[Wally]

RACE RESULTS

No penalties - all 3 race starts were incident free, despite the intense pack racing.

Round Points
Guybrush Threepwood    74
Bafs17    67
Grat    61
Marty    61
Bacchulum    55
Matthew111    55
Freezer    54
Jeremy    54
hylas    51
Phil.8    48
Rob LTD    47
Wally    38
Joe    35
Rob    33
Humper    31
Hornbag    24
Flattop    21
Insomniac    15
slideways    7

Congratulations to Guybrush for the race 1 and 2 wins, Grat for the race 3 win, and Guybrush for the overall round win.

That round was Bafs and Rob's best round, and Flattop, Freezer's and Guybrush's equal best round.

Season Podium
1. Matthew, 373
2. Marty, 358 (swapped with Jeremy)
3. Jeremy, 353
 

[marty]

Fun racing tonight, another of those tracks that seemed like passing would be impossible but on the night it turned out just doable.

Race 1 I had the right lane the first 2 or 3 laps and this seemed to be the one as I gained lots of spots early. Made a few passes but most of them I seemed to scare the others off the track more then make a nice move.

Race 2, the start wasnt as good, more people managed to hit apexes ahead so progress was halted quite a bit compared to race 1. Main goal was to keep Jeremy and Matthew behind but Jeremy snuck past at one point when I got a little held up by a car ahead. From that point on we had an amazing battle to the finish both passing each other plenty of times. I think there was a lot of rubbing but nothing that even knocked either car off line. Side by side through most of many laps but in the end he got me to the line. This was probably the best race of the season but unfortunatly my PC crashed on exiting the game and the replay file is corrupted. Possibly could be an issue with my ram and storing the replay files so maybe I will need to check this is running at the correct settings.

Race 3 starting mid pack I thought it would be a bit easier to get ahead, starting in the left lane with both Jeremy and Matthew in the right lane ahead and behind me was always going to be not ideal. By the end of lap 1 I was behind both of them, then got stuck in amongst lots of good battles around. Jeremey had got away a bit but then got held up behind Freezer and Bacchulum and I slowly caught up, I did have a small run on him on the back straight but braked maybe a couple meters too late to hold the tight inside line. We made contact at the apex pushing him wide and off the track. I then waited to redress and we went back maybe 8 or 10 spots, from there I managed to pick a few off but Jeremy in the 370 lacking the pace down the big straight had a tougher time passing others.

Near the end Matthew fell asleep reading texts and went off, this let Bacchulum and me past him and then I chased Bacchulum for the last few laps. Not quite able to make a pass and across the line it must have been 5 cars very close there.

[Wally]

Looking at the replays, that was some excellent racing. Very close packs, tight and clean, really good racing.

In race 1, I was in the "wrong lane". I felt like I was a bit bottled up by Insomniac without any clear runs anywhere, and that allowed a lot of the guys behind me to get past, dropping about 5 spots on the opening lap. It felt like a frustrating race due to not being able to make passes and feeling bottled up, but that's a testament to the good defensive driving of the guys in front, aka Bacchulum. He finally made a mistake that let me past, but then Grat accidentally tapped my rear onto the back straight as I was held up by Flattop, and that unsettled me enough to let Bacchulum sneak back past between me and Grat.

Race 2 was much better - I managed to get into the "right lane" and managed to make a little ground early on, before holding my position, being sandwiched very tightly between Rob LTD and Phil, making me the "Busiest" for race 2.

Race 3 was not such a great start. I got tapped off by Jeremy at the end of the back straight fairly early, which cost me 3 spots down to 13th and a fair way back as I let the field past before re-entering. I had to chase Humper, passed him a couple of times and overshot off the slippery track a couple of times to give him the spot back again. Finally I got away from Humper and chased Rob in the distance in a fairly lonely race from there.

[humper]

Some great racing out the back too, once all those pesky fast guys got out of the way. Rob and I were having a great time in races 1 & 2. However seems like I was holding him as race 3 he got past early and just disappeared. Perhaps Rob preferred the lower grip and I got a little distracted watching Wally run off at the sweeper lap after lap

[Wally]

I got a little distracted watching Wally run off at the sweeper lap after lap

I wasn't laughing at the time!

[grat]

Another decent night for me, after Silverstone.

Race 1: unlucky. I struggled at start to find space in traffic, but that settled after 2 or 3 laps. At that point I was behind Jeremy. It looked as if I was faster on the lap, but with 90kg of ballast I was slower on the straights, so I could not find a way to pass him. I had one good chance, but he defended well and emerged ahead. It was all as tight as I can imagine driving, but without any contact whatsoever. Fun!

At one point we arrived at T1 in three (Jeremy, Freezer, and me). I think Freezer went on the brakes a little earlier than usual to allow for space for Jeremy on the other side. I went straight to the brakes then, but I was slowing down "slowly" compared to him, so I chose to take evasive action on the grass, but that meant I got back on track and hit him. Sorry guys. I then redressed to both of them taking an outside line at t2, but while I was doing that, somebody from behind just went a bit long at the corner where I was and could not avoid me. That dropped me back quite a few positions. From there, I had some fun battling Wally (sorry for that little tap you mentioned. I probably could have slammed the brakes and avoided it) and some other guys, but could not do better than 10th.

Race 2: very good race. Battling through the field the whole time. There were a few scary moments. In particular, my last pass on Bacchulum was actually an involuntary move. Ended up being a "Ricciardo move" and we avoided contact. But I was not thinking of passing there. We simply took different lines (and braking points) at the fast right-hand sweeper, and I found myself on the inside of him at the apex without having intended to do so. My respect for his awareness, though: most would have closed that line and we would have crashed. I then gave it a go at some fast laps to reach Bafs. But he was way too far and way too fast. 3rd was good.

Race 3: as in Silverstone, starting with the Skyline from the first rows is too easy, especially if GB goes off and let you pass. This time though Bafs was in the same car so I could not go away from the get-go. But he made a mistake on the last S and I could pass him along the start-finish straight. From then on, the skyline was so superior on the low grip that I really never needed to push to get well ahead of the field. The main job was to keep concentration, as it was a bit slippery even for us on the 4-wheel drive, so a drop in concentration would have costed me the race. It feels a bit of a cheat to win with GB going back at start, but... well, I do not win that often, so I do not mind a little help

[Bacchulum]

I had a shitload of contacts over the whole night.
But none got me out of control, they were all just rubbin', no 'push-to-passes'.
All very fair but very hard racing.

[Bruce]

"Flattop's best results"... now that says a lot of my racing! 

Had a great race 1, keeping it clean and trying "not to be scared" when threats occurred.  The Supra had great straight line speed and I enjoyed getting through the squiggly bits and see some distance place between myself and my pursuers.  In the most part put in some fun, hard laps and really enjoyed this track, again.
Race 2, man that was the worst effort on my part loosing every position, waiting for "the train" to pass before reentering. ho hum...

I was the top Supra driver, ill focus on that! Thanks to all.

[marty]

I had a shitload of contacts over the whole night.
But none got me out of control, they were all just rubbin', no 'push-to-passes'.
All very fair but very hard racing.

One of those was a hello from me just incase you didnt see me in the mirror. 

[Phil.8]

was ok bit boring procession by last race 

[Joe]

Had some really enjoyable close racing.

R1 I was sitting nicely in 10th after quicker people getting though during the slow start but spun and ended up facing the wrong way meaning I had to let the whole field through. I didn't spin once during practise! After that I caught onto a Humper, Rob and Insomniac train. I got Insomniac down the back straight after he got a little loose, then spent a long time behind Humper and Rob with Humper doing some good defensive driving. On the penultimate lap I got my chance and overtook both in two corners with some slight panel rubbing with Humper. Finished in 14.

R2 got bogged down at the start again due to so many cars and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, ended up in 10th again after several laps with LTD and Wally behind. Made a small slip up which allowed them to close up on me but held them off for the rest of the race.

R3 was similar at the start, running 10th, then up into 8th after Marty's redress then the wife brought me the baby so had to pull over and finish there.

[marty]

I made a video from race 1 last nite, shame I didn't get a replay from race 2 which was a better race even if I had a better finish in this one.

[grat]

Are you interested in my replay? I could send it to you, I guess.

[marty]

Are you interested in my replay? I could send it to you, I guess.

I cant really be bothered making and uploading more then 1 video in a round though, so that will have to do. 

[Freezer]

R1: Starting from 12th, I was up to 7th by the end of the first lap then on 5th.  Held Jeremy off for a few laps before he did a 'ricciardo' and bumped his way through on the inside.  After a lot of pressure Matthew got through and Phil went with him and I snuck home 8th.
R2: Another cracking 1st lap jumping from 12th to 5th, then 4th on the next lap.  I now had Bacculum pressuring from behind.  The critical part of the track for me in the 370 was getting on the the back straight clean and quick.  But I didn't do that on lap 3 and he was past.
Grat then caught and past but as he got to Bacculum there was some action which allowed me to get back past Bacculum and hold that spot to the end for 4th.
R3: Started from 4th and by lap 2 had Jeremy aka 'ricciardo' breathing down my neck.  We had a number of laps side by side with lots of action but then him and Bacculum hit and he ran off.  With Matthew now on my tail I just focused on hitting my marks but after a few laps a slight wide saw him and Bacculum through.  I now had GB in a GTR behind me.  Sure I could have held him off . . !  But I didn't need the pressure   So after at least 200m he was through!  I was now in a RX7 sandwich with no less than 5 of them around me.  Unfortunately Hylas tagged me at the end of the back straight which saw three of them get through.  Held on to 9th to the end.

Overall a good nights racing.