- 84
- Cologne
- sesselfurzer1992
A couple of days ago I ran my first clean NASCAR race after six months of dirty racing around Daytona Superspeedway.
The fuel consumption and tire wear were set to normal, boost was off and we went 50 laps around the track.
In the beginning, we were 12 people racing, but just 11 of us finished because one guy got disconnected halfway into the race.
I started in 7th on racing hard tires and dug my way through the traffic. Nobody really wanted to go very hard because we had just started but I rallied to the front within one lap and led the first one.
The first 10 laps of the race were pretty uneventful until a British guy came up behind me and challenged me for the lead. I decided not to defend my position because we completed just 10 laps, but every time I tried to pass him back, he raced me hard. For example I was running the high line as high as I could (right above the white stripes) and he ran right up to my driver's door every time I got beside him to leave me just a small amount of room. I got a little angry, to be honest, because at that time we were about 10-15 laps into the race, so plenty of laps to go and therefore there was no real need to race me that hard, especially because I gave him the whole track to pass me. But then I thought that it's all about the fun and didn't worry about it too much.
In the end, I cleared him good enough to get in line in front of him and from that moment on I hugged the yellow line.
Apparently, the British guy played another strategy and started on racing softs, so he had to come in quite early.
Now, that I had a little breathing room again I stayed in front and led all the way to lap 35 to pit for fuel and racing softs because my fuel gauge was about to turn red. That is where it got very interesting for me.
Since I didn't race with tire wear and fuel consumption over a distance of 50 laps in half a year, I had no real idea how much fuel I had to put in to be able to finish the race. I knew that I didn't need half a tank because there were just 15 laps to go and I made it to 35 on a full tank of fuel, so I decided to put in 30 liters. And as I left pit road I realized that that was a huge gamble.
To make the situation even worse, I came out on the track when there were two people about 3 seconds ahead of me (a lapped car along with the leader), but nobody miles behind me.
So I had to do what I had to do in order to save as much fuel as I can: balls to the walls to try to get up to the two people drafting.
Luckily, they made a huge mistake coming out of turn 2, which allowed me to catch their draft good enough to reel them in. I wasted two laps catching up to them, going full throttle and found myself on lap 38 not having saved any fuel.
At that point it was time to save as much fuel as possible because I didn't have a clue about how many laps I was short of making it to the checkered. I went in their slipstream at half throttle, three-third throttle and sometimes full throttle to catch back up closely to their bumper again and somehow managed to keep the draft. I knew it was gonna be awfully close.
As we crossed the line to go on our last lap I looked at the fuel gauge a last time (didn't look good) and said to myself that it was all or nothing. I put the pedal to the metal and planned to challenge the leader coming into turn 3. I feinted right and he covered my move, but I anticipated he was gonna do that so I cut back to the inside line and got beside him. I had a big run on him, too, so he was able to tuck in right behind me as I passed him and tried to get me back right at the line. I gave him room on the outside but he didn't quite make it. The margin of victory was 0,037 seconds.
I didn't even look at my fuel gauge again, but I suppose it was red as I took the checkered.
Man, that was an exciting race, probably the most exciting race I've ever been a part of.
Later I calculated how many laps I was short of making it by using the rule of three. It turned out to be about 5 laps. I don't know how I managed to save so much fuel, honestly. lol
Actually I was a little afraid of doing a clean race over 50 laps after such a long time because although there is some bump drafting going on in Dirty NASCAR, the boost is always on high and therefore mistakes like that don't necessarily mean the end of the race. Fortunately, I managed to pull through without major mistakes, although I think that race reduced my life expectancy by about two years. lol
The fuel consumption and tire wear were set to normal, boost was off and we went 50 laps around the track.
In the beginning, we were 12 people racing, but just 11 of us finished because one guy got disconnected halfway into the race.
I started in 7th on racing hard tires and dug my way through the traffic. Nobody really wanted to go very hard because we had just started but I rallied to the front within one lap and led the first one.
The first 10 laps of the race were pretty uneventful until a British guy came up behind me and challenged me for the lead. I decided not to defend my position because we completed just 10 laps, but every time I tried to pass him back, he raced me hard. For example I was running the high line as high as I could (right above the white stripes) and he ran right up to my driver's door every time I got beside him to leave me just a small amount of room. I got a little angry, to be honest, because at that time we were about 10-15 laps into the race, so plenty of laps to go and therefore there was no real need to race me that hard, especially because I gave him the whole track to pass me. But then I thought that it's all about the fun and didn't worry about it too much.
In the end, I cleared him good enough to get in line in front of him and from that moment on I hugged the yellow line.
Apparently, the British guy played another strategy and started on racing softs, so he had to come in quite early.
Now, that I had a little breathing room again I stayed in front and led all the way to lap 35 to pit for fuel and racing softs because my fuel gauge was about to turn red. That is where it got very interesting for me.
Since I didn't race with tire wear and fuel consumption over a distance of 50 laps in half a year, I had no real idea how much fuel I had to put in to be able to finish the race. I knew that I didn't need half a tank because there were just 15 laps to go and I made it to 35 on a full tank of fuel, so I decided to put in 30 liters. And as I left pit road I realized that that was a huge gamble.
To make the situation even worse, I came out on the track when there were two people about 3 seconds ahead of me (a lapped car along with the leader), but nobody miles behind me.
So I had to do what I had to do in order to save as much fuel as I can: balls to the walls to try to get up to the two people drafting.
Luckily, they made a huge mistake coming out of turn 2, which allowed me to catch their draft good enough to reel them in. I wasted two laps catching up to them, going full throttle and found myself on lap 38 not having saved any fuel.
At that point it was time to save as much fuel as possible because I didn't have a clue about how many laps I was short of making it to the checkered. I went in their slipstream at half throttle, three-third throttle and sometimes full throttle to catch back up closely to their bumper again and somehow managed to keep the draft. I knew it was gonna be awfully close.
As we crossed the line to go on our last lap I looked at the fuel gauge a last time (didn't look good) and said to myself that it was all or nothing. I put the pedal to the metal and planned to challenge the leader coming into turn 3. I feinted right and he covered my move, but I anticipated he was gonna do that so I cut back to the inside line and got beside him. I had a big run on him, too, so he was able to tuck in right behind me as I passed him and tried to get me back right at the line. I gave him room on the outside but he didn't quite make it. The margin of victory was 0,037 seconds.
I didn't even look at my fuel gauge again, but I suppose it was red as I took the checkered.
Man, that was an exciting race, probably the most exciting race I've ever been a part of.
Later I calculated how many laps I was short of making it by using the rule of three. It turned out to be about 5 laps. I don't know how I managed to save so much fuel, honestly. lol
Actually I was a little afraid of doing a clean race over 50 laps after such a long time because although there is some bump drafting going on in Dirty NASCAR, the boost is always on high and therefore mistakes like that don't necessarily mean the end of the race. Fortunately, I managed to pull through without major mistakes, although I think that race reduced my life expectancy by about two years. lol
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