ROOZ NEWS Season 15 Rd 2 Laguna Seca (part 3)

Welcome to part 3 of our race reports for Laguna Seca. In this final part we will hear about the Division 5 and 6 races.



Here is the Division 5 report, Brought to you by VARDZ31:

Season 2 Round 2 of Division 5 Championship saw the drivers at the iconic Laguna Seca Raceway on the beautiful Monterey coast of California U.S.A. After a small delay Qualifying was underway with just 7 combatants. RanoK3n came out on top of the time sheet by just .004 in front of Round 1 winner bjh1012. 3rd on the grid just .3 behind was VARDZ31 followed by Revhead-1000. Copperj32 and Jako155 would be on the 3rd row of the grid, then came mmm-homebrew and Castrosfriendche who was a late entry after being caught out by the 1.07 update.

The new Formula 1 style starting lights only caught Castro out and everyone was away quickly and cleanly on the run to Andretti Hairpin.





With the first 3 of Ranok3n, Bj and Vardz a couple seconds in front of the chasing pack after just 1 lap, Vardz made an absolute dogs breakfast of the entry onto Rahal straight and ended nose first into the inside wall. He would rejoin in 8th and all hope of his maiden ROOZ victory eaten by his faithful Border Collie Sully(lol). Revhead also had a massive off into the corkscrew in the early laps.





By lap 5 everyone had settled into a racing groove, Ranok3n and Bj separated by only a second. Copper with a muchly improved outing from last week is placed in third some 4 second behind, followed by a hard charging homebrew, revhead, Jako, Castro and Vardz still a distant last.

With the field starting spread out, on lap 12 race leader Ranok3n drifted wide in the turn 1 hairpin and this would see Bj take over the race lead.

But unlike like last week where Bj had things all his own way, Ranok3n stayed within striking distance and on lap 16 he was there to pounce on a rare mistake on the exit of turn 3 by the series leader.



At half race distance with Ranok3n and Bj fighting for the race victory, the chasing pack were as follows: Copper in 3rd 25 sec behind, 4th was revhead 7 seconds back, 5th was homebrew 15 second behind, and battling for 6th was Castro and Vardz a further 4 seconds back. Rako155 was unfortunately dis-connected.

With 5 laps to run there were battles a-plenty including the top step of the podium. Ranok3n was managing to keep Bj in his rear view. Copper was running a smooth and consistent race still in 3rd, too far behind to catch the leaders and well clear of Vardz who had made a charge through the pack to be in 4th. Revhead was in 5th but with Vardz still in his sights and Homebrew and Castro were nose to tail.



In the last couple of laps, Ranok3n would stretch the winning margin to 16 seconds after an off from Bj. This was no indication of how close the entire race was for himself and the 2nd placed finisher Bj, who also grabbed the bonus point for fastest lap of the race.



Ranok3n's first text was "that was intense". Taking 3rd place and his first podium finish was copper, 4th was Vardz just 2 seconds in front of revhead followed by homebrew and Castro who were still wheel to wheel as they crossed the line.





RACE QUOTES:

ranok3n (1st): Qualifying was rather interesting with me being able to snag pole off BJ. BJ was setting 1.18's left, right and centre during practice and I figured he had it in the bag for pole and race win. Lucky for me, I was able to set a low 1.19 (didn't get to record qualy times so not sure what it was exactly) and that was enough to keep Bruce's low 19 in check and grab my first pole of my ROOZ career. Managed to have a decent getaway at race start with Bruce and VARDZ in tow. From what I could see, most everyone got a clean start and all those blue dots seem to make it through the first few corners in one piece. Myself, Bruce and VARDZ were slowly pulling a gap on the rest of the field when VARDZ eventually spun one too many times and lost sight of Bruce, who meanwhile was breathing down my neck. On lap 9 or 10? (I'm really bad at recalling details... will need to refer to the replay for correct details) I ran too hot into the first corner and BJ took an easy lead. Lucky for me it was only a brief visit to the beach and was able to bring it back on track to stay 2 seconds behind BJ. A few corners later I had another brief visit to the beach and the gap opened up to 5 or 6 seconds for the next few laps.
I put my head down and did everything in my power to keep calm and power on without going off track again. Lucky for me, BJ managed to spin coming out of turn 2 which allowed me to take the lead again. The rest of the race was bloody intense with BJ breathing down my neck again. The gap between us seesawed between 1-3 seconds for quite a long time. Unfortunately for Bruce, the first mistake gave me a little more breathing room. Then came his second mistake, which gave me a 12 second gap without about 10 laps to go. This was much welcome relief and allowed me to turn down the notch and concentrate on clean and steady laps. Bruce then went on a mission to hunt me down again and the gap slowly whittled down to 5 seconds with 5 laps remaining. I figured I could just keep doing what I was doing and I'll be able to lead Bruce right to the finish line, but alas, another mistake was on the cards and Bruce threw it away with a couple of laps remaining. I don't think I've ever concentrated so hard on a race before. The tiniest of mistakes here is what can cost you, and although my race wasn't 100% clean, I was able to minimise my off road explorations and keep it relatively tidy to bring home my first ever ROOZ win!

bjh1012 (2nd): Hey mate well done (ranok3n) best man won on the day I had a few drinks to calm the nerves but no excuse's I tried my best
to get you but could not so congratulations bud

copperj32 (3rd): Well done to ranok and bj, you were hard to keep up with. It was a good clean race from what i could see. I managed to start in P5, nice clean start from everyone. All was going well until revhead got a wheel in the sand at the top of the corkscrew on the first lap which put him into the sand. That got me into P4 and chasing vardz. Chased vardz for a couple till he went offroading and moved into P3. I had a bit of a gap to P4 so I got into a groove and was slowly catching bj (he must of made a few mistakes). Then I had lapse in concentration and had a few offs which let revhead get close, eventually I had a bit of an off on lap 18 which let revhead past. A few corners later he got a wheel in the sand just before the main straight which nearly put him off the track. I managed to get past him and tried to get a rhythm going and set some consistent lap times. 20 something laps in and I was a good 30 odd seconds behind ranok and bj and had a good gap back to P4 so I eased off the gas a bit and braked a bit earlier and some spots to avoid any spins to try and keep myself in 3rd. I even managed to get a 1.18.731 (couldnt even do that in practice). Congrats again to everyone for a good race and now onto Monza (Oh Joy rain!)

Congratulations ranok3n for your pole and first League race win. Well done also to bjh1012 and copperj32 rounding out the podium.

Now we move on to our final report, Division 6, brought to you by Clevohead:

Div 6 was a ghost town this week for round 2 at Laguna Seca with lonesome polystyrene numbered brake markers tumbling at or around Andretti Hairpin likened to the tumble weeds down a deserted street of a spaghetti western film.

With 5 drivers in total on show, the start was interesting with roughly half the field taking on start penalties, throwing any advantage gained through qualifying out the window.


Starting Grid: Clevo, Purpledog, Pat, peaches, and Motho up front.


Motho followed by peaches, and Clevo in lap 1 on "the cork screw"

Motho made ground early making a clear break away and settling into a monotonous rhythm of uncontested time trial laps, while all the fun was to be had further down the grid between Pat, Clevo, CPTNPEACH, and Purpledog all scrimmaging for a place on the podium with mistakes, place changes, and mayhem in tow.

After approximately 21 laps Clevohead had limped back to the pits after being chewed up and spat out by the cruel unforgiving sandy heartless that is Laguna There he would lay in wait for the glorious site of the 3:00 countdown timer.

Meanwhile Motho was plodding along running consistent laps in solitude with the brief glimpses of slower drivers that he may or may not have lapped.

For what remained of the race, Pat, and CPTNPEACH battled over second place trading position on many an occasion.


Purpledog taking a wide line chasing Pat up "Rahal Straight"

Without any surprise Motho came out on top (along with pole, and fastest lap bonus points), followed up on the podium by CPTNPEACH, Patg65, Purpledog, and Clevohead left licking his wounds in pit lane.


Motho enjoying some of the clean scent of victory.

Onwards and upwards to Monza in the "wet race" that will be interesting to say the least.

In the mean time "Keep it shiny side up"

Clevohead.



RACE QUOTES:

Motho (1st): I was lucky enough to pole, not by much I think and made it through the 1st comer unscathed. It looked like Clevo and Pat were having a bit of a battle which slowed them down, I seemed to get a decent lead quicker than I should have. My strategy was all about not crashing rather than speed, and I was lucky enough to get through the race without a spin. Turns out Peach and Purple were there the whole race and neither I nor Pat could see them. Post race I thought Pat had come second and so did he but it turned out to be Peach second and Pat 3rd. I have no idea how close you were to me ctnpeach so i hope I didn't cause you any grief.

CPTNPEACH (2nd): Only 5 raced tonight. Little disappointing but we still had a good race. Didn't mind the track in the end. Tyres held a lot better this time.

patg65 (3rd): I could see every one on track during the race. Didn't hit anyone on the replay besides a slight incident near the start of the race. Moved up to second place without passing anyone about 2/3 through. I thought peach must have pitted. Then on the last sector of the last lap my position magically changed to third.

Congratulations to Motho for full points this round, pole, win and fastest lap. Well done also to CPTNPEACH and patg65 for the final podium positions.

So another week of racing run and won. On to the cloudy skies of Monza, 100% chance of moisture and 95% chance of carnage, give or take 5%!!

Till next time.

Division 5 Reporter/Photographer: VARDZ31
Division 6 Reporter/Photographer: Clevohead
Tables: DRZ-Hatfield
Editor: Jamie (Ad2mny)

Hmm looks fine on my computer and iPhone. Is your java up to date?

I'll sort it out check back in 15 mins.