I had a great time racing with all you guys yesterday. 👍
The LMP drivers were quite courteous when they came on me before the last chicane or before the esses, the 2 toughest spots for them to make a move. I always tried to keep my moves predictable and demonstrative, I hope I made it easy for all of you without costing myself a lot of time.
I had a very good race, but not a perfect race. (As I'm sure most of you with the exception of Twissy would say). I already had worked out my strategy based on the support race the day prior. I made a couple of very small adjustments to my tune the morning of the race, to help it suit my strategy even more effectively. Mainly, I went with a tighter LSD and a higher final drive (higher top speed with 3400 final) to limit wheel spin and help with rear tire wear, as well as control of the car toward the end of stints.
I determined that 11 lap stints were optimal, although it looks like I would have been better off with 3 stints of 10 laps each.
Early in the race, I managed to overtake McFizzle by around lap 7 or 8, and then IIRC, also got by Hasslemoff by lap 9 or so.
I had a mistake on lap 10, I hit the right side rumble under braking for the esses, and the car spun. That dropped me back to 3rd, and caused me to pit after just 10 hotlaps, at lap 11. It was not the worst thing that could have happened, as it made my stop laps much easier to keep track of.
I managed to get back to first in the pit rotation by the time I took my driver change stop just after the 1 hour mark.
Once everyone cycled through, I ended up back in the GT class lead, which I held until about 15 laps to go.
With 15 to go, the dog decided it would be a good idea to walk past the console and over to my left side, and I was quite concerned about a cable getting pulled out, so I took a moment to tell her to get away. I was on the straight leading up to the second turn complex, and somehow got the car off of a straight line track while dealing with that, kicked onto the right hand rumble under braking, and sailed deep into the sand pit of death.
That lost me 15 seconds and put me back in 3rd. I managed to get past Scott due to pit rotation, and even was concerned about jtv at one point, as he was in second while I was in 3rd before his last pit.
Hasslemoff took his final pit after mine, so had fresher tires and was able to maintain the gap, particularly since I had to deal with the LMP leaders coming through during the second half of the last lap.
You and I seem to have the most epic battles in these enduros, seeing how close we were at Spa and then the same again here.
Again, well done by everyone, glad we had no technical issues, everyone was able to finish. Great job by the winners and podium finishers. 👍
Kevin