With today's runs on the GP circuit, my 2021 Manufacturers campaign has come full circle. The first outing at Lago Maggiore in Gr.4 showed that the 4WD Subarus had excellent traction and handling on the West configuration, but at the cost of added tyre wear and low straight-line speed. Expected more of the same in Gr.3, but initially struggled with fuel management and forward brake bias settings which lead to Scrappy drinking more petrol and eating more rubber than I would've liked him to.
Was more encouraged by my practice pace upon watching
@Hasnain282 and
@Tidgney's streams, which suggested that my fastest lap and total race times would have been enough to finish somewhere in the top 10 under ideal circumstances. Good to see
@Mohamed30_ and our French teammate (who would also end up in both of my attempts) get into the top 10 in the process!
16:20 Manufacturers
The 16:20, my 558th race overall in Sport Mode, started off with plenty of promise. Qualified 9th on a 1:53.692 despite going a little wide through Turn 2, with the next four cars in front all just over five-hundredths in front. Really close session with the top 14 players separated by under a second.
First few laps of the race were challenging as it didn't take long for me to get involved in the midfield squabble. Coming out of Turn 4, the Italian GT-R (car #3) loses it and slams into my driver's door, allowing the #19 Porsche and a few others to start battling and queueing up from behind. Switched brake balance from -2 to -1 as I wanted to see how much of a difference a less front-biased setting would make to the WRX. Received
another biff from the GT-R as he tries to shut the door on the #17 Lexus going into Turn 15, and had to back out of Turn 17 to give the #17 enough space. Lost up to 6 places through additional squabbles involving the #18 Beetle, the #2 Aston and #20 Renault, while switching over to zero brake balance to mitigate understeer.
On Lap 5, I repass the #20 at Turn 5, my tyres and fuel level already in much better shape than in testing. Spent the remainder of the first stint following the blue #11 Mercedes and #17 Lexus around while saving enough fuel to avoid a top-up. Re-joined the field in 12th once Wifi Password in the red Alfa served a very late stop. During the last 3-4 laps, a retirement for the #12 Toyota promoted me to 11th, while I was already lapping at a pace consistent enough to reel in the #19 Porsche and #3 Nissan. The Nissan, struggling massively on heavily-degraded Softs, touches the grass and spins under braking for Turn 5, handing me a solid 10th.
Caught up with the #13 Hyundai in the final couple of sectors and nearly snatched 9th as a result of his scrap with the #19. Drew alongside the #19 for the final run from Turn 13, but didn't have enough momentum despite revving it to the max and completely emptying the tank.
Certainly not enough points to increase my overall total, but a solid drive and a worthwhile recovery after the earlier in-fighting. The #19 driver didn't seem too happy about me afterwards, though I'm not sure whether it was to do with my pass on him at Turn 5 or the fact that I managed to catch up to him despite the earlier setback.
In testing, the fastest total time I managed to set in racing conditions was a 29:17.644. This would've put me around 6.2 seconds behind the winning Supra and would've probably bagged me 4th under the most ideal circumstances. It was with this in mind that I felt ready to have a second try, and in most respects it felt like another good race in the making...
19:00 Manufacturers
240th start in the FIA Championship Series. Again ranked 4th alongside my French teammate (door #6) and Wifi Password, again had a trouble-free qualifying session where I lined up 8th with a 1:53.766. That was already an improvement despite the slower lap time.
Despite the threat of a Belgian Viper lurking right behind, I was able to make a clean getaway and briefly took advantage of the Italian GT-R (door #8) almost throwing it off on the exit of Turn 4... again. The GT-R soon breezed back past on the crest before Turn 7, but this was not a major issue for me as I was already taking the opportunity to save fuel behind the #11 Beetle. Same brake balance adjustments, same methodical drive in the first stint, with a fastest lap (1:54.753) only under three-tenths off the green #9 Ford GT who had started in 2nd.
Settled back in 9th by virtue of the #3 BMW M6 who was recovering from a 1-second penalty, which became 8th following Wifi Password's late stop on Lap 10. Further on, the M6 suddenly decided to back out before Turn 6, which opened the door for me to hold 7th for a while as the #10 Toyota FT-1 (plunging all the way down from 3rd) and #13 Jaguar entered the fray. The #10 gave me a bump draft on the run to Turn 11, but this only allowed the #13 to steam past the pair of us within the last two sectors of that lap. This, I thought, worked out nicely, as now I had the Jaguar's tow and thus could potentially break away from the FT-1 and the next cluster of cars following behind.
A couple of laps later, we catch up to the #9 Ford which the Jag breezes past easily. That wouldn't be much of a problem following him, either, until we end up mixing in with my teammate who leapt up the order on a no-stop. At Turn 5, the Ford steps out and I rev it to the max to try and sweep around the outside. That doesn't work, and moments later it begins devolving into dodgems as I receive another bump draft from the FT-1, and the Ford brakes much earlier than I expect on the approach into Turn 11. Penultimate lap, and the FT-1 tries to leapfrog around the outside of me going into Turn 1. Forced to take the wide line through Turn 2, I somehow manage to squeeze my way back in front with a few rubs and a tight approach for Turn 3.
But by then, the next three cars had caught up to our little train - an AMG Mercedes (#17), a McLaren (#1) and the M6 from earlier. The very last thing I needed at this crucial phase, which was about to get really,
really physical.
More bumping and barging over the downhill crest.
Very early braking from the Ford resulting in me hitting him again before Turn 11. Accidentally squeezing the FT-1 into the gravel despite taking the inner Turn 11 apex for a clean getaway. Separate nudges from the McLaren
and the #17 Mercedes which push me down to 10th with three sectors to go. The train for 6th grows to
eight cars with Wifi Password bringing up the rear. Had the inside of the Ford going into Turn 14, so I went for it. Forced my way back up for 9th and drew along the inside of my squirming teammate for the final corner. Was all set to make one last pass for position...
...unaware that the McLaren and my teammate both wanted to take the apex together! Had to take avoiding action by cutting across the white line, which slapped me with a 1-second penalty and thereby sent me to the back of the train in 13th. The saddest thing about it was that this hold-up allowed me to get a run on my teammate for 8th on the road. Whether or not that would've constituted 'gaining an advantage' in real life is anyone's guess. At the very least, it could've been worse had Wifi Password not speared off into the tyres at Turn 16.
Had set to make a third run in the 20:20, but got disconnected before the lobby screen. Apparently, only ten players made the start according to the BMW driver who was grouped with me for this and the 19:00. Most of those also looked to be very high-level drivers which would've made decent points-scoring rather difficult. Gutted, but at the same time relieved that I didn't have to put myself through another Brands-type scenario this time.
A solid pair of Top 10 challenges bookended by pack brawls and a fatal last-lap mistake. I think there was potential to score more decent points in the 16:20 had I scraped a few extra hundredths in qualifying, or in the 19:00 had I not been jumped by my teammate or had a little extra horsepower to get past the Ford at the earliest opportunity. But considering how much I struggled on the straights, and how much I struggled with tyre management in testing, I'm happy with my pace here. It's just unfortunate that the results of the 19:00 don't reflect on Scrappy's performance in the 80% where it seemed like a clean finish was certain.
The car turns really well, has good fuel economy and good on its tyres. So less stress worrying about that. It’s the getting up to top Speed that’s a bit of a worry. However, the next race is 20 laps and allow RS, with no mandatory tyre. Should at the least be interesting to see where I qualify.
Due to other commitments, I will most probably miss Fuji, where the Jag Gr4 should have done well, I think.
(yeah that sounds better, let's just go with I outqualified him hehehe). He eventually came through the field and I knew which battles to pick and which one to save for another day and I decided to give him little difficulty and used his speed to help get up the field. I should have finished 17th but my teammate got taken out by an out of control Alfa and bumped me up to 15th.
. Any who following littleregret and PXCam I was just content on sitting back and saving as much as I could, but then someone behind me had other ideas. While backing off giving the people in front of me space this guy just decides to keep bumping into me, then in T1 he made his move which I defended and gave him space, he then decided I shouldn't have an escape road so unwound the wheel and put me half into the grass into the tight T2. With GRASS HAVING LESS GRIP THAN I DUNNO, TARMAC what did you think was going to happen?!?!?!? I decided to just drive into him on T2. Whoops. He got me in the pits anyways. I pitted a lap early that I was doing the last two splits. In hindsight maybe was the bad move but it was still good enough for 5th in the end and a solid points haul, and ending my 2021 season with a top 5. My inability to save enough fuel without needing fuel while keeping pace was my weakness, but I can walk away satisfied with a top 5.
