Mario and I finally had our titanic battle tonight. With certain rounds, it became more like Mad Max and less like racing. But it was fun and fair and all together, enjoyable.
We chose an old classic. The 1996 550 Maranello. A road car. It's not quite the understeering pig it was in Ferrari Challenge. It's been tweaked and improved. So it's more like, the understeering...wild boar. A big difference, to be sure. But I actually really like the car. It's what a big, heavy and powerful road car should feel like.
The tracks were chose were:
1. Silverstone.
2. Mont Tremblant
3. Vallelunga
4. Riviera
5. Spa
My brief recap is as follows:
1. Silverstone. We had both done a few rounds of practice on this track today. But in both cases with the 355 Challenge. We started with the 550, completely cold. No practice laps, no racing line, no assists, no one quick lap to check braking points. Neither of us had driven this car in many, many months. And we literally threw ourselves off the deep end. Ready, set, GO! Banzai!!! Silverstone has never been one of my favorite tracks and I thought Mario would have the edge. Things were pretty close until I made a series of small mistakes on lap 3 (pushing too hard) and Mario pulled out a lead of about 3 seconds. At this point, I kept seeing colored lights dancing on my ceiling and then noises and 30 seconds later, I realized it was my daughter watching from behind, walking around in her neon lit, dancing shoes. At this point, rather distracted, I drove off the road. Mario offered to restart but we were both tired and with his 3 second lead and a better 'feel' for this track, I couldn't see that I would have caught him. Round 1 to the Hun.
2. Mont Tremblant. Mario was making much better starts. I was getting excessive wheelspin and he was pulling nearly a 1 second lead on me by the first corner, 2 tracks in a row. But I managed to make it through this round with no mistake where as he seemed to have a few moments. Round 2 to team JJ.
3. Vallelunga. Where as in the first two rounds, we crossed the finish line like two ships in the night (two ships who weren't close to hitting each other), Vallelunga was very close with at least 3 lead changes and a finish that had us < .5 apart. But it was Mario who crossed the line first. The Hun takes 2.
4. Riviera. I wish I had recorded this race. It was right up there with the best kubica88 has to offer. Although, completely unintentional. Between hitting the walls, the armco and each other, I know Mario's car lacked both front and rear bumper and had many body panels out of place and I'm sure mine was in a similar state. I spun around completely at least once, collecting Mario in the process. And on lap 4, I was laughing so hard, I could hardly concentrate on driving. The sound of car smacking wall could be heard at least once every 20~30 seconds. But in the end, I somehow ended up across the line first, close though it was.
5. Spa. And so we entered the final round with two wins each. And it was now, all or nothing. Shootout at the OK corral. High noon. Two men enter, one man leaves. And it was 5 laps of very sloppy, very tasteless driving from both of us. It's tough jumping into a car that suffers from heavy understeer and seems to go slower the more you push it. And it was a hard fought battle. But in the end, a completely ugly and selfish overtaking move that only Juan Pablo Montoya (and his tasteless fans) could love, meant that I got by the Hun on the 2nd to last corner on the last lap and it was neck and neck down to La Source. But having the inside line was an advantage and like a tick that just won't let go, I stuck to the line and made it...ahh...stick. That made it 3 out of 5 to JJ, in a very hard fought fight that left us both hot, thirsty and sleepy.
I DID manage to get this one on video, embarrassing though it is. Doubtless, those who watch it, will be quick to challenge both of us as it makes us look like a couple of chumps and easy marks. Yeah, sure. YOU try driving this car with no practice....
Thanks for the challenge Mario. As always, we run each other very close and it could have gone either way.
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