FZ5 @ Fern Bay Black

[L56]

For once, I will kick it off then!

For me it was a relatively easy and uneventful race. Qualifying almost last, driving up to 12th and being tapped around - by a person who did it several times that race and called them "racing incidents" :g:- at the start of the race didn't change much for the end result.

I fought my way back up and benefitted from other's back luck (including a certain disconnect, leaving me with more points of which the irony does not get lost on me). At the end I finished 9th.

9th was the best I could do. I had a 30 second gap to number 8. The last 20 minutes I saw Vobler reeling me in and then letting me go if I was some kind of fish. I do smell though...I felt *relatively* save, because with Vobler you never know.

Recap: Didn't look forward to the combo, but in the end I'm satisfied with the result. Good racin' all!

L56 Out...

[Doorman]

I was the victim of 'stock car' tactics on a few occasions but hey, that's what you get when you drive a wide car! :g: On the whole a good race but I have to say I was a bit peeved to have been passed by Bhs. It was because I got a bloody puncture! Only one lap adrift though, one of my better finishes :lmfao:

[Willi]

I had some problems to find a rhytm with my FZ5. Last week it looked quite good, times were ok - but yesterday ...

First laps were nice close racing - started on 5th I could overtake Seany and Benman after a few laps and tried to get on Deetz. Closing the gap to a small distance but around lap 9 there was one pile of tyres in chicane 1 and I couldn't avoid them. No damage, but I was thrown into other tyres and lost some seconds.
As the race went on I got nervous about my tyres - allways watching them, because they were getting really thin.
I had a small hope to get Deetz with his pit stop, as I hoped he would change tyres. I could pass him as he went to pit - but on that lap I was distracted from changing my pit-strategy and made some off road experience
After that it got worse - braking behavior was strange, perhaps my tyres were to thin.
At the end I was lucky to finish that race without a blown up tyre.

Congrats to Venca for his clear victory and to all others who reached the finishline - was a tough combo.

[Aquilifer]

I must have broken a mirror, walked under a ladder or maybe a black cat has crossed the street in front of me :g: This is amazing, I have had a really crap luck for months. If the combo isn't such that I struggle with the car, I have had a bloody disco when ever I had a bit better feeling with the combo :taz:

*sigh*

Dunno much what to say. Qualifying was great. Did a new PB and was 6th. Better than I dared to hope.

The race start went fine, had nice racing with Sean, Benman and Willie. They turned out to be bit too fast for me that I could have tryed to seriously overtake them. At least for the start...never learned how the car would have worked in the end. It was maybe 15-20 mins driving after I had the damn disco. :ranting2:

What more..congrats all who finished and hope you had fun...more than 15 mins that is.

[Seany]

Yeah, bad luck with that mate .  The first 6 laps or so where great, with me Willi, Benman and aquilifer fighting it out. but then Aqu got his disco and benman and willi started to pull away fro me.  At about 20 minutes in, at that nasty high speed chicane, I hit the inside tires and very nearly rolled it.  Checked my damage and my front left shock was red/destroyed.  I limped around the rest of the lap back to the pits. I was sure my race was done for, but to fix all that damage, some how, only cost me 19 seconds in the pits :woot2: . I regained the positions Id lost when the guys who passed me had to pit. Finishing in 5th I think it was.  

Well done to winners and finishers.

Commiseration's to the Disco victims.  poor old Dee, got nearly 3/4s distance and looked like he was reeling me in, then pop! :sad:

[Dee_Slider]

I like the FZ5, but struggled a bit around here.

There were some fast times this week so was happy with qualifying 7th.

Started off ok, nearly got tapped by a hot CrazyR1 at the hairpin at the end of the bridge, only in the replay did I see how close we were, phew! he was going good and soon passed me on lap 1.  I then had Mille Sabords chasing me but managed to hold him off.  I started braking better than Crazy at about the 20min mark caught up and had a dive down the inside at the hairpin to get passed.  Then I didn't have anyone to follow, so my next lap was messy and spun off, TWICE.  I got in Mille's way on my second recovery, sorry Mille.

I dropped 2 places there so decided to pit that lap and concentrate on the second half of the race.  Lucky for me, Crazy pitted too but took longer so I passed him (again).

I came out of the pits in 6th, right behind Seany, had a great time closing a 2 second gap until I got cut 'orf at 43:07.  Was looking to be a good battle there too.  :boxing:

Congrats to all that did finish.

[Doorman]

The replay is up if anyone want it.

[delankster]

tar ,
well done to all that finished

[Scratchy]

After a week of really struggling to control the FZ5 & countless setup changes I was quite pleased just to have finished this race.  I qualified 16th with a time 2.5 seconds off my PB but was not last on the grid.  I had a good start & managed to gain 3 places after  the first 2 corners but lost out to OB & L56 swerving to miss Vobler after his spin at the end of the lap.  I was losing most of my lap time in the chicanes & Lameduck exploited this & got passed me so I was back down to 16th.  I managed to hold off Spikey M & Slider 46 who had started late.  I started catching Doorman on the 6th lap & passed him the first time when he went off road on lap 7.  We then swapped places on lap 8 as I went off but I caught up to him again & managed to overtake on lap 10, he was clearly having tyre problems.  I pitted on lap 11 but for some unknown reason I was held whilst it said it was refuelling (despite being set to 0 & not actually putting any fuel in) which meant that Doorman got past again.  I then broke the pit limit as I was so annoyed which meant a drive through penalty.  By this time Door's front left had blown & I passed him again on lap 13 & got well in front of him as he had to pit again.  I finished 12th due to the bad luck of other drivers & only 1 lap down so all in all not a bad result for me.
Congratualtions to the points winners & other finishers.

BhR - Sunday driving on a Thursday?