With the limited practice I managed, I was ok with 2.13, as this was better than our quick laps the week prior by a second. Thought I would be in the mix.
How wrong was that assumption.
QUAL
Got a 2.13 in Qual and got 4th. 2s behind
@emmo46 , but not far from
@Tristan Jones . Was pretty happy with it.
RACE
A little birdie last week mentioned that after sitting on my bonnet for ages that I could go without TC for this race and I gave it a go during practice and didn't have any issues. I thought, lets give it a shot.
Lights go out and I sit there spinning my wheels like a madman. In an instant I realize FFS, I don't have TC on. Dropped about 3 positions on the line.
For the first 8 ish laps I'm caught in traffic and dodgem cars. I even had to redress due to a dodgem car antic that I may have caused. Sorry
@Jurassic Mark . This put me to 2nd last.
But yet again, I used my resolve to not let 3rd slip away. I'm glad it was the endro though, the extra laps proved the deciding factor.
I knuckled down and got to work to clean up my laps and make some serious progress.
Several racers in front me pitted lap 8 - 9, and I took advantage.
Through accidents or different pit strategies I managed to make my way to 5th with about half the race remaining.
I had been keeping an eye on those infront and when they had pitted to gauge their strategy.
I knew
@incey 's strat was going to be the roughly same as mine, but
@scottb721 I didn't know. I had noticed that he had pitted about 10 - 12, thus likely a 3 pit. As I was 10s behind, I was gaining and losing time not making much ground,
@scottb721 is a litle faster than me, so this was expected. However to my surprise he passed incey on about lap 30. He still hadn't pitted for his 3rd and was still only about 10s away. He finally pitted about lap 34 - 35 and I flew past him going F'Yeah!! (sorry
)
4th now. All I had was
@incey to chase down. By this point in my race I had managed to not only break my PB 3 times, but I kept my lap times to within a smidgen of each other in the 2.12.1 range. This allowed me along with a tired and slightly drunk incey to take 3rd with a couple of laps left.
What a mammoth race to go from second last and then to be sitting on the podium.
@Tristan Jones you are right in that if my start had been better, this race would have been a good one between us, but even you likely would have outclassed me as you were faster consistently.
Congrats again to
@emmo46 on his wonderful drive.
Same for
@Tristan Jones , congrats on your first podium for the season / ever?
For me, very happy to take 3rd, although my sentiment stands in that I feel I didn't earn it how I would have liked to have earned it.
Looking forward to the week off to rest and relax before the dreaded Big Willow. Who will survive the dust is any bodies guess.
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