14-03-2017, 12:34 AM
My first SR4L race went OK, all things considered. Never got a good tow in qualifying, and ended up 10th. Decent start until Parabolica when I did something I do far too often: Give too much room to someone and drive myself right off the track. I didn't spin but fell almost to last place.
I never took the opportunity to try a full race stint in practice so I didn't know if the tyres would last; I assumed they would. I was wrong, so having a full load of fuel was a big disadvantage and the car understeered horribly as the left front wore down.
At one point, Ricky Keene came out of the pits and seemed to have handling issues. Exiting the Lesmos he tail-slapped off to grass on the left, but as I went past, keeping well to the right, he lost it completely and shot across the track, spearing my left rear. I lost a few more spots recovering from the resulting spin, and suffered pretty good damage, but soldiered on until I finally decided the left front definitely wasn't going to make it, so pitted shortly after halfway to change it. I told the crew not to repair the damage.
I don't know if it was having only changed the left front (the only tyre showing any wear), or the rear left damage, but when I came out of the pits the car was wicked loose. And of course the more it slid, the looser it got. I was actually glad when Tim caught and overtook me so the car would tighten up in the draft. But then he had the incident with the third-place car as it lapped us, and I was alone again with a loose car.
I concentrated on late, heavy braking, hard turn-in then smooth through the corner to heat up the left front and cool down the left rear, until finally I had a neutral car again, but now 10th place was catching up to me. I still had some consistency issues in Curva Grande, occasionally having to lift a lot. When I got through it OK, I wasn't losing much or any ground to the third- and fourth-placed cars that had lapped me while I was still loose. But every time I didn't get an expected turn-in to Curva Grande, I'd lose a lot of time. Nevertheless I was able to hold position to finish 9th, though with a disappointing quickest lap of only a 21.7, I think -- a full second off what I would have expected. The damage may have slowed me a bit, as well as just not trusting the car enough to really push it.
I never took the opportunity to try a full race stint in practice so I didn't know if the tyres would last; I assumed they would. I was wrong, so having a full load of fuel was a big disadvantage and the car understeered horribly as the left front wore down.
At one point, Ricky Keene came out of the pits and seemed to have handling issues. Exiting the Lesmos he tail-slapped off to grass on the left, but as I went past, keeping well to the right, he lost it completely and shot across the track, spearing my left rear. I lost a few more spots recovering from the resulting spin, and suffered pretty good damage, but soldiered on until I finally decided the left front definitely wasn't going to make it, so pitted shortly after halfway to change it. I told the crew not to repair the damage.
I don't know if it was having only changed the left front (the only tyre showing any wear), or the rear left damage, but when I came out of the pits the car was wicked loose. And of course the more it slid, the looser it got. I was actually glad when Tim caught and overtook me so the car would tighten up in the draft. But then he had the incident with the third-place car as it lapped us, and I was alone again with a loose car.
I concentrated on late, heavy braking, hard turn-in then smooth through the corner to heat up the left front and cool down the left rear, until finally I had a neutral car again, but now 10th place was catching up to me. I still had some consistency issues in Curva Grande, occasionally having to lift a lot. When I got through it OK, I wasn't losing much or any ground to the third- and fourth-placed cars that had lapped me while I was still loose. But every time I didn't get an expected turn-in to Curva Grande, I'd lose a lot of time. Nevertheless I was able to hold position to finish 9th, though with a disappointing quickest lap of only a 21.7, I think -- a full second off what I would have expected. The damage may have slowed me a bit, as well as just not trusting the car enough to really push it.