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S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen

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Offline keithsgillan

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2018, 11:29:15 AM »
Going into the evening I felt I would be circulating to minimize championship points lost. Downloading and installing the track after 8pm, didn't give me much time to practice let alone setup, although I do like Watkins Glen. I went with my Sebring setup, adjusted the gears, then the tyre pressures and it was time for qually.

I set a banker lap on medium tyres and realised my hard pressures were not suited for the qually session. I changed to softs, tweaked the pressures, and  came out into a nice gap on track. Starting my hot lap I encountered some traffic coming out of the pits which had me abort the lap (nothing malicious, just bad timing). Felt like I had a second more in it but still happy to start 10th.

The race had a few moments, the main one being a turn 4 tangle with Mael. My sincerest apologies I miss calculated my braking distance, locked up and became a passenger. I was hoping you noticed and could take evasive action but unfortunately we came together. I waited for Mael to rejoin and circulated behind him for a little while. From there I felt the car was pretty good but felt the pack would be too far away to catch. People started to pit and my tyres were still good so I continued to lap. Kcender rejoined the track just in front of me after his pit stop but he wasn't pulling away like he normally does, that gave me confidence to push on. I lapped until my fuel was all but empty, came out of the pits in 4th with Matthew 20 seconds up the road. I predicted that's how we would finish, so I just watched my delta and was trying to be consistent. With about 5 minutes to go I noticed Matthew was having trouble and was coming back to me. I figured his tyres may have been off so I pushed up close to him and kept the pressure on with a couple laps to go. He held out well and I had accepted 4th, until he ran wide in the final turn on the last lap of the race. I kept it on the racing line and took 3rd    :)

Offline Mael

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #31 on: December 19, 2018, 11:32:00 AM »
The night race started bad, a first lap incident with Keith (20% my fault/80% his I would judge) which caused a red nose and some interesting handling. A few laps of learning the car's new handling followed before suddenly parked up against the wall all broken   :'(  Joe must have just nicked my rear bumper as I passed causing a 90 degree turn into the rather solid walls of Watkins Glen.

Luckily the pitlane was close at hand, repaired the damage, put on some hard boots and tried to make it 40 minutes on one tank of fuel. But the hard tires turned out to be a bad idea, the car just would not turn! Lapping around 3 seconds slower and realizing that the fuel saving was not enough I made a second pitstop for a bit more fuel and some proper tires.

Ended up behind Keith (a lap down off course) with 20 minutes to go, but this made the night for me. I had an idea to irritate him by following closely so gave it absolutely everything the Porsche had. But noting I tried worked, doing my best laps averaging in the 1:38's I could see him edging away inexplicable every single lap. Using 90% to 100% turbo did not help at all. But what fun trying to keep up  :)  It was only afterwards looking at the results that I realized he was lapping at the fastest pace of anybody in the race, good driving Keith.

Also managed to finish ahead of my team mate, must have been a horror night Freezer!

Offline keithsgillan

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #32 on: December 19, 2018, 01:27:29 PM »
The night race started bad, a first lap incident with Keith (20% my fault/80% his I would judge) which caused a red nose and some interesting handling.

I consider it my miss judgment that created the tangle so I take responsibility for this one. I had a great run on AB out of turn 1, I patiently waited through the S bends then wound the Merc up to 100% boost. Initially I didn't intend on passing both of you but the closing speed was strong and I felt it was on. I believe I escaped the eyes of the stewards because it was incident actually occurred on lap 3.

Anyway my apologies, and I'm glad you could still find some enjoyment in the evenings event.

Offline Freezer

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #33 on: December 19, 2018, 07:42:32 PM »
Luckily the pitlane was close at hand, repaired the damage, put on some hard boots and tried to make it 40 minutes on one tank of fuel. But the hard tires turned out to be a bad idea, the car just would not turn!
Just looking at the results and realised that in my haste to pit after my lap 8 crash, I have thrown on hards also which was costing me around 2 seconds a lap . . . dooh!
Also managed to finish ahead of my team mate, must have been a horror night Freezer!
Yeah wasn't the best but both crashing and wrong tyres were my own silly fault . . . so can't complain!

Offline Joe

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #34 on: December 19, 2018, 09:03:01 PM »
Joe must have just nicked my rear bumper as I passed causing a 90 degree turn into the rather solid walls of Watkins Glen.

Damn thought you were well past me when I started spinning.

Offline RussG

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Re: S25R6: Camel Continental at Watkins Glen
« Reply #35 on: December 20, 2018, 10:37:11 AM »
I had a good night  ;D
Didn't get everything out of it in qually, but still a fairly good lap and good enough to qually 4th,
Before race start, I predicted it didn't much matter where I quallied as I'd be behind the Merc's and Longy's by the end of the straight.
As predicted this was the case, but the good qually meant I was first in line behind them in 9th. Picked up 2 spots with the Keith/Mael tangle.
I was much faster than Brad, but couldn't do anything until he made a mistake. Managed to get by ab, then Freezer went off as I was getting close to him.
Matthew must have had some issue and came back to me, then at the icy left turn he went wide and I stayed on the line. As we converged my front lightly tapped his rear (I wasn't even attempting an overtake) and turned Matthew sideways. Waited for him to get going and pressed on. About 8 seconds lost.
This incident turned out to be crucial as after the pit stops Brad (with much shorter stop) came out just in front of me, and although I was much faster I couldn't do anything as he just pulled away after the exit of every turn. I must say it was great fun trying to get Brad - I even managed to stick the nose up the inside a few times but was unable to complete a pass.
5th was the best possible, but 6th is still a great result for the might Shorty  ;D ;D ;D
Some days you're the pigeon,
Some days you're the statue ...

 

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