Interesting discussion. I've had my share of crashes caused by my not so successful attempts to pass other drivers, but I don't blame the collision boxes for those, only my own clumsiness.
Anyway: First of all a big thank you to the organisers of this league. I have a few years of league experience, from NGPLS, and although I'm not dissatisfied with the way that league was run, I must say that I'm impressed by how profesionally UKGPL is run, compared to NGPLS. Kudos to everyone involved!
I'm very pleased with the way my race started and how it ended. Only some messup in the middle put a stain on my performance. I knew before the race that this track invited for some side by side battles, so I decieded to take a bit of an unusual approach to the practice. I drove on one side of the track the whole lap through for a whole stint, then the next stint I changed side. I managed to get below 1:40 driving on the outside of the track, and the training method was effective. In the race I felt much more secure when I got side by side with another driver through the turns.
The qually was a bit weird. Early on Norbert was on pole with 1:38.68, according to my pribluda. A few laps later I got a 1:38.68 also! After a while both me and Norbert was pushed down the list by other drivers, so I had to push on. However, I was not able to get a proper lap, but I managed another 1:38.68! Later I improved my time with a few hundredths, but didn't gain any places, so I ended on 6th, but three almost identical times on the same qually, that's weird!
Race start. I had Norbert on my right, and Clutch in front. Clutch had a bad start, and I had to back off a little and wait for him to get up to speed. For some reason he slid to the right, and opened up for me to pass him on the left. Norbert came up on his right. I thought I gave him room, but I see now in GPLRA that me and Norbert really squeezed him between us. It's a wonder that didn't end in a massacre!
I got past Clutch safely, and had more speed than Norbert, so I gained to places before Curva Grande. Alastair and Mike was side by side in front of me, Alastair on the outside, which he apparently didn't feel comfortable with, (He should try my training methods!
) so he backed off and lost speed, so Mike got away. I had a better line, and soon got onto his slipstream, so towards Lesmo 1 I was able to get up on his side and outbraked him so we went side by side through the turn. Thanks to my practice, I was able to keep up the speed, and again, Alastair had to let another one through thanks to his insecurity in those situations.
Next one was Mike. I had to work a bit harder to catch him, but already on lap two I slipstreamed past him going towards Parabolica. He tried to take a defencive line on the right, so I went for the outside through the turn. I stayed there through the whole turn, just to make sure not to crash. We went side by side on to the front stretch and towards Curva Grande, and I thought to myself: "I won't back off! I won't back off!" So he backed off, and I was past.
Now I thought this was the best I could get from this race. I never thought that I had a chance in hell to catch Bartosz. He was so fast during practice that I thought he would pull away from all of us. Well, qualifying is one thing, racing is another, apparently. Somehow I managed to reel him in slowly, and he had a bad line through Curva Grande a couple of times, so by lap 6 I was 0.7 seconds behind him. Entering lap 8 I was less than 0.7 seconds behind, and not far from catching his slipstream.
I guess I got a bit eager now, and lost my head a little. I got a bad entrance to Curva Grande and spun. It could have gone well, if it wasn't for Norbert and Clutch approaching. While truying to avoid me, they crashed into each other. Norbert spun into the rail, and I lurked past him, but hit Clutch, who spun in front of me. Mike sneaked by this mayhem unscathed, while Geoff only just touched me, enough to send him spinning off the track and into the rail. Norbert and Clutch got away, while I needed a couple of seconds to collect myself. When I finally got going again, Geoff was still stuck in the grass. I was a little hot still, and messed it up in Lesmo 1 as well, before I pulled myself together. I had lost enough time now!
Now I thought that Norbert and Clutch was too far ahead for me to catch them, so I kind of settled in for fifth. After a few laps, though, I realised that I gave myself a too large margin in the braking to Parabolica. Norbert and Clutch didn't pull away, so I knew then that I could catch them if I braked a little later there. I started hunting them down, and it didn't take long before I had them within reach.
So when Clutch had a bad entrance to Lesmo 1, I got up on his tail before Lesmo 2, and got a better exit onto the back stretch. Now an almost epic fight began. I got up on his side and we went side by side through Ascari.I outbraked him towards Parabolica and got a bit wide, so he came up on my inside and we went side by side onto the front stretch. Having the outside line, I got better speed onto the straight and got ahead, but he got into my slipstream and got past before Curva Grande. Now it was my turn to slipstream him, and I got past and went first into Lesmo 1. Braked a little late and lost a little speed, so he got on my tail again, but I got a better exit out of Lesmo 2, and pulled away. Now Norbert was my target.
While I and Clutch fought for fourth place, Norbert had the opportunity to pull away a little, so I had to really push to catch him, but I did. Lap by lap I got closer, and by lap 17 I was so close that I started aiming for his gearbox, to make use of every little trace of slipstream that might come my way. entering lap 21 I was so close that I really thought that I could make it. Exiting the Lesmos I got into his slipstream and passed him on the outside going towards Parabolica. I got a bit wide through there and thought he would be on my tail going onto the front straight, but he didn't, and third place was mine! In the last turn on the last lap!
I can't remember ever being so happy for a third place. I cheered and yelled so much that I was afraid I'd wake my one yera old son, who was sleeping in the bedroom nearby, so I had to control myself. It was a really hard fight, all through the race, so I was really pleased with myself. Only the mistake(s) on lap 8 flawed an otherwise perfect race.