Been a remarkably brilliant campaign for the Gr.4 Scooby so far, but today wasn't to be its day, unfortunately. Mixing in one of my weakest circuits with heavy tyre wear multipliers lead to a difficult pair of races, though there was some promise in that I managed to set a 1:37.181 on trial runs using brake balance -3 (just over 1.1 seconds off
@TRL LIGHTNING's best in the same test lobby).
17:00 Manufacturers
@Ashthebash reckoned that many would be skipping this round, though I found myself on a full grid along with my teammate and a lot of other players I had met before. Thought to use the same BB setting that bagged me that 1:37.1, but in practice was only able to secure a 1:37.760 and 13th place. Teammate fared much better with a 1:37.235 and 5th, which begs the question... do I have a qualifying curse? Whenever I set a promising lap in testing, I always seem to find a way to not match that in the real thing and be worse off for it. I didn't realise that I was this close to starting near the front until I checked the times on the grid formation, which only added to my disappointment.
Anyway, we start on Hards, as we did multiple times in testing, and the first handful of laps turn out to be rather okay. Followed the #20 Mercedes around, saved fuel and drove as carefully as I could on BB -5 to make sure that the tyres would last the whole stint. Surprisingly, I found the WRX to drive much better on Hards and managed to close in on the group of cars fighting for 8th. The #7 Ferrari was having connection issues which he later explained was affecting his concentration, and I briefly got in front of him as he served a track limits penalty. The key word being
briefly....
On Lap 7, the second of the two Vipers in front (#4) launches over the sausage kerb and into the barrier entering the final esses. The #15 Ferrari gets held up and I dive up the inside, over the exit kerbs, in avoidance. Lost a good chunk of momentum as a result which, coupled with a bout of understeer, saw opportunities for the McLaren, #7 and #20 to pounce. Took this as another chance to save fuel, and on Lap 9 made a bold move around the outside of the #7 work as he understeered at Turn 7. Refuelled to 80% and took on Mediums, though the #7 had better pace and was able to get back past on Lap 11.
We both catch up to the #19 Aston Martin, who is struggling on Hards after initially starting 4th. Escaped another massive accident at the esses after the #19 jumps up the sausage kerb and spins, but twice understeered off the road on Lap 14, the first instance at Turn 9 picking me up a penalty. As my tyre wear increased, so did my annoyance, but I kept on it to follow the #3 Mercedes as we both reeled in the #20. Second-to-last lap, I send the Scooby up the inside of Turn 1 and reclaim 13th. Missed out on another spot when the #3 picked up a Turn 9 penalty, only to serve it with a two-tenth gap to spare.
And so ended a challenging and middling run; the first time this year I've had actual problems getting the Gr.4 car competitive in Manufacturers. But we're not done yet...
19:40 Manufacturers
Had the motivation to try the 19:40 slot to see how much different a proper qualifying lap could make. For this, I was delighted to meet Ashthebash once again and had the good fortune to have two other WRXs providing backup in a lobby where only 18 of the 20 allocated players made it to the track. Felt like I was struggling more with finding the right brake balance in qualifying this time, which made my lap feel a lot scrappier than in the first attempt. Still, despite changing from 2 to -2 part-way round, the lap was a more promising 1:37.250, seven tenths down on the pole-sitting Lancer Evo and good enough for... 7th. Okay, I'll take that!
All I had to do now was to switch to Hards and follow the Union Jack-touting Ferrari (this time #14) until we were in a position to make some gains in the second stint...
Then on Lap 1, I repeated the same mistake I made in the 17:00, where I messed my braking up and understeered through Turns 3-5. The #14 is long gone and the #18 WRX is hot on my tail. Good enough reason to let him sail through down the straight to let him have a chance of taking Subaru some decent points home. It was with that in mind that I started defending hard from the train of cars lead by the #16 Toyota, where the Scooby's strong traction out of corners again came in handy.
My dam started to crack on Lap 4 when the green #13 BMW gets a strong run from Turn 2, forcing me to back out and give him 8th place. It cracked further on Lap 6 when the #10 Aston muscled me onto the orange turf through Turns 5-6, taking the #7 Hoonigan Subaru with him. Now I was at risk of dropping out of the Top 10 entirely with the #17 Cayman following behind, and with the added distraction of severe lag attacks affecting the Portuguese #1 Mercedes sitting in 5th. Held on until the pitstops; despite the pressure, fuel-saving was still optimal enough to make up gains on the Aston.
At the final corner on Lap 10, the Aston crashes out of 10th place, which I spent the rest of the race trying to protect from the #9 Megane Trophy who pitted later for fresher Mediums. Covered every apex as much as I could, growing more frustrated with the tyre wear and the brief moments where the Megane seemed to get caught out by my earlier braking. Sensed the Megane was having a good run down the start/finish straight on Lap 16, which was when I decided it wasn't worth fighting any more. Nursed the Scooby home in 11th ahead of the Toyota, which itself had to serve a penalty just before the fateful pass was made.
An exhausting combo and one I'm happy to see the back of for a while. Qualifying came together at last for the 19:40, but it wasn't enough to get around the harsher tyre wear that made the Gr.4 WRX really struggle during both races. Some of the manoeuvres I experienced from others were quiet forceful, and the connection issues affecting a number of drivers did give me some cause for concern in places. A maximum of 240 points was up for grabs had I maintained 7th to the flag, but alas, it wasn't to be.
Some consolation for the Subaru camp is that two of my teammates finished 2nd and 9th respectively, which at least proves that the Gr.4 car can get good scores in this combo with the right drivers. Don't think it can keep up at Monza or Fuji, though, so I'm sad to say that this might be my last showing with the pink Scooby for now. Hopefully in two weeks time, the stars will align again and I can have a couple more good blasts in the Gr.3 machine....
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