What can one write if everything's already written?
Had zero practice since upper endurance race, joined practice server an hour before the race itself and... went to have my dinner. Then had some sort of naive "let's fix the setup from the last race" thingie sessions which lasted right into the quali session (experimental setup minus fuel=quali setup, giggle) but that made it even more unstable. Finally I gave up, realising med-med is probably not the way to do the quali anyway so on with soft-soft combo, guesstimating correct tyre pressure and did a 1.10.5, wondering where did that time come from since it was a 3 mistakes lap.
No idea, but who cares. Looking at the quali times after the race made me wonder even more, I guess no one did a clean lap. Bah, nevermind, what matters was a close quali, don't you just love that when it happens?
Race started in a classic setting with TT in front of me. This time I was determined I shall not punt him off in opening stages and that, of course, amounted to a certain MJ all over my diffuser... and then some.
Don't you dare to report that contact MJ, wasn't your fault, I've reacted to Baracus/FreQ/TT cut throat thing that they had in T1, altering my braking point and entry line so you had nowhere to go. Just a racing stuff, forget it.
Following the colourful snake around the track gave me a headache, to hell with those lambo engine noises, it was insane! Oh well, at least it remind me I have a dentist appointment end of this week.
Anyway, as the race progressed I thought to myself "OK, no mistake - no pass. Good. So let's not make one, shall we?" Was sure the order in front (P2-P6, I was running 7th at the time... I think) was not the correct one, had a feeling Baracus was faster then Mo and Gazza were but I was hoping they'll be able to stick to it and not make any mistakes. Reasoning was simple - I was sure all the cars in front of me were more or less faster when running in clean air, hence it was a must they stay stuck to each other in order for me to keep up, planning to go medieval on them in last 10 laps when their front softs go bye-bye. My race pace in last stages confirmed my suspicions, was running same times as in opening stages.
Then Mo and Gazza had an off and rest of us all went by (I went "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't!" when comming round the corner and seeing Gazza moving towards the track from the run off area, giggle.), Baracus started to pull off, TT finally made it past FreQ (I caught myself several times not really driving the car but watching you guys race. "Stop it, concentrate!" Great fun though.) and the above mentioned snake started to go from a viperish fat animal into looong colourful mamba stuff. Baracus, TT and FreQ pulled in some 5+ seconds lead (I think it got to 9-10 seconds before their tyres went to meet their maker) while...
I had MJ behind me, fighting to find a way around my lambo. Since Baracus/TTFreQ went away I had to adapt my line in T1, T2 and the penultimate corner with a slow entry fast exit stuff to prevent pursuers catching me down the (generously said) straights which I suspect lead to MJ's unfortunate off, I'm pretty sure you were only able to go on full throttle a bit later then usual, giving you an unstable/unpredictable car and that lead to, well, you know...
Then that deep throbbing sound of V8 came to my rear in form of a certain Gingsters. Watching his lines in the mirror gave me confidence, was immediately clear where his weak and strong points were and so I've adapted my lines once again.
Had a bit of a breather when Mo caught up with Gingsters and pulled up a bit of a margin while they did their thing, relaxed a bit, then came the later stages of the race. I could see Bara/TT/FreQ trio in front and realised I'm catching them... well... kind of, but I knew the race will be too short to do any serious damage to their lead, so I simply consolidated on my P5 and waited for the end (while still hoping FreQ will have a hick-up and watching Mo and Gingsters swapping places in my mirrors.
)
Anyway, I'm pleased, good result (albeit not with all the aliens and aliens-soon-to-be around), running high 11s/low 12s with a car on diffuser isn't so bad.
Hey, I think it was my first... spinless race, OK, had some late brakings but otherwise no serious mistakes and it showed... Tarzan happy..
BTW, where's that race lap times thingie?
P.S. This track isn't so bad, I suspect a single make/slow cars race must be a blast. And now... grandmother of them all, university of racing, the mighty Spa. The pinnacle of the season awaits us, gentlemen. Can't wait.