I was looking forward to Monday’s races having missed the last three. I found that I was about one and a half seconds off my best practice time offline for some reason. I wondered if I had forgotten to save and overwrite my last set up but I have found before that some nights you just don’t have it and I think that was the case.
Race 1I made a good start then a couple of slight errors but all was going OK and was getting quite interesting in the midfield until my car decided to try to swop ends at Turn one and I went wide onto the grass. As I was looking to feed back onto the track I was hit by another car that made the same mistake. I not only ended up last after that but my car was pulling sharply to the left. To turn left I just had to take my hands off the wheel. Braking and turning right was a real problem. I decided to give it one lap before pitting and somewhat to my surprise I found d I could adjust to the handling problems and I managed to close on a Skoda in front of me and pass it. It gave me something to do to keep me interested and proved that even an injured Mini has an advantage over the Skoda. I found for me the Mini was about two seconds a lap faster although the Skoda was nice to drive. I guess considering the handling problem misfortune I had to be reasonably happy with my race and hoped for much better luck in race 2.
Race2I got slightly blocked at the start, found myself trying to contest a space with two other Minis, only room for two and three into two does not go. I ended up bumping one onto the grass gaining a place so slowed and flashed him to come back past. I accelerated up behind him but he suddenly stopped having bumped a near stationary Skoda in front of him. I bumped the back of him again sending me spinning onto the grass and into a fence. Beginning to feel this wasn’t going to be my night, now last and playing catch up again. I began to close on the back markers when I came across a red Mini that had obviously suffered an incident so took him on the outside. As I did so I suddenly saw a stationary Mini right in front of me on the track. There was a slight gap on the outside so I instinctively swerved half onto the grass to avoid him. Don’t know if I hit him or if he was a frozen ghost car but the next moment I was in the fence. When I re-joined the steering felt somewhat wobbly I had that feeling of Déjà vu. Strangely my replay showed no car in front of me at that point and the downloaded replay showed the car further up the track and two thirds on the grass. That’s GTL online I guess. I started to chase a Skoda again but the car decided to take things into its own hands and put me out of my misery by suddenly developing a mind of its own and scuttling across the grass approaching a corner and depositing me balanced on top of a bank with the back wheels in the air and the driving wheels obviously not making sufficient contact with the ground for me to move. I decided to go out in a blaze of glory by blowing the engine (they come free in GTL). However after about a minute I had only reduced the engine condition by one percent. I wish the suspension was as bullet proof as that engine. I decided to give in gracefully and retire myself from the race.
Not my best evenings racing.
Grats to all finishers and podiums.
