Well, my quick recap regarding the last races at RA and a few thoughts on the championship.
Coming to Road America with an advantage of 24 points to
@Zolon32 I felt this championship was mine to lose. I lost 25 points to him in only one round (round 7 at Watkins Glen) so I knew I wasn't safe, not with so many points available in every event (15+25+25+25).
Plus, he had the Ford and I knew how good and fast that car was. For myself I had the Nissan IMSA, a car that can go fast but is very treacherous, especially after a few laps (I guess it has to do with ever-increasing tyre pressure, but I really feel the car changes, and not for the better). But that car was my last line of defense, after that it was the sluggish Audi and (if by any improbability I aced that one) the Lambo.
So I considered that the 1st race, coupled with qualifying, was the key. If Zolon had the opportunity to "learn" the Ford he could easily hit a combo of pole+win there and then and that meant - even if I made 2nd in that scenario, with no quali points - that he would end race 1 with 40 points already while I would have 20, therefore we would be separated by ... 4 points. He would then move to a Group 5 car (something I never even tried, but feared would be fast) and all I had to defend myself was ... the Audi
(note: If @richroo and @Oldbass47 opted for racing with GT3 cars I guess qualifying points wouldn't go to either me or Zolon but they could (as they did) opt for racing GTO cars also)
With all this in mind, I went all in on the IMSA Nissan and the two short-lived opportunities I had during the week to do some laps were spent lapping that car and trying to understand its quirks. And this worked. Even better than I had anticipated because evidently Zolon was still at odds with the Ford. So it was I who did the previously dreaded pole+win combo in race 1, and I knew by the end of that race that I had doubled my advantage from 24 to 48 points and pretty much secured the championship, unless I got disconnected in races 2 and 3 and Zolon won them both. Stranger things have happened!
For races 2 and 3 I just wrestled that Audi, managing decent laptimes, not far from the Fords, Nissans and F40s, but I was never in a position to fight at the front. Not crashing helped to reach the somewhat nice finishing positions of 4th and 3rd, but of course, the Audi is a very safe car in that regard. Slow but steady.
Now, about the championship, I did enjoy it much and not only because of my position at the end. I had this same feeling with the other events we did when we had to change cars after good results, I think this system overcomes the natural differences between cars and levels the playing field, giving everyone a shot at achieving good results, going from top dog to underdog and fighting a way back to the front. We never before did this with a multiclass system (not only changing cars but also changing classes) but I found it brilliant and really engaging.
The other discussed point was the scoring. I have to say (but I understand I can be biased by my own results) that I think having quali ponts and "premium" points for the first 3 in each race kept things interesting. The amount of points available for each week was immense (90) and this coupled with the handicapping system could easily change the outlook of the championship. You only need to check my scoring throughout the events to see how it worked perfectly.
Dubai - 66
Spa - 79
Bbrae - 69
Suzuka - 46
Mugello - 38
Imola - 49
Watkins Glen - 44
Brno - 58
Road America - 70
In my worst week (Mugello) I got less than half of the points I got in my best (Spa) and watched how
@IfAndOr and
@xeronima gained about 30 points on me and
@Zolon32. It was only at Brno that my fortune started to change. And, again, this made the championship very interesting.
Also, and although this doesn't mean much, the fact is that if quali points didn't exist nothing relevant would have changed (only
@half_sourly and raeggee would see their places swapped).
Here's what the (no-quali-points) table would be like:
1st - FT - 459 (60 quali points)
2nd - Zolon - 450 (31 quali points)
3rd - Paul - 433 (16 quali points)
4th - half - 403 (0 quali points)
5th - raeggee - 374 (46 quali points)
6th - beachboy - 350 (23 quali points)
7th - xeronima 287 (31 quali points)
8th - Oldbass - 204 (0 quali points)
9th - Rich - 88 (0 quali points)
10th Ricardo - 24 (0 quali points)
However, I don't think they were irrelevant. I think the fact that they existed gave us all, in every week, more chances for disaster or success in our points tally.
So, all in all, congratulations and many thanks Zolon for taking the time to create this event and also for how considerate you were about every litle aspect of it that you kept guessing or second-guessing because of what we were telling you. Even with lesser numbers in this group I guess it is telling that the championship kept getting expanded and reached the 9 events you had at the very start written about. This only happened because the racing was interesting and the handicap system you put in place made us all curious on what would happen during its gradual and ongoing implementation.
Cheers all, thanks for all the racing!
)
) and I saw how Paul wrestled a Lambo around Brno, I want to have that experience too (again, if the Audi and the Nissan become unavailable for me, a very unlikely proposition).
