For Round 5 of the series and with a brand new mindset following the Aston 24h flop, Last Lap Motorsports went on an even tighter practice schedule to make sure that it wasn't going to be knocked off into the sidelines yet again, before the main event even begins.

And that's how I start this review: A long week and a half full of practice, occupying our free time by getting as ready as we could be for this very important race. We had our reasons for this:

1. This was a new track for the drivers involved, so it was important to get some track time with the car, skimming the track in as much detail as possible before getting into improving our lap times and making some tweaks to the setup;
   
2. The FX300 actually had a fighting chance against both the FZ300 and XR300, so we would be IDIOTS if we didn't make the best out of this chance;
   
3. We have failed to qualify for the last 2 rounds, when our objective at the beginning of the season was to fight for a spot in the Top 10. I know it's a bit over the top, but if you don't aim high, you're not going anywhere. And it doesn't really matter if it's too high an objective or not, the fact still stands.
   

For this race, we decided not to take too many risks at anything, (knowing how they usually tend to end in a sadly typical LLM balls-up), apart from a change in our driver lineup.
We brought in Joe Letteriello, a relatively green driver in LFS racing, who was willing to put in a lot of time and effort into practicing, honing his skills, listening to his teammate's feedback and also giving his own, thus helping to develop the car and improve both his and his teammate's times. So, needless to say now, this was a risk that was definitely worth taking.

So, on to the races! We went into the Qualifying Heat ready to battle, as we were starting off the Top 5, so we knew from the start that we would have to push. And so we did. The start was worrying, as Rui Pinto bogged it down and lost some positions, and for a moment, things weren't looking too good, but he took no time to get to work and getting them back as he fought wheel-to-wheel, and then caught up to the Top 5, who were fighting with each other. By the time Pinto got up to 6th place, Tiger Express Motorsports (who were ahead) went out of the race and the entry to the Main Race was almost in the bag, but to show everyone that Last Lap Motorsports were not going into the Main Race by pure luck again, Pinto overtook MAFIA Racing for 4th position and pulled away without looking back, and that's where the LLM car stayed until the finish line.

With the Qualifying Heat out of the way and entry granted into the Main Event, it was time to post a time for the GT300 grid. Things didn't go as well as in the qualifying heat, as a hardcore run for qualifying didn't pay off, and the car was qualified in 13th out of 15 cars.

And things kept going not so well for the Main Race. The GT300 rolling start was a bit of a mess as the field wasn't bunched up and, in a case of bad timing, Pinto started slowing down as soon as the Green Flag was out and as a result, went into the first corner dead last. Until the end of his stint, Pinto fought as hard as possible to keep up with the pack and get as many positions as possible, too hard sometimes.

On with the race, by about lap 8, LLM was up to 12th and fighting with PLZ for position when the GT500 started lapping, and that pretty much ended up ruining our race as far as going up the order was concerned, and after a mistake we were down to 14th in class. Pinto spent the next laps catching up to the cars ahead, and by the time he was pressuring the PLZ #61 and SR #53, the GT500 cars came up yet again and made things a bit more difficult by costing a handful of seconds, some of them slipping up, others just barging in where they really shouldn't and that had Pinto doing whatever he could not to cause further trouble (LLM has enough trouble already). From then on, the race was a bit dull, and before the hour limit could be reached, Pinto gave the car over for Joe Letteriello to take to the finish. Letteriello made a mistake while trying to take over and pushed the name button, sending a chat message and therefore having the team suffer a DT penalty, which further hindered our progress during the race, which strategy had gotten us up to 10th along with some unusual server problems that damaged some frontrunners' races. As soon as that DT was out of the way, Letteriello set off towards making up lost time and regaining positions, but the field was already spread out too far for our pace to be able to mount another comeback. So, for the rest of the race we had to stick to 13th place, where we ended up finishing, but all in all I guess we are happy enough to finish and score a couple of points. But without some mistakes, and some nervous moves (I was a bit nervous during both races) it could have been much, much better.

Apologies go to the PLZ-Italia #61, who we almost rolled over after a first-lap incident and had a couple of nudges later on, and Glowing Pistons #75, whose race we probably ruined and I'll take full responsibility for it.


-written by Rui Pinto