GT6 HI-TEC OILS Super GT series GOLD

I shouldn't have tried to go for fastest lap, I would have got the two points anyway if I stayed in 5th...

A pretty incredible race even though the perfect result didn't go my way. Qualifying went well, managed to pull out a clutch 3rd lap after the first 2 less than ideal laps, but I knew 1st is an automatic 3rd or 4th upon arrival at first turn!

Got caught up on the outside braking for turn 2, a racing incident but going from 1 st to last in 20 seconds didn't feel nice. Took me a few laps to match the leaders pace but I was 13 secs off with an uncompetitive car down the straights. A podium seemed unreachable at this stage.

What helped the cause massively was a nice bump draft down the back straight, leap flogging 2 cars, and when misterbond failed at the chase I found myself closing in on fastboy in 6 th. Even though I had an advantage over fastboy in performance, I couldn't quite deliver a successful pass and break the draft. His defence and counter attacks were difficult to negate, but after 3 laps of fighting fastboy I made a pass stick and he failed at the tight uphill left hander. Next was a long gap to warrior and Atari who seemed to be battling eachother. This allowed me to reach them in about 10 laps or so. Warrior blundered halfway down the hill gifting me 4th, and I didn't have to wait long to grab 3rd as I passed gameboy down the opening straight around the outside. That extra 3 hp advantage I had over the rx7 proved the difference in that move, definitely.

Warrior was not far away though as he recovered to join me in the fight for 3rd when Sega failed horrificly at skyline. We swapped positions once or twice but it wasn't getting either of us any closer to mint so I decided to pit a little early with 50 minutes left.

Once warrior and mint pitted I comfortably cleared warrior and found myself only 6 odd seconds away from mint. Rotor was leading but on a 2 stop strategy. With the lighter car and fresh tires I made a strong push in a crazy purple patch where I drove a 07.2, 07.1, 06.9, 07.4, 06.9 in 5 consecutive laps. This brought me within 3 seconds of mint with under 20 minutes left.

An unlikely victory seemed very likely when mint pushed to hard at turn 1, when I latched onto him a few laps later. But he recovered well with the help of his acceleration advantage. And then became a fight for the title. Mint had a few looks down the inside but I defended unforgivingly yet fairly, a few laps later with under 10 minutes remaining mint finally reclaimed the lead down the t1 straight and later on in that lap I got an unlucky bounce from a rumble strip during the decent. Loosing the draft for the next lap. By this stage I knew I needed an assist from mint to grab the lead, and it looked likely when he got caught up on the inside wall of forest elbow but unfortunately I was too close and i hit his rear giving him that boost enabling him to hold on to his advantage at the chase. Mint held his nerve at the last corner to pull off probably his most satisfying victory in gt6 undoubtedly, and I crossed the line under a second behind after 90 minutes of unrelenting pace, my most satisfying drive in a long time, lag free too!

Special thanks to vardz for masterminding the idea and getting the cars to be so competitive and equal. Cheers.

Congrats to Mr @MINT_GTR for retaking the claim to the HTO series! two time champ!

For me a little disappointing.. recently I haven't been able to get my pit stop strategy right at all, and seem to be shooting myself in the foot...
I was hoping to reclaim the 2nd in the championship and retake my position in the HTO series however seemed not to be the case..

Quali I was disappointed in my performance, ending up down in P6... Got off the line fairly well and sitting in 4th after poor Dan was up the outside of me on T2, not sure what happen be he ended up disappearing...

From here just settled down, and started to pull in Warrior and Jono. I ended up getting past Warrior and next on the list was Jono.. The next lap I got him down into the chase. Pretty much from here Mint had a 3.4 second lead. Here I was trying to shake Jono, but his Rx7 was alot faster than the GTR at going down the hill, and kept attacking into the chase I was always having to defend and unable to get a good exit.
I ended up blocking the mirrors out and putting my head down, he made a few mistakes and I started very slowly to pull Mint it and got down to about 2.4 seconds, then my tyres started to go, I was pushing too hard and he started to pull a gap again back out to 3 seconds, it was coming onto 30 min and I had to roll the dice for something different I pitted for a 2 stopper... I knew I had consistent 07.2s and 07.3s in there I just needed clean air.. After the 1st pit stop from here I think it ruined my race... I came out about 8 seconds down on Mister Bond and Fastboy, I was able to pull them in very fast and got past Mister Bond pretty easy, however not Fastboy. I swear this kid has it out for me... There was no way he was letting me past.. 3 laps later I had to force my way past him going up the hill into T2. Finally!!! I pulled back a lead from 31 seconds down to 15 seconds after the in the next 20mins after Mint pitted I was maintaining a 9 second gap to him.. I lead a few laps and in the pits again, however this time I came out just in front of Jono, I thought yes sweet... However to be known Jono was using draft to his advantage and again always attacking into the chase and me having to block.. I was loosing about 6-8 tenths a lap, I wasn't happy! I knew this was my race ruined and I would have to settle for 4th... If I had clear air I could done my 07.3s and latched on warrior however I only had 20 mins to do this time was running out... However I was just too far behind.. The battling between the stops, stopped me from any come back and ended up 10 seconds behind the leaders.

Well done podium! Disappointingly for me I finish the season in 5th..

Thanks Vardz for putting this one together, it was a fun yet frustrating season with the penalties!

Few tips on the highlights reel beau: round the outside pass on Dan turn 2, Round the outside pass on mister bond Turn 2. And also a MASSIVE SLIDE!! turn 2 at one point

You forgot to add - making rotor's life hell for 3 laps!

yer but thats every race

there is also the cutting but i dont think thats as exciting

Thanks everyone, what a race that was with the championship decided at the last corner.......doesn't get any better than that!!!

Qualifying was cut throat, my first 2 laps were plagued with slight mistakes and so I had to throw everything at the last lap. Crossing over the line to find I just missed out on pole by 0.002, over Dans incredible clutch lap too.

Starting 2nd was a blessing in disguise though as I was able to get a great launch off line and take the lead, heading up mountain straight in the early hours of the morning. My strategy from the get go was tyre conservation to make a 1 stop work, fortunately Warrior, Rotor and Jono were all fighting for the same piece of tarmac so I was able to stretch out my lead to 4sec in the opening few laps without having to push at all. Once Rotor became victor of that scrap, it was clear he was on a different strategy as he started to pull in my lead. I stuck to my plan and soon enough Rotor pitted at the 30min and looked to be the only one going for alternate strategy. Meanwhile I was consciously watching the movement of Dan as he was carving his way up through the field and I knew he was going to be in contention by the end of the race.

After the stop, Dan had reduced the gap to 6 odd sec and Rotor was pushing hard out front. I pushed for the first couple of laps but with Dan in time trial mode, I quickly switched back to conservation and prepared myself for the inevitable. With 17mins to go, I had a mirror full of RX7. One lap into the battle and I thought I had thrown my title chance out the window when I decided to go cross country out of turn 1, gifting Dan the lead. Thanks to my acceleration advantage I was able to latch back onto the rear before griffins bend and then it was on like donkey kong. Over the remaining laps, I peaked my nose up every open door opportunity to only have it fairly slammed by the best braking car in the field. I finally made it stick with only a couple of laps to go but I new it wasn't over till the fat lady sang. Coming into the chase for the final time, side by side, both braking to the absolute limit with no tyres........and I just came out on top and notching up a defending title in what was one of the best title fights I have ever been apart of at ROOZ.

Congrats to everyone on what was a cracker series and big thumbs up to @VARDZ on making this series the best outside of the sunday league. Looking forward to what comes next as I will be ready to try for a 3peat........dreaming lol

@Hatfield @Beau_Albert My first attempt at a hot lap commentary, IMO it's pretty rubbish

Ultra impressive in my opinion, same as hat, perhaps a bit more spring in your voice, bit more excitment, but then again i struggle with the same thing so i shouldn't complain at all. Ultra impressive stuff though!

I only did it on 2 takes when the first one was interrupted by a phone call lol
I wasn't too excited as I didn't want to sound like a tool in front of everyone, next one I guarantee will be more "exciting".

David Reynolds had to get a second set of tires on his demo lap last year

that last few minutes was awesome

i just want to save my round the outside pass on dan, wish i could have saved the replay and i would have my battle with rotor

I had a quick look for that because i saw you wrote about it in the thread, but i couldn't find it. Any clue what lap?