What a weekend Monaco turned out to be. Arela Grand Prix Engineering mixed elation with disappointment but left the principality on a new high, after scoring our first podium finish.
The weekend begun wonderfully for the team, with both Marco and myself able to fairly easily dial in setups which allowed for predictable handling and speed. I was particularly impressed with the new Supertech engine we are using. Its torque is far better than the Audi we used in the GPVWC. It was great to be able to have a competitive package before the setup process begun so I knew I would be rewarded for spending the time fiddling around.
At the end of Thursday free practice, I had a pretty good idea that the Grand Prix itself was not going to be the chore I had imagined. The car was a treat to drive, and while not yet sure of the opposition times, felt we could produce fast times all Grand Prix.
Saturday dawned fine and the practice session proved uneventful. The car still felt great, and I spent the time tinkering with ride height and packer adjustment. The car was a little less pushy on Saturday, and was using its rubber evenly. Small changes were not really making a great difference to tractibility or time, so I chose to save tyres and other resources and to take an early shower, confident that I had the car as good as it needed to be
I went out early in the qualifying session as it proved to be quite a warm afternoon, and I was fearful of tyre degridation in the hot conditions. Just before I went out for my first lap, one of the only clouds in the sky obscured the sun, and I felt this was the best opportunity to put in a quick lap while the track temp was a little lower.
I was able to pin a good lap and which was good enough for fifth on the grid. I did two more laps to complete a total of 12 laps, but the car was deteriorating with each lap, as the ambient and track temperature continued to rise
Marco did well also and put his Arela on 7th. His lap was only a little slower than mine, but it is near on impossible for us to compete with the likes of Jason Smith while we are using keyboards. I ran into new championship supremo Chaz Charlton when I was heading back to my motorhome, and he said that to get within 2 seconds of pole without a wheel is almost impossible at many circuits. I was nnly 1.7secs off Jason's pace which made me feel an awful lot happier!
The race in a word was uneventful! I made a good start, and slotted quickly into the 3rd place I was to hold for the whole race. Marco was unfortunate to slide off the track early in the race. It was a pretty disappointing site to come past the stricken Arela. This was Marco's first DNF all year, so I guess we all have a few of them coming. I had a run of bad luck towards the end of the GPVWC, so I guess it's Marco's turn now!
I made my first stop (I had decided to do two stops due to the heat) on lap 28, fueled up and took off again maintaining my third position. The car was wonderful for the whole race, and I have to admit to being inpressed with my effort too. Whilst I took advantage of the open saves policy and saved the game each 3 laps or so, I didn't make any mistakes until late in the race. On the entry to the chicane after the tunnel, I clipped the curb and ran wide. When I turned sharply to miss the harbour wall, I gassed up a little too much for the lock I had on and spun.
A pretty amateurish mistake really, and such was my disappointment with spoiling an almost perfect race that I chose not to restart the game, and lost almost 25 seconds. Other than that, the race really ran to plan with the second stop being also uneventful, and I ran to the flag in a strong third place, having lapped many competitors once, and some twice.
Needless to say the post race festivities were wild, with Josh Gilles wide eyed on Malibu and Coke and me completely useless having demolished the better part of a bottle of Bundy Rum. Luckily it is just a stagger or two to my Monte Carlo apartment, so I was able to get home and into bed fairly hassle free!
So now it is onto Canada. I like Canada too, although I think there will be a greater gap between digital and analogue users there, but we will have to wait to see what the weekend has in store for us. Hope to see you then!
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