Race2 - Lime Rock Mountain
Quallied down in P8 - as is becoming usual, both my fastest laps of the night were in the Race sessions.
Got decent start, took over P7. First up I encountered Avi, again some really close, flat out racing. He went a little wide exiting the complex, giving me a run on him to the uphill righthander, and I managed to put myself on the inside there, and got it to stick. Next up was Amir, where I was closing only by tiny steps. That same uphill right hander, caught his front left, throwing him out to the right, and letting me past.
I had a little bit of an excursion on the faster of the two downhill right handers allowing Abdul to catch right up. I had decided to try and pit nice and early to try and get some good laps in on some relatively fresh tyres while everyone else was either looking to carry on on some second hand rubber, or get in and change their older tyres for some cold ones.
I suspect that would have worked out well, if I hadn't braked well too late for my attempted pit, and missed the entrance, allowing Abdul to be right up my chuff for the next lap.
Next time round, I brake early enough to make it, allowing Abdul through but then another mini-catastrophe. GTL doesn't have an arrow to show you to your pit garage, it has a nice man in headphones. The quirk here is that he doesn't appear until you cross the pit limit line.
Suffice it to say, I was in the very first pit stall, meaning I overshot and had to reverse into it. I chose to change all 4 tyres, the usage I had been getting until that point meant I didn't want huge oversteer if I changed the fronts only, or understeer if I changed the backs, so I took the extra 10 sec on the chin, and exited the pits dead last.
Over the next few laps, I stuck in some good laps, including 3 consecutive (for me) fastest laps, and once the pitstops had finished, I was in P4, about 14 sec behind Croucher - which it stayed until the end. I didn't have time to curse my pitstop based shenanigans, though as Abdul, who had pitted a few laps after me made his new rubber tell in the last 4 laps. He closed right up on me, and we were back where we were in Race 1 for the last 3 or so laps. On the last lap, we were coming down the hill into the hairpin, I suspected he'd try something there. I'd been tight on the inside for all the previous laps and he'd been looking to the outside. I decided to change what he was expecting and moved wide, ahead by a car's length. I braked as normal, he braked much later. I couldn't cut across to the inside, but I knew he'd never be able to hold that under control without some corrective measures and some sliding, so I braked a bit longer than normal, switched back behind him to the inside and was on the accelerator much earlier, and took the place back. I managed to hold it until the end for P4.
Again some brilliant racing, thanks to all who showed up.
As I say - the car & track choice is one you can't get wrong, so the game did most of the work.
Some Pics (liveries same as race1):-
1. Croucher & Amir close, stalked by David, chased by the pack - Sam & Knut are out in front already
2. Me chasing Avi
3. My move into the Mountain Turn
4. Amir falling foul of the cambered edge
5. Some Israeli bumpage - Amir, left & Avi, right
6. Abdul goes for the gap
7. I switch back as he tries to settle it down
8. The net result
9. I nick this one
10. Sam holding on from Knut for the win
