XRTs at Fern Bay Gold

[Iron]

Hm, a thread has not been started yet?...

What a race it was!

I turned up a bit late for the warm up races, right into qualification. That didn't go too well, couldn't do a decent lap for a long time, but then finally managed it. 6th place, holy cow, I have no chance against these guys, I thought.

Race start. Dee Slider fell asleep for a bit at the green light, so I managed to gain a place at T1. On the first lap Somebody made a little mistake (I mean, that's his nick, [MIF] Somebody ) so I got 4th place. At the 3rd lap I think Haddock made a little spin, that cost him a bunch of places, and I was 3rd. The next guy in front of me was Deetz, not the type who hands over his place that easily. :boxing: :flirty: I don't know exactly how, but I managed to crawl to the back of his car, we had a little battle here and there, then at the double left after you come off the bridge I managed come really close to him, and he, like a true gentlemen, gave room. Or was it by mistake? :g: Anyway, when I saw that empty room at the apex, I put my nose in (well actually I just turned in as usual, but it sounds a lot duller, doesn't it ), and stayed inside, with Deetz on the outside, but the double left gave me the advantage, so I found me in front of Deetz, right at the 2nd place.
Things slowed down from that point, I was slowly pulling off from Deetz, but didn't come any closer to John I think, so I had noone in front and behind, I could drive in my own rythm, which I think payed off in the end, though I still can't believe I finished in front of John, he must have made some sort of a mistake to lose that much time.
The tyres were good, though at the end the inner pads became really thin. The team also worked really well, I spent a whole ~1.28 secs in the pits.
Hmm :g: what else did they used to say this time? Ah yeah, we look forward to the next race, really looks strong so we must not be conceited, the championship is still very close, we will do our best.

It was an amazing race guys, Deetz, great battle with you, and congrats to everyone. :clap: :thumb:

[Altrezia]

Quali - What a nightmare! Couldnt even get into the 1.38's.. poor! Qualified 13th.

Good clean race by most. I got a punt up the backside by some guy on the first lap, sending me into Ronnie - I waited for Ron to get back on track and gave him the place back - this put me in dead last, about 16th.

Raced hard, and caught up with Lameduck and Doorman - had a good battle with these guys and managed to get past LD, and then Doorman, after about 10 laps of trying. Lovely clean racing, and evenly matched I think..

Finished 8th, out of about 10 finishers.

Sigh! Bring on the next combo.

[Aquilifer]

At first I have to say too, the race was great.

Before the event had made some 'tyre tests' and come to the conclusion that with my set, my driving style and mouse (yeah yeah, get a wheel :sideways:) I might be able to finish the race without any tyre change if I drive peacefully and not stressing the rear tyres too much.

In the qualifying I was 7th. If I had managed to make all the best sector times at the same lap I might have been 1 or at most 2 places higher, but I really had no chance to challenge the top drivers.

In the race I was expecting to lose some places in the first part as my tactic was to save tyres and hope it would be useful in the end when everybody else had heated up tyres.

As the racing settled I was behind MIF Somebody and Romus (iirc) was behind me. I tryed to lap constant 1:37 laps as didn't want to get any wheel spin or locked brakes. So Somebody managed to slowly get away from me and behind me gap widened too slowly. Soon I was driving quite alone without seeing much ahead or behind me.

I pitted around lap 20 few laps later than some of the drivers ahead of me. At the time I was 4th. When I came back to track I noticed I was one place higher at 5th and Somebody was behind me. I learned later that he had some damage so his pit stop took longer. I had managed to make the stop without a tyre change or refuel.

I knew Somebody was fast enough to catch me if I wasn't careful so I had to try faster than the first part. He slowly caught me and we were driving in a line for the remaining laps. This was the best part of the race for me. I was still little worried about the tyre temperatures and didn't want to try any hotlapping speeds. He was slightly faster than me in places and I was in few others but he couldn't find a place to get past me. My car was getting lighter in the end and the last few laps I could take little faster as I knew the tyres would last them. In the end I was 5th, which was a good result for me as XRT really isn't my car.

Congrats to everybody finishing the race and even if you didn't finish, better luck next time

[Doorman]

Crikey! It's like reading a Boys Own thriller! For my part, I'm pleased just to have finished the race. Suffering, no really, suffering, from a horrendous cold I very nearly decided not to take part. However, i made the decision to take it very easy and see if I could complete the race. In the event I had a few good dices with Lamie, Altrezia and Flounder-no, Herring-no, Haddock(?) Two things came out of this race; 1: That Haddock (If you're reading this take it kindly) is a fast driver that needs to develope a bit of fore-sight. He made an attack on me at T1 on lap...er forget which lap, on the outside, had to struggle to make the turn and in doing so made me STAND on the brakes. I just tapped him and he came out second best. I know for a fact he would have easily got me on the exit of almost any corner on the circuit. A lesson to be learnt there mate.
The second thing was while being lapped. Aquilifer came up behind me in the last chicane before the pit straight. I signalled my intention to move over to the right as I started to move over to the right bugger me if he didn't pass me on the right! it was a close thing. I think it's generally accepted that a turn signal is one of intention not instruction! Or am I alone in this?
Oh, one last thing, I was, at one point, being lapped by two or maybe three guys whilst trying to hold off Oldie. Talk about confusion! I needed eyes up my.....well extra eyes to take it all in. Signal left, signal right? :doh: This is all happening in and just after the first chicane. Jeez! To cap it all Oldie nips by in the confusion! Stress or what?
 
Great race. Congratulations to the podemiesters.
 
P.S. romus, did you not have sufficient fuel? It's free you know. :norty:

[Romus]

i have a video answer to Doormans suspicion (uploading, should be there soon):
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Romus74

[Aquilifer]

...
The second thing was while being lapped. Aquilifer came up behind me in the last chicane before the pit straight. I signalled my intention to move over to the right as I started to move over to the right bugger me if he didn't pass me on the right! it was a close thing. I think it's generally accepted that a turn signal is one of intention not instruction! Or am I alone in this?
...

Sorry about that mate. Not your fault. At that moment I was trying to drive away from Somebody as fast as I could (without burning my tyres). So I didn't dare to lift my pedal and I simply aimed at the first gap, closed my eyes and prayed :norty: ...well at least that was the easiest gap to find at that moment. I think I didn't look at your rear lights and it certainly was bit a surprise when you moved the same direction.

[Aquilifer]

i have a video answer to Doormans suspicion (uploading, should be there soon):
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Romus74

He he. Nice vid. Good job :thumbsup2:

[Doorman]

Excellent! "Oldie knows his lines" Har har har. :lmfao:

[OldBloke]

i have a video answer to Doormans suspicion (uploading, should be there soon):
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Romus74

Superb. :thumb:

Oh and I do *know* my lines. Driving them is the challenge

I thought that Doors was referring to my crash on lap 27. I'd decided that the only place I had a chance to overtake him was by being quicker on the exit at the last chicane and pass on the main straight. Unfortunately I floored it too soon and slammed head on into the wall at the pit entry. Surprisingly my car was perfectly driveable after that as opposed to my 'air conditioned' moment.

[Iron]

Excellent vid mate! Very nice.

[Romus]

It was nice making this video, this was my first attempt on an LFS video, actually one of the first videos I've ever done.

I thought to give focus to the winner, especially as this time it was a great race by Iron. Then some attention to other fast drivers, like Dee Slider, and to accidents and failures. I could have written more, like also praising Haddock for some great lap times, and OldBloke to be so strong to continue after such a dangerous accident. Then all the other drivers would have deserved some coverage. But as this was the first video, I just wanted to finish it and leave something to improve for the coming videos.

My race was bad. I have excuses but I keep them to myself. I'll just make sure that I fix those for the next race. I had done 1:36 laps during the week, but now failed to get there. I tried to always concentrate for the next corner, but somehow I almost always missed the braking or turn-in point. At one point I was 15 seconds behind Vobler, and decided to push hard to reach him, but with my laps at 1:38 it just did not happen.

This week is gonna be interesting. Most of you know Blackwood better than your pockets, but I've not been there so much, and never with the GTR. Cu
 on track.

[Iron]

The second thing was while being lapped. Aquilifer came up behind me in the last chicane before the pit straight. I signalled my intention to move over to the right as I started to move over to the right bugger me if he didn't pass me on the right! it was a close thing. I think it's generally accepted that a turn signal is one of intention not instruction! Or am I alone in this?

It's quite confusing for me, to be honest. I remember it happened to me not only once before. I think the best is if you stick to your line if the lapper already moved in one way, or make your move before the lapper does it.

[Altrezia]

Romus - I'm in the same boat as you - Dont think i've ever driven BL Rev before!

[Doorman]

It's quite confusing for me, to be honest. I remember it happened to me not only once before. I think the best is if you stick to your line if the lapper already moved in one way, or make your move before the lapper does it.

So no more signals of intent from me then.

[Deetz]

Well an excellent race as usual.

All week I had been struggling to find a setup that didn't start melting the rears after 6-7 laps. I made some minor changes to the set I was at least quick with. Moving the weight foreword to balance the fuel load (not far enough I discovered in the race.) and some minor camber and pressure adjustments.

However I didn't have any time to test the changes, so the game plan was to drive to the tyre temps.

Qualifying went well with a new PB to put me second on the grid, I knew it was a better position than my race pace would indicate, but in a race anything can happen.

I got away quite well and watched John Rees pull away quite easily, (arggh) while I resisted the temptation to attack and try to match his times. Meanwhile I think it was Dee Slider behind me early on, but he must have made a mistake as next noticed Iron behind me, slowly closing in.

I made the decision as my rear tyres where already very hot (brown) just to drive as neatly as possible, but not to put up too much of a fight if caught.  A decision I was to rue later on.

Iron caught and made a pass stick on his second attempt as I lost my rhythm under breaking leaving a monster hole for Iron to attack.

After giving myself a good stiff talking to, I managed to regain a bit of rhythm, gaining some consistency, minimising the amount Iron was pulling away. The next thing to worry about was that I had fuelled for 36 laps, and at the 30 minute marker, I knew the race was going to be 38-39 laps so an adjustment had to be made at the pit stop. So with the extra fuel going in and (damn blast) hitting the wall a couple of laps before the stop, some time (4-6 seconds) was lost in the pit stop to Iron.

Oh well I was thinking to myself, third wont be too bad. But !! What’s this, 2nd place on exiting the pits? Where is John Rees, wow 5th or so? I wonder what happened to him.

Despite my best efforts the changing of driving style required as the fuel was burned off meant I had a bunch of laps slightly off the pace. I was just starting to gloat to myself as I got a new PB, haa.... race on Iron, when then next lap....Iron, new PB. BUGGER.

The rest of the race was just trying to maintain a decent pace to the end, resigned to 2nd. With nothing to loose, a banzie last lap resulted in a new PB. A nice way to end the race.

Excellent stuff as always.

I must work on setups more in the future, as I felt hampered more that usual nursing the car most of the way instead of being able to attack. The week before in the FO8’s I received a simply superb setup from Sinbad which as well as being quick, suited my driving style, and allowed me to attack for the whole race, which basically allowed me to win. With such a good set, it almost felt like cheating.
   
  I hope no one minds this war and peace reply, onwards and upwards.