First Race, AlbertPark, Melbourne. 29 Laps

Qualify.
I came early in the qualify to my pitbox, just to receive long phone call which I had to talk thru. After this 35 minute delay, I had 26 minutes left to make my lap. I had setup which I was happy with made in pre-practice, so I loaded it up and went to the track. First fast lap was 2:18, which was okay as I knew tyres needing time to heat up. Second one I had too much overtrying, so it was a bit slower, but in third I did my personal best 2:16.165, which I was happy with and left me about 6 minutes to prepare for the start. My estimates about pole times were way off, so I was much more further in the grid, in 27th position, than I originally expected but as I did my Personal best, it really did not matter.




Race.
In race start, I lost few places due missing friction. Yet, I knew that as long as pack would stay togerther, I would outbrake quite few bigger cars in corners. First half of the first lap went well, took few places and had real battle with Matra in his 2.8 liter Commodore. Unfortunately, when the race is close, things do happen and
I had small scrub with Matra on the near end of the long straight. That caused Mini to lose some of the it's stopping power and I ran out of space. Probably Clemens in his Alfa did not even see me, being behind Matra's Opel and I ended giving him a small push. Clemens spinned and we both rolled out of track. And that calls for waiting to Clemens get his Alfa back on speed. After the incident, I was in 32nd position.


Suprisingly I found rythm pretty soon and started to climb in results. did few overtakes and witnessed few very wild spins and I was lucky not to hit anyone spinning around. In lap 11 I settled a bit and started to shortshifting to make sure that I would not need to pit before lap 15.

I watched the front tyres and made decision to change front tyres during pit. That eventually paid off as I noticed after race that I catched up some front runners in second stint.


After pitstop I had problems with my braking foot, which started to cramp. Obiouvsly my long break from endureance had it's toll. Nevertheless, even though Clemens did overtake me and I was racing much of the time alone, I still enjoyed it. Few laps before finish i was racing at 21st,
I noticed that I was catching fast Seniordan, so I started to push. When last lap started, I knew it would be close call. four corners before finish I saw him cleary, but knew that I could not overtake him, unless something unexpected would happen and it did. when we came to pit entry, Seniordan went to pits, opening me door to take 20th position.

It was good way to end first race by taking one position up in last corner. :) As result, placed 20th, scoring 9 points, which is a good start and way to continue to Sepang in next week.

But before that, Mini will release few additional parts to the car, which do not effect to performance directly, but will help here and there: Much wanted starter is added (so if stalled, car can be started without pushstart.) and revlimit will get adjustable. (revlimit will stay the same by default, but it can be lowered to make setup more flexible.)

Time to get the new parts to the car and call for relax few days before starting to practice for Sepang. :)