Qualy on Saturday morning was horrible - rivers running across the course down the Craners, and particularly at the Old Hairpin where it was almost luck of the draw whether you got oversteer, understeer or just lost it altogether.....I was pushing to pass the quicker of the Dolomites and ended up going side by side round the Old Hairpin, got better traction going up to McCleans and passed him then hit the standing water as I entered Schwantz and disappeared across the grass before rejoining halfway to Coppice, way behind the Dolly again. I think very few didn't have some sort of moment......Qualified 27th out of an original 40 (although one or two had packed up when the conditions weren't improving).
Rain had eased a bit for the race, but still very tricky as you can see from the livestream (our race starts an hour into the coverage). I took over half way through and managed to keep it on the island, gradually improving my times until with a few laps to go I started catching a group of quicker cars that were bunched up trying to pass some relatively slow cars - a white 944, the Capri and the Dolomite. This let me catch up and I was able to dive down the inside of the Dolomite on the left-hander of the Esses, and was shaping up to catch the Capri when a Skyline flashed past me down the pit straight, then stood on the anchors as the Capri fell off into the kitty litter at Redgate - 2 places gained in a few hundred yards
. I was then gaining about 2-3 seconds a lap on the Porsche, closed on him through the Esses and was hoping to pass down the pit straight when I spotted the chequer, so finished 23rd, about 1.5 seconds behind the Porsche......and very relieved to have survived.....
Huge Kudos to the marshals who were performing live snatches at virtually every corner, in atrocious conditions......