Miguel was doing well, 1:10s and had just pulled a 1:09.5. He was gaining on the 2nd place car (in our class) and in the pit we were frantically discussing the refuel strategy. My session was about to start - 90mins to go to race end. We knew a full refuel would only last us about 1hr 15mins. Miguel was pulling such good times and because we had just done a splash and dash we knew he had fuel enough to keep going for an extra 20mins.
All day there had only been 2 safety cars out. I reasoned that if no safety car comes out during my session that we would lose time doing the splash and dash necessary for me to complete the last 25mins, so I suggested we kept Miguel out an extra 15mins as not having to stop for extra fuel would give us an edge overall.
We stood at the pit wall and kept the `pit in` sign well out of his view and kept our arm movements down so as not to give Miguel the idea we wanted him to pit at the scheduled time. I suspected he wouldn't pit anyway unless we called him in as I knew, like my mum’s old Jack Russell, once he had the smell of blood in his nostrils there's no stopping him. We discussed it and agreed that if we called him in after an extra 15mins that would mean Id be starting a 1hr 15min stint with enough fuel to complete the race with no pit stops - perfect given that we knew the 2 leading cars were changing drivers every hour on the hour so they both would lose perhaps half to one lap after we changed drivers. So with our lead if I could go out and maintain a reasonable speed and not crash we would be guaranteed to be on the podium as we would have no stops.
Just as we were about to call Miguel in he entered the pit lane. Getting in the car I realised the seat was really too far forward and I adjusted it back, too far and the harnesses were all really lose. I had a job finding the straps - Miguel was assisting me a little as the others were refueling. I closed the door and continued getting the straps done but all too soon (in light of how fast we refuel now with the new cans we maybe need to look at assisting the driver strap in more) I was signaled to go. I only had one glove on, one strap was not over my HANS device, all straps lose and my balls trapped uncomfortably under one of the crotch straps...not a good way to start the race. Rounding the 1st corner and through the chicane I didn't feel right. The seat was too far back, harnesses weren’t right, only one glove (the other had dropped in the foot well and was now resting somewhere around under the clutch pedal). I felt really hot, I didn't feel comfortable at all and tried my best to get so and get up to race speed asap. Passing the start line for the 1st time in my session I was busy putting the final tightening on my harnesses, resigning myself to the facts I had to make do with only one glove and potentially never being able to father another child. Unsurprisingly I noted, once again, that the traqmate wasn’t working but I knew the first lap or two would not be at the kind of times Id want to see anyway. Unfortunately it took me far far longer than usual to get up to race speed and Id joined the race not far in front of the 2nd place car, who with my reduced initial speed managed to catch up and get in front of me passing me around my 2nd lap. At that point I had just reached a point where I was sorted, comfortable settled and up to race speed.
As I speeded up I now faced a new problem. I had allowed the now slower 2nd placed car to get in front of me. We were going around the circuit bumper to bumper. At each corner I would exit faster and be up his bum - he'd block me, he'd get the blue flag, I’d try again, he'd block me and take the corner. This was happening on every corner. After what felt like 100`s laps of this I was getting more and more frustrated. I was clearly the faster car and they were just taking the piss. The marshals at downhill hairpin and the last corner were getting increasingly and noticeably animated waving the blue flag at them. It was getting to the point they he was spending so much time blocking me that he was off the line and slowing us both down. At times I could just see the 4th place car in my rearview he was catching on us. I didn't mind just maintaining our no.3 position the guys had worked so hard to obtain and not being able to pass the 2nd place car but I sure as hell didn't want them to slow us down so much that the next car catches up and we potentially lose /have to fight to keep 3rd place. I had been flashing and flashing them on every corner and right up his bum getting increasingly aggressive to the point now that it was dangerous for both of us - it was so clear that he was far slower. Strangely I was actually quite a bit faster than him on the chicane (which I assumed was my worse corner surprisingly) and I knew I could outbreak him so decided Id set it up to take him at the downhill hairpin. I came through the chicane backing off just before it enough so I could get on line (he was driving slow off line to block me) and so get max exit speed. I succeeded and was now gaining on him down the straight. I was making it very very clear I was going for it. I was flashing high beam and hand on the horn as I’m gaining fast on him. I was on line still behind him and I stayed to the left knowing he'd try to block me if I showed my hand too early. I could see ahead of us the marshal waving yet again the blue flag at him. At the last min I modified my braking a tad swung across behind him and took the inside line. I passed before the corner tight on the inside line he was well out of my corner view behind me. I was perfectly placed, on max breaking, tight, inside line - I knew I had the corner. Then in the corner of my eye I see him go deep breaking hard then pulled right across me. I couldn’t believe it. It was a very bad move, especially for a car that’s being blue flagged at the time. I literally had a car parked seaming stationary right across me at 90 degrees completely blocking the track. I had nowhere to go; I locked the wheel up, modified the pressure and turned as much as I could into the grass. He had to break so hard to turn and block he was practically stationary across me so it was the offside front corner that made contact with him at his rear door. The contact started at his rear door and ended at his front fender.
I kept going and took the corner (in front of him) and instantly decided I would find out if the car was left in a dangerous condition the hard way. Foot to the floor I sped off and the 2nd place car slowly but surely disappeared into my rear view mirror. I didn't see the 4th place car again either so I fixed my target to catching backup with the 2nd place car again and trying to gain on the Westfield.
After another dozen or so unfettered laps I saw the Westfield ahead of me.
I gained on it, once again coming down to the downhill hairpin. Threshold breaking I felt the car snake as if I’d hit ice. The lightest of steering correction and modifying the pressure settled it but I’d lost my line and the gap opened up. The loss of control worried me as it was not due to something that was familiar to me. It was a strange sensation. Then on the downhill hairpin every time I threshold braked the car would snake increasingly violently. I concluded that something had been damaged from the impact (Turned out the steering arm was bent, making the car vastly toe out on the left side). With each lap it seemed to be getting increasingly harder to keep the car on the track under heavy breaking so I decided I had no choice but to slow the pace right down perhaps even to give up all but one lap of our lead on the 4th place car, slow enough to maintain our 3rd place position and survive the race and forget about trying for 2nd. The decision was made easier as I knew car in 2nd and 4th had just done a driver change so would be perhaps a lap down and I had gained a lap on the Westfield and regained the lost lap from the 2nd place car.
Then the 2nd place car with a new driver flew past me like I was stationary. They were truly flying.
I knew immediately I wouldn’t be able to gain on them. They obviously saved a fast driver to last. So the focus shifted to just keeping at least one lap ahead of the 4th place car.
How far behind me were they? Could I afford to slow the pace (so as not to crash) and not lose 3rd to them if they caught me up? If I was forced to slow to a snail’s pace how many laps could I give up to them without losing 3rd place? Each time I passed the pits I scanned to see if they were showing me my position, as we had discussed the importance of this info and how best to give it during the last part of the endurance race, earlier. I had one time seen Simon holding something the size of a pocket handkerchief earlier with some writing on it but too small to read and I hadn’t seen anything since. I decided I’d just try to go as fast as the brakes would allow and if I saw the 4th place car come up behind me I’d just hope we were either a sufficiently large number of laps ahead that they now (with 15mins to go) couldn’t make up enough laps to take our position. I didn’t see them again.
5 mins to go and the TMC car appears behind me. I didn't know if they were a risk to us or not but they were in our class. I didn't want to take the risk of guessing wrongly. I quickly realised that I could be faster than them on all corners but I wasn’t able to outbreak them on the downhill hairpin at all. If I even came close to threshold breaking the car would snake very violently. It was literally suicide to try to.
The only thing I could think to do was to stay ahead of them on rest of circuit as I knew I could, and...Well...block them on the downhill hairpin. And this is what I did. I did it for what turned out to be the last 8 mins of the race (the cars internal clock was wrong) with each lap the degree of breaking I could apply at the downhill was decreasing. Although I admit to blocking it was only for one corner and it was clear I was the faster car on rest of circuit so I don’t think they had too much of an issue with me or that I was doing anything wrong. I certainly wasn’t getting blue flagged even on the downhill hairpin as I was faster right up to my earlier breaking point. The situation with the 2nd place car was different.
In that case it was abundantly clear they were not the faster car.
I passed the chequered flag taking 3rd place. Happy that I didn't erode the lead that Simon, Alex and Miguel had done such a great job winning.
I was surprised to see so little damage from the contact. The Preludes a tough car.
I explained that it was losing control under breaking and Miguel took a quick look at the front brakes and informed me that they were worn very thin on one side and worn down to the metal on the offside. The car was snaking under heavy breaking because we had toe out on the left side & harder braking on the right because of metal to metal contact.
I was frankly stunned to hear we had tried to use the same pads for a 12hr race and then a 6hr race.....
3 podium places in 3 races - I’m very proud of our achievements.
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