You'll have to trust me on this one: yesterday was a good day for Le Mans. Boy I whish you were there, that Lister was flying (literally sometimes *grin*) over the track. It began during practice where I did some laps pretty close to my personal laptime record which means that they were good laps. Simple as that. When the race began I had qualified second position and was obviously pretty pleased with that. Unfortunately my start was not that great and I lost my second place before turn one. No worries yes, I knew that I was about a second a lap faster than that guy so sometime, somehow I should be able to pass him. Patience is a virtue when racing and I have loads of it when needed, although I sometimes forget that I do and make some newbie mistake. I really hate it when that happens though usually it effects no one but myself. But this time I did remember (smart me, I know :-) and stayed right on his tail. Being faster is one thing, passing someone however is a completely different story. I have to say that it was a fair battle and he defended his line good but not wild so in a way I was having great fun. But the leader was getting away with the race and I wanted to have a shot at him too so something needed to happen. When blasting down the Mulsanne straight heading for the second chicane I decided that this was it: I was going to outbreak that Ferrari, stay on the inside and have a clear path out of there. Well part one went okay, only he was not giving up that easily (he later said he knew I was faster but too enjoyed the fight so I can't really blame him :-) and tried to shut the door on the way out of the chicane. And unfortunately that just didn't work out the way he hoped ... He just clipped my rear end and off I went, nearly keeping the Lister free from guard rail contact. He also had some trouble keeping the Ferrari in line but managed better and speeded off. Since the car was still in tact I immediately went into pursuit modes and stepped on it. Within a lap or two I was back on his tail and this time he let me by very generously, feeling a little guilty about the previous affair. Good man, I like that kind of spirit. Makes racing all the more fun if you ask me. No hard feelings att al here. But then the big chase began. The guy in front was about fifteen seconds away and I knew he was going to win the race, nothing I could do about that. Simply too much time had gone into my meet and greet with the other Ferrari on the back of the circuit. But I wasn't going to let him get away with the win that easy, no Sir. He'd better keep pushing ;-) On my first free lap chasing the guy I did a faster lap than my previous personal best. Talking about flying laps ... This was a quite amazing experience as that ex-'record' took me quite some time in achieving. And now it was done, over with, replaced with a brand new record. And during a race, no qually setups or anything, just good old me, pushing like crazy. Cool. The lap after that one had a even bigger surprise in store for me: no less than a full second faster than the lap before! I mean come on, the car is getting lighter I'm sure but a full second!? Good heavens! In the distance I began to see some dust every once and a while and when I turned onto the straight I could see brake smoke in the distance. This made me feel happy, obviously the guy in front had seen the distance decreasing fast too and he was 'pushing like crazy' as he called it afterwards. Right. I grind my teeth, straightened my back while doing the straight and prepared for another blistering lap. You're mine buddy, you better believe it ;-) The dust almost stayed in the air for the entire lap and at every chicane he was burning up his tires faster than I can write it here. Man he had a truly horrible lap. And mine was good, really really good. When we eventually came out of the Porsche curves (which I think is my favorite part of the whole track) I was right on his tail and when we crossed the start finish line there was no more than four tenths of a second between us. 'What a great battle' I said when we returned to the pits and he could only agree. He said it had been some time since he had felt that much pressure to go over the limit on Le Mans and he truly enjoyed it. It was kind of a wake up call for him. *grin* Well even though I didn't win a race I now know I could haven, it still was a cool compliment. Uncle Biek, thirty three years of age, is all of a sudden waking up people ... strange how things go sometimes, isn't it? When crossing the start / finish line after my fastest lap the clock stopped at a (for me) amazing three minute fifty seconds and nine hundred and thirteen thousands. Yes folks, that's a 03:50.913. And that's indeed pretty cool :-)