That was one of the most exhilarating, intense, and enjoyable races I’ve ever done.
PracticeI was massively pumped for this race, so I’d done a lot of laps before Saturday’s official practice session, both solo and with the team. I’ve never really gotten on with the C6R at any track, but James had made a setup back when Pocono was released which with one or two minor tweaks was absolutely spot on for Watkins Glen. I ended up having massive faith in the car in any situation, which for me is a bit of a novelty.
In the Saturday session, I had a good little leaderboard scrap with Darren - after I’d done a fuel stint, killing my shoulder in the process, I took the fuel out and ragged it to beat his time only to find 10 minutes later I had an extra light on the side of the car again. Naturally I went again immediately upon finding this out, posting a 1:39.982, some 0.003 ahead - hurrah. I had another two tenths on the following lap but couldn’t hold it to the line; it wouldn't have been enough to topple Stuart’s 39.4 anyway.
In the Sunday session I focused almost entirely on long full tank runs but I did empty it for one qualy run at the end of the session, but it was only good enough for a 41.2 putting me 8th.
QualifyingBased on the traffic in practice, the qualifying was always going to be a matter of who could secure the most robust gap to get their lap in.
I did two two-lap runs. On my first, I ended up in the middle of a Mustang conference near the end of the lap, but on the second lap despite having a completely clear run, I only managed a 40.3, which was a bit disappointing as I knew I could do a high-mid 39 if I really put my balls on the line. The second run was clear again, but I fubarred the lap resulting in a 40.7 - it was only good enough for 6th on the grid, but being ahead of Darren was a silver lining.
RaceSteven had failed to arrive on the grid, so the left-hand lane had moved up a row, gifting me 5th place at the start, but the right-hand lane got the jump negating any advantage. I slotted in behind Olly and Simon and with Darren in tow behind we set about trying to establish a gap to the group behind. We hadn’t actually done a great deal of practice following each other in a line so it was a little surprising to find just how comfortable we were inches behind the car in front.
James elected not to take part in this race as his connection is intermittent currently, but he joined as a spectator and took the role of crew chief over Ventrilo, keeping us three informed as to what was going on ahead and behind.
Naturally one of us had to cock up eventually, and that honour was bestowed to me when I snatched a brake into turn 7, the uphill right hander, opening the door for Darren who duly took 5th place. A short while later, the lap counter ticked up to 5...
Lap 5 was quite the lap. Stuart started catching the stangs in the esses, which meant we were going to catch them on the straight - easy enough, you might think, but one of them had been displaced to the right hand side due to the way that Stuart had got through. The end result was a 185mph mobile car park - Michael picked the left hand side to get past but was immediately held up by another stang. Olly naturally kept his boot in, dived to the inside and bombed past to take 2nd place.
This led him to mark the occasion with the FT-Ninecraft Ventrilo Quote of the Day™:
“OH GOD, I AM BUZZING OFF MY TITS”
At turn 7 we went into ‘after you, sir’ mode and started tripping over each other trying to get past the lead end of the mustang field which unfortunately claimed the suspension of erstwhile leader Stuart, but we managed to get through alright, despite my best unintentional efforts to go drifting. After getting slightly held up by my own indecision behind Adam at the top end of the esses, I lost a position to Simon Gymer on the following lap, and so the rhythm was established for a while. After getting a monster run onto the straight on lap 11, I passed Simon into the Carousel in an unintended sideways fashion and followed Darren right up until the pitstops.
To allow leader Olly an easier time in the pitlane, I delayed my stop until the end of lap 28, but on my in-lap I encountered Ian Bassi at turn 8. He missed the apex, so I thought he was allowing me through on his right, but he veered right slightly so I thought he was diagonalling the straight early giving me a route on his left. That veering, unknown to me at the time, was actually a slide - by the time I was there, he’d straightened it out but there wasn’t quite enough room. I ran on the grass, but the tip of my splitter gave his rear quarter panel the slightest of kisses - it was enough to unsettle his car and turn it into a spin. I’m really sorry Ian, but it’s difficult to read whether a car is moving intentionally or sliding slightly when you’ve only got a second to make a decision!
I came out of the pits to find a few extra cars in front of me that had gambled on tyre strategy, but I got my head down and pumped in some decent laps to catch Michael and Dave who were having an almighty scrap. Unfortunately this scrap was holding up James Steel in a lapped Corvette, who quite rightly wanted his lap back, but in a great display of sensibleness after he realised he wasn’t going to get past the front two he kindly dropped back out of the way. I hung on to the back of the group until lap 38, passing Simon through turns 8 and 9, which due to the limited traction felt like the slowest overtake ever. Again I got my head down and settled into a rhythm to catch Michael, now clearly struggling, and passed him into the Carousel on lap 42 to take 3rd place behind Olly, which I held to the line.
Across the line, I tried to move my right leg in a direction it hadn’t been moved for some two hours, which was a mistake.
Sometimes there are moments in simracing that make you step back and think “wow, we can actually do this”, and this race has an abundance of those moments. Braking behind someone I’ve never raced before anywhere, let alone in a high-stakes league environment into an awkward corner like the Chute after the Carousel, staying a foot or two off of his diffuser on the brake pedal is actually something quite special.
I think the only person outside of the team that I have a memory of racing before is Stuart which I’m betting he can’t even remember, on the LFS STCC TBO server around so2r in 2006 or so, yet I felt I could trust everyone as if I’d been racing them for years. I’m massively grateful to Adam for inviting us here and thus allowing us to experience that race. I’m still absolutely beaming nearly a day later.
Props to the Mustang drivers as well, you guys had a hell of a lot on your plate and you coped excellently.
We’ve entered part time as we’re not sure which races we’re doing, but I think the next one we have any certainty over is Silverstone and then Spa, both of which I’m massively looking forward to. See you there, and best of luck to the full time drivers going for the championship
