Division 4 Season 5

Good luck in the final race tonight guys. I should have a room open by 7pm EST.

Also, I don't want to sound like your Mum, but please read this thread before tonights race to try to make the room as stable as possible:
http://raceonoz.com/forums/index.php?threads/some-tips-for-sunday-night-network-issues.1586/

I may not race tonight, iv had a huge day racing motorcross and don't think I'd be able to concentrate for more than half the race haha but good luck to all and I look forward to next season with you lot again

I'm feeling the same, been out on the motorbike all day, Healesville, Black Spur, Warburton. Clocked up nearly 300k's of twisty's.

Good stuff man yea I rode from 11am till bout 6pm and now I'm just absolutely stuffed haha

You are an extra couple hours behind too, doesn't help at all.

I came into turn 3 to see Grassies and turbo sitting in the middle of the track I hit one of them and my screen went black. I reset my PS3 and now it won't even connect to the Internet. Had a great battle with Ad for a few laps but I was in conserve mode for the 2 stop strategy. Not the way I wanted to end the season. Thanks everyone for another season of great racing.

I was surprised with my podium result tonight, given the distinct lack of practice I had over the last 2 weeks.
Sneakily watched everyone enter the track on hards for quali (except for grassies and Jim), and decided for the first time this season to start on the softs. Mainly though it was because I had absolutely no friggin idea how long they would last.

Got second on the grid but was a massive gap of about .6 of a second to grassies' pole time.

The 3 of us on the softs just took off and left the others in the dust. Grassies started to build a lead and kept going, while Jim was working hard at keeping me honest behind me. By about lap 7 or so the gap to the leader was about 5-6 seconds and when Jim and I rounded the final corner onto the main straight we greeted by a cloud of smoke and grass as grassies had spun out and stopped dead. I then lead the race leading up to the first pit stop at the end of lap 11. By this time grassies had caught right back up to my tail and pitted with me. Jim on the other hand kept on going.

After working out a strategy on the fly based on the when everyone else was pitting, I did a 13 lap stint on the hards, trying my hardest to keep grassies at bay, some great racing there. Pitted on end lap 24, with grassies again following me in. He made a wise move and short fuelled the car and jumped me in the pits, so i was about 2 seconds behind him on exit. He certainly had superior pace on fresher tyres and made use of the cleaner air to build a bigger gap.

The final stint came about when I pitted end of lap 36, grassies was already 9 seconds up the road, so I turned my attention to the inevitable challenge of Watto who pitted end of lap 39 for his softs. I had been waiting all race for this, and now it was going to happen sometime in the next 9 laps. I was trying to see who else might have come with him, thinking Tank might also pip me for a podium spot.

The charge came on Lap 47, I held him at bay for about 2/3rd's of the lap until he took the outside line of the sweeper in the 3rd tunnel and got me in the braking area of the chicane. I managed to stick right to him and got a draft down the straight and easily could have passed him again, but I backed out of it just in case I overshot my braking zone and buried it in the sand. From there it was just hang on, don't let the tyres explode and cross the line in 3rd spot!! Very pleased.

Unlucky Stumbles, bugger of a way to finish the season!!!

Nice close, clean racing there in the closing stages. I must admit, I enjoyed hunting you down on softs as you did to me at Fuji. Thanks for a great season!!!

From FB page:

DSC's: SPL and Stumbles

Thanks to all competitors in Div 4 this season and congratulation to Grassies and Jim on rounding out the top 3.
Grassies certainly came home strong and picked up 5 fastest laps from 7 starts which demonstrates his speed. Jim was also a huge threat through the season with good consistent lap times and great race pace.

As my first season in ROOZ, I can only compliment the driving skills and etiquette of all drivers in Div 4 with good clean, close racing all season.

Big thanks to the room hosts through the season, we seemed to have very few headaches compared to other divisions and we generally started pretty close to time.

To Stu, the mods and room captains, great job in organising this great racing community, kicking myself I didn't get into it years ago.

See you all trackside in Season 6.

Watto (McCracken27)