yeehaw ! i was very chuffed to bag another win of the season at another of my fave racing tracks
Couldnt have asked for a sweeter result with Pole position, fastest race lap and the race win
Not bad considering i hadnt done any sim racing since last tuesday due to an urgent contract i bagged !
Had done some praccy on friday and squeezed in a quick half hour about an hour before last nights race but i always seem to go well here even if the results dont come my way. My karting pody at the weekend must have fired me up !!
Qually battle was great, i think there were 4 of us seperated by a few hundreths of a second throughout the session
until Busi did a 1:57:? and that really turned up the pressure. I knew i had managed 1:56's in offline praccy so wasnt about to give up. With about 4.5mins of the session remaining i banged in a 1:57 to grab pole
and after seeing a couple of people disco, took the executive decision to sit in my pit box for the remaining 4 minutes rather than risk a ctd as thought i'd rather risk dropping a couple of places than to the back of the grid. It was a nerve wracking 4mins as i watched the 3 nearest chargers, purds, TT and Busi try to steal my laurels. But nobody did !...Pole Position !!
Race was nerve wracking as hell, i hadnt led a race from pole for a very long time (if ever?) and immediately came under heavy pressure from Busi who i assumed would steam past me on the opening lap with his extra horsepower. But i kept leaving him behind through the twisties and my 7 wing negated the horses a little. After several laps, TT got past him and then my troubles really began !
I knew from past duels in praccy on this track that me and TT are very evenly matched in pace around Dubai as we both like its layout and smooth tarmac flow. He then attacked me constantly for the entire duration of the race usually staying only 0.5 secs behind me apart from about 2-3 laps where i gained a small advantage only for him to close again on the following lap.
It was intense pressure and i was hoping he would make an error or back off a little as after 10-15mins of racing we had a 12 second advantage over the following pack !
I was also worried about my front left tyre wear and really wanted to ease off a little but TT was having none of it
Dont know what TT means about 'wobbly exits' as i didnt put a foot wrong all race and he only got alongside me once or twice at the end of the long back straight under braking
(And its always easier being the chaser
)
The car got a little understeery in the final few laps as the front left wore out but otherwise the 997 felt superb here and i was very chuffed to bag a win and beat the Ferrari in a straight duel to the finish
Congrats to TT for a hard fight and to Legzy for his great podium