What a race - i'm totally wrecked.
Practice - I was confident of a good run cos the setup was minted (thanks again for that) and I could really hang the tail out which was fun.
Qualy - Mixed fortunes really, put some good sectors together but never all at once, finished up P5 i think.
Race - What can I say, just pure class from everyone. I got a good run off the line and was second as we swooped down to the old hairpin on lap one. Knut was in the lead from pole and I had Eck and Stuart behind me. Stayed that way until the chicane when Knut outbraked himself and I slipped through. For about 5 laps I was able to pull away a tiny amount as Eck and Stu battled it out, but Stuart overcooked it coming into Macleans (i think) and that left Eck with the chance to come after me, which he did - very quickly.
After a particularly scruffy lap from me Eck was right up my chuff and I bottled it and went deep into the chicane, letting him past. I managed to hold the gap at around 4/5 seconds up until my pitstop. I actually ran out of fuel at the entrance to the pits and had to trundle to my box with no engine. Not sure what happened in terms of other peoples strategies but when I exited the pits I was 3rd with 19 seconds to the man infront. I decided to make use of the fresh rubber and put in some stonking laps (at least by my standards - but I was a ball hair off the fastest lap on lap 22...) and somehow after the stops had unfolded I was in the lead by close 50 seconds, how did that happen??
Anyway, I knew I just had to get to the finish but every lap I saw my lead tumbling by huge chunks as the chasing guys closed in. This led to me having a few spins and hairy moments trying to stay in front. As an aside, One particularly hairy moment was when I tried to lap Andrew, and he ran wide at the hairpin out the back, as i slipped through he came from deep and tagged me, no biggie really I kept it going, but at the final corner he speared up the inside in a brave unlapping attempt and I missed him by inches....great fun.
With 5 laps to go i felt OK with a 15ish second gap, so I started to take it easy as my left rear tyre was virtually non-existent after all my drifting antics. You may be thinking that it was all over - oh hell no..........
After my best drive in GTL and having lead most of the second half of the race, muggins here goes and runs out of fuel on the last bloody lap - I was peeved to put it mildly....
It did get me thinking though, I stopped on lap 20, I was out of fuel at that point - and I started with 20 laps exactly in the tank, 13.7 gallons. Yet at the stop I put 24 laps in to be safe, how did I run out of fuel??? Does the game have accurate fuel economy - so if you rag it you use more? If so it's a nice touch, but infuriating in this case.
Anyway, a good night was had my all I hope - grats to Stuart for taking the win, especially after the SnG and closing 40 seconds on my in 18 laps, big respect for that.
Grats also to everyone else just for making it round the 40 laps in this monster.
Cheers guys, until next time - always remember to fuel up.........:glasses-cool:
