A quick Monaco report for me, after a big congratulations to Dom in his Lexus! Top job on the double victory out there and fastest lap! Also, a typically impressive drive from Tony again in his fat GTR, way to go guys 👍
After not finding time to run any practice, I eventually got on track 2 hours before the qualifying deadline and managed to set the car up, then put a few runs together to get comfortable for qualifying. This went much better than anticipated and I was able to claim 3rd in my NSX!
With my qualifying tune, the race would have been a 4 stopper for sure, but after a 13 lap test race with Dom and Bro' literally hours before flag drop (at silly'o'clock in the morning
) I thought a 3 stopper might be possible. I tweaked the car a little more to ease rear tyre wear and got to bed for a few hours of much needed sleep.
Woke to glorious sunshine and a cool sea breeze, perfect for racing! The race went as planned from the green light and I was able to hold 3rd as I watched Tony and Dom disappear into the distance. Luckily for me, I think Bro' and Pag' were battling hard behind and maybe made a couple of small mistakes to give me some breathing room. I was short-shifting a lot to ensure my tyres would last and running a consistent pace with only minor wall rubs to note. Ran stints of 14,13,13,14 to complete the 3 stopper with no drama and more importantly, no damage! The gap back to Bro' in 4th seemed to remain around the 15s mark for most of the race, which was comfortable for sure. Ran a best lap of 1'32.0xx without really pushing and was delighted to stand on the podium at a round Team Stealth driver, GTP_Welsh-Bain was dreading
The sprint race was a whole different story. Crazy, crazy, crazy Monaco!!
lol
Started back in 9th and planned to just follow for 3-4 flying laps, then pit and push hard. Got damaged on lap 3 with a multi-car incident (I believe someone had a disagreement with a wall) causing 3/4 of us to pit at the end of the lap. Returned to track, only to take some minor suspension damage to both fronts after a silly mistake which pretty much ruined any chance I had of backing up my Race 1 result. But, Monaco being Monaco, I soldiered on and was very lucky to squeeze through the carnage left by Tony and Rees, which also hurt Paul and promoted me to 5th, with Pag' in my sights for 4th. Wasn't closing in at all though due to my limping NSX, so resigned myself to the 5th place, when next thing I know, Pag is crabbing down the road and through I go to 4th. Drove to the flag for an overall podium position on a day I was not looking forward to at all.
A great result for Team Stealth NSX racing driver, GTP_Welsh-Bain who is now very much looking forward to Monza