Managed a good start jumping maybe 5 people on the first lap and then settled into a battle with DA6righthand. At one point it was actually an ARTA team civil war as we were running in a line of three, but I managed to get myself up top. By the time I pitted for the first time I was up to 5th and stalking Adventuruss, but all the while this was happening Paginas had pitted two laps earlier and managed to get past me when I got out of the pits.
The whole of the second stint I was just trying to keep up with Paginas but at this point of the race my lack of practice and overall pace was starting to show. Paginas' subaru was getting farther and farther away and more and more people started ringing my doorbell to get past.
After the third stop, Paginas came out in front again but this time I wasn't going to let him get away. We were locked in a classic Tsukuba battle, where you just pound round and round the track for what seems like ages, taking literally centimetres out of your opponent and trying to keep the pressure on as much as possible, and during this time I really started to learn the track a bit and managed to clock my best lap (a woeful 55.2). Then one small mistake saw me lose 2 metres which felt like a huge setback and I had to start piling on the pressure once again.
I knew for me to have any chance of beating Paginas I should pit one lap before him for my last pit stop, but I had no data as to how long I could run with one set of tyres so I was really biting my nails, twice already moving to the right to pit but then aborting at the last second because I was just too scared of running out of tyres with 2 laps to go. Then finally I saw Paginas pit and was really beating myself for not pitting one lap earlier.
Then on the last stint I knew my only chance was to just attack Paginas with everything I had but I didn't have much.
My offence was already looking bad but then I collided with Z-Crazy and damage to the left front ended that attack. In the dying embers of the race I then lost concentration for a bit, took the "offroad line" out of the last turn and hit one of those seemingly soft looking Tsukuba cubes and damaged the left rear as well.
Now I had an extremely sensitive car and Jashugan in my mirrors too which resulted in a fierce battle of me trying to desperately defend my position with just three wheels on my wagon. It didn't take long for Jash to get past me and I finished in a somewhat disappointing 8th place. Had I pitted one lap earlier against Paginas (and not collided with Z-Crazy) it would've been a completely different race, but thinking about such things is useless.
Still, having 15 guys battle it out in these tight quarters made for great fun. I think I was side by side with someone in every metre of the track and everyone was being sensible in their overtaking attempts.
I'm still struggling to find the good qualitites of the Garaiya. It turns into corners really well but even at Tsukuba I was struggling to exploit it since every time I managed to get out of T1 side by side with someone, they always had the power to keep the position. Too late to switch car now, so I guess I'll try to learn the secrets of this car for the next race.
PS. Sorry for hitting someone's front with my rear corner near the Dunlop sign early in the race.
PPS. I really hate to be moaning about anything since it's always so good to race with you guys but Z-Crazy you can't take the whole width of the track to rejoin after a spin especially if you have so much damage (which means you aren't really fighting for position). It's difficult to negotiate a moving chicane and you could've easily reversed a couple metres on the grass and then rejoined from the edge of the track instead of going all the way across the track.
