This race could have been a disaster. I started 10th, and after a couple of laps worked my way up to 7th. Everyone settled into the race, and I rode around for a while without challenging anyone and no one challenged me.
I started the race planning to do two stops, one after lap 9 and one after lap 18, but after several laps, my tires felt good and I started thinking about switching to a one stop strategy. However, even though my tires felt decent, my laps times were bad and getting worse. So I stuck to the two stop strategy.
My first stint was fairly uneventful. I pitted from 7th position and exited the pits in 16th position. With fresh tires, I knew I’d start picking up positions on track and with people ahead of me pitting. What I didn’t expect was that I’d have two off-track excursions during my second stint.
The first off happened on lap 13 in turn 21, in an area known as “The Chase.” I caught a slower car in the wrong spot, missed my braking point, and went sliding off the track. I managed to keep the car out of the wall, but I went way off track and lost a lot of time. Luckily, I didn’t lose a position.
Then two laps later, in the exact same corner, the same thing happened. This time, I tried to go inside a slower car, side-swipped him, again missed my braking point, and went off track into a tire wall. I lost a couple of positions, falling to 10th place, but fortunately didn’t hurt the car.
After that incident, I re-focused and was able to pick up a few positions before making my second pit stop. My third stint went fairly smoothly, and I worked my way up to 3rd place before running out of laps.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out how to record more than an hour of the race. I’ll continue to work on that. I know there’s a way to do it. I just haven’t figured it out yet.
After four races, the top five in points are:
- Andy Fairnight (65 pts)
- Antoine Gil (61 pts)
- Lou Mindar (49 pts)
- Tobias Van Elferen (45 pts)
- Yohan Krill (40 pts)
Next Race: Brands Hatch (England – Double Sprints)