No don't be silly.  Look ebbs and flows happen in every championship, that's how it goes.  I certainly don't want anyone to start handicapping themselves (further), so you should definitely take the MK4 to Le Mans.  I also noticed I was changing down too aggressively at Rd Atlanta (my wheel obscures the rev dial) as well, which likely caused the engine to break (just before half distance     ).

Hacked off about that one.  The neighbors heard some choice swear words after I got tipped over in turn 1.  Haven't watched the replay yet but as Greg spun I was trying to stay as inside as I could, but the Ferrari seemed to just stay in the center of the track, and when I clipped it I got launched.  Stop and go put me last, and it took a while to calm down.  But I started putting in some solid consistent laps, and the f^%$ing engine blew.  Bah.


Well done to Carlos for the win. 

Congrats to Greg, had terrific pace. 

It was a strange race, I think I basically chose the wrong tactics.  My start was ok, buzzed my engine accidentally off the line which made me wince but no damage done.  Greg pitted on lap 2 from the lead to do his stop and go, and I thought briefly about following him in but decided to stick to my game plan.  I figured two stops back to back in the middle of the race would lose less time than two stops spread out.  Plus I was concerned if catching up from behind you could get caught up in battles instead of catching the lead pack.  But from my perspective tucked in behind Axel I could watch Greg through Prib and I could see he was making time handily.  I think about then I figured it was his race to win.

For me this was a tense race with right side tyre temperatures, I was watching them as much as the track.  A few laps before my stop when I was lapping Jani I accidentally burned my right front taking too much speed on the wrong line into the turn.  The tyre wouldn't cool down and I started battling understeer.  I'd made a note to myself to not spin the wheels after my pitstop because it would cook the rears but now I ignored that note when I finally came in, and spun them up on exit to try and regain the balance.  Thankfully it worked and the car returned back to a good neutral feel.  But by then it was all over, Greg had swept past to lead to the end.  I dunno about this speedway business...

Hmph.  I shoulda stayed in bed.  No idea how I got awarded 3rd place.  I love this track but I have to say, I don't think I like it much    Didn't do enough testing with changes to the setup from the last race, car still twitchy as all hell, actively trying to kill me at every corner.  Got nudged off at Eau Rouge and then had a big crash on catching up to other cars into Stavelot.  Reset and managed to put together a few consistent laps but front tyres started to overheat in places.  Finally skidded off and gave up.  Congrats to Greg and commiserations to Doni, Axel, well everyone else really.

Ha, you can't fool me I knew it was you   I thought I could stay ahead until I hit a wall near Campofelice which gave me horrible understeer when trying to turn left.  That let you catch right up in time for the long straight but at least I could get a draft down there.



Ah, I set my fifth gear by going the wrong way out of the pits and doing the short stretch to the straight in reverse!  Then I can run down the straight, and back again to the pits.

Congrats to Greg, very fast today.  I screwed up my qualifying by bashing a wall and bending something, then screwed up at the start when the car womballed off weirdly onto the grass.  Walter I think did the same and sent me onto a fence so I had to burn a reset there.  Managed to get past Axel when he had a moment (sorry for the bump there, GPL rather over-reacted to that small bump when I was trying to dodge.) then had a good dice with Dean.  Once I got to second I tried to just relax and concentrate at the same time.  Such a challenging relentless track.  Axel chased me all the way home but thankfully I didn't make any big mistakes, and the few nudges I gave the Lola didn't seem to hurt it any.  Points on the board.

Congrats Axel!  That was a really great fight.  Shame I lost but I feel good cause it was a great battle.  I got a screen freeze in qualifying so not sure if patch has worked.

I went off on lap one at the end of the Mulsanne and had to hustle a bit to get back to the lead pack.  By the time I got back to second Axel had got a long way away, but as I went down the Mulsanne I picked up a tow even though I couldn't see him.  I had the Ferrari geared to do 200 mph by itself but I was getting about 204 or so.  Then the next lap I could only get 199.  Next time same thing, and I thought maybe I had engine problems!  Then Axel must have had a bit of a slide or something because as we came out of Tetre Rouge I was closer, and I could see the 2F in the distance, and I saw he was on the right side of the track!  That was why the draft hadn't been working    

Anyway, I caught up and we had a brilliant fight, passing and repassing lap after lap.  Second to last lap Axel passed me into Mulsanne but I could stay alongside and get a better exit - we went side by side into the start of Indianapolis and at the left hander I could see a big hole on the inside to dive into but I thought no wait, leave it to the last lap.  So last lap, same thing, and as we came into Indianapolis there's the hole, and I dived in with both feet, got a great run out and I thought that's it, I've won!  I braked hard into Arnarge and somehow, don't know how, Axel came charging up the inside and managed to brake and turn the car on the inside line!  Amazing move.  He got the run out of there and I couldn't get him back.  Tried to fling the car through the last corner but got too much grass and spun.  Anyway, good stuff.

Oops.  I thought that was the accepted procedure from the original post - and at that point I wasn't sure if we were actually racing or just qualifying.  I think I was actually watching Doni on Prib to see that it wasn't just me finishing the qual lap by myself.  Sorry about that Doni.  I shouldn't have bothered anyway, I was far too rusty to drive the track without hitting something every minute anyhow.

Congrats to Greg for the win!

Wow, terrific track selection!

Ha!

I actually had changed the setting to 128000 the night before as I couldn't load a CA66 AI race on the track.  But I still got that message when I tried to attach to the server.  So I tried 10000, and that worked.

Thanks for replay file!

Well that was a very tense race for me.  At the end of qualifying Greg punched in a 3.18 so I expected him to be super-fast.  Sure enough he took off on the first lap, but then spun into La Source.  I had Axel breathing down my neck for a while, then suddenly Greg again charged past!  But he went onto the grass, so for a time I was comfortable in the lead, but then Greg started coming back at me again, and the last 7 laps were a tough fight to lose as little time as possible per lap.  Managed to make it across the line, very good race.  

I had to disable the replay setting to load the track, so I couldn't save a reply - is anyone else having trouble with the replay link button above?

Hmm, GT races with pitstops sounds pretty interesting.  But I'm a sucker for the GT cars anyway 

Congrats Tom, you were like on another level, I couldn't keep up.  Fairly uneventful race for me, car is a bit better under braking but still unsteady.  Server lost track of me after a few laps but i see the results are correct - cheers!

Interesting information, thanks Tom!

Yeah that was great.  I learned a lot working on the setup for this race, and the car is a lot more stable now.  But yes it's still a bit active under braking.  I fell back to 4th and had to settle down and catch back up again, but I had a great top speed.  Very happy!