Speed Lap and TT session experiences

[eLhabib]

I figured since Speed Lap and TT are pretty much solitary events, I'd start a thread where everyone can share his experiences, discuss new lines (or BR spots, blech) found, or just interesting things and events that happened to him/her while honing skills on an otherwise abandoned racetrack.

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Since I got a day off work today, I decided to sleep in and then take an extended SL session on one of my old favorites, Chenghou. The world record time was only .23 seconds ahead of mine, so I figured I'd go and take Chenghou back. Well, what can I say - all I managed, after nearly 150 laps, was an improvement of .06 seconds (23.41 to 23.35, top time is Arnaud with 23.18 ). It's really frustrating when you actually see over half a second lying right there on the track, and you just can't pick it up. Chenghou has so many technical sections, I just couldn't get one single lap nailing all of them in sequence. I even changed from 3rd person close view (my usual choice) to nosecam for a couple of laps, just to see if that improves anything. It did, funnily make me faster in tight chicanes and fast combinations (like the one right before the finish straight), but it made drifting long, sweeping turns with the Assegai, like I usually do, almost impossible for me - I guess I'll stick with 3rd person close.
Anyway, I absolutely love Chenghou for Speed Laps, maybe because it's one of the tracks that only allows BRs at the obvious spots (jumps), maybe because I just love the urban setting. This fight is not over - one day I'll stick that perfect run, and my predicted record time will be under 23.00!