Please post race comments here.

Mike you ran an amazing race. You used ?3? wear on the first lap while others used as many as 10? More when combined with starting bids? That's what set you up for your win.
Stephen, a spin in the second corner, yet in contention or the lead for 90% of the race (finishing second)? Also an amazing run.
Doug, a very well run and managed race, you earned that 3rd.
Russ! We made fun of you, you ran the whole last lap with zero W? But you held on for 4th -- very impressive!
Me, a bunch of bad decisions and choices. Ugh.
Small other mention -- Renaud, sorry I blocked your line, I did that while irritated at someone else and it was meanspirited of me. Won't happen again.

Track

I had totally forgotten that Will ran this track last year and thus, never took a look to glean info. I forecast that the north part of the track, from Toyota to Tecate would be hell in traffic, so I would try to stay out of it in the first half of the race. You can either battle to get out in front of traffic or hang back and hope for some clean air in the back. The latter is becoming my preferred method of racing, so from the back it is.

Build

A 20 SS would give me the opportunity to build a strong car and LOTS of wear. I’ll need it to eventually pass cars.

Bid

Not surprisingly, Rando also built a ‘from the back’ car so I threw in a skill chip to maybe get 5th row ahead of him and also save myself a start push. Turns out it was Doug with a 60 SS behind me and Rando sitting in front of me. Actually, that turned out perfectly. Rando would pull away with his slightly larger engine and Doug would pass me with his SS – I get the back all to myself.

Lap 1

The mission is to spend as little wear as possible. As Rando points out above, 3 wear used and, more importantly, without great loss of pace on the field. Excellent! It takes commitment to do this as uncertainty fills your head, especially as cars get way ahead of you. By the time I was on East Seaside, the nearest car was SEVEN spaces ahead.


Regards the engine push on T2: That was a mistake. I had two sets of orders for the first few turns based on Row 5 and Row 6 starts. I plotted from the wrong column.


Lap 2

Doug, Rando, and I were three-wide going into Toyota. Renaud would obviously be squatting the line, leaving room for only one of us as the track narrowed. With Doug’s lack of top-end speed, it would be Rando or I. As soon as I dropped the 180, I started to 2nd guess myself as I knew Rando would do the same. If Rando gets in there first, I would have to late brake by 40. I left the card down. Fortune smiled on me and not on Rando. His engine test failed, giving me the initiative. I passed both the engine and late brake tests, poised to defend my new-found position through the grinding part of the track.

A little bit of fortune getting through the corner onto Seaside (thanks for leaving room, Joe) allowed me to pass my benefactor (waving to Joe). I pulled off a late brake to save wear in Firestone, setting me up for a move. T25 was huge. I plotted 120, looking for the outside lane in Indy Left since I didn’t care about the line in Le Gasomet (the line wouldn’t be open and I had plenty of wear to blast through on the outside lane of the hairpin). Brent goes and puts himself in my way so after a late brake, I still find an opening on the inside lane of Indy Left. I'm in second place now and, with plenty of wear, I knew I could catch Russ for a possible race win!

Lap 3

I was most worried about Stephen with one less wear than me. While I do have a bigger car, he is really good at this game and knows when to play for a win. Case in point – the forced pass on a spun Russ was impressive. I’m wondering, Stephen, if you could have cleared Tecate and been onto Seaside in the subsequent two turns? I can’t recall your wear position so I’m not sure. Anyway, you pulled up and I bulled my way past you. I didn’t really work out your potential if you’d pulled off that 160 + slip on Seaside but perhaps you could shed light on that as well. Regardless, the failed roll by Stephen put it out of reach and I was home free.

__________________________________________

Stephen – A decent chance you would have won but for that spin in T2 in the first lap. Nice racing thereafter.

Doug – You ran a quiet race right up until the last complex of turns at the end. Boom! You take a podium spot – beautiful.

Russ – I have no idea how you came in 4th place on bald tires for the entire last lap. Just, wow.

Rando – You might very well have been in my position if you had made the engine test at the start of lap 2. Nice job holding back to gain a few positions at the end.

Newcomers Joe & Brent – Welcome to the shark tank that is Thursday Night Lights racing! I enjoyed racing with you and look forward to seeing you again in a month.

Renaud – A rough ride and you’re a better player than your finish indicates. And you have 55 inches of racing glory to play on.


Kevin – What can I say? It’s near impossible to run this track on 20 brakes. Better luck in Detroit!

Final note: I believe there is a correlation between my finish and how much I write in these EOG's.

It was quite an experience for a noob like me to race against this sort of field, on a challenging circuit like this - might as well try to learn from the best.

In general, I feel I wasn't quite aggressive enough - especially at the start, coming off the pole, and I ended up spending wear in a terribly inefficient manner over the first lap. From then on, I felt like I managed the car and the traffic reasonably well, but missed a couple of opportunities to put the conga line behind me under some duress. Tiptoeing through the final hairpin with no tires left, I made a rookie mistake and dove for the inside rather than blocking the exit of the racing line (this would have been a good strategy if it were "first to the line" rather than "furthest past the line") and I may have cost myself a place or two in the final standings as a result. Rookie mistake!

Overall, though, it was lots of fun to see all the experts' gears turning (pun intended) as they plotted out how to get through all of those messy, crowded corners.


Joe

Interesting race. Fun group. It would be easier to move to another division, but this is too much fun.

I felt like I had a good plan until I saw a matching car. I may have outwitted myself by giving up going for the post (didn't want to bid high and NOT get it) and settling a little further back.

So, then comes Turn 3. I "think" I saw an opportunity to rectify my previous bidding mistake, so I took the chance with the big chip. Worse than the spin was the 7w I used in the first four corners of the first lap. That might be a decent strategy if you end up with a whole turn lead, but not if it just keeps you in the race. So I effectively doubled down and lost. But there was a lot of racing left and any points in this division might be important to make it to the finals.

Looking back, Turn 4 to Turn 31 went pretty well. I managed to maintain a little discipline and stay in reach without burning all my wear. Turn 25 was the turning point of the race. Mike squeezing through for 2nd made his eventual win quite likely. The rest of us were now racing for 2nd. (I was too stubborn to realize it at the time, but looking back it seems obvious.) However, I don't really see how I could have prevented Mike's move. Just works out that way sometime.

Turn 32 was fun. I really expected Russ to plot 80 and Mike to plot 80 or 100. Mike's 60 surprised me, especially since I plotted 100. However, remembering Mike's 60 accel, I shouldn't have been surprised. Alas. Now I was in a pickle. In hindsight, I probably had 2nd even if I had plotted 60, but once I laid the 100 down I was committed. More dice. I was successful and briefly had the lead.

Mike wondered what would have happened if I had used 4 of my final 5 wear to clear on to East Seaside Way in the lead. Well, I played it out in those 60 seconds on the timer. Mike would have caught up with that big engine by Firestone, but I would have been left with 1w to Mike's 5w. I would have had the line, but no win. So I laid up and picked up a slip to ensure 2nd.

So a mistake on Wednesday (bidding), compounded by "double down" on Turn 3 cost me any chance to win. But given those mistakes, 2nd was a great result.

Again, great group to race with. Most of us race by email as well. We probably do a better job analyzing and considering all of the possible scenarios when we have more time. Any legal move is possible. I will generally never get frustrated unless someone underdrives (under the speed limit) a corner just to stuff me. Saving wear is always a reasonable strategy. (Maybe I should consider it myself, instead of using 7w and a chance in the first 4 corners?)

I am looking forward to Belle Isle!