No upgrades for me this week, adding power just cooks my tires faster. I'm gonna keep the same setup and see what happens. My main objective is just to finish above chuyler and I think I'm fast enough to do that.
LOL, just saw this now. My only goal last night was to beat Sl3ight and hope the two of us placed low enough on the grid to allow for some extra cash to spend. Well, I accomplished goal 1, a quick review of how it went down...
Race Start: The front pack was the tightest racing I've seen all season. Garris was up front, Geezer, Bowtie, Cujo, Bowtie, Sl3ight, and me bringing up the rear. Everyone would pull away on the straights and I'd catch up on the hairpins.
A few laps in, I think Garris and Geezer had some trouble around the hotel hairpins. I squeaked by about 3 cars including sl3ight before the tunnel straight, but Sl3ight blew by me and I was relegated to the back again.
A few more laps went by with Cujo leading, bowtie behind him, sl3ight, then me. I had no trouble staying close with Cujo in the lead. Then cujo made some mistakes and everyone got by. I forget exactly what happened but I didn't stick around.
Bowtie broke away and I was chasing sl3ight. 5 more laps go by and each lap I can tell sl3ight's tires are wearing down. I get some good runs on him but I can't pull away on the straight. Finally my break comes when he taps the wall exiting casino and I use full force to pull around him on the inside. I put the hammer down through the hotel hairpins and enter the tunnel with plenty of buffer. He closes the gap before the chicane but I hammer through the next few turns with my better tires and pull away.
Lap 16 or 17 Sl3ight pits. I wait until lap 18. When I come out, sl3ight's about 2 seconds ahead. I close the gap in the corners and eventually pick up enough of his draft to get on his bumper. He pulls me around the track running 1:48s for a few laps until his tires start to give out. I start pushing hard to get around. I made a few good runs through the final turns but it didn't matter, we couldn't really run 2-wide entering the front straight and he was going to just draft pass me anyway. I think we both got damage battling that final kink. I'm pretty sure he had left side damage and I had right side damage from cutting in too close. So My only shot is casino again...but sl3ight has smartened up. He takes great care in blocking the inside line into the first hairpin at the bottom of the hill. It takes significantly more laps but on lap 32 I get along side him on the outside and make the outside line stick. We're still close entering the left-hand hairpin so I stick the inside line and leave him room. I come out a few car lengths ahead and stretch that through the next few turns and pull away. He pits almost immediately but I stay out. My plan was to run to lap 36 but I needed sl3ight's draft to stay close.
I risked it as far as lap 34 and came out a few seconds behind sl3ight again. He was very good at pulling away on fresh tires. It took several laps to catch him this time. Around lap 40 I started noticing his tire wear but I was very careful through most of the track not to get in his way. I applied pressure, but I completely intended on passing after casino again. In fact, I think I made the pass several times but he could stay close enough to draft pass me down the hill.
Lap 45, I get a moderate run with my casino pass but I didn't think it was going to stick. I stay to the left of the white line through the tunnel leaving almost no room on my left and plenty of room on my right. I figured if it came to a side-by-side brake zone I wanted to be on the inside this time. I had given him the outside previously and it didn't really work.
...then sl3ight squeezes his car to my left while I wasn't looking and comes out on my left. I hit the brakes but its too late, sl3ight comes flying through and hits the wall at the chicane. I hated to see the battle end like this but I think both sl3ight and I knew that if I got through the chicane ahead, he wouldn't be able to stay close through the next few turns. With 5 laps to go, he had to go for it.
I probably should have cut hard right when I finally saw him come up...but I was in shock that he actually fit by me. In any case, with 5 laps to go, with me on tires that were 2 laps fresher, one or two more laps I would have made the same casino move and been able to pull away further.
Anyway, it was an epic battle of drivetrain and tire wear. This track is the one reason I refused to pick a FF car. I was stuck in one on sedan night and after 5 laps my pole position turned into an 8th place finish. Sl3ight is an excellent driver and he held me off for many laps. I don't think I could have done the same in his car.
