First of all, awesome pictures Longbow!! Look forward to seeing some of the gorgeous Maserati soon too (not in mid-crash though please
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I was the last to pit, losing 5th to Welsh even though he changed tires only a lap earlier and was about 3-5 seconds behind me. Again, just barely missed out on his draft, so I ran alone, watching him catch up to Brock. Then they went single file, pulling away from me, until they caught up to Biffy. Eventually, Brock's tires were gone, and pretty much let me have 5th without a fight.
After closing you down little by little after my early 'off track' excursion, the gap was actually down to about 1.8s when I decided to pit 1 lap earlier than originally planned, so I could get 1 lap on fresh rubber to hopefully catch you after your pit. I believe I may have gained 0.3s too based on our pit 'in laps'. As we were running around 2.5s a lap slower over fresh rubber, I had this advantage for the single lap also, which meant I was able to clear you in the pits....just. I thought you were close enough to grab my 'wind pocket' at first, but I think my warm rubber v's your cold rubber allowed me to get to a gap of about 1.5s clear and break the draft.
So, my race. Started perfect with Konvex Maserati power getting me from 4th to 2nd behind Biffy into turn 1, however as I was a little too aggressive with the cold tyres, the car started to drift without me realizing (she is very graceful you know), so by the time I caught on, time was lost into turn 2 and so were the 2 positions I'd just gained. Going door to door with Brock through turn 3, meant I had to lift and through goes Tony in the Aston. So 4th -> 2nd -> 5th in 3 turns, lol. Then to top it off, I completely missed my braking point into turn 1 with the draft from the train of 4 cars ahead of me (luckily I was able to avoid Tony) and plower straight on, off the track. I waited until it was clear to re-join, which put me dead last and 8.5s down at the next split I saw. From here I just put my head down and was able to catch and pass Green in the M3, then Minion and Pag as they battled in their M3 and Corvette GT4 Cup cars. I began a steady chase of outlaw in his 5th placed Corvette and I was cutting into his advantage a small amount each lap, whilst the gap to the lead pack remained around 8-9s. As above for the next portion of my race, lol.
Once I'd shook outlaw off, I then saw Brock a lot closer to me than I expected (it turns out he'd also been off track), so I pushed to try to get on terms with him. Thankfully, due to the straight-line performance differences of his Camaro and my Maserati, I was able to pass comfortably on the home straight. We diced it up for a few laps, all the time feeling Biffy getting closer to us for a podium fight to the end. Adam and Tony were still around 8s up the road from me having their own epic tussle, so I knew 3rd was the best I could hope for. A few small mistakes from Biffy in the Evora allowed me to pass him down the home straight around the start of lap 23, with Brock going 2 wide with him through the next 4 turns, before his tyres could fight no longer. Couldn't shake Biffy off and after missing my braking point into turn 1 on the penultimate lap, he snuck back through to reclaim 3rd. This gave me a chance to follow for a lap to plan my strategy for the final circuit. I wanted to see if I could draft by him comfortably before the line on the finish straight, but with the strength of the Evora making it through the last turn quicker than me, it was too much to make up by the line, so I took the pass into turn 1 and decided to try to hold on for the lap. I kept it clean, trying to hit apexes on badly worn tyres to not give Biffy in the nimble Evora a chance to sneak through. Side by side through the last 3 corners made it as close as it could be, however I knew the Konvex Maserati had enough in the tank to out drag Biffy to the line for the final Podium spot.
Certainly the best I could have hoped for after my early mistake, but disappointing to have run the final 22+ laps at the same pace as the leaders (8.5s loss due to accident, finishing 10s down at the finish). Great job by Adam and Tony today and a great battle to watch on the replay. I'm pretty sure that even if I was in the fight up front, I would still have finished 3rd to you 2 guys