The season turned in a straight battle between Schuhti and myself for the championship since the last report in these last four rounds of the season. I was as determined as I could ever have been to give it everything.
Round 7 was one of the most difficult races I have ever experienced. The combo itself was as immense as it gets. Fastest car of the season (FO8) on one the tightest and the longest tracks we have in LFS (fe4r). Just to give you the picture how hard it can be. You start from 2nd on the grid against your main rival. You have huge dirty air everywhere and you do not have a single passing opportunity unless the fellow slides off track in front and chances are much greater that you will. But, thankfully there were mandatory pitstops and there was hope. I was on about 3-4second gap before the stops, when Schuhti made one of his rare mistakes on his inlap and I got right onto his tail. Running five laps longer I easily exited the pits with comfortable margin to win the race and close the championship gap next to virtually nothing.
Round 8 and we head of to South City for third and the last time, this time in ultimately fastest cars with the roof, GTR's obviously. As predicted Schuhti goes for the easier choice with FXR whilst I'm in one of my favorites, FZR with my second pole position of the year by a 0.6sec margin on so5r track. The things are looking great as passing was never easy on South City, pole is an excellent place to be at. Naturally FXR had a far better launch of the line and Schuhti was lined up with me into the t1, nonetheless I was on the inside, however he decides that he doesn't want to go long way around and as the cars rub each other and we're both sent into a spin. Schuhti saves it easily with 4wd drift and on contrast I'm stuck in 15th, fighting my way back up to final spot of the podium by the end of the race. The accident was deemed as racing incident eventhough Schuhti said himself that he regrets the move and there I am stuck with a huge points gap in championship with two rounds to go.
Round 9. This time we're heading off to a final Aston race and a final open wheelers race in little MRT. Notoriously, I hate this car. I just hate it's snappiness with all my guts. I have no idea how on Earth I produced the best qualifying performance of the season back then, posting a PB in process to be denied of pole by a hundred of a second. Schuhti amazingly took it in the last corner of last qualifying lap, after loosing the entire session and entire lap until that point, by a single hundreth of a second. Alright, no big deal, it's quite easy to pass in MRT. But my gearing is not the best off the line and I'm down to 3rd and then I got cought up by the happy tail and down to 4th even. I pull myself together quickly and get up the inside, but to my big surprise the car just snaps over the curb as I took the line only slightly different to what I usually do and I'm all the way down the grid again. I fought back so many times, spinning the much hated car few more times in process before I finally retired from the race. Schuhti had won the championship now officially, but he had won it in T1 of Round 8 already anyway.
Round 10, the final race of the season. No pressure, just a race and possible victory to vindicate myself from all the trouble and bad luck that season had thrown at me. Beautiful race track (ky2r) in combination with TBO cars was always going to be enjoyable. Again, Schuhti goes for an easier choice with FXO, as I take XRT for pure pleasure of driving even though at first tests it seamed that FXO was faster with restrictions in place. However I found enough pace in process and with Schuhti's rubbish lap in superpole I was easily on pole by a 0.4sec margin. Hart in mouth moment came at the end of lap 1 when buggy curb trew me into the wall out of the last corner, brushing it only just and defending place from Patrick who was soon overtaken by Schuhti after his FXO start and it was a straight fight from then on, between me and the champion. Race of attrition, of great struggle with tires for both of us. The gap was constant on 1-2sec as the pace was virtually the same until the bad luck interfered again. Evil gods of internet decided that my season wasn't going to end on a high and I was out of the race with DNF as a result of internet disconnect. Maybe it's better that way, leaving me hungry for the next season.
Looking back at it now I can easily see so many missed opportunities. For example, if I had figured out to overclock my CPU before Round 2 perhaps I wouldn't have finished the race in 4th from pole position. Or, perhaps if I knew how bad luck can be vicious I would have trained harder for Round 6 and finished the race on podium instead on the roof. The two dropout rounds had me way too relaxed or way too aggressive at times. Many more points could have come out of race two in Round 1 if I hadn't risked that start so much. Having any of these done better I might have been in a completely different situation in Round 9 and most likely I wouldn't have to had pushed the car so madly back then.
There is another way to look at it as well. There were three race victories. Flawless races, even though I started those outside the pole position. All in all, I'm fairly happy with my rookie season in City Liga. I'm thrilled with
great new rivalry, the lovely community and determined to improve on
mistakes for the next season.
Schuhti is no longer underdog, he's a deserved champion in my eyes. Not only that the luck was on his side thru this season, he made fewer mistakes and I congratulate him for taking the title in his 10th season. A result worth admiring.
