Gran Turismo 23 March & Round 4 Spring League

Race 1 - Round 4 of the Spring League

Monza

Gr3

14 laps

Fuel usage x 4

Tyre wear x 4

Qualifying

As a sign of things to come, we all exit the pits at the start of qualifying shortly followed by most of us out braking ourselves at the first chicane and having to cut it. Tom decides he might as well cut all the chicanes as it's only the out lap but get such a large time penalty he has to stop to take a picnic to get rid of it. Everyone else gets round though a small pack is still bunched up which costs Mike his first flying lap at the first chicane. It all goes wrong through the Lesmo's too as Lee, Mike, Phil and Crispy all get mixed up together. I get a clean lap and cross the line to take provisional pole with Kiwi second, Clive third and Crispy 4th as everyone else had made mistakes. Tom, now significantly behind everyone, finally sets a lap to move himself up to 4th. Until Crispy briefly takes 3rd until Mike and Phil get their laps together to take 2nd and 4th respectively dropping Crispy to 5th. Kiwi suffers with a penalty on his third flying lap but gets a good run on lap 4 to take pole position as Clive also nails his lap to start 5th.

Race

I get a good launch and break away at the front giving me a clean turn 1 chicane while everyone else is bunched up which obviously goes wrong as Tom hits Paul who knocks Clive and in recovering Clive crashes in to Phil. Lee recovering from the turn 1 shenanigans attempts a pass on Clive at the first chicane of lap 2 but runs a little deep giving Clive a chance to come back at him. Clive overtakes and the fight continues to the second chicane where he out brakes himself running wide through the plastic barriers. Clive manages to hold on to his lead over Lee to the Lesmo's where he runs wide and Lee follows in to the gravel. Lee spins out but Clive manages to keep it going and tries to rejoin the track but misjudges and spins back on to the grass until getting reset to the track. Kiwi who held on to 2nd through the first lap chicane had been chased down by Mike who had deduced that Kiwi was on the hard tyre contrary to everyone else so save time overall Kiwi lets Mike passed rather than fighting him unnecessarily. Phil on a recovery drive, catches up to Crispy and due to a mistake from Crispy through Ascari, Phil managed to draft passed on the run down to Parabolica. Cripsy attempts to follow Phil's braking point and corner positioning but massively out brakes himself running wide through the gravel but recovering it well. Over laps 6 through to 9 everyone goes for their mandatory pitstop with the order remaining unchanged however Kiwi had changed his racing hards for mediums while everyone else had done the opposite. On lap 11, Kiwi's faster tyres had allowed him to catch up to Mike as he makes a pass for 2nd place in to the Ascari chicane. Kiwi runs wide through giving Mike a chance to retake the position which he briefly does on the straight but on the slower tyres Mike can't manage to hold the position on the outside of the Parabolica. Kiwi then begins chasing me down in the lead and manages to catch me through Ascari on the final lap with only the Parabolica to go to decide the winner. I keep to the right to ensure I hold the inside line for the final corner so Kiwi will have to take the long way round. A bit of door to door rubbing and pushing see me miss my braking point and run wide squeezing Kiwi who runs off the track and this gives me enough exit speed to cross the line for the win.

Results

Race 2

Willow Springs

Gr4

8 laps

Fuel usage x 0

Tyre wear x 0

Race

As the second race of the night the grid for this race is set by the reverse of the finishing positions of the last. This was a fantastic race with overtakes happening amongst us all at various corners and over all 8 laps. Unlike the above, there's no real nuance or clips not worth including for this race. So rather than type up exactly what happens, I'm going to let the video do all the talking for this one.

Results

Recommended Comments

GazzaGarratt 10,867

Posted March 29, 2021

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I've struggled for a number of weeks and continue to go backwards with the wheel but i'll keep persisting as its all about learning.

I couldn't come to terms with my crash at the time on the second race but outside of that it was an extremely good race and as you say @Greboth, your highlight reel pretty much shows how close and fun the racing was. Lots of really good overtakes by all and well done @Mikepjbell for getting that win.