Qualifying didn't quite work, as I thought I had pole with 27.3 but ended up starting all the way from the back. Climbing through the ranks on the first lap and being in the thick of it on the Mulsanne was great though, and there were no big incidents.
By the start of the 3rd lap I caught up to the leading two Jaguars which initiated a nice fight with JoeOfTheFire. On the lap after that, Spurgy made a small mistake which meant I was in the lead. The Jaguars didn't give up, working together on the straight. Seeing a "double arrow" on my map, closing in on me fast made me really scared.
The tyres of the Ferrari were burning fast, so Spurgy was able to do longer stints. We were always pitting at different times so it was hard to tell who was in front and by how much.
Eventually I managed to build a gap upto 45 seconds, but then one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced in GT5 happened. These are old cars and never very reliable which became apparent as I was really losing top speed on the Mulsanne. My lap times were tumbling, managing high 28s at best, and the Jaguars were gaining fast. I was really nervous, and started pushing even more to try and keep them at bay, and eventually managed to somewhat stabilize the gap at around 35 seconds. With a drop of fuel left in the tank and almost no rear tyres, that's how we finished.
This was the first time I was in an organized race like this where people had mics and it was great, especially during qualifying. Hearing important information from the smooth-voiced Furinkazen during the race was also really nice, almost like having a race director or a commentator. These things cobbled together with the "reliability problems" (after the race the oil had turned dark, though it was in too good a condition to be changed before the race, go figure) made this race truly special, and I'd like to thank everyone who took part in it.
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