Welcome to Part 2 of Round 5 from Motegi. This time we will bring you the Division 3 and 4 reports. We will start with Division 3: GRID. Stumbles01, razor4797, BERNSY001, garyw61, FloodSim, BennyBagems, hosie09, X-3vi1m00n, Ad2mny, S_CLOSE. razor4797 did not get away well, dropping 2 places to BERNSY001 and garyw61. He ghosted into garyw61 into Turn 1 but dropped back to 4th on exit. Ad2mny got a great start, jumping up ahead of X-3vi1m00n and hosie09 off the mark, but running wide on exit just losing drive slightly on the grass letting them both back through but managing to keep S_CLOSE at bay. BennyBagems threw his car down the inside of FloodSim at Turn 5, squeezing past. hosie09 followed him through but made contact on the exit causing both to lose traction. hosie09 started to pull away by the S curves, while X-3vi1m00n, Ad2mny and S_CLOSE were lined up right behind him. Lap 2. razor4797 got very loose exiting the Chicane, allowing BennyBagems to out drag him on the straight but razor4797 dove straight back at Turn 1. Stumbles01 was on a wide line into Turn 1, allowing BERNSY001 to look up his inside. As they exited Turn 2 side by side, Stumbles01 found himself out of track on the outside, spinning across the track and onto the grass. He recovered well but still rejoined in last. BERNSY001 and garyw61 now had a handy 2 second buffer back to the 4 car battle for 3rd with razor4797, BennyBagems, hosie09 and FloodSim. Ad2mny had a little slide exiting V Corner, and S_CLOSE tried to drive around the outside but ran onto the grass. They were side by side as they approached the Hairpin but Ad2mny out braked S_CLOSE and ran the wide line staying ahead. Stumbles01 had a much cleaner line, coming alongside S_CLOSE on the Downhill Straight and preventing him from popping out of Ad2mny's draft. Stumbles01 held the inside line into 90* corner, taking 9th. hosie09 also ran wide at 90* corner, losing 2 places to FloodSim and X-3vi1m00n, dropping to 7th just ahead of Ad2mny. Lap 3. hosie09 spent all lap trying to pull away from Ad2mny, and at the same time reel X-3vi1m00n in. He made up a lot of ground at V Corner, and again at the Hairpin. He closed right up on X-3vi1m00n at 90* turn but as they run through the Final Chicane, hosie09 gave him a little shunt, pushing him wide on exit and causing a spin. hosie09 slowed to redress and both he and X-3vi1m00n dropped to near 7 seconds off the tail of the field. Lap 5. BennyBagems and FloodSim were running very close to each other, and a dive from a long way back at V Corner put FloodSim into 4th briefly but he ran wide letting BennyBagems back through. Ad2mny ran wide exiting Victory Corner, letting Stumbles01 move up into 6th. Lap 6. X-3vi1m00n got a little taily exiting 90* corner, dropping to last as hosie09 drove past. Lap7. BennyBagems got loose exiting Victory Corner, losing 4th to FloodSim. Lap 9. Ad2mny ran wide and had a spin exiting the Hairpin. S_CLOSE took his 7th place. Then Ad2mny ran wide again at 90* turn, and hosie09 was able to take advantage of Ad2mny's dirty tyres, moving up to 8th. Lap 10. Ad2mny was kicking himself for losing 2 places and was pushing hard trying to catch back up and keep X-3vi1m00n behind. He started to make up time over the lap, but a slow exit out of the Hairpin lost the few hundredths he had just made up. A desperate lunge into 90* turn saw him run wide again, this time spinning back onto the track and falling to last a fair way back from X-3vi1m00n. Lap 11. BennyBagems ran wide exiting Turn 4, spinning out onto the straightaway and losing 5th to Stumbles01. garyw61 dove down the inside of BERNSY001 at Turn 5, momentarily taking the lead but had poor drive on exit and dropped back to second. Their little scuffle allowed razor4797 to tag right onto the rear of the battle. Lap 12. So at half race distance, the leading trio of BERNSY001, garyw61 and razor4797 had a 10 sec gap on FloodSim in 4 th. Stumbles01 was 4 1/2 seconds further back in 5th and BennyBagems 4 1/2 seconds behind him. S_CLOSE was closing in on BennyBagems in 6th, just over a second behind him, while hosie09 was nearly 8 seconds off that battle. X-3vi1m00n was 3 1/2 seconds further back in 9th and Ad2mny trailed the field by 6 1/2 seconds. razor4797 got good drive out of Turn 2, out braked garyw61 into Turn 3, then drove past BERNSY001 exiting Turn 4, taking the lead. Lap 13. razor4797 ran a little deep into Turn 3, losing momentum and allowing BERNSY001 a look down the inside at Turn 5 but could not pull it off. S_CLOSE tried for a dive on BennyBagems at Turn 3 but out braked himself, running into the sand trap, losing a lot of time recovering just ahead of hosie09. BERNSY001 squeezed up the inside of razor4797 at V Corner, but still could not complete the pass in time for the Hairpin, dropping back again. Lap 14. BERNSY001 tried again at Turn 1, but razor4797 bravely kept to the wide line, managing to stay ahead. Another attempt at S Curves paid off, moving BERNSY001 back into the lead. It was to be short lived though, with razor4797 drafting him then outbraking into 90* turn. Lap 15. BERNSY001 attacked again at Turn 1, and again razor4797 stayed on the wide line, but they exited Turn 2 side by side and BERNSY001 made the pass stick into Turn 3. razor4797 out braked himself at Turn 5, fish tailing in the grass and gravel and losing 2nd to garyw61. hosie09 was making little mistakes here and there, slowly dropping away from S_CLOSE and back to X-3vi1m00n. Lap 16. S_CLOSE made it through Turn 2 and 3, but unfortunately DSC'd on the straightaway. X-3vi1m00n was almost within striking distance of hosie09 as they exited Turn 5, and hosie09 looked to be struggling under the pressure. A mistake by X-3vi1m00n at the Hairpin saw him totally miss his braking point, running deep into the gravel trap. X-3vi1m00n still had plenty of gap to stay in 8th ahead of Ad2mny. garyw61 had an untidy last few corners allowing razor4797 right on his tail, and 2 wheels off the edge of the track by garyw61 was all it took for razor4797 to out drive him onto the start straight. Lap 18. garyw61 had dropped slightly off the lead battle, while razor4797 attacked the rear of BERNSY001 at every corner. The rest of the field was very spread out, with no one close enough to even slipstream each other. razor4797 jammed his BZR down the inside at Turn 5 running it out wide and closing the door on BERNSY001's better drive. BERNSY001 stayed on his tail through the S Curves, outbraking him into V Corner. razor4797 came back through under brakes at the Hairpin, and now garyw61 was right back on their tails. Lap 19. razor4797 ran a little deep into Turn 3, putting 2 wheels off the track and losing drive out of Turn 4. BERNSY001 drove past, and garyw61 had a look inside at Turn 5 but couldn't complete the pass. razor4797 drafted back past along the short-track grid straight and was past into 90* turn. Lap 20. Stumbles01 had a spin at Turn 2, running too deep and putting two wheels off the edge of the track. BennyBagems slipped past into 5th as they entered Turn 5. BennyBagems ran deep into 90* turn, having to brake heavily and allowing Stumbles01 right on his tail, but Stumbles01 ran wide on the lead up to the Final Chicane and into the pit lane, forcing a stop. He exited the pits in last place. Lap 21. garyw61 had a dive up the inside of BERNSY001 into Turn 1, but dropped back as they exited Turn 2, then a weird glitch skidded BERNSY001 back behind garyw61. razor4797 now had a fairly comfortable gap in 1st, and put his head down to try pull away. Stumbles01 was struggling on his pit-glitch tyres as Ad2mny slowly pulled away. garyw61 rode up on the inside of 90* turn, causing a little oversteer slide on exit and BERNSY001 pounced taking 2nd as razor4797 increased his lead. Stumbles ran wide exiting the Final Chicane, losing touch with Ad2mny and sealing his last place finish. Lap 22. Another glitch put BERNSY001 back behind garyw61 along the start straight. This time it was garyw61 who warped ahead. BERNSY001 spent all lap trying to find a way back past but they were both at the limit, while razor4797 had found his groove and was disappearing in the distance. Lap 23. Final lap, and BERNSY001 dived down the inside of garyw61 at Turn 1. garyw61 wasn't giving an inch and ran around the outside, holding on to 2nd. It came down to the Downhill Straight, with BERNSY001 drafting alongside then both battling on the brakes into 90* turn, running side by side on exit and into the Final Chicane. garyw61 ran just a little wide onto the straight, losing just enough drive for BERNSY001 to take 2nd by 0.1 of a second. razor4797 took victory by just under 6 seconds. FloodSim drove a very consistent but lonely race to finish 4th nearly 9 seconds back. BennyBagems in 5th, hosie09 in 6th. X-3vi1m00n finished in 7th with Ad2mny 8th. Stumbles01 rounded out the field in 9th. Fastest lap went to razor4797, with a 1:56.507. RACE QUOTES: razor4797 (1st): Great race last night guys. Really good stuff. Across the line in 1st position with a 5 second difference from a fighting Bernsy in second and Gary in third. Thankyou for a very entertaining race guys and congrats. I didn't think I would have any pace in the race but I somehow found it. Looking forward to the next race at Silverstone! BERNSY001 (2nd): Disappointed with 2nd, happy the championship lead is at 22 points. I was very angry after being sent behind you (garyw61) twice from what appeared to be PSN problems, so I wanted second place, clean and fair of course. garyw61 (3rd): Great race last night guys. First half I had a ding-dong battle with Bernsy. Made a couple of pretty bad late-braking passing attempts. Sorry about that Bernsy, and thanks for avoiding me when I did. I decided to pretty much tuck in behind his draft though, as all we were doing was helping Razor catch up to us. Second half was pretty much a 3 way battle between Bernsy, Razor and myself, with Bernsy and Razor slipping away from me occasionally, then I would catch up while they were dicing. I was disappointed to see some lag issues in the last few laps, but it sounded like other divs had similar problems at around the same time, so maybe it was PSN issues? ...He (BERNSY001) drove it as hard as he could through those last 2 corners, without once threatening to hit me, and we went across the line virtually side by side. Was great stuff, and very well driven sir! FloodSim (4th): A very uneventful race for me at Motegi, but I'm happy with a 4th place; it's much better than I was expecting given my inexperience on this track. Razor, Bernsey and Gary were having a massive tussle ahead; I was 10s behind. I thought I might have been able to catch up while they raced each other. But they were the clear leaders this week. Even while racing they were going just as fast as me. The gap got down to as low as 7.5s but I couldn't make an impression on them. I drove 15 laps on my own. But they were clean laps and I brought home some good points with no major incidents, so pretty happy overall. BennyBagems (5th): Good race tonight, I didn't have the speed to hold on to the leaders. Pretty uneventful race to 5th place for me... Good battle with flood early on, but I could tell I was holding him up, I made a small mistake and he got by, another mistake and he was gone. Can't wait to see the replay, looks like the top 3 were having a great battle towards the end. S_CLOSE (DSC): Although not the come back I was hoping for, was still nice to be back. Had absolutely no pace as had not raced in this track before (put a few laps a few nights before in Stu's lobby, but I was dreadful then only managing 2.02s lol) so qualified dead last with a 1.59.9 . Decided to follow up whoever was in front, taking advantage of the draft (and a few errors in the front). Slowly but surely started to improve and before I knew it, did a 57.5 which gave me hope to avoid getting caught by the guys behind and actually started to build a bit of a gap. But then... DSC from Gt server . Went to my room and there was my wife watching YouTube videos lol, she felt real bad about it. Well done razor4797 for the win and fastest lap, and also to BERNSY001 and garyw61 for the final positions. Now we move on to the Division 4 report, coming to you from DoogleDave. Japan put on pleasant weather conditions for the teams from Division 04 as they competed in their Round 5 run around the testing Motegi road circuit. Qualifying saw some fast pace from early on and Doogle took pole position early but this was short lived when Dutch put in a speedy time (1.57.4x) to secure pole. The race was slightly delayed as some drivers had issues joining the room. Eventually the officials made the call to start the race and those not on track would have to wait until round 06 for another drive. At the green light Hatfield had a tremendous start and jumped off the grid quickly to pass Doogle and take second place, coming into turn 1 just behind Dutch. The first few turns saw the pack stay together but it wasn’t long before Dutch and Hatfield created a gap from the field and began what would be a race-long battle at the front of the race. Emmo took advantage of Doogle early and slipped past to claim third position. This would see the two battle for a couple of laps before Doogle managed to sneak by at turn 11 (at the end of the back straight), under brakes on Lap 4. HR31 was chasing close behind and the three drove hard to stay competitive amongst one another. On Lap 6 Emmo made a small error coming out of turn 2 which saw him run off into the sand, allowing Doogle to form a gap and HR to pass by and claim his position. Castro and Homebrew enjoyed their own battle and whilst coming out of turn 9 mid-race, Castro pushed a little too hard and lost control on the ripple strip (thankfully to recover quickly and continue the chase, just behind Homebrew). HR continued to push hard to make gains over Emmo but on lap 14, ran wide coming out of turn 6 which saw him slide across-track and into the wall (just before turn 7). Luckily he managed to get back on track quickly and stayed just ahead of Emmo, who was now closing the gap quickly. Dutch and Hatfield continued their battle at the front of the race and Hatfield took every opportunity and stay ahead of Dutch. Dutch hit the lead during Lap 15 however this didn’t last long as Hatfield quickly resumed lead position on the very next lap. Further back in the pack, Doogle held his gap in third position ahead of HR and Emmo who pushed hard to try and catch him. Castro, Homebrew, Fertro, Molch and Haze had a few battles towards the rear of the field until disconnects hit several drivers (Molch, Fertro and HazeOne).. Late in the race, HR went wide onto the ripple strip coming out of the last turn and upon acceleration spun the car, losing the gap he’d made over Emmo, to which Emmo took full advantage of. Emmo and HR once again continued their battle and after quickly claiming the lead position (again) over Emmo, HR spun out approaching the final turn (on the final lap), spinning off onto the grass, giving Emmo the opportunity he needed to fly by and claim fourth place over a gutted HR who came in close behind in fifth place. Hatfield drove over the line with a comfortable win in the end over Dutch (for second place) and Doogle (for third place – his first ever podium). Unfortunately Turbo and Dek were not in attendance at Motegi, which could have made for a different race had they both been on track. Finishing Positions: 1 Hatfield 2 Dutch 3 Doogle 4 Emmo 5 HR31 6 Castro 7 Homebrew 8 Fertro 9 Molch 10 Hazeone Pole: Dutch 1.57.4xx Fastest Lap: Hatfield 1.57.9xx Disconnects: Molch, Hazeone, Fertro DNS: Disturboed, Dek, Nicko I spoke briefly with a few of the drivers after the race and found out how they thought they performed at Motegi .Emmo: “Had a great race tonight! I held onto the leaders for a while until a wobble dropped me from third. From there HR and I had a race-long duel and he had me until the very end, where he graciously slid off-track to hand me fourth place.” Doogle: “I kept seeing Emmo and HR behind me and had to continually push myself to keep decent laps going as I knew they’d catch me otherwise. Once I made a gap the remainder of the race was very lonely for me. I went into time trial mode and kept trying to hit my markers at each turn – and as a result I hit very consistent lap times. Stoked to finally make it onto the podium!” HR31: “My best race of the season so far, and with no practice on this track, too. Had a very long battle with Emmo and every time I gained enough to look at passing him i’d back off in fear of knocking us both off-track. I eventually gained a 5-6 second lead over Emmo and was looking to pull in Doogle until I screwed up the last conrer and gave my position back to Emmo.” Molch: Bummed about the race. After being disconnected just before the race it meant I started in 9th position. I clawed my way back to fifth by lap 6 or 7 and was gaining on HR31 and made it into his slipstream just before I got disconnected again....oh well, onto next week!!!” Hatfield: “I qualified well for third. Had a great start and was battling with Dutch from the get go. He was right behind me for most of the race until he had a lose and then it was smooth sailing.” Hatfield holds onto a commanding lead for Season 01 (Div 4), however his team is unavailable for the final two rounds, so Dutch and Turbo have their work cut out for them if they are to claim the Season 1 (Division 4) winners trophy. Next round sees the teams head over to the UK where they will battle again around the Silverstone GP circuit. Nice work DoogleDave. Good to have you on board. Congratulations go to Hatfield for the win, and also to GTP_Dutch and DoogleDave for the final podium places. Stay Tuned for Part 3! Division 3 Reporter/Photographer: Jamie (Ad2mny) Division 4 Reporter/Photographer: DoogleDave Editor; Jamie (Ad2mny)
