NGT Sprint: Race 4 - Brno
Brno turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag for the NGT Legends team.
Some amazing qualifying times saw PaulW in 11th and me in 12th on the grid, I was looking forward to an NGT Legends convoy but disaster struck on the parade lap when PaulW span off over-enthusiastically trying to get some heat into his tyres.
My pre-race strategy was to not push too hard in the race, keep it nice and consistent, hoping to pick up some places toward the end after Brno's punishing tyre wear begain to bite.
With Paul's status unknown at the end of the parade lap, I felt I had to see the strategy through, I had to pick up some points!
A few spins in front of me and I'm up from 11th into 9th with JM-Racing chasing me hard but not gaining. So far, so good.
Coming into T1, there's a car off the road, it's Paul968 re-joining the track, I'm up into 8th but now I have to worry about Paul968 breathing down my neck.
Fortunately, I didn't have to worry long as he easily caught and passed me which I was somewhat relieved by as I'm not sure my skills are up to keeping a driver of his calibre at bay.
In the meantime, something had happend to JM-Racing as there was now a 10s gap to the car behind. Time to dig in and keep going, there was a similar distance to the car in front of me.
Kept my pace consistent and eventually saw smoke in the distance and RUFBTR re-joining the track about 2s in front. 5 laps left in the race, time to use the rest of those tyres and push a little.
We were very evenly matched, RUF was faster on the last turn, I'd catch up again on T1, otherwise, there was nothing between us. The gap hardly moved from 1-2s.
I was steeling myself for one last effort with 2 laps to go when RUF span, enabling me to take the (unfortunately non-existent in GTR) chequered flag in an excellent 8th place.
Exiting from the track my delight was somewhat tempered as I discovered that PaulW had run out of fuel with half a lap to go and failed to finish. It's a mistake that anyone could make and I was hugely disappointed for him.
In the team standings, NGT Legends remain 5th and in the individuals, PaulW and I swap 10th & 11th position overall.
On to Donnington next week for round 5.
Brno turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag for the NGT Legends team.
Some amazing qualifying times saw PaulW in 11th and me in 12th on the grid, I was looking forward to an NGT Legends convoy but disaster struck on the parade lap when PaulW span off over-enthusiastically trying to get some heat into his tyres.
My pre-race strategy was to not push too hard in the race, keep it nice and consistent, hoping to pick up some places toward the end after Brno's punishing tyre wear begain to bite.
With Paul's status unknown at the end of the parade lap, I felt I had to see the strategy through, I had to pick up some points!
A few spins in front of me and I'm up from 11th into 9th with JM-Racing chasing me hard but not gaining. So far, so good.
Coming into T1, there's a car off the road, it's Paul968 re-joining the track, I'm up into 8th but now I have to worry about Paul968 breathing down my neck.
Fortunately, I didn't have to worry long as he easily caught and passed me which I was somewhat relieved by as I'm not sure my skills are up to keeping a driver of his calibre at bay.
In the meantime, something had happend to JM-Racing as there was now a 10s gap to the car behind. Time to dig in and keep going, there was a similar distance to the car in front of me.
Kept my pace consistent and eventually saw smoke in the distance and RUFBTR re-joining the track about 2s in front. 5 laps left in the race, time to use the rest of those tyres and push a little.
We were very evenly matched, RUF was faster on the last turn, I'd catch up again on T1, otherwise, there was nothing between us. The gap hardly moved from 1-2s.
I was steeling myself for one last effort with 2 laps to go when RUF span, enabling me to take the (unfortunately non-existent in GTR) chequered flag in an excellent 8th place.
Exiting from the track my delight was somewhat tempered as I discovered that PaulW had run out of fuel with half a lap to go and failed to finish. It's a mistake that anyone could make and I was hugely disappointed for him.
In the team standings, NGT Legends remain 5th and in the individuals, PaulW and I swap 10th & 11th position overall.
On to Donnington next week for round 5.
posted by popabawa at
8:42 am
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