A great race and result for me! (although it means I'm gonna eat some pies for the next round
I have a lot of experience at Road Atlanta, but it's mostly from the Historic version for GPL or from the somewhat different version in Forza - As a result I recon it took almost as long to adjust as it would take to learn a new track!
Saw the FMG group up ahead and tried to close them down, only to get too much kerb at the Esses and get thrown into the gravel.
This made me giggle - I took a gamble in my setup in the closing minutes of practice and as a result was nothing more than a hanger-on until the final 15 minutes
I'd noticed during practice both on and offline that whenever I made a small error or just pushed really hard my rear tires would start edging into the red temperature wise, which made me question how good they'd be towards the end of the race. Normally the mediums are fine after 40 mins but I had a nagging doubt...
So with about 12 mins left on the server I chucked some Hards on to see how they compared. Amazingly I was doing almost the same lap speed as before, but better was the fact that the car was moving around more consistently than on mediums and it was no longer possible to overheat my tires. I stayed out on them for the remainder of practice to see if any changes were needed and decided to risk using them in the race.
Qually wasn't great, I kept messing up. Based on times done previously I should have started around 4th or 5th with last nights qualifying results (which are very close I notice!).
The start of the race was therefore extra hard, as I was right in the middle of the pack and having the added problem of trying not to bin it on the cold Hards. Even watching the replay I'm not sure how Mark managed his faultless pass up the inside towards T1 - he must have gone 3 wide because I was on the outside of another car while this was going on and got very confused when I next glanced at the leader boards
I got a fairly easy pass on Felix (I think) early on when he ran wide onto the S/F straight and then seemed to let me by easy rather than make me work for T1. This was about when the Hards were starting to work so I was able to then start catching the 3-way battle between Simon, Manteos, and NSFW ahead. Manteos got clear around when I caught Simon, leaving a 3 car train which I think stayed closely together for about 30 minutes.
NSFW was warping slightly which might have explained Simon's' difficulty in passing, that or they were just too evenly matched (My own problem against Simon for most of the race).
At about 15 mins to go it started to become clear that the guys in front were having to work to maintain pace - so I stepped up and pushed harder. Simon made an error onto the S/F straight which was big enough for me to nab him cleanly before T1.
3 or 4 laps later NSFW made a smaller error which allowed me to get up the inside before T1 - I would probably have had to back out but for the backmarkers ahead. Who rather conveniently were on the left side of the track
So I got a free pass again
By this point I knew my car was faster so just pushed a little to make space (nearly ran wide onto the back straight and gave the place back). Another 2 laps later and I was comfortably clear and pulling away.
The only excitement left after that was when everything suddenly went quiet as I passed under the bridge on the final lap - I hadn't had a chance to watch my fuel through the race and had run out! Luckily the 599 must apply the auto-clutch or something as even stuck in 4th I managed to coast across the line just ahead of NSFW. If the line had been more normally placed towards the end of the straight I'd have finished 4th it was so close......
Well done Jeffery and Manteos, and it's also nice to see Syd joining us - shame you missed the Lotus 25's last year.