Manufacturers 1st slot.
I'd done a bit of free lapping and two practice races (which were both shocking!) to work out what could or couldn't be done with strategy but this was my first ever competitive race in the GR3 Jag.
I spent 20 minutes before the race just simulating qualifying runs, and I'll say it paid off. Qualified 7th with a 1:30.6, exactly the same time as an Alfa in 6th, just two tenths off pole and on a grid where the top 16 were covered by a second. So starting towards the front of the middle, or back of the front, chose my favoured strategy and started on the mediums - or as I'll refer to them from now on - Black Ice!
Went down into T1 off the start, everyone very well behaved then tried to get a run out of T3 but just had no grip and despite coming off the throttle got myself a 1s penalty for running wide. Still on ice into T4 and got passed by an Aston out of it, just struggling everywhere. Luckily for me the car behind was also a Jag that had started on ice instead of rubber and he wasn't able to make any inroads. Tyres gradually warmed up, I hung on to the Aston's slipstream, got a small gap to the Jag behind and was able to serve the penalty without losing a place. Right, settled in now, head down and off we go. Closed in on the Aston who pitted at the end of L5 for softs, putting him on a completely different strategy to me as I was going to run hards in the middle so I didn't expect to see him again unless it transpired we were close at the end.
Then...not much happened to be fair, people pitting at different times meant it would all shake down late in the race. I closed in on a Corvette while on hards, he pitted before me and put fresh hards on but my tactic was always to do a seven lap stint on softs at the end so when I emerged slightly further behind him at the start of L12 it didn't take long to catch and get past. Then the rest of the passes were people who were pitting to be fair - but - there was an Alfa, the car that had qualified ahead of me on alphabetical order (or should that be Alfabetical?), and he had fitted hard tyres for the final few laps. I gradually closed the gap and on the last lap - I'm adamant I should have had him! Maybe I could've braked later for T1 but I set up to get him into T4 anyway... then the Aston from the first stint emerged from the pits and chaos ensued for a few corners!
Fair play to the Aston for saving it then pulling over! He apologised after the race but it wasn't anything dirty in my opinion, didn't ultimately cost anyone anything and it was definitely surreal watching him spear across the track! (I was relieved not to get a penalty though seeing him go off in my mirror!). But the status quo remained, I got a 6th place finish, top Jag and 216 points
734 for the season after three races (all one and done) is something I'm really, really pleased with. Not sure if 800 is possible for me so maybe I'll focus on Nations now. I like GR1 and it seems a good place to start on Saturday!
