GT1 Season 4- Summit Point

Summit Point is the first track I drove in Iracing with the MX-5 and it was a great little track for those cars so I was interested in how the much bigger GT1s would go around there.  I had also done some poking around the week before the race and came to the conclusion that they'd never run a series race here so everyone was starting from point zero.  Setup wise, I decided to use the VRS set for the Okayama circuit which is another tight twisty 'club' layout and this seemed to work pretty well throughout my practise runs.
As usual though I stuffed my qualifying up and had to start way down the grid (p18 out of 27).  This was frustrating as Id have easily been in the top 10, if not top 5 had I matched my practise runs.

Given the nature of the track, this going to be an exercise in patience as overtaking was difficult so the best strategy was going to be to sit back and let others make mistakes. 

Starting well down the field

Down the inside at the final turn

The start was surprisingly clean, with a small number opting to start from the pitlane.  I kept out of trouble and made a few places out of the usual few that pushed too hard too early.  I also managed a clean move down the inside of the last turn.  From there it became pretty processional until the group of cars in front started squabbling.  There was a spin, a couple collected and I had to stop the car to avoid hitting the spun car.  A few others got by so I ended the exchange in the same position as before.

A coming together.  I had to stop with nowhere to go.

Later in the race again caught a group of 3 fighting.  Being late race I decided to get the elbows out a bit and when one of them went too deep into turn one, I managed to get alongside.  He was having none of that and pushed into me to hold the position.  Perhaps smarting a little from this, I took a bit of a half hearted look down the inside two corners later.  It was a bit clumsy and sure enough he shut the door hard enough for me to give him enough of a love tap to spin him around.  It was unfortunate but he had laid down the rules of how he wanted to fight it out earlier in the lap....

Another tight pack with the lights on

A gap on the inside out of T1...

But old mate isn't having any of it

Two corners later and a half a look.....

......but the door closes and he comes off second best

That was it for the excitement and I coasted home p14.  Not disgraceful but disappointing given where we could have been if I hadn't fluffed qualifying.