Well that was an eventful race!
Not sure what happened, but somehow the first lobby died. I heard I left first, but then I saw a bunch of drivers leaving before the lobby died while I was sitting on the grid. Then in the 2nd lobby hosted by
@GTWelsh, it seemed fine at first, but then people were reporting I was lagging all over the place... Strange things. Because I was lagging all over the place I'd somehow gave
@T5Black damage in the lap going back to the grid. Thus is why I was asking it to restart. I was fine on the stream, which is even more strange, because usually when I warp, I would warp all over the place on stream.
Anyway onto the race. I was clueless about the strategy, but the plan was going for a 2-stop at first with option on a 1-stop starting on RM's and hoping to benefit the faster tire on lighter fuel load in the latter stages. So I fueled more so I could optionally go longer. Somehow we did a 70s start as people were saying they weren't on the gridspot yet when we started. I was rushing things as well to get my revs prepared to launch off the line, so I missed it completely by bogging down.
Following cars on this track is really hard with the dirty air. It was noticeable when going through the technical esses, the front of the car just wouldn't turn in. That happened crucially when I was closing in on backmarker Dr_Hash fast and just veered off track with massive understeer because of the wake of his car. I think I could have had a chance of keeping
@CrazyJohn behind (a bit longer) if it didn't happen.
I got the feeling because I was warping all over the place for some of drivers, they didn't notice me where I was. I got stuck behind backmarkers
@T5Black and Dr_Hash for laps and it was like I was racing them for position... I went past Hash, but just couldn't find a way past T5 all the while my already aged RM's were starting to reach the cliff. I didn't want to lose more time so I pitted for fresh RM's as I had to switch back on a 2-stop now to make my race work. I rejoined back on track right behind Dr_Hash again as he pitted too, but left the pit right in front of me and yet again, I was stuck behind him. I was racing a backmarker like I was racing for position. Before I knew I bumped into him as well on the outlap causing damage to us both.
So I had to pit again to fix the damage, but I felt chances on a good result were gone now. I decided to focus on my own race and get the car safely back home.
Eventually things got interesting as
@fastnloud30 and
@MPincombe had a collision going into the pit, which meant I'd still had a chance on a good result. I stretched my stint on the 2nd set of RM's and made most of them just to keep
@Jomas behind for the time being and hoping his tires (Softs?) would burn up eventually. With 12 laps to go, I pitted and went on to the fast RS tires. Low fuel load and fresh sticky tires meant I was flying on them. Exited 2s behind
@MPincombe on fresher Softs than his meant 5th place was just a matter of laps even though he was the quickest car on track few laps before.
@Jomas was 10s down the road, but I was catching him 2s a lap. Eventually with few laps till the end we had a massive dogfight. One attacking and the other defending with the overtake button on the straights. After a few attempts I knew I had to make it stick or else I would continue shredding those tires behind him. Benefitting of those fresh tires I overtook him around the outside in T1. I knew he would counter attack on the following straight so I defended the inside so he had to go around the outside on worn tires, which meant I would have the upper hand on grip. I was perhaps a little bit too aggressive on defense, but I thought it was hard but fair? I was already on the right side of the track, so I thought surely he isn't going squeeze his way into that gap.
It was a good race despite all the issues. I had fun with the wheel to wheel action with the famous
@Jomas ! Kudos on the hard battle, I don't think I will get a lot of these chances, because mostly you would be gone in the distance in no time!
Also proud on the fastest lap!
Kudos on
@GTWelsh and
@fastnloud30! Without you guys, there won't be any issues, but most importantly there won't be TSR championships! So no worries. We learn while we play!
Kudos as well to
@Hasse R, our Danish Hunt! Brilliant broadcast!