Well, I finally got around to writing most of my race reports. Still got the two final races (Nurburgring GP and Sardegna A) to write out, but for now:
Manufacturers - Tokyo South Inner Loop Gr.4
Strategy: Pit on lap 8.5 for fuel only
My qualifying was not great, but at least I was not at the back. Unsurprisingly, carnage happened in the docks as the Thai polesitter in a Ferrari braked too late and got a wall penalty, before accidentally hitting the Australian McLaren in 2nd on the rejoin:
The Australian tried to recover from the hit, but got tapped by the Japanese Viper in 3rd, pitching the Aussie into a slide down the order to 10th, with a penalty for cutting the dock's exit:
Meanwhile, I pass an Indonesian Lancer that also overcooked his entry into the docks, before passing the aforementioned McLaren that had hit the wall on exit before the tunnel.
Things settled down for a couple of laps until I braked a little too late and tapped the back of a Subaru despite taking evasive measures, taking a 1 second penalty for the hit.
More carnage ensured at the penalty zone as three cars ahead had to serve penalties down a narrow straight:
A Corvette unghosted right of front of a BMW, and I ended up tapping said BMW wide and killing his exit speed as a result. Fortunately, I did not get another penalty for the accidental contact.
The Corvette then tried to go 2 wide into the esses of Sector 3 with me, before turning in on me when I had the inside line. He ended up putting himself in the wall and causing mayhem for the pack behind, allowing me to get away and serve my penalty without losing the slip.
I pitted on lap 8 and emerged 6th after the round of stops. My second stint was uneventful until lap 13, when a Mazda caught up to me and passed me. I attempted a divebomb into Pit Hairpin, but completely overcooked it and dropped to 8th behind the Mazda and the BMW from before.
The BMW pulled away in 6th, while I passed the Mazda on the final lap into the docks. I got a corner cutting penalty out of the docks, but luckily got away with it as the Mazda was running on fumes by that point, allowing me to easily make the 1 second gap to keep 7th for 147 points. One and done.
Nations - X2014 Jr. at Big Willow
Race 1 was going well, as I was in my target position of 7th despite going off at Budweiser and nearly getting spun by someone at the same corner. I was hassling 6th on the final lap before 6th decided to shove me off at the final corner and ruin my race:
Needless to say, I'm shoving him off next time I see him.
Race 2 was no better as I went off at Monroe Ridge on lap 1 and tried to rejoin. Unfortunately for me, I was rejoining behind a blind crest, resulting in someone running into me and handing me a 2 second penalty that dropped me to 18th. I tried to salvage the race, but an excursion at Rabbit's Ear on lap 14 put paid to that and left me to finish 11th.
Strategy: 12S-11M
For Race 3, I decided to start on Softs for a safer start. It worked, but I just did not have the confidence to take the final corner flatout on Mediums, resulting in me dropping from 4th to 6th for 147 points.
Nations - N300 Tsukuba
With my poor qualifying record and the difficulty of making passes at Tsukuba, I figured I had to run an alternate car to try and exploit the S-FR Racing's main weakness: its poor acceleration and speed. To that end, I picked the Ferrari F50 for its acceleration and speed, as well as its stable exit out of corners. I could just floor the throttle out of corners without TC; something I could not do in the S-FR, Supra or M4. In theory, the F50's acceleration would dump the S-FR down the straights and make it difficult for the S-FR to set up a pass into the corners.
In Race 1, I started 15th, but got caught in a massive dogfight in the low teens positions. The confined space and amount of traffic prevented me from exploiting my acceleration advantage. By the time I was able to get away from the fight, the most I could do was climb up to 10th and watch 9th and above sail off into the sunset while I finished with useless points. I had to go again.
Race 2 qualifying was a total disaster, sending me to the back next to a 996 911 GT3. On the bright side, I had the inside line into turn 1 and the F50's acceleration was guaranteed to net me a few places.
I made up 8 places in the dogpile at turn 1, with another 2 cars getting spun in the chaos and a third car forced to serve 4 seconds of penalties for running up the back of other cars twice.
The S-FR ahead of me then went in too hot into the final corner, plummeting down to 19th while I took 8th.
Good news: I just had to take 7th to have my points count.
Bad news: 7th was running a very, very risque itasha, which unfortunately extended to the rear of his car.
I spent the first half of the race trying to find a way past while trying not to get distracted by the extremely suggestive pose on my quarry's rear bumper. By the start of lap 7, I was finally close enough to throw a dive up the inside into turn 1 to claim my target of 7th.
However, my dive also meant that 6th had pulled away, leaving me without slipstream. While the F50's acceleration prevented the moving distraction from re-overtaking me, I was unable to close the gap to 6th, leaving me to finish 7th for 146 points.
Manufacturers - Laguna Seca Gr.4
Like the Nations Exhibition Season's Corvette vs Cayman race at this very same track, I really was not on pace for this round. I forgot to switch to Hards for Race 1 and Races 2 and 3 were no better.
Race 4 saw me start down in 15th, but I gained two places on lap 1 from a Toyota that hit the throttle too hard out of the final corner on race start and a Corvette that went off at turn 6.
I needed at least 12th to improve my score, but the GT-R that held my target decided to block me despite clearly lacking pace and dropping away from 11th. I spent several frustrating laps trying find a way past the slow GT-R. On lap 5, he got a penalty for cutting the Corkscrew, but I also got a penalty when he went deep into the final corner and I hit him while attempting a cutback, leaving me still stuck behind him.
The Toyota from before got past me and tried to get past the GT-R, but got pushed around by the GT-R that refused to give the Toyota any space. I got back past the Toyota by taking the inside into Rainy and despite me giving the Toyota as much space as I could, the Toyota ran wide without any contact between us.
On lap 8, the GT-R ran wide again at the final corner before trying to shove me into the pit wall when I tried to pass. Well aware of his antics by this point, I pushed back and made sure to hold the inside line into Andretti to make the move stick.
By this point however, it was too late: 11th was 10 seconds down the road, making any further progress up the order impossible. I finished 12th for 100 points while the GT-R tumbled down to 16th before binning it at turn 5 on lap 14 and quitting.
Nations - Fuji Gr.2
Once again, my poor qualifying and bad luck stymied my performance in the first three races, forcing me to go into Race 4 again.
Strategy: No stop, short-shift at 25% to 50%, Fuel Map 1 throughout the race
I needed a top 5 finish for useful points, but I was starting in 12th. Luck however, would swing in my favour during the race....
I gained two places on lap 1 after one Lexus had to serve a penalty for running up the back of a NSX into TGR and another Lexus ran wide and spun out of the final corner.
Fortunately for me, 4th to 9th were clumped into one messy pack, with their infighting allowing me to quickly close the gap. I made an opportunistic dive into turn 8 on lap 2, taking 9th off the NSX.
9th became 7th as two cars ahead had to serve penalties: one for running into the back of someone at TGR and the other for cutting turn 8.
Now I was two places away from my target of 5th. By the start of lap 7, I could see that 3rd to 6th had formed another pack that were also fighting each other instead of working together. By lap 8, 1st and 2nd were also caught by the pack when the polesitter GT-R intentionally shoved his Lexus rival off at turn 2.
The brawling allowed me to climb up to 4th from 2 GT-Rs being slow out of turn 1 and a third GT-R serving a penalty for running into someone at TGR (sensing a pattern here?).
Karma came back to bite the polesitter GT-R as turn 3's kerb of death sent him into the wall and down to 11th with a wall penalty for good measure:
I was now up to 3rd and quickly catching 2nd and 1st, who clearly had less fuel than me. My aggressive short-shifting gave me enough fuel and pace to easily mug both cars to take the lead at the start of lap 12 and keep the lead all the way to the flag for 177 points.
I won the race by 1.3 seconds, with 2nd being one of the cars that had to serve a penalty for collision. Were it not for that penalty, I probably would not have won. So I won because everyone else were going off, fighting each other, serving penalties and/or running out of fuel, leaving me to waltz through to take the win.
This is my third win at Fuji and like my previous two wins, I won thanks to sheer dumb luck.
As for the dirty polesitter, he went on to spin someone out, before making the fatal error of antagonising a Hongkonger by shoving him twice: once through 100R, and once down the main straight. That second shove was particularly egregious as the polesitter already had the run on the Hongkonger and had absolutely no reason to shove the Hongkonger onto the grass.
The Hongkonger retaliated by PIT-manouvering the polesitter down the main straight while the latter was slow from serving a penalty, sending the latter down to 18th on the final lap. The polesitter finished 17th after passing someone that went off.
Video of polesitter's dirty driving:
Polesitter got featured on
Idiots of the Week Episode 36 (Clip #3) for his driving. XD
Video of my race:
