I woke up a bit late today, thought I was going to be one of the last few to the room. To my surprise, the room hadn't opened yet.. and there was talk of delay.
When the room did open, I was able to be the first one in, and the extra time turned out to be good for me, as it allowed me to run a few practice laps. I wanted to see how the tires would hold up. Ran some 85%-90% laps with a best time of 1'29 flat. Figured that would be a decent time at that pace.
I got up to fix a bite to eat before the race and hit the watch race button. I went to the splits section to see what others were running. No one else's splits would show up. I thought that was strange, but I seemed ok when I was on track. I could also see everyone on track, just the timings were being weird.
Race start.. I started approximately 50 meters before the start/finish line. Got a decent start and cleared a little bit of space going into turn 1. By the time I hit the back straight I had a 5 second lead. I thought, oh crap, did I somehow screw up the start again.(Like Spa in the rain). I couldn't have, right?
I ran fairly hard in the beginning to try and clear some more space to those following. Strangely my inital laps were in the 1'30s. I think it was around lap 5 were I finally got a 1'29.9xx. This was strange because I was consistently in the '28s when practicing, and hit a '29 flat at partial pace before the race. My screen was also really choppy with a lot of screen tear. Sort of like the very beginning of races when around 15 other cars. But it wasn't going away.
I just kept running what I thought were good laps, but the times never seemed to match up. Whatever happened behind me at the start, must have really messed a few people up though.. Because at one point my lead increased to 13 seconds.
When I came out of my final pit stop, I was in third. Paul and Wii were in front of me. I started to catch up to them(as they were on worn tires). Paul pulled into the pits before I caught him, and I eventually passed Wii right before he pitted.
At that point I believe I had over an 8 second lead over Tim. I thought I had fresher tires than him, but he started to cut into the lead. He got it down to somewhere in the 5-7 second range... But then, I think his tires started to hold him up, and I was able to maintain a comfortable gap to the finish.
My best lap was a 1'29.5xx. I ran a 1'28.6 in practice with a full tank, and I couldn't even come close to that time, even with minimal fuel in the final stint. I was sure I would be able to come close to a '28 flat today.
After the feature, I asked if I could jump out and back in to see if that would help with my connection. Thanks for trusting me on that guys. I saw Jeff did the same, he must have had a connection bug of some sort as well.
The car felt more normal in the sprint race, and it was fun to be around some cars again. I started 12th, and pretty much just stayed out of trouble, and made a couple of passes when they presented themselves. Most of my advancement was in clean air after people pitted. I managed a fourth place, just barely eeking out Wii on the way to the line.
I found out after the race that Dom, Nige, and Tim got hit with a strange bug in the sprint.. Which really sucked, because all three had great pace at this track. Apparently their cars just costed through the pits, and displayed their tire choice screen after they had already re-entered the track.
I sure hope that these online issues get resolved soon. I feel really bad for those 3 guys in the Sprint.
I found out after the sprint what happened in the main to give me a head start. That pesky wall on the inside of turn 1 jumped out and bit Dennis. Any of us that have run significant laps at Indy have been bit by that damn thing at least once or twice. It is really tough to judge where that thing is when turning in there... especially if its crowded on entry.
Sorry for the epic ramble...
I am looking forward to next week at Suzuka. I will be a bit of a fatty there, which should be interesting. That track is already a beast, let alone with extra weight and worn tires. Should be fun.
. (His GF best not complain when hes rallying his car home 
)
) 3 If Den opens one
Mule didn't finished the sprint race, don't know why 
. But I use the chase cam so it doesn't bother me too much like you i think.
