Season 7 Division 2

Oh did hosie do a 1:09.xx I must of read it as a 10.XX I'll edit my post.

Nugget well done mate, we really gotta get these win's on the board before the race at "you know where", Hosie, 1:09.7!!! I hope that was slipstream assisted! haha!

My race was fairly awful, but to be honest I can't expect anything too great because I don't practice. I just rock up and hope for the best.

This time at least I was probably more unprepared than usual. I haven't painted the car, picked a number, or done any running in, so i'm probably down on HP as well.. Will get the painting done at least by the next round.

Qualied 8th or 9th on mediums with a 1:12:0xx I think. Not too bad I thought.
End of lap 1 my race was pretty much over; I must have put a wheel on the grass, it didn't feel like it as I had been on that line pretty much all through practice, but I spun and T-boned the pit lane entry wall, lucky not to be in the pits. Back to last place.

I then probably made a strategy error by finishing the lap and pitting to change to softs and maybe make up some time by running them all race. I had no idea how long the softs would last and in the end it didn't work. I was doing 12 lap stints on softs but not at a great pace. I caught up some people through the pit stops, I assume due to them making mistakes, but spent the majority of the race on my own.

I was behind Sid at one point for 2 or 3 laps and he was lag warping the entire time. I thought he had made a mistake and I had passed him as his car spun around on the grass, only to have him lag-warp through me literally stopping my car dead and leaving me with engine and 2 wheel damage. BS.

Changed to Mediums to do the final stint of 15 laps, but they were gone by the final lap and gave Aza an easy extra position.
Finished 9th.

Yea that corner you got to be careful abit, even just one wheel on the kurb will send u spinning sometimes if your steering wheel is not straight enough. Chucking you straight into the pit wall, can be kinda random when it will happen.. i found that out the hard way during a few practice races durning the week, so I was careful not to make the same mistake again.

Yea alot of us did a fair few practice races so we had an advantage, being down on horsepower wouldnt of helped ya. I think my car is on 484Hp.

I'll post some extracts from my post race interview soon.

I attended a short post race interview, here are some extracts

"So first off congratulations on the 2nd place, how did qualifing go from your view?"
Thanks, well the team wasnt really happy with my qualifing time. I felt I could of got so much more out of it but didnt quite hit my marks so had to settle for 4th on the grid. We could of left the track and tried again but in the end the team and I felt it was to big a risk. All in all we were very happy with the qual format and thought it worked well.

"Onto the race then, so you started 4th how did the 1st few laps go for you?
Obviously the plan was to get a decent start and at least hold on to the guys up front (Aussie, nugget and hosie). I came under abit of pressure from behind into turn 1 and 2 but managed to stave it. By the second lap the top 4 had started to break away, so all was going to plan. By about lap 6 I manged to get into 3rd by passing aussie who was starting to struggle on his rubber.

"So where did it go wrong for you?"
Well coming into the 1st pit stops all was good i was still only about 3-4 secs behind the leader, Veno was closing in on me though as I entered the pits. I went into the pits with veno about 3.5 secs behind. Unfortunatly I got done for speeding in the pits so my car sort of got reset putting veno right on my tail as he pitted as well. Then well...I dont how to say this but our pit box teams argued during release. They should of released me 1st instead they kept shouting to Venos team "you go" they would shout back "no you go" It was like a mexican stand off.

Furious at my team I yelled "Just friggen release me" at which point they did, ghosting me into veno....The ghosts were mean that day my friend and they decided venos car should ghost through me. So I finally exit the pits losing a 3.5sec buffer and the spot, plus I think the release hold up both cost Veno and I a fair wack of time.

"Wow you must of been upset with your pit crew?"
Yea I was but racing is a team game and we all make mistakes from time to time. The lollypop man has been put on the bin roster though.

"Any other incidents?"
After exting the pits I managed to get back past Veno but for some reason a couple laps later I decided to look back going into turn one to see exactly how close he was. By the time I looked forward it was to late to pull it up, I desperatly dropped it to 2nd to try and make the corner but couldnt do it had to run on the grass. Luckily I only turned to 90 degrees on the green stuff, I had to come to a near dead stop but at least I wasnt facing the wrong way. That let both Veno and Aussie through.

"So ultimatley are you happy with your race weekend?"
Its kinda bitter sweet to be honest, we felt we had the stratergy and the consistencey to win the race...but there were about 8 other drivers who could of won the race so it was important to get this result. So we are happy but disappointed not to get the win.

"Tek thank you and we'll see you at the next round"
Cheers, we know we dont have the car for Tokyo so we needed todays result. The team has been studying the data available at Tokyo and we will be putting in an effort during practice to see if we can produce a result there. Realisticly a top 5 at Tokyo would be good for us.

Thats GOLD Tek.

Heh cheers, I didnt include much of the second half of the race cause nothing much happened as I went different strat. I came in at the end of lap 17 and took the lead boots off and put on some soft running shoes. Some how got 11 laps off those so thought bugger it I sure can the 10 laps left on softs. So I didnt really see anyone else on track till towards the end, I was down in 9th at one point I thought I'd be lucky for top 5. Was suprised when I was in front of hosie after his last stop

Nice interview Tek.

haha awesome interview Tek !! i hope the reporter was Hot!

well for me i was just hoping to have a solid race, stick to my tyre strategy and be there to challenge at the end. for what i thought would hopefully be a podium. being my debut in Div2 i was just hoping to be in the top 5. consistancy was not something i had last season. i think i raced 5 rounds and had 4 of fastest laps so my pace was good, but i always seemed to make a stupid mistake or choose the wrong strategy!!!

Quali was pretty good. 10.2xx on my first flying lap but didnt think it would be enough. knowing what Aussie was capable of throwing down aswell as Tek i was waiting to be shuffled down the order. the one person i didnt expect to see was Hosie, bloody hosie!!!! all season 6 Hosie was either infront of me or in my mirrors and i still cant get away from him.

so the race!! i was higher up on the grid than i expected but my first few laps were shocking. on the grass, missing apex's just fidgity like a hungy baby in a tiitty-bar!!! eventually i settled myself down and got into a groove. my strategy was always going to be Soft, Med, Med, Soft. my thought was if i was starting near the front then start strong and come home strong and looking after the double stint on mediums. the two tyre rule makes it really intersting i had no idea how i was going until i made my last stop. and even then i thought Hosie was too far infront to catch even with fresh softs. then when he pulled in the pits i thought "holy Sh!t, i actually have a shot here". while thinking this i was stating to slide the rear end and miss my marks and i ended up yelling at my self to pull my sh!t together hahaha.

thanks guys. awesome night!!!! cant wait until Tokyo. i got a feeling ill be following Aussie and Hosie but. trying to follow!

oh i better thank my sponsors!! thanks to LG for the clear 55inch view. Harvey Norman for a very comfortable 38 laps and of course Baby Jesus and MountainDew!!
WINNERS GET PAID AND THE FAST GET LAID. unfortunatly i didnt get either!

I didn't get a chance to get behind too many people unfortunately. It was 1/2 through the race I think so my fuel load was down a bit. Which helped me

Yeh, i still jump on here to have a look at whats going on. All is fairly well.. Things are getting there.
Hmm.. Im not sure where i'll be when next season comes around. We'll see. Would love to try to keep them under control. I'd be a bit out of practice though. They'd probably run rings around me haha.

Was just watching the replay and saw what happened to Aussie, bad luck mate. His pit crew kept rejecting him, he tried 4 times and they still wouldnt do a tyre change. So he had no tyres left. Sorry but i was pissing myself laughing though watching Hhahah Happened to me once at laguna so I know what you were thinking.

haha yeh he told bout it after the race. i should go watch it soon hahaha..... if that was me aussie i would need a new controller/wheel. and prob need to repaint the wall that i threw it at

Yeah I saw a few pit-lane gremlins, the pits seem particularly buggy at deep forrest, maybe the short entry means you overshoot if you rail-in at 200km/h.. . .

The less said about my race the better, first lap I got dirty LHS tyres running 2-wide & spun into the wall. D'oh !
I couldn't keep my head locked into the groove after that, best I managed was a string of high-11 second laps on mediums mid-race, on some of the few laps where I wasn't spinning or tagging walls.

Tokyo can't come soon enough !

Well the reporter was me, so yes, very, very hot.

sounds like you had a good race boys, gratz to nugget for win, div3 prepped you well haha. ill be here this week at least, only got back late monday night

Will be good racing havin you there zamps. An extra car to battle with