Not a memorable week (on hard difficulty), as I found 3 of the 5 events rather suboptimal for my taste. The first two pretty much gone before goodbye. I also hate Autopolis so a bit of a bummer as much as a chance to drive the FTO is always welcome
But at least the other two concentrated all the fun!
Any day I get to drive in the Green Hell is a good racing day and the
Schwarzbald league event allowed me to get the 911 GT3 RS '16 out for a spin. On the plus side, got a sunny day to enjoy the scenery (which, obviously got me crashed into a barrier as I got distracted by the beauty of it
Mental note to myself: Next time, better take the vintage Carrera RS '73 and do a tourist day first. The second try went much better and, being patient, paid off for an easy win with CRB. Yikes, not something I usually get in Nordschleife!
Now, that
WTC 800 at Sardegna was quite entertaining!
I decided to continue with the Porsche theme this week (man, I do love Porsche brand!) and chose the Liqui Molly 992 GT3 R, tuned with a high rpm turbo and RM tires.
My strategy was to try a 1-stopper with RMs and undercut the rest of the field. So, FM6, short-shifting and some lift & coast was the name of the game.
First go ... only to make and error on lap 3 that cost me some 20s. Tried to carry on and see if the strategy would get me in the podium, but then later discovered the AI in this circuit has some nasty aggressive attitude (I don't do grinding in Sardegna, so not that used to it). I got punted by somebody exiting a slow turn and then later, on lap 11, a punk came into my rear side at pit exit while I was in the main straight. So, 4 360-spins later, I found myself fuming and out of contention. P4 was all I got at the end.
I definitely tried to bring my A-game the next try. Keep concentration and situational awareness. Gained 4 and 5 places, respectively, the first two laps while maintaining the gap to the front pack, then led by Portilla in the Viper. Portilla pitted at the end of lap 4 for RHs with much of the midfield following suit, which got me to P5 on lap 5. The next lap, Fraga and his Supra pitted for softs while the other top 4 pitted for hards.
Here I was, lap 6 and leading the race! Morale boost ... and a PB of 39.6 on that lap. I then tried to extend the life of the RMs tires for a first stint of 8 laps in order to have a shorter second one. Fuel was not going to be an issue either (or so I thought) so I switched to FM5 after the pitstop. Surprised to see Portilla coming for a second set of RHs at the same time I pitted end of lap 8.
Fraga made his 2nd pitstop at the end of lap 10 for another set of softs and just squeezed by Portilla's Viper for P2, parking its Supra at T1 in order to defend from the Viper's already warm tires.
Portilla on the hards kept within 1s of Fraga. Could he pull a stunner? Nope. I'm afraid somebody won't be returning for another race in Portilla's strategy team, as the Viper had to make a 3rd stop for quick dash of fuel on lap 13. Good for P3 but totally ruined his chances of P2 or better.
Once Fraga made his 2nd pitstop, I was ahead some 5 seconds but Fraga, not having to save fuel, would be a threat once his softs started working, which they promptly did as the gap went down to a couple of seconds the next two laps. From there on, my race stabilized, I did my quick lap of 38.8 on lap 12 and extended the gap to 3s.
The final two laps, with plenty of lapped traffic and Fraga's tires already suffering, gave me the final victory with a 5s gap to P2. Jolly good race!
P.S. About that fuel management or lack thereof in the 2nd stint ... I coasted to the finish line with no fuel left the final 100/200m. Quite on the mark!
