I decided at the start of the season to use only the Cooper, knowing that such a choice wouldn't be advisable for places like Tripoli and Interlagos where a high top speed is essential. But at Buenos Aires the Cooper doesn't suffer too much of a disadvantage. I thought if I could keep the car on the track most of the way, I'd probably be all right. And I was, with some luck.
Qualifying put me 7th overall, even though I'd come within a couple of tenths of a PB. The only driver ahead of me on the grid that I really cared about was Dave Curtis, since we were practically tied for 6th overall in the championship standings. My job would be at least to try to keep him in sight in the early laps and hope that he'd make more mistakes than I would. It was clear that my Cooper wasn't going to outrun his Lotus.
No sooner did the green flag drop than Francesco shot past me on the inside as we approached T1, putting me 8th overall. Two seconds later I was back in 7th when Dave Curtis went wide into the grass in T1. Nothing changed in my neighborhood until L3 when Francesco oversteered coming out of T3. Now I lay 6th. At the start of L5 Eric was knocked upside down after spinning in T1. Apparently he left the track instead of doing a SHFT-R, which had the effect of putting me 5th. My troubles should have been over, but I made my only mistake 20 seconds later by spinning in T3 and letting Phil, Francesco, and Dave close within a second or two of me. But I settled down and quietly motored away from them, making no further errors. At the end of the race I was at least 45 seconds behind the car in 4th and about the same distance ahead of Dave.
The only final drama came on the final lap. I'd calculated the fuel carefully in practice, but found that now I was down to 0.2 gallons with half a lap left. With a healthy cushion over Dave, I shifted up into 5th and cruised the rest of the way at a moderate speed. I do not understand how that could have happened. In 32-lap races in practice, I was able to finish with 0.5 gallons remaining. It is yet another in the unending mysteries of this simulation. I hope I never find the end of them.