FIA yesterday was a mixed bag. Although I did not gain any new points, I had a decent Nations result, but a pretty bad MFG race.
I had never spent much time learning Bathurst before yesterday, and by race time I still only had about 2 hours total time hot-lapping and practice lobbies on the course. Qualy time was down in the 2:04's, but most other DR-A and A+ drivers were at least 2 seconds faster. Needless to say, I didn't expect a great result. Joined the first slot, I think I was in 2nd split, which was a 2000-point lobby. Qualified low, something like 15th. At least there's no pressure to perform down here. Race was going really well actually, had moved up 6 or 7 spots before I got punted in T2 by a Porsche driver who qualified on P2 then had a terrible race that somehow put him behind me. He got a penalty on Lap 1, then tried to aggressively push his way back up through the field and ended up in more wrecks with more penalties. Much later, by the time he came up behind me, I guess he was done waiting for us slow plebs and decided to send me into the wall from 3-tenths back. That gave him a 4s penalty and he was pissed about it...so what does he do? Later in that lap he slows down to a complete stop on the way down the hill, knowing I couldn't stop in time. I tapped him, he proceeded to drive himself off track to induce a 5s penalty on me. He then passes me later while I'm serving it and finishes a few spots ahead of me. He cost me about 12 seconds total. Could have finished around 8th, but ended up in 13th I think it was. In the post-race chat he asked me "wtf are you doing?" and said that I braked way too early, then called me "Mr. Slow." Odd because I brake in the same spot as pretty much everyone else for T2, maybe I can't brake as late as he can since he's in the Porsche and I'm in the Mazda, but punting me from 3 tenths back? Then taking your anger out on me by causing a wreck and penalty on purpose? Come on. Checked his stats later and saw he has more DR resets than I care to mention. I certainly owe this guy at least one. Saw him causing chaos in a later race too, on a friend's stream. Apparently this is a pattern. Ok, noted, done with MFG for the day. I'm happy with P2 for Mazda anyway.
Nations was actually great. Uneventful, but in a good way. Top split lobby outside of the Top 16, so essentially the best of the rest. Almost 2200 point room. Could have qualified better, but started in 11th. My qualy time was actually tied with
@SpecMiata-JSW and it put him in 10th! First time that has ever happened to me. Not sure how it decides who goes first, maybe alphabetical? Or by DR? Anyhow, the first few laps of this race were really amazing. It was one of those races where nothing really happens for awhile and everybody stays single file, clean through corners, drafting and working together. I'm sure it was different elsewhere, but in front of me it was a beautiful sight to see that line of cars cruising through every corner. Once the pit strategies started to unfold is when the race got more interesting. One driver in front pitted on lap 4 to get out of traffic. I pitted lap 5, and a couple guys ahead of me pitted one lap later, end of lap 6. I witnessed an incident when I was leaving the pits that resulted in 2 guys getting punted and the punter getting penalties. 3 spots gained. Then I was able to undercut 1 of the late pitters. I'm pretty sure
@SpecMiata-JSW was pulling a no-stopper, so I eventually caught back up to him and made the pass. Props to him for facilitating that. It's not easy on anyone to overtake through T1, it definitely takes two. Ended up finishing 7th for 1400 points. Not a keeper, but a real fun and very clean race. If I had another half a lap P6 would have been mine, but the guy who pitted on lap 4 seemed to have made the better choice by avoiding traffic and finished about a half second ahead of me.
Happy racing gents! See you all soon.
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