If I only had a better setup...
Qualifying after such a long wait stunk. I got a grand total of two clean laps in, but fortunately, gooners went off at T1, allowing me a clean shot at Brock...
...except my car drove worse than a John Deere tractor weighed down by an elephant.
Eventually, Brock pulled away ever so slowly, while Jason got closer at the same rate. By the ninth lap, I was behind by four seconds, and the tires were beginning to fade. Exiting the chicane, I made the drastic move of coming in early, knowing that I have a knack for having a fast pits and subsequent outlap. It worked brilliantly, as I erased the gap. The fight was still on!
For the next few laps, it was driving like a madman as to force Brock into pushing his car as well. There was no way either could keep it up, and I hoped it wouldn't be me taking a beach trip.
Instead, Brock went it too hot at the hairpin, so he deliberately spun it out. I went by, shocked that for the second week in a row, an alien lost it in front of me. For a moment, I thought I had it in the bag.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Thanks to Brock's deliberate spin, he only ended up being 3 seconds behind, and with an ill-handling car, that gap was nowhere close to enough with so many laps to go. Even so, when he caught up, there was no way I was ceding the spot. Today was my birthday, and I wanted to win, dammit!
Unfortunately, I drove way too hard, so naturally, not only did I lost Brock's draft, Jason was hunting me down with fresher tires. The last lap, I all but blew it at the hairpin with the car going straight. I really had to work the brakes, and put maximum wheel, but I avoided a sandy vacation.
2nd... well, I finished ahead of Jason. I suppose that's a reasonable gift to myself.
