I had a great race last night, shame I messed up in T1 about 5 laps in and gave Navin a run on me - It quickly became clear that the main reason he was struggling to get close was due to the attentions of Lorenzo!
As soon as Navin was past I was faced with the same problem and seemed to loose my ability to lap fast consistently
After a lap or so I made an error and Lorenzo snuck by aswell leaving me to fend off Legzy, who had the initial advantage (I think I must have slightly cooked my tyres fighting Navin and Lorenzo) until I finally got it together enough to open a small gap on him.
Legzy pitted at about the halfway point while I still had plenty of fuel and decided to stay out for a few more laps in the hope of minimizing pit time.
I don't know who made the 275's fuel guage but they did a fine job of replicating Italian electrics.
The Fezza was showing full for the first 5 laps or so before the guage then started on a rapid nosedive towards empty - I foolishly took this to mean I was getting better milage than the setup screen predicted so removed a few liters from the preset top-up.
I also didn't change tyres this time around having lost time at Road America due to an accidental full change - This time It cost me as although I left the pits in 2nd (From 3rd) Lorenzo caught me at about warp factor 9.
With a few laps to go and my tyres starting to show signs of imminent death Legzy caught me again - instead of the protracted battle of the first half he wafted past me within a few corners this time while I could only watch...
MJ started to worry me towards the end of the race when my tyres were well and truely worn out (would be curious to see my final lap times
) but then he suddenly dropped back after getting to about 5 seconds of me.
This was especially lucky as I'd spent the final 3 laps short shifting and coming off throttle early to preserve my remaining fuel vapours (Fuel light started blinking about 1/3rd of the way into the penultimate lap!
), after finishing I switched to the outside view and discovered I had all of 0.2 of a gallon remaining, so very lucky to make it!
I am now totally amazed that I appear to be 3rd in the championship
That won't last
Brilliant racing with those I battled with - Esp Legzy who managed not to punt me whenever I had a minor wobble just after Lorenzo got by