Background: I hate Interlagos. I've always avoided this track when I could. The only time I've ever enjoyed it was in the F1500-T Daily in GT Sport, which was solely because of the car. I'm always slow and always struggle with the braking in the 2nd sector and almost always get punted off at some point. Unfortunately I had 2 "meh" scores (including an unexpectedly poor showing at Trial Mountain) and wanted to try to get rid of one, plus I was under threat from a couple other Chevrolet drivers that I wanted to stay ahead of in the standings.
Slot 1: I actually ended up in a lower split than my usual running mates
@Geauxgreddy and
@F1Bernardo, probably due to losing DR in Daily Race B this week. Qualified 9th, a few tenths off my best FP time, but honestly better than I thought I'd do given my history with this track. For the first 7 laps I stayed there, in a train that covered maybe 6th to 10th place. Then on Lap 7, the car in 7th ran a bit too wide at Descida do Lago (that annoying left just after the end of the first sector) and spun into the inside wall and got engine damage. He stayed to the inside of the track in the flat-out curve afterwards, but left quite a bit of gap between himself and the wall so that he was sort of in the middle of the track as well. I saw all of this happening, and but I had no idea where his car would be when I got there, so I committed to the inside. Unfortunately he wound up not leaving enough room to squeeze by him, so I had to slam on my brakes to avoid driving into the back of him. The Supra that was behind me did try to go up the inside and slammed into the back of him and spun. Thankfully, no one else behind was close enough to take advantage, and I was able to gain a spot and move up to P8, which eventually became a P7, which would be my final finishing position. This would be worth 229, which would've been enough to improve my previous worst result by 4 points. I wanted more points though, because my total would be 998, just short of 1000, and I wanted to pass the 1000-point mark, plus I wanted a bit more insurance over the other Corvette drivers.
Slot 2: This time I was paired with
@F1Bernardo, and qualified 9th once again. I briefly moved up to 8th after the 3 cars in front of me tangled in the Senna Esses after the start and one got a 0.5s penalty, but after a few laps, I messed up the final turn and nearly spun, losing the spot to the car that served the penalty earlier. I'd end up finishing where i started in 9th, with
@F1Bernardo also finishing where he started in P11. 9th was worth 211 points, which wouldn't even count, so it was an easy decision to go again.
Slot 3: In between Slots 2 and 3, I tried to improve my qualifying pace. In spite of losing 10kg in the last update, I'd been unable to beat my 31.9 that I'd set in practice BEFORE the BoP change. This time though, on my last lap before the next slot started, I managed to do a 31.781. When the next slot loaded, I was once again in with
@F1Bernardo. In qualifying, somehow managed to slightly beat my FP time with a 31.726, which was good enough for 2nd on the grid, making for an all-Chevrolet front row (the other Corvette was over 0.3s faster, and had gotten pole in the previous slot, as well as at least a couple slots last week at DTS, so he clearly belong in a higher split).
At the start, the polesitter immediately ran away as I was a bit too cautious through the Senna Esses, having never approached them from this far up the grid before. A scruffy final corner at the end of the opening lap saw me pick up a track limits penalty that I didn't even notice until I was halfway through Lap 2, by which point I'd already lost 2nd place to a Supra that was clearly quicker than me. After serving my penalty, the Lamborghini that started in 4th caught up to me, but in apparently the Lambo has hilariously terrible straight line performance, because even with having to slow down for the penalty, I was matching his speed by the time we got to T1 again, and I easily kept 3rd place. The Lambo stayed in my slipstream for several laps, but even with my slipstream he actually lost ground to me on the straights. I eventually opened up a gap of a couple seconds over 4th place, and finished 3rd, while
@F1Bernardo bringing it home P7. My podium was worth 281 points, which was my best score this season! I came in to this round hoping to, at best, replace my worst result with a meaningful improvement at a track I'm absolutely awful at, and ended up with my best points of the season! In fact, this was also my best finish and only podium of this season in Manufacturer's as well, and all at a track that I'm always dreadfully slow at - especially in Gr.3 cars. In fact, I've only had 1 previous finish at Interlagos count towards a Manufacturer's championship, and even that one was my lowest score in that particular season. Unfortunately I guess that means I'll have to actually race at Interlagos every time it comes up now...
I always instant quit post race...
So, my final results for the Manu. Cup:
Best race was the (free) podium at Kyoto 
Let me know, Dodge drivers, if it is a good choice or not 
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