Right. Was waiting for lapchart before posting race analysis, but hey...
It seems hot conditions caught us all unprepared... Opted for soft-soft in quali1 (which turned out to be my only relevant time due to horrific traffic in Q2), then chose medium-hard for the race, 100L on board, using this setup
http://freeweb.siol.net/rbedenk1/dub550w8RChotmedhard.rar (in case any F550 masters need it
).
P3 on the grid, had a brainfart passing start/finish line (don't ask, was reading text on Kerr's Lambo
) and released pitlane limiter waaay too late which robbed me of any chance of challenging Kerr into T1.
It seems Jonzo thought Kerr was in F550 and myself in Lambo. Wroooong, vice versa mate
Anyway, the three of us had a great fight throughout the race (BACKO has fallen into his typical lone ranger goes banzai role in front), thoroughly enjoyed it. After Kerr and Jonzo had a little get together (was running in P4 at the time because I knew guys in front of me had much worse tyres situtation and I could easily match their pace, hence taking it easy and wait for the inevitable Kerr-Jonzo ballet) I've squeezed by only to had a near-spin since I wanted to create some time cushion (Kerr was obviously in deeeeep s**t as per tyres go while Jonzo was unable to pass Lambo on the straights. MC12 neeeeeeeds that top speed. Desperately. Was expecting Kerr's tyre problems in 2nd stint as well and was right.). After near-spin I fell back to P4 which created some problems and lost me any chance of winning the race since both Jonzo and I were stuck (again) behind Brian while BACKO was building up a gap (although I think he had few terrible laps before the pits).
When BACKO pitted I had a 1 minute 21 seconds lead which gave me a huge grin on my face (I knew pitstop will rob me of some 75 seconds, no more), but then I went into mad scientist mode (experiment failed). Lost 3-4 seconds per lap in last 3 laps of first stint (traffic and worn tyres, should have pitted lap after BACKO did) AND I chose medium-medium tyres. Madness. Not only the nature of the car changed (most practice done on med-med but at different tyre pressue and track temps, I was an idiot, took me good 10 laps to adapt to med-hard in first stint anyway, then went back to adapt to med-med again, moron!!!) so I had to take it easy and I also had a problem with rear tyres temperature. I could do low 1.54s but no more or my rears would go berserk (and even at that pace rears were running at 100+ degrees), hence chasing BACKO was out of the question. Keeping the distance at some 6 seconds - yes, catching up - no. Pity, medium-hard enabled me to go below 1.54 easily, would have been awesome racing in last few laps. Perhaps next time.
Anyway, with Brian close on my tail I stuck my head down, kept the pace and rhythm (knew his tyres were no good after 8-9 laps or so) and voila, P2. Not bad. Could be better (perfect race execution would give me a victory with some 15 seconds to spare IMHO), could be worse (but still, am getting annoyed with this P2 subscription of mine
)
Had few scary moments with backmarkers (no one's fault really, almost collected a Gillette at one time, he stayed off line at the back straight (letting Kerr and Jonzo by) only to swerve back to racing line at braking point... scary stuff since I was already there, a pure miracle I've missed him, tyres on the grass and everything
. Mental note: flash headlights while getting on their tail and not to say "thank you" after the pass
)
Half way through the championship the race is on. BACKO gained consistency and is now an official Championship contender (10 points P1-P3 is nothing), Brian and I are both in "I hope he cocks up this time" mode or we'll be going into last race with Finish puukko knifes between our teeth.
Thanks to all Vertigo/Viper drivers, you guys gave me some thoroughly enjoyable moments watching your racing before catching you up. Cool stuff.
Thanks for the race gents. We rule.
