Wow, what a season
.....when I think back to the early nights of testing these cars I went with my heart and tried my hero car, the Boss Mustang, but I was crap, then moved onto my 2nd favorite the late 60's Camaro and I couldn't get it to turn, so I thought I'd try the lighter 65 Pony car and wow, what a good decision that was. There's no denying that I love a car which I can steer with my right foot and the pony suited me to a T! To think, me of all people would have had such a dominant season! I simply can't imagine such a thing happening...it has happened before but that was back in 2005 when I found a Hyperstimular center in Narre Warre and did a season there with some mates, but none of them were really sim racers.....
Tonight's racing at Sebring was rather frustrating. I really struggled to put together a lap where I nailed every corner all night. I almost manage it on the practice server but still with mistakes did a 2m22.2 so I couldn't complain. Tonight I actually had a bit of a crack of making changes for qualifying as I really wanted to give Dietmar a bit of competition, but alas despite trying I was unable to nail every corner and could never live up to the delta's which kept suggesting a mid 21 was possible each time until I stuffed up a corner.....
The rolling start for race 1 stole my thunder as my greatest strength this season has been getting the pony off the line quickly and with this removed I was happy running as a shadow to Dietmar. Sadly a few laps in I ran wide in the turn 2 series of left-right-left and lost 3 seconds in one lap
Then it was just a matter of not making anymore mistakes and cruising home for 2nd in what was a very lonely race.
For the final race of the season it was great that Wally was able to fit the problem with the grid. I was able to get a great jump off line from the 3rd row and settled in behind Killa for 3rd. The next 4 or 5 laps were absolutely intense! I believe I was faster BUT Killa drove so well and positioned his car in exactly the right position every time that he made it near on impossible to make a pass. There were so many corners where I had a crack and we went side-by-side only to go from being on the inside and then to the outside and vice versa. At times it was frustrating as I watched Freezer pull out a 10 second lead, but to his credit Killa didn't make many mistakes and made it bloody hard work! Eventually Killa ran a little hot into the final corner and I was able to run a shallower line to get draft and then get to the inside for turn 1 for a pass.
Now it was time to try and run down Freezer. I'd started the race with a lot of fuel because in practice I felt it was 7 or 8 laps before I could do my fastest times, so I planned to run long and short fuelled on at the end of lap 11. As I exited the pits the live timing showed Freezer was very close and closing.....As I reached the end of the blend line we were side by side and Freezer took the lead, I tried really hard on cold tyres but couldn't get into position to try a move. For the remainder of the race I stalked and faked and tried but just like what I'd experienced with Killa, there simply was no where where I could make a clean pass and to his credit, Freezer didn't make many mistakes. Sadly (for me) the couple he did make, were in places where there wasn't enough room to make a pass. So as much as I wanted a 14th win for the season it was never going to happen, but let not get greedy!
Thank Wally for all your efforts in running this 37th season, after winning the past two season where we could choose to run Mustangs, I'm guessing it's now going to be a while before we see any Mustangs on track again
