DOM-GNL #36 – Kentucky

It’s the last race of the season. Having battled it out with the top 10 drivers in the iRacing DOM-GNL (German NASCAR League), has Robert Graf managed to drive his simFlight Chevy Impala home in the top group of finishers? We hear from him about how he did in the final race and his feelings on completing his first full season in the series.

This was very hard work. Think of the old Daytona with all its bumps and combine it with the flat wide corners of Michigan. Then you’ll get a hint what Kentucky feels like to drive on.

Car was running good, but my tire conserving skills are still an issue. So i really tried to stay cool on the first 20 laps of a stint, which worked well. The first yellow came in lap 15 and i was in the TOP10 afterwards. Storming to 8th on the restart (see picture) i had faster drivers (some of them had enlisted for this event only) behind me which i tried to hold at bay till the next stop.

Second stint was the longest one and i lost a position in there, just could’nt go any faster. I kept up with teammate Matthias, but at the end of the stint he was gone too. On the third and forth stint i had my eyes more on the standings then on the road. All the drivers i was competing against had fallen back to around 15th place. I didn’t know how many points i would need, cause i hadn’t anticipated their bad luck. Normally these guys (teammate Andreas Kroeger, Johannes Leemann and Hauke Grotheer) are much closer to me, if not in front.

With hurting hands i doubled my effort to make clean green flag pit stops, kept the laps as smooth as possible and tried to stay out of trouble with the lappers. After 180 crueling laps i finally could bring home my 12th TOP10 this season, finishing 10th.

Now, what did happen in overall standings? Next day i had the confirmation, i had indeed caught two of my competitors and had gained 8th place in total. This is AWESOME for my first full season! And we also won the runner up team title (a 1-2 for the teams DIHL and DIHL HCR)! How great is that?

It has been a thrilling season with all the ups and downs that make racing online so enjoyable. I had a great team behind me, that helped not only with setups, but also with very good input to improve my driving style. Then i had a sponsor on my car i can truly identify with and the comments i had here throughout the season allways made me smile. So a BIG thx to readers and editors of simFlight.com alike for their motivation they gave me.

For the people out there that missed the LIVE coverage of this race, you can still watch it here.

Now its the off-season, but DOM-GNL will restart in february. Till then i wish you all the best and thx again for your support!