Once again, these STCC events delivered, tension, drama, and action by the bucketload, but always great fun.
I was amazed to get to race, since I spent the hour leading up to it with PC lockups and disconnections, but in official practice it suddenly came good.
Pulled my favourite Vodafone Honda out of the protective garage, but I had to be careful not to scratch the wonderful paint Jarrod had done on it, especially since he would be watching.
Qualy: I knew passing here was going to be hell, and I knew I had a good lap in me, but blew it horribly. I launched the Honda at high speed over the hump, went airborne, but when she landed, the car bounced badly and lept straight into the wall behind the sandpit, destroying the Honda. (please don't tell Jarrod :laugh2
So now it was start at the back and hope for some luck.
Race 1: Started P14, but had a good start, and quickly moved to P4 thanks to some incidents in front, but the Honda was going well too. Had a great race with Jarrod for many laps, giving him an excellent view of his handywork in his mirrors, but also had Adam sweating on my tail too. Finaly sneaked past Jarrod but had to go for the dreaded pitstop next lap. After getting some much needed training from Williams crew, my pitguys did a good job and had me out smartly. Came out into clean air, and caught Matt after he had gone off. Tried to pass him, but my tyres were screaming for mercy, so settled for P3, an unbelieveable result after starting almost last.
Race 2: This race was a comedy of errors and I had used up my luck in Race 1. Started P6, had a good start, but was pushed wider through turn 1 by Jarrod, causing me to squeeze Peter giving him little room. Sorry Peter. Exiting turn 1, I got a faint tap from Marty, which sent me waaaaay off track. Rejoined in last place, Marty had slowed to wait for me along the next straight, but unfortunately in front of Peter who was launching over the crest. Poor Peter had to take evasive action, bounced off Marty, and into Bob, resulting in Bob going off track and Peter spinning across my path. I hit Peter's Chevy hard (sorry again Peter but i had no chance) and badly damaged my Honda. From this point on, the car wouldn't steer properly and was a real handful on this tight little track. Checking the replay, I see I bumped Olly in the last turn, really sorry Olly, I had no idea we touched.
I made it to P3 before pitting, but this time I made a hash of the pitstop, not the pitcrews fault
. I mucked about trying to turn off the repairs, stopped behind another car in the pits, then couldn't find my pitbay, so forward and reversed a couple of times, before getting it right. Came out and had a nice few laps behind Olly, but he caught me by surprise by braking very early entering the chicane, so I took evasive action by diving insided and across the bend. Olly probably got a bigger fright than me, sorry Olly, but at least I missed you. To top it all off, on the second last lap, Matt had an off track excursion in front and while I was watching him and wondering what may follow, I got the wobbles over the hump and ran off track. After so much adventure, I cruised it home to finish P9.
Thanks all, very exciting racing and great to see such a good roll up, our best so far for STCC. :clap:
