Ok, I'll start.
Congrats to Tim - an extremely well run race. An incredible thanks to Brad for marshaling. A great job and you kept us on pace.
Builds across the board were all pretty similar. I was surprised to see only a single 180 car. I had bigger brakes than most but I still managed to bust 'em up this race (what's new?).
I thought I'd try to run this big bastard in the middle and use my wear at opportune moments. A bid of 3 put me in middle/back. With so many similar cars, I probably should have bid more to get closer to the front.
As I should have known, when the pack of cars went into the 2-lane portion, I was stuck in the rear. That made it very hard to get into a good position to take the hairpin in one turn. I think this was one of the keys to this track. If you waste 2 turns on the hairpin, you lose a few spaces.
After the hairpin, I realized that I was forced into a 'from the back' strategy. I conserved my wear for the next lap and a half. No problems there, for the most part.
I hit the 'go' button in Gresil on the 2nd lap. It turned out to be too early as I caught up to the main chase pack early in lap 3 and, once again, found myself in the back of traffic when the track narrowed. That, of course, resulted in a failed late brake test and taking two turns in the hairpin - a death knell to my chances of a podium finish.
I did get caught up in the shenanigans from Turyko & Simone in front of Gresil but I can't really blame my result on that. Overall, I deserved the 7th place finish.
The track: Hmmm... I didn't like this one all that much. There were not many decision points from a tactical perspective (which I tend to be pretty good at). I'm not so good at big strategy, which this track lends itself more to. I was not a fan of no racing lines. You didn't really have to fight too much for position since the lanes in the corners provided pretty much the same outcome. For example on 5 of the 8 corners, you could get to the same exact position no matter which lane you chose. It either needs racing lines or two additional spaces in the +20 outermost lanes instead of a one space difference (something I see in Castellet).
I'd really like to get Doug's take on this track and wonder if his experience here influenced his choices in Castellet.
Regardless, the racing was lots of fun and I'll run on any track. This track was just not my cup of tea.
Congrats to Tim - an extremely well run race. An incredible thanks to Brad for marshaling. A great job and you kept us on pace.
Builds across the board were all pretty similar. I was surprised to see only a single 180 car. I had bigger brakes than most but I still managed to bust 'em up this race (what's new?).
I thought I'd try to run this big bastard in the middle and use my wear at opportune moments. A bid of 3 put me in middle/back. With so many similar cars, I probably should have bid more to get closer to the front.
As I should have known, when the pack of cars went into the 2-lane portion, I was stuck in the rear. That made it very hard to get into a good position to take the hairpin in one turn. I think this was one of the keys to this track. If you waste 2 turns on the hairpin, you lose a few spaces.
After the hairpin, I realized that I was forced into a 'from the back' strategy. I conserved my wear for the next lap and a half. No problems there, for the most part.
I hit the 'go' button in Gresil on the 2nd lap. It turned out to be too early as I caught up to the main chase pack early in lap 3 and, once again, found myself in the back of traffic when the track narrowed. That, of course, resulted in a failed late brake test and taking two turns in the hairpin - a death knell to my chances of a podium finish.
I did get caught up in the shenanigans from Turyko & Simone in front of Gresil but I can't really blame my result on that. Overall, I deserved the 7th place finish.
The track: Hmmm... I didn't like this one all that much. There were not many decision points from a tactical perspective (which I tend to be pretty good at). I'm not so good at big strategy, which this track lends itself more to. I was not a fan of no racing lines. You didn't really have to fight too much for position since the lanes in the corners provided pretty much the same outcome. For example on 5 of the 8 corners, you could get to the same exact position no matter which lane you chose. It either needs racing lines or two additional spaces in the +20 outermost lanes instead of a one space difference (something I see in Castellet).
I'd really like to get Doug's take on this track and wonder if his experience here influenced his choices in Castellet.
Regardless, the racing was lots of fun and I'll run on any track. This track was just not my cup of tea.