Well, that was a night. :good:
The Alfa is such an unfettered delight to drive that, to get the most out of it, the tracks you're on have to be interesting, otherwise you are wasting it's potential.
I think it's safe to say, without too much fear of contradiction, that the two courses last night were the ideally suited to the Alfa's playful spirit, and the whole sum added up to a couple of hours of ridiculously good fun. I'd like to thank everyone who turned up last night for a great evening of racing.
Ahvenisto
This was a new course to me - I'd read about previous events on it, saw that there were a lot of times for it on NoGrip (lots of times means it's used a lot, so that's an empirical stamp of any-goodness right there). It looked tight on the LOD map, but once I got on it and saw the elevations, and threw the Alfa round it, up it, over it and under it, I was totally sold on it.
In both races, Sam was in a different class, but it was really tight behind him between Croucher, Amir & myself. Quallied P3 I think, I was in P2 for parts of Quali, but Croucher did a last minute gazumping by less than 0.1 sec.
In the race, we pretty much got off in order, Sam, Croucher, me, Amir - Sam started pulling away a bit, but the next three of us were pretty much nose to tail until Croucher had a moment, putting me up to second for a few laps, with Amir close behind. I think Amir will admit I was just a little bit faster (0.3 - 0.5 or so per lap) and so I built a little lead of 3 sec or so, but I switched off for a second, and a bump in a braking zone threw me off the track, allowing Amir through and putting me about 5 sec behind- this was on about lap 8 or so (I think). Well, despite losing a place, this was the best part of the race for me, as I was slowly but surely reeling Amir in, but only by the same sort of margins as above, so it was inch by agonising inch. If I was in 2nd, there would have been nothing to chase, as Sam had crossed the eveent horizon where he was out of sight, Ahvenisto havign a distinct lack of long straights for Sam to come into view.
It was both exciting and interesting, because ignoring the overall chase, I could see Amir being faster over some parts of the lap, I was faster over others, he approached some corners one way, I approached if differently, and yet the two approaches were pretty much leading to almost identical times. T1 & T2 being a prime example - I was going through them on a feathered 3rd gear from T1 entry until almost the apex of T2, where I lifted a bit on the crest to allow the rear to drift a bit, and then accelerated again once I was straight. Amir seemed to brake a bit harder going into T1, drop to 2nd, accelerate harder between T1 & T2, brake again, and then floor it in 2nd out of T2. Completely differing approaches, but virtually no differences in time.
It was literally the last tight corner onto the final S/F sweep where I properly caught Amir, but he took the correct tight line across my nose, not allowing me to creep up the inside. If it had been a genuine straight, I think I would have had the drive to beat him on the line, but as it was a curve there was no way I was getting through. I lifted a bit to avoid any last corner taps, which unsettled me a bit and sent me wide, but still was brilliant fun.
Birmingham
It's no secret I hugely rate and enjoy this track, and I totally agree with Kris, it felt faster in the Alfa than it did in the Muscle cars. The Alfa is so well balanced (Thanks again to Sam for such a stable setup) and nimble, it becomes more of a momentum circuit where keeping the pace up through the twisty bits is crucial. I've never not had fun at B'ham, but this may well be the best it's ever been. :good:
Quallied P2 and again we got off pretty much in order. I managed to keep Sam honest for a lap or two, but then he started to open out a gap, again with me, Amir & Croucher pretty tight behind. I slowly pulled away from Amir, but after a few laps I locked up into the "Corkscrew" and slid through, allowing Amir to nip into P2. Again the chase was on, but I was making quicker headway here, and had all but closed the gap within 2 or 3 laps, and some great dicing was on the cards.
Unfortunately we were denied this as Amir had a freeze, while I was right behind him, him suddenly stopping and shaking in the middle of the braking zone. I tried desperately to avoid him but had no chance, and I clipped his rear quarter - sorry mate. He immediately said "Freezed" in chat so I carried on, feeling a bit cheated that we didn't have our racing. Amir said pretty much the same afterwards too. :good: It went a bit quiet after that until I managed to accidentally drop from 5th gear to 2nd instead of 3rd (it may have been the shifter, it may have been me, so no finger pointing at the hardware
) at the downhill lefthand T1. My rears locked up and threw me across the track, allowing Croucher to get past. This was on lap 17 of 18 :doh:
.
I closed from about 3 sec down to less than a sec by the end of the race, but I'd just given myself too much to do because of my mistake.
And yet, again, it didn't really matter because I was having so much fun while doing it that the result was secondary to the fun, which is exacctly what Club events are for.
Thanks to all who turned out, I hope you had as much fun as I did.
And for those of you who saw my chat regarding my thoughts about the RDHGP League after next - Please keep it to yourselves. :wink2:
