Well first off I would like to say that I really enjoyed the track selection these last couple Tuesdays. RoadOne and Le Mas Duclos both have a great flow to them and made for very enjoyable laps.
Qual: Had to pick a friend up on short notice so I missed all of practice and part of qualifying - I was running low 1:20.xx in practice the night before but couldn't quite find that pace in this session - settling for a low 1:21 leaving me in P5.
Race 1: Started off well; I had rare speed off the starting line and there were no calamities in through the first few turns, so I was able to hold my qual position. Coming into the first hairpin everyone was taking it relatively easy, which was good to see. Then something happened where I got into the back of Dallas which in turn sent Marcel off into the gravel - in realtime I had no indication I had hit Dallas in the rear quarter - it was a pretty hard hit according to the replay so I should have had pretty severe feedback, but I had nothing. Maybe one or both of us were lagging :/ But I apologize again to Marcel. After that I spent the first half of the race trying to chase down Dallas for P2 with Yves stalking me from P4. Ryan checked out and I almost forgot he was up there (too fast for me
). Coming into the final sweeper in one of the middle laps Dallas lost it on the downhill and went flying off the track leaving me to fend for myself against Yves. I was able to hold him off pretty successfully until about lap 9 - All of a sudden I saw I was coming up on Ryan very quick (he apparently had an offroad excursion) and as I was trying to slide as he re-entered the track he slammed the door shut and and I had to come to almost a complete stop. This allowed Yves to sneak past me, albeit it briefly
The bimmer's rear end let him down on the exit of the following turn and he spun off into the grass, and I tried to run a hobbled Ryan down to take P1. Unfortunately that emergency stop ruined my tires and I was skating all over the final lap and a half and could not quite make up the difference. Pretty satisfied with a P2, but now sad about the first lap incident
Race 2: Started in P7 and moved up to mid-pack after turn 1. Everything seemed to stay clean again until the first hairpin when someone got pushed off again (thankfully not my fault this time). Settled in behind Ryan and Marcel who were again cruising along nicely. Ryan had some excitement at lap 2 or 3 in turn 1 and cruised through the grass allowing Marcel and I to get by, and that's how it stayed the rest of the race. I drove sloppily in the middle laps desperately trying to shave a few tenths off the 2 sec. gap Marcel had on me, but he had me matched. I put it into cruise control the last half of the race to preserve tires, but saw Ryan come out of nowhere behind me and then had to re-group and push for the last lap and a half
Finished P2 with a quick Marcel in front and a charging Ryan behind in P3.
Great races guys, sorry for your bad luck tonight Yves
Keep up the great work on track selection!
