2021 FIA Series Race Discussion

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Pathetic track, dreadful race, made dreadfuller by a French chap in a Scirocco who simply could not drive near other cars (and then tried a full-bore T1 dive bomb near the end, then called me dirty in chat afterwards) and another French chap in a Smegane who crashed out of wherever he was higher up and then just attempted to drive through anyone in front of him to get to his rightful position.

I also got a 0.5s track limits penalty after the Scirocco pushed me sideways off the right-hand curve up to the final corner.
 
OK need a good result to catch up a bit to @OJBrit (think he cheated)
Prove it I dare ya!

Due to evening commitments I was left with slot 5 or nuthin. In hindsight I could have gone for the 2nd slot also but I wasn't to know beforehand.
Mucked up my initial laps in qualy but got something reasonable together for 10th on the grid. Damn the Megane launches like a scalded cat. Up to 6th by turn 2. This is where the race goes to pot. Coming into the last long right hander on lap 2 everyone brakes a little early which leaves me to hit a poor Croatian wide. 2 seconds for my trouble. Fair enough. I serve it and loose a few positions but still in a good place. I make up 1 or 2 thanks to others going wide. I am behind the Croatian again. Into the last right they brake early again and also move in the braking zone right across me, which means I hit them again. 2 more seconds to me. Later I notice one of the arrow boards in broken on the grass into the last right hander. Is it the 1st one flung ahead or the last one (my actual brake marker) lying where it once stood. It was probably the latter and I get my braking wrong and run wide. Back wheel is able to sniff the grass and round my car goes. Of course facing the wrong way and lackadaisical in getting back around. DFL with 6 or so laps to run. Luckily I am right on the guys ahead. In the closing laps others have trouble granting me places. I come across another Brit in a VW. He is braking on the left hander after the hairpin. This catches me out first of all but allows me around the outside the next lap. I fend off their effort to grass me. Of course their superior straight line speed gets them back past into turn 1 but I get an undercut. I hold it alongside into turn 2 and the predictable happens. He skates off into the gravel and I get past him and another recovering. The two VW's ahead are battling and again predictably tangle into the last right allowing me up the inside into 13th where I finish.
So 10th to 6th to 20th to 13th. Could have been a lot lot better, but cannot go again. Oh well. Still got 50 points.
 
Hadn't considered doing Nations this week as I don't usually get on well with the full Autopolis circuit, but seeing a YouTube streamer get some decent pace in the WRX convinced me it was worth a shot. Turns out that I had found some speed on the 'Shortcut' layout in practice and the Scooby is a rocket off the grid even on TC 0. So, another outing for one of my rocket pink Gr.4 machines.

18:20 Nations

Met @watto79 in what was mostly an Alfa and Trophy show. I was the only WRX on the grid, but had backup in the 4WD camp courtesy of two Lancer Evos. Botched my first lap before it even started by cutting the final chicane, then reset to the pit lane as soon as everyone else was starting to set their initial times. Set a 1:11.803 which was well within the best I managed in test lobbies, but only good enough for 17th. Watto and the other two Alfas locked out the podium.

Things were already frustrating enough at this point, especially since I was looking to use this round as a way of getting another top 10 finish and potentially wrapping up this leg of Nations. I gained three positions before Turn 1 thanks to my start off the grid, but couldn't do much else as I was boxed in and came under fire from the Trophies right behind. When I did get a run on the blue and black Trophy at the end of Lap 2, I was forced out to the pit wall and had to let the Scirocco behind take the inside through Turn 1. One of the Spanish Trophies tags me as I commit to the line through Turn 4; battling him might have cost me a genuine chance of fighting for 10th. Lost another place on Lap 7 to a Greek Trophy divebombing at Turn 6, having pressured his Spanish and French companions a little earlier. Thought there was another chance to grab more places when I noticed I was gaining on a train of cars sitting 8th-14th (lead by the Scirocco) with two laps remaining. The only one I did gain, however, was from the Greek driver quitting after getting rammed into one of the Evos by the blue and black Trophy. Pressured two of the other Trophies a little more towards the end, but couldn't get further than 14th.

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If you had seen the rear of my car by the time I crossed the line, you wouldn't have guessed that I would pick up that 'Clean Race' bonus. A scrappy and mostly average race whose only real benefit was to release some pent-up feelings I had been experiencing going into this combo.

19:40 Nations
With not much else to lose, I joined the 19:40 slot for a second go in the WRX, seeing a number of familiar faces from the 18:20. No major dramas or mistakes in qualifying this time, with a 1:11.676 set on my opener while slipstreaming one of the Trophies. Followed up with a 1:11.507 to start 8th on the grid.

Another rocket start, but not one I could take advantage of as I went to the outside of the Russian Trophy so that it didn't disrupt my momentum. On the inside behind me was the rough Spanish Trophy from earlier who duly hung me out to dry at Turn 1. I also realised while negotiating through Turns 3-4 that I forgot to change brake balance from -1 to +5, though it didn't seem to affect my tyre wear too much. German Trophy pushes me wide through Turn 6, adding a little more pressure as I try to stay within range of the cars in front. Almost passed the Spanish Trophy on the run to Turn 3, but lost out big time after having to leave enough room for the Alfa in 6th to take his line. Weathered off attacks from another Greek Trophy before he got rammed and the pack behind got checked up. On Lap 7, the German Trophy almost loses it completely after touching the grass on the outside of Turn 1. Spent the next lap pressuring and passing him up the inside as cleanly as I can, only to be rewarded by a couple of what I later found out were latency-induced bumps. Was defending hard and on course to maintain 8th until the final lap when I messed up my braking into Turn 1. This was especially annoying as it made the WRX easy pickings for both the French and German Trophies to pass, but with the Greek car having lost it at the same spot there was no one else close enough to add further pressure. 10th place for the Scooby.

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Definitely need to find a couple of new rear bumpers after this, but that didn't end too badly considering this is the first time I've ever driven on the Autopolis 'Shortcut Course'. The grid start and both hairpins played very well to the WRX's strengths, while tyre wear wasn't as bad on brake balance +5 as I had expected. Total race times were not far off the best I had set in test lobbies yesterday, with lap times mostly in the 1:12 range, occasionally verging towards the high-1:11s. There is a possibility I might do the Gr.2 Fuji and/or Gr.3 Nurburgring GP rounds later on to build up a head start for Season 2, but for now those top 10 finishes should be enough to carry a decent score through to the end of the first stage.
 
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Well.. two last slots in Nations this evening. The first there where a Russian " Gentleman" that passed me by nudging me wide from the inside, twice. Then I watched he'd him do the same to a Spaniard ahead.
So in the final corner I decided to give him a dose of his own medicine and ran him wide and off.
He went totally ballistic, chased me down the straight and ran me out in the gravel in T1 then he quit. He had a SR E after the race. I didn't know you could end up there...
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This was my result after the race. I wasn't really happy so went against better judgement for the last slot.

And it was like being in one of those John Wayne western bar fights ...
I am going to show a video when I have edited in the morning....
Let me just say, there was more than one dirty driver. The worst of them ran me off as a retaliation for a crime he thoug6I committed. Just plain pit manouvered me off on the back straight.
I passed him later so something must have passed...
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I should probably have let the last slot run without me but hey, you never know when you get a good race.
And the points makes no difference
 
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Started last. Finished last. Not my combo, I guess. Using the Megane, but well off the pace. Season low 54 points and lost a cool 1200 DR. Might go again.

Try the Alfa.

As for my race.



Unless I finished P2, it was a non meaningful points race. Guess how it went? Though, a lot of fun with @C_Raccoon23 (where we had a good fight as his 86 was just painfully not OP).

Just the start shows how this race went.



Raccoon, how close where you to that VW coming back on track and taking that guy out? Deserving of the lashing he got post race.
 
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The slow DR repair continues...

I almost went for the Lancer this race but @Mistah_MCA's race guide convinced me otherwise. Good decision. With enough practice last night, I found some consistency with the Slophy and eventually even beat my lap time with the Lancer. I did a practice race this afternoon and it indeed did confirm that the tires for just about every car that isn't a Slophy start to fall off at the end of the race.

Slot 1, I get out and immediately set provisional pole with my first flying lap. Hurray for low DR! I'm not able to better it, though. Eventually another Slophy bests me, then a Sirocco takes pole on the last lap. I start P3.

Right away, the other Slophy and I jump off the line and leap in front of the Sirocco. He does indeed have better pace than either of us, though; overtaking me on the straight going into L2 and then the other Slophy around L3 or 4. We settle in, create some distance between ourselves and pull away from everyone else. It was pretty straightforward and boring for most of the race up until around L9 or 10 when the Slophy in P2 almost loses it after the left-hander going into the back straight. I overtake him, then pull away even further as he's real slow getting through T1. I start wondering if he set his BB wrong or something and is suffering from some tire wear he shouldn't be having and stop actually thinking about the track ahead of me. *Boom!* I do the exact same thing he did, in the exact same spot he did and he gets P2 back.

All the while, the Sirocco in P1 is starting to pull away. P2 keeps on defending in front of me and I want to scream at him to stop it - I don't want to fight with you, I want to work to catch the stupid VW that should be falling back to us right now. We never do chase down the VW and I resign myself to a distant third when the Sirocco bins it in the final turn. He corrects it and unghosts just as we're coming through. The Slophy ahead of me gets around him but I can't make it happen and finish basically kissing his back bumper. P3 it is.

I'm good for this race but my DR is still hurting hard. I'm tempted to take this account out into a daily race or two just to see if I can build my DR back up to some sort of respectability. But then again, it is nice to be one of the fast people in the room for a change....

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Nations race at Autopolis, Door # 13, Q'd 11th and finished 5th in the Mustang. Gained a bunch of positions on lap 1 with people having offs and a number of 2 second penalties. Settled into 8th and just trying to maintain my position following a group fighting amongst themselves. Had a close and clean fight with a VW for the whole race. Made up a few more positions with people having offs to finish 5th. Totally satisfied with this race as I didn't expect to be in the top 10 at the finish.
 
Honest to god, I can't get a break, even when I have a good race, it gets tanked.

I ran 1:11.4 and a lot of others right near that in FP, so I was feeling ok about my pace at this track, which I kind of like, as weird as it is.

My qualifying lap was impeded by a complete idiot who pulled directly out of the pits onto the racing line, and we all know that 80% of the lap at Autopolis is in Turn 1... then he parked it on the racing line FOR THE WHOLE OUTLAP. WTH??!? complete idiot. He punted my on Lap 2 then, to add insult to injury. I lost P2 by 0.044, and P1 by 0.152, so do the math... I was likely to have P2 for sure, if not P1. But was happy to have P3, in the TT, all things considered.

THEN in the race... the guy directly in front of me in P1... he DOESN'T MOVE when the lights go out!!! WTH?!? He ghosts, I move left to get past him, already worried because I knew all the Megane Trophies are gonna swamp me anyway, but he ghosts, so I ease a bit... only to have him UNGHOST as I am nearly on his bumper... nothing I could do but accept the carnage. I get passed by a bunch of cars, now, and then I get a penalty for "hitting" him. SO UNFAIR.

And in the ensuing carnage in T1, which now is hard to blame on just anyone, after that cluster----. And while some guy or two go off the track in T1, there's a three-wide mess and I think I get another 1 sec penalty for that. Just wonderful.

So after serving that penalty, I think I fall to P8, and from there, I'm swamped entirely by all those Trophies, and have to use up my tires to defend any respectable position I might salvage from this disaster of an opportunity. HEre's the nice punchline: the guy who messed up the whole thing at the start, my race in particular: he WON the race. So unfair.

I'm so sick of the garbage in these lobbies lately. This particular cluster of DR A drivers at 35k-40k and the first slot have been a nightmare of sorts, it seems it's always something new and alway screws up my race. I should not have started in P3, I should not have been ruined at the start, and I would like to have had a fighting chance in the TT, if I was able to run up front a bit before the tires wore off. But as it went, I had little chance of any other outcome, as the TT isn't suited to fighting mid-pack in this combo.

Finished 10th, where a finish of 5th. or 7th would have been more likely under fair circumstances, and would have met my FIA points target for this round.

I did earn FIA points that may come into play still at the end, and I effectively was a net 0 on DR, with door #1 on the Audi. But I was SR down, thanks to the BS at the start. Thankfully still in the 90-99 top bin, so no damage other than a lost CRB and starting the next race on the threshold of the lower bin S rating.

Nice to race with @afc5150 though we never saw each other during the race. Suspect he'll run it again. If I ran it again, I may try the Alfa, though it's more a Megane Trophy Cup event, so that may be a mistake too.

FIA points: 111

 
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Torrid evening. Missed the first slot because I forgot about the Nations/Manu swap. Went with the Mustang because I realised it's the only Gr.4 car I've never driven in any FIA race after 3 years. It doesn't suit this track being a power car, but whatever, I'm always up for a challenge. Quali 15th, not too bad. Launched much better than the Scirocco/Megane/Alfas that populated my race and was up to 11th after T1 thanks to the usual first corner melee.

Unfortunately, the same driver that ruined my Super Formula race a few weeks back was in the race. On lap 2, heading into T2 I was side by side with a Cayman. He was behind both of us and did a last second dive up the inside. Both me and the Cayman went off to Narnia. He only got a 1 sec penalty :lol: That was the end of the race basically. I recovered back up to 17th and he was only 2 seconds ahead so obviously he kept driving like a tool the whole race. I lost 2000 DR and dropped back to DR A.

PM'd him again after the race calmly, he denied any wrongdoing and basically said that he was victimised and blocked me. I'm at a loss for words :lol:

Anyway, I'm screwed now because I'll end up in a lower split at Tokyo for the Manu race. It's going to be complete c-a-r-n-a-g-e :nervous:
 
Nations Cup R6 at Autopolis Short, using the Renault Megane Trophy.

CSA Slot 3, a complete mess. Was pushed wide, divebombed several times and even spun around. Recovered from last to P11 at the finish.

CSA Slot 4, managed a decent lap in qualy, 12.0, with (almost) no slipstream (other than for a few metres). In the race, started from P6 and climbed a position at the start, then up to P4 as another guy made a mistake. A Brazilian in a Scirocco went move for a move, I decided to let him go and tuck into his slipstream since we both recovered from the back together in the previous race, and I knew he had good pace. The FFs are really good on fresh tyres, my idea was that he would hopefully take me to the leaders and then fight him towards the end.

Unfortunately, another Brazilian ahead of us made a mistake in a WRX and was just ahead of me going into T1. I had to back off to avoid an incident, but got pushed wide by a Guatemalan in the process. Didn't lose too much time, but he didn't give the position back and caused me to lose the slipstream to the guys ahead.

Down in P6, I unfortunately just didn't manage to get back to the slipstream ahead, was really close from lap 5 to the end of the race, but never quite managed to get in. And to make things worse, I started to get under attack from his Guatemalan team-mate, who was on my slip. I defended well until the final lap, when he made me go a little bit too narrow and we ended up going side by side into the final corner. I had to leave him space and he won the drag race to the line by 0.028s. :(

P7 in the end. Points weren't good but that's it for me today. While Autopolis isn't a track I like, I have to admit the combo was quite fun. I actually prefer this shorter version of the track compared to the full one.

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Race Report:

20:00 Americas C/S Lobby. Qualified 9th, Game crashed in turn 3 and Disconnect.

21:20 Americas C/S Lobby Qualified 7th, sent it down the inside only to come up on the pole sitter who slammed his brakes unexpectedly, i swerve, take myself out and I'm in 17th. Worked my way back up to 8th/9th only to go for a move I shouldn't have and beach it in the final turn, finished 11th.

I'm down -3400 DR on the week (two disconnects and one very bad race) .... so whats one more race?!? :lol::lol::lol::banghead:

22:40 Americas. C/D/S Lobby. Because I'M a glutton for punishment. Moved from my usual race music (Tranceport 2 mixed by Dave Ralph) to the Burnout 3 soundtrack.

..... Which was a terrible idea. Q11, P9. Slowest race of the night. DR back above 5000.
 
Nations - Autopolis Short Gr.4

Race 1 was a total trainwreck. I got tapped off turn 1 by Mr. Scrappy from the Mini race, sending me to the back. Then a Korean wiped me out at turn 1 too despite me leaving the inside wide open, which really ticked me off. He apologised, but I was no mood to accept apologies after getting punted off twice in a row. Finished 19th after someone wiped out Mr. Scrappy at the line.

Race 2

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I spent the downtime between slots studying my compatriot's lap from Race 1 to work out where I was losing time. With this knowledge, I put together a much better qualifying lap to start 4th. Of course, I promptly got shoved wide amidst the mayhem of turn 1, briefly dropping to 10th before climbing back up and getting involved in a three-way fight for 4th between me, an Audi that was the polesitter, and an Indonesian BMW that had barged his way up from the back.

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Mr. Scrappy in the VW and the Indonesian BMW shoving past me in the chaos of the opening laps.


On lap 5, I had to take evasive action while braking into the final corner to avoid running into the back of the Audi. Unfortunately for me, the BMW behind braked too late and sent me into the gravel. Needless to say, I was frothing at the mouth with rage at getting punted off for the third time that night.
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The punt sent me down to 8th right behind the VW of one Mr. Scrappy and just ahead of the other midfielders. The BMW's 2 second penalty for sending me off meant that he fell into range of Mr. Scrappy, me and the other midfielders. Heading into turn 1, the BMW ran into the VW, sending the latter wide. I concertinaed into the BMW in turn, allowing the BMW to scrape past the VW for 6th.

To recap my situation on lap 7, I was down in 8th behind two drivers that had already punted me off once each. I also had a Subaru crawling all over my rear bumper heading into Sector 2. Hell bent on forcing my way back into 6th and with an axe to grind against the two drivers ahead of me, I made a lunge into turn 6's hairpin. At the same time, Mr. Scrappy was making the same move on the BMW into the same corner.

Three cars, two of them attempting a divebomb into turn 6. The results were not pretty, to put it mildly.
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Video of the VW and BMW's driving in the lead up to the incident and the incident itself:


I did not mean to shove both of them into the grass, but I can't help but feel they both deserved it. Both drivers had punted me off, Mr. Scrappy had forced someone into the pit wall last Saturday and the BMW had ploughed into other cars on multiple occasions in Race 2.

For some inexplicable reason, I got away without a penalty for the incident. The VW dropped to 11th with a 2 second penalty, while the BMW dropped to 17th before scoring a revenge punt on the VW. The VW basically gave up on the race then and there, while the BMW got another 2 second penalty for the punt before proceeding to shove an unlucky Subaru off at turn 3.
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Meanwhile, I was battling a different Subaru over 6th. The Subaru was able to get ahead of me by the end of lap 7, but I was able to retake 6th with a move up the inside into turn 3 on lap 9.
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I managed to hold off the Subaru to take 6th for 145 points.
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Despite running two cars off that race, I got a CRB. And the Indonesian BMW was not happy with Mr. Scrappy, as the above screenshot shows. Oddly enough, neither of them said anything about my involvement in the lap 7 incident. The Indonesian clearly blamed Mr. Scrappy for the incident, while Mr. Scrappy said nothing about me. With how messy this race was, I chose not to go again.

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Giving up after the third, and worst attempt. Tried the Subaru this time and it was working out well, running as high as 10th in the middle stages, mostly due to errors by others. Then the argy bargy started, and at the end of the day was 18th for 48 points.

Down a total of 3500 DR in 3 FIA races. Seems fair, right?
 
Once again had to do a 3-peat to get a result I was happy with...

Slot 1: Qualified 8th with an okay-ish lap, but I knew I could do better. Got a great start in the WRX and moved up to P6, before promptly losing those spots again to 2 Meganes who divebomed at the final hairpin. Spent the rest of the race in 8th until the last lap when I outbraked myself at T5 (the first hairpin) and fell to 9th. 192 points meant I might as well go again.

Slot 2: All I had to do was put in a good (not great) lap and I could've had pole, or at least P2, but I screwed up the first qualifying attempt so badly I just jumped to the pits to save time and do another one. I still screwed up the 2nd lap and could only start P9. I was briefly up to P5 after slight chaos at the first 2 corners before a Megane got sideways in front of me out of the final corner and I dropped back down to 7th or so. Then I stupidly tried to defend the inside at T5 when everyone was bunched up and got pushed wide, which then led to a 4C on my inside using me to stop himself from spinning and sending me fully off track down to P17. Eventually recovered to P11 but was absolutely livid knowing I could've had at worst a podium.

Slot 3: Miraculously did not end up in Top Split as participation dropped, but was instead Car #1 in 2nd Split. This time I did put together a good lap and got pole by a little less than 0.1s. Led easily lights to flag and did a Grand Slam (pole, win, FL, CRB). I even set a race FL in the 1:11s, twice, when I'd never gotten below a 1:12.0 in any of my practice races. I used the WRX's awesome launch to help build a 3.5s gap that was whittled down to 2.5s at the end as a Cayman in 2nd slowly began to catch me. This was my first FIA win in over a year, and only my 2nd one ever in an "official" season. 246 points makes this my 2nd best-scoring round after the karts, and also means no matter what all of my counted scores will be at least 200 points, with my 4th-highest score (so far) being 213 from last week's Mini race.
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This also puts my DR over 59k, which is my highest ever. Unfortunately this means I'm probably in for a rude awakening shortly when I get thrown into tougher splits. Oh well, I'm gonna enjoy this while I can.
 
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Giving up after the third, and worst attempt. Tried the Subaru this time and it was working out well, running as high as 10th in the middle stages, mostly due to errors by others. Then the argy bargy started, and at the end of the day was 18th for 48 points.

Down a total of 3500 DR in 3 FIA races. Seems fair, right?

Me too, buddy. Me too.

Then I jumped into a daily race to try and get a few points back and .... yeah that went poorly.

Edit: I went back for more. Finishing up qualifying in 4th and my second disconnect of the night.
 
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NA Slot 2, A/S Lobby, 205 points.

I decided to go with the 86. Despite trailing a WRX in qualifying, I could only grab 15th. A Corvette of all things qualified on pole.

I immediately got left in the dust at the start, but it did not take long for a few of the others to start dropping like flies. Even though this was a short race, I decided to not bother trying to overtake anyone, because I had a feeling it would just backfire. My positions gained throughout the race were from other drivers killing each other or making mistakes.

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Lost some DR but still in the 40K range. I needed at least 8th to improve my lowest score, but I wasn't going to bother long hauling on a race like this on a weekday. The short length really brought out some nasty behavior that I witnessed but thankfully wasn't a part of.
 
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So my race with the Viper earlier for anyone who was interested.

I went from 19th to 13th as everyone around me fought and spin. But by lap 3 and everyone is settled, I went backwards, slowly ended up 18th as I was maybe 2 seconds off the pace of the leaders, and maybe losing 1 second per on the guys behind. I find it a little warped from reality how a "muscle" car known for speed and power was just swamped on the straights by a little Megane, but such as is GT Sport. And because it was the straights that I really suffered as I just couldn't get the traction out of final corner, I can do little to defend anyone who caught up. It would had been more fun I guess if I was to do a non-Meta run with the Veyron where at least I might be safe on the straight.
 
It's ****ing impossible to have good racing anymore. Everyone divebombs anything they can. Push you wide into the sand, who cares. Try to leave a little space because 3 cars are stacking up into the corner, tough ****, divebomb, push you wide. At what dr lever do you get good racing?? It must not exist.

Mid-to-Upper C. D ranks and low C have really sharp elbows.

I dropped 4000 DR tonight.

Slot 1? Disconnect.
Slot 2? 11th, self-inflicted injury.
Slot 3? 9th.
Slot 4? Disconnect.
Slot 5? 7th. Had the pace to win but couldn’t get around 3rd place, dude spun me out. Twice.
 
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