Something was weird today, because when we tried Mischief hosting, who has 100k of upload like MXM, it also lagged.
As for the race, it sucked. 5 people only, not really exciting. My plan was to run consistently, and have a very fast pit, just refuel ~10%, and not change tires. I was running low 1:08s in test, so I knew prophet would be faster, and I figured the time I loose I'll make up in the pits. However, when I tested how long tires will last I didn't take 100% fuel. 1st problem was the car was obviously very heavy. 2nd problem was some weird understeer on both corner entry and exit. I don't know if fuel load affects weight distribution, if it does than a possible explanation would be too much weight @ the rear. I tried to help this with lowering front antiroll stiffness, but that didn't help, if anything it got me distracted to adjust values (F11) while racing. So in the begining of the race I couldn't get below 1:09.
However the biggest problem came around lap 15 or so, when the ditch @ chicane exit caught my car in a very weird way. I was cutting it as usual, which normally screws up the suspension only slightly, and all of a suddent I had to countersteer like mad to prevent the car from flipping. It cought me very hard, damaged the suspension at take off and at a harsh landing. The car was fucked, but still drivable, although even more slowly. More importantly, my front right tire was suffering some severe wear. It reached 100+ degrees in no time, and because of the fucked suspension it was locking up all the time giving me some nice flat spots. It didn't take 6-7laps, and in the 2nd sector in the S curve iirc, the front just slipped away uncontrollably, straight into the wall. I knew I blew I tire.
Hit the wall hardly, spun, continue to pits, which wasnt a smooth journey either. Pit, change 2 tires at front, body damage, suspension damage, and in all the rush I adjusted the fuel to too much and filled up a bit more than necessary. Lost ages in the pits, everyone lapped me.
I started pushing, although I knew I didn't have much chance of catching anyone. Car was ok now, but I did avoid crossing the ditch, which obviously meant a much slower exit before the straigth, which costs a lot of time. When Mischief made a pitstop, he came out 20+ seconds before me. Few laps after it dropped down to about 10s so I guess he must've lost it somewhere. This gave me some hope of catching him, but avoiding the ditch, and cold front tires, meant I was lapping freaking slow times again, and made also a few small mistakes. From too agressive driving my rear tires started wearing off, and the last 6-7laps were like dricing on ice, rear all over the place. At that point I knew I couldn't catch him, so the aim was to cross the finish line in one piece and avoid blowing rear tires and pitting again. Good thing from my point of view, was that Firefox was having some issues as well, and lost it quite a few times. So that's one place higher on the ladder for me, and one more point which is important with the season coming to end soon and the difference to ESPN being not that big.
I was surprised how well ESPN did in the feature race, I didn't expect him to be so quick. I though he will run R3s as well and be a bit slowe, but apparently he didn't.
Overall shitty race, not many people, and this suspension damage/tire blow wasn't nice either.
Next week, slight change of plans. Instead of F08, we'll run BF1. Fern Bay Gold remains unchanged as location. Will be maddness unless everyone practices and concentrates really well.