Project Cars Season 4 Rounds 1-2
Posted on Tuesday 9th August at 4:26 PM

The incredibly tricky and demanding Imola Grand Prix Circuit opens a new era of Project Cars Sunday League. The previous rule book and form guide had been thrown out and new stars and contenders would be looking to make their mark on the series. Default Tune had been thrown onto the cars and pitstops were now not mandatory or needed. Flat out racing from start to finish in the stellar Ginetta G40 GT4 car. In pre-season we saw numerous teams getting top-line drivers to field the races in their team colours as everybody in the Meet and Greet met to find out how the playing field would turn out with these new regulations. Round 2 would take place at the undulating and long corners of the Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit, a very different style to Imola. These 2 opening rounds were sure to give us an idea of who’s a contender, and who’s a pretender!

Division 1 was filled to the brim with Aliens this season, and SickSkills011 scored first blood for the season with Pole Position, however an intense fought race ended in 6 changes of the lead, with past champion Beau_Albert coming home in a dramatic last lap to take the chequered flag, 5 seconds ahead of Samsung1998Racer and Slambobagan in third after spinning from P2 on the last lap challenging for the win. Drama would follow post-race however, as reigning champion Samsung1998Racer received a penalty, promoting Seth123 onto the podium, and Samsung down to 6th, albeit with a bonus point for fastest lap.

Beau_Albert Qual P4 Race P1: What a crazy race, ups and downs at every second! My biggest apologies to Samsung and Slambo for my contact with you guys, hopefully my redresses were enough to avoid conflict! But yeah, crazy race, after losing P2 from my error on the second lap, fighting through the field to the podium, then getting caught in a little drama, back through the field and giving it all I had to chase Slambobagan’s 5 second lead down, getting past and holding it, pretty nuts! Next up is Nurburgring, I love that circuit to the very core, so I’ll be putting my best foot forward to continue this strong start to the title! Congratulations to my fellow podium getters

In Round 2 an intense showdown was fought out between the Season 2 and 3 champions for the lead as the two were never more than 8 tenths of a second apart over the 22 laps, however on the final lap Samsung1998Racer secured the win ahead of Beau_Albert. SickSkillz011 came home third on a recovery drive after his pole position went south on the opening lap. 

Samsung1998Racer Q1 R1: What a race, bloody hell! Somehow managed to grab pole by .013 but it was not much use as Beau mast have done the start thingy without the auto clutch because he was along side me just after leaving the line. Stayed nose to tail with Beau till he ran wide on the Bit-Kurve, I managed to sneak along side and get the car in front before the chicane. Nothing else really happened, the gap stayed at about .3-.5 till the final quarter of the race. Beau poked the nose in at turn 1, but i managed to be well positioned for the exit and just hung on to first, every lap from then Beau was looking everywhere, and even had a couple of full on goes at it but fortunately for me i held on and somehow got the .2 gap back up to .5 coming onto the final lap, however, Beau caught back up to me in the slip stream, but wasn't quite close enough into the chicane, but because i was covering, i left the door open for a criss cross. Beau had a decent exit, but i was still far enough in front to cover the final turn if i had to, but it was over pretty quick as Beau managed to loop it before we got to the final turn. Video coming shortly, I'm "Absolutely" sure Beau will make one as well.

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Division 2 was no less exciting as ADZA_85 took a narrow victory ahead of pole sitter and the fastest lap award winner, AOCleaner74. AOCleaners’s strong opening round is sure to play on the others mind, however a mistake means ADZA could very well have momentum to carry on winning ways in the next rounds, however if this is just the start, the thought is that this could be a great title fight this season in Division 2. BHR team captain SPL_Racing picked his way through the field from 6th on the grid to claim the final step on the podium.

ADZA_85 Qual P2 Race P1:
Fairly un eventful for me. Qualified 2nd after I decided to hang back and let the fleet go by. This left me one lap to hang it out there. Got off the line well and led to turn one and two. Went over the limit into 4 and AO made it thru. I followed from there as he was about 100th-200th faster per lap. I decided not to push and manage the crappy wheel glitch I had inherited. It was difficult to put the car on the limit without feeling the car get loose. Mike put pressure on from behind and made a few attempts. I defended fairly I believe and just concentrated on good exits. Was a lonely race from here to lap 22. AO had a hiccup at turn 1 as the tires began to give way. I made it thru and drove overly safely the finish for a win. Woo!
Cheers

The Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit was next up for Division 2 and it was NLR’s AOCleaner74 who ran away out front to a commanding win of 25 seconds ahead of Cob and Zharvs92. AO lead the race from pole and after an early error pushed the lead out to 17 seconds at one point, allowing him to have the perfect weekend. 

AOCleaner78 Q1 R1: Quite uneventful for me compared to everyone else.
Snagged pole again with a 2.04.1. Didn't get the best of starts but with everyone bumping each other behind me I had no dramas into t1. Noticed Jim was running 2nd until he obviously got a bump into the last chicane. Lap 3 I had a little moment which allowed Killer to get back within 3 secs of me, so I just put my head down and pulled it out to 17 secs until for some reason my game paused on me which sent me flying off the track and losing 10 secs.
After that I had no dramas, lapping consistently in the 2.03s to bring it home.
Well done to Cob for a storming drive and Zharvs for rounding out the podium. Bad luck to Killer who I thought was going to get 2nd with a consistent drive until towards the end.
Overall a great weekend for me winning this race and the 1000 Enduro the day before!

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Division 3 was a close fought affair as the Top 3 finished within 10 seconds of one another, with Jasond1986 taking the win in Sub-45minutes, over 9.4 seconds ahead of runner up Kart-No-1, a further 1.2 up the road on Garyw61 who applied a bucket load of pressure on Jason all race, yet rounded out the podium on the hot July day. 11 finishers took the flag and all managed to make it home on fuel, some a bit closer to running dry than others! Agolfer78 took both bonus points for FL and pole.
Jasond1986 Race P1: Oh man that was a lot of pressure garyw61 didn't want to push any harder but had to be so consistent you just keep taking a couple of tenths each lap. As for the start with agolfer78 was a real shame it ended in the collision, would of been a tough race had it not happened.
Can’t say more then I’m ecstatic I put a hundred plus laps into that race and that was all that kept me up front.

Jasond1986s winning ways continued at the Nurburgring with a strong few opening laps and holding an incredibly consistant pace throughout the duration of the race to put himself in an amazing position for this seasons championship. Garyw61 came home behind him and Anthony Chaplin rounded out the podium spots. 

Jasond1986 Race P1: Thanks man that race really felt like the start set it up. Just had a great launch and managed to pull out the lead as the pack battled. Had a bad error when I got all excited that I was up on my lap time and was on for 2.03.high and outbracked into the hairpin costing 6 secs with a spin. Managed a good run of laps after that with Gary on 2 secs back. Pretty much lap for lap matching pace till the end. But grabbed the win so happy to manage them back to back

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Division 4 finally and out front it was ranok3n who won a close fought battle with Nathancarhead in the opening laps, before dropping back in the final half. Rocketrod00001 claimed the final spot on the podium as everyone made it home on fuel, although some forced into the pits as things got a little tight in the closing laps.
Ranok3n Qual P2 Race P1: Great race last night.
Only got 1 chance at qualy as I left it a bit late to leave the garage.
Was enough to get 2nd on the grid, so pretty happy with that.
Had a rolling start to allow Ryzza5 in as he made it online just as qually was ending.
Was sleeping a bit and allowed Nathancarhead to get ahead (which may have been a good thing in hindsight... less chance for a pile up).
Nathan made a little mistake which allowed me past, and from there on it was a fairly straight run to the finish line.
I had great pace in the early laps to pull a few seconds away but then started to lose a bit of focus as Nathan found his rhythm and started hunting me down.
By the halfway mark, he was right on my tail after the final turn and had a good run on me going into turn 4. I left him only just enough room to on the inside to try and make the pass, but he bailed out and slipped back into my draft.
Unfortunately for him the mistakes started to pile up after that point and gifted me valuable breathing room.
By the last lap, the mistakes lead to a 20s buffer, and I was able to ease home.

ranok3n’s strong season start only got better at the Nurburgring as he ran away out front with minimal pressure from behind after a rough opening few laps to clean sweep the race and bonus points. Ryzza5 scored his first podium of the season with anthbark taking the last step on the podium, and his first in ROOZ competition. Leaving the German circuit towards not so sunny Silverstone, Ranok3n enjoys a stellar 19 point lead after just the opening few rounds. 

Ranok3n Qual P1 Race P1:
Tried to give myself a decent gap for qualifying. Managed to get one flyer in which was enough to give me pole.
Subsequent laps were held up behind traffic, so lucky to hold on to pole. Got an ok start off the line, Nathan got an even better one, but I had the inside line coming into the corner....
Then I get taken out by Bevo...
End up facing the wrong way and then rossi comes along and gives me a nice little punt to point me in the right direction.
Rejoined the race towards the back of the pack, then see Bevo cause another incident (lag maybe?) which threw a car into the air.
Managed to get myself back up to 3rd in a couple of laps, and then started chasing down Anthony and Nathan.
Anthony eventually went in too hot at Dunlop which gave me 2nd.
While chasing down Nathan, my wheel decides to ghost press the PS button while on the straight heading to Dunlop.
Managed to get back into the game without running off track... been getting more and more of these ghost buttons over last season.. hope it's not a sign of a dying wheel!
Nathan held his own very well until I managed to get a good run on him out of turn 4, from there it was a fairly straight forward run to the finish.
Got the invisible wall while exiting turn 3 on lap 14.... thank god it was a slow speed corner.
Anywhere else would have allowed Nathan to close right back up again.

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That's rounds One and Two sorted! We'll be back next time for Rounds 3 and 4, including the infamous Sprint Round, known for its dramatic race results! Until next time.....

Writer: Beau_Albert
Tables: DRZ-Hatfield

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