In late private testing, I found my tire breakpoints to be lap 7 on softs and lap 12 on mediums, with fuel lasting 13 laps, so I set up for a 3 RH/12 RM/7 RS run. My fastest laps were actually late in the medium run, in the low-1:56's.
8 pm CDT came, and I found myself in a rough-and-tumble, based on chat, 15-car D/S room, with 16 points for the win, and me needing 13th in the anniversary #6 to improve upon my other 7-point finish. Pole was 1:55 flat, and my no-time put me 14th on the grid, the first of 2 drivers to not take a time.
It wasn't the greatest racing I ever did. I had speed in the first sector, consistently getting purple times on both the medium and soft tires, but gave it all back and then some in the second sector.
By slow-rolling my start to briefly drop to 15th, I did miss the carnage at the start as 2 drivers (one on soft tires, one on hards) spun their tires off the grid start, a third got La Source all sorts of wrong, a fourth went off on turn 13, and a fifth went off on turn 15 to get me up to 10th. I would have been plowed into by someone coming in way too hot for the first half of the chicane, but he was ghosted. That messed me up in the second half, as I gave 2 spots up by going off, including to the would-be rammer, who had a 1-second penalty for going wide at Blachimont.
That person spun in La Source on lap 2 to give 11th back to me. Another car spun at the exit of the chicane to give me 10th at the line.
At the end of lap 3, I had almost caught 9th, the third driver to start the race on hard tires, when it was time to pit for mediums and most of a tank of fuel. That dropped me to 14th/last (there had been a dropout). I was too far behind to take advantage of 3rd place pitting on lap 5 to switch from softs to mediums.
On lap 6, I cleanly got inside the RH driver who spun at the start at La Source, but since I didn't get a good exit, I let him go. He tried to repay me with not one, but two slams. The first cost me the pass at Les Fagnes, where I let him go after getting alongside on the left coming out of Double Gauche. The second was just after T2, where thankfully he ghosted and I lifted. 3 drivers pitted, including the third RH starter, which got me to 13th.
Carma got to the wrecker at La Source the next lap, as he spun the tires some. I got a 2-for-1 deal as I got by the 2nd car that was just leaving the pits, while I was too far behind for the front-runner who went from softs to mediums. At the end of the lap, a mid-pack car pitting off worn softs got me to 10th, while the car in 2nd came down to switch from softs to mediums and was too far ahead even with the 3-second pit-lane penalty.
On lap 8, I left the door wide open for my fellow serious RH-to-RM racer in La Source while in a 3-way battle for 9th with somebody on well-worn softs. That driver got turn 15 wrong to let both of us by, and he and another driver ended their softs stint at the end of the lap to get me to 9th and hunting down 8th. Meanwhile, another of the front-runners went from softs to mediums well ahead of me.
Another mid-pack driver called it quits on softs on lap 10 to give me 8th. 2nd place somehow made it back to the pits on lap 11 with a completely dead left-rear soft tire, but not only was I too far back to take advantage as I had a bad overall lap, I decided to spin into the left-side wall. It didn't immediately cost me any spots, as 9th was well behind. It did, however, cost me about 10 seconds.
On lap 12, one of the front-runners came in to switch from mediums to hards and fill the tank. I wasn't quite close enough to take immediate advantage.
On lap 13, the leader finally came down to swap mediums for softs, picking up a 3-second pit-lane penalty and losing the lead. The following lap, I caught and passed that front-runner who switched to hards as he struggled in the Les Fagnes/Campus combo for 7th, and the driver on a similar strategy to mine as he came down to swap mediums for softs for 6th.
That did not last long as I needed to pit on lap 15 for my soft tires and enough fuel to end the race. 3rd place had the same idea, though he needed hard tires. He came out 4th, while I came out 9th.
On lap 16, that same former front-runner once again spun in Les Fagnes, and I was there to take advantage and 8th. Meanwhile, the fastest car on the track took advantage of his 3-lap-old soft tires to retake the lead.
The following lap, 2nd place came down for his mandatory soft tires, and I was using clean track and feel-goods to finally get some decent lap times in the 1:55s, as my best mediums lap was in the high-1:57 range.
On lap 18, 6th place came down for his mandatory hard tires, making the last stop of those in front of me, but I wasn't close enough to immediately take advantage of that. That pass came at the end of lap 20, as he moved over to let me by.
On the last lap, I caught sight of 6th as he was negotiating lapped traffic in Les Combes. At that point (43:19), the leader took the checkered flag. As I closed on 6th in Les Fagnes, the second driver took the checkered at the 43:50 mark, the third driver came across at 44:01, and the fourth driver came across at 44:06. The driver I was chasing let me go by on the inside at turn 16, and I was the 6th driver across the line at the 44:32 mark.
That wasn't exactly where I was placed as the top 3 drivers all got 1-minute penalties for not taking all 3 tire compounds. Unfortunately for me, the fast driver had a 1:13 lead on me, so he got the final podium spot, while I got 4th. Even had I not made that last pass, I still would have had 4th as the guy behind me was one of 7 among the top 12 who didn't take all the required tires. I thought I screen-shotted the points total, but I didn't. I think it was worth 12 points, which won't improve my post-series rewards any from the bronzes outside my metro area.
P7 wasn't enough to gain any points for me so... yeah.
