Unexpected victory for me, because I haven't practiced at all, had no setup and decided to take the Porsche with about 15 minutes left in Qualifying on the server when I saw that it requires no pitstops. I thought "it should be fast around here, despite the long straights" and it turned out to be the case.
I forgot to check about the rolling zone and wasn't sure if we're doing a full rolling lap or not, and nobody answered my question, so I tried to stay close to the car in front of me, but was kinda disappointed that everyone was so spread out at the end of the pace lap when the race obviously started. It became obvious I was lacking a lot of speed on the straight, but after working on my gearing in Qualifying, I could just about slipstream without worrying for the engine, though it was going into the red line.
Gained a couple of positions quickly after other people's mistakes, then it took 2 laps until I finally managed to clear off Phil who was holding me up in the slow bits, but when those in front of him made mistakes as well, I was suddenly going in 2nd place, with the leader (Axel or Sergio, not sure at the time) just in front! One particularly exciting moment prior to that was when I had a run on Doni, and Phil had a run on both of us, so we were heading 3-wide towards the tank trap, but I risked a bit more and braked later, which put me in front of them for the twisty bit and I was able to escape from their clutches there.
So just after taking 2nd place, I totally disregarded the solid hay bale on the exit of T1 (or is it T2 or T3 lol), the fast right, and by the time I saw I was going towards it, it was too late to change direction sufficiently to avoid contact. A spin at high speed, over the grass, but fortunately ended up on the track and pointing in the right direction. I was passed by 3-4 cars though, so once again I had to engage in the battle with Phil's flying Mirage.
This time it was Phil's turn to hit the dreadful hay bale, but at least he has the excuse of that corner not being completely flat out in his car, while it is barely a corner in the Porsche!
Eventually the pit stops came around and I found myself chasing Axel who was some 9 seconds ahead, and I managed to reduce the gap to 7 seconds before his stop. After that it was quite comfortable, with everyone so far back, but I kept pushing because I wanted to see what lap time I could do in the Porsche. A couple of 1:36s goes to show that perhaps the pit stop lengths were way too long for the other cars.
Finished first, then watched Evil fighting to keep his 2nd place and it was entertaining to see him needling that lump of stone on wheels through the last chicane, then just managing to hold on to 2nd place.
Grats!
I really enjoy this track, so I hope we race at it again in the future in one of the divisions, preferably in open wheelers though.
