Round 3 - Int. ADAC-Flugplatzrennen Diepholz [May 23rd]

Mother Mary thank the Lord its over. Dunno why I asked for a car in the first place, but that was probably because my usual strategy for things I perhaps like but maybe not so much did not work my way this time (set yourself a date, and if the item in question isn't gone by then, grab it. To bad there was a M1 left...).

But in the end, it turned out better than expected, probably thanks to a last minute setup change. It didn't really make the car faster, quite the opposite, but it helped making the car more stable on fast direction changes. It took me quite a while to get up to my speed in Q, had some serious trouble getting into the 1.02s, and that was not due to traffic. But eventually, I got there, 23rd, a bit short of what I did before with the car, but well clear of a good bunch of competitors, with a sizable gap to the guys I knew I wouldn't be able to play with. Warm up lap was a bit of a disaster, when the flag fell, I was already down two positions, yikes! First laps were a bit confusing with a lot of cars all over the place. Got a bit forward, went a bit backwards, established somewhere around 21st position, let David by when I missed on of the chicanes, got that position back when he had an incident when being lapped, had someone bump my left rear braking into the hairpin (a little unnecessary from my seat, was already as far to the right as to be out of traffic), then Kayo bumped my right rear, when I decided in the last second to miss out one of the chicanes when I saw in my mirrors someone still positioned himself for a pass when I already on the approach through the tire barriers. That one put me a bit off rhythm and Kayo, the only competitor left in my league could quickly open up a gap of 7 seconds, when I let that train of faster cars through, trying to regain my rhythm. A few laps later, I saw Kayo facing the wrong direction, and that was basically my race. From there, I was all on my own, to fast for the cars behind me, to slow for the cars ahead of me, so all left to do was stay out of the way of faster cars and roll it home. Not that easy, some guys are a bit to eager through the chicanes, forcing their ways through. I know, it can be mega frustrating to be stuck behind another car, but seriously, I'm not enarmoured being forced to go around the other side of the tire barrier at the last second. What else? 10 litres of unneccessary fuel, had no idea how many laps I'd be down, was a bit surprised to sometimes really have to search the goalposts through the chicanes in traffic (doesn't happen when you're mostly alone on the server, race finished mostly unscathed. happy its over, not completely unsatisfied, but not really happy about my performance. Good news: from now on, its only proper racetracks, and not just such a ... caricature.