Tonight's race was really fun and the one I enjoyed best so far, especially because of my surprise podium in the 2nd race
Started 7th out of 9 in the first race. Ran in 6th I think and kind of kept up with the pack in front for a while, then started dropping due to sloppy driving under pressure from the car behind. He and I got in a little racing accident and dropped further from the pack. In the end of the race I was nervous under pressure from the car behind (was it couttsy, maybe?) and the chase got super close with me going wide in the last turn on last lap. He took his opportunity on the inside and it was a drag race to the line where he gained centimeter by centimeter. Had the finish line been slightly furhter ahead he would have come out on top, but I held onto 6th by 0.053s!
In the second race I lost 1 place in the beginning and dropped a bit behind the pack ahead, then on the 2nd lap I think, I got on the throttle too much out of the tight right hander after first split, spun and dropped to last. With no cars behind or close ahead I did some nice laps at a steady pace, first gaining half a second on the leader and then keeping the time difference for 6 or 7 laps. Some sloppy driving in the end dropped me down 3 seconds, but my steady driving gave me confidence. Closed in on some guys having spun out but never got close and finshed in last.
Starting last in the last race, I got up to 6th? in the early stages, with couttsy having dropped behind but gaining on me. Then there had obviously been a pileup in the last sector, with 3 or 4 cars crawling around. I slowed down to get safely past them, which allowed couttsy to shoot past us all into 2nd. Then for maybe 7 laps, it was my turn to put pressure on couttsy, using the slipstream to get right up to him on every straight. Even had to lift a bit sometimes to avoid pushing him, hoping to make up for it with a good exit, or a mistake from his side. If he looked back I'm sure he must have seen the big evil smile I had on my face, I enjoyed every second of it so much I almost didn't want to pass him!
Apart from me going wide into the wall in 2nd corner, and a slight tap on his rear when braking for turn 5, it was only clean nice driving. At last I got a good slipstream on the main straight, got past him around the outside into 2nd. He seemed to go a little wide and there was contact but nothing major. I got ahead in 2nd position, but LittlePaul in 4th was approaching fast and managed to to take 3rd from couttsy, then closed the distance to me and got up right behind me on the last lap. I was nervous and tired in my wrists at this point, and again drove a somewhat sloppy drive, but Paul didn't get an opportunity to get ahead. One lap longer and he probably would have. Crossed the line to take 2nd place, much thanks to the pileup that affected the rest of the field but a solid drive from me allowed me to capitalize as much as possible on it.
It was tons of fun and there was good tight racing, with the occasional contact which is understandable on a course like this. Looking forward to more of this quality racing! 👍
Edit: couttsy D/C:ed right in the end of the last race, which was a shame since had done a good drive and kept cool under pressure.