I qualified as well as I wanted. Given the draft factor of racing here, I felt that 4th was enough to keep me in the front pack, and I was right. After the few laps, James and I had pulled about a 4 second gap to third, and I started poking my nose past him but couldn't make it stick cleanly. Each attempt cost us over a second, so I decided to stay in line about .5 second behind him and just tick off clean laps. He eventually made a mistake and let me lead until the first yellow.
I made a good pit stop, and clean restart. From there, I knew everyone in front of me still had another stop in their future, so I passed when I could do so with minimal risk, saved some fuel, and found myself back in the lead with 0 incidents to that point of the race. Ayrton, that was great, clean racing we had, and probably the highlight of my race.
Then came Trace. For the life of me, I can't understand how you could think that passing the other class leaders, who were nose to tail, in a braking zone. After being spun I got a netcode tap on the nose, bending my wheel slightly and my re-entry to the track didn't work, putting me back even further. My apologies for the scare, Eric.
The next lap, Richard decided he was clear, and turned himself on my nose. By the way, once your spotter has said "Right Side", the other car is there until he says, "Clear". If that is in your blind spot, please trust your spotters judgement. I don't know if iRacing's damage model bent my wheel back, but after that contact my car felt pretty good. Richard, thanks for the toe adjustment
Time to put my head down and get to work. Somehow, I don't know how, I managed to get back to 2nd for the 2 lap shootout at the end.
Eric must have thought the lap down Mustang in front of me could take turn 1 at full speed, and I got tapped from behind. This pitched me sideways, I cut the turn 1 curb, which awarded me a Slow Down. I moved completely to the right and flashed my brake lights to let the car behind me know that I was slowing down. This slowdown caused an accordian effect, which resulted in the debacle that we all saw.
For the third race this season I have been knocked off the podium on a restart lap, by being hit from behind in a braking zone, by the car that went on to win the race. Congratulations Eric! JPM would be proud of the way you managed to get the full benefit from your "accident"
Here is a tidbit of racecraft that I have learned that may help others: If you're between two cars at the end of the straight, lift a little early and be ready to brake a little more gradually, over a slightly longer zone. This gives you more margin for error in avoiding the car ahead of you, alerts the driver behind you that he's entering the brake zone (earlier than he would if he was by himself), and gives him a margin for error because he's not closing on you as rapidly as he will if you brake hard and suddenly.
Trace's quote from above sums up my feelings very well: I have seen more incidents caused by lack of respect than anything this season. We're all supposed to be working together, and we're not here to show how good any one of us may be, we're here to show good online racing can be.
Are you supposed to wait for the green light to step on it, or as pole sitter can I go for it as soon as the pace car is clear ?
Oh well. Had a bit of damage but managed second...
