Right. Where do I begin? Oh yes, let's start with a 2000+ EUR PC that got a very strange FPS drop in quali session (!?), terrible FPS at first two (fast) chicanes and last chicane in particular. And I mean HUGE fps drop to the point I was thinking of dropping out of the race (if I knew what's waiting for me in the race... well, it would be a no-brainer
).
Anyway, stubborn as I am I simply could not and would not give up. Backo and Kerr were in a league of their own, so I knew there's no way I can fight for the championship, but I did want to finish the bloody thing, that's what endurance is all about, right?
Now imagine the way I had to drive... Slideshow at Rivaza and last chicane (prior to S/F straight) - if the car was not travelling in a completely straight line, there was a chance of losing back end since once it started to slid around, it was too late/impossible to catch it due to difference in time between the actual slide and the time when PC decided it's OK for me to know about it.
Funny thing is FPS drops were sporadical, i.e. one lap - slide show, next lap, same position on the track - everything a OK. Weird. Anyway, doing even low 1.47s (in a bloody GT1 F550) was very... dangerous to say the least.
Ruskus saw it, twice, I think, passed him into last chicane only to demonstrate my drifting abilities
Sorry if I scared you, mate. Was a passenger, trust me. Luckily I was avoiding doing any passes on NGT drivers in low FPS zones, it felt way too dangerous and even on normal-FPS parts I had to take it easy. Combine that with an off in lap one, i.e. racing lap 1 at tamburello, vlaaaam into the wall - FPS s**t, front right puncture, had to wait for everyone to pass to return to the track and then limp back to pits for repairs only to rejoin right in front of the leaders which caused a frantic "must get out of the way - NOW" move which coincided with a low-FPS part that caused another major off and a 20 second loss in lap 4).
Then had to pass all the slower cars (19 passes for position only to finish 2 laps down, giggle).
Never ever ever drove such a hard race, just keeping the car on the track was a nightmare (keep in mind my setup was set for appropriate tyre temps achieved via optimal pace - which was suppose to be 3 seconds faster then the pace I managed to do on the track, hence my tyres were colder then a frigid... emm... nevermind
). Was constantly pondering should I go out to avoid any contact with other drivers or not, but it seemed fine... most of the time, although it did come too close for comfort few times (was passing a slower car, then did a typical "Jure" on him, dove inside to make a pass, decided it's too risky and backed off to give him room only to enable him to hit my behind and, in effect, punt him off. Road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Must look at the replay to find out whom I should apologise to, think it was vertigo....
Enjoyed driving behind a double vertigo fight in the last lap though, nice view, last chicane was... well... interesting to say the least.
Anyway... THANK YOU ALL for a great season, mods for their hard work, enjoyed our racing a lot and then some, congrats to all championship winners (and podium guys... oh wait, that includes myself, wuiiiiiiii
).
I'll be back (with a fresh winXP installation and fixed right knee, I hope there's at least 6-7 weeks to the start of season 6 in order to fix my leg properly).
edit: did I mention I got 1 (one) point at the end of this "man I'm beat, that was hard" race? Hooray.
