(GT1 first slot in VR)
I think I managed to take a step off the downward spiral of back-to-back-to-back horrendous races I've been having today. 🥳
My qualifying was absolutely dire as I flubbed both laps hard and could only achieve a 2:19.092 when my free practice best was a 2:17.674. I pulled it right back in the race though.
Starting P13, I slapped the Hards onto my GT-R and was dreading the chicane start, only to then be very pleasantly surprised to discover I was starting
on the start/finish straight. Props to Polyphony for (finally!) trying to address the issues caused by being in certain positions for rolling starts at tracks like Spa.
Lap 1 saw me near immediately gain a gap behind as P15 bumped into P14 (who lightly bumped into me) at La Source, pushing both a bit wide and giving them both poor exits on the run up to Eau Rouge. An Italian GT-R a couple of positions ahead was fighting with a Spanish GT-R and ended up going off at turn 10 (No Name?), so I picked up a position there having enough overspeed to get the move done into Pouhon. I'll admit I had a slight chuckle since said Italian had divebombed me from orbit at Grand Valley a few weeks back and used me to make the sharp seafront hairpin.
Moving onto the Bus Stop chicane, a Ukrainian McLaren got it all sorts of wrong trying to make a move on a French GT-R and went off the track. He ghosted whilst rejoining so I snapped up the position.
Fast forwarding on to lap 4 and the yellow flags were out at turn 10 as the leader had binned it. No positions gained, but due to how things played out it led to a bit of a bunch up when a British GT-R served a track limits penalty. I had to brake slightly going into Blanchimont as another car pushed him wide and I couldn't get through, then he was very unsteady going through the Bus Stop. I ended up with the Ukrainian closing a big gap and right behind me as I tried to safely navigate around it. I think there was the lightest of contacts between me and the Brit in the chaos and he ended up exiting stage left whilst heading onto the start/finish straight. Thankfully no penalty there, as I was terrified it was going to come down on me hard for simply trying to avoid him.
The original leader then binned it
again at La Source on lap 5 and rage quit. The Ukrainian was now slipstreaming me hard down the Kemmel Straight and went for a pretty ambitious dive into Les Combes which I'm glad I saw coming, so back down to P10 but still running safely.
On lap 9, the Ukrainian made a similar dive on another Brit at Les Combes but that didn't go anywhere near as cleanly, pushing the Brit off and almost spinning him out. The Brit trying to catch the car then almost pushed the Ukrainian off. Just the kind of thing you want to be right behind.
Things got even spicier on lap 11. A British Supra who had been running much further ahead had binned it at La Source and fallen back into our group. With positions shuffling around at La Source, I got a front row seat to watch the British Supra and Ukrainian
almost take each other out at Eau Rouge, snap up 2 positions at once then run off into the distance a bit whilst the two of them went crazy at each other in my mirrors.
Now up to P6, I carried on until lap 13 before pitting for my Mediums, emerging in P8 behind the Brit that the Ukrainian had pushed off (who I just found is also from East Yorkshire - I guess I know who I'm fighting now for the local area bragging rights since we're currently #1 and #2
). In the race I thought he was now on Mediums since he'd started quite far back too and I'd been doing about the same pace as him during my first stint. The joys of VR not showing pit stops unless you're in one yourself...
It turns out he had actually started on the Mediums and was now on Hards, but had been doing a
lot of short shifting. That would have been useful to know!
He went deep into turn 10 so I got past into Pouhon, defended the inside at the Fagnes Chicane and then ran away at Stavelot, with the British Supra also getting past at Stavelot.
The British Supra's pace was far better than mine so he ended up getting me as well not too much later... but that story isn't over yet. From this point onwards I was just pumping in laps. I did take a position after catching an ailing German Supra who had been quite far up but had absolutely destroyed his tyres, going 8M/16H (and ending up with a completely red Hard tyre by the end of the race), but other than that not much happened. I was up in P6 and thinking that would be where I end since the Brit was running away.
Except... someone had massively misjudged their fuel and was in panic mode desperately trying to get home without stopping again! The gap came flying back down throughout lap 23 and I charged straight past the Brit on the Kemmel Straight on the final lap to take P5 for 195 points.
Watching the replay back, he actually ran out around Blanchimont and then ended up losing another position before getting across the line.
