It was an interesting race.
I had an problem in qualifying. Messed up my first qually run.
On my second run, Able Archer came out of the pits as I started my hotlap and blocked me. I forced my way past, then he used the Merc power to blast past on the straight and block me again. I backed off and thought I had left enough room in front, but caught him again on the next lap.
Third run I only had time for 1 lap and thankfully got in a decent one, but there was more in it.
Racing got off to a decent start and I settled in behind a bunch of Long Tails. The first few laps Seanus was poking the Merc nose up beside me but I gradually fought him off. It was looking good - I expected the Long Tails to ease away and leave me to settle into a rythum.
But ... then the Long Tails went bumping into each other and I wound up battling with ab for half a lap until he opened up the turbo and moved ahead. Unfortunately this had let Seanus catch up and he blasted past as well. Trying to get power down quickly on the straight I lost the rear SLIGHTlY, but it was enough for Phil, Freezer and Joe to cruise past.
I was heaps quicker than Joe, but there was no way past the Mazda as it just romped away on the straights. So I pitted as soon as I could fit the first stop fuel (60L) in and then got some free track and put in some decent times. I jumped Freezer in the pit stops but the Mazdas were gone since they only need a thimble of fuel at the pit stop.
After the second stop I came out behind Able Archer and was losing 2-4 seconds a lap with Freezer closing in fast. I made a mistake trying to get past the Merc and let Freezer through. Now it was his turn to get balked by the Merc
Had some nice door 2 door action but didn't get through. That's when Matthew appeared and got in the middle of the war
Then it all happened - Freezer got up the inside of Able coming onto the straight, Able got too much right foot, lost the rear and ran into Matthew. I passed Able there and Freezer had a slow entry onto the straight so I gathered him up and we went into the final turn side by side (nail biting stuff), but I had the inside, so got the best of it. Meanwhile Matthew was only just in front and had the rear step out and come back in to hit me. Lucky the hits mentioned were all very minor and no real damage done.
But here I was in free air again and showed some of the pace the Short Tail had and put in 1:57's for the last 3 laps with Matthew content to sit in behind. He blasted past on the straight on the last lap as grat had caught us up.
I think we Short Tails will just have our own little party I don't see much hope of challenging other cars at most tracks. But I don't care, I love driving this thing
PS: Looking forward to getting on the same bit of track as Freezer in future races and having some ding dong battles
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