What a way to end the season!! Having seen a few scary reports from the Emea slots I was half considering not bothering with this event after getting pit walled at sardegna a few races ago but couldn’t resist it in the end.
Practice
As always with Tokyo, it’s all about the flow. My initial practice laps were not very good and I found the Mazda to be understeering into walls left right and centre. Having slept on it, I found a lobby and just practiced 3 laps runs on softs. As the fuel came down I started to find the flow and the times really began to drop. I then did a race run on mediums and felt confident to no stop with the Mazda’s good wear rates.
I later found out the race was 15 laps not the 12 I had practiced and a little bit of panic set into my mind. I’d decided that depending where I qualify I would really coast around and save it for the final laps or go hell for leather and possibly pit for softs.
Pre race warm up went very well, I did 8 laps on mediums to remind myself the feeling of warn-ish tyres and then 8 laps on softs flat out where I hooked up a blinder with a 54.9. So far so good... but still pretty nervous for the race.
Qualifying
Plenty of new faces in this lobby and I wound up around door 15 so I was expecting a mid pack qualifying result. I was hoping to tag onto
@Razgriz2118 and bump them round as I knew slip would important here and hopefully we’d both get a boost out of it. (Also great to meet
@praiano63 for the first time on the grid too 👍). Sadly I was last out of pit lane so that idea went out of the window. 2 laps would be enough to try a slip lap and a solo lap, so I chased down a corvette and came round into a surprise p1 with a 55.4. I really wasn’t expecting to be p1 and had a few tenths in that lap so I quit back to pits to go again. I came out with a train and p4 behind me so I quit out again and went for a solo lap. I was on par with my current lap which was now sitting p3 but nailed the final sector to pull it back into p2. Good job, couldn’t have gone much better really. It would now be a tactical battle, as long as I could survive lap 1 we have a solid chance at a podium and maybe a win.
Race
Thanks to everyone who posted their lap 1 dockyard experiences because I would have been destroyed with everyone else if I hadn’t seen that.
We got off the line ok and went into t1 3 wide, luckily the outside gave it up as p1 was leaning on me pushing me wider and wider. I made sure I held the r/h lane and cut stupidly tight into the docks. Absolute chaos behind and I came out of it in p3 with a very aggressive Huracan, and Aston in front.
I’d been prewarned about the Aston driver following qualifying so I was giving them both space hoping we would gap those behind. The Lambo was really throwing it around so I knew they wouldn’t be in it for long but the Aston was fighting him instead of bumping him.
Even with this I was getting dropped on the straights and knew if I lost slip I was done. I also wanted to save my tyres knowing how long the race was going to be so I was just clinging on and trying to stay out of trouble.
It looked like the Aston had more pace than the Huracan, and I really wanted rid of the Huracan before they got desperate. I bumped the Aston past the Huracan hoping they would realise what I wanted to do. It didn’t really go to plan, the Huracan wanted to fight it out so we ended up swapping places between us but I kept on trying to get the Aston to join me.
By the end lap 3 we were at risk of being caught and the Huracan picked up a pen going side by side with the Aston round the docks. I bumped the Aston past the Huracan again, and again the Huracan sent it at the hairpin. I decided I wanted to be behind the Huracan and I’d tow the Aston away at the penalty line. The Huracan fully committed round the docks. I struggling to match them and the Aston dropped a few tenths with a mistake. The Huracan served the pen and I whipped round the outside instantly braking slipstream on exit with the pair of them side by side up the hill.
Now was the time to go full Ham, if they catch the tow I’m stuck with them for the duration but if they fight I can escape and will worry about the final laps later on.
I don’t know why but they decided to battle round the hairpin and now I was pushing 100% I gapped them through the final sector.
The following lap there was a change and an Argentine jumped into p2 in a supra. I was only 2s ahead and they were pushing hard and seemed to have dropped the pair that were still battling. I really didn’t want this Supra catching the tow but the gap was coming down although they would graze the wall occasionally costing them vital time, saving my lead and sanity. I knew I would have better tyre wear than the Supra so I was still going ham and rattled of 2 57 flats. This was faster than my on race run of 12 laps practice so I was a little worried about tyre wear but I didn’t see what choice I had.
The Supra then sets FL with a 56.8 and brings the gap down to 1s as we go round for the 8th time. I tag the wall out of the critical turn 4 and the slip is at risk. The supra pulls 0.2 on me down the straights, and it’s only the final sector saving me at this point. I’m tempted to back off, save tyres and see if we can dual this Supra to the end. We arrive at the hairpin, the gap is now under 7tenths and I see the M symbol pop up next to their name. They pitted?? No??? Surely not??? Damn they have as well, holy smokes I’ve been busting my nut and they’re on a 1 stop!! The relief at that moment was something and with an 8+ second lead to p2 (and the pair still fighting) I was clean away.
I would keep an eye on the 1 stopper, who was now out of the top 8, and maintain my race. I managed to run 57s until around lap 11, a couple 58s and a 59 on the final lap. A really strong pace and as good as a perfect race I could have hoped for.
Not battling really helped but the Mazda vgt is very good right now. I will probably go with Chevrolet next season but I will definitely be using the Mazda more often for Gr3 races in future.
Seems like there has been more success in the Americas than in other regions for this round, congrats to everyone who got a good result in a lottery of a race.
I managed to move up to p8. I had a run on an Argentinian in p7 coming out of the last curve. But, just as I went to pass him, he swerved and blocked me. So, finished p8. Jerk move by that guy.
