Well, that was more eventful than I expected! Felt comfortable in practice but qual just didn't work for whatever reason - overdriving I guess. Anyway, this left me 3rd on the grid behind Mike and Dave, both of whom had found extra pace. I was happy to take it easy at the start of the race and follow for a while, but Dave got a poor run through Blanchimont and I was able to slide down the inside into the new bus stop. A short while later Mike got it sideways on the exit of la source (too much curb I think) and by backing out of the throttle (as you now have to do to correct a slide with the NTM) let me past on the way down to eau rouge. After that I gradually eased out a gap over Mike as Dave was dropping back quite quickly, so that by the time we got to half distance I was about 8-9 secs ahead. I did consider not taking tyres but it would have been a risky strategy so I went for a new set. Mike pitted a lap or so before me, but when I came out the gap was around 10 secs so he must have changed as well. All I needed to do was bring it home from there, but the gods were not on my side tonight
On the run down to Pouhon I went to change the black box back to F3 but hit the wrong key. Suddenly I was transported out of the game and into email, which isn't a lot of use for controlling a racing car
I tried to slow the car down and keep it in a straight line as I scrambled for the mouse to bring the game back, but while I was blind the car hit the barrier on the left a glancing blow before spinning to a stop (luckily) just before the barrier on the outside of Pouhon
The car was still quite driveable but I had the meatball flag and so had to pit again to repair the damage.
This didn't lose as much time as I expected but by then Mike was 45 secs up the road and Dave was also 25 ahead. I thought I had a chance to catch Dave in the 10 laps remaining so pushed as hard as I could to close the gap. He must have made a mistake at some point as he lost quite a few secs. As the laps ticked down I was closing in and finally caught him by lap 22. He then seemed to pick up the pace a fair bit, being quick in all the right places to keep me behind. By then my front tyres were overworked, which hurt my turn in to the crucial corners and Dave could hold his own at least down the next straight. We got quite close at Pouhon but this just made me lock up and kill the fronts even more. Dave was then able to keep it together and bring it home in 2nd - nice driving
Congrats also to Mike for the win. Thx to all who turned up to race and well done to all the finishers. I expected a high dropout rate but a good percentage made it to the flag.
I'm disappointed about the lack of drivers from outside, but perhaps they are put off by having to join the league? I have been in quite a few hosted sessions and there are certainly quite a few drivers out there who want to road race the ntm, but none of them made it here. Perhaps it would be better to just host them as open races next time?
