rFactor 2 League Race - SimRacing-GP.net - The Rookie League
The third round of TRL Renault Megane series at Toban Raceway Park circuit.
My preparation for this round was fairly inadequate and I had little time to practice in the week so I wasn't expecting to be on the pace here. Qualifying seemed to bear that out and I lined up near the back of the grid 25th out of 28 starters.
As the lights turned green, Joker, the car ahead of me, didn't move and luckily I managed to swing around him without incident but it was a bit of a hairy moment. There was carnage everywhere on lap one and there were multiple incidents throughout the race which saw me gaining places by attrition. I was lucky to survive several close calls, managing to avoid the spinning and rejoining cars around the circuit.
Things finally settled down and I concentrated on putting in the laps and just attempting to finish - I was in a comfortable 18th and was pretty sure that I could hold onto it for the chequered. My front tyres were suffering but the car was driving OK and I had a good cushion over the drivers behind me. Shortly after being lapped by the leader, Larus, I let through a flying Ran Hombre who was making his way back up the field after an early spin - there seemed little point in slowing his progress so I swapped 18th for 19th.
Unfortunately on lap 22 having been caught by Jesse of SimRacing-GP.net fame, a mis-communication resulted in him giving me a bit of a tap from behind - I thought he was going to go around me on my right so I gave him the room and had to slow due to my altered line - he had elected to stay behind me however and was then caught out by my braking. I felt bad for losing him a position, he felt bad for shunting me into the wall but it wasn't really anyone's fault, just another racing incident.
Sadly though, I did pick up some damage and the car didn't feel too good after that and I had to watch helplessly as both Joker and my teammate VirusGR42 both caught and passed me on the final laps.
Still, I managed to gain six places by the finish so it wasn't a total loss - 19th overall and 8th in division. Next week we will be in Japan - see you then!
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Team Backmarker livery kindly provided by Tux McBea at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHyzZXnm_qhA_sjKI3IU4pw
Race Results - http://simracing-gp.net/event-138/results
Series Standings - http://simracing-gp.net/series-32/standings
