As promised, I return to Tsukuba in search of glory... Cranking the TCS to 5, I went full chuck mode and found nearly a whole second, netting a tidy 56.666. I'm a full second faster than the guy on my friends list who taught me to drive. Damn, I'm getting better...
So, start P3, the same as my last attempt where I was unceremoniously punted off at the Dunlop Bridge. There's a little argy bargy on the opening lap, I'm willing to bet a lot more going on behind me, but everyone settled in pretty quick and room was being given to me and returned. I was trading in and out of second until I made a small mistake at the final hairpin and a Frenchman came through; the two arrows on my radar let me know it was time to start booking it if I wanted to keep my podium. I regained third from the Brit who got passed by the Frenchman, and the Italian who started P9 was making his presence known up in the top group by lap 3. The racing was wheel to wheel between the top 4 most of the rest of the way - I focused on not making mistakes and apexing every corner even if it meant overslowing a little, rather than trying to outbrake the whole group the whole way round. I snuck up the inside at turn 2 to take 2nd, I believe on lap 4.
The Italian overachiever was making a few little errors, not quite getting the kart turned in to the apex, and going a little wide in places. My internal MAX ATTACK switch flicked to on, as I started to make gains and position my kart in his back pocket. Gaining a little too much ground through the flat-out middle section, I went to the outside and the grass to avoid punting my Italian friend off track, with mixed success - we touched but at the slowest point of the corner and it didn't seem to affect him, but I think he had outbraked himself a little as he went wide in the latter part of the corner and I got the cutback - then it was a simple matter of bringing it home!
An overdue win, with battling the whole way around and no ugly incident to hang a black mark over it. I'd like to shoutout the Italian I beat - I apologised for the tap post race and he was very polite about it. It's given a bit of relief to my DR slide, too, I'm now C and three quarters, back up from a half full bar, and heading towards my rightful place at the bottom end of B. This combo might honestly have provided the best racing I've had on GTS, and the three I've done have been far less dirty than I expected to see here.
Always pushing, always improving... Win #5.
You boys sure can drive 
