WHY!!?!? | iRacing V8 Supercars at Okayama

Back in the iRacing Gen 3 Supercars, this time taking on Okayama International Circuit. Going into this race, I was not overly confident. My outright pace felt reasonably good, but I was much more concerned about how the tires were going to hold up over the course of the race. This was a 2286 Strength of Field race with 29 drivers, and I came in as the number 11 car. Qualifying went better than I expected, and I was happy to put the car 9th on the grid. Starting inside the top ten gave me a good opportunity to see what I could do. The start was fairly clean, but before long a car got alongside me through one of the opening corners. He and the driver directly ahead of me started battling hard, which made things a little uncomfortable. The car that got by eventually pulled away, but I found myself stuck behind the other driver, losing time while trying to figure out the best way past. Pit strategy became the next opportunity. I actually considered attempting an undercut a lap earlier than I eventually did, but when the moment came I found myself on the outside heading toward pit entry. I decided to stay alongside and see if I could make the move work. Unfortunately, that opened the door for the driver behind me to undercut both of us. Even then, I still felt like there was a good race to be had. I stayed glued to his rear bumper for several laps, convinced that if I remained patient I would eventually get my chance. Then the unexpected happened. A packet loss warning appeared, and before I knew it I was being towed back to the pits. The only fix was to exit iRacing completely and reload the sim, which effectively ended any hope of a good result. I suppose this is the sim racing equivalent of suffering an engine failure while running a strong race. Sometimes there is simply nothing you can do except regroup and look toward the next one. Watch the full race to see how it all unfolded at Okayama in the Gen 3 Supercars. Watch live @   / thepiltdownman   #iRacing #v8supercars #okayama