First of all, congratulations to all finishers and in particular the podium with Reik, Mark and Anthony.
This is a bit different race report, but I think it is honest
This was a strange and disappointing race for myself. I started out the race-week with doing lots of sensible practice, soon being able to do stints with 18 laps all in the 1:41:xxx (and a very few in 1:40:xxx). I felt very confident that I would do a great race.
As the race day came closer I became aware that my pace acctually was 2-3 seconds slower than the faster group. I started to look at other people's setup to see if I was way off, but could not see any reason for the big gap. I tried a couple of setups a few laps, but I am very reluctaint to change to a different setup than the one I have practiced lots of stints with. I could risk loosing my consistency! In the end I changed a very few things on my own setup based on others to try to rule out the setup as an element to my slow pace. Rumors that there were setup secrets circulating in the group made it harder for me to focus on where I lost my time on track, maybe it was a secret setup trick unavaileble to the public after all?
By this time I had lost lots of motivation. If I can be 100% certain that the problem is with my driving and not the setup I have no problem motivating myself for good practice to find that time I am missing. But as soon as doubt enters my mind, wheter it is the setup or my driving, my focus starts to get blury..
Anyways, with some slaps from some good friends I snapped out of my self destructive thinking and decided to accept the pace I had and enjoy my race around the guys at the same pace. After all, that is one of the good sides of the merger, without it I would be left totally alone far behind the second slowest. And I would ofcourse not use any of the "black market" setups, after all I was the one trying to implement the sharing of setups, so it would be wrong of me to use a setup not availeble to all (or basically the same).
I qualified 11th I think, which was promesing for an enjoyable race with lots of battles. I loaded my race setup, the same as the one I posted in the forum, and was ready for 60 minutes of fun.
Start went well, although it could be that I made soft contact once with the car ahead, but if so, it wouldn't have any consequences I think. I'll have a closer look of course and report it if needed. After a few turns, when the race started to settle, I was not able to find my rythm. What a disaster, I had practiced this so much, what had happened? After 18 laps my best lap was 1:42:7, and I had only one more lap in the 1:42's, the rest was 1:43 and onwards.
Btw, Anthony I pited after 17 laps I think and came out behind me. I decided to wait until he was on my tail, then to make a controlled move off the racing line and let him through, kind of like a good example on how to do it controlled where the both car lose a little time, but not much. Anyways, I realised too late that Anthony probably was pitting early to try to make a pass or something, if I had known this I probably would have let my good friend through without the timeloss on his behalf. Sorry mate!
Btw2, I did have good battles with Valter, Kurre and Peter. Unfortunatly I did not get to enjoy them too much, because I was struggling to find a rythm. But it was good to race among such fine people.
I had no clue what had happend. For some reason my gearing seemed different. Stuff like reaching the end of 5th gear on the s/f moments before entering the braking zone, it had never happend before! Was it the slightly different conditions than the practice server? Had I somehow messed up the setup, picked the wrong one or something?
I slowly adapted to the new situation, and in the second stint I did see the 1:41:xxx once or twice, but at the same time I grew more and more disappointed about my own race, how all the practice and reliable driving was out the window. Towards the end I had almost half a minute up and half a minute down to the guys around me. Mistakes were made toward the end and I lost my 10th place to Vale and ended up 11th.
I will however do as the pros and rather look forward to the next race, at Hockenheim
EDIT: I do not blame anybody for setup stuff, it is just that the group gradually and naturally are moving away from executin it's purpose, namely removing setups as an element of competition. One reason for this decition was that the setup on this mod is flawed.
EDIT2: I do believe my pace (when I practiced, not in the race) was due to my driving and not the setup, but I guess the small doubt got the better of me
The fact that there are 20+ turns amplifies the difference in skills I am afraid