Very sorry that we lost Bill & Postal
Bill, I had a similar problem in the previous race, just with wheelgonekid. When he joined, I got the flashing screen and unresponsive GTL. I had to shut down and restart GTL a few times, but somehow it worked out in the end. You shouldn't have to restart the entire computer though - you can Alt-Tab out of GTL and then shut it down from task manager; that should save you a lot of time, if it happens again.
Postal, was yelling for you to join the grid at the start. Had truly wished for you to get a good result this time
My own race; had a hard time motivating myself for this one, after last week's disastrous end to the race. Didn't try all the cars like in previous races, but just picked the 2nd fastest for me at Sepang, which was the 911.
Couldn't match my offline pb in qualy, but it wouldn't have moved me up the grid anyhow, so didn't matter. Was 3rd - or 2nd with Postal's untimely exit. At the start Clive streaked ahead, but went wide at T1, so I could pass him. Roger got the drop on both of us though, taking the lead. After a few corners, he went off and I slid into 1st. Lasted a couple of laps, with Clive reeling me in. I then went a bit wide at the infield, lefthand tightening hairpin, momentarily putting a rear wheel onto a spot of sand. No self-respecting 911 is going to miss such a golden opportunity for mugging its driver, and mine stayed true to form, promptly spinning.
Clive was gone, and Matt inched past in his Mini. Was marvellously entertaining to see him at 90º sideways, on and off the track at most corners, but somehow still keeping it together. I got back in front, but could follow his sideways antics in the mirror. Then I had a big off, but miraculously managed to keep the nose pointing in the right direction, and ended up on the track, ready to continue. Matt seemed to think he could better that, and went off in the opposite direction. Looks rather amusing in the replay; around the 550-600 mark
Race now seemed to settle for me. Clive was 14-15 secs ahead and seemed totally in control. Whenever I managed a fast(er) lap, reducing the gap to maybe 13-14 secs, you could be dead certain that next lap, he would have increased it to 14-15 secs again.
Gap to 3rd kept increasing through the race, so I had no threats from behind. With no realistic chance of catching Clive, all I could do was try to keep myself from screwing up - a major task in itself some will argue
Much surprised then to find Clive digging himself out of the sand early on lap 20, meaning I could snatch the lead. All I had to do was keep it together for 3 more laps, and victory would be mine. What do you do then ? Yep, start making mistakes..
- aided in no small part by that frenetic soundtrack of the Nissan; it's like being chased by the Tasmanian Devil. Tony, do we have a rule against psychological warfare ?
On the penultimate lap, I unintentionally cut a corner too steeply, hitting a high curb. 911 rear end woke up, overjoyed at a new opportunity to get its driver, snapping the car round before I could react. The language I used wasn't for children, I can tell you that, but strangely, Clive didn't come flying past. I concluded that by an exceptional streak of luck, he must have gone off at the same time. Puzzled to see him in the pits though, as I started on the final lap - didn't think there was anything to hit around the place where I lost him, so couldn't understand he had to retire. The fact that things went eerily quiet at the time he disappeared, should have been a clue about him running out of fuel. Bad luck Clive; you really had deserved the win!
Main goal for me this race was to NOT bump anyone off. Happy to have accomplished that - and much surprised to win the race too; couldn't really have hoped for that.
Edit; Bill: You may have to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to get out of an unresponsive GTL. That should give you the blue Windows screen, from where you can start task manager and then shut down GTL.
Cheers,
Erling
