The air's been cleared and earlier, hard worded posts are now deleted
Even though there were rumblings some would go for the 917 in this race, I didn't want to 'waste' one on a track I'm not crazy about - there are others later in the series I'd rather save it for.
The 908 was the fastest of the middle bunch for me and thus became my choice. Surprised to grab the lead at the start, and to make it through T1, where Geoffers did what I traditionally do on this track, when he ran wide on cold tyres. Predictably lost the lead later that lap, when Fulvio came past in his much quicker 917. The rest of them soon followed. However, for most of the first half, I alternated between 2nd, 3rd & 4th place, as the 917-boys kept falling off, only to come roaring past on the straight/oval bits, whenever they ended up behind me.
Was 3rd when I arrived at the pits on L17. Matt was already there, so had to tiptoe around him to get into my stall. He was still there when I left after a full service. Rejoined 4th, but advanced as cars ahead pitted. Suspected I was in the lead, but didn't know for sure - I don't use XD's driver list, and the other XD display was smack on top of the pit board. Thus the only value I could see with certainty, was the gap to the car behind. It was around 20 secs, but shrinking. Didn't know who was chasing me - suspected it was Geoff, as the rate with which the gap dropped, seemed consistent with the difference of our lap times in qual.
Feared any of the 917s might come storming through and take huge chunks out of the gap, so had to go as fast as possible, but not fall off. Thus a lonely, but very concentrated 2nd half.
Grats to the other podium finishers in the 3 classes, and commiserations to all who met with misfortune; not least Clive, who has way too much grief, considering his brand new rig. Have very limited Win10 experience myself, and none with games, so can't offer any advice