(This was yesterday evening for me)
I leveled up a Mk3 Escort for the D-class online series. Took about one and a half hour to get it good enough for D, doing it myself.
After that did a couple of races in the series, one of which was on Catalunya short (6 laps). Qualified 7th and took it easy on the start, braking early and sticking to the outside. I lost about two places here, the little Ford isn’t built for topspeed.
Saw a '69 Camaro fly past into t1 taking out about three others, no intention on braking there. After the t1 chaos I came out 7th, just avoiding contact. Overtook someone going into the last sector of the first lap moving up to 6th. In the last sector of the second lap cars 4 and 5 took eachother out of the race. I had to avoid the collision by going of track (either that or ramming into them) and got a 0.8sec penalty for it (illegal pass), but moved up to 4th.
In the first corners of lap three I came up to a Ford Sierra, clearly more built for power and that’s where the battle started! On the straights the Sierra would pass me, in the corners my Escort could pass them, this dance going on and on and on. During lap four a Mk1 Golf that got taken out in t1 drove up to us and easily drove away.
In lap five, the Sierra and me (now 4th and 5th respectively) started really pushing eachother, forcing mistakes. The Sierra went wide coming onto the backstraight, getting a small penalty for track limits and losing exit speed. This meant I could keep up on the straight and I went for a (respectfull) divebomb at the and of that straight. The Sierra gave me little space (a good defence, no contact) and I cut the corner a bit too much, resulting in a 2.5sec penalty (which is fair, I was greedy) for a total of 3.3sec and came out ahead.
On the main straight the Sierra passed me again going into the final lap. Unfortunaltely the Sierra went deep into t1, allowing me to get besides the car and getting ahead through t3-5 (I love my grip). Going onto the back straight I looked behind to see where the Sierra was going to pass me and saw they overdid the corner, touching the gravel and losing their speed. After that I slowed down a little, no mistakes in the last corners, finishing 4th (ahead enough for my penalty to not matter) and the Sierra still managed to finish 5th!
After the race I received a message from the Sierra driver, thanking me for the battle and I returned my thanks to them! What a battle that was! Constantly changing positions, playing into the strengths (and weaknesses) of our cars and always respecting eachother.
If you’re reading this, again THANK YOU!
I tried to save the replay, but this resulted in a failure in updating the event schedule and it therefore failed. ):
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