Chuffed with 4th considering how far off the pace I was in comparison to the big power cars. (Apologies if the video is a bit nuff. the camera angles at Monza definitely miss a lot of the action)
A terrible start put me down to 10th, then the next lap whilst battling with Razor, I inadvertantly T-boned @MINT_GTR which gave him terminal damage. Immediately after the race I apologised but he said the contact was unavoidable due to how slow 2 cars in front of him were going.
Thus began an epic chase to catch the pack. Thankfully all the cars in front were battling very hard, so hard in fact most of them had damage which was harming their lap times significantly. Honestly the first hour of this race was some of the most fun racing I’ve ever had.
The pit strategies made the race extremely hard to follow, so I decided to stick to my normal 45/45/45 strategy as I lacked the car pace to do any extra stops, and the Beetle’s fuel economy is so bad it cannot make one hour on a tank. I lost lots of time in the pits due to having to fill the tank almost all the way. Once the power cars stopped crashing into one another, it was all over. Blue jumped me in the pits, as did the Supra team. I came out just in front of Razor who was pushing hard and gaining. Unfortunately he damaged my wing into Ascari and my pace dropped into the 48’s. This badly hurt my chance at a podium and enabled bananajosh to streak away.
My second stop put me in clear air and I was able to rack up very fast and consistent laps to jump Razor, and catch bananajosh. By now Blue, Vardz, Dave and TGR were out of reach. Josh damaging his car and Razor making 2 stops in 2 laps gifted me 5th place as I overcut Josh who stopped early to repair damage. TGR pitted late to give me 4th but there was no holding that car back. Sadly on lap 98/100 they crashed and gifted me a very unlikely 4th, although I do believe a podium was on the cards had it not been for my damage. Josh was gaining on me but I had a big enough gap to feel comfortable. Quite the enjoyable race despite not having a ghost of a chance at victory. Again, massive congrats to @bluexephos22 for not doing a @Viperzed and actually taking full advantage of car pace to take a great win.
What’s next then? Well after the interesting post race formalities, there will be some changes coming:
2 Step BOP System
A solution I’m keen to pioneer to avoid nasty shocks again is to verify car performance with each driver before qualifying commences. So for Maggiore onwards, the BOP will be revealed as normal, however you will have 48 hours to submit a sheet of race pace lap times (via rooz or PSN inbox) to me with your car at the new BOP. I’ll know if you’ve been sandbagging too so don’t try it. Based on the information I receive, the BOP will receive one last change once the 48 hours is up (if needed). I’ll just say right now if you don’t submit any information, don’t crack the sads if you don’t like the changes or the results of qualifying upset you. There’s nowhere to hide, it’s in your best interest to submit 5 or so laps to ensure we get the closest and most competitive racing possible.
I’ve already mentioned that infringements will be more closely monitored, penalties will be handed down by the Stewards Group. @Noremac mentioned people started on the wrong side of the grid, it’s a fairly basic instruction, this will be penalised too. No exceptions.
Calendar Changes:
Rounds 4 & 5 are to be moved back a week to avoid FIA Nations Cup Top 16 Superstars clashes. This also allows for more time to be spent BOPing the Nürburgring 3 Hours. Round 11 will be moved forward one week, while Round 12 will be moved to the 5th of October. Fingers crossed these will be the last changes needed and I apologise for any inconvenience.
Drop Round:
A drop round will be introduced for GT3. Standard ROOZ, you drop your lowest score.
Driver Ratings:
@bluexephos22 Moves up to Gold.
Last edited: Mar 27, 2019