Post Surfers International

[RobGuru]

Another fun and interesting race for me punctuated by a huge DOH! moment!

Never got a solid lap in during the qual session and managed only a P6 overall, and behind two awesome quick LMP2 cars. So, not a lot of confidence after the qual session.

The race session started fortuitously as I snuck by a few guys and slotted into P3 in the early going behind Rick and Terry. The gradually pulled away while I was just trying to run a pace I knew I could handle. The gap fluctuated here and there depending on who found traffic where, and at one point around mid-race, we were all within about 6 seconds of each other. Feeling better about that. Dropped a few seconds when Nick and I got confused where each other were going and I had a short ag moment.

I pitted last out of the leading LMP1 cars, so was able to lead a few laps after Rick and Terry pit. I was hoping to build a gap that would allow retention of track position after my stop, and was pretty close to having that good margin when I climbed the curbs over the fast left sweeper and lost the car, collecting James in the process. Recovery didn't take all that long, but it did cost me somewhere around 11 seconds that lap.

Did my pit as normal a couple laps later, then sprinted to the end, laying down (finally!) some 55s in the process. Too little, too late, though, as I was relegated to P3 overall and in the LMP1 class. Probably where I should've ended up anyway given Rick and Terry's respective paces, but could've been a bit closer.

I note for the record that, I think, the finish gap from P1 to P3 was 11 seconds. Coindicence, huh?

Fun stuff as always... let's head to Lemans!

Rob

[tvree]

It was a pretty good race for me; still have to improve my starts with this turbo-diesel thing......I don't get off the line well at all. I managed to drive more consistently this race, so my strategy was workable, too. As always, clean and tidy racing from everybody I encountered. Thanks, all.

Terry V.

[tvree]

Additional notes---I think my computer upgrade last week really did help my consistency; no more frame rate glitches. Also, for the P1s, the fact that we didn't have Sandy or Mark to keep us behind them probably helped....... :-)

Terry

[fvee48]

Surfers Paradise Result

[Ced Collins]

I feel like James' comment. I can't catch a break. Something just felt wrong when I joined the server. Made a couple of adjustments and had gotten the car back to be stable and competitive. Then came my quick lap / fuel check and I realized I needed about 10 more laps of fuel to make my run. And there was my downfall. The extra weight made the car bottom out and basically undriveable. So another one thrown away. Once it burned off about half the fuel it was fine. But I had lost so much time just to get to that point. So on my stop I put mediums on with some extra air hoping it may get the car up just enough, but on cold tires I did more damage to the car. Then realized even on my second stint I was going to be 2 laps short. Good Grief Charlie Brown...lol.

[scottr]

I might have had a good race if I could have gotten through the first turn. I had a good Q that put me up with the P1's but got behind Terry's bad start. I saw Scotti go by then T got rolling and pulled away from me with diesel torque. I saw some smoke from the 1st turn but no blockage tried the inside but the red car was really slow and I locked it up trying to miss but no luck as I hit I got weaseled in the rear. (really nowhere for a weasel to go) That made my loop complete but I was not done yet. The P1 next to me got on the coaloil too hard and sent me for a skate on the green ice rink. I did have some fun chasing and racing. I had a good one going with the Capt and finally made him nervous enough to get by. Then I think I spun myself on the straight. Scotti ran flawless and I could not catch him good win Bud. Off to LeMans and better luck.