Arghh, did some practice for tommorow's race, and it was err tonight!
When I saw you on the practice server earlier in the evening, I thought that your parting comment " see you tomorrow" was a little odd. But you were gone before I could remind you that it was already Wednesday
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I'm glad that I did not miss the evenings fun, it was just about my best performance in this series by a mile. My visit to the practice server with Matt was my only pre race practice, but it was a chance to try all of the cars I had available.
The BMW just felt right, straight out of the box. A few tweaks to the setup and some adjustments to braking points and lines and I was clocking 1:46 laps!! The best of the other cars was around 2 secs a lap slower, so I had no problems using up 2 of my BMW drives.
Race 1 was a blast!!
I got a blistering start from 3rd on the grid and almost got inside Ziu at T1, but he closed the door just in time and I nudged his rear. Apologies for that, but he kept control and the lead. The rest of the race was about me chasing Ziu and looking for a chance to pass. I felt that I was a few tenths a lap quicker, but not enough to actually get past safely. I made a few attempts, but backed out before things got messy
My BMW was definitely quicker through The Old Hairpin, so when Ziu made a rare mistake and ran wide, I grabbed the chance to power past. Once I had a 2 second lead it was a case of driving to maintain the gap and not do anything dumb, which is something I have been known to do in the past
Towards the end of the race I had an extra passenger in my car ( well in my computer room! ) A bee was attracted to the desk lamp and monitor and was buzzing around me as the race finished, which was a bit distracting. After the race, the bee vanished and I thought it had gone elsewhere...….but....
Race 2 ( prepare for simracer's excuse #34b
)
Geoffers had hooked up his Porker and Ziu was out for revenge after the first race, so the start was going to be crucial. Geoffers got his Porsche off the line well and it looked like I was going to be following him for a while. Then I think Geoffer's interest in botany took over ? He must have spotted a rare Orchid in the grass by the barriers and he turned sharp
left right to go and inspect this little gem??
I wish he had signalled his intention to exit stage
left!right! because I had nailed the gas pedal in my Beemer and was aiming to be right on his tailpipes into T1...that certainly caused a little ring flutter from where I was sitting!!
So suddenly I was leading Race 2
, with Ziu now chasing me in 2nd place. I pushed hard in the first laps to try and get a comfortable gap so that Ziu could not make any attacks. Everything was under control until about lap 10? The gap had stretched to around 3 secs and I was just beginning to think that I might make it 2 wins??. Then my passenger made a re-appearance!!
and was a little angrier than before
I swatted the little buzzer away once or twice but trying to dodge a bee whilst keeping a BMW, with worn tyres, going in the right direction proved a challenge. The more attention I gave the insect the more it came back to bother me?? Ziu took full advantage of my erratic driving and closed the gap. My lap times were dependent on keeping my lines smooth and accurate, but swatting a bee away whilst powering through the Melbourne Loop is not good and I managed to over work the left rear tyre and put it into the infra red spectrum...….Ziu closed the 3 sec gap and got past!!!
With the hot rear tyre I could not get the power down out of corners and trying to drift through the faster corners was impossible. Ziu got his revenge and I guess that even in real world racing insects play a part sometimes??? lol
Grats to Ziu and all finishers and commiserations to Geoffers...hope the flower was worth it