The ups and downs of racing...
Quali: 4th
Race: 3rd
Quali went surprisingly well, although my time itself was a little disappointing as I'd hoped to be able to break into the 2:16's by this point. Given that it's almost a given that the Audi and BMW drivers will occupy the top spots, 4th was actually pretty decent.
Onto the race... The plan was to stay out of trouble (as it always is, actually) and this time, unlike at Monza, I managed to do just that. Racingline and eol- seemed to be having a decent battle just ahead of me and I saw eol- snatch second into Les Combes iirc. The straight line pace of the Audi meant that this wasn't too much of a surprise early on. With Racingline now in third, my intention was to just sit behind him and hopefully pick up some of his tow around the track to keep me in touch with a quick eol- in the Audi. What was surprising was that it seemed, at first anyway, that Racingline was losing a little time to 2nd. More surprising, still, was that I managed to make a pass myself. Unfortunately, though, I was unable to make inroads on the slight lead eol- had made up to this point and I actually fell back down to 4th. It was at this point that I was thinking about pit strategy - the plan being to stop a few laps earlier than eol- so that I could make up a load of time on him on fresher tyres. So, in I came on lap 10 (the exact same lap as my team mate actually) to put on some new boots and out I went to close down the gap to eol-. This didn't quite go to plan, though, as I came out just behind a gaggle of cars, one of which was infodevil in the Vette, who also had really good pace. He managed to pass the cars ahead and I followed suit shortly after. Then he and I battled for a few laps which was enjoyable and clean. A tincy bit of contact here & there but no damage was incurred by either driver so it was all good. But, I think this battle lost me just enough time so that when eol- did eventually pit, he came out with enough of a gap so that I couldn't latch onto his tow. I did close up on him a little as he became acclimatised to the new rubber, but once he got going he was off again.
I wasn't entirely sure what had happened to Racingline during the first pit stops but he seemed to have lost some time and iirc I was actually in 3rd again after things had settled down... and by quite some margin.
From here on in it was simply a case of remaining focussed enough for the duration of the race and doing my best to make sure I was going fast enough to make it hard for Racingline to catch back up again but also careful enough not to make any costly errors. He was catching, and at quite a rate as well, but luckily for me he ran out of laps to close the gap and make a pass and I got a surprising podium out of a race which I was expecting to really struggle in. I guess some of the other guys just struggled that little bit more than me on the day, which made the difference.
Come the end of the race, Michouw had extended his lead to me by over a minute - his pace was truly staggering. I'd been keeping tabs on the fastest lap graphic and was in awe of the low 2:14 he'd managed as I think my best on the RM was a mid 2:15. Grats Michouw - nice driving.
Well done to eol- for powering home his Audi to a great debut podium finish as well.
Nice driving crelou - another strong performance there. Good to see you also improve upon your grid position
Anyway, after a win in the first round and a shockingly bad round at Monza, to then be back on the podium in only my 3rd race here at the FIA GTWC feels pretty decent. I know that to achieve podium results in this league it's really gonna be a case of me having a good race and others having a bad one. That's happened twice now - lucky me I guess.
Ronan Keating must have been having premonitions about this league when he penned his song Rollercoaster
See you at Suzuka guys 👍
