I was feeling quite good about this race as I had an old Porsche setup that felt absolutely solid and predictable, so I did quali on race fuel and squeezed onto the grid in 3rd place amongst all the other Porkers, knowing that I should be competitive.
But....there is always a "BUT" lol my old brain was struggling with learning a new skill. I have been using my G25 with the shifter set in sequential mode for several years, but last week it started showing signs of fatigue. I was getting missed gearchanges/double gearchanges/ false neutrals etc and things were just about undriveable. I could not revert to the paddle gearchange because one of those had failed in the past forcing me to use the sequential shifter
. In desperation I switched things to "H" shift and discovered that, although it felt really odd, at least the gearchanges were reliable. I guess because the gear lever stayed in position against the micro switch?. It is not often that I practice for a race, but I did a couple of sessions trying to master the H shift for this event. I was probably about 85% competent with the gearchanges by the start of this race.
The plan was to stay with Uli and Tris for the first laps and see if the 3 of us could get away from the field. Then, once there was a safety cushion behind me, I could look at making a challenge. That all changed when Tris disco'd on lap 2, that was really tough luck Tris as this track is usually very solid.
So, it was Uli and myself starting lap 3 and already there was a gap back to Axel in his Ford GT. Although we were in similar cars, there were a few areas where I felt I was quicker than Uli on a heavy fuel and thought I might get a chance to pass. Which is how things happened badly at Clearways.
I had a good exit from Stirling's and was close behind Uli as we braked for Clearways. Uli's appeared to take an early apex and that eased him wide on the exit, whereas I took a slightly later apex and carried a little more momentum to exit towards the inside. My extra speed was carrying me towards a gap that might leave me on the inside for Paddock Hill, so I nailed the gas. But just as I got my nose alongside Uli eased back across to hit that second apex by the pit entry and the rest is history
I was surprised to find myself on 4 wheels which were all still attached and facing more or less in the correct direction when things stopped spinning. I set off again with Axel and Fulvio now much closer.
The incident with Uli had upset my rhythm with the H shifter and I was snatching at the changes and missing gears (no fault of the hardware, 100% operator error!!). For the next few laps I was making mistake after mistake with the gears, especially at the end of the straight where I hit neutral instead of 3rd on 3 or 4 consecutive laps. On one occasion the car was launched onto the grass bank and I thought that I was stranded and my race was over
but I managed to wriggle the car off and rejoin the race having lost a few places.
Prib was now showing Axel and Fulvio ahead and I was relieved to see that Uli was still in the race just a few places behind. I realised that I had to focus on my gearshifts or it was going to end my race, so the next few laps were very controlled until I got my rhythm back. Then I closed the gap to Fulvio and Axel much more quickly than I had expected.
I expected there to be a prolonged battle to get past the pair of cars but I found myself an inside line into Druids? against Fulvio and stole 2nd spot and a lap later Axel ran wide at Surtees gifting me the lead again.
Interestingly, when I was running behind other cars, my engine temp went into the red??? but once in clear air my laptimes were quicker but the temp dropped again. Not sure if this is something that the modders have done with this new Sports Car mod...probably just me
From that moment I was able to ease away with the occasional gearchange glitch and manage the race to the end without really pushing too hard, except for a few laps where I though that I had eased off too much and Uli started to close from his 2nd place.
Grats to all finishers and commiserations to those who had freezes or mishaps. I think Brands Hatch is simply Porsche heaven and where it suits the Porker it does not suit any other car quite as well, except maybe the Lola?