Avast me hearties! Keel haul, that filthy Hurracan driver. Send him down to the depths below! Make that 🤬 walk the plank. With a bottle of rum and a yo ho ho! Went in with the M4, was about a second off the qualy for the Aston. Started P11/20 on a mixed grid of DR/C and D.
We weighed anchor and I tried my version of launch control. Finger on the hand brake and thumb hammering down throttle. For the previous races I've had the stick pulled back to hold the brake then jammed it forward when the lights went out. That usually had me drop at least 3 places. This time I just let go of the hand brake and off I went! I gained 2 places from the start and another keeping to the inside of Midsomer Wellow, then kept to my plan of trying to save fuel with short shifting and tall gears. I was up to P5 by the end of the first lap. I picked up a 3s penalty and an orange SR when a fellow Aussie went off track and re-enterd across my bow where I T-boned him. Not much I could do, but it was obviously not deliberate, he was just out of control
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I served my penalty and looking at the replay, all hell broke loose behind me. As a consequence I only lost 1 position which I regained when the car that passed me Causton Corner. Exit out of the Car Park was sloppy and had me on the grass and down a position getting back onto the start/finish strait. Caught a rear tyre on the kerb at Midsomer Wellow and I spun out
. By the time I unghosted at the beginning of the penalty zone I had dropped to P12. That kinda took the wind outta me sails. out of sheer bloody mindedness I persisted and was up to P10 by the penalty zone lap 5. I had a couple of Aussies breathing down my neck for a while, but they dropped back for a while. By the end of the lap one was right on my tail and trying little lunges at Badgers Drift and the Car Park. I suspect he thought I was blocking him, but I was just trying to keep the thing under control! The exit of the Car Park had me fishtailing and trying to move aside to let him by. The Aussie that passed me and the guy in front of him got into it and the other guy lost out. He also slowed down so I gained a position again. The Aussie caught his rear tyre on the kerb on exit from the Car Park and spun out, so P9 across the line starting lap 7. By this stage it was pretty evident that the fuel economy of the M4 isn't the greatest. I think it's even worse than it was after it's first nerfing. Hard to imagine it's fuel economy made it the META once
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Between people pitting and people falling off, even after a really crappy lawn mowing effort coming out of the Car Park, I started lap 10 in P4. Entered the pits at the end of lap 10 in P3 for fuel. I was feeling the tyre wear slowing me, but didn't change boots, just fuel. Unghosted from pit exit P6. Was happy with that... but there was still 5 laps to go with unhappy tyres... the chances of me finding grass was still pretty high
. Sure enough, I did a Big Willow at Causton Corner
. I dropped a position and had the two Aussies from before right up my arse
. One of those was the guy I T-boned, the other was the guy trying to get past me at the Car Park. He had also posted the fastest lap time thus far for the race
. I went off at Goodman's Land lap 12 so back down to P8 for me. Regained position after he had an off and started the final lap P7. If i could just keep my 🤬 together I might be in for a reasonable finish to make up for the crappy finishes I've had since I started my visit to DR/C. I finished P7 right up the bumper of a red Lambo and the Aussie right up mine.
I apologised to the guy behind me for blocking him while I was out of control. I wanted to apologise to the guy I T-boned because I thought I had nudged him off in the first place. Looking at the replay I didn't see any contact. He sent a friend request after the race
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SR back up to 99, DR up 450. Day 3 in sunny DR/C
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