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Gav's report... **full
results here**
Thur 5/6
Final preparations complete and our regular driver
incapacitated it was left up to Tim our chief cook and bottle washer
to pilot the Seager transporter with Poodles as co-pilot.
No one was looking forward to this one as we never
had a very good time here last year, the track is very tight and
overtaking difficult. We thought at best 2 top six finishes would
suffice and thought as long as our closest rivals did not have an
outstanding weekend we may just arrive back home with the the championship
lead still intact.
Poodles and Tim set off at 8.00 pm 2 hours later
than expected usual last minute dot com Poodles
thing and promptly missed their allocated ferry
crossing, a later one was caught and they duly arrived as expected
on Thursday morning with plenty of time to prepare as no plans had
been made to take part in Friday practice.
Friday 6/6
Hollie's birthday hence no practice - spent day
off work visiting relations and getting ready
for the trip, left home at around 4.00 pm for the airport my trusty
apprentice dropping us at the terminal. What happened next could
have been a major disaster in terms of potential championship points
gained - after we had boarded our plane and began settling down
Hollie and I heard our names called out on the aircraft pa system,
following instructions we made our way to the front of the plane
to be told we were in fact on a flight to Spain!! - Major crisis
ensued now as we rushed to catch our proper flight about to depart
at same time...
We arrived at the boarding gate only to be met by
a very helpful gentleman (not) whom advised
the flight had departed and could not help, he was however wrong
and after we had made further enquiries with someone else were directed
to the correct gate...Needless to say after we settled on the correct
plane and after much debate we agreed it was my fault and decided
to leave it at that. Rest of the day went to plan, quick pop up
to the track and check on the boys to make sure all in order and
we had an early night ready for practice on Saturday.
Saturday 7/6
Set the alarm so up 7.00 am and out by 7.30 to pick
dad up from the airport arriving at track for around round 8.45
so relatively trouble free day! Tim had breakfast sorted then time
for a chat with the team to decide on strategy for practice.
As Poodles had put on a radically different set
up to that we had used last year there were a couple of things we
wanted to be monitoring which may or may not require fine tuning
mid session, as it turned out the session was stopped temporarily
however we made no changes as I told the boys it felt really good
and went out to finish the session, the car just seemed to feel
better with every lap and sure enough this was reflected in the
official times us being quicker to 2nd place Nic by some .4 of a
second with another second covering the next 9 places - everything
looking good...
Race one and we were well down the order on the
grid with Phil a couple of rows ahead and Richard just in front.
The pace car peeled off and everyone made a clean getaway - no issues
through the first two corners got my head down and set about picking
off one or two cars ...by the end of lap one we had taken 6 or 7
cars and were making steady progress with the car feeling like it
was on rails, another 3 or 4 laps and I saw an opportunity to have
Nic on the last corner, feinted up the inside which he covered than
beat him on the drag up pit straight. Next lap saw a chance to have
Dancey round the outside in the corner after the back straight-
I dont know who was more surprised Steve, myself or dad in the stands
with his hands over his eyes, anyway made it stick and set about
keeping my rythym till the finish - to the teams and my surprise
a win in the bag no one had anticipated all with 20 kilos overweight
as a safety measure following some rather strange readings on the
Irish scales, fastest lap.
Sunday 8/6
After a fairly steady evening following a round
of golf with the Carr team and a really good
nights sleep we arrived at the track with Crew chief Poodles hopping
about to finish readying the car for practice but alas some one
had for forgot him we were not going out, he was not best pleased
failing to look anyone in the eye for about the next hour or so
!!
For practice it was nice to watch the others in
action from the sidelines which enabled some
accurate lap analysis on one of the suite monitors where we had
been invited to watch - the circuit system downloading every lap.....It
soon became apparent that Paul Saunders was on it consistently popping
in laps in the 1.01's meaning off the front he would be hard to
catch, Wilkie and Phil also looked good which did not bode well
with Phil in third place in the championship...the wily fox had
found a complete second on his Saturday time !
Following a pre race brief and a few minor tweaks
by Poodles to account for the change in weather conditions we were
ready to go at our correct race weight.
Race two saw the pace car pull off and little or
no incident through turns one and two clearly
I had a job on my hands this time, Saunders already way off ahead
and Dales voice in my head saying 'big picture racing make sure
you finish'.... Any way no radios so soon forgot Dale and set about
the task in hand, picked off one or two fairly early and started
to make progress with one or two dropping out this time for various
reasons but none the less progress was still difficult. Managed
to make second after 7 laps following a similar move on Steve -
again on the same corner, he was clearly out of sorts and struggling
for pace this weekend a very rare occurrence....By now Saunders
was some 9 seconds up the road and following his practice consistency
would be difficult to catch however 5 points
is 5 points so thought I would give it a go.
To start with we did not seem to be making much
impression so thought Poodles was winding
me up with the pit board in the hope of slowing me down but all
of a sudden the time difference started tumbling by about .8 seconds
per lap tight but thought I may just be able to do it if I persist.
Unknown to me was the fact that Paul was having probs with his second
gear meaning on some corners he was steering with one hand....anyway
this was obviously taking the edge off his drive and allowing me
to catch up and sure enough with one lap to go he made a mistake
which allowed me through.....almost did not want to go but he would
not have thanked me for letting him win so I took the chequered
flag for a second win, second fastest lap and a new lap record,
poodles was forgiven for being grumpy.
Well done Paul Saunders..
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