When only 4 qualifiers are on the grid I am guaranteed 4 th. Made a poor start but caught you all into c1. and was on Ken’s tail for a while till I tried to brake too deep and missed a corner. I won’t say I am quick enough to win but Rd Atlanta has been the most successful track for me with three 3rd and one 2nd. So running 3rd in a 4 car race was the most fun I have had lately. After many years running LMP2 amd LMP1 the escape into these cars has brought a lot of fun back into sim racing for me. Thanks Ken for the setup you shared, I used it to qualify. I decided to use my setup for the race. For me it was faster. You were faster on the straights but I ate you in the twisty bits till I went too deep chasing you. So I have run out of fuel twice and this race an engine failure. I like this series as all my failures have been unexpected and this one a disappointment as I had intended to cause Ken some grief on his attempts to pass me, if he caught me What next, American tracks, I like them, See you in California. Cheers Michael
Good round and bit unexpected speed in the race, maybe the track suited my driving or I'm finally learning to heal & toe this one correct, could be sandbagging as well (the gear change behavior using h-shifter is a bit different) Despite calculating with margin, I was 1 liter short to make the final lap. The mechanics literary throwing the gas in tank, I still lost my lead to 3rd position. But the race was great and the car/combo very natural and fun. Even loosing the win, this was the best one so far, where I on most other races struggled to keep the car on the track
As said, it is a bit sad that we are only four drivers left, as Scott runs out of time, Csaba presumably out of engines, and @Toni Talvitie ... not sure what might be his excuse, probably he has won enough races. I missed some other familiar faces too. I hope some of them come back, but we four made the most of it. It was goodf fun. To be honest I was a bit shocked to snatch pole position by some margin. My pace over one lap is not that good with that cars, and I struggled a lot in the first sector. The other thing is to convert the pole position into the lead. And as I knew that I messed up all starts with that car before, I had little hope to stay in front. In the end, the short start-finish straight saved me from being last after the first turn. This start was rubbish. I am not sure if that is a problem caused by starting without a clutch or a wrong technique. After that poor start, I was in third and @Michael LaBelle showed good pace (especially in the first sector as he says), so I was worried to lose the next position. It got better lap after lap and when @Ken Jagger took the "killer" turn with its "killer" curbs too wide and flipped his car, I got into second place. With a 12 to 14 second gap to the leader Jens, I thought this is too big to catch up. Although I had found my rhythm and was now able to drive consistently 31 lap times. But Jens was not slower (if anything faster), and I know from other series that he actually can keep a car on the black stuff. So the opposite before was a surprise, not the other way round The gap shrank to 5 seconds later after a mistake or something but he was still in control. I knew my only chances were if he had not enough fuel, and yes he dived into the pits. Another eventful race, I went from pole to nearly last, then to lead only the last lap and inheriting the win. Sometimes it is enough to drive it home without doing a mistake.
I'd also calculated that 50L would be more than enough, but for some reason decided to add another 5L for the race, which in hindsight was a saviour. I must check my calculations more carefully in future.
