Great fun last night guys, cheers to everyone for joining, but once again, lag intervened ruining stu's and fastboy's races, my fault on both occasions. Congrats to the QLDers on a 123, that's going to take quite an effort to overcome it.
My qualifying was disappointing. After practising and getting low 1:04's, a 1:05.0 was clearly not going to be quick enough. I took pole by over a second in the same race last season, I was 6 tenths down and in 6th this time. Stu's awesome 2nd place was more than consolation however.
I got an awesome start, diving up the inside and overtaking 4 cars to set up a NSW 1-2. It wouldn't last sadly. Coming out of the quick right flick, I failed to cover Mustafur and rotor, which invited them up the inside. Rather cruelly, stu copped the full force of my terrible lag, and was down to last place. Rotor was now in the lead, with Mustafur close on my tail.
He eventually passed me, but he spun out a few laps later. Fastboy was now putting me under pressure, we had a fun side by side battle. But he got past me eventually. I was still keeping up though. I backed off whilst heavily in his slipstream, but of course, this resulted in another stupid lag punt.
Rotor was now several seconds clear, with the gap to-ing and froing. As I started to gain on Rotor slightly, the phone started going berserk. I had no choice but to answer, and there went my challenge. A minute was lost, and ironically enough I was roughly in the same place when I rejoined, albeit a lap down and in last place. That's now 2 Origin races in a row where outside intervention has compromised my race.
I kept going to try and steal some points from the Victorians and Outsiders. It would be a long process, but I eventually settled down, and nailed some fast, consistent lap times. I had passed Bruce, but that still wouldn't score me any points. I benefitted from C.A.G.M's failure to finish, and tb's earlier DSC.
I caught Dave at the wrong section of the track, and cost myself time. By now, Mustafur was on my tail in 2nd place, as we caught Joe. Upon passing him, I struggled to pull away. To make matters worse, I had to cede position to Mustafur, which was pretty hairy to keep Joe behind in the process!
Strangely enough, once I let Mustafur through, I found another level in pace, and I was getting held up by him, as strange as that is to say. I decided to stay in his slipstream, as it saved fuel and would benefit me if we came across any more rivals I needed to pass.
My strategy worked supremely. Just prior the pit stop, we were making fast inroads on those who had pitted earlier. I caught Haze by surprise, and I was now up to 8th. Mustafur pitted on lap 48, but I kept going until I was running on fumes. On lap 50, my engine cut out just as the AI took over in the pits. I made up lots of time as I didn't have to wait for my crew to pit fuel in. 40L was just enough. I came out ahead of Mustafur, but I had to give way once again. We caught emmo and I was up into 7th. That was as far as I got up.
I kept following Mustafur, as we caught rotor. Mustafur took the lead as rotor ceded position. Mustafur didn't want to battle anymore, and let me through as I futilely tried to catch Frzn.
I became confused when the feed on the left said rotor had crossed the line to start his final lap, Mustafur didn't have enough fuel! It was a strong race from rotor, who seemed really at home in the GT-R. I'm pleased
that stu recovered from the lag to finish 5th, that was a splendid drive. Sergio was very impressive in 4th as well. Emmo drove well but seemed to struggle towards the end, as did Bruce, I can only guess it was due to the new Thrustmaster giving the arms quite a workout!
So, another dominant performance for QLD, but NSW definitely have the pace to be right up there, it's a tough ask against so many bastards in Div 1 lol
Le Mans will be fantastic, the long Mulsanne will make for plenty of overtaking, and with nighttime intervening, it will be quite a spectacle!
Cheers, Jono
Click to expand...
