Get ready for a lot of words!
If you want to improve, this is just a temporary plateau. Your steady rise shows you know how to drive and have improved up until now. The key now is to find a new way to improve.
My graph was pretty similar, with a plateau before finding a way to start increasing again, so I know how frustrating it can be. What worked for me was to focus on the small details and being more selective of the races I entered. I seem to make the same suggestions, so I copied this from a different thread about getting poles, but it is relevant here as well:
1. Pick either a track you are good at or even better a track that people hate (Big Willow maybe?).
2. Keep driving it in time trial mode (with BoP on) in the fastest Gr. 4 and Gr. 3 cars (add in Gr. 1 if you have a lot of time.)
3. Don't quit and retry after every mistake, complete the lap. You want to have a good number of laps to see your best sector times and how consistent you are to hitting them.
4. When doing laps, keep an eye on the +/- time from your fastest lap. After every corner are you gaining or losing time? Correct your driving so that you are either gaining or not losing much time after each corner.
5. Be very mindful of the time gained/lost on long straights. Sometimes you have to sacrifice on entry to get a good exit for a better time.
6. Look at your optimal time (from all of your best sectors combined.) Is your fastest full lap within about 0.2 seconds? If not, then you aren't consistent enough and need to keep refining.
7. Find the sectors you are inconsistent in and focus on those.
8. Do this every day until your track comes up in a daily race. Then do the same practice workout in the Daily Race Qualifying. Don't enter a race until you get a really good time and with all your previous practice, you will know what your best time is.
9. Keep entering that race. No guarantee that you will get pole, but at least you are maximizing your odds. Chances are you will increase your DR a lot in these races and possibly get fast laps/wins as well.
10. After all this, you should be much closer to the top 10 times. If you're satisfied with the results, pick a new track and go back to step 1. Once you "master" a single track, it is a lot easier to get faster times on other tracks. All that work will carry over to other tracks.
Beyond that, you have to dissect each corner a little more to find that extra speed. Think beyond braking, turn in, apex and exit points:
- How much braking power do you need initially and as you approach turn in?
- Can you brake a bit later and use more trail braking?
- Are you in the best gear for that corner? Sometimes it helps to be in a higher gear so you save time shifting down and up, as well as helping to keep the car stable. And the other way as well, do you need to shift up so close to a braking point or is it faster to run it near redline?
- On sections with corners close together, do you want to be pointing straight between corners or is it better to flow them together and "pre-load" your outside tires before turn in?
-There are hundreds of small things you can focus on. Look online or find books about racing to find new ideas.
Also focus on race craft and strategy:
- Practice a tighter entry line that makes it easier to defend without losing too much exit speed.
- Pay attention to where you are gaining or losing time to the drivers around you. Can you plan a pass in their weak spots? Can you find a way to defend your weak spot?
- Is it worth the gamble to attempt a pass? Might not be if you're pitting soon or expect them to.
- Will the driver in front of you go faster if you back off a bit and allow yourselves to separate from the pack?
- Are you losing time by defending and allowing more drivers to catch up?
- Does it make sense to pit a lap or two earlier or later?
