So, here they are... what are almost certain to be my final two championship races in GT Sport as I suspect Alsace will end up being a repeat of Suzuka. Myself and the shifter kart don't usually go hand-in-hand if you remember my Nations Cup write-ups, or the last time I tried to get good in a karting lobby. Rarely have I been able to complete an entire race in one of these without sending it to the shadow realm, especially before I figured out that the best way to handle it with motion steering was to wind controller sensitivity down to -2 and
only slightly tilt the DS4 to where I wanted it to go. This week, however, marked a turning point. The point in which I finally knuckled down and hammered in consistent laps in the high-53 and low-54 ranges. After a while, my best Free Practice lap was a 53.395, which made me more confident about bagging a decent result providing that I kept it cool and consistent.
This round was also meant to be a final send-off for my long-serving camouflaged kart, the livery for which was first created and used back in June 2018. The patterns and colour palette mimic the
Avro Vulcan bomber which inspired my username, using a decal available on Discover along with a custom base paint. At one point, I did consider releasing it on Discover for this race as one of my last designs before the GT7 data transfer, but felt on closer inspection that the decals were too fuzzy and imprecise for it to be shared. Thus, as of tonight, I have retired this design in favour of a new livery for when the first kart races appear on GT7.
Now you've had a proper look at what livery I've been using this whole time, let's get on with the show...
14:00 EMEA
First up was the 14:00, where I was anticipating chaos and anarchy alongside
@watto79 and
@stpatty. After getting out a little too late in the warm-up and having to mow the grass to avoid oncoming traffic, qualifying turned out to be a little on the average side. Plenty of twitching, unforced errors and lost momentum; as I said to stpatty, I wasn't able to get in the groove. Coupled with an annoying mix of traffic and no slipstream opportunities, and the best I could do was a 54.193, leaving us 16th and around 1.2 seconds off the polesitting Greek. Terrific stuff from both Watto and stpatty to start ahead of me this time around. 👍
@NekoPufferPPP's warning about cold tyres convinced me to take things very cautiously on the first lap, mainly by going through both Turn 6 and Niki Lauda Curve in 5th gear. This appeared to pay dividends as the #2 drops to the back following a twitch, collision and spin coming out of Turn 2, and another two serve 0.5 second penalties for presumed track limits infringements. Already, I was fighting these and stpaddy (in the WipEout Icaras livery) for 12th. There were a few shenanigans in this group, but not any which would compromise my race at this point. On Lap 3, stpaddy loses it on the kerb coming out of Niki Lauda Curve, taking a South African with him and dropping to the back of this pack. Things weren't too easy for me, either, as I constantly shuffled up and down the order.
A couple of mistakes on Lap 6, along with taps from the Portuguese #12 kart, undid the progress I had made, which also allowed the #2 to rejoin the fray. When the #12 served a penalty a lap later, the chance was there to take both under slipstream on the run to Turn 5. Unfortunately, as I was doing so, I had gone beyond the outside kerb and didn't back out long enough to avoid getting slapped with a penalty of my own. Recovered by passing the #12 on the start-finish straight moments later, putting up a robust, but fair defence as the #2 serves a penalty. The battle intensified as we caught up to the #19 Spaniard - another driver with a 0.5-second penalty - which I got the tow and managed to make the pass on through Turns 2 to 4. When the Spaniard dropped back, the next target was the German #17 kart which had just recovered from a twitch at Niki Lauda. Having to deal with being bump drafted past the penalty markers, my instinct was to take an outside line and hold off until the chance came to strike back.
Sure enough, the chance came. The #2 runs wide at Niki Lauda as I myself have to reign in a sudden snap, and his latest penalty opens the door for me to hunt down the #12 along with the recovering #19. Again, a fierce, but relatively fair fight, which resulted in me taking 13th and holding it despite the best efforts of the #2 and #12 to perform a double bump draft with five laps remaining. It was on the same lap where my kart hopped shortly after coming off the kerb at Turn 5, losing me enough grip to affect my line and momentum. Kept within the battle for 13th right until I did something I said I would not do... bounce over the sausage kerb inside the apex of Turn 6. The trajectory sent me bouncing over onto the astroturf; I shuffled behind both the #2 and #12... and learned to my annoyance that a second penalty had been handed to me on a platter. At least 14th was secured when the #2 fishtailed over the runoff at Niki Lauda Kurve.
That being said, the main thing was that I had survived the whole race without crashing completely. Despite my apprehension concerning the tyre multipliers, they didn't seem to affect my performance that much. Only towards the end did I notice that my front treads had worn slightly, as had my left-rear which was only discovered when checking through my replay afterwards. Never mind about the penalties. The motivation to race again took hold, and after a short rest preparations began for the 15:20 slot.
15:20 EMEA
One of the things I discovered during the 14:00 race was that the settings initially used didn't take into account the effects of forceful bump drafting. This came to a head between Laps 15 and 16 when I noticed my kart's engine cutting out upon hitting its 112mph redline, losing performance and effectively holding up the karts behind along the start-finish straight. I knew right away that this was something I needed to tweak if I wanted to race again, so I quickly experimented with taller 6th gear ratios to see what would work. The final setting used in my next slot was 0.890, which was enough to offer a top speed of 110mph without slipstream and a consistent run of mid-to-high 53s in Free Practice.
The difference this modification gave in the 15:20 - racing alongside NekoPuffer - was like night and day. I maintained that initial promise throughout qualifying, setting a fastest time of 53.576 on my third tour. Though I couldn't improve on this due to traffic and needing to get out of the way of a fast Greek driver, I was still proud to have exceeded my practice and 14:00 pace by quite some margin. My final qualifying position also improved to 13th - just 0.777 seconds off the polesitter.
For the race, I went in with the same mindset as before - keep it steady, avoid the kerbs, try not to do anything rash or reckless. The cold tyre issue didn't seem as bad this time as I was able to maintain good speed through Niki Lauda Curve. Though I immediately lost a place to the pink #11 kart, the cautious start paid off as we were able to get it back again the next lap, when a South African picked up a penalty and went wide at Turn 2. At the same place on Lap 3, we pass another Greek driver (kart number 9) who is prepared to play rough, at which point we are already fighting two other karts for what was initially 10th. Further contact sends me fishtailing and into a defensive position as the #11 serves a penalty. Almost thought I would get another one myself as the South African effectively forces me onto the runoff at Turn 5, but slotting in behind him and the Greek seemed enough to dodge that.
Reclaimed 12th on Lap 5 with a good tow on the South African, which put me in a prime position to challenge the #20 Frenchman in Repsol colours. The #20 gets forced onto the run-off by the #9, then locks up and twitches onto the astroturf as we run side-by-side through the final turn. Things would get messier as the penalty-laden #9 hops over the sausage at Niki Lauda Curve. My kart also launches after clipping the kerb, bunching all four of us together in what I could only describe was a mini-derby. The #20 gets held up punting the South African into the Turn 4 gravel, allowing us to pull clear in 10th. This was it. A Top 10 finish in the karts seemed like a genuine prospect. That was until I had a poor entry into Turn 6 on Lap 8, which allowed the #20 to fight back and initiate a battle that would last to the end.
At first, my instinct was to keep fighting back under slipstream, but on the next two laps I ended up running onto the Turn 5 astroturf and had the #20 pull off an additional cutback when I thought the move was sown up at Turn 2. Fortunately, backing out seemed to work as I didn't pick up any subsequent penalties. Now, the focus was on rebuilding the gap that grew between myself and the Swiss driver behind, which was made possible by both slipstream and the longer 6th gear allowing me to run at up to 113mph in the tow. Yellow flags began to be displayed at Niki Lauda Curve as again I attempted a pass down at Turn 5. Again, this enabled the #20 to get the tow back. This time, yellow flags were displayed for real to warn us of the fast Greek spinning out of 7th place. If we could work together... we could yet go one better!
With that in mind, I held back behind the #20 for a while, even resorting to bump drafting him in an effort to reduce the gap between us and the Greek who was now down in 9th. That was before the #20 ran over the Turn 6 turf, and again we swapped positions in the space of an entire sector. Three laps from the end, the Greek serves a track limits penalty, and my bump draft is enough to help the #20 surge into 9th. More horrible luck for the Greek as he loses control coming out of Turn 6. 10th was in the bag. At first, I was prepared to settle for it, but decided to keep fighting the #20 just to see if I could go one further. That very nearly became a reality when he almost lost it on the outside kerb at Niki Lauda and allowed me to slipstream past again. Ran wide trying to defend into Turn 5, narrowly avoiding another penalty as I slotted in directly behind.
Final lap; another pass down the inside of Turn 2. This time, the #20 tries to go around the outside under the Gran Turismo hoarding, then switches back to the inside as yellow flags come out for a backmarker who is stuck near pit entry. As I didn't want to risk another collision, I backed out, which allowed the #20 to shoot through on the inside and set up the last-gasp battle to the line. I was sceptical as to whether the #20 would be able to get away without being penalised, which it did. No time to protest; all I needed was a perfect run through Turn 6, and I nail it. Round the outside; I have enough momentum to catch him! Side-by-side! I'm on the outside, he keeps towards the inside...
Photo finish! You couldn't cut that with a cheese knife! Just two-thousandths of a second separate us over the line! The results show us in 10th, but examining the replay shows that we held onto 9th for just a split second before the final results were confirmed. But still... what a finish!
Lost another big chunk of DR points in the process, but I don't care. The battles were unpredictable, and the consistency and pace in the kart were on another level compared to similar races in the past. The most important thing of all as that we completed not one, but
two back-to-back kart races without hitting the walls, and that's saying something considering that these were done with motion steering. On the eve of GT7's arrival, the Vulcan Kart got the send-off it truly deserved...
), but my custom race practices weren't so great. It was a lot of struggling as I had around 7 different setups and none of 'em would work... Tuning has always been a weak point for my part in GTS.
That would be fun to try. It's like right there at turn 1. You can see part of the circuit in the top right. 
