A pretty incredible race even though the perfect result didn't go my way. Qualifying went well, managed to pull out a clutch 3rd lap after the first 2 less than ideal laps, but I knew 1st is an automatic 3rd or 4th upon arrival at first turn!
Got caught up on the outside braking for turn 2, a racing incident but going from 1 st to last in 20 seconds didn't feel nice. Took me a few laps to match the leaders pace but I was 13 secs off with an uncompetitive car down the straights. A podium seemed unreachable at this stage.
What helped the cause massively was a nice bump draft down the back straight, leap flogging 2 cars, and when misterbond failed at the chase I found myself closing in on fastboy in 6 th. Even though I had an advantage over fastboy in performance, I couldn't quite deliver a successful pass and break the draft. His defence and counter attacks were difficult to negate, but after 3 laps of fighting fastboy I made a pass stick and he failed at the tight uphill left hander. Next was a long gap to warrior and Atari who seemed to be battling eachother. This allowed me to reach them in about 10 laps or so. Warrior blundered halfway down the hill gifting me 4th, and I didn't have to wait long to grab 3rd as I passed gameboy down the opening straight around the outside. That extra 3 hp advantage I had over the rx7 proved the difference in that move, definitely.
Warrior was not far away though as he recovered to join me in the fight for 3rd when Sega failed horrificly at skyline. We swapped positions once or twice but it wasn't getting either of us any closer to mint so I decided to pit a little early with 50 minutes left.
Once warrior and mint pitted I comfortably cleared warrior and found myself only 6 odd seconds away from mint. Rotor was leading but on a 2 stop strategy. With the lighter car and fresh tires I made a strong push in a crazy purple patch where I drove a 07.2, 07.1, 06.9, 07.4, 06.9 in 5 consecutive laps. This brought me within 3 seconds of mint with under 20 minutes left.
An unlikely victory seemed very likely when mint pushed to hard at turn 1, when I latched onto him a few laps later. But he recovered well with the help of his acceleration advantage. And then became a fight for the title. Mint had a few looks down the inside but I defended unforgivingly yet fairly, a few laps later with under 10 minutes remaining mint finally reclaimed the lead down the t1 straight and later on in that lap I got an unlucky bounce from a rumble strip during the decent. Loosing the draft for the next lap. By this stage I knew I needed an assist from mint to grab the lead, and it looked likely when he got caught up on the inside wall of forest elbow but unfortunately I was too close and i hit his rear giving him that boost enabling him to hold on to his advantage at the chase. Mint held his nerve at the last corner to pull off probably his most satisfying victory in gt6 undoubtedly, and I crossed the line under a second behind after 90 minutes of unrelenting pace, my most satisfying drive in a long time, lag free too!
Special thanks to vardz for masterminding the idea and getting the cars to be so competitive and equal. Cheers.
Last edited: Feb 11, 2015