I maybe should have skipped this round. Two entries. First one I'd have needed to finish top 2 to improve my points. Second even a victory was worse points wise that my result from the previous entry.
The only thing nice that worked out for me was a good FP lap of 1:16.609 in-between sessions.
Race 1 (
@mobilmasher this was the race with you)
I got jammed up a bit in qualifying. Not horribly, but there always seemed to be another slower player on the racing line even after letting the field start way ahead. Q4, not a huge deal.
The race was about as expected after reading everyone's reactions here. Bumping and shoving, not in a dirty way, just in a bump drafting driving in snow way. Some people would get caught out on a bad bounce.
I was in a good group at the beginning, but picked up a penalty for hitting the wall just right. I'd lose the draft and cruise in to finish P5.
I should've stopped there, but my DR increased a little while my SR decreased to an A. The possibility of more points, too. I didn't really have much to lose having another go.
Race 2
Worse points, but I set pole position by a good margin.
I ran away with the top three players and easily gapped the field by about 10 seconds while we were bump drafting and swapping positions.
At Lap 7, one of the group and I would bump into each other in T1 and they lost the slipstream. I tried a bit too hang back, but they were gone. So it was just me and one other.
We'd continue the same dance, but on Lap 9 I'd give up the lead so I could have the slipstream on the final lap. And it would've worked, but they were pretty aggressive about not letting me pass on the drag to the finish. It would've bothered me if I needed the points, but it was pointless to fight. I took P2 for a meager 85 points vs. 93 from the previous race (vs. 101 of my lowest counted score).
But at least I got a little more DR and my SR was restored to S.
I would've preferred the full course this round. I'm not really sure why PD is loading the schedule with all these oval track bump draft-fests.