2nd WIN, so this is how it feels to be an Alien....(even if it was for one race)
Practice :
Believe it or not for Monza I did the least amount of practice for this league, but...and a big but(and I can not lie) what helped me a lot where the well over 5-600laps I did for eWTCC back in early summer in the WTCC17 Lada, I knew exactly how to take the kerbs, where to focus on braking or acc and everything was sorted out, just jumped in the Camaro remove the wing as close to 0 as possible with toe-in and camber( for more speed) and then just focusing on braking.....yey, easy peasy...
Qualifying:
I knew I had a good chance for pole and was looking for that elusive 45's....and I knew I could do it, as in a private Q session I did a 45.8xx but somehow it just did not click, my best sector times where for a 46 flat, but I got pole so was looking good for the race.
Race:
I was optimistic about the race but the pit-stop was bugging me a bit, as I and Robert timed our pitstops and I did a 38sec pitstop and he did a 24 if I remember correctly, normally I should have taken 80L of fuel at the pit, so if I didn't have at least a 14-15sec gap it was going to be tough, as the advantage I have accelerating I lose under braking. If I am in front I can pull away and defend, but if I am behind I arrive alongside the opponent but I have to brake way earlier, especially compared with the Bentley, let alone a Z4 so at the back of my mind was that I need to be 1st after pits, also in the front of my mind I knew I had to win as this being a very close championship regarding points and I know for a fact that I will suck big time at Spa win was the only option.
Forgot to go to preset 2 for TC and I had a lot of wheel spin at the start, Robert got alongside me and I was already panicking, I think we left each other plenty of room in the first chicane and as soon as I saw daylight in front of me I was pushing like mad to get at least a 3-4sec gap and then settle in a rhythm.
My race pace was going to be all race 47's(if I could concentrate that well) few laps in the 46's and of course some laps over because I ain't no F1 to click the laps within a tenth of each other, by lap 10 or so the gap was going up slowly and steady and me being in a very comfortable position, close to the pits I was struggling a lot to focus and did some mistakes, also I start doing math on the straights to see how much fuel I should put.
45min came and went fast and I was still doing 48's with all yellow tires at which point I was still distancing my self from 2nd place so I decided to pit as late as possible to put as less fuel as possible for a quick pit and then be fast as I can be, Qualy laps all the way
).
With 20min or so I was really really fighting with concentration and decided to set my self-little goals, "look there is a car in front of me on the minimap, must catch" " 4th and 5th are battling, let's lap them" and that kept me on track, this was a hard track and very demanding race on Monza.
Closure:
Until the dying moments of
@Adrian Campfield I did not believe him, he was telling me"I hate this track, I am so slow) but I wasn't buying it, I really was thinking that he's going to pull a fast one on me and match me or even beat me but when he dropped at the back of the field I was relieved....sorry Adrian.
Man o man this field is getting proper fast with each track, even tho I had a 2sec/lap gap it's not a fair assessment regarding the Camaro/Monza combo,
@Robert Severikangas @Anders Myhre @BrianB @Ole Marius Myrvold @Anders Nilsson I am really glad that you have the cars you have, at least I was glad for Monza
. But I feel I need to say this, in no way shape or form that Z4 should have finished on the podium, that was mega impressive and probably a bit of luck also.
thank you
@Joseph Wright I die laughing when I hear you try to pronounce my name
)))))))
Spa is next......by far the worst track for me and my Camaro.....
peace out
