[Wally]

RACE RESULTS AND CHARTS

SEASON STANDINGS

SEASON STATS

Round Points
StanDaam   72
Skaife   68
Guybrush Threepwood   65
Matthew111   64
Bacchulum   58
Phil.8   57
Freezer   54
Grat   48
Joe   46
Wally   45
Jeremy   43
Simone   39
Chap111   39
Grubbet   32
Rolz   30
Rob   30
Imperious   29
Phil   7

Congratulations to Stan Daam on the round win, and Skaife and Guybrush on the race wins.

Season Podium
1. Guybrush Threepwood, 208 pts
2. Matthew111, 207 pts (still just one point in it!)
3. Jeremy, 190 pts
3. Stan Daam, 190 pts

Struggle Street Racing Crew are now back in the lead in the teams' championship with Marty's departure for the Japanese Golf Buggy racing Tour, with DA Racing coming second.

[Gratulin]

Hope everyone had good racing without the dreaded warping. I just settled in the hotel and thought I would test Marty's legendary Japanese internet speeds. I am getting 22Mbps DOWN / 55Mbps UP on Tokyo hotel wifi using an iPad. Lucky we are getting such a fantastic nbn rolled out in OZ otherwise we might just be falling behind the rest of the world!

[Joe]

Race 1 was terrible, qualified in the middle somewhere but they came off the track on the first lap and had to let everyone pass as wasn't safe to rejoin. I got past a Imp I think, and was behind Phil and Grubbet when Grubbet went off track, Phil moved over to avoid him, I moved over also and spun off leaving me damaged and in last again. I then caught Imp and Phil and finally got past Grubbet only to run out of fuel in the last sector of the last lap. I'd put in 18 litres which told me 9.1 laps, but I remember from previous sessions in these cars aero damage really affects fuel consumption.

Race 2 a totally different story. After race 1 my fuel strategy was just to full it up! I managed to avoid all the accidents and found myself in 6th behind Bacculum and held the position for the whole race. I closed the gap on Bacculum a few times only to let it open up again and didn't get that close. With a few laps to go I saw Phil.8 on my map 5 seconds behind me and lapping over a second faster so I knew it would be close. He almost got me on the last turn but I just managed to hold on to the position. After that I saw he had a 10 seconds penalty so I should have just let him past 

[Wally]

Half a lap of side-by-side racing with Guybrush (me in the yellow), after he recovered from an off.


Chasing Grat over the line at the end of race 1.


Grat beating me by 0.117 at the end of race 2.

An excellent night of racing for me. Race 1 featured a good chase of Rolz, finally squeezing past him at the NGK chicane, and half a lap of close battling with Guybrush as he made his way back through the field.

Race 2 was a bit messier, with an accidental knock from Freezer on lap 2 sending me close to the rear, and then me running into the back of Grubbet at turn 1 on lap 6 and redressing costing me more time. But in the latter stages of the race, I had a great dice with Chap and Grat, with a few passes here and there, unable to capitalise on Grat's worse tyres on the final lap. Almost!

My car felt pretty good in the slippery conditions. I had set the front camber to max negative to try to generate some heat in the front tyres, and also put on front splitter of 1. It didn't feel too bad.

[rob]

Pretty average night for me.

Race 1 had a good race with Simone. I was able to just keep in touch with him until he had an off and then was able to catch up. I think I had better tires toward the end of the race and we finished nose to tail. Good stuff.

Race 2 I was quite pleased with my setup, not fast but stable in the wet conditions, so my plan was to stay on the black stuff and pick up a few places. To try and get rid of my runtime errors, I was running with only the plp and helicorsa apps, which made fuel burn a bit of a gamble. Unfortunately I ran out of fuel just before the last chicane so didn't quite make the pits for my scheduled stop. But for half the race it was fun.

[grat]

Quite a disaster, but not all news were bad news. Joined ts at 7:20 saying "hello". But nobody answered...

Got convinced during the week that this would have not been my combo, and I was quite right. In quali 1 I forgot to empty the tank, which might have cost me a position or two, but I was not fast anyway.

I decided to stay on softs for the race, but I lost a pair of positions in a messy start, and so I could not make much good use of the softs in the first 2 or 3 laps, consuming them in trying to pass Bacchulum, which was a bit faster on the straights than I was. When I finally managed to pass him on lap 3, my tyres were already starting to give up, and he could pass me back with a very nice and brave attack at T1 on lap 6 (good race, Bacchulum!). Then Guybrush arrived; I tried to resist his attack, but mid-way through the Mercedes Arena, I realized I had nothing really left on the tyres and I went a bit wide at T3 (sorry GB for that). Rest of the lap was just trying to keep Wally behind. "Nice Wally, sorry GB", I say over ts, but no answer.

Then race 2 came in, and I knew I had a decent setup, having tried it during the day on the practice server. Quali was good, managing a good lap towards the end for P3. This was the good news: despite my pessimism, I was still not as slow as I feared.

I had a contact with Matthew at T1, while trying to stop as hard as I could to let him pass, but did not manage. "Sorry Matthew, I tried to get off the way as I could"... but no answer, again.

Then the mess started: I could not figure out the fuel, as it looked different from the practice server, so I started asking Wally over ts, but nobody was answering. So I started the race while messing up with stuff, and missed a shift into T3 (I remained in 3rd gear) running wide. When I finally entered T4 from a very tight line, Jeremy could not see me on his side and we touched. I went into the wall and I was last. I tried to chase back, but I was not fast at all---maybe because of damage?---and so I went in for repairs on lap 5, putting all my hopes in a second very long stint.

I rejoined in a weird traffic: Jeremy was literally flying over half of the corners with an 850 ping, at times disappearing into a cloud of tyres smoke, and then reappearing 5 seconds later 2 meters ahead of me. I screamed over ts "Jeremy you are warping like crazy"... but again: no answer.

When his ping went back to normal, I finally was able to pass him and tried to keep a good rhythm. But my full tank was too much and tyres started to go off pretty soon. I managed to pass Chap, but there was no way to catch Freezer, well ahead of me and lapping better than me. The last lap... again... was trying to keep Wally behind, with the last 5 corners identical to race 1.

When my "deja vu, Wally?" got no answer over ts, I finally realized my mic was really not working. Unplug-plug, "hello?". "Hi grat," I finally hear. Stupid cheap mic!

[StanDaam]

One FREAKIN litre... 

Great night of racings for me, excellent stuff.

Race 1, had an excellent fight with Matthew (the nemesis!!). I was in 4th fighting for 3rd. I had a pretty tall gearing for 2nd gear which was working well for me in turn one on my normal line. So I passed Matthew down the starting straight and we would both enter turn 1 side by side. On the inside of turn 1, my 2nd gear would get bogged down and he would take the next corner. We repeated this procedure for about 3 or 4 laps ha ha. I think in the end he felt sorry for me and let me thru lol. By that time Skaife had sped off to the win and GB had a very unlike GB moment and made a mistake!!

Race 2 was another stunner. Had some excellent pace in this combo of track n car for me. I managed to get by Matthew this time  and caught up to GB... What was that last sentence again... Oh yeah, I caught up to GB... might just stay with that moment for a while... caught up to GB... maybe I make gif loop of that moment for my signature... maybe... where was I, oh yeah. I was feeling pretty good at this stage and I pitted just behind him. Click click click on the pits menu must have cost me and so I came out 10 secs behind GB... bugger!! Only 7 laps left, put my head down and tried to close the gap. And it was all going to plan!! I was gaining some good chunks of time at the end and thinking yes I might get to his rear and have one chance at a pass for the win!!... And then the one FREAKIN litre curse hit me with 2 laps to go... I looked down and realized my situation and had to back off for the last lap, ran out of juice crossing the line in 2nd... High drama!! good stuff 

Ha ha nice write up grat

[Matthew111]

race1: was trying to get the car working to the conditions in the end i got it respectable i thought lol i do like the challenge of the changing conditions! Put the car 3rd in a competitive qualy and got off to a clean start behind skaife and gb and watched them battle it out with stan on my tail. In the early laps i felt i could challenge the leaders but then as the tyres started to fade they started to slowly pull out the gap and stan started applying the pressure to me which turned out to be a good battle for the back end of the race with a few good moments but in the end my tyres were shot and stan got me and ran away on the last lap. Well done skaife on that win.

race2: I thought this race would be more suited to me as i had the car nice and comfortable but just didnt have anywhere near the pace of gb! Race started and I couldnt keep stan and skaife behind i figured they might catch gb and slow up lol but that didnt happen my car seemed to chew tyres quickly initially but then stablise so i ran a bit longer to get a nice easy run at the end to defend bachulum if he caught up and that was that fairly lonely run lol

[Matthew111]

One FREAKIN litre... 

Great night of racings for me, excellent stuff.

Race 1, had an excellent fight with Matthew (the nemesis!!).

haha the bitter rivalry has returned!! nah i had no tyres and on the exit of the chicane it got a bit sideways and you had a awesome run i couldnt really stop so off you went lol was a good fight though just one lap to long lol

[Wally]

Nice write ups

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Top night.

Race 1:   I was quite happy with my qualifying even though I qualified second, a couple of tenths off Skaife who put in a great effort to get pole.

I started off and fell in line behind Skaife, stuck to his rear bumper for a few laps.  With the ballast and slightly less power there was no way I was going to get past without a mistake but it was fun throwing a few dummies to the inside before a couple of corners.  Anyway, on around the 4th lap I lost concentration and made a mistake which sent me into the gravel at T5.  There was a trail of cars coming up and a blind crest so instead of re-joining I turned around and ran back through the gravel to a part of the track I could be sure I wasn't going to cause mayhem.  Came out around 11th or 12th but managed to make my way up to 8th (I think).  Had a nice little battle with Wally, including a frustrated drift through T2 which almost let him back in front.

Race 2:  Qual was fun and managed to get pole in the slippery conditions which I quite enjoy.

After the debacle that was Race 1 I was determined to make Race 2 a good one and it turned out to be one of my best races ever.  I got off to an alright start and knew that Stan and others GTC's would catch me as the difference between the two cars is very pronounced in cold conditions + the tyres on the GX grain up a lot more.  So Stan caught up to me on around lap 4 or 5 and I just made sure my corner exits were spot on to keep him behind and then build a gap through the pits and on fresh tyres.  We both pitted on lap 7 with Stan staring at my rear (again!) and I came out a bit further ahead.  Initially he wasn't catching too much but as my tyres started to grain up he was catching around 2 seconds a lap.  I knew looking at the lap times he would catch me towards the end of the last lap, but he advised of low fuel and had to short shift to make it, otherwise it would have been reasonably close toward the end.  I was quite happy with my race though and I think I probably could have only got an extra couple of seconds better over the total race distance which was better than Race 1!.

Looking forward to a warmer Mugello as the GX really suffers in cold conditions.  Should be a good race with it tight at the top of the leader-board and the pressure on as I've already missed a round so every mistake counts!

[Bacchulum]

Race 1 was good battle with Grat, each of us having better pace at different tyre lifes.
Me at the end.

Race 2 was racing in my mirrors keeping a gap to Joe, as I didn't have the pace of those ahead.
Joe was running some good times so I had to stay on the ball the whole way.
No wheel-wheel but a good battle none the less.

[marty]

Sounds like some fun racings there and GB making a mistake is a rare thing. Seems the ballast is helping to spice the racing up a little and maybe I will just make the last round with some low ballast running.