Mugello Race Reports

[DaveS]

Wow, I can't believe how fast people are in these things! I'm glad I went online a couple of night and seen what others were capable of, if not I would have been really left in the dust. As it was I was still left in the dust by Brent and Sandy who were turning 1:33's pretty well all race compared to my high 1:34, low 1:35's.

I qualified P6 but at the start the car in front of me didn't move when the lights went out but I did, I tried to stop but wasn't able to fast enough hitting him in the rear causing me suspension and body damage but luckely not bad enough to pit for. After that I was able to work my way up through the pack having some great battles with Paul, James , Gary, and a couple of others I can't remember. I managed to get up to P3 before my pit stop and came out with new tires and fuel in about P5. Once everyone else had finished their pit stops I was back up in P3 but Sandy and Brent were more than 3/4 of a lap ahead of me so all I could do was drive hard and keep a good gap to the people behind me until the finish.

Great first race all.

DaveS ;D

[BCurtis]

Had a pb during qualifying dipping into the 1.30's which surprised me quite a bit.
The first half of the race was pretty uneventful for me and Sabdy held station just a few seconds behind me. Our positions remained unchanged thru the pit stops. With 15-17 minutes remaining I checked fuel to reassure myself that all was good. To my surprise it looked low to me with so much time left. I was surprised as I had even added a gallon to my tank on the pitstop as I thought then I may have miscalculated.
So I went into conservation mode. But then over the next 10 minutes or so I kept second-guessing myself and while trying to mental math (and adjusting my fuel for a second pit if needed) I had couple of short off track excursions....which allowed Sandy to pass for the lead and take a 9 second lead with just a few minutes left. I knew I'd never catch up with such short time left but I did seem to be gaining a little. Then while leading by 7 seconds, Sandy pitted for his splash and I was able to take the lead back. I think I finished with under a gallon of fuel left.
Good opener to all.

[blackcat77]

Overheating, bottoming out, three laps short on fuel and four seconds a lap off pace. A disgraceful performance and no excuse for it.

[Ced Collins]

Wow, great race everyone (except me). Some great battles out there. I payed the ultimate price for being ill-prepared. My performance showed. So time to put the hammer down for the next race and get some respectability back...lol.

Side note. Give me a couple days to update the site. I'm working on a new little stat program I'm writing so if it works I'll use that.

Congrats to Brent and James on their class wins.

[Bob"oldnslo"Roberson]

Let me start by apologizing to all who got caught up by my screwed up start. I hope it didn't cause anyone any problems.
But it was a great race and everyone did a good job in the sportsmanship department.
Two people I'd like to commend, Tom Nasella and Susan. I had some close racing with them and both drove with great caution. And were difficult to pass but never blocked.
Just great fun.
Congrats to Brent and James. I was lapped by Brent and he was also patient with me. Waiting until I got to a straight where I could pull over and let him fly by.

[JABowders]

Red Weasel Racing Team Reports

As we kick off our first race of the season, the Red Weasel Racing Team is reporting happy faces for the results of the Paul Newman Memorial Race. The Head Weasel had some great battles going with Paul, Dave, and GP and had it not been for the power surge in the Top Secret Weasel Warp Driver Field Generator (TSWWDFG) I would have never gotten around GP, he was a few tenth of a second fast than I was on the flats but I had him in the twisty bits by about a half second. Paul was another that really made me work for the spot and had he not had the overheating and suspension bottoming out issues I don’t think I could have taken the position away from him. I was real smiling ear to ear when we had what looked like P4, 5, 6, and 7 nose to tail somewhere on this side of half way. I do owe Paul an apology for rubbing his backend, we were entering a corner, one that I coast through and as he taped his brake I sort of ran up on him and just nudged him a tad, I admit it got me to back off a bit. I knew Bob was going to be fast he was running 1:32’s when we practiced, I gave his setup a whirl and ran a handful of laps and came within a few tenths to his time but I just wasn’t comfortable with the overall handling, so I gave up the two and half seconds a lap and went with a stable setup that would let me run a solid low 1:35. This is the same setup the Weasel Wench was running, and after a minor tweak of her steering wheel, she knocked a couple more seconds off her average time. So we came to the race with our guns loaded and ready to race, and that we did. Bob had a way wicked wild ride on the start that caused a little bit of hysteria for those behind me, I was able to snake my Spyder around him safely and join the chaos entering into T1 and surprisingly the heaping handful of cars entered the turn as gentleman and come out racing.

The Weasel Wench a few altercations with what she described as some rough driving or did she say…I have the cockpit voice recorder…>”…What the ******** ******* ***** ***** ****** CENSORED ****** ******** ********** ******** driver!...”< it went on to include a transmission to the Car Chief Mr. Jerry Rig..>”…we are going to need a roll of duct tape and some body panels…while you are at it find some BIG BRAKE lights…”< the rest of the transmission was garbled and went on for several minutes ranting. But all in all the Wench had a good race and is looking forward to the season. She has racked up a lot of hours in the RS Spyder earlier in the month when she ran the 6 hours at the Glen as a solo driver for the Red Weasel Racing team and brought home a respectful P6 overall finish.

Great racing and see you on the track next time.

James
Head Weasel

[greds04]

Well, it started pretty bad, and it ended the same way, my times weren't that bad in the 1.36's it landed me in 10th for the race, I don't know what happened at the start but I had a good but brief launch off the line and the 8th spot runner hit the brakes, I hit the brakes as well, the guy behind shunted me, and in turn had me shunt the 8th spot runner (beyond my control at that point), which put me down to 12th, I was able to bring the car back to 10th, but lost it going through I think turn 6 or 7.

I got back on track in 14th and just kept on driving, I managed to pull the car up to 12th and then had to make a splash and dash, as a few other drivers experienced a fuel gauge issue, and I was about 8 laps short of fuel. Then the tires were starting to lose their grip, and were about half gone when I somehow pulled off my final position of 11th.

I have learned from this race that I shouldn't be worried of adding more wing to the car as it seems to require more wing than the previous LMP mod we used for courses with tons of turns, and not to set the car down as low as possible as it bottoms out...and never trust a fuel gauge

Don't know how Sandy does it but I'd love to get a setup that coughs up the similar lap times as an LM-P1.

[blackcat77]

James, don't worry about that tap. I was bottoming out, a.k.a. out of suspension and that made me unstable which is why I was having to brake sooner and much more than you did. I was VERY impressed with how much speed that Spyder had going into the corners...

[forddude]

<<...... I do woe Paul an apology for rubbing his backend, ....>>

Perhaps that's why Paul was bottoming out and smoking??

[Greg 'GP' Haley]

mugello is a sublime circuit and made for a great season starter!

congrats to jb and brent on the class victories. concerning the bottoming out/smoking; maybe forddude has a point there--i don't remember my car having those issues (same setup) and didn't have any contact except some minor stuff on lap 1 with same forddude (phew..). once we settled that i had a smooth run putting in :35s and a couple low :34's after the fuel only stop. i added a gallon to my original fuel set prerace and that saved my bacon later on--that fuel guzzling lap after lap battle with both paul and jb was intense! i knew jb wasn't going to force the issue and was waiting for me to mess up under braking. had it in the bag when the internet gods intervened with two to go and we swapped positions while my fps dropped to single digits for a couple seconds--my only hiccup the entire race but that one didn't hurt to lose

forza weasel juice
greg