Well I for one are delighted to see the Alfa being competitive again. Now we just need the Tisas to find some more speed to make the grid a bit more interesting. Wall to wall Cortinas is bad for the series. From my understanding the Beemer carries a lot more weight, and the engines are already making as much power as they are capable of.
Anyway, to the important matter of the 6hrs. I wonder if the single qualifying session in the dark will be repeated next year- it was chaos!
We had a simple plan to get all 3 of us qualified and then to our booked table at the pizzeria on time. The +4 was second out onto the track, and first time past us was leading car, with a clear track in front. Red flag. A car stopped on track and it’s dark. So we’re now near the back of the queue. Green flag and all on circuit again. One lap later red flag. Another recovery needed. This time we’re lucky to be near the front of the queue. One flying lap achieved with a 3.06 putting us P1 in the class for now. Too much traffic to improve so we swap drivers and Simon does 3 safe laps, then it’s my turn. Again, 3 safe laps keeeping out of the way of some of the manic Es, Cobras at GT40s. Then on my in lap, as I’m passing the medical centre the engine dies as if out of fuel. Pull off in a safe place while switching on second pump. Engine pulls again so carefully rejoin and get to pit lane entrance. Make it down the hill to our box, where we find tank is dry! Turns out the the extra laps needed to achieve a time meant we had used more than predicted...... I’d actually put in 3 more litres than had been calculated, so very pleased that I did!
So we had to use the whole 90 minute session to each do 3 laps, which is daft. Turned out that our time was beaten by 3, with class pole (1 sec faster) taken by the brand new build Triumph SLR copy. I haven’t had a look at it but apparently the roll cage would be worthy of a modern BTCC car....
But after all that we were only 3 minutes late for our table reservation, with the pizza excellent and welcome
