After having a rather mixed bag of results in my first few race meetings, and frustrating mistakes here and there, we went to Interlagos with the World GT Championship hoping for some good fortune - after all, this had been the scene of many good results for me in leagues gone by. Fingers crossed I could repeat my previous success.
Practice was only a short few laps for me - I'd done 50 Laps in a session during last week, after knowing I'd be away for the weekend. It certainly helped as I got used to how the Audi behaved over Interlagos' large kerbs and bumpy surface. It was never going to be easy, but I had to just be ballsy and give it everything I could.
Qualifying came before long, and straight out of the blocks I felt confident, putting in a Top 20 time, until the end of the session, when I was pushed down to 21st by others. An incident with a stationary car put me in the wall with a few minutes to go, with no chance of getting back out and improving my time.
The rolling starts at Sao Paolo are highly anticipated, with a long straight and sweeping braking zone into Turn 1 inviting those with the confidence and belief to make a move. Combine that with a lot of guys playing it safe (guilty) and you're going to have a crazy first couple of corners. It was a very straight forward one this time round though.
Towards the end of the first lap I had to avoid an incident right in front of me involved Madsen and Jacolette, but got through just fine. Mike Gray would make his way through after I gained a couple of freebies, and a few laps later, Ethan Bass got past but also binned it on the same lap. Coming on to Lap 6 I was hit by Ben Gregory as he missed his braking point into Turn 1, and we fell back down to 30th.
I was between Dennis Melchert's Ford GT and Simon Field's Mercedes AMG at this point, and was squeezed by Dennis towards the end of Lap 8 - luckily I didn't lose out because of it, but unfortunately, Dennis got spun around. I'd recover to finish 25th after a couple of guys fell off in front, but I wasn't happy with how much of a scrappy race I'd had after a promising Qualifying.
The less I say about Race 2 the better, so here goes. A car spun in front of me at Turn 2, I got hit into it from behind, while trying to avoid it, and had to return to the pits for over 2 minutes of repairs. I came back out and finished 36th.
Race 3 started with a number of small comings together - cars were everywhere, and I managed to make it through despite making contact with my brother's stationary Team Lizard Motorsport Mercedes, and the back of Simon Field as he slowed down for a secondary incident (sorry Simon!) - actually the second time I've done that to him this season!
I was up to 21st by the end of the first lap, and hoping to continue going forward. Once the Safety Car came in, I was instantly witness to an incredibly ballsy move by Ben Palmer, down the inside of three cars into Turn 1. Yet more incidents coming out of Turn 2 mixed the order up somewhat more, and I found myself running in 19th, until I spun with two corners to go. I crossed the line 23rd, which wasn't necessarily a bad result, but it could've been better.
Overall it was a rough night, due to incidents, silly mistakes and a lack of confidence that only got worse as the evening progressed. I now sit 10th in the ProAm category, and feel the chance of a Top 3 in the Championship slipping away every week. I hate to admit that but as anyone would have seen on my streams, I like to keep a realistic view of these things. Next week we have an "Enduro" round at Silverstone which will be important for points. So long as I don't make a silly mistake I feel like I could get a good result there. Let's see shall we?
Thanks as always to the guys at CQR Club for supporting me and helping me, and everyone who watches the streams week on week - your viewership and donations mean a hell of a lot to me.