Now here's my pretty late race report.
Preparation 4 this race:
First off, after last thursday's disaster where I spent most of the time off the track due to my lack of knowledge about creating a decent setup, I did some reading on setting up a car :woop:
Since I had a lot of time on my hands on Tuesday, I did some testing in the morning and after about 3 hours :bulgy-eyes:, I had my 1st own setup for the Renault Alpine
@ this point: Thanks to Stu who answered my messages in no time :thumb:
After that, I helped Chris to get everything prepared for the Race, fixed something to eat and joined him on the server to work on my lap times. Since the 65 Corvette was also an option 4 this 1st race (and the fact that I love the appearance car) I jumped on in and gave it a shot. Right out the box, I hit a 1:58.010 and thus beat my best laptime in the Alpine which was a 1:58.515. Since I wasn't able to hit this lap time (+- 1 sec) in the Alpine in consecutive laps, I knew this was gonna be hard.
--> BUT, since I experienced excessive tire wear in the corvette which was so bad, that I would've smoked up the tires before even finishing 10 laps, I quickly discarded the idea of choosing this car for the race.
Soon, Steven showed up on the server and gave me some tutoring to get my times down in the Alpine. :thanks:
Although I got more and more familiar with the Alpine and also liked its cornering abilities, I had not yet chosen a car for RACE II. So I tried out numerous cars, including the cobra which I just couldn't thame. However, I had no idea which one to choose.
Race One:
I saw all these little quick & agile cars AND two Muscle Cars. NO COBRA (I guess everybody else had made the same experiences like me in this little rocket:soldier
. One Corvette. .... and I thought.... COME ON, DON'T BE A SISSY, GO FOR THE VETTE..... and just before quali, I made up my mind and chose the Corvette, regardless of the troubling tire wear and "not so forgiving" character as well as all the hours I had spent in the ALPINE :fwd2:.
In quali I came in P4. Knowing that with my setup, I would neet to take it easier on the tires, I needed to lay down a good start.
BEFORE THE THUNDER
The light went green and I hit the accelerator ....
...the Vette feeding on my 1st Alpine...
shifting into 2ed, closing in fast on Steven from the left, the Vette feeding on its 2ed Alpine.... (we did not make any contact :embarrassed
... and the two Corvettes took the lead arrot:
... with Knut in P1
... and a nice battle for P2 in the background
Peter in his GT 350
This battle between me and Steven for P2 which started in T2 remained for the first two laps. Up to the last turn in lap 2 I could keep him at bay. However, there he managed to pass me on the inside (the huge advantage of the little cars)
luckily, he played out the advantages of his Alpine in the last turn which led to the long straight where the Corvette could unleash all its power
and the tables were turned
I had passed Steven and regained P2. However, since the Corvette hit the 250km/h mark, I needed to brake earlier in order to not be carried out off the track in T1. And Steven anticipated to pass me from the inside again...
but fortunately it did not work.... not yet at least
but now, the alpine was in his territory and Steven started another attempt
and successfully accomplished a clean take over, claiming P2
putting me back in P3
I did not give up and tried to keep up with his pace (which I couldn't because I had learned many times before, that once you leave your personal comfort zone of your car, and become too greedy, you loose more:messed:... besides, he was simply faster)
Driving more on the save side, also cause I wanted to finish the race with one set of tires, I soon discovered that Steven had taken a little excursion into the forest handing over P2 back to me
a mistake from which others benefit as well
but not for long as Steven came out of it quickly and caught up again
Still in P2, I then came in range of Chris, staying behind him and waiting for a clean pass
and took my chances, unleashing the V8 and passed him on the inside
up into the 3ed last turn, a turn which I would be forced to remember for the future
I remained in P2 with Stuart slowly closing in on me. But I only had 5 more laps to go and since I went easy on the tires I was wanting to pick up the pace a little more once he comes too close. I was defined not to give up P2 without a "fight" (while still sticking to the rules). Unfortunately it was not meant to be and once again, AVIRA had some nice add to show to me and caused me going off the road handing over P2 to Stuart, just like that, no battle :excruciating::excruciating::excruciating::messed:
as it happened in the past, i happened again this time... cause trouble came again, in the same lap, I tried to shange the LCD display and accidently hit the shifter causing the car to spin :messed:
The same spot where my second race would end (in the riverbed)
But even this was not enough.....
In the last lap, 3ed last corner,
I RAN OUT OF GAS :wacko::brick:
Notwithstanding the fact that so many things went wrong once again, this was one of my best races ever also because it was in my beloved Corvette, a car which I will be willing to put in more effort in the future :honk::car2::tits: