Sunday afternoon was chaotic racing from the back having me start behind more and more D/S drivers with impatient other non qualifiers behind me. In t2 races I ended up with 3 penalties.
First, I mistakenly try to race, forgetting this is not a racing game, it's an avoidance simulator. Stupid of me, 2 sec penalty
Then again, stop trying to race idiot, of course you get pushed into the wall and get a 4 sec penalty.
Third, ok stay behind, no more side by sides, so I get hit from behind into the car in front of me, 4 sec penalty
That dropped me to SR.A (77), so I finally qualified as the matchmaking would only get worse. I did a lap between races, set a 2;05.5 time which got me a 3rd place start and an easy win with 14 sec gap.
Back to SR.S and the fast rooms I started 9th to 11th in the races after, back to normal.
I managed to finish, 10th, 7th, 4th, 6th, 5th and 8th with that. However starting in the mid field isn't that great either so I did another 2 qualify lap between races and ended up with 2:04.742 a which got me up to 7th, a bit better. That netted me a 4th, 5th and two 2nd place finishes.
That brought me to my 400th race on Bathurst, which was my goal for the night. A nice even number before the track disappears for who knows how long. It was 2:00 AM EST already and most fast people had signed off by now. I started 4th and when I saw the start I feared the worst.
Lag everywhere and I do not have the best memories of the car in front of me...
Expecting a dive in T1 for sure I took a defensive line on the inside, managed to avoid getting hit from the outside yet the car behind took enough room to creep up beside me to T2. I was on the outside and it seemed like he was going to hit me yet lag caught up and he reset to behind me just in time so I could take the corner. His laggy car then bumped me in T3 yet I held on and he backed off a bit. I started to chase the first 3 that managed to get a little bit ahead after dealing with the 1 bar connection behind me. Which was good since with room in front I could go full speed without worrying about running into them and thus increase the gap behind me.
Thus started a long patient chase of the first three. 2nd and 3rd exchanged places a couple time, I chose not to get mixed in, keep safely behind for now. At the pit my strategy paid off. I had the most fuel left and jumped to 2nd coming out of the pit. The Brazillian in a Mustang came out close behind me and tried to over take in T2. I took the inside line and was still slightly ahead at corner entry, hugged the inside and came out ahead. Then put more distance on him in T3 and T4.
I was 4.5 sec behind first which I slowly managed to reduced to 2 sec in the last lap. Already settling for 2nd place I start my last lap driving carefully as I don't expect to make up another 2 sec in one lap. Then ifirst place finally makes a mistake earning him a track cut penalty and making it possible for me to get right behind him in the esses. I thought I could just stay on his bumper and win yet that's not a very honorable thing to do and I prepare to pass on the straight.
However in the corner before the straight we take very different lines. After driving in the unruly back for so long I always take that corner on the inside as otherwise there is a 110% chance you will get dived on. He, however started braking early to take a wide entry for best exit. That shoots me up on his inside beside him. Winning with a bump pass intentional or not is even worse so I scrape the inside wall to lose some more speed, still tiny contact yet I let him safely go ahead,
That screwed up my exit a bit but I draft catch him on the straight. Not enough though, I only have a nose next to his rear wheel at the slight right with him on the outside. Again not willing to risk a bump pass I let go of the gas to give him full road for safe passage. However the Brazilian has caught up drafting coming up fast in the Mustang and bumps me when I lift. Not enough to cause trouble, just enough to destroy any plans at attempting an out brake and side by side maneuver at the bottom of the hill. I stay behind first on the way down to the sharp left and the Brazilian bumps me again from behind, this time causing me to end up in the grass with 2 wheels. I hang on, Brazil hits me one more time in the right hand corner which sends him going wide into the grass. And for once I do not get a penalty for someone else's crap driving!!!
I get behind first in the final corner, too much distance to make up to attempt an over take and I expect him to scrub his probably minor track penalty before I can pass. He attempts just that, yet fails to scrub it completely, 0.1 sec becomes 1 sec and I win with less than half a second to spare. I'll take it, 400th race on Panorama, 12th win on that track.
Go Canada!
That concludes a great week on one of my favorite tracks. It already was my most driven track at 310 races, adding 90 to the tally last week. Since I qualified and stuck with one car for the last day my DR shot up to 38.7K. Stable it is not, it's getting more smooth with the weeklies though.
First week St. Croix where I started switching cars every race after getting bored of the Ford which made a nice hill.
Second week Interlagos my weakest track yet managed to improve during the week.
Third week, Panorama GR.3 testing sending me up with a set back from Toyota and a disconnected.
Then going from 27k to 39.7k by sticking with the RC F GT3 and qualifying.
This week, GR.1 testing!
.
. 
.) in a mixed grid of DR/S, B,C and D. I was one of only 3 DR/Ds. Bit of a mix of cars. Surprisingly only three 919s, but 4 Saubers (that's me 
). Top spots went to L750Rs.
! I somehow manage to make it round the track and found myself going up in position, having been dropped to P12 after the chicane from lap 1.
. 
. Another day above DR 1 
.
