The top of the ladder is very very close. With a dropped round I'll be in 2nd place . Now I gotta learn Redbull, I've only run it 2-3 times so far.
Some great racing last night, I stuffed up again though. I qualified 7th and held that to the first turn where I left a gap inside and Evil and Ad2 gleefully took my spot putting me back to 9th. I had WTF and K1W1 on my bumper as I tried to settle down. At the chicane at the end of lap 1 Evil and WTF got penalties and I was up to 8th. On lap 2 I had pykey pushing me as I closed up on a chain of cars battling for 4th through 7th consisting of Seth, Rano, SPL and Ad2. On lap 3 Ad2 took SPL and Pykey overtook me. I got back past Pykey into turn 1 on lap 4 and closed quickly on the Rano and SPL battle. I couldn't find a way past them and Ad2 was getting away in front of them and Pykey and WTF were pressing me again. Rano then spun on lap 7 and on lap 8 I finally got past SPL at the chicane and he pitted straight after. I then had WTF pushing hard for a pass and he got by me at turn 1 on lap 10. I pitted at the end of lap 10 from 7th place and came out 11th as SPL passed me as I exited the pits. After every one had pitted I was 8th just behind WTF and had lost ground to SPL. I had Pykey and evil about 4 secs behind and WTF was now about 4 secs in front. After my second stop on lap 20 I came out 11th again and then moved to 10th as Jim pitted. As others pitted I moved up to 5th as approached my third stop at the half way mark. From lap 33 on I was embroiled in battle with Ad2 and SPL and I passed SPL again at the chicane. On lap 34 I ran wide out of the esses and SPL slipped by me. I passed him again at the chicane and again Ad2 was slipping away as I fought to overcome SPL. I caught and passed Ad2 again at the end of the main straight on lap 36. It was his turn then to watch me pull away as he defended off SPL. By this time I was up to 5th. I was 4th behind Seth, Ao and about 12 seconds behind Molch when I pitted at the end of lap 40. Things were looking good. I came out of the pits 11th behind Rano and K1W1. I had moved up to 7th by lap 43 with K1W1 hot on my tail when I spun going into the big left hand sweeper. . This dropped me right back as it cost me 20 seconds. I battled on and caught Ad2 again by lap 47 and had pykey on my tail. I had recovered to 7th by the time I pitted on lap 50 and came out 12th just behind K1W1 again. Unfortunately I spun again at the last corner on my out lap and lost another 10 seconds. I settled into chasing Ad2 to the finish and had about 4 seconds to make up. Unfortunately Rano came out between us and I lost time getting past him after a great battle. By the time I got by Rano Ad2 had got by K1W1. I caught and passed K1W1 but by then Ad2 was still about 3 seconds ahead. As the race ended I had to sweat because I had calculated my fuel over 60 laps and realised at the end it was actually 61 laps and had to throttle off a bit to get to the end with about a litre left in the tank. Overall I had a great many battles and passed a lot of cars on track, some of them many times, but still finished down the back.
Wow what a race, the first 8 laps were intense, I was caught behind Rano and I had a few good runs at him but the twins (emmo and Ad2) were right on my tail, as soon as I tried to make a move on Rano I had 2 black cars all over me. Ad got by and soon after Rano spun coming out of the chicanes I had to avoid him and emmo got a run on me, I managed to hold him off for most of the lap but he had his nose in front coming back into the chicanes so I dropped it back to second and tucked in behind to go through single file. Emmo, myself, Pykey and WTF were bumper to bumper and I think I gave emmo a little tap on the rear and I was ghosted and Pykey and WTF drove straight through me dropping me back. As we were running 28's as a pack I decided to swap to a 5 stopper and pitted on lap 8 to get some fresh air where I could run high 27's without frying my tyres, it worked and I jumped emmo after his stop. My second stop I stuffed up and only put 30 litres of fuel in so I had to stop again with my front tyres only on 8 and 7 which was not good. before long I was again embroiled with a battle with emmo and ad2 which was some awesome clean wheel to wheel racing which I really enjoyed. As we approached the end of the race I needed some kind of strategy so I decided I would give myself 8 laps on fresh tyres and low fuel at the end to see if I could catch evil and Pykey, I knew that getting in front of Pykey could keep me in second in the championship and I drove the wheels of the thing. I could see pykey running wide at a few apexes and I knew his tyres were shot which spurred me on even more and when he ran onto the grass coming onto the straight I slipped underneath him with 2 laps to go. I was pretty happy with 6th place considering I had only done 30 laps total practice on Wednesday and had no idea of fuel usage so I was kinda winging it, I also had just driven 400kms back from the Gold Coast yesterday arvo just to make the race. It seems pretty clear where my pace is with another 9th fastest lap time in div 4 so anything higher than that i'm happy with. How i'm still second in the championship I don't know but I can't imagine that will last any longer with only about 5 laps at RBR in the Vision GT under my belt. I really enjoyed racing with everyone, it was hard, fast and clean and a pleasure to be a part of. Well done Seeeth on your first of many victories and also to AO and Molch for your podiums.
Red bull is pykeys track so I gotta somehow try and beat him!! And then nurbergring is one of my favourites so I'm hoping I do quite well there and hopefully win the championship. It is very close between SPL, Pykey and I so hope all goes according to plan!!
Another great race. Started off well securing my 4th straight pole with a 26.5 over Jim. Got off the line decent enough, but Jim got passed me on T2 lap 2 but I retook him under brakes into the hairpin. I had a few scruffy laps but then pulled out a 1 sec lead by lap 8 and then to 2 sec lead by the first pit stop which I bought forward a lap early due to it under steering like a pig! Came out in 6th with a 4 sec advantage over seeeeth . By lap 15 it was cut down a few tenths. Decided to add the extra lap in this run, but my advantage had been cut down to a 2.2 sec lead as seeeeth seemed to look after his tyres better than me. I came out in 4th this time behind wtf, pykey and evil who were obviously doing a 4 stopper. I passed evil into the hairpin and then pykey next lap. By this stage seeeeth was only about 1.5 secs behind and I was about 10 secs off the 4 stopping wtf. By lap 28 seeeeth was right on me and got passed me in T2 lap 29. I was going to try and attack right away but thought it better to push him down the straight instead of race to gain an advantage over the 4 stoppers. Lap 31 I pitted again and came out right behind wtf and passed him straight away into the hairpin. Pitting a few laps earlier than seeeeth gave me track position again after I set a 26.3. All 3 of us were right together having a good duel. By lap 37 seeeeth passed me again into T2 and then managed to pull out a few seconds before the next round of pit stops. He managed to pull out a 3.5 sec lead in the next stint. Not settling for 2nd I decided to bring my next pit stop forward a lap to get the jump only for seeeeth to cover that the very next lap! By lap 54 I had brought the gap down to 2.3 secs only to see him edge out slightly after that due to him conserving his tyres. By the final lap I knew the race was his and decided to coast home after I realised I was short on fuel. ( next time I am going to take Anons advice!) Overall it was a great race, especially now that I have no lag issues! Bring on Red Bull ring!
yeah i thought it was a fantastic race i have been happy with my season experiencing up and downs for the past 5-6 weeks. RBR I am very keen for need some well earned prac
So what times are you all doing at RBR? I am really struggling to get a good lap together, 42s is the best I can get at the moment.....
I had my first run yesterday to learn the track, best lap was 1:42.5 but loosing a lot of time at the tight right hander at the top of the hill, still trying to get the turn in spot right.
Ok guys, TRACK LIMITS FOR REDBULL RING..... As per the league rules the ripple strip is considered the edge of the track, running wide to gain an advantage could result in a penalty. If you CONSTANTLY run wide at turn 1 and the second to last corner, you will be penalized in the form of a drive through. I will be asking all drivers to respect the track limits and the rules of the league. A mistake or two can be expected, however consistent abuse would be seen as cheating ! If you pass a car after running outside the track limits you will be expected to give the place back, and fall in behind before the start of the next lap. QUALIFYING: there is no way to police this, so it will be an honesty system to be used. With fullish grids i don't expect many gaps for drivers to try to take advantage, and TBH, would hope that people wouldn't feel the need to drive outside the rules. I will also ask the captains to view the fastest laps to confirm track limits have been respected. Please remind all drivers before the race in case they havent read this post. Cheers Stu
