That was fun! It's the first time I've driven the GTs here. Interesting choice Axel. It could have been more fun if I practiced and Tristan had loaded enough fuel.
I thought it was a rather ugly race from my point of view. I started good but once Tristan made a mistake, I started making mistakes too. I couldn't drive consistently after lap 4. I spun 2 or 3 times. I lost it in the same turn two laps in a row. One time, it flipped Tristan.
My apologies Tristan. I was a passenger at that point. I hit the banking hard another time too. I was very surprised that didn't roll the car. I hit the banking a few times shortly before the long straight too. I thought I had damaged my car but I didn't realize the extent of it until Doni mentioned it. I used a longer 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear for the race. I didn't think the engine would tolerate the gear set I used in practice. The long 5th gear really helped to keep up with Tristan early in the race.
I was shocked at the start Tristan made. I thought my start could have been better but I didn't think it was bad either. Early in lap 2, I began thinking, "how the heck is Tristan so fast!?" After another lap I began suspecting he had not loaded enough fuel. After 3-4 laps my tires were warm and it was getting easier to keep up with Tristan. On lap 5 Tristan made a mistake at the last turn. I thought, "This is it. I've got this one." But I spun at the last turn. When Tristan reset, I thought he needed fuel but I wasn't sure his engine hadn't exploded. At some point later in the race I still wasn't sure he was light on fuel. When I lost it and wrecked him, I felt terrible thinking he might be heavy on fuel again. I'm glad that forcing him to reset did not matter a great deal since he only loaded 4-5 laps of fuel. My inconsistency and Tristan's regular refueling probably made things more interesting for Axel. It gave him somebody to chase many times through the race. I waited for Tristan once but when made another mistake, I drove off, hoping to set fast lap. It's very pleasing to set that lap with only 1 of 14 shifts being a speed shift.
I didn't use the patch during the race. I didn't want to use it without testing. I tried it after the race. It corrected my tire temps in pribluda. It seemed to make braking for the last turn easier too. And I seemed more consistent. I ran a faster lap but I think that's because of minor setup changes and more practice. I'll test it more to see if I think there's any difference in lap times. At this point, I think the patch may make me a little slower but more consistent.
I hope Doni's eyes start feeling better. I wish I could think of something that might help you. It didn't hurt your consistency. Nice job with that!
Heaven only knows what you'd manage with a fit car!
At this point, I'd guess high 2:03s are possible. I've got far too little experience to know the limits yet. It's something I will explore further. There's no telling what kind of lap might be possible here with a good tow. This mod and track combination interests me. I'll surely drive it more.
Thanks guys. Even though it got rather ugly at times, I enjoyed it a lot.
