As you may have seen on my Facebook page, I've combined My Blogs from Rounds 2 and 3 due to the huge problems I had at Round 2 leaving me with not enough to fill a blog on it's own.

Round 2 saw us at Circuit de Catalunya which I knew from Media day would be a tough round for me in the Nankang UK Megane. I managed to Qualify in 5th place in Lobby E exactly one lobby higher than I managed at Round 1! However that's where my luck ran out...

On the formation lap of Race 1 my Xbox Live connection dropped out removing me from the lobby and ending my Race 1 before it even began.



Race 2 saw me start at the back of the grid with my connection still fragile (So I apologise for the lack of other people's liveries in the photos) I managed to avoid the first turn carnage and move forward through the field until my luck ran out yet again.




Entering the final complex I dived down the inside of Sc00byD00BieDOO's Megane passing him cleanly only to find the Megane of MVG Skyshadow on the apex of the corner slower than I expected due to our differing lines and shielded from my view by Sc00byD00BieDOO's Megane when I started the move. I hit the back of Skyshadow's Megane putting him into a half-spin and the impact slowed me down meaning Sc00byD00BieDOO hit me.

I recovered and managed to finish 8th after starting 14th on the grid with the car feeling much better than anticipated in race trim.

Race 3 and the connection issues reared their ugly head again with the lag so bad I couldn't hear the race marshal or any other drivers and with cars jumping and flying around making racing impossible, I retired so as to avoid ruining anyone elses race but the meeting was not over for me yet...

I was called to the stewards for the 3rd time this season for the incident with Sc00byD00BieDOO who had spun after hitting me after I hit MVG Skyshadow. Despite my best efforts I was penalised with a Drive Through Penalty for Race 1 at Round 3.

That brings us to Round 3 at Tsukuba Circuit and due to outside commitments I didn't get as much time to prepare the Nankang UK Megane as I'd have liked, however with some aero dynamic changes the Megane was feeling solid underneath me going into the meeting.

Qualifying saw me put in a time which placed me in 9th place Lobby-E cementing my pace from Qualifying in Round 2, however I would still have to deal with the hangover from Round 2...




I served my Drive Through Penalty on Lap 2 (Having missed it on Lap 1 due to the blind pit entry) which put me right to the back and out of contention completely for anything other than 13th and last place in Race 1.



Race 2 saw me start at the back of the grid in 13th place and I made things more difficult for myself by bogging down off of the start and having to give it a clutch kick to get moving. This oddly helped to avoid some of the bumping and barging and stay out of trouble in the opening laps and pick up a few places before things settled down and the field began to filter down into single file.



Next up was the Lexus IS300 of LucyLou217 who was really impressing me with her race pace and race craft during the laps I was trying to pass her. In the end she left just a half a Megane's width on the inside of the hairpin and I dived down the inside on the brakes, tapped door handles and made the pass.




MNM Vortex's P Friks' Honda Civic Type-R was the next man down the road and after a very tight battle and lots of Touring Car rubs and taps I made a run through the sector 2 sweeper and dived down the inside on the final Hairpin and managed to just squeeze through to take the place.



My final fight was with Carbon Viper who was by his own admission struggling with his Lexus IS300 with the car looking very loose both into and out of the corners. Carbon Viper slid wide during the Sector 2 sweeper and I managed to make a pass through the final hairpin only for Carbon Viper to have a huge lunge up the inside of me in Turn 1 with me having to avoid a collision, this let AcidicBeast in on the fun in his Honda Civic to go 3 wide through Turn 1! sadly Carbon Viper's wide line meant he had to cut back across my nose, and with nowhere for me to go to avoid with AcidicBeast on my inside, me and Carbon Viper made contact and I passed his as he corrected. All clean, all friendly and all sadly unavoidable.

This meant I finished in 7th place after starting 13th after one of the best races I've ever had in the Nankang UK Megane. It's a car that really switches on for the races compared to qualifying, the polar opposite of a lot of cars on the grid which makes for some great racing.



Race 3 and with the reverse grid system I started in 7th place, lag was starting to creep in by this stage of the night and caused me to just miss the start time call meaning I fluffed the start and lost a few places once again.



However the usually first turn bumping and barging and a little bit of late braking from me saw me get the Nankang UK Megane back into the action by the end of the first turn, passing a few cars who had been forced wide in the tussle.



A well timed dive down the inside saw me pass the Subaru Impreza of PikeySmurf going into the infield hairpin.



However a move around the outside of BG Chucky82 backfired when he understeered, forcing me wide and dropping me back down the order.



Eventually I managed to work my way up to 7th place, retaking BG Chucky82 and passing sbiggs in unspectacular fashion.

This brings us to the mid point in the season with 3 races down and 3 to go. A rough first half of the season has resulted in being further down the order than I would have liked, with myself and the Nankang UK Megane sitting in 74th place once the dropped round is considered.

However with 3 trips to the stewards and 2 DNF's I know the pace is there to have a much better second half of the season with my strongest tracks still to come and the set up really starting to feel dialled in now I'm confident (barring any more incidents) that I can climb up the Championship table a chunk more before the end of the season.

The first half of the season has also been rough on the Nankang UK Megane as well with the last two rounds adding another 6,416cr worth of damage, bringing the total for the season so far to 31,097cr.

Next up is Mugello Club, a circuit I know quite well from my Drifting and Time Attack exploits outside of TORA which will hopefully put me in good stead going forward.

Thanks for reading!

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