Welp, sewed up the Moto2 championship last night @ Buriram. Have an 119 pt. lead with 4 races to go (Motegi, Philip Island, Sepang, & Valencia). Tried twice in Moto3 to win the title but couldn't pull it off, so this feels pretty good... and I know it's a game, but I ran 38 races in Moto3 just to finish 2nd, the first time, and 5th the second time. I can't imagine how gutted those guys are that do it for real!! When I finished 2nd, by two points, I felt like a kick in the nuts... All I had to do was win at Valencia (a track that I don't get along with), that was it - win and I won it. I was tied on points with Martin with Canet being like 2 or 3 points back from us... Anyhoo, it feels good to win it in 15 races, and gonna move up to MotoGP and do a season in career before I move on to Ride 3 more fully (hopefully by then MotoGP 19 will be out, hehehe).
Ran two races last night, Aragon and Buriram... Aragon turned out like I figured it would. Ran the entire QT session and ended up on pole, but only just. Baldassarri and Marquez were right there, I mean within a couple of tenths. On the start I drop back to probably 7-9th area, and now have it all to do - as I only get a good start about 20% of the time (still haven't figured it out). I set out to do some good laps, as that has worked in the past, just run my line, don't try and get snarky - be patient and pass when I can. Doing this sees me up to 3rd after 2 laps, and then it happens, Bagnaia dive bombs me into turn 7 and knocks me on the floor. Thank goodness we had broken away from the riders behind as it only dropped me into the pack with 5-8th. I pick up in 9th and spend the rest of the race working my way back to 5th. Fantastic result for me there, whether I got knocked off or not. Kind of makes me think I could've stayed on the podium or better had Bagnaia not been a douche canoe!!
The Thai track was up next, with me ever only running it in this game as it was a new circuit for 2018, and to this point I hadn't really gotten on with it. That changed this race weekend. Both the Quali and Race were wet, which both concerned me... However, I don't know if the Ai have an issue in the wet at this track or not, but I was on pole by almost a full 1.5"s. And again (broken record here), at the start I drop places. Only a few though, as I come out of turn 1 headed down the long straight I'm 4th. Couple of the Ai pass me down the straight as they have the "better" bike, now in 6th, so I brake a little earlier and drop to an early apex and run the bike out wide. Doing this sees me get a great run out of the turn and just motor past all 5 riders!! Should've done that in QT, would have been on pole by 2"s!
Just kept my head down the entire race and brought home the win and the championship! Felt pretty good.