Great event, well done Mr.B.
Race 1, qualified 6th and got an OK start, for once. Managed to pick up one place but lose out to someone else into T1 so no net gain. I was managing to hold on to the back of Michal for the early laps and with a couple of the guys ahead having traction trouble through T1 I was up to fourth.
Then Tim, who'd been one of the fastest throughout practice and been one of the front runners to have a moment inT1 was looming large in my mirrors. Had a good few laps trying to hold him off and was doing alright until the pressure told. I got on the throttle a little early and a little hard at Redman and thus began a lapus horibilis.
Annoyed with my mistake I over-drove the next lap and managed to spin the car a couple more times and was now languishing in 6th. Late in the race I started to catch Terry as his tyres went off and I could see him struggling for grip. Alas I ran out of laps and as we ran to the flag there were just hundredths between us. Cracking race nonetheless, was most enjoyable trying to hold of Tim and then later hunting Terry down.
Race 2 saw me start from third and off the line was quickly up to second by T1 and almost pulled off a move around the outside to take the lead. I closed right up on P1 into Attwood but I had to lift to avoid a collision so I tucked in for the straight and planned a move into t'hairpin. Erik took a defensive line very early so I just lined my self up on the racing line to see if I could go the long way around and sure enough he locked up and got a bit sideways on entry whilst I swooped around the outside. Was a cool move and brought a big grin to my face
.
It was apparent that something had happened to the faster guys just after the hairpin and I was building up a nice gap over the next couple of laps until Michal started to reel me in. It was an interesting battle with me quicker through S1, him quicker through S2 and early S3 and the advantage swinging back to me for run out of Hobbs and onto the start/finish straight. The gap was staying quite constant at around 2 secs with both of us making minor mistakes here and there that closed it up and widened it again.
Then at just over half distance I hooked a wheel over the curb exiting Hobbs and turned into Mike Knight corner (2nd last) with the rear left on the grass and the penduluum effect took over. Michal streaked by and though I managed to get it pointing int he right direction fairly quickly the damage was done. I closed to within a couple of seconds of Michal but now the boot was on the other foot and whilst I made progress through the end of S3 all the way up to t'hairpin. Michal pulled away through the twisty bits. As the race drew to a close I again started to get closer as the tyre wear kicked in but again it was a case of not enough laps and I finished just over a second behind Michal.
Congratulations to both winners and everyone else for that matter as through what I heard on TS it was a cracking race throughout the field. I echo Martin's comments about a league in these cars, that would be great.
Thanks to Tim for the pressure which nearly made my blood pressure go through the roof and to Michal for a very interesting battle.
Cheers for the organisation Dave, good to see the server behaved itself too.
