Congrats Mark and Doni!
It's hard to get better luck than that. After two spins, my best hope was a solid 3rd.
I got a new slipstream free pb in qualifying.
I ran the same setup as last time except I changed 5th gear from 2.94 to 3.02. It's shame I didn't get to test it well.
I would have liked to qualify in front of Axel. That would have assured I could lead into T1 easily. Instead I just barely beat Mark to the turn and ran wide hitting the wall, not an ideal start.
Probably shouldn't have tried to get in Mark's tow when he retook the lead. I didn't realize how much that would put Axel in jeopardy.
Once we were through Mulsanne safely. I was pleased. Unfortunately I'd miss my braking point for Indianapolis. The way I needed to turn into the right hander would have caused a collision with Axel. I hit the wall too hard. I thought I could have damaged the car but I wasn't sure.
I was still in the tow but on lap 2 I wondered why Axel was pulling away from me accelerating out of Tertre Rouge. In the Amon Memorial in Mark's tow I was faster to 170mph. I just figured, it must be he was in Mark's tow.
A quick 180 at Mulsanne had me wondering again if the car was damaged. I never thought about damage again. I lost the tow from the 180. With no tow to shorten my race time, I quickly got my stop and go out of the way. The pit stop at the midpoint was trouble free too.
Later though, I thought I was driving good laps. I noticed my top speed was only 196 mph. I expected to see 199 mph at some point. I thought it was my racing gearing slowing me down. I also noticed I was consistently .8 seconds slower in S2 and .6 seconds slower in S3.
The car seemed to drive fine the entire race except for the 180 at Mulsanne. Why was I approximately 2 seconds slower for most of the race?
3m19.060s
Greg 67GT Taber - spotters reporting:
minor problems with left front suspension.
the car has an engine problem.
It's a little surprising Mark and Axel's luck was much worse than mine.
Thanks guys.