Post Phillip Island

[scottr]

Well that was kind of anticlimactic. I was looking forward to a good race with Rick as we were doing almost identical times but it seems like when ever we run close something happens to one of us. Rick and the diesel dragster took off at the start and pulled out like 10 car lengths my older slower reaction time and spinning tires put me back a ways but a couple little bobbles by Rick got me back up to his bumper. I knew I had 6 mph on him by the end of the straight and I got by with only a little wobble but it got him just wide enough that he got grass then I swear what looked like a little bump of the tire wall tore the nose off the Audi. I just got careful after that and ran smooth to maintain my gap on Dale. My tires were getting slippery by the 30 minute mark and I wanted to pit before I made a bad mistake. I came hauling down the road to the pits and almost overshot my stall. I was just past the pit in light. I had to back up to get in. Lucky it was not far so the game did not flag me for wrong way. When I got back out Dale had three quarters of a lap on me and I waited what seemed like a long time for him to pit. He must have had a problem because I passed him in the pits. I did try to give it away a couple times by spinning but he did not get back to me tonight. I take wins any way they come. Congrats to Greds on P2 and to Rob and Ced for the challenge wins. That was sweet. I almost got 3rd in the challenge but spun trying to pass Norm.
I hope all you racers have a Merry Christmas. I'll see you in the new year.

[Capt]

Ditto here Scott,
I could not match you and Ricks lap times so i figured either attrition or pit strategy would be the way to go. Attrition worked on Rick but pit strategy failed miserably. I came into the pits and was caught out that my pit stall was the first one and I overshot it. I then damaged the car backing up and the crew tried to fix the damage! so my pit stop became a nightmare. Goes around comes around comes to mind Scott. So I guess we are even on how bad we can mess up a pit stop lol. Rest of the race was uneventful. Thanks to p-2 guys for giving room to pass. Looking forward to the Holiday break and wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

[greds04]

Well it was a really close race in the end, the qual was brilliant with a 1.21.9 (I didn't know the car could do that, and I think it was the last lap I put down), only just pipped Bob by a couple of hundredths of a second, had a bad start off the grid, was down in 7th, and had to give chase to Scott and Bob, I was catching up to them, when Scott got two wheels on the dirt and went round, and Bob seemed to be overheating on the start finish straight for a few laps, so he was really pushing the car to keep the gap.

I caught the dirt a couple of times, and thought that was the end of catching Bob, then the cat distracted me on my way into the pits, so I clipped that wall on the outside edge of the long left hander to the slow right hairpin, so what I thought was a no repairs 22 second stop, was actually a 45 second stop, and slip down to 7th (the pit crew is fired by the way).

I blasted out the pits, and after getting a couple of laps wrong, I was putting down low 1.23's almost constantly, I was even more surprised to find I somehow got past Scott (he must have had to stop for gas, after the early stop to try and match Bob), and then with about 15 minutes left, Bob made a stop, and I was able to keep the 4th place, I knew if I made a hash of it, he would reclaim it, so I was driving as fast as my yellowed right hand set of tyres would go, turned the boost down from 3 to 2, and keeping it smooth on the left hand corners.

It was a fun race, had a blast chasing Scott and Rob, surprised how the race turned out after all my mishaps, and the pit crew doing unnecessary work (I guess they can keep their jobs considering the results), congrats to ScottR on his win, and everyone else for a cracking race.

Hope everyone has a happy holidays, and see you all next year.

[Bob"oldnslo"Roberson]

Greg just flat outran me. Poor planning on my part. Early in the race I was able to maintain my lead over Greg while not taking any chances. I figured with a 24 second lead late in the race I could easily maintain it. But suddenly I had a low fuel light. I had somehow messed up my pitstops. I jumped into the pits and took on enough fuel to finish. As I left I heard Greg motor by. I struck out after him but in my hurry I started making mistakes. I'd like to think that I could have made up the seven second lead but not the way I drove.
Greg must have drove flawlessly as he steadily pulled off into the sunset.
No whinning but I only had a few laps on this track and I used the default setup. Sure could have used a good setup.