NASRS Season 15 Race 1 (Barcelona)

The first race of the NASRS season 15 was actually race 2 on the schedule since race 1 was postponed due to server issues. The race was at Barcelona and was billed as “low changeable weather,” but stayed dry for both the qualifying session and the race. I qualified P4, which was a nice surprise since I didn’t expect to do that well. I had a clean race start, which was really lucky since there was a major incident just behind me on the main straight. I think over half the field was involved in it so it was pretty bad.

I slotted into P4 after the first few corners and tried to get around the Aston Martin in front of me. I couldn’t make a clean pass and since we were pretty close on pace I decided to be patient and wait for a mistake. Unfortunately, that didn’t really happen so when we started to run into some backmarkers with about 40 minutes left I dove into the pits and tried the undercut. Somehow that worked and after things got sorted out I was in P3 a couple seconds ahead of P4.

The Aston in P4, though, was on tires that were 10 minutes fresher, so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hold the position for the remaining 30 minutes. I made it till the penultimate lap where I tripped over an ill-timed backmarker in the last exit and lost P3 on the main straight. I tried my best on to get the spot back on the last lap, but again, my tires were shot and couldn’t make a clean overtake.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how I drove and how the race ended up. I’m not sure if I would have had better luck not doing the undercut, but it was fun to try. It stings a bit to be so close to the podium and not get it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Onwards and upwards!

Week 1 final results (Barcelona)

• Qualifying: P4/35
• Race: P4/35

Here are a few highlights from the race