What a great way to finish the season! I had a really enjoyable race where I kept myself in championship contention right up to the last few laps. My practice pace was OK but I hadn't expected to snag pole position, so I was very happy to grab that.
My start was good but not as good as
@Doublevision who pulled up alongside into T1 (I wish pole was on the INSIDE dammit!). Being the 1st lap of 40 I was inclined to let him ease through, but then I stuck to his bumper like chewy to a school desk and made him sweat for a lap. However early in lap 2 as we exited T4 some of that sweat must have leaked out onto the track because my Mazda's rear end stepped out massively, and for a tiny screaming moment I thought my race and championship was about to end in an
@Anon666 show-reel worthy, "multi-flip-mega-smash" (©2016) along the guardrail! But my panic was no match for my reflexes and I caught the errant slide, put my heart back into my chest and carried on.
By now though I'd lost a few metres to Doublevision and the pressure was off him. He duly started taking off into the distance lap after lap
alien
while the guys behind started to gain on me. That's when I realised my race pace just wasn't going to cut it and I'd have to rely on voodoo magic, Russian hackers or both to win! Not having expertise in either of those things I decided to just try and BE FASTER (don't really have expertise in that either to be honest).
It wasn't working. On Lap 4
@c4rLo5 sliced past me into T1 pushing me back to 3rd. I managed to stay with him for several laps like a fly on a sheep's bum, until I annoyed him so much he went looking for a shearing shed outside T1 and lost a few positions.
I was back in 2nd but my "BE FASTER" strategy still hadn't kicked in and now
@spita84 was the fly annoying me! I managed to hold him off until I took my first pitstop on lap 14. I didn't take tyres at the first stop so I managed to jump DV in the pits. Spita the wily bugger stayed out for 2 more laps and managed an 'overcut', coming out just in front of me into T1.
So we were 1st and 2nd at this point and our pace was pretty much identical. But then on lap 21 an unfortunate event occured with
@David Brister which took Spita out,
and I was very lucky to scrape through unscathed to take the lead. That's when I decided to switch to the "BE LUCKY" strategy.
yeah that might work.
But what's this?
@Cyber_STIG_77 was there to grab 2nd from Spita?
oh no - where'd he come from?? From a boiling cauldron of "FIGHTBACK POTION" that's where! And he also had a "BE FASTER" strategy that appeared to be actually working!
How could my "BE LUCKY" strategy have a chance against that?
To win the championship I needed to win the race and have Doublevision finish third or worse. To come 2nd I needed to stay in front of Cyber. OK so far that was the case but with my failed "BE FASTER" strat I wasn't far enough in front of either of them. I had to try something shocking - I had to rely on old rubber (OK its not what you are thinking gutter minds)! I decided to keep my worn tyres at the next stop and only take fuel.
And it nearly worked. I held the lead till lap 34 before an unstoppable Doublevision caught and passed me
. Damn! I was now fighting for P2 in both the race and the championship. I had to keep Cyber behind me
.
And I nearly did. He caught and passed me on fresher rubber at the start of lap 39. Double damn!
I just didn't have enough grip to fight. Behind me now was "I haven't seen you for ages" Spita! He had tried the same shameless attempt at grabbing track position as I had and pretty much suffered the same fate.
So I crossed the line in 3rd barely 6 seconds from the lead. Mind you it was still bloody awesome to finish on the podium
. I was very happy not to make any major mistakes in such a long race but in the end I didn't quite have the pace to hold onto the lead or 2nd. Well done Doublevision for winning the race and deservedly taking the Championship, and to Cyber for a big fight back to claim P2 in both the race and the championship as well. I'm stoked to take 3rd in the championship!
Congratulations to
@KoAStR for the div 1 championship (way to go Cap'n!) and to
@Cherno &
@ed40t for the podium.
Massive congratulations to THE TURTLE BEACHERS for taking out the Teams Championship yet again! Was really close this time. For those in the losing teams... bwahahahaha
I had some great battles during this season with both div 1 and div 2 drivers and I have to say I enjoyed both combined and split room rounds. I've raced 8 seasons now with ROOZ and this would have to be one of the best seasons yet.
Catch (and pass) you all in a Porsche real soon!
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