”.
Did a decent job and went into the high 17s wish got me to 4th in the grid behind the 2 quick Ferraris (lows 17s) and the Spyker.
I was very confident for the race, I knew as a all (race strategy included) I had a pace to be able to give it a good take on the win and for sure on the podium. I sow
Garry Lennon has my main adversary and maybe those long distance runners, the
vette and the
Mosler. Sorry
Ferrari guys, did you really think a Ferrari would last 70 mins?
Ferraris are good to have in a garage to show to your buddies and girlfriends, not to race, if you race them, your bill will be very high, come-on, everyone knows that, at least I though everyone did…
In practice I knew my race pace was about high 18s and low 19s with 100L fuel inside… and that my pit-stop would only take 15 secs actually parked at the box.
Did a good start (from
4th), but the damn
pesky thing in front (a
Ferrari) decided to delay its exit from grid, so lost a place and dropped immediately to
5th. After the first few turns I was a
happy racer since I saw
Garry did a good start and went in front of both
Ferraris and was delaying them and not let them impose their
.5 second faster pace (
low 18s).
Still in the first lap, at turn 5 (
when we are back into the non gp circuit), I was touched
from behind by
Leandro Lage (vette).
In a turn, with tires still not at optimum temperature being touched from behind when braking in a Porsche is a recipe for immediate 180°. Wish I did and
that let me parked pointed backwards in the middle of the track, somehow the guys immediately following managed to avoid me, some went up, others down.
Then there was a gap and tried to remove the car from the racing line (
to the interior of the curve), when I was doing it
Rucheton’s Ferrari came, and unluckily he opted to avoid me passing by the front of the car, the result was a complete broadside and
he lost his front splitter. I’m
very sorry mate. It was a bad luck case and
I don’t like being in the processes of ruining anyone’s race.
Leandro… well, that is a close call (
regarding the golden rule of this club), we had different lines on that turn (
I enter slower and exit faster, you were about to do the contrary), it was the
1st lap of a
50 laps race for GS!
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t upset, but
what made me really upset was later when I saw
you gave up on the beginning of the lap 2! So I was going by lap
2 and
3 thinking, “
damn, that guy came here, to a 50 laps event, basically to turn me around on lap 1 and leave the server at the beginning of the 2nd lap?!”
This single event changed everything…
After a
2 mins plus
1st lap, after the things settled (
at lap 3 or 4 there was big accident in turn 1), I dropped to
11th, the car was giving
3km/h less in straight line and due to a problem in the suspension was very
tricky to do turn 2/3 sequence.
MidleAs I was capable of driving low 20s (1 sec slower than my usual pace) I decided to keep it in the track for a little longer until I cough up with Gaynall’s BMW at lap 14th (he was 8th at the time). Since he was .5 of second slower per lap and was rightfully defending his position, on lap 15 I decided to come in earlier for my pit stop (about 10 laps earlier) to do the suspension repairs and change the tires.
With this option I knew I would be running the tires 10 laps more than planed at the end of the race (I had no setup for that, too few rear wing)…
When I got back on the track the front 5 had a full lap advantage and I dropped to 9th. On lap 19th I caught up with the 5th, Rafael Barbosa’s Porsche, and since I was a full second faster (new tires and suspension repaired), I wanted to "un-lap" myself.
Rafael gave me a hard time, he defended his “position”, but I finely won the line braking into turn 1 (he touched me slightly but not much came from there).
The next in line was Peter Bártfai (the 4th at the time with a Mosler), he let me go by in the straight (thanks mate). Thankfully when I was getting to the 2nd (I’m in 8th un-lapping myself), it was time for everybody more or less start doing his “normal“ pit-stop, and the all uncomfortable "un-lapping" business finished there.
End RaceAfter everyone’s regular pit stop I was left in
4th about
30secs from
1st, more importantly to me,
5 seconds to
3rd and a gap of
14 secs to
5th (
Rafael Barbosa).
About lap
30 I caught up with
Matt Alpeter the
3rd on his
vette (
at the time I was doing my fastest laps on this event, high 19s but the car was giving 2 km/h less in straight line due to the bumps on the bodywork), we had a
very good fight, it was the high point of the event for me… he defended well, my tires were going and all the time I was praying for one mistake from him (
it’s all I need kind of spirit, come on, overdue it, come-on… ).
Well I was punished, on lap
38,
not him but me made a mistake exiting turn
7 trying to have a good run to the final turn (
turn 8 before the straight), and there my hopes of a podium finish went
MIA. I’ve to admit that the
Porsche was honest, and did a very “
Porschy” thing, the rear tires complained and I did a full 360°
Matt escaped into the distance (with a
no doubt)
Rafael’sPorsche took a big dent on my
12 sec advantage and was now about
6 seconds behind.
To the finish I went into
damage control mode as my left rear tire approached the
50% mark and maybe it is worth remarking that after the
45th lap, it was
good fun to do the last turn before the straight many times in
power slide.
