Great to join you guys again tonight after a busy summer. I must admit that I nearly gave up with Knockhill when I first started practicing a few days ago. What a vicious little circuit with all its narrow blind summits and bends. I was happy with that tonight. Only one major excursion off-track (no damage) when I missed the braking point for Duffers. Dusted the gravel a few times but nothing too serious. Consistent laps. Being a short track, I was kept busy with the blue flags - well done guys for all getting by so smoothly. Only one near miss when I got caught right at the Chicane.
Yeah, that was me I guess. But no harm done, I was a bit surprised but enough margin to take evasive action. Same a bit earlier, from the perspective of the lapping car it is challenging to leave the ideal line approaching to a turn, for instance in the brake zone. But again, not that easy especially at a narrow track. To my race, a bit better than expected. I fought with Phil in the beginning and after I passed him, to my surprise I opened up a gap. It was a bit lonely after that, there was still preassure but I was able to manage my pace. The top two were again in a league of their own, and it is a bit annoying to get lapped with 2-3 minutes to go. I hope for some more drivers at the next event. (My teammate supported me, but unfortunately were not able to drive.)
@Roy Cop up front again. I still have two races to make up this 5s gap over the race distance The middle sector made the difference on this one. Roy mastered that upphil chicane and the quick right after that. Good race at the beginning with few battles, the middle part not so good for me with a few small mistakes and towards the end of the race good lap times for me again. Wonderful work from everyone on the blue flags especially on that track! See you on the next track
Race recap from my POV; Quali; Kiril showed in free practice he was fast and had me worried as my personal best at that time was what he was doing in that practice session. So when quali started I chose to not look at the laptimes from others and just go as fast as I could. Starting on cold tires means you need to get the tires up to temperature first and only then start the fast laps. Was improving nearly every lap and managed to get a blinder on my last lap. It was close... but got pole. Race: Since I practiced the starts on cold tires I knew that the first few laps were crucial to stay ahead of the rest of the field. A mistake early on would cost dearly. Lights went on... Lights off! I had a super get away with nearly zero wheelspin. (Thank you MOZA for handing me some fine pedals) Was very carefull not to make mistakes on the first few laps and generated a gap to 2nd. At that point I got over confident which lead me to completely mess up Clark corner. That negated the gap I had to Kiril. At the braking zone for the hairpin Kiril was able to brake way later than I could (don't know how he does that). Noticed the same at Donington. Anyway, he got by me and was leading the race. Seeing as the brakezone for the hairpin is the only real overtaking spot on the track I needed to stay close to him and wait for an opportunity to pass him. Couple of laps later he missed the exit of the chicane touching the sand and slowing him down. Had to go for it and got by him at Clark corner. I was not going to let him pass me again. I slowly build up the lead by tenth's of a second at a time. Then I noticed him make a couple of small mistakes what gave me about a 5 second lead. Started to drive more careful from then on. Had to lap a few of the other cars. Almost all were aware that the leader was behind them and gave racing room. A couple didn't. Most likely they were so concentrated on their driving they didn't see they were being lapped. There's the reason I prefer to have everyone in voice chat during a race. A small heads up can be given then. This was a 53 lap race that felt like we were all doing 53 quali laps. I was hot and sweaty afterwards. Good racing guys. I might have to miss the Cadwell Park race. And if I am able to do the race, I most certainly will not win that one. Never liked the track so practice will be the bare minimum I can get away with. The last track in the series is one of my favourite UK tracks, so that will make up for it ;-)
