Had fun, not so much close racing, but enjoyed racing the track as well. Shame I tailed Dimavika into the wall once too much and had to pit for almost two minutes. Then the catch-up game started, but disconnected anyway with ten minutes left.. No idea what's wrong with my connection, as it happened three times today and not a single time before..
The Lotus is such a fun car to drive! Quite tough work, but so rewarding.
Managed to get online at ~7:30 so by the end of qualifying, I had almost fully learned the track, and qualified first. There were still a couple corners to improve as Minder showed in the race.
We both started well, but Minder slightly better. He was hounding me from the outset. There were a fair few times he could have put his car alongside, but he thought better of it as to stay clean. 45 minute race after all! The first sector I was definitely slower. My line round a couple corners was not correct, and this allowed Minder to get really close. But the last sector, I felt I had an advantage. The slipstream for the long straight also seemed to be very effective.
Over the next few laps, we traded places quite a few times. Small mistakes here and there allowed the other to overtake. It was very close racing at times! Super fun.
Finally, Minder got a pass on when I felt I couldn't close the door on him. He extended his gap to about 1 or 2 seconds. Then the drama! He made a bad mistake and spun out. As I rounded the corner he was sideways in the middle of the track. The racing line would take me to the left so I decided to go that way. Should've gone to the right though. I collided straight into him. The damage to my left front suspension was slight, I had to hold the wheel wonky for the rest of the race, but it didn't seem as bad as the damage to Minders car.
He pitted for repair and fuel and the next lap I just pitted for fuel. Thanks to fragmonkey for telling me how to modify pit strategy, didn't know you could do that!
I ended up about 50 seconds ahead of Minder, but that kinda betrayed the closeness of this race.
Glad I could help! Once I retired I was watching the two of you duel for lap after lap; it was fantastic to see such close racing in an unfamiliar car on an unfamiliar track. Top stuff!