Well it's a time to brake the silence after non-glorious Anglesey race.
Here is my "short" season summing-up.
Round 1 - Algarve: I've already wrote some words about this race. Now I only know that I had some mistakes in my setup for this race, which I discovered when preparing for 2nd race of the season. So I know I should not have to lose so much time to Alpine, as it was during the event.
Round 2 - Anglesey: beatiful track location and interesting track, where I had to claim my deserved second position, despite not quite appropriate type of track for
Healey, but unfortunate misunderstanding with lapped car across the road and one more incident with Guus - fourth final place was maximum after that.
Round 3 - R1 Circuit: I realized all my potential at this track and I was lucky that Ross was stuck in the fight from the start. My only season win was quite logical in Australia.
Round 4 - Motodrom Schottenring: another beatiful place during this season (pity that it's only fictional). No way for win here, as Ferrari's have much more power. Only aim is to take third position. Till the end of the race I never got used to the correct passage of the last turn, which affects lap time about one second. I was for half a second faster during practice, but during the race desire to keep tires in live prevented me to go more relaxed and quickly. Third place.
Round 5 - Portland: despite quite differences between Schottenring and Portland, the balance of opportunities was same but Alpine joined Ferrari's in the company of fastest. Ross was ahead already after start, Neil passed me after several laps (I prefer not to balk at start of the race, if I know that opponent has a clearly higher speed). But whole the rest of the race with Knut on my tale and Jarama in the future have shown that sometimes I underestimate the abilities to defense position. Third place.
Round 6 - GP-200: very tricky track and I thaught that some incidents are inevitable, but race itself was quite relaxed. Infront of me was Ross and Guus with much more suitable cars for this track and again I took my maximum from this round. Another third.
Round 7 - Jarama: another tricky place to drive and to fight... First I didn't even realized that I can fith for pole (only some moment were between me and Ross and I know that I lost 0.4 during my fastest lap). Despite this unexpected speed I knew that race will be very tough and light cars will be faster than me. But after start I took first place and whole the race went not according to the plan (it was second time after Anglesey). I ran for 0.5 to 1.0 second slower whole the race because of Alpine and Porsche in my mirrors. Two or three time I thaught "everything is over, now I will get out of gravel and I will lose everything" when Guus and Ross slapped me in the ass because of my slow entry speed in the same third turn. And on the last lap I still cant believe that I'm ahead of them. But unforunately, my tires was very tired and I had a little sideways in the exit of thirst turn. Without a doubt, I would have coped with it, but unfortunately Ross was very close behind and he had practically no time to react. So only third place hand-by-hand with Ross and very pity finish after such thriller heroic race for my Healey.
Round 8 - Piddy: after two succesfull final races in last seasons this time I knew that I have no chance to win if Ross will have no problems during it. Apline was not only fastest, but it has better tires after 200 km than my Healey after 100. Based on my experience after 100 km of Algarve I knew that Piddy with it's fast sweeping corners will be pretty same challenge and changing of the tires is a must. So I took my second final position in last race and championship.
As I wrote before season, Ross with Alpine will have no serious challengers. Yes, I knew that Healey and Ferrari have chances in R1, Schottenring and maybe Portland, but all other races no doubt for Ross. During my pre-season test I have final pool with three cars - Alpine, Healey and Ferrari. And initially Ferrari was the first choise. Ferrari was slightly faster than Healey in the overall. But I liked Healey because of it's obedience and opportunities to avoid unpleasant situations in the fight. I knew that Alpine have much more potential for overall dominating but honestly it was not interesting for me. Alpine has opportunity to be fast as Ferrari and Healey on fast tracks or to be much faster on other tracks and Alpine has unvulnerable tires. So Alpine can be faster on last laps than on the start with heavy tank, then heavy cars have to not to lose more than 1 or 1,5 to theirs first five or ten race laps.
A set of tracks of the season did not help fighting capabilities. Two "fast tracks" for powerfull cars (R1 and Schotten), two "slow tracks" for light cars (Jarama and GP200) and four "average tracks" for all cars meant 6 tracks for Alpine. More fastest tracks than "average" could bring more intrigue into championship. I know, that if we close the eyes for 1st overall position, powerfull cars will be on top. But we need to calculate possibilities of different drivers. So, I suggest to give all cars to Ross before the season, he will test them and know all the tracks but he can take car which we give to him using a random selection.
I am very happy with my car choice, it did not disappoint me. Throughout the season, I got the pleasure of driving this car. I did not try to jump over my head and almost always got in the end all that I counted on (Anglesey was accidental failure, Jarama - was unsuspected first place before last lap). Unlike the previous season I have only one unforced error and it was on last event when I just yawned at this moment. Maybe it's a car, maybe it's my experience and attitude to race, but most likely - a combination of this factors. And 2nd place, again.
Grats to Ross for third in a row!
This season echoed last in some aspects, but showed new names with great abilities such Guus and Leszek, opened some new Roland's skills
. Great battles with Guus, Ross, Knut is something to remember. And showed that GTL is still alive.
To our admins - Stuart, Knut and Rupe did great job. They picked up an excellent combination of cars, some beatiful tracks and as always organized great championship.
To all drivers - we are one of the last fans of this simulator, and I think that you are one of the most decent fans. Thank you to all!
I hope that s11 is still in our plans.