I really tried to make it tonight, but I got stuck at work until past 10. Definitely next week!
S'ok, we'll see you next week. You missed an exciting race.
sorry about the first start.
S'ok. From now on, I think I will reset the track 5 minutes before 10:00 and force everyone to run two qualifying laps and stay on the track.
Just take me out dude. My schedule is too hectic.
Alrighty.
Last night was probably the closest 60 lap race I've ever experienced. A quick recap of my night...
Laps 0-29. Sl3ight, grenade, and I drafted one another around the track trading places here and there. My car had significantly less straight line speed than the two of them but I did a pretty good job holding momentum into the tunnel and getting a good exit speed out of the hairpin. Somewhere through this run, grenade got damage. I'm sure he'll chime in and explain...but at that point I think he had fallen off the pace of sl3ight and I. He made an early pit stop to repair the damage, a wise decision if you ask me. Around lap 29, sl3ight made a very minor mistake and that allowed me to pull ahead far enough to avoid him drafting me for a lap or two.
Lap 31. Both Sl3ight and I pitted. I watched sohnvonstig and supernasty whiz by. When I pulled out of the pits, I was able to draft some lap traffic and expand my lead against sl3ight.
Laps 32-45ish. After a few laps of nailing my exit speeds I caught supernasty's draft and passed him with a risky out-braking maneuver into the hairpin, followed by some side by side racing up the hill and into the next turn. He followed me around for a good 10 laps and I was catching sohn. However, Sohn was drafting twitchie so whenever I got close they'd just pull away again. Supernasty wasn't hitting the final turn close enough to give me a bump every lap but we were still making decent time.
Laps 45-55. Because my car was slow up the straight, sl3ight was able to make back time and catch me...with grenadeshark in tow. I don't recall exactly how the exchange went but somehow sl3ight and grenade drafted around me, supernasty did too...and then grenade lost touch with sl3ight. For 5-10 laps i was stuck behind grenade and supernasty. Grenade obviously had no tires left and couldn't negotiate the hairpin as quickly. My consistent 1:24 lap times had become 1:25s despite drafting the two of them up the straight. I will admit, there was some fender rubbing and slow speed bumping as grenade did his best to block. Eventually, supernasty made a mistake allowing me to get right up to grenade, but WiiFreak had joined the group. He got around me like I was standing still then Grenade let him go by into turn 1. Grenade went wide trying to follow a MR line in a FF car with worn tires and went wide into 2. I was ready and waiting and slipped by and caught a little of WiiFreak's draft to get away from Grenade.
Laps 55-60.
After all that, sl3ight was no where to be found. My only hope at this point was to resume my battle catching sohn for 3rd place. A few clean laps and I was on his bumper. A draft pass and I pulled ahead. I never completely shook him off my tail though and on the final lap I didn't get a perfect run through turn 2 (maybe 62mph instead of 64-65mph) and that was all it took for him to catch a little draft through the tunnel, and a full draft up the hill. The final turn we were bumper to bumper and there wasn't much I could do except try for a block. It didn't work so I gave him a few dis-satisfactory nudges up the straight but by the finish line he nosed ahead by about half a car length.
In the end, I still call it a successful race. There were several faster cars on the track that I placed ahead of and the cars I placed behind were quicker than me anyway. I picked a solid 8th place car for the start of the season and came in 4th...mostly due to drafting. Not too shabby...but I think I'll end up having a solid 8th place car for the next race.
This was quite possibly the most exciting race I've ever been part of. We had drive train strategies, pit strategies, and lap traffic. All of which played a key roll in the outcome of the race. With just 10 laps to go, 2nd through 7th place were all within a few seconds of each other fighting for track position. Even though WiiFreak ran away with the lead, the rest of us were evenly matched enough to make for excitement on just about every lap. I can't wait to see what happens after 75 laps of Tsukuba.
I'm really excited for next week super, baldwin, and I did some testing on tsukuba last night and its amazing how well the miata reacts to power upgrades. I only spent 1500 of my 2500, but that gained me a little over a second per lap. I DEFINITELY won't be vying for the win but I have a feeling that things are going to be INCREDIBLY tight mid pack.
