Ironman III Post Race

[Ced Collins]

Well Ironman III has come and gone and thanks to all that showed.

Having to do an emergency wheel repair and getting back on the server with 37 seconds left in practice kinda had me on a high anxiety level but I guess I should be happy I made it....lol.

9 minutes into Qual I was still reassembling my wheel so I was able to get into Q with about 9 minutes left but couldn't do any better than 2:27...uggg.

Settled in to race grove and was running P10 alone in between the gap of 1 - 9 and 11 - 15 for what seemed like forever until I started cooking my tires on the first stint and people started catching me.

Where is my mulligan when I needed it.

was interesting following some of the front runners as they past me and lost it on the curbs in the double apex corner.

Nice and fast track.

[Bollesnegro]

Well congrats to the winner (who won),

for me its was unbeleivable what happened, last week I had an 8 hour enduro race, where I got a disco after 3 laps. So I get superfast glassfibre internet and it works great very fast and stable, however it doesnt matter how good your internet is when your whole block loses its power for about 10 secs.

The race itself was great fun, I chose softs for the race and that wasnt a good choise, so after 12/13 laps I came in for my stop and changed them for meds. When I came out I was behind TomN around 8th(?) I was catching everybody in front pretty fast on my new tires.
When I came up to the back of Rogier the difference in tires was pretty obvious, he was slipping and sliding all over the place.
When I tried to make my pass on him I touched his car which made him sent on the grass (sorry mate)
So when Don and Brent made there stops I was back in the lead with about 25 secs in front of Brent, but I span and it was reduced to 15secs with my last stop coming soon.(atleast that was what I was thinking at the moment) but unfortunately t wasnt to be.

Thanks Ced for getting all this work done, the event couldnt have gone more smooth, be sure next Ironman I will be back for revenge!!

Gr.Bas

[BCurtis]

Another great Ironman event...thanks to Ced's efforts (and thanks for my paint)!!!
Had a decent qualifying effort and thanks to Rogier's DQ I got P3.
Paul got by me off the start and we had a great run (along with Tom right behind) for the first 15-20 minutes when I finally got by Paul. I think I had just a little more speed down the long straight so that gave me the advantage at the time. Really didnt lose or gain ground on Don and Bas during the next 6-7 laps. When Bas pitted I moved up to P2. I didnt make my stop until about 8 laps later as I had decided on a long first stint and I think Don was about the same. I took on about 15 laps of fuel for my second stint. Like Bas said he was about 15 seconds in front after his spin and I was really looking forward to battling for the last hour, it was gonna be interesting with the fuel/tire strategy I think. That first hour was very intense. Sorry to see Rogier out...looked like he was a contender despite the DQ in qualifying.
Got out in front of Don for the lead and managed to keep for the remainder of the race. Had pulled out to a 35 second lead at one point ran some pretty consistent laps for the 2nd hour. With 12 minutes to go I spun in the last complex of turns leading to the front stretch and lost about 10 seconds but kept it on track for the rest of the event finishing about 20 seconds in front of Don. One of my best races ever, and thats about how it has to be to win amongst this tough competition.
Excellent race as usual and great job by all in traffic.
Looked like an incredible battle between Paul and Tom for P3.
Congrats to all who made the full two hours....11 finishers is very good.
Lookin forward to next time.

ps---Bas and Rogier...did you guys run in dEEL or WOSEC a few years ago...just wondering. I ran in the SBRC team.

[forddude]

Congrats to Brent on his Ironman win and to Don and Paul for their podium finishes. Good jobs, guys.

Finishing 4th was surely a bonus for me due to problems by others who were quicker. It was made all the better because of a nearly race long battle with Paul. I don't think we were ever more than 12-15 seconds apart and a lot of the race was spent within just a couple of seconds of each other.....great fun.

Once again everyone did a great job of driving and I thorougly enjoyed the event.

Thanks to Ced for doing all the legwork and to SFI and everyone else involved with the series. Looking forward to Ironman IV

[blackcat77]

I really never knew if I was even going to make this race. And to top it off, I've been having multiple computer issues all week and I was just plain worn out, but decided to stick my head in the door and see what was going on Saturday morning and, as usual, I'm glad I did.

I'd been practicing the whole time with relatively low wings (7-10) because of the high-speed nature of the track and was doing laps of about 2.20 qual and 2.22 race. Since I never once saw anybody practicing for the event, I had no idea of that was good or not. So when I showed up and asked Bas what laps he was running and he replied 16s, needless to say I was disappointed. But I ran a few laps and saw that I was about 0.75 faster than the point man for the first sector but lost it all and more in the second sector, it was clear that more wing was the answer. I gradually worked them up to 15-17 and that seemed to do the trick. I'll never be a hotlap alien but I managed a 17 which was good for 5th on the grid.

Got off to a clean start and slipped past a couple cars who got sideways, but clearly those wings did cost me a little down the straights and when everything shook out, I was in 6th place doing laps in the 19s and 20s. As Tom said above, we were absolutely even the entire race long except for one critical difference which I will account later.

The one thing I hadn't really noticed in practice was how deadly some of the curbing could be. I rolled the car a couple times in morning practice but that was when I was really pushing the car and I thought that with a decent race pace, I could avoid any repititions. Wrong. About halfway through I was a little slower than usual through one of the tight turns and got a wheel on the inside curb. Before I had any chance to react, the car just slowly rolled over and there I was spinning like a top on the roof. Thank goodness for the hard work of the virtual track marshals getting me upright again and also thank goodness for the cast iron construction of the Bentleys that I was able to get going again with no damage whatsoever, but instea of being up about 5 seconds on Tom, I was down about 15.

Driving like a maniac, I made up a good portion of the deficit but then the tires went off and the margin between us stablized again. Now I'm not much for spur-of-the-moment race strategy. Usually I put in enough gas for one lap over halfway and that's as far as it goes, but clearly the tires were a huge factor with these cars -- the difference between running 19s and 23s in my case. I knew that in the previous stint, I was able to get about 30 minutes of good laps before things went south for my Michelins and so I made up my mind to pull in with 30 minutes left in the race. There was no way I could go the distance anyway and full tanks didn't do nearly the harm as worn tires.

So in I went and thanks to the remarkable pit crew -- did we borrow those guys from F1? -- I was out again in 9 seconds and was cutting 3 to 4 seconds a lap off Tom's advantage. He stayed out about 10 minutes longer than me and by that time, I'd cut his margin from 35 seconds to about 15, and when he pitted, I was 13 seconds up afterward.

The last 20 minutes of the race were very long. Don was over a minute up on me and clearly out of reach so all I had to do was keep checking the time back to Tom. And as before, our lap times were within a fraction of a second of each other every time. At least until about the ten minute mark when my tires started to go away while his were still fresh and he started slowly chopping away at my time, getting it down to about 7 seconds at one point but then I guess he had an incident because the margin went back to 15 seconds or so and that's how it finished.

All in all, it was a very good race. I questioned the choice of Interlagos but for a long race, it was really a very good choice. it made a lot of demands on both the car and driver and lent itself to two different setup strategies and pit strategies, and for a lap that took over two minutes, being busy all the time made things go very quickly. Congrats to Brent for the win and to everybody who finished. And of course, thanks to Ced for making everything happen.

One more race to go in the season -- any idea where?

[bollesnegro]

Yes Brent Rogier and me ran in both, now we run our endurance races with the SSCA. Great organisation with top drivers, prizes and broadcast and many more. You should check it out!

[JABowders]

Red Weasel Racing Reports

The Weasel Works Bentleys take to the track, fully fueled with Weasel Juice and faced a small but talented field at Interlagos. From the paddock to the stands excitement filled the air like the smell of ozone from a lightning strike. And excitement was the call of the day. The track was physically demanding on the Weasel Pilots, I for one called to my Pit Chief and asked for the Pit Crew to work more like traditional NASCAR pit crews…SLOWLY. I really needed to take a breather and rotate my increasing sore shoulders before heading back out to the black top battlefield.

As the race settled in and the Red Weasels settled in for the duration, the Weasel Car Chief could only shake his head as the top three snaked their way to an early lead, Giovanni Velocita` went on to say to the Head Weasel “Your car isn’t slow, you are, get you foot off the brake, you chiocciola!”

The Weasel Wench found a few moments of excitment early in the race as she tested the gravel traps on several of the turns. She later claimed that she was just practicing for later in the race. Mr. Velocita` responded with the question “Why you looking for a place to work on your tan?” And the Weasel Wench muscled on and keep her car mostly undamaged to finish the race.

The Head Weasel faired a little better, for the first time he was able to park the car undamaged after an event, this in itself is worthy of a trophy and he will most likely go out and present himself with one in celebration.

Congratulations to the Podium Treo and a very special thanks to Ced for putting up with us, I know how much trouble it is sweeping up all the peanut shells after we pack up our trailers and head out to the next track.

Great racing out there, see you next time.


James
Head Weasel
…and according to Giovanni “Snail”

Track Side Talk:
Does Red Weasel Racing face a name change to Grey Snail Express?

[DaveS]

Great report James..... you cracked me up so much my side is hurting ;D

DaveS

[RobGuru]

Like Paul, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make the race. In fact, I hadn't run much practice assuming I was not going to make it because I had friends who were scheduled to come for a visit... their first since our adoption. At the last minute, they decided they could not come since their little one had the stomach flu.

So, Saturday morning I figured I'd better get something like a setup prepared for this track, and started to do same. Got the times down relatively quickly, although I too was greatly concerned when I logged onto the server and saw 16s and 15s from Bas et. al.

I forked up qualifying pretty bad. I did an initial run and pocketed a low 19 (or there-abouts) and knew there was a good bit of time left given the couple mistakes I made on that lap. So, with about 6 minutes to go, I go out again. I had a good lap going, a tenth or two under my previous lap, when I slid off one of the left-handers and behind a catch fence. I should've esc'ed out, but I decided to drive the car back to the pits. Thinking I should re-enter the track where I left, I went back to that location. The game, however, DQed me for driving counter-race. Ugh.

From my P15 starting position, I get a nominal start and try to settle in. I figured I should be able to move around a couple drivers early in the race, but I made a mess of it by clipping a couple curbs and / or pushing off a couple corners. Another ugh. Finally, I get settled in well and begin logging some good laps, although not at a pace close to the lead group.

Through consistency and attrition, I was able to move forward during the first couple fuel stints to P6 by the middle of my third fuel stint. I was about 15 seconds off Sandy, who was still driving a good pace considering the damage he had taken earlier. I tried my darndest to close the gap, taking some chances as I had a full lap on P7. Couldn't close the gap though, and settled for my P6 (at least it wasn't a P7 like my first two Ironman finishes... getting closer... ha ha!)

Thanks always to Ced for putting together a fine mod and event. Twas a great show with lotsa purty cars and some great driving from all! Can't wait till Ironman IV!

Rob