Round Seven
Maple Valley
Flug RX-7
I hadn't done much setup work this week.... it's been a busy week at work and I've been playing a bit with a friend of mine who has finally picked up a 360... we've been battling over games since we were kids so I'm expecting a serious battle on Forza once he gets to grips with it... So it was about 90 mins before the race that I settled down to work on a car for the race.
With little time on the clock, I didn't want to run a premium car (Amemiya for example) but I did want something which had potential to rack up some healthy points, and as I've not driven a Mazda so far this season, the Flug was a perfect choice.
I'd got it tweaked so it was nice and stable but it wasn't going to set any records, in fact I'd only just started dipping into the 1min 25's before the race, but fingers crossed I'd pick some decent points as there was only five drivers in the division.
At the start I found myself on the back row (my preferred starting postion) and as the lights changed we charged towards the first corner.... Bismark and RacerX collided and suffered some damage, and Calloway and myself overtook them. Offbro grabbed first place and I found myself keeping up with the cars quite well (Mainly due to the damage on their cars)
Lap two and Calloway ran wide into turn one (he'd had less time than all of us setting up and got caught out.) and I took his position.... Frankly I was amazed to find myself in second and even more so when Offbro lost it on lap 8-9 and I took the lead... Sadly Offbro's car was now terminally damaged and he would retire shortly after, nice performance from his Lotus... it looked really good.
I maintained the lead for another few laps before Bismark overtook me and then had RacerX sitting on my exhaust for few laps, Bismark pulled a healthy gap out but then pitted on lap 15, that's when I had the first faint glimmer of hope that I might bag a win, as I was two stopping, against the three stops Bis was running.
Of course, for me at least, that's when I usually mess up.
And true to form, that's what happened, as we started entering the flick back turns at the top of the hill towards the final downhill plunge and right hander onto the start/finish straight I clipped a kerb and flicked the car into the wall.... sliding along the nose for a few yards and wrecking the aero front and sides and both brakes on the left side.
At that point I put my hope for a win in the glovebox, because I didn't need it anymore. From that moment I became the fat wheezy kid from the Goonies who puffs along behind the stars. Aside from a moment of drama as I barrelled down the start straight and nearly collected Calloway coming out of the pits it was a just a nice trip around the track. And on lap 45 or so, another trip across some grass damaged the engine so I trailed around with a plume of smoke until I crossed the line in 4th place, some 2000 yards behind third.
It was still a good race though, I can't argue with a healthy 4th after two crashes so now it's knuckling down for next weeks race and hopefully bag some decent points!
Next week, Road Atlanta!
I have a short attention sp.....