Consistency at Grand Valley Secures 5th Place
I’m not a fan of the Red Bull X2019 so I was less than enthusiastic about my round 4 chances at Grand Valley Reverse. At the end of free practice I was ~4 seconds off the pace of the fastest drivers on the leaderboard. Battling for an outright win didn’t seem possible and a podium would be unlikely. My goal was simple— be clean, be consistent, and race the best race I can.
Qualifying started with a misstep when I forgot to switch from the intermediate tire to softs before it began. I would have to pit. Time was running out. I would get only one flying lap because of my mistake. Expecting to qualify near the back of the pack based on my pace in practice I was happy to find myself starting in 5th.
Big Rock Racing Red Bull X2019 crossing the bridge at Grand Valley
But there are some things you can’t control and that includes rolling starts in Gran Turismo. The 4th place driver, controlled by the computer, stopped on the formation lap, causing all of us behind to sit motionless and stare in disbelief while the front-runners proceeded to the start without us! By the time normality was restored and we gained control of our cars the leaders had left us for dead. Our race would be a disorganized mess of a standing start. And while I got away clean it was enough of a curveball to put me out of sorts. I missed my braking mark for the chicane and incurred a four-second penalty for hitting another car. Not a good start.
On lap 2 I served my 4 second penalty and rejoined the action in 9th place. Four seconds is a long time. Long enough, as it turns out, for me to recompose myself and remember the plan. I put my head down and raced my race. Be consistent, don’t over-drive the tires. Run the softs until lap 10, then the hard tires for the remainder of the race.
By the end of lap 3 I had moved up to 7th. On the next lap, 6th. On the next, 5th. I would pit from 5th on lap 10 and rejoin in 9th. I was back in 5th at the start of lap 16 of 30. I would pass another car as they pit on lap 21 to move up to 4th place. As the laps ticked down I could see 5th place gaining tenths on me every lap until, inevitably, the caught up, overtook, and pulled away on lap 29.
Unable to launch a counter-attack and with nobody in the rear-view I maintained my pace and ultimately finished where I had started. For myself, in this car on this track, 5th place was a good result. Moreso than the absolute position I’m pleased I was able to execute strategy to achieve a satisfying result in a race where I expected disaster.
Clean and consistent pace secures 5th place at Grand Valley
Nations Cup results after four rounds
