Two quite exquisite races.
Sprint
I had done plenty of
testing on the track in the past in order to develop the Toledo; tweaking and learning little things to do in the setups to get it gripping, stable, and predictable. How valuable that investment in time was!
I put in a pretty balls-to-the-wall lap in qualification, taking a rather different line to my race line around the last corner, to put in a time around a tenth slower than Bram who got pole in his Honda.
I started well and got through the first complex safely; with Bram in hot pursuit. A few laps in, and I took a wide entry line into the last corner to give myself a bit more momentum down the straight, but Bram put his nose in and got the jump on me out of it instead. I stayed with him until at around the half way mark he ran wide coming into the last sector, giving me back the lead.
Bram then dropped off the pace a little, it seemed, and ended up hitting the tyre wall - hence the new expression "Oh dear, I appear to have Brammed myself".
With an 8 second gap to second place, I was just about to start the final lap when my PC froze on me. Doh!
Feature Race
In qualification James went out in his S60 and set a 1:12.0; a very quick lap indeed and the fastest of the night. I went out late in the session again, did a
stonking lap and clocked a PB of 1:12.1 to slot in behind him, with teammates Simon and Keith in P5 and P8 respectively (reinforcing the already well-established fact that Keith is one of, if not
the most improved driver we've had at RD). Daniel, with PC trouble and a lack of mileage had got himself into the midfield nonetheless as well.
James got a better start than Bram did, although I still managed to juuuust eke out a car length on him by the time we got to Turn 1. Mark Guy approached with way, way too much speed and created a bit of a mess, but on the whole the front pack managed to escape most of it albeit with minor suspension damage.
In the kerfuffle, Simon had managed to claw his way up to second, and so it began.
Simon produced a masterclass in defensive driving - with the gap covering the three of us never over a second, he held James back for around 25 laps around one of the most difficult circuits for close following. With the gap back to 4th being a vast chasm of time, we knew that if we stayed out longer than James, the ball would very much be in our court - and with the threat of rain, we had to go long on our tyres anyway.
For all of this time, I was pushing like crazy, not since 'that' race at Porto when I was in the E46 have I felt like I was pushing a car
this hard. The pressure to get the braking points right, with Simon no more than 2-3 tenths behind at any given point, was intense.
James finally peeled off and pitted near the end of the pit window, with me following suit on the following lap, and Simon the lap after. I came out of the pits with 1.5 seconds to spare, although re-learning to drive with grip and the fact that James had his tyres up to optimum temperature forced that gap to close dramatically. Simon emerged a second or two down on the pair of us, and I had to take over from him as Captain Defensive.
James was pushing like crazy and had a few looks, but I managed to hold him off such that Simon could catch back up. A few laps later, Simon managed to pip him into the hairpin - James' own favourite spot for having a look - and our 1-2 was reinstated.
Meanwhile, Keith was doing well in a battle with Yoeri for 5th place, while Daniel was unfortunately forced into a 2-stop due to an errant setup direction.
James didn't fall off the back of us once Simon was past; if anything he seemed to up the ante - we continued to push like mad until the line, securing a Ninecraft 1-2.
Results aren't important in these events - the experience you have in securing whatever result you end up with is what it's all about; but we scored a double win in more ways than one -
Epic battles and the results to match. I'm a very happy bunny, especially since while I've had a vast number of great races here at RD, I've only ever won one race that I can remember.
I already had the utmost respect for James having raced with him and Olly on many occasions, but last night he just reaffirmed that Fujiwara Tofu racing is a class act. Uberprops attributed.
Props also to backmarkers, some of which temporarily sacrificed their own close battles once they saw three cars wedged together coming their way; much appreciated indeed!
