NGT Sprint: Race 9 - Estoril
As this was my last race of the season (I'm going to miss Monza due to holiday), I really wanted to go out on a high. I've really enjoyed my rookie reason in UKGTR, the level of competition has been staggering but on few occasions I've held my own and sneaked a decent result.
I was quietly confident coming up to the race, practice had been going well and my GTank time was looking pretty healthy, and for once I was looking faster than PaulW!
Managed to break my poor run of qualifying with a time 0.5s off my best to put me on to 6th on the grid, just behind [ZiP]Tyf and ahead of truetom.
This being my last chance for points, I was unlikely to better my 8th position in the championship standings but with greg130 and picnic not too far behind, it was important to consolidate.
As the race started, [ZiP]Tyf used the power of his Bi-Turbo for a great start to beat Mike Wrightson to the 1st corner and push up to 4th as I tried to settle in. Hanging on to the back of Mike, I managed to pull away a little from truetom and even to harass Mike on the odd occasion over first 3 laps. As Mike's experience and class began to show though, I slowly lost touch but I wa pretty pleased to stay with him for the short period that I did!
[ZiP]Tyf span through the tricky chicane to allow Mike through and me to close right up. Unfortunately though, not close enough to have a real chance of a pass and soon Tyf was pulling away again slightly.
Mo, who was in 3rd, span out and retired to the pits to leave me in 5th, still not too far from the 3rd & 4th cars. This was going well.
Closing up to Tyf had cost a little bit of time which allowed truetom to catch a little, powering through the chicane, I was a fraction of a second late on the brakes and ran wide into the next left which allowed truetom through for an easy place. Dammit! I was back down to 6th.
It took me another lap to get back into the racing groove but I had a good gap on the 7th placed car so I could afford to be careful and not make a mistake.
Pushing on, with a fair gap behind truetom, I had to hope someone would make a mistake for me to capitalise. Tyf had been struggling on cold tyres and eventually he was the one to crack and left the track again and only managed to re-join after truetom and I has passed him, I was back up to 5th!
A few incident free passes of backmarkers gave me a relatively stress-free last few laps to pick up 5th and a tasty 20 points in the standings.
In the team events, we pulled a few more points out on the Kerb Crawlers to remain 4th but with neither NGTL driver at Monza, that's not looking too safe.
Just got to sit back and wait to see what happens in the last race now but very proud of our efforts in this first season.
A special mention to PaulW's podium finish at Anderstorp - definately the MVP performance of the year!
As this was my last race of the season (I'm going to miss Monza due to holiday), I really wanted to go out on a high. I've really enjoyed my rookie reason in UKGTR, the level of competition has been staggering but on few occasions I've held my own and sneaked a decent result.
I was quietly confident coming up to the race, practice had been going well and my GTank time was looking pretty healthy, and for once I was looking faster than PaulW!
Managed to break my poor run of qualifying with a time 0.5s off my best to put me on to 6th on the grid, just behind [ZiP]Tyf and ahead of truetom.
This being my last chance for points, I was unlikely to better my 8th position in the championship standings but with greg130 and picnic not too far behind, it was important to consolidate.
As the race started, [ZiP]Tyf used the power of his Bi-Turbo for a great start to beat Mike Wrightson to the 1st corner and push up to 4th as I tried to settle in. Hanging on to the back of Mike, I managed to pull away a little from truetom and even to harass Mike on the odd occasion over first 3 laps. As Mike's experience and class began to show though, I slowly lost touch but I wa pretty pleased to stay with him for the short period that I did!
[ZiP]Tyf span through the tricky chicane to allow Mike through and me to close right up. Unfortunately though, not close enough to have a real chance of a pass and soon Tyf was pulling away again slightly.
Mo, who was in 3rd, span out and retired to the pits to leave me in 5th, still not too far from the 3rd & 4th cars. This was going well.
Closing up to Tyf had cost a little bit of time which allowed truetom to catch a little, powering through the chicane, I was a fraction of a second late on the brakes and ran wide into the next left which allowed truetom through for an easy place. Dammit! I was back down to 6th.
It took me another lap to get back into the racing groove but I had a good gap on the 7th placed car so I could afford to be careful and not make a mistake.
Pushing on, with a fair gap behind truetom, I had to hope someone would make a mistake for me to capitalise. Tyf had been struggling on cold tyres and eventually he was the one to crack and left the track again and only managed to re-join after truetom and I has passed him, I was back up to 5th!
A few incident free passes of backmarkers gave me a relatively stress-free last few laps to pick up 5th and a tasty 20 points in the standings.
In the team events, we pulled a few more points out on the Kerb Crawlers to remain 4th but with neither NGTL driver at Monza, that's not looking too safe.
Just got to sit back and wait to see what happens in the last race now but very proud of our efforts in this first season.
A special mention to PaulW's podium finish at Anderstorp - definately the MVP performance of the year!
posted by popabawa at
12:01 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home