This was a memorial race for Laurie Clemo, or his online alter ego, Ligel Canello. Interestingly, his first online league race was at Interlagos, in January 2007 at GBGPL. Dan, you were in that race! Laurie was lapped then as he often was, but he loved the online experience. He was never a front runner, but always a gentleman on and off the track and became very good at being lapped.
Thank you for letting us know, Andy, I was wondering who the memorial was about!
This was one of the most intense races I've had a very long time! Knowing well Dimitar's affinity for Interlagos, even though this is the old version, I knew he was going to be strong and difficult to beat here. I wasn't helped at all of the starts by my long 1st gear, which I found worked better in the slowest corners, so I found myself trailing the top 4 down the straight after T2. Geoffer's Porsche was a rocket, so it took some time finding a place to pass him and then to manage to stay ahead.
Catching up and passing Erland was a different story though. He was really quick and made no mistakes, so I had to get very close and brake later to snatch 2nd. Fortunately for me he made a small error behind me and dropped a few seconds back, so he lost the slipstream and couldn't counter attack.
By now Dimitar was a few seconds in front and as much as I tried, we were just about evenly matched. It was only after tyre wear started to make a difference that I could gradually reel him in. Overtaking him though was next to impossible. He was very fast out of the corners that led onto the longer straights, and he also took defensive lines whenever I made an attack. I had no other choice but to back off and focus on getting another good exit. We had several side by side moments, but Dimitar was always had the better position and I didn't want to take too big of a risk so early in the race.
Shortly before the pitstop window I went wide in that narrow right-left combination (start of second sector I think), spun on the grass and lost about 10 seconds. Managed to claw back 4 of those, before Dimitar went into the pitlane for his stop. I had fueled my car to the maximum, because I didn't figure out the consumption in advance. The problem now was, what if he changed his tyres and start catching me up in the laps I still had left before my planned pitstop? I thought of not changing tyres, but I was already 3 seconds a lap slower, despite having a lighter car, plus it the traction under acceleration just kept getting worse. I decided to stop earlier, with 11 to go, and change tyres too.
Unfortunately I didn't stop where I'm supposed to, even though it didn't seem that way. I had to go back and forth a few times, losing about 10 seconds in the process. By the time I was out on track, Dimitar was 20 seconds in front. I set off in a crazy pursuit, taking risks absolutely everywhere, and this seemed to work for awhile, especially after Dimitar lost some 4 seconds due to his situation with Bob. Once the gap reached 10-11 seconds though, it stabilized and he did some very fast lap times, so I could only take a few tenths off him, for about 2-3 laps. I also lost 2 seconds at one point by having a minor off, so that didn't help my cause.
Once tyre wear become a factor again in the final 4-5 laps, I suddenly took big chunks off his lead and reduced it down to 5 seconds. This is where I allowed myself to imagine winning the race, losing focus for a bit, and the car surprised me by getting sideways in a place where it has never done before, at least not to that extent - in the double left after the long straight. It slid towards the inside, I overcorrected, and that sent me towards the outside at a very high speed. Went over the curb and slammed straight into the steep banking. I was expecting the car to go over the banking and flip violently, but instead it just decelerated to 0 and even flew backwards a bit. No damage done to the suspension, engine was OK, so I could continue and just cruise during the last 3 laps.
Well done to Dimitar for a well-deserved victory, it was a pleasure to battle with you! Congrats Erland for 3rd, you must have had a rather lonely race. Congrats to everyone else who survived this long race and to all who were courteous while being lapped, especially Geoffers who was otherwise very fast in the BMW and had to basically lift off to let me through.
The physics on these cars seemed very realistic, so I hope we can eventually do more races with them or similar ones in the future.
