This week's qualifying for totally sucked -- after dipping into the 2:09 range earlier in the week during practice, I just couldn't get it together on race night. I wasn't overly wound-up, but I just couldn't seem to find my way around. I turned a 2:10 lap in practice, then couldn't do any better than a 2:12 in qualifying.

Starting from the rear was probably a blessing, though, because the start was ugly! My qual time put me at the back of the field for the start, one spot ahead of Bill Guillame, and things in front of me were just plain crazy -- and not in a good way. With a view from the rear, things seemed to go well going through Tarzan (T1) and Gerlach (T2), but as I came up on Hugenholtz (the T3 hairpin), things got really messy. Several cars had gone wide and apparently tangled at the entrance, and other cars ahead of me were bumping and jostling each other for position going through the uphill portion of the hairpin.

I got on the binders to try to avoid everyone ahead of me but still managed to duck around a few people who had gotten caught in various mix-ups, then I had to duck way inside to avoid a couple of faster cars that came together ahead of me -- I got on the binders hard, coming to a complete stop, but still ended up tapping a car (an Alfa, I think?). The car I touched continued on with no problems, but the rest of the field sailed ahead, leaving me literaly standing still in last place.

I found first gear and got going again with the tail-end of the field still in sight, so I decided to just drive to see if I could pick anybody off.

By lap 2 I had started to close-in on a blue TR4 that I thought belonged to Bill Guillame (who was also in a TR4); we diced for a lap or two with some fairly clean side-by-side racing, then on Lap 4 I managed to get around him near the Renault/Vodaphone section when I took a slower inside line that let me duck ahead with a faster exit. I haven't watched the replay yet but I think I recall the TR4 driver drifted wide into the sand trap as I cruised on. Not long after Andrew Peeler exited the game, and looking at our lap times, I believe it was Andrew I was dicing with, because the laptimes show me closing in on Andrew on Lap 3, with Bill still about 16 seconds ahead of us when Andrew exited (and according to the timing, Bill was still about 16 seconds ahead of me when his engine blew, so I had nothing to do with that one!).

The rest of my race consisted of chasing down Bill Kaiser in his Alfa. After Andrew exited, Bill Kaiser had about a 10 second lead on me, and he stretched that out to a 13 second lead by lap 6. I finally started to find my way around the track and started closing the gap -- as in previous weeks in the Mini, I was able to get through the slow turns faster than the Alfa in front of me, but I couldn't equal the Alfa's speed on the fast straights -- in fact, at one point I got past on the last turn, but watched as Bill K's Alfa sailed past me on the start/finish straight. We ran a series of about 5 laps more or less nose-to-tail, then I was finally able to duck past on lap 17, where I remained until the end of the race.

I did have some contact early on with one of the Elite drivers (I thought at the time that it was Ray Nelson, but based on our times I don't believe it was, so I'm not sure who was involved); we came together as I ducked inside coming out of Renault and the Elite did a half-spin as a result of the contact . . . I waited and let the Elite regain its position ahead of me, so I don't think that will prompt any dispute. My apologies to whoever was in the Elite, though!

My inability to find my groove would have made Zandvoort a total grind had it not been for the terrific battle for position I had with Bill Kaiser (thanks, Bill!). Hopefully we'll be able to pull off a cleaner start next week!