NAGT Challenge

Qualifying:
Put in a nice lap to take the pole, that was satisfying.

Race:
Exciting race. Whole race Conor and me were no more than 2 s apart. When he would fall back, because of traffic or whatever, I would back off to preserve the tires. Last couple of laps were especially exciting. Conor had a much better exit out of T2, and got side by side with me on the exit of T3m however I had inside line in T4, downhill chicane, and I sure wasn't going to back off then.

Very tough race, especially to preserve the tires on such a demanding track for tires. Excellent racing with you Conor. Traffic was great.

Cya next time.

Just a blast racing with Enis in this one. It had been a while since we really came toe to toe against each other since our TM.net days.

His Volvo was just excellent here, but I had my doubts about his tire durability on this abrasive track. I know my Mustang ain't much of a tire saver either, but I knew if I stayed within reach of him, then I might have been able to pressure him for the lead later on when his FWD ate through his front tires.

He had a hell of a qual lap and got off to a very quick start on the get go. I stayed within about a second of him and that remained the same for almost the entire race. I didn't pressure him too much as I wanted to save my tires for the end and gradually, over time, I began to close in on him, tenth by tenth. Oddly enough, my car got better the later the race went so keeping up with him got easier for me. Traffic was pretty good, even though it split us up a bit, but I was able to catch right up to him with relative ease.

With a few laps left, I had brought our separation down to about half a second. His tires were obviously gone while mine were still good. I knew I had to pass him somewhere in sector one as that was the part of the track where I was better. The rest of it, he had the edge.

On the final lap, I put a lot of pressure on him. Going into T2, I gave him a solid bump in the rear which got him a little squirrely but kept it stable and didn't give me a enough momentum to get an advantage on the straight. Through T4, he had gone wide which let me shove along side of him and we were in a dead heat going down to the chicane. Had there not been those stupid tire barriers, I probably would have shoved my way for the lead. But it was too risky for both of us to try and go in there side by side, so I braked in my normal zone which let him keep 1st. Knowing I probably lost the race because of that, I pushed the car as hard as I could through the rest of the track. I was right on his bumper coming out of the last turn, but it wasn't enough and he grabbed the win by a little more than a tenth.

Hell of a race. You definitely earned that one, dude. Really enjoyed it and look forward to more of it :). Just don't bring that stupid vulva again ;P

I lost it early and dropped to last. I was on the verge of esc'ing because I didnt come into the event with a positive outlook of the track. I already fked up 2 events here, and this just piled on the negativity even more. But, for whatever reason, I continued. At 1st I was just driving around. Didnt really care where I was going to finish. But then I see my name moving up the leader board. I guess driving around at a much slower pace enabled me to not have to pit for tires. Once I realized this, I started bagging laps in the mid 30s. Why couldn't I do this at the beginning? One by one, as people pitted, I made my way all the way back to 11th, 1 spot down from where I qualed. After this place and Mosport, my rank has never been this low in years. Glad to get the fk outta here. Grats to Enis. Hope I wasnt holding anyone up.

Had to do a drive through after turning Greg around in turn 2. Worked my way back to 9. Comparing lap times it looks like my stupidity cost me about 2 spots.

Yeah and cost me probably 7 spots, oh well lesson learned these cars reflect the true feel of "cold Brakes & tires" in the first few laps.

Sure wish the races were 1 lap!

I had my usual rocket like start and went from 15th to 8th on lap one, only to throw it all away as usual and finish a distant 15th, 3 laps down.

By the way, what's with all the crawly things around the track? I just noticed them for the 1st time! lol

If I remember reading it correctly, the area before the track was built was infested with insects so the statues are sort of like a dedication to them. The spiders are easy to see but there are other "crawly things" around the track as well including mantises and flies. There's even one statue of an insect attacking a motorcycle driver.

The track owners must have a strange sense of humor...

I didn't have time to inspect the landscape. Spider is cool detail though.