A tale of 2 races:
I really wanted to have a good result in front of one of the event sponsors (and my team's secondary sponsor), but unfortunately my actual skill level had other plans...
Slot 1: Once again placed in a race with
@Geauxgreddy and
@mohitraina91. On my first flying lap (and best chance to set a good time with the track getting wetter), I had to yield to a McLaren who'd caught me rapidly at the beginning of the lap, only for that McLaren to later bail on their lap... My best time didn't come until my 3rd lap, by which point the track was too wet and I could only qualify 12th. I decided to start on wets and it was quickly evident that it was a mistake. I pitted after a few laps for new wets in anticipation that the track would get wet enough for them, and I didn't want to be on worn tires that had been scrubbed across a semi-dry track for several laps. It still didn't get wet enough, so I pitted again for inters, by which point I was last out 18 and a long way off 17th. I actually started rapidly gaining on 17th, but kept picking up stupid wall penalties and hydroplaned into the wall before T1 twice, also giving me penalties (which is why I wanted to use wets in the first place...). Finished last and extremely frustrated, especially since another Corvette
won the race, and yet another apparently finished inside the Top 10.
Slot 2: Picked up stupid, totally avoidable wall penalties on my first 2 attempts at qualifying, and by the time I set a lap it was once again way too damp to qualify even remotely well, so I picked up right where I left off down in 18th, with 1 of the people I managed to beat not even setting a time. Immediately on the start (on inters this time...) I passed a Supra to move up to 17th. From there it was about just not making any stupid errors and also avoiding hydroplaning as the track got extremely wet towards the end of the race (though I did catch a puddle going into T1 on the final lap). I slowly picked off cars 1-by-1 until I was in the Top 10, then looking at a Top 5 when "Idiot Me" returned on Lap 10 and I massively missed my braking point into T1 by going way off line up the inside and shot past 3 cars before slamming another into the wall. Fortunately they didn't spin or get a penalty, but I got a very deserved 4s penalty for the contact. That dropped me back down to 8th and several seconds behind that pack. 2 spinning cars later (including the car directly in front of me coming out of the last corner on the last lap) and I was back up to 6th, which is where I finished for 226 points. Unfortunately I have to take it because this is my first 200+ point score this season, but I could've done even better had I not made stupid mistakes once again in qualifying and the race itself. A podium was definitely possible. Oh well, guess I'll see about grabbing a good result from the Gr.4 car at Fuji...
