Just 3 rounds remained and the championship protagonists were becoming ever clearer after a dramatic opening 4 rounds. Now beyond the halfway point, the pressure would ramp up and with the added difficulty of the Endurance Round at a track that makes building a comfortable lead an impossible challenge, Road America. This would be followed in quick succession by the high kerbs and sweeping, flowing corners of the Catalunya Grand Prix Circuit in Spain. Rounds 5 and 6 held a lot of promise going into the 2 weekends, and they did not disappoint!
Division 1 hit the track first and it was a fight to remember. Pole Sitter Spidey_11 was unable to hold onto his position and allowed Beau_Albert and SickSkills011 to sneak through, allowing those two to fight nose to tail for the duration of the race, never more than a second apart as the duo swapped positions numerous times and fought mirror to mirror, with the championship leader eventually coming out on top by a narrow margin! Spidey held on to P3 to make a BHR 1-3 on the podium.
Beau_Albert Q3 R1:
What a race!
Qualified on the second row of the grid after what i felt was a near perfect lap for me, only to see Spidey almost 4 tenths up the road! Slipstream or not, that lap was phenomenal! Spidey, take a bow!
I got a dream launch off the start and got past Dan and challenged Spidey into turn one, yet sat back until the next straight to take the lead into Turn 3 and try and open up a lead by breaking out of slipstream range. Sadly by this time Konnor had made it into P2 and after a few quick laps found his way back into my slipstream. For the next 29 laps we fought tooth and nail running a high pace, yet trading positions every 3 or 4 laps at a time.
I think we were both sort of playing the waiting game with neither of us attempting a major breakaway from the other, however in the final 6 laps the pressure ramped up from Konnor and we began fighting hard on rubbish tyres. On the Penultimate lap I was alongside Konnor heading toward T1, and under brakes he shifted down one too many gears and rotated the car, allowing me to back off the pace on the older tyres and ease across to the line.
Heading into the final two rounds I’ll be giving it my all to try and win the championship before I’m sure the entire PCARS community sets sail to Kunos' sim for the upcoming season. See you all next week in Sunny Spain!
Sunny Spain was indeed next up, however it threw up another curveball at the drivers as they made the journey across from the US. Fog had engulfed the circuit, leaving the drivers flashing their headlights in a desperate attempt to find their way around the circuit, however when the fog cleared it was Beau_Albert taking a third consecutive victory, putting him enough points clear to claim a second ever Division 1 title. Stucar17 picked up his best result of the season thus far with second on the podium, he was followed by Slambobagan just 1.1 seconds behind.
Beau_Albert Q2 R1:
Qualifying went as well as I could hope really, front row of the grid, no complaints!
I was very cautious on the line not to jump, and thankfully it didn't cost me despite Spidey having a heck of a look, which i narrowly cut his pathway off. Sorry Teammate. Thankfully I practised my Turn 1 braking point from a standing start and snuck around the outside of Dan, made a little gap lap by lap, and from there it was remarkably easy, I don't know how it happened but I slotted myself into a very quick yet relaxed rhythm! If that could happen every race that'd be great! Bit of an anti-climactic way to claim a second championship too, but I’ll take it!! Stoked with the results this season even if there has been some controversy behind a few!
I'll be there for the final round trying to help out BHR but I really do hope these numbers pick up. I know F12016 is fecking amazing and some people have glued themselves to Assetto Corsa, but there’s one final race, if you’re going to another game, at least consider giving PCARS a finale race next week.
Cheers Guys
Division 2 was next up to take on the deadly Road America circuit and AOCleaner74 showed he had the pace and was the only car in qualifying to dip into the 16’s, however in the race, the man that joined him on the front row, mikeruntbike drove like a man possessed and ran away from the field in incredible fashion, finishing ahead of Second placed SPL_Racing by 54 seconds, with pole sitter AOCleaner74 trailing just another 6 seconds behind in Third.
SPL_Racing Q4 R2:
I'm so happy for an unexpected 2nd place after starting 4th. While mike and blindman drove off into the distance I was left battling with AO and Zharvrs. Luckily I was in front of Jim when he hit the wall and I started to reel in blind man. We had a few battles fighting for position but when he went wide at the final turn it gave me an easy pass.
I was holding onto second place with AO catching me but after touching the grass under braking into turn 3 I went off into the weeds letting him past. With a few laps to go I got up on AO and went to pass on inside as he ran wide at turn 4, as he rejoined the track I was sure I touched his rear corner and he spun into the wall. I wasn't sure if he was already out of control or if I caused it so I pulled up and waited for him to redress. We had such a big finish building up for second place and I didn't want it to go down like that.
Using his slipstream I caught up again and stuck my nose down the inside of turn 1 and made it stick after he gave me heaps of room. Unfortunately he spun soon after behind me and I cruised home for the last 2 laps for a comfortable 2nd place.
Congrats tomikeruntbikefor the dominant win and to AO for a good battle for the podium places.
Division Two lined up on the foggy grid of Catalunya unable to see the car next to them, however all eyes were fixed on the starting lights as a chance to snatch the title early was available to run-away leader AOCleaner74. Mikeruntbike made life too tough for AO, snatching the race win by a narrow margin over AO who came home in Second to pick up the Championship for the season! Beverages4017 came home third.
AOCleaner74 Q1 R2:
Thanks guys.
To secure another championship and my first in Pcars is fantastic!
Probably should have more than 1 win after I binned it in the first race just a few laps from the end, and also the Pcars gremlins coming into play during the sprint round, but all in all, just making it onto the podium in every race with some very quick drivers in this class was enough for me to secure the win.
Last night’s race was a lot of fun. Got pole by the slightest of margins ahead of Mike and SPL who I knew were going to be hard to beat. Mike beat me off the line and I followed him through and just worked on pulling a gap to 3rd, who were having a great battle. So about lap 4 I thought I may as well try and make a race out of it as we had about a 7 sec gap to the rest. Got past Mike at the end of the straight and tried to pull out a gap. No chance of that and he got passed me again a few laps later. This went on until about 4 laps from the end until I out braked myself going into T1 trying to put pressure on him and lost about 2 secs. I nearly settled for 2nd at that point but it is just not in my nature, so I kept the pressure on him, but alas it was not enough and he took the win by 1.7secs. So well done Mike, a great race by you and thoroughly deserved. Also well done to Bev for bringing it home in 3rd just ahead of SPL (thanks for ruining my record of trying to get all poles and fastest laps by the way!)
Only one race left, so hopefully we can have a full grid and have another awesome battle!
In Division 3 it was a familiar sight up front with Jasond1986 grabbing pole position, however it wasn’t to be for the championship leader in the race, he would be left settling for third in the Endurance Round. A well driven race up front from Anthony Chaplin allowed him to get a narrow victory ahead of Kart-No-1, after 83 minutes of hard racing around the hard to master circuit, just 1.6 seconds separated the two.
Jasond1986 Q1 R3: What a race guys that was as good as it gets for me. Had a great qualify run managed pole with 3 secs on the clock. Race start I thought I nailed the lights to see Gary and DJ fly past me but managed to run p3 into t1. Had a long run behind gaz but couldn't catch him always 4 secs ahead and I had my hands full with chappy who was so quick out of the final corner. Around lap 10 come past Gary who had a spin after the bridge and took the lead for a while but consistently getting side by side with chappy and couldn't break the toe.
Had some of the best racing with 4 of us all within 3 secs of each other. But couldn't hold Chaplin behind and he took the lead. A couple of laps later I bumped him into t1 only slightly but he got a bit squirrelly so I backed out and kart mugged us both. Sorry chappy not to sure why I thought I braked plenty early.
From there on I lost touch with the leaders and had a tough battle with Gary with positions changing multiple times and so great side by side racing but held him at bay to grab p3.
Have to say great driving guys was awesome to be able to run 2 wide through t1 knowing the other guys had enough talent to not take each other out.
Heading into the final two rounds of the championship, 21 points separated Jasond1986 and Garyw61. Gary knew he had to be faultless to have any chance of bringing that gap down, however Jason controlled Catalunya in perfect fashion to claim his first championship on the site! Pole and a 3 second race win ahead of Anthony Chaplin etched his name into the winner’s trophy, Kart-No-1 scored another podium to enjoy before the seasons out.
Jasond1986 Q1 R1:
Well guys it’s been a bloody long time coming about 2 years with rooz and 6 seasons not including the 3 hto runs but I finally managed to string it all together and take a title.
From the outside it probably looked easy but no race win was easy and always someone within 8 secs behind.
Have to thank all the guys in this room for the best racing I've had and I have a lot of respect for all the guys in this div. Shame Gary hit the invisible wall in this one because was really under pressure and well done mate on a seriously tough challenge.
Last but not least I want to thank the mods who without them this wouldn't exist and this site has become one of the most enjoyable things I've ever taken part in.
Division 4 was last up to hit the Road America circuit, but they were no less slower as the pack hurtled into the tricky 90 degree first turn. As they exited the final 90 degree corner on the track for the 36th time however, it was ranok3n taking out another victory, with fastest lap to boot! Crucuiald00dz came home second with rocketrod00001 joining them on the podium.
Ranok3n R1:
Messed up my qualy lap.
Was 1.6s up on my time but then overcooked it on the last corner.
Not sure if it would have been good enough for pole, as I ended up being 1.6**s off cruciald00dzpole time.
Started 3rd on the grid.
Like Nathancarhead, I got the best start I've ever had in this game.
So good that I thought I might have jump started for a split second.
Unfortunately for me, Nathan got a stonking start as well and we both dove for the gap between 1st ( cruciald00dz) and 2nd ( rossi0nsx).
Obviously the gap wasn't going to accommodate both of us, and as Nathan got his nose in front, my car was pushed into crucial, who started to get sideways a little. So I backed off to break the contact and then got swamped by everyone else.
Exiting turn 1, I managed to turn into someone, not sure who it was exactly (can't trust my replay), but they were in my blind spot so had no idea they were even there. My apologies for that.
Slotted into 8th after the mess and slowly watched the guys in front take a bad entry/exit or just spin off and then found myself in 3rd after a few laps and on the back of cruciald00dz(the video shows up as rocketrod for some reason) with a decent gap to 1st.
I was happy to sit behind and stay with crucial so that we could help each other catch the leader, but by the time we within a few seconds, crucial lost concentration and spun off leaving me on my own to chase Anthonyb
Anthony eventually spun and gifted me the lead. Managed to extend it to about 10 seconds before I noticed crucial was into 2nd and trying to take chunks out my time.
Not know how the tyres would behave later during the race I didn't want to push too hard, so just tried to maintain that 10s gap as long as possible. After about 1/3 of the distance passed and there was still a decent amount of tread I started to push a little harder to see if I could open it up a bit. Made a bad mistake and lost the extra time I gained, but settled back in and started to push again.
It looked like the mistakes started piling in for crucial, as the gap blossomed out to 20+ seconds with about 5 laps to go.
Started to put together some qualy laps to try and beat my FL... Was up by a couple of thousands by sector 2 in a few occasions but couldn't follow through the sector 3 to finish it off.
Great racing against cruciald00dz. You definitely had the pace to reel me in if not for the mistakes.
Next up for the Div4 boys was the Catalunya GP circuit, could we have all four titles wrapped up before the finale at Brands Hatch? The survey said yes as Ranok3n secured his title with a third place in the foggy conditions, just trailing by 10 seconds behind eventual race winner Ryzza5 and runner up anthbark. Congratulations on a stunning season Ranok3n!
AnthonyB R2:
Don't know how I didn't get a penalty on the start thought I had my hand brake on but didn't grabbed 1st and jumped forward so that gave me a great start. Turn 1 I braked too early sorry rocketrod00001 for holding you up came out of t2 behind Ryzza5and started to chase him braked too early again into t5 and bunched the pack again meanwhile Ryzza5was driving off into the distance pulled away a little myself from there on and got into a rhythm and started to try to pull Ryzza5 back but i think we both were running at exactly the same pace he would pull a second or two out from me then I would do the same back. The boys seemed to be swapping places for third behind and running about the same pace as us in second with gap staying steady.
A couple of lapped cars closed the gaps a few times but they all did well and fave me room when they could thanks for that.
On the last lap I got close to Ryzza5because of a slow car but he got around him and got the well-deserved top stop well done mate.
Happy with another podium and a nice clean race for me.
Well done ranok3n and cruciald00dzyou seemed to be having a good battle either of you deserved the podium.
Thanks heaps everyone for a good race.
See you next week
Ant
Well the just about brings the Project Cars season to a close then, but there is just one more round and with all the championships now secure, it’s going to be a nothing to lose situation for some! Fireworks will go off, but whose car will also go off? Until next time…..
Writer: Beau_Albert
Tables: DRZ-Hatfield
