28th November - Ebisu 6 hour Endurance Race. Alexandre Plattard (3 of 4).

*** PICTURES TO BE ADDED & TRAQMATE VIDEO TO FOLLOW ***

First of all thanks to the team for inviting me and trusting me.

Practice
I jumped in the car, attached myself with the help of Sumi-san and go. I had in mind that I had to be careful with the tires and to bring the car back.
As I was driving around, learning the track, getting used to the gearbox and the steering wheel on the wrong side, I tried to go faster little by little.
I managed to reach lap time around 1.15 which was a bit disappointing. I didn't feel very comfortable with the car and had difficulty to get used to drive a FF again.
At night, after reviewing videos and comparing my lines with others I had some better idea of what I should do if I wanted to improve my lap time.

Race
The pressure went up as we lost some time trying to fix the car. We were
very close to the team 51. Sumi-san jumped out and I had no difficulty
getting in as he moved the seat back. He then helped me to find the belts,
Mike and Tom refueld, added a bit of oil and shouted "Go!Go!Go".
Weirdly I don't remember much of the race, it felt like it lasted 2 minutes
only. During the race I felt much more confident than the previous day. I
could understand the car's behavior better. As I was driving, I saw a white
car behind me. I remembered that during practice there was very fast Silvia
so I thought it was him and decided I would let him go. As he takes over I
see the number on the side : "51". Ooops! Lesson 1 : Don't let anyone go if
there is no blue flag. Anyway I thought it was a good opportunity to improve
my lines by folowing him. Gradually I managed to get close to him again and
in the straight I was a bit faster and took over in the first corner. It
felt good!

At some point a grey car, driven by students decided he would take over
under yellow flag. It got me really upset so I thought I would not finish
the session without taking the position back. So again, in the straight I
was faster than him and managed to take over in the first corner. For some
reason he tried to block me, even though we are not racing in the same
class!

A black car had a problem at the end of the straight after the chicane and
ended up crashing badly. The driver was not coming out and the ambulance had
to take him out. I hope he's OK. It reminded me that shit can happen. The
black car with the manga paintings also span for some reason. It was after
the kink, everything looked fine and he decided to spin right in front on
me.

This fight with these two cars was really exciting and a lot of fun. After
that I was a bit lonely on the track. At some point I thought they stopped
the race and I was the only one who didn't see it! Just taking over the
black car with Manga drawing and another very slow blue car. Of course the
Silvia and MR-2 were taking over every 2 laps.

Before starting Mike told me I should target a lap time of 1.13. In the end
I was happy with my lap times as I went down to around 1.12. Mission
accomplished. I need to improve my gear shifting as I too often wasted time
by missing gears and I think I can be more agressive. I heard so much a

So it was a great week-end and I hope I can join again. The team is really
friendly and I am sure that it helped me a lot to release some pressure
before racing.

Cheers

P.S : I keep my beautiful french accent on purpose because girls like ;-)