Ok. Finally back home and I'm watching the replay frame by frame from each individual driver's perspective. I do this as you are all sleeping
Here's what happened:
From position 3,
@Napalm_LT gave
@AndreasR a love tap. I think he was merely attempting to inspect the rear suspension as he lifted Simbas car. It's nice to see those "on track inspections".
Nico Rosberg contacted Simba's team principal, and he confirmed to Nico that he did ask Napalms pit crew if they would do that spot check inspection, because they feared that something was wrong. Well done Napalm!
You might think that Paul
@IfAndOr, from the number 4 position, would run in to the back of Napalm, but he didn't. His driving was pristine.
However, as a "thank you" for introducing him to this group,
@WiSchmo ran in to the back of Paul.
Now, you might think it was nefarious but it was nothing like that. Paul and Willie attended a model train convention later that night in a seedy Belgian shop. Willi was overheard telling Paul that he was going so slow he thought his engine had stalled. Thus, he felt he needed a little jumper boost. That's true friendship!
From position six we have
@Don Mejillone, who had the best view of the carnage in front of him. He mistook Willi's benevolent action (of attempting to jump start his dear friend, Paul) as a deliberate act of aggression.
What many of us didn't know was that Don and Paul had formed an alliance to help each other on track in the event that either of them was in position to go podium. My sources say that agreement was struck during an "espresso binging" trip to a local cafe before the Race.
So, of course you would expect him to run into the back of Willi because he saw Willi running into the back of his ally, Paul.
An on track Marshall reported that he overheard Don yelling "I will avenge you, Paul". Team Mejillone has so far, been resistant to release in car radio so we cannot confirm that report! But, what can be reported at this moment, is that the on-track Marshall has an excellent reputation with the local villagers.
Fortunately,
@slthree is extremely slow and scared to follow too closely. As a rookie driver he saw what unfolded before him and slightly grazed the outside of Don's Car to move from position 7 to position 6. (Of course, it should go without saying that he quickly lost that position). A more skilled driver would have made it around Don without grazing his car.
It was reported by an unnamed Motorsports writer, that three of the veteran drivers:
@Sick Cylinder,
@John Wells, and
@Oldbass47 were given false information on the length of the race. They were told it was to be a 3 hour endurance race and not to push too hard too early. In addition, they were all following team orders to stay back of the pack for the first hour of the race, in order to preserve their tires and fuel consumption.
As a result, these three were not involved in the skirmish.
Now, as you all continue dreaming, I will watch the rest of the race replay.
And, again, thank you very much for including me. My job is fairly serious and this is a wonderful outlet for me. and, it's not just the act of racing online that makes it a great outlet for me. It's the group of people who make it special.
EDIT: Last week, it was Sick, the leader of this group, no less, who moved over to give me room on an overtake.
This week provided another example of why I love this group. This time, it was Don.
If I analyzed the replay correctly, Don passed me cleanly on turn one of the second lap. I took a wider path pushing me off track a little bit, and, unless I'm analyzing it incorrectly, it appeared as if Don slowed down and gave way to let me back on track in front of him.
I don't have enough racing experience to know if I've got that right, but if I do, I want to thank Don, publicly, because that's good form and pure class.
Okay, you must be sick of me by now because I'm sick of myself and this is running long.
I'm out
)
Sad to see @beachboy6658 lose it into turn 3 on the 3rd lap, but it did hand me 4th place. What now ensued was a race long game of "catch the @IfAndOr", with Paul being quicker before, and me being faster after the pit stops. Watch us battle it out, when it really got close in the last 5min of the race! Too bad @IfAndOr's car's rear end "went weird" on the penultimate lap and robbed us of a grand finale (us both crashing into each other and spinning helplessly, is what I mean 
).
