Before I post anything else, these cars are still not anywhere near the top of my favourites list. Huge grats to Ziu and Erling and for their ability to control the Div 1 cars at the pace they showed. I just don't know how you guys do that and not wreck yourselves on the concrete walls??!!
One or two comments were made about my laptimes last night, quoting my initial 2:25 attempt in a Div 2 car. In my defence ( I was not playing mind games or sandbagging lol ) I did post my progress as the laptimes came down to around 2:16.
It was not until Pre race practice on the server last night, that I dipped into the low 2:15's. I suspect that most of you would agree that to drive quickly you must have confidence in the setup/handling to push close to the limits all around the circuit. Half way through qually I increased the coast side of the diff by one click to try and stop the tail flicking out on turn in, and reduced the power side by one click to give me a little more controllable power on oversteer on the exit. That gained me another second per lap and a much more stable car.
At the end of qually Geoffers was in the 2:13's and I was on a lap that promised to be faster than him...........but that was a step too far and I clouted the wall hard. So that was how I arrived at my qually time by a progress of gradual improvement
I knew that I wanted to avoid any thoughts of a pitstop ( my skill in that area still needs some work) and I also knew that tyre wear could be a real problem if I tried to run at my qually pace. Ahead of me were Ziu. Erling and Tony in Div 1 cars and Geoffers in a Div 2 car. I did not expect to be able to trouble Ziu and Erling in those missiles with wheels.
But Tony's qually time was not too much faster than mine and he would have to make a pitstop, so he might be vulnerable if I could keep the gap minimal until he stopped. But Geoffers in a Div 2 car was going to be a real challenge!! His experience in preserving tyres and pace throughout a race vs my tendency to spin up the rear tyres and run out of rubber when racing hard, left me expecting a second in class at best.
The first lap was careful on cold tyres and that was made a little easier because Tony and Geoffers were disputing 3rd spot whilst Ziu and Erling checked out ahead.
Then a couple of things just fell into my lap. Geoffers was very slow through the Esses at the end of the lap and I grabbed the chance to stick my car down the inside to get ahead. I was pushing hard to stay ahead of Geoffers and was wondering how long I could maintain that pace without running out of rubber?? My pace was keeping Tony in sight and he was leaving lots of rubber smoke in the air. Then he missed one of those camouflaged right hand turns and ran down the escape road. .... I had risen to 3rd place!! But Geoffers was only a couple of seconds back and more than capable of catching me. I could only hope that his qually time was done on low fuel where my was on full tanks?
I was slowly stretching the gap, but at what cost to my tyres and was Geoffers being "clever"? and playing the waiting game. Then what I suspect were a couple of small mistakes by Geoffers gave me another few seconds and a little respite. When he retired I almost crashed myself as I scanned the positions list to see where he was!! After a lap or two I realised that Geoffers was out and Matt was the next car behind, but that was around 17 secs back.
I was now able to ease off and just watch the gap back to Matt. I did catch Ziu and Erling as they left the pits, but that was not a race that I was going to be part of, so I let them go and concentrated on 3rd spot.
The race became quite boring, watching the gap and the tyres as the laps counted down until frustration almost cost me the race on the penultimate lap. I wondered if I could get a 2:15 lap on ( badly ) worn tyres? Exiting that small chicane I spun up the rear wheels a little too much and it speared left. I managed to get the brakes on and reduce the front end impact. Even so, there was definitely something wrong with the handling after that, but with only a lap to go and a big safety margin I was able to cruise to the finish and 3rd spot.
I confess that I did do some serious pre race practice for this race and with these cars, maybe about 3 hrs total?. Normally I would only do 20-30 minutes at most for any races, even if I do not know the track. Also, my request for clues to what pace would be expected was genuine, as I had decided to try and master these cars and had no idea what pace to expect around here. I suspect that in future information like that might not be so forthcoming?
Just to be open and honest here, I did try the Div 1 cars as well. My best lap around Singapore was a 2:09, but as I confessed to Erling, I felt that lap was a total fluke and it would need many more hours practice to repeat that consistently. It will be some time before I race a Div 1 car!!
