Race report:
Missing quali meant I had to start 12th on the grid. Going in I didn't set my targets too high, and this eased a lot of pressure on me. Chose Hard tires for the first sting. It was a long wait for the lights to go green, and as soon as the timer read 3 minutes, I started off, straight into the back of RaceRyder
. He seemed to have missed the start and though I swerved to avoid him I hit him a little bit.
Despite that I was 10th exiting the first corner, getting ahead of RaceRyder and Gravitron. Passed Scassatore on lap 3 turn 1, where he spun on the exit. It was a heart in mouth moment though, because as he was spinning he hit my rear left tire
, but I anticipated it to quickly adjust to make sure I didn't lose any time.
The next few laps I kept climbing up the grid, helped by a few incidents that took place with other people. Recall seeing Allibubba, MadMax, and I think Jtv wounded, and also narrowly missed Porsche (all I could see was smoke). Passed Robiker on lap 6 I think, just before 130R using the massive slipstream I got.
Lined up a nice pass on EDK (mirror image of my pass on Robiker two laps ago), on lap 8/54 to take 3rd, and was pleasantly surprised. Maintained my position till lap 17 till Hydro pit, putting me up to 2nd, and on lap 18 when WRP001 pit I was in 1st
! It was short lived though because I took my first pit stop on lap 20, exiting 10 seconds behind Hydro. Was confused to see WRP001 not in the mix, but apparently he had spun. All in all, it was a great 1st stint, just 10 seconds behind the leader, with the hard tire out of the way!
Second stint was all about maintaining my pace, while keeping the leader in sight. , This stint was all about hot lapping, and both Marc and I were churning out near perfect laps, lap after lap. There were a 2-3 hairy moments were I took too much kerb and started sliding. But somehow, each time I kept it together. I was in a zen like state
. Initially, Marc had much better pace than me, increasing the gap to 14 seconds, but as the tires came to me, I started cutting down the lead, and by lap 34 the gap was down to 8 something seconds!
It was at this time I started thinking about the win. I knew Marc had to pit earlier, and had to use the hard tires for ~18 - 19 laps, while I would go on the soft tire, pit later, and put in lesser fuel as I had a shorter final stint. I started rubbing my hands with glee (figuratively of course
, didn't dare take my hands off the wheel or my eyes off the screen).
Then disaster struck on lap 35
. A backmarker wouldn't let me pass him at the end of lap 34. I kept trying to line up passes but was being defended against aggressively. This went on for most of the lap, and while exiting spoon right behind, the huge loss of downforce caused me to spin out. I have the experience to know that there would be a lack of downforce, but it was the first time in the whole race I left that "zen state of mind" and let frustration fill me up. My worn tires didn't help either. By the time I recovered, got into the groove again, and went through with the second round of pitstops, the gap had gone up to 27 seconds!
Even though the win was pretty much out of the question, I didn't feel like giving up. Kept doing quali laps, kept cutting Marc's lead down slowly, but steadily (he was on hards while I was on softs), and finished the race 2nd, bringing the gap down to a respectable 14 seconds.
Congrats again Marc, you drove a near perfect race 👍. Hopefully I kept you on your toes.
Nice job Kevin on 3rd. You didn't have lightning pace (based on your fastest lap), but your 3rd place proves consistency > speed, especially in such a long race.
Great job by everyone else too. This wasn't an easy combo, so a big 👍. You guys have made my time in WRS a great one
I loved this combo, and would definitely love a repeat next year (could do the same thing with Monza and Nurburgring 💡). Thank yous to the 3D3 moderators and stewards, and cannot wait to see what else is in store for the next Special event (no pressure
).