Season 30: Specials. Round 6: Spa (16 laps) (71 Can Am cars)

Back to Spa again, this time in the 1971 Can Am monsters.  The rules forbid the top cars from being used, and also we have to do a stop and go penalty at some point.  I've gone with the Shadow (again - same car as Road Atlanta), and was reasonably confident of being competitive.  The car is very good around here, a lot of grip, but it's marginal under braking, wanting to spin around on the bumps.  I'm also being very careful under braking regarding not buzzing the engine on downshifts, which can also contribute to instability.

Axel also brought a Shadow, it's a good, bullet-fast car with a nice balance.  Greg was in the Ferrari, which is a slower car around this track.  Axel took pole position, I think I just didn't have enough heat in the tyres.  Anyway we lined up for the start.  I got an Ok start and followed Axel up through Eau Rouge.  I felt Ok behind him initially, but when we got to Stavelot it all went wrong.  I turned at the right point but the car just didn't stick, it slid across the track and thumped the bridge with the left rear.  That was that.  After a reset I set off after the field, did my stop go penalty, and just basically relaxed.  I figured my race was all over, and I turned up the music and cruised a bit.  I got past Doni and then did my compulsory stop and go out of the way, then pressed on expecting to spin off or blow the engine at any moment.

However, others starting having problems.  Axel spun off and got stuck for a bit.  Greg spun off and got stuck.  They both had to do resets, they both spun off again.  Eventually Greg damaged his car bad and had to retire just after half distance.  While trying to relax I caught up to Carlos in the M8F, and we ended up having a battle for what was the lead.  Carlos was struggling a bit but I was having a tough time behind him.  Every time I got close the car would get very darty and erratic everywhere.  It was awful.  You just can't seem to race these cars.  After a couple of laps I finally got a good run through the second part of Stavelot and was able to go around on the straight, taking the lead.  Then I could finally relax again, and drove to the finish.  Amazing, finally I got a win in this championship!!!

Mixed Mod - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	GregT (FT)		275.0	*Mixture*	50.0	50.0	43.0	50.0	50.0	32.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)		222.0	*Mixture*	43.0	43.0		43.0	43.0	50.0
3	Cookie (FT)		168.0	*Mixture*	37.0	28.0	32.0	28.0		43.0
4	Carlos Cendejas (FT)		144.0	*Mixture*		25.0	50.0	32.0		37.0
5	Doni Yourth (FT)		102.0	*Mixture*	28.0	37.0		37.0
6	AnGex (R1)		69.0	*Mixture*		32.0			37.0
7	Jani Posta (FT)		48.0	*Mixture*		23.0	25.0
8	Tom van Ostade (R1)		37.0	Lola T222			37.0
9	Walter Conn (R1)		32.0	Porsche 910	32.0
10	DLogan (FT)		28.0	Shadow MKll			28.0
	bagrupp (R1)
	Gareth (R1)
	Iestyn Davies (R1)
	Rainier (R1)
	Robert Fleurke (R1)
	Ronnie Nilsson (R1)