Joined
@SmokeyMR2 for the 17:00 yesterday, where my McLaren was the brave challenger in what was effectively a one-make Megane Trophy lobby. Up until that afternoon, I had been practicing with the M4 and Evo X, but found the 650S to be the sweetest deal after sampling it for a solitary test lobby (cheers
@breeminator!
). M4 was still fastest for me in FP, but the Mac wasn't too far behind (two consecutive 2:02.6s against a 2:02.384).
My main aim following my experiences in Saturday's round was to try and see whether I could be competitive in something which wasn't the meta for Gr.4. In some ways, it worked out fine.
Enjoyed a smooth, but lonely qualifying run, setting a 2:03.868 early into the session. One of my best flying laps in lobby conditions, though unsurprisingly only good enough for 12th given the circumstances. Only 1.2 seconds off the pole-sitting Megane, so in hindsight not a bad run at all.
A genuinely heart-pounding race followed, which initially started well as I quickly caught up with a line of cars fighting for 7th. Got locked into a mini-battle for 10th-11th in the process, trading places and surviving a brief scare on Lap 4 when I get forced onto the grass on the run to Turn 5. Despite not having the best aero, the 650S handled beautifully and had no problem keeping up with the Meganes through slipstreaming and the half-shifting technique breeminator told me about. Seeing a group of five Meganes up ahead on Lap 5 gave me legitimate hope of breaking into the top 10, though the task of sticking with them while looking my tyres, keeping it clean
and not losing too many positions was very wearying.
Pitted from Softs to Mediums on Lap 6, which brought me back down to 13th after a brief period running in 5th. Got involved in another group fighting for top 10 scraps (including Smokey who after climbing to 2nd forgot to change tyres during his stop), but my race effectively ended when I was forced wide at the final hairpin on Lap 8. No contact - just touched the grass and lost it on my own. Did recover to fight another Megane at the tail end, but felt drained and defeated by the time I crossed the line in 17th (second-to-last of the 18 starters).
Had intended to do more than one slot, but got a headache shortly after this attempt and eventually decided it wasn't worth pursuing more than 92 points this time. No problems with the McLaren though - it felt strong throughout and had plenty of moments where it both survived and fought back against the Meganes.
Yet, with so many others choosing the Megane over practically everything else, I couldn't help but keep wondering whether Nations should focus more on one-make races in keeping with recent World Tour events...
.
