The track is technical, with two 90º turns and two 180º turns. Longest straight is 4 track pieces:
Team Orders:
Shell #8 - Fresh tires, 1/4 Front/Rear Body Float, no Pod Float
Alfa #2 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / 1/4 Body Float Rear, no Pod Float
Gulf #11 - Fresh tires, 1/2 Body Float Front / no Body Float Rear, light Pod Float [middle section loose]
RESULTS [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Time Offs Points
Shell #8 10:35.57 0 1
Alfa #2 10:32.56 0 3
Gulf #11 10:24.44 1 5
Split Times:
Car [1-50] [51-100] [101-150] [151-200]
Shell #8 2:37.79 2:39.09 2:39.46 2:39.21
Alfa #2 2:40.76 2:36.61 2:37.99 2:37.19 Gulf #11 2:35.04 2:35.66 2:36.55 2:37.18
Go Gulf Car
This is what happens when you spend two days taking apart, cleaning, rebuilding, setting, re-setting, testing, taking apart again, re-setting, etc..
That's the only way I can explain it. I went over every aspect of the car, trying to get balance for it and working particularly on control in the turns. I must have spent 45 minutes setting the rear axle just right. By the time I was finished with the car it was showroom clean. I should have taken a picture before running it.
It ran the fastest lap times in every section and didn't look back. The only time it was challenged was on the last 50 laps, as the Alfa ran an almost identical time.
The crash happened around lap 20 and was in the big right-hander. Because it happened pretty much right in front of me, it was quickly marshalled and didn't suffer much of a time penalty. In fact, it ran the fastest 1-50 laps with the wreck included.
Due to all that work, the Gulf car is running faster, cleaner and has considerably more grip. All three cars are running very well, and although the Gulf car won by 10 seconds, it was a 200 lap race. I consider that pretty close, as he was never more than 2 seconds faster than any other competitor through the segments.
I thought the Alfa would win, and win handily, but it was a little squirrelly through the corners. It still ran fast laps, but since there was no long straight to run down, it didn't have that lightness advantage of acceleration. On a track like this, the only real place to accelerate is on the front stretch, and with the kink it makes it a bit tricky. All the cars ran with minimal braking, and about 30% of available power and 30% minimum speed, so they shared the same controller settings throughout the race.
Championship Points [Race 14 of 20]:
Car Points Total
Gulf #11 5 43
Alfa #2 3 58
Shell #8 1 54
The Gulf #11 is fulfilling its duties as a spoiler quite well, although I think it's a bit too far away to challenge for the overall championship. The Shell car may end up regretting this race, as it could end up being the difference in the overall point total against the Alfa.
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