Well, my Manu report is not as thrilling as it could have been. I qualified 5th with door 7 on the car.
Btw, who was this guy? I can not believe the chaos one dirty driver can cause.
@Jwptexas asked him not to ruin everyones race before the start, I thought he was messing with the guy. NOPE. He was bumping and pushing, just enough to avoid a penalty. He blocked and attempted to gather everyone behind him in a pack or to get them penalties for contacting him as he blocked. He finally got a 3 second penalty and I attempted to pass him for 3rd, On the inside...big mistake, I was awarded a 2 second penalty when he swerved into my door as I passed. This dropped me to 7th. I fought my way back and tried to conserve fuel the best I could, hoping to take little or no fuel. At one point, just after my first stop on lap 12, to switch to mediums, I was up to third for a some laps, then even 2nd when he spun. It quickly became evident not everyone was “conserving.” I could see a group catching quickly, including
@Jwptexas in his Ford GT. But he spun at turn 1 and I got the spot back, 3rd again. The last pit stop really bunched us up for lap 19. We were about 3 cars battling for 3rd, 4th and 5th about a second apart. I was 5th. Some of the guys ahead were battling hard and I saw One got a 1 second penalty. I was loving it, thinking 4th was mine with 2 turns to go in a Hotly contested race. A possible 2nd best point grab for me close to 200 or so....Imagine my surprise when he served his penalty mostly on the racing line, promptly unghosted right as I was going past as wide left as I could go....With only the last right hand turns to go. I swerved left trying to avoid contact and slid out further left, Into the run off area, gathering dirt for my tires and almost spun again coming back onto the straight away, bumping the right side wall.
I lost 4 spots in that final turn to finish 9th for 125 points. 1 and done.
I suppose if I wasn’t so excited about passing for that spot I could have checked up and at least got 5th or 6th in hind sight. If he never got a penalty i’d have finished 5th.
Just one of those racing things.