Epic. The first half anyway. Qualifying went as I expected, poorly. 8th was the best I could muster with hardly any heat in the tyres.
@Blue XR8 was glitching slightly and wanted to be in the same spot as
@Blindman but the game said let me think about it and just wobbled the two around.
@garyw61 ran wide putting two wheels on the grass exiting turn 1 and I moved up to 7th, but my compulsory lift in the fast chicane let him back past. Up ahead bluexr8 seemed to hit an invisible wall at the double rights before the first tunnel and fell way back in last place. On the straight for the first time to start lap 2 and Supra power kicked in, opening the gap back to
@Adronaught and closing on gary,
@Blindman and
@SPL Racing. Blindman squeezed inside SPL at the double rights before the tunnel. Some light contact from gary had SPL fishtailing and gary hard on his anchors as I sailed on through.
Lap 3, 5th place and I now had my sights on blindman. He runs wide at the double rights before the tunnel and I'm on him in a flash. Lap 4 I drafted by and turned in to turn1. but the GTR pulled back ahead with its superior grip, holding the tighter line. I grunted out of the fast chicane and come alongside, trying to hold the outside but no good. Lap 5 and I once again drafted past only to be outgripped into the chciane. Lap 7, another run at blindman, and now i manage to hold onto 4th for a bit at least. I was now leading a 4 car freight train but blindman ran wide again at the double rights before the tunnel and this time spun out, dropping to 9th. What followed for the next 15 or so laps was some of the most intense driving I have ever had at ROOZ. SPL and adro in their screaming HSV's in full attack mode as I defended for my life to maintain 4th. The tyre wear got to the supra in the end, being unable to hold the corner speeds needed to keep them at bay. SPL had the better run from the long left out the tunnel to the final hairpin, but I then grunted up the hill and pulled the gap back out to turn 1. Lap 12 SPL managed to get by on the downhill run to the final hairpin, but I drafted back past on the straight. At the double rights on lap 13 he runs wide allowing adro up to take over the attack. Lap 20, my tyres were crying enough! Just calm down will you!? But I couldn't, they were still right there waiting to pounce. Lap 21, 2 wheels on the wrong side of the ripple strip exiting turn 1 was all it took for adro to sneak by, and then an almost exact replica move as I bounced off the ripples exiting turn 1 saw SPL slide by and put me in 6th. Without me holding them up in the turns they opened a small gap over the next 2 laps then the gap stayed constant at about 2 secs between each car. I saw
@B-Spec Bob slowly dropping back towards us but was still way out of my reach.
I pulled in the pits start of lap 27, fronts on 3/5 and put 25 litres in just in case. I came back out in 9th with Gary, blindman and bluexr8 still to stop. Bluexr8 and Gary stopped next lap, then blindman the lap after. Bob, adro and SPL were about 5-6 secs up ahead and try as I may I could not close the gap. It sometimes looked like I'd close slightly on SPL but it would just open up again. It was hard work maintaining the gap but also very frustrating and a little boring running pretty much by myself. A glimmer of hope on lap 49 with 6 mins left on the clock as up ahead SPL RAN WIDE EXITING TURN 1, and was now right in front. I drafted pastor the front straight but with 5/5 on the front I had to brake early, and being on the inside my line was messed up, I ran across the ripples on the apex with 2 wheels on the grass then shot across to the outside of the track. I tried to hold the slide in the grass but had to slow so much that by the time I had saved it I was at a crawl. Gary was closing fast as I built up speed again and I could see he was gonna be right on me at the fast chicane with me still not up to racing speed and with dirty tyres so I slowed to let him by to avoid a pointless arm wrestle that would only end in one of us spinning out again. Now I was back up to speed with Gary just a few secs ahead and blindman driving like a madman to make up for his early mistakes.
Lap 52 with just over 2mins left blindman barged his way past out of turn 1 and set off after Gary. I had no tyres left to fight back so I watched in dismay as 7th was taken from me. I watched up ahead over the next lap as Gary and blindman battled it out for 6th, quietly hoping they'd take each other out to give me back my 6th place, but it wasn't to be, as they ran the final half of lap 53 side by side. Blindman made the move stick exiting turn 2 as the counter hit 00:00:00. I was watching it intently as my left front had just dropped to 3 and I was really starting to struggle to get turned in. We passed bluexr8 on the downhill run to the final hairpin who was in limp mode out of fuel and as we crossed the line to start lap 56 it finally said it was the final lap. As I came to the fast chicane, blindman was falling backwards and I realised he must have just run out of petrol! What a bugger so close to the finish.
7th place will have to do this round. Starting the final lap I noticed a blue arrow approaching quickly, only just avoiding getting lapped by Konnor in the end. Awesome battle in the first stint. Great to watch on the replay too. The longest closest battle I've had since...ever. The closest I can compare it to was the reverse grid race at trial mountain in the mini's, and that didn't last half that long. Well done Konnor, Hat and adro.
Click to expand...
