These things are fun on roads once you get the hang of it.
That was a total comedy of errors. Spent most of practice trying to figure out how to use the stagger to minimise the danger of falling off in the middle of the oval part. Was on for a 1:04 in qualifying until I got a black flag in the final chicane; luckily with the short lap I had time to do one more out and flying lap pair and duly stuck it on pole with a good 1:05.0.
Good a got start and watched in my mirrors as Oily and Picnic touched in the banking and Picnic went flying off in a big cloud of smoke.
Tried to pull away but Oily kept up pretty easily with the draft; after about 4 laps it dawned on me that I was short on fuel so I started trying to save a little; I needed an extra two laps which was going to be a big ask, but I was just about able to carry enough corner speed in critical places to keep Oily behind. After not very long I ran wide out of turn 10 and Oily scampered by, but for reasons best known to himself he let me by again.
A few laps after that I made a slightly bigger mistake and this time Oily went ahead and stayed ahead. Knowing the fuel situation I decided to just follow and try and use the draft to save a little more fuel. By just past half distance it was clear that this wasn't going to work so I started pushing again, hoping to scare him into a mistake. He duly obliged, locking his rears into T4. That gave me a small gap, but I was stunned when he started going backwards at the rate of two seconds a lap.
I didn't know whether he'd damaged the car somehow, or was having his own fuel drama, but given that I only needed a single splash of fuel, I decided the only sane strategy was to push like crazy, and splash and dash with two to go, but I didn't really have much hope of having enough time in hand to get away with it - especially as the Late Model's refueling now appears to be done through a drinking straw.
With the laps counting down, the gap was growing and growing, and I had about 30 seconds in hand as I entered the pits. With three screens but single rendering, the stupid game puts the right side of the F-box panel behind my monitor bezels, so I didn't know for sure whether I was going to get right side tyres or not. As it happens I did - but the crew did a phenomenal job under such pressure and I was out again with a 7 second lead - and Oily was still crawling round trying to make the end without a stop.
That let me do the last two laps with a little margin for error. Sadly after the banking when I pulled over the do some doughnuts the blasted thing ran out of fuel!
Pity about the small turnout but at least Pete gets a podium.
I don't expect to be anything other than complete rubbish next time out in the FW31 and with a double header after that, mathematically any one of the top five drivers could still take the title.
