Felt fairly comfortable on this Daytona track. Practice aside over the past week I had only come across it in our seasonal meet & greet...and even then had to dash off for a loo break. Found it slightly frustrating that in practice/time trial mode you start too close to the start line, requiring a minimum 2 laps to get a chance at besting your own previous attempts. Ahh the aggrivation of stuffing up one corner and having to start again. On the other hand it helped me work my way around the track, corner by corner.
The main section of the race for me was following Copper and Ranok. The gap was around 8 seconds mostly, sometimes less sometimes more. I knew if they could stick together there'd be an opportunity to keep up with them. Lap after lap I'd start taking .500's out of the gap but then I'd take one corner too wide and lose any gain I had made.
I believe it was lap 14 Copper took to the pits. So from 3rd position to 2nd I went, knowing I was pitting on lap 15 I considered Coppers idea and was trying to figure out if i had made a poor pit decision...
Still in 2nd place I was pitting behind Ranok and spent what felt like an eternity in pits waiting...
By the time I got back on track Copper had taken 2nd place and i was back in 3rd.
My feeling was Copper had made a wise decision, as my cold tyres made me cautious and the gap grew between us.
Somewhere amongst it, Copper and Ranok were switching positions and I had bridged a gap, or was about to as up ahead i could see Ranok take the first corner too wide, but my focus was too much on him and I followed suit, keeping him in 2nd and me in 3rd. I had a second to consider that that might just be my one chance to pass gone down the drain. BUT now I was even closer than before. Then to my astonishment Ranok took the next corner too wide, and with no time to think, bar a slight jaw drop, I once again found myself following his line and running it wide. At this point I felt like I had truly blown it. It was comical but still frustrating. All I needed to do was be a bit more conservative.
I again, proceeded to shadow Ranok as best I could. On the back stretch of one of the last few laps I did manage to take 2nd from Ranok, but had given it back rather swiftly by turn one. Which leaves me with no doubt in my mind...I cave under pressure when someone is shadowing me and I mostly enjoy when that role is reversed. If I'm fortunate down the road, I'll have to work on this aspect of my racing.
Perhaps on the high speed Tokyo course 
By the closing laps, when I thought Copper had 1st covered, I notice Ranok take 1st and then a few seconds later I take 2nd. Which seemingly came out of nowhere. Needless to say my thoughts on Coppers pitting strategy did an about face.
On the last lap, with a small enough gap between Ranok in 1st and myself in 2nd, I felt if I could stay on task and have him cave with an ounce of pressure on a corner or two, I might just be able to challenge for his position. Eary on it became clear there were a couple of cars battling it out ahead of Ranok. I couldn't figure out if we'd catch them but it seemd like their own battle was going on, with decent pace to boot. Yeah I'm lookin at you Homebrew and Jacko.
On the lead up to the Bus Stop it looked like Ranok was going to be held up by the other two. By the time i got close enough I could see dust and my gut feeling was Ranok had rear ended one of the other guys. My speed was on pace and with no room for adjustment I rear ended Ranok.
Ranok, with the right idea in mind held back to usher me in front, but I took the decision to maintain my position of 2nd, because my feeling was the involvment of the other 2 cars shouldn't be a reason to lose 1st over, overall (with some quick thinking) I felt you were the better driver. Thankfully you kicked into gear and went off, as until reading your thoughts on the matter, I didn't even think about Copper and the others. Geez epic fail if he had've driven past lol.
Only on watching the replay from Ranoks POV did I realise that last mistake of his was driver error. Funnily enough, I thought twice was your limit that night, so a third time...didn't even enter my mind. I also had a situation at Laguna where myself and Homebrew were fighting it out near the end, and he rear ended someone who had finished the race but was still slowly going round the track...I gave Homebrew that one because it was such a no brainer.
So my thoughts on it are, yeah, I should've went past ya. Tip of the hat for bringing it up in your review of the race Ranok
I'd be tempted to get the mods to readjust the points on it...if only to see what it does for the championship table, which is a greedy thought BUT that aside, it's most likely the right thing to do. Downside being my gain would be your loss...but with 2 races to go...things are getting interesting no matter which way we slice it.
Last edited: Jun 17, 2014
