Well I'm slowly coming around to racing in Sport Mode again after taking a few weeks off (I only did a couple FIA races and a casual lobby).
Decided to run some Race B's and C's yesterday. I'm not very good at either of those combos, and before yesterday I had always avoided Brands Hatch like the plague because I hated it. So I basically learned Brands as best I could in one day, getting my qualy up to 1:24.3 was as good as I was gonna get without spending half the day hot-lapping so I went with it. Oddly enough, my best time was in the Lancer, but I did develop a nice little crush on the M6 for the first time ever. Both of those cars can pivot almost as well as an MR car if you trailbrake good enough with them, which is something I'm getting better at every time I race.
Needless to say, racing all day on a track you suck at, from A+, is a sure fire way to lose a ton of DR. By the end of the night I was consistently able to secure top 5 if I didn't get punted or go off track before finish, but that's a big IF. It seems nearly impossible to gain DR if you're not starting top 3 because of all the chaos and desperation driving (as A+). However, one good part about me personally reaching A+ and S/S is now that I've achieved those personal milestones, I don't really care what my DR is and am only going to race for fun. So after some terrible FIA races and a mixed bag of mostly Race B and a few Race C....I'm down about 12,000 DR back to mid-level A range.....which seems to be where I belong, at Brands Hatch anyway. I did have some real good races, but only gain a few hundred DR each time I do well, and usually lose way more when I do bad. I think I'll probably start racing without qualifying pretty soon like
@Sven Jurgens does, just for the laughs and the great replays. Nice races yesterday by the way Sven, we had a few together and even had a little back and forth in one of them I remember. It was good to know that at least one person around me would be clean and respectful.
One of the better aspects of the "daily" races turning to weekly, is that I can get a more accurate statistical glimpse of how I'm performing on each track/car combo. If I'm not performing at an A+ level, my stats will reflect it. Before, I was struggling to find my groove in one afternoon or evening of racing before the races changed. I was also trying to race on days with good races and avoiding days with tracks or cars I didn't like, which can lead to an inaccurate representation of skill. Now that we have a whole week, I can relax knowing I have plenty of time to set a good qualy, get to know the track limits better, and have several races to find a groove before truly learning my potential at this particular combo. And if I'm left with tracks or cars I kinda suck at, oh well I guess that means I've got no choice but to learn them or to avoid Sport Mode....which is boring as hell. Now when I see my DR chart I can see a very clear correlation between my A+ combos and the ones where I'm more of an A or even B/C in some cases where I've avoided the challenge.
I still won't be racing more than one or two days a week, but for now I'm out of semi-retirement....3 weeks off was too long and I need my fix!
. The driving resembled shopping trolleys rather than cars. Anyone who has been in an Australian supermarket know how brutal people with a death grip on a shopping trolley can be! I got bashed, banged, rear ended, crashed, rammed and generally smashed about. I picked up an orange SR with a time penalty and crossed the line P9. I'll have to try spending more time getting used the the car.. I miss my Gr3 911 turn in 
. 
