Grats to the Div winners and to the overall champ.
Also, thanks to whoever thought up this series. The mixture of cars on each grid and all of the possible permutations made the races very enjoyable and challenging.
I confess that I do not do the offline practice that I should for GTL and as a result I often struggle with poor choices and badly handling cars when race time comes. But that does always not detract from the fun.
Last night's race at Zolder was yet another surprise. I had no idea that it was the final race, or that I had that lovely Alfa GTV left to use. Ironically, the Alfa is one of the few cars that I have a setup for and that I feel comfortable with. I think that might have shown in my lap times and pole position?? lol
The start was a concern in case those big Rovers could outdrag me to T1, but I just made it there first. The plan ( there is always a plan, it doesn't always work!) was to try and run away from those Rovers before the first pit stop.
Well, lap 1 followed the script but at the start of lap 2 I was a bit too close to the apex and the kerb at T2. It was enough to put the car on two wheels. which was not unusual for me, but this time I hit the kerb a fraction to hard and the car went up on 2 wheels and just stayed there!!!
I was waiting for the dreaded slow roll over...but it just balanced there as Daz and Dimi swept past
. I wriggled the steering and the Alfa eventually dropped back onto all 4 wheels, but I had dropped to 3rd place and a good distance behind two very fast cars
After a lap to confirm that there was no damage I set about catching Daz and DD, slowly reeling them in as we approached the first pitstops. Catching up was one thing, but getting past DD was a problem as he had the extra grunt on the straights. Dimi went for the pits a lap before Daz and myself and I did a banzai "in lap" and I suspect that Daz had stretched the fuel for the extra lap? and was slower on his "in lap" as I gained several seconds.
I followed Daz into the pits some 4 secs behind, but feeling good because I had closed the gap. But the cafty sod did not change tyres!! and I did
!!
I was spitting nails sat in the pits as he drove out to a 20 second lead, but mistakenly figured that he would have to take tyres at the next stop and I would not.
Over the next stint I was closing the gap at around 1-1.5 secs a lap depending on traffic. So after 13 laps of flat out driving I actually followed Daz into the pits for stop 2, only 4 secs behind again!!. I was feeling smug and quite sure that I would be sailing out of the pits whilst his pit crew changed his worn out rubber...........but he left first without changing his tyres again!!!
At least Daz was now in sight as we left the pits and I had been catching him at around a second a lap, so in 5 laps I should be on his tail pipes?? Plus his tyres must be getting old?? At this point I somehow managed to change the monitor view from "in car" to "sitting on the bonnet with dials etc" ??!!
It was whilst I was trying to find and hit the right key to revert to my preferred view that I screwed my race and had a spin. That effectively gave Daz a free pass for the final 12 laps, but I decided to push hard and hope that he made a mistake of his own. He didn't. I did and outbraked myself at the chicane twice, triggering an SnG with 3 laps to go!!!
Just to compound my pain and embarassment I left the pits and promptly over ran the chicane again .......... another Sng with 1 lap to go lol!! Fortunately I had a huge lead over Erling in 3rd and I was able to hold onto second.
Just a query here about some strange graphics glitches that I noticed in the second half of the race. At a few points around the track my frame rate suddenly dropped off and made things interesting. Did anyone else notice anything? or do I need to look for some background activity on my PC?