A re-run of last Mondays race.

What a tough race! The Corvette sure eats up its rear tyres and at this track in particular, with its slow long corners that require dancing with throttle to turn the car around, it was even more pronounced!

Despite grabbing the pole in the last moment, I knew it was going to be tough fending off Daz in the race, as he was very quick when we first attempted the race a week ago. My start was OK but then I messed up at T2 and dropped behind Daz, Geoff and Erling.

Erling was generous to immediately let me through, but by the end of lap one Daz and Geoff were already 2 or more seconds up ahead. I thought I had to look after the rear tyres so I'd have enough resource at the end, but at the same time I didn't want to lose touch with the leaders. Daz was pushing extremely hard early on and it took me several laps to match his pace and even began to close up the gap little by little.

Geoff seemed to be struggling after a few laps and I managed to overtake him at T2, after which he dropped further back. The chase to catch up to Daz continued and we exchanged fastest laps.

Once I was close though, overtaking seemed next to impossible, unless he would make a big mistake. It seems we had different setups and/or driving styles, because he would be noticeably quicker in some places around the track and I was quicker at others.

My hope rested on looking a bit better after my rear tyres, so I kept going as smooth as possible, and still attempt to put pressure on Daz in front. After half distance, I even began to make some attacks on the outside here and there, and even almost got him going into the hairpin, but he managed to get back in front before the stadium section.

It was a very intense battle overall and I even nudged him a few times under braking where he seemed to be struggling. One of those situations I spun him around, so had to wait for him to recover, but by then there was nobody close behind, so it was not a problem.

One other issue that I had to deal with was driving with 2 track cut warnings for 2/3rds of the race, after going wide twice at T1, so I was anxious not to cut anywhere and get a penalty.

Finally near the end of the race I got my chance to make an attack on the inside, after Daz went wide at T1 and that compromised his acceleration. We went side by side through T2, but I just managed to accelerate earlier and grab the lead. He was still pressing hard after that and was even quicker on some laps, but eventually dropped further back after mistakes.

The last few laps were very tricky, with my tyre resource showing almost at zero, so I had to nurture it carefully until the finish.

Congrats to Daz, Erling and Tony as the only survivors of this torture! 

Hard to find any sort of consistency with this car. Took a lot of effort for me to even approach my own pb from the first race. Eventually got there, even knocking a 10th off in qual.  The rerun also provided an opportunity to try out Hristo's setup properly.  Found it too lively, especially the rear and I had problems controlling the car.  So stuck with my own, which happened to be at least partially inspired by his legendary Rover setup 

As he said, I let him past on L1, as it seemed pointless to hold him up.  Sad to see my two main competitors; Matt & Clive, both retire early.  That left Tony as the only other 'normal' driver.  While his speed surprised me, it was still shaping up to be a lonely race.  That is, until about a third in, I passsed a stationary Geoffers.  He hunted me down over a few laps, and when he got close, I felt obliged to extend him the same courtesy as Hristo earlier, thus hitting the brakes to let him past.

However, when he got in trouble again soon after, letting me past once more, the gloves were off - there are limits to how many times I'm giving away a podium place for free!  The gap seesawed a little, but seemed to stabilize around 2.5 secs. Regrettably he then dropped further back and retired.  Was gaining on a Daz in trouble towards the end, but race finished before it could get interesting.

Grats to Hristo on the win & Daz for 2nd.

Thank you Kurt 

Yep, pretty much exactly as Hristo described.

Good start from us both, but he was a little deep in turn 2 and I could turn under and drive away. I really, really wanted to go nice and slow, I promise, but Geoffers was right on my tail and it felt like I needed to just ease away to be more comfortable. This most definitely had ramifications though.

Geoff dropped back, and Hristo was now giving chase. We traded laps for a time, but the gap was only 1.5 seconds, so when I made a bit of an error he was on me. So, the next 20 odd laps were spent trying to not repeat an error, and let him through easily. As Hristo said, there were a couple of sections that I was quicker on, and this gave me a little buffer here and there, but as the race went on it became more and more obvious that he was now quicker than me by some margin. Eventually the inevitable did take place, one run wide just prevented enough drive, and he could squeeze past. I tried to stay close, hoping that maybe he would burn his tires really hard trying to push away from me, but I went off in the effort of trying to maintain the laptime.

The car was now essentially undriveable, and I could not keep any pace at all, and just had to hang on for the last couple of laps as Erling was closing in, eventually being saved by the flag.....Was so tricky at the end, can't remember the last time I had to work so hard to go so slow. Torture at the time, but felt rewarded once the flag waved.

Interesting tactic Geoff. I was around 6-7 seconds off the pace at the end, and for a lot of laps was at least 3 seconds off, so a tire change may well have paid off even on this short lap. Hadn't even thought about going that route.

Grats to Hristo, apologies for being in the way, I can only assure you it was my very best speed in a car that was not co-operating 

Yeah, that setup was pretty much only useful for a banzai lap in qualifying but difficult to drive consistently. I did something crazy which I didn't mention - right before the race, I made a complete reversal with the suspension parameters, all in the blind without testing, hoping to somehow have it easier on the rear tyres during the race. Whether it worked or not, i'm not sure lol.

I went for a stiffer rear spring, soft front, but then made the front anti roll bar stiffer and the rear one softer. Also added more camber at the rear, to supposedly prevent it from sliding in the longer corners. It wasn't bad, but I noticed in the stadium section Daz was noticeably quicker. I was better through the faster corners and under braking. Go figure... I like the car, but can't quite figure out the way it reacts to setup changes.

As for the pitstop Geoff mentioned, I considered it, but never did I expect the tyres to wear off THAT much until the end of the race. Much like Daz, I also don't remember having to work so much hard in a race in recent years. It's random, but I thought of Blain's quote from the Predator "Makes Cambodia look like Kansan". This one made other races feel like driving with helper wheels.  

Lol, yep. You can add another layer to that, as I did not mention I had the second jab on Monday and by the time the race came around my left arm was definitely a bit out of sorts and sore! The Vette nearly finished me....