For me a fantastic experience. Only had about half an hour practice this afternoon to see if the car was ok on this track. Made a quick setup that worked for me and thought I was good enough for around mid-field.
I was surprised to see myself immediately running P2 in Practice and eventually P3 while Erik was going a tit faster.
In qualify it was about the same, I was in P3. I could drive a bit faster to gain that extra 0.1 to start in P2 but forcing it, made me making mistakes.
Race start was almost terrible. I stalled the car a bit but pressing the clutch again to get some more revs did the trick. Minimal damage and still in P3 after T1.
In the initial laps I was gentle on the tires and saw Oscar and Erik running away till around a second. Then they started to fight and I was closing in naturally without pushing more. Also the slipstream helped a bit.
Oscar was pushing it too hard in T1 then and almost spun. Both Erik and me could pass (or Erik was already P1, not sure). The battle continued with us 3. Close and fair. Unfortunately Erik got wide in the last turn at some point and lost much time.
The battle continued with Oscar and lap after lap we stayed within 0.5. I had the feeling Oscar was much faster but in the end it was only a tiny bit and some help with slipstreaming. The track is hard to overtake and I could stay in P1.
At some point Oscar lost it just before the backstraight. Spun his car 360 and I had a lead of over 6 seconds.
A bit more relaxing from the fight I could try to do some steady fast qualify laps for some time. Therefor it was hard for Oscar to close the gap. Eventually he did 2 laps before finish. Still driving within 0.1-0.5 those 2 laps, those laps were hard for me. But I kept cool and got my 2nd ever Road win. Wooooooot
(my first Road win was in the Skippy @ Summit Jefferson also, but official event)
Not expected to win tonight beforehand, the more pleased I am with the result.
Thanks to Oscar for the superb battle. Close and fair. A driving example as I may say.
@Nick: I also watched you a bit in practice and qual. You did not bad at all. Okay, difficult to drive consistent laps, still not bad at all for someone starting with iRacing. As said, the fun is: in hosted events, who cares if you run off track. It will not harm your safety rating
See you on track in some weeks. The hosting continues, but me is going for a 3 weeks break
![Luca [OT]](https://overtake-data.community.forum/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}
