Season 30: Specials. Round 2: Indianapolis 60 laps (69x F1 cars)

On to round 2 at Indy.  A reasonably good turnout for our race, and qualifying went fairly well.  Surprising speed from Greg put him out of reach, but late in the session I got a good tow from Axel and went 3rd fastest, after towing him to second fastest!!  Car feels great without any fuel in it :)  This race rules say that us works drivers have to do two pitstops in this race, one for fuel and one is a stop + go.  Light drivers don't have to do a stop + go.

Start rules were to do a pace lap behind the leader, single file, and then go in the apex of turn 4.  My start was Ok. I over-revved my engine off the line which made me wince but no damage done.  Greg pitted on lap 2 from the lead in order to get his stop and go out of the way early.  I'd gotten past Axel after he'd run wide on lap 1 to chase Greg, so that left me in the lead.  I did think briefly about following him in but decided to stick to my game plan.  I figured the smartest play would be to stop at half distance for fuel, then stop again the next lap for the stop + go - since that should minimise the amount of damage a pitstop will do to the overall race pace.  The biggest concern for me about getting the stop + go done early is that it leaves you vulnerable to not being able to make your way back through the field because cars you pass could just sit behind you in the draft, pass you back and slow you up.

Axel got back past me lap 2 so I let him lead.  I was all about looking after my right rear tyre.  Axel looked to be struggling, sideways a lot and surely burning his right rear.  I sat behind him patient to wait it out.  Gebhart ran 2nd ahead of me for a while then dropped back.  I watched Greg on the Prib readout.  I could see him catching cars and passing them instead of getting stuck in battles with them.  That's about when I knew I was in trouble.  A long period then of just waiting, droning around behind Axel, looking after my tyres and watching Greg get closer

Finally Axel pitted lap 20 and I took over.  We had picked up Doni when we lapped him, and he sat behind me for several more laps.   I had an eye on my fuel, intending to pit when it was low.  Greg pitted again on halfway but I still had 3 or so laps of fuel so stayed out figuring I'd be quicker.

I caught Jani to lap him for the 2nd time.  I went past on the inside into turn 3 and didn't slow up enough.  The result was a massive spike in temperature in the right front tyre.  Now I was in trouble.  The tyre wouldn't cool down and I started battling with understeer into turn 1 and turn 3. I actually bumped the wall once struggling with the car.  Finally it was time to pit.  I knew from testing I should not spin the tyres exiting the box because it would overheat the rears, but in this situation I figured that would fix the problem with the fronts.  So a good pitstop and spun the tyres up nicely, roared out then came in again next lap to do my stop + go.  While in the pits I heard Greg go past.  So as I exited the pits he was 12 seconds ahead, and that basically was that.  As least the fix had worked and I didn't have any more understeer to deal with, the car was nice and balanced all the way to the end, but Greg was a few tenths a lap quicker than me anyway so all I could do is run to the flag for 2nd.  I think Greg gambled a little with his tactics, but him in that Lotus was wicked fast.

Mixed Mod - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	GregT (FT)		100.0	*Mixture*	50.0	50.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)		86.0	*Mixture*	43.0	43.0
3	Cookie (FT)		65.0	*Mixture*	37.0	28.0
= 3	Doni Yourth (FT)		65.0	*Mixture*	28.0	37.0
5	AnGex (R1)		32.0	Matra MS80 (DF…		32.0
= 5	Walter Conn (R1)		32.0	Porsche 910	32.0
7	Carlos Cendejas (FT)		25.0	McLaren M7 (DF…		25.0
8	Jani Posta (FT)		23.0	Brabham BT26a …		23.0
	DLogan (FT)
	bagrupp (R1)