DIVISION 3

Final Round Endurace Race @ Grand Valley East Reverse

An epic race to finish an epic season.

I was getting better with each practice session, finally getting a best time of 1.03.2, but there were LOTS of others faster than me, such as Nugget, Holden, Dougz & Aza. I set my goal for at least a podium position, and set my tyre strategy.

During Quali, Dougz set the early pace with a 1.03.0 i think it was, and I came with a few hundredths of that in my first run, but still only 3rd quickest. On my next quick lap, somehow some way I pulled out my fastest ever super duper lap with a 1.02.700. I was thinking soon enough it will be bettered, but the time stood for 90% of the session. Then again, I disconnected with about 5 minutes remaining. Got back in and tried to lay down a fast time, but in the time left i could only manage a 1.03.2 i think. I was showing as 2nd or 3rd on my timing screen, but started in 5th (it always screws up when that happens). Holden took the pole, and in a cruel twist of fate, his time was a 1.02.761 so if I hadn't of d/c's, I would have had my first pole for the season!! BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Got a good start (except from Aza's POV, sorry again mate, I know how much you were looking forward to this race - stupid internetz) and nosed ahead of Gary into 4th. In the first bend, 2 wide, it seemed as though Dougz & Nugget touched, which resulted in Nugget in the sand, I had to back off a little bit to avoid, so gary got back around me, but i was still in 4th due to the Nugget incident. At the last hairpin I outbraked on coldish tyres and went into the sand a bit dropping me back to 6th. There was about a 2-3 second gap to the guys in 4th & 5th, but I decided straight away not to chase them down and set my pace for the race. Sure enough, their battling closed them to me without me having to push hard on lap 5 I took Rico, right around the outside of Turn 1 & 2. I had caught right up to Moon by the tunnel, and he was defending like it was the last lap of the race. I passed him at the final hairpin, around the outside again.

Moon took me back a couple laps later in the tunnel when i clipped the entry, but I had him again at the final hairpin, and for some reason we ghosted through each other. Then he took me at Turn 1! I then fell back down to 6th when I made a small mistake somewhere, but this actually helped me settle back down, and try to conserve the tyres, they were starting to wear faster than what my strategy allowed for. Again, the battling between Rico & Moon brought them to me, and I passed Rico when he was having a moment just after the tunnel. I managed to stick close to Moon and pull a slipstream pass down the straight, and then exiting turn 2 he slipped a wheel on the grass and had a spin. It was lap 11, and i was in 3rd, with Rico keeping me honest in 4th. Rico started to fall back a bit as he had murdered his tyres, and by lap 16 I was only 6 seconds adrift of the lead.

Dougz pitted from the lead on lap 18, and my strategy was to pit lap 20 so I knew I had to make some clean laps as the gap was still around the 6-7 second mark, so I probably wouldn't overtake in the pits, but I wanted to be a bit closer. Some scrappy laps beforehand meant I didn't close it as much as I wanted. Come lap 19, I was 2.5 seconds behind Gary in the lead. I made up the entire time by the end of the lap, and he feigned staying out then dove into the pits at the last moment, which was ok with me as I planned to stay out anyway. I stayed out one lap longer than I planned as I wanted as fresher tyres at the end of the race as I could. Dougz had already made his way back to second and only 15 seconds behind, so I knew I was going to get passed in the pits. Gary passed by me as I was exiting, and I was deposited right in the middle of a nugget/rico sandwich in 4th spot. This was lap 22. Nugget got very sideways on the left hander after the tunnel so I got a better run on him up the hill where I snuck past him on the inside of the left bend, but he pushed on getting on my inside of the right bend, then we were side by side to the hairpin where he was on the outside and must have dropped a wheel off the kerb and got sideways and Rico passed him onto the straight.

By lap 24 I was only 4 seconds behind Gary, but 18.6 behind Dougz. For the next 4 laps I pulled a second a lap from Gary and passed him on the straight at the start of lap 28. Dougz was a further 15 seconds ahead. By the time Dougz pitted again at the start of Lap 37, I had wittled the gap down to just over 4 seconds. My plan was to stay out till lap 40, but I took the option of pitting a lap earlier at the start of 39 to minimize any gains Dougz may have got on the newer tyres. I exited the pit about 4 seconds adrift of Dougz. It then became a battle of trying to reel him in, but the gap stayed solid as are lap times were almost identical lap after lap, only a couple of tenths in each direction would separate us. On Lap 43, I set my fastest lap of the race with a 1.02.811, Dougz had just done a 1.02.844.

It became clear by about Lap 48 I was only going to get Dougz if he made a mistake, and I just had to be close enough to pounce if he did, but just as I was thinking that I got all out of shape coming over the hill leading to the final hairpin and the gap blew out to 7.4 seconds. From there I started to close in a bit, but it just wasn't quite enough and I finished 4.1 seconds down in second place.

Congrats to Dougz on his second win-in-a-row, bad luck to those who dropped out during the race and a big shout out to Aza for all his hosting/captaincy duties throughout the season.

Now, bring on Season 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice write up Dis.

Congrats to Dougz on the win and holden_boy for the championship. Bad luck to all those who d/c'd last night. It looked like Nugget had some good pace.

Many Thanks to Aza for the season and Carn when he was there. Also thanks to all racers, was a great season, lots of fun with some good racing.

RACE RESULTS for DIV 3 ROUND 7 Grand Valley East / Reverse 55 Laps

1 dougz32
2 disturboed
3 garyw61
4 x_3vi1m00n
5 ricorx4
6 Aza2672
DNF holden_boy90
DNF Nugget_22
DNF mmm_homebrew
DNF BLACKWILDCATS
DNF Zampli

BEST LAPS for DIV 3 ROUND 7 Grand Valley East / Reverse 55 Laps

1:02.811 disturboed
1:02.844 dougz32
1:03.081 Aza2672
1:03.314 ricorx4
1:03.468 garyw61
1:03.493 x_3vi1m00n

Sorry, I didnt get times of guys who d/c'd

See you next season!

A bit of a quiet race for me to finish the season off. I followed holden_boy for the 1st 8 laps or so, just letting him set the race pace. Then once he pulled his disappearing act i was basically on my own for the rest of the race. I thought i was going to end up battling disturboed at the end. but he didnt get close enough.
Im pretty disappointed to see this season finish. As much i was against the mclaren before the season started.. i actually loved it haha.
Thanks again to Aza for doing a great job hosting all season. And thanks to everyone else for great racing.
My highlight would have to be Trial Mountain. The race i had with Disturboed was unreal. I watched the replay again the other day. The 1st half of that race is as good as it gets haha.
Looking forward to getting back into it next season

Congratulations holden_boy90 for taking the championship win!

Great job mate