Ok, so race report time..
Quali:
I did not expect a good result despite my car. All races/qualis I've evr done here have been bad in one way or the other.
What surprised me the first couple of practice laps was that I felt really quick, and managed some corners really well that I've had trouble with gettig right in the past..
I looked at my lap time, and it said 3:50.336.. I looked at the time for a few seconds. Decided to go back in the register and dig up some WSGTC times from this track. Sure, in WSGTC the NSX had 540 bhp and 610 pp, but just as some kind of benchmark.
The fastest lap in that WSGTC race was 3:51.6XX, done by GTP_w-g-e. So by then, I knew my pace was good. So decided to quali instantly.
Got a 2:37.908, and the pole in WSGTC with previous stated specs was 2:38.4XX. Super hapy with my time.
What was a bit sad was that Brock left us, and Aderrrm went out drinking.. I soooo much wanted to compare that time with them, even though I know they had ballast, it would've been fun to see the difference. But either way, my first pole was a fact!!
Anyway, on to the race.
I felt extremely confident during the formation lap, and I decided to floor it right between the first 2 chicanes as I thought most expected me to wait as long as possible.
It was a success. Drivers behind me were in sleep mode.. lol
But I did ofc not get a big enough gap to cut the slip. So when finally reaching my breaking point prior 2nd chicane, the driver behind me had a lot of speed, and breaked while in my slip. He could not stop his car, and I got heavy engine damage..
But I did not get that mad actually.. So as I drove down towards the Mulsanne hairpin, cars was passing by.. wrooom, wrooom, wrooom, wrooom.. It felt like 1000 cars passed me.. But in reality, half the field passed me before Mulsanne, and the rest passed me before reaching Indianapolis.
I think I was not dead last, cause RedReevos had a visit in the sand pit in Mulsanne, but he passed me pefore the Porsches.
Red was also damaged, so him and me drove out on lap 2 together. I had a good feeling, cause him and me get along well on track. But boy was I stupid.. Going behind him, in to chicane nr1, I breaked too late, so I bumped him pretty bad. I had no damage, but I was so mad at myself for making such a mistake. It took me half a lap to get over it and get my pace up. So as I'm getting my pace up, we're now going out on lap 3, and a bunch of driver sit in the pits. I assume a big crash must've happened.
GV comes out of the pits ahead of me, bu behind RedReevos.
But I played it cool in the first sector, cause the draft would help me to pass him either way. Then, while slipstreaming GV out on Mulsanne straight, he moves left, so I do to, cause I felt I could slip him for 2 more seconds before passing.. And BAM!!!! From nowhere, I rear end him really hard.. (On Mulsanne??, should've been a bump at most imo). So I recieve damage to both my front suspentions.
By this time, I was like "MAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!". lol
What surprised me was that I did'nt need to pit, cause the car felt ok to drive. It was not a case of when the car want to zig zag.. It went straight, and corners was ok, so decided to stay out.
Me and RedReevos did som co-work during lap 3-5, but he lost it in chicane nr 1, so there I was, alone..
I pitted at lap 7. Was going for the 2 stop strategy (not counting my stop on lap 1), so it was a 1 - 7 - 15 race (shortened the 1st stint due to the damage).
Before I got out on track after my stop at lap 7, 4 cars pased me. tony, OwensRacing, Ansem29 and 1 more, Litchi perhaps..
Going out on lap 8, my car felt like dream.. Was totally different.. Cought up to OwensRacing by lap 10, and by lap 11 I passed a bunch sitting in the pits.
It got dark around this time as well.
I really tryed to push for some fast laps, but with an overtake (OwensRacing) by lap 10, and darkness on it's way, I decided to stay safe.
At this point I was not sure at all about what strategy people was at..
Eventually, I found my self behind Joshua1994, Paginas and Litchi. I was not close enough to reach their draft, but I thought that I soon would. But josh had just been in the pits, so he had fresh tires on his YMS, so I just stayed at the same distance for a few laps.
And by lap 14, I lost Joshua since my 2bd stint was 8 laps due to pitting early (lap 7) because of damage, so my tires in combination with the darkness kept me from pushing it. Every time I got close to Joshua, I lost grip in the front, so it was really dangerous imo.
So comming to lap 15, I was close to Paginas and Litchi. What I was happy about now was that I filled up quite much on my 1st stint (39 liters IIRC), so my second stop was not held up at all due to fuel, but Pag and litchis stops took a few seconds longer. So out on lap 16, I was just seconds behind.
But I did not gain on them initally. Perhaps team yellowhat worked together, or just had a good pace. But as the laps went by, and still no Joshua (he ran in 1st) in the pits, I fighured he must be on a 1 stopper. So I knew that I would gain prety much time in the end. But in the beginning of my 3rd stint, the small time gain did not seem to be enough.
I eventually overtook Litchi. It was the hairiest overtake ever.. I ran about 3 seconds behind them (pag litchi) approaching Indianapolis.. And all of a sudden, ther's a big cloud of dirt ahead of me. I did not se anything.. This was just before the fast right kink prior Indianapolis, so I just turned right out on the grass.. Thru the cloud, out on the track.. managed to slow the car down going in to Indianapolis, and litchi was behind.. Phewww!!
After that, I cought up to pag by lap 17ish, and when I passed him, I managed to get him off my tail by lap 19 IIRC.
So from here on, it was a fight on a distance with Joshua.. I had 20 seconds to catch up. And had 4 laps to do so (19, 20, 21, 22).. By the end of lap 20, I was starting to believe that I could not catch him fast enough.. But when I crossed the line going out on lap 21, I was 15 seconds behind. I still had good pace, and it was not dark anymore, so I really pushed it here. And the seconds started to drop. Even on Mulsanne straight.
So when reaching mulsanne hairpin on the final lap, I cought up to Joshua. I knew he was on bad tires, so decided to put some pressure. Passed him prior the breakpoint going on to mulsanne, but did not try to overtake, just be close enough to put some pressure. And out of the hairpin, he spun, which gave me a 2-3 second gap. From here on, I made sure to not commit any mistake. So just cruised to the finishline..
My first PURE victory!
Overall, I'm ofc happy with the win, but I could've done much better in the race actually.. My best lap was a poor 3:52.1 I think.. Man, I was 2 seconds faster in practice!! But keeping in mind my damage during stin 1, the darkness in stint 2, and the battleing with litchi and pag on the fresh-tire-side of the stint, I guess I'll have to be ok with that. But with so many fast NSX and YMS drivers out there, I'm not confident at all I'm even top 3 with that time..
Btw: Is it just me, or did you guys feel like the night would never end?
(Literally too)
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