FIA 2020 Season - Stage 2 / Round 12
Nations Cup - after trying just about everything, realized I hadn't tried the Porsche GT3, which was ironic because I'm a Porsche driver in the Manufacturers Series, and I knew they were at the top of the fast cars, but I completely overlooked it. Once I did try it, it was the obvious choice for me, so under no contractual obligation, entered the first slot and was granted door 17... great! Should mean better points if I managed to score a good finish.
Qualified 5th, in a field predictably full of X-Bows... secretly I counted on a bunch of them to go off during the race, or hoped that the drivers who chose them were capable of keeping it online... I found them to be a real handful when I hot lapped one. I was really cool to see the rest of the variety in the field, though, I have to admit. I was kind of rooting for that F40 to do well! I liked this format.
Race was pretty clean, sorted itself out for the most part after first couple of laps. I was happily cruising in 6th after yielding to a couple of quick X-Bows, but on the last lap, some dimwit in another one decided that he would put his front bumper on my rear end into T1. Stupid move, I was actually staying wide, thinking he might want to dive-bomb me... reality was that I was typically putting a few tenths on them in that turn and then holding them off best I could in the faster sections on the last half. But this idiot didn't pick up on the fact that his car was slower in those slow turns, and didn't brake as well, so he hit me and sent me off, which cost me not only the position he wanted (which I may well have had to give up over the next 1:30) but of course the position behind him too. Net result was another 99-pt finish, which won't come into play, though the points for 6th or even 7th would have come into play after next round... Oh well, it was otherwise a pretty clean and entertaining race.
FIA Rd 12 Nations Cup at Kyoto Park: Door 17 / Q5 / R8 // 99 pts
On to St Croix for the Manufacturer's Series race in the Cayman Gr4 car... was looking forward to this after putting in some practice earlier this week. Got door #11, not bad for points. After putting in a 3:19 on the last practice lap, was fired up to see what I could do in qualifying. Nabbed the pole on both laps, lost it then re-took it, only to lose it by 0.034 at the end! It was 1-2-3-4 Porsche at the front of the grid... this boded well for the race pace.
Was a very clean, very fun race, with some real gents (or ladies, who knows) in the top 4 positions all race. Another Porsche, a GTR, and a Jag... all with different advantages around the long track. We managed to put a very small gap to the field, while exchanging positions for the first few laps. I managed to get the lead about midway through, going between the first two positions to make it three-wide, and amazingly held on to the lead into T1. And from there, I was surprised to be able to put some distance on them all, at one point managing to break the draft gap, so that I was no longer under attack at all! It appeared that all of the front runners were on the 7S/1H strategy. But I think that at least one or two were smart, and tried the undercut strategy to dive in on the penultimate lap, so they could attack on hot hard at the end. A great strategy, because with a 1.5 sec lead, I could not afford to do it...
3-wide for the lead:
The last lap was epic... I came out ahead, but wanted to be sure not to bin it while protecting the lead, so it was going to be nip and tuck. I ended up losing the lead on the first third of the lap, we were in a dead heat on the back stretch, and came out of that chicane nose-to-tail while keeping 3rd at bay, then we both raced our best over the bridge and into the last sector. Unfortunately for the other guy, he went wide on the second to last corner, while I made no mistakes, so I took the lead with a corner to go. Careful not to repeat his mistake, I allowed him to get a run on me, but was able to pull off the win by 0.064 seconds- we were overlapped at the line. Awesome race, hats off to the top 4 for all playing it clean and with some great driving to break away from the others.
What a fun last lap! And super happy for my first FIA win!!
FIA Rd 12 Manufacturer's Series at St Croix Door 11 / Q2 / R1 // 134 pts
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Sorry for the crappy screen cap!
- did a best practice time of 3:17.6 and was pumped up for this track!
