Ended up smashing my PB with a 1:51.6093 on the official Natsoft timing. I’m pretty happy with the time since it’s only my second time out in the dry with this car on the GP Circuit (had 1 day in the wet).
The new 235 tyres and wheels with the more aggressive alignment made a world of difference and inspired confidence especially on the high speed corners like T1, T4/5 and T7 where the car previously felt a bit floaty and less planted mid-corner.
The day was running really slow and by 2:30pm my group was only just doing it’s third session but I had to cut it short after that session anyway as I went into idiot mode trying to get a PB which I got but only less than a 10th over the time earlier in that session. If you watch the video of the second lap you can see I take a terrible line through T8 and then I did the shortcut on the last corner and ended up going a bit overboard having my left wheel in the dirt and my rear right wheel on the sharks tooth ripple strip which caused the tyre to impact the guard and gouge into it a little bit. It needed a bit more rolling anyway so after my dodgy hit it with a hammer repair (girlfriend wasn't impressed watching this) so I could drive home the car will go back to Deckspeed to do a bit more rolling.
There’s definitely a lesson in that to be learnt about not trying to push the times out and looking at the data afterwards I can see in the corners that reward restraint (T2 & T8), they were the sectors where my fastest times were in my first whereas every other sector my fastest times were in the last session. Looks like there is a low 1:50 in the car if I can sort that out.
I’ve put up a video below from my last session, the first lap is a 1:51.696 chasing down a race prep’d Mini and the second lap is my 1:51.609 PB lap where the mini lets me pass and you can see the red mist descend
