower, so I also slowed to keep everything clean, and was promptly passed by Daniel right through the turn, despite our pre-race warning about the no overtaking rule there. :nono: Fortunately we survived, but that could have been the very disaster we were trying to avoid.
Turning into turn 3, I was tagged by Steve and spun, causing a bit of a jam in the turn, but not too bad. I was now P12, but soon picked up to P9 and spent some laps harrassing Andrew's Vauxhall as he also tussled with Gunthar, who was having some hairy moments with the BMW. We both slipped past Gunthar and I eventually got by Andrew when he made love to the wall. On lap 7 I came up to Wally and Lu, but they both almost stopped in front of me and I locked up trying to frantically brake, hitting Lu and pushing him into Wally. Sorry guys, but that was a very strange place to be stopping. I stopped and waited but now had Michael and MTommi right on my tail. All four of us swept past Wally's battered Seat along the main straight, and I aslo slipped past Lu at the same time to take P3. For the last 3 laps we had an epic battle with nothing between the 4 of us, all manhandling damaged cars I think. I just held on to keep P3.
Thanks to all who challenged this very demanding track, I had some very enjoyable racing.
Guys, you should always expect some incidents at Macau, just remember to keep your sense of humour.
And a message for Daniel, you need to take some more care please.
