Noxy's long winded race report.
I had a heart pounding qualifying. Was looking at 11th on the grid before my final run. I finally managed to put a clean run in and managed to nab 8th on the grid with basically my time from my hotlap vid. Happy with that I knew this was going to be a hard race for me.
Got off the line well and managed to get in front of @apex2691 for the first corner. Then i put my head down and tried to keep up with @Noremac and @Captain_Risky_21 . I managed to reel them in after a few laps as they were battling pretty hard.
Tucked in behind norm i was happy to just be there and wanted to just keep the pace with them. Norm had a compromised entry/exit into the final corner and all the sudden i had the perfect line and speed. I roared around him onto the straight. Crap im no good being the leader. It was around now that half the field dropped out from my network. On my screen it looked like i had a clear track with norm on my back. But in reality me and risky were inside each other (prepare for inuendos).
I did ok for a bit, put some consistent laps in. Then norm decided he had enough and put the pressure on me. I crumbled. Messed up my focus and he was all over me. He had a look on 3rd corner on the inside going left up the hill. A little nudge and this pushed me wide touching the dirt and on the wrong line going up the hill. I tried to keep my line tight for the right hander but norm snuck his nose in on the 2nd apex. Unwittingly squeezing him we just touch. This was enough to unsettle my car and push me wide again. This time the dirt claiming me. I was very lucky i was able to spin my car back onto the tarmac and do a quick 360 losing minimal time. This allowed @Hatfield and @Motors560 through.
Put on the backfoot i made a split decision to try and go for the undercut. Probably not my greatest decision with hindsight haha. I pitted early for softs on lap 14. After a few absolutely horrid laps coming to terms with my new softs it looked like my gamble almost paid off. Norm came out the pits directly beside me. We went into the first corner side by side. I carried to much speed to try and get around him and i went wide onto the dirt, almost ruining my race. I regained control and tried to keep up with norm.
This is when i realised i made a terrible mistake. Norm was already pulling away at considerable pace and hatfield was handily catching me every single lap.
It wasn't long before hatfield was on my ass and i couldn't really do much about it. He got past me relatively easy as i knew i just had knowere near the tire health he had. I decided to just try and keep up with him and hope for a mistake from him. Behind him at one stage i put in what i thought was a flawless lap. Yet he still did a faster lap time than me. It was at this stage i reserved myself in the fact the race had gone away from me.
With what i thought at that stage only holdenman was behind me. I eased a bit and tried to just bring the car home in one piece. What was scary watching tynesiders replay was @groover33 and the rest weren't that far off me. I could of very easily been overtaken by them and not even known it.
I can say im happy i brought my car home for a solid 6th. Up 2 places from qualifying. Again i capitalised on others misfortune. (Keep it up guys, makes me look faster than i really am). But it would have been interesting to see what i could have achieved if not for my spin and my split decision tire strat.
Anyway i learned more about pit strategy and tire wear in this race than the first race. So I'll take that experience on board for future races.
Congrats to podium finishers @KeedenMcdonald ,@Bryan_F and my team mate @xlxy90 . You guys were on another level.
Last edited: Feb 18, 2019