Was feeling quite relaxed this morning, even sat in the sun for a short while reading a book! Then all of a sudden I remembered that Mike's race was going off before mine, and I'd promised to do the pitwall for him! I got into the circuit just as he was heading for the assembly area, but there was plenty of time. He was running his Morgan +4 in the 50minute 'Gentleman Drivers' race, and he had to include a 1 minute pitstop between 15 & 35 minutes through the race. When he did come in, although he was beneath the pitlane speed limit, he still did a great lairy full brake lock-up and skidded to a stop! He had a good race, and was rewarded with a trophy for second in his class, well done Mike!
As usual plenty of pre-race nerves for me, especially concerned about the first corner, as the very wide straight feeds into a fiddly Z bend, which is very tight, with the braking zone downhill it is very easy to lock-up the brakes and overshoot, on lap one in a tight gaggle of cars this could be an issue! As it happened, whilst it was all a bit of a squeeze we all got through without any contact, but there was some shuffling of places!
Andrew Tart in the front wheel drive Bond had not been here before which explains why he was behind me on the grid, as he is usually faster - he duly came by me, as did Steve Futter, with whom I've had some close racing with in the past, although typically he's quicker than me in his Class D Lotus but here I'd out qualified him by a whisker, but he beat me into turn one, then got squeezed himself, which blocked me and allowed Luc Deneve to go right round the outside of us both in Turn 2! Kim also ran wide at turn two and slotted in behind me...
After lap one things settled down a bit, I got back past Luc, and was holding off Kim, whilst ahead of me Andrew Tart was trying to find a way around Steve Futter. Then Kim disappeared from my mirrors, leaving me in Class P2. I found out later that he'd spun, and subsequently did so a second time later!
Pleased to say that my car was still going really well as it has all weekend. I'm gaining in confidence too, as evidenced by staying with Steve and Andrew who are normally quicker than me. Towards the end of the race Andrew finally found a way past Steve, and so did I under braking for the bottom hairpin on the last lap.
Very pleased to finish second in class today, and for the car to be going so well again. John Delane won the class as anticipated, Andrew Tart won class B - so were these results to be repeated after tomorrow's race then the 3 of us would leave here tied on points! There's the small matter of another 25 minutes of racing before we can count any chickens though!
At the front there was a great race between David Methley and Michael Hibberd, who were very close together when they lapped me on the penultimate lap. No-one else lapped me at all, so they clearly outpaced all others. Class D was won by Ivo Geockmann in the Jolus, Class A by Daniele Salodini in the Taraschi.
We have a dinner organised tonight down in a local village, several of us are cycling, apparently it's downhill all the way ... Having run around here yesterday afternoon I well know that means it'll be uphill all the way home after dinner! Best not overindulge then ...!
Sent from my
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