Bit delayed here, but I wanted to give a big thanks to the organizers and stewards for setting up this last SRCA season to be time friendly to us in the western hemisphere. I'm sure it was very inconvenient for you to provide this convenience to us and allow people, like myself, an attempt to get a higher license where Wednesday events were impossible to attend. I tried to make the most of the opportunity knowing this type of thing won't be regular. Just want to say I appreciate it greatly and look forward to competing in VLMS/VEC.
For all four races, my main focus was on consistency and track position. My strategy for each race purposely tried to avoid situations where I would need to be super aggressive. To this end I focused on conserving tires and fuel to make the least pit stops possible. My pace was admittedly pedestrian, but more often than not the pressure fell on others to make bold moves to catch me rather than the other way around. Sometimes this worked out and sometimes it didn't, but it always kept me out of trouble.
Not a fan of both of the cars. At first I thought the 370z physics were done by a sadist. Setting up the car baffled me (40-60 brake bias works? LOL). I was so glad after Indy to jump into the GTR only to find the awaiting monsoon of NOLA (my worst race). I tried to drive the entire NOLA race on one set of wet tires but to no avail. I caved in and took new rubber on lap 38 mainly to avoid causing a big accident at some point. Thankfully Sepang was dry, but I started disliking the GTR's tendency to randomly kick out on any turn that was remotely downhill. I really wished the GTR had medium compound tires, but another sadist must really enjoy watching the soft tires melt 10% on a tire if you lock up for a second. (Note: the sadist comments are in jest obviously)
My biggest worry from the start as far as screwing up was with Code 80 procedure and my research showed that this was probably the number one reason people didn't get a license. There's also no way to practice this until it happens in the race, so I was nervous about this for some reason. I didn't need to be. The 10 second warning and then countdown from 5 is plenty of time to get the car gradually down to speed safely. Only if you're really intent on grabbing a free second or two advantage on someone is it worth trying to time things perfectly on this... and then why would you for an academy race? To blow a code 80 in these races is the equivalent of getting a red card during a friendly match - it ain't worth it.
Congrats to the drivers that got a license and the SRC for another successfully academy season. Best of luck to those going for a license next season.
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