Division 5 Season 3

Well, what can i say, another podium finish i didn't deserve but will snatch and run with. (Note to self, don't start drinking with the Mrs in the afternoon, drink virtual driving just ends in tears.) After a blinding start with a 5 sec penalty because i was too preoccupied to press the brake pedal, i came upon the scene of carnage after the first corner in lap 2, it seems a touchup at the front resulted in Oblisc dropping from 1 to 5, damage to Kart & Vards in a spin to last. i snatched third but just couldn't concentrate to keep a decent line and lost it again easily to both Oblisc & Kart. Managed to struggle to the finish but i wasn't far off being lapped. Bad luck to Vards for the disco on lap 3 and super bad luck to T-Vue who vanished off track on lap 11 just at the same time as Jacko did on lap 10. My QL was 1.34.455.
FL's were: Oblisc 1.31.837
Kart 1.32.392
T_Vue 1.33.008
Jacko 1.33.022
'brew 1.33.234
Vards 1.43.087

My race Sunday night wasnt without drama either. I polled the race which I was pretty damn happy about with the times I had seen Kart and others doing. Lead out the first lap with the always quick Jako right on my tail. I knew that this race would be about patience and consistency as it is so easy to put a wheel on the grass and spin. Heading into turn 1 on the second lap I missed the apex and by the end of the corner was on the outside curb. Jako must of hit the corner on a good line and with a fair bit of speed as when I was pulling straight on the exit he came flying up my side and nudged me out onto the sand. This spun me off and then to make matters worse my car came back onto the racing line and I got wiped out a second time by another car. This obviously changed my stratergy as I now HAD to be both fast and consistent to make up the gap (20 odd seconds by the time I was back on track). I started getting a rythm and caught the pack back up. A couple of guys dropped early on in the race so I think we were down to 4 of us by about lap 10. I was back up to second after my first pit stop and was pulling T_Vue in. Im not sure which lap it was but somewhere around lap 15-20 he got DC'd when I was about 3 seconds off his tail and I re-took the lead. I got it out to about 20 seconds heading into my last stint but thats where the fun started. I managed to come loose 4 separate times trying to push my lap times down. My buffer was reduced all the way down to 3.8 seconds by Kart with a handful of laps to go. I steadied and managed to hold him off by 8 off seconds in the end.

Very happy with another win although it was a little bitter sweet with such a small field racing/finishing. Looking forward to having lots of guys back on board next week. Congrats to both Kart and Homebrew for sticking in there and making it a great race. T_Vue, you get a special mention for racing a great race out front mate. You managed to steer clear of all of the craziness around you and race like a champ. Very unlucky to get the DC.

Thanks Oblisc. Sounds like you guys still had fun despite the small field in the end. Congrats to you, Kart and Hombrew for podium finishes.

I slotted into 3rd after first few corners and was watching you and Jako fighting for the lead. After you both went off track, I took the lead and it was good while it lasted. I knew you’d be coming and you kept closing the gap every lap. Would’ve put up a defence but probably wouldn’t have lasted long considering the pace you had.

Looking forward to Apricot Hill guys. Hope it’ll be a large turnout.

Sorry guys looks like I'm out again this week, my "good" Draytek Modem/router died yesterday and my backup Netgear one doesn't play nice with PSN. Just spent an hour trying to join some rooms, It's not going to happen

I might have to retire and regroup for next season I think

Hey guys. Skipping tonight cause Internet's been down since Friday. See you next weekend

@Hatfield @emmo46
1st JAKO155 POLE FL 1'26'110
2ND OBLISC 1'26423
3RD VARDZ 1'27'156
4TH KART-NO-1 1'27'390
5TH HOMEBREW 1'27'457
6TH CASTROSFRIENDCHE 1'27'432
7TH COPPERJ32 127'585
8TH STONER 1'28'739
8 STARTERS ALL FINISHED

Hey guys silly to ask halfway through I know but I'm under the impression that we can't touch these roadsters at all as in setting wise apart from the driving options like ABS etc would I be right?

you can adjust breaking bias mate. Not much else.

Apricot hill saw he qually 4th with a 1.27.8 or there abouts. For a change I maintained my position in the opening lap even with Copperj attempting a move into the hairpin. A wobble from Oblisc down the straight had me on his tail but did not take long for him to stretch a gap. Copper and Homebrew continued to hound me and Vardz had an off late on lap 2 falling to last and I moved up to third. I ran with Copper and Homebrew just behind for several laps opening the gap when they diced for position.
I had already decided on a 4 stop strategy given the shortened format so had to use the tyres well and had a 4 second buffer over Homebrew when pitted on lap 11. Homebrew continued so must have been on a 3 stopper and when he rejoined the gap was out to 12 seconds.I knew I did not have the pace to go with the lead cars so concentrated on protecting my 3rd spot. As the laps continued I could see Vardz climbing through the field.
By my second pit stop on 21 Homebrew had closed the gap to 6 seconds. I rejoined in 6th but knew I had tyres and fuel up my sleeve. Home brew stopped on lap 27 and was 30 seconds behind me but Vards had closed to with in 25 seconds and was now in 4th. Both went past as I pitted for a 3rd time leaving me 7 seconds behind Homebrew and 13 from Vardz. I knew we all had 1 more stop to do and thought I had them easily covered due to their wearing tyres late in their stint. I probably took this stint too cautiously due to this overconfidence. The gap to Vardz stayed the same and Homebrew stretched his gap slightly until very late in their stint when I reduced the gap to 9 seconds.
After we all pitted a final time the gaps were 3 seconds Vardz to HB the a further 9 back to me. Bugger it. I decided I had nothing to lose and drove as hard as I could to fight back. I could see the gap reducing every lap slowly and on lap 44 Vardz was 10 seconds ahead. Lap 45 down to 8. 47 was only 6 seconds. And HB was just ahead struggling on very worn tyres then coming on to the main straight he ran wide and I passed him. 5 seconds to Vardz and I was pushing as hard as I could. With 2 laps to go the gap was 4 seconds. Come on little MX5. On the start of the last lap there was 2 seconds separating us and I knew Vardz would be looking at me in the mirror with terror in his eyes. He runs wide at the hairpin and im all over him like a rash but can only get to within 1 second at the line.
Congrats Jako on the win and also Oblisc and Vards on the podiums. Thanks for a great race especially at the end Vardz and Homebrew. Seems like we have been battling like this all season so far, and as usual i had a ball battling with you guys. Unfortunately I will not make the next round as I will be on holidays in Cairns but will be back on board for Nurburgring.
Cheers
Kart

Coming into this round with no practice saw me qualify in 5th which I was pretty happy with.
Had a few battles with Kart, Homebrew and Castro throughout the race but in the end made too many mistakes and found myself at the back end of the field. Went with a 4 stop strategy thanks to some helpful advice from @t_b_williams as I had no idea..
Finished 7th which at least gives TLR racing some points to stay on top in the Team Championship .
On to Red Bull ring and definately need to get some practice for that one.
Well done to Jako, Oblisc and Varz for taking the podium.
(I miss the macca, at least I was competitive in it))

My race on Sunday night was another interesting one. Qualified second after Jako put in a pretty solid lap on a high fuel load. Got Jako on the first lap of the "first" race and then started to build a lead. Got it out to around 8 seconds before the end of the first race was called due to incorrect tyre wear settings.

Back to the starting grid we went and back to second I went. This start I wasnt quite so lucky... Was all over the rear of Jacko again for the first lap until heading into the final chicane where I was pinged for cutting and recieved a 3 second slow down. This allowed Vardz to take second from me and I think I fell back to 3rd or 4th. From there I really had to put my head down and battle back. Vardz put his wheels wide on the hairpin a few laps in which gave me back 2nd but the gap had been stretched to around 6 seconds at that stage. By the end of the first stint I had pulled it back to 8 tenths of a second and was right up Jacko's ass for the run into the pits. Again, luck was not on my side... Jako seemed to get an f1 stop and my pit just held me up on the jacks for an extra 3-4 seconds. Heading into the first split I went from .8 seconds behind to 6 seconds (really got stiffed there). That was not my last problem though unfortunately. My stratergy was pretty much a 4 stop and to keep fuelling to 1/2 tank to stay quick and decrease tyre wear. I overfueled by a good 1/4 of a tank on the first stop so I was slower than I needed to be. I hovered around the 4 second or so gap mark to Jako and was hopeful of him making a mistake. Not much changed heading into the second stop on lap 20. This time I managed to underfuel by around 10L so my night wasnt getting any better. I was fairly quick in this stint (not suprising) and pulled Jako right back in. The problem was I was forced to pit again on lap 37 with only fumes in my tank. I knew that was my race done as my tyres would be chookys on the final few laps. It was pretty much damage control from there on in. I did make time back on Jako but during the final 3 laps he got the lead back out to about 5 seconds. I beleive he made a mistake into the last chicane and went wide which brought the gap back to around 3.5 seconds.

Happy with the podium but dissapointed on what could of been with the start in the first race.

So what times are you guys doing at rbr. I suppose jako is doing div 1 times lol

Currently holidaying in tropical Ingham so good luck tonight guys and will catch you all next week.

Hadn't done a single lap on this track till this mornin
Nope not telling anyone my times on this track...keeping my cards close to my chest lol
I'm just glad I found the time to hop on this mornin - with that largish update and all.

i had a crack last night and was doing mid 43's. Not sure if I will make it tonight though.

Enduro.... After the 8 lap false start we had due to tyre wear being on the wrong setting, where I had settled in a good rhythm in behind oblisc and jako and had put a gap over the rest of the chasing pack.
Take 2 and I had thought no worries I will just do the same....10 lap stints with an 11 thrown in to get me home...how wrong was I....binned it in the chicane on lap 2 and by the time I crossed the line I found myself 25 secs from the lead....Thinking on the fly I thought well I need to do something different here. During the weekly practice there had bee talk of running 3 and 4 stoppers over the full 61 laps so I thought that I would give it a crack running a 3 stopper on our shortened 50 lap race. So my first stint was used to try and catch back up and was basically running qualy laps and pitted after 10 laps from there I was thinking 2 more stops only putting enough fuel in to get me to lap 25. and do the longer stint now. Settled into mid to high 27's and trying not to bin it again as that would've really ended my night. Got to lap 24 in tacked and thought I will put 65 litres in for 13 or 14 laps and leave myself 13 or 12 as a final run to the flag. Again had a trouble free run...think it was brew that I passed at the hairpin in an over under move and completed through the right hand kink after the short incline. From there I hadto have a gap over kart as he was going to have half decent tyres in the final few laps and mine were going to be toast.... with 6 to run I had just over 10 secs on him and thought it might be enough so I tried to conserve a little...by 3 to run kart had halved the gap and the tyre conservation hadn't really worked as my times were slipping dramatically. Kart would have noticed the gap closing lap on lap and was in my mirrors looming larger and larger as we exited each turn on the final lap. The hairpin for the final time was probably where I thought that I was safe and wrapped up the final podium step... this was the case and crossed the line with kart less than a second behind.... wrapped to have finished 3rd after doing no real practice on tyres +10/11 laps old and having to changed strategy after making a mess of lap 2. Congat to ob and jak on the 1-2 for your team AGAIN and to jako on your alien lap time....wow!!!