I tried practicing for this race on race night after a strong Vodka drink, and that obviously didn't help at all. Had very little pace, and didn't understand where I could find another two seconds... plus the track was blurry....
Qualifying
Was fully sober by race time, and went out and set a 1:09.1 right off the bat, which was better than I expected. Next lap was the exact same time. There was more time to be had for sure, but the rest of the session was scruffy, and I managed a couple of spins. I had sat in 7th for the entire session, and that's where I'd start.
Race
I thought I was getting fancy when the lights went out by up-shifting early to avoid wheel spin, but all it really did is massively slow me down, and I lost two places before we even got to turn 1. No idea why I'm experimenting with starts this late in the season! The rest of the first lap was uneventful, and I just played it safe.
Falling back a bit really just made things more fun, and I was pressuring Falco over the first three laps. As we started lap 4, I was hoping for a pass with DRS, and was focused on Falco in the braking zone for turn 1, when I was hit from behind and I spun. I hadn't even realized that Fruitsalsa was right behind me. Thankfully no damage, and I really didn't care (but you should always let the other car stay ahead if you cause an incident). Really, that just made things more fun, as I was now down in last and had more cars to battle with. I probably wasted more time than I needed to before I got going again, because I was a bit disoriented, and was trying to figure out a safe way to resume racing. Lost 15 seconds from that incident/recovery.
A lap later, and I passed two cars who had crashed, who I would later find out were Dark & Pat, to move back to 9th. I then passed Fruit in the 2nd DRS zone.
It was interesting that guys started pitting around lap 10, as I found my tires felt pretty good still. I had just selected the default strategy of SS-SS-S, but I was starting to wonder if I'd really need two stops. SS-M? SS-S even?
I gained another place when I found Jonathan had spun at Juncao, and a lap later, I found a slow moving Plasma at the same corner. On lap 14, Bobino exited the pits just in front of me, and soon after, Plasma caught back up to me and passed me, but despite my worn tires (>60%), my grip felt okay, and I was able to stay close to them for a while.
I'd gone for long enough that I thought I could try and one stop and go to the Soft compound to take me the rest of the way, so I stopped on the next lap. Was in 8th when I exited the pits, and I got to have another battle with Falco, but quickly made the pass with DRS. Was closing in on Fruit, and was looking forward to another battle with him, but he pitted on lap 20 which promoted me to 6th.
I started to realize I was in a pretty good position as I had no plans to stop again, and when we had another retirement (Plasma), I was up to 5th. I checked on the cars ahead and behind with my Race Engineer, and it seemed I was in a fairly lonely position with no chance of catching anyone, and no chance of anyone catching me, barring any mistakes. I'll take it because I certainly wasn't the 5th fastest driver. Sure enough, the rest of the race was uneventful, and that's where I'd finish.
Summary
Honestly, I kinda dread these races at this point in the season, because I don't like commitment, I don't like how unprepared I am, and my focus is already on re-upping my iRacing subscription on March 14th, but almost all of the races are actually a whole lot of fun, and this one certainly was. Some good battles, and expectations exceeded by a significant margin. 1 to go!