GT1 slot 1 in the Americas - 161 points up for grabs. I was in door #4, driving for Dodge. I needed a top-5 finish to improve my point total (as if...).
I qualified with a pretty good -- for me anyways -- 1:41.532. That put me in Q7.
The race got off to a rough start. I braked too late for T1 and ended up going way too wide, giving up two spots right off the bat. Down to P9. The rest of lap 1 was fairly orderly.
Then on lap 2, the Porsche and Ford GT ahead of me had a collision at Hairpin, slowing them both down.
I sensed the opportunity and took advantage of the run I had, overtaking the Porsche on the inside. There was contact between us at T8. At the time, I thought they didn't know I was there and drifted into me, but on reviewing the replay, it looks like I turned into them. My bad (apologies to you, if you are out there, Z-GT). Anyways, I ended up getting shot wide to the left, and the Porsche went to right, and the Ford fell out reach. Still, I had moved up to P8.
I spend the next couple laps defending. There were two Porsches behind me, eager to get by. There was a fair bit of contact, especially in the back complex. At the time I thought I was driving clean lines, but after watching the replay... well, again, apologies.
At the start of lap 5, the Porsche behind decided to send it at T1. Unsurprisingly, there was contact.
It left me with rear aero damage. The Porsche got front damage AND and a 2-second penalty. Thankfully, I was able to keep the car on the track without any lost positions. Still in P8.
With the damage, though, I was even slower than usual. The other Porsche was immediately on my bumper. They got by at Dunlop, without much resistance. Back to P9.
From here on out my goal became one of minimizing my losses. A Peugeot was now on my tail. Try as I might to hold them off, they eventually got by me at T1 on lap 7. Down to P10 now.
From there, not much happened. I had a 4-second gap to the cars behind. It was just a matter of driving out the remaining laps without making any catastrophic mistakes, which I mostly managed. There was track limit penalty in there just to add salt to my wounds, but otherwise no major incidents.
The gap to the cars behind was steadily shrinking, of course, but it never reached the point where they could challenge my position.
Finished in P10 for 100 points, and a decrease in my DR. I'm disappointed that this is how the season is ending for me, but I really shouldn't have expected any better given how slow I am at this track with this car.