All I can say is wow.. that was a interesting start to my first race with ROOZ !
Spent a good chunk of the day preparing for the race. In individual practices I topped out with a time of 1:28.10 and was running consistent 1:28.500 - 1:29.500's, I came into pre-race practice/qualifying full of confidence. First race jitters got the best of me during that 10 minutes of qualifying and I couldn't string together a consistent set of laps. Finished with a qual time of 1:29.400 (I thought for sure I'd qualify with low-mid 1:28's).
Come race time we set up on a grid (first time doing a grid start aswell) and we're off! Turn one and 2 went pretty cleanly but due to my inexperience I tried to go wide into turn 3 (thought I saw an opening that wasn't there) and I go careening into the green. I watch as the pack pulls away and I know that's the end of any hopes of a top 5 finish. By the time I'm back on course I'm looking at a +12s deficit. As I pull into turn 4 I see
@Randm90 out in the gravel and as I pass he disconnects (had problems all night). Making my way up the straight towards turn 5 I see
@Green Terror slowed down on the side of the road. We take turn 5 together with me ~1-2 seconds behind. That's when the second incident occurs. I see
@Green Terror lose traction coming out of turn 6 and off into the grass he goes. I watch in slow mo as he rejoins the track and just as I pass him he goes right into my passenger's side door (I probably could've slowed down to let him back on but I was so far behind I just wanted to make up time). Could this race go any worse? I'm back on track as I see Green's ghosted car pull infront of me. I eventually catch him at around turn 8 and this is where the bulk of my race begins.
As I clear turn 8 I look up and see
@AroGantz next on the board and he's clocked in at +25s and I figure the best I can achieve now is not finishing last. Over the next few laps I start shaving ~1-1.5seconds a lap and finally end up on his bumper by lap 18. This is when the 3rd part of the nightmare happens and I wipe on the exact same turn 3 corner resetting all the work I had done prior. When I eventually join the track once more I look up to see a delta of about 12seconds and the grind starts once again. I don't catch him till lap 24 where he comes out the pits and I'm only 3's behind. I finally make the pass at turn 5 having made good exit speed coming out of turn 4.
The rest of the race is spent focusing on just pumping out consistent lap times and thinking to myself "f*** me this is a long race". On lap 38 (or was it 39?)
@Hatfield &
@Bryan_F are furiously dueling and not wanting to get in their way I let them through on the straight past turn 5.
All in all, a huge learning experience for myself. This was the first time I've ever done such an event and my first organized race. I came in hoping to run 1:28:500-1:29:500 lap times as I did in practice but ended up running low 1:30's instead. To the top half of race room Lewis (
@Hatfield @JonoStan96 @razor4797 @Bryan_F @Motors560 ), you guys are monsters. Hopefully I didn't get in the way of your lapping me. I came away knowing I've still got a lot of work to do. My take away is that there's no use being able to pump out a handful of quick lap times if you cant consistently stay on track and I'll need more experience at these 30+ lap races.
Cheers for the race boys, see you all at Bathurst!
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