ROOZ NEWS Season 16 (GT6 Season 3) Rd 1 Deep Forest (part 3)

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Welcome to part 3 of our League racing reports for Deep Forest. In this part, we will have the reports for Division 5 and 6.

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We will start with Division 5, so here's VARDZ31:

The new season of division 5 in the Mazda MX5 Roadster also saw 5 new members to ROOZ take the green lights for the first time, but it would 4 familiar faces taking up the first 4 spots on the grid. JAKO155 was off the pole with a time of 1'19"3xx, followed by Vardz some 4 tenths behind, then mmm-homebrew & Copperj32. xxDARKOxx was the highest placed of the new div 5 guys, then Z7-Stoners1, Oblisc, Castrosfriendche, Jackbc57pn and at the tail of the field Ostey. The Division will have almost a full grid as a couple of guys (sooby_Scott and AJ Scott) struggled to get into the room, 2 others (revhead_1000 and Motho) are regulars to ROOZ and Kart-No1 was on a plane on his way home from a JUNKET with the boys in Sth E QLD, and was never going to make the grid due to a late flight. So 15 drivers nominated will make for an awesome seasons racing.

Lights out and all are away cleanly except for Jack and ostey at the rear, who are penalised for jumping the start, but the rest and of the field are through turn 1 cleanly and off up the hill on their 1st of 34 laps.



The big mover early was one of the new boys Oblisc who had moved up 2 spots to 5th by the field's first climb up the mountain, and then into 3rd place before the start of lap 4.



Lap 4 would also see the first lead change when JAKO, who had built up a 2 second lead, ran wide at the double left hander before the climb up the mountain which allowed Vardz to grab the lead and put a 2 second gap on Jako by the start of lap 5. But over the next few laps Jako had Vardz's measure and started to reel him in at .5 seconds per lap.



Oblisc, copper & Darko were having a great battle for 3rd spot, swapping positions when one would go off line or when one would get a run on the other with draft assistance down the front straight.



Homebrew, jack and castro were also fighting it out for 6th spot in the lead-up to the 1st of the compulsory stops.

Lap 11 and just prior to the stops the gaps were as follows:
Jako 1'19"728
Vardz + 0.94
Oblisc + 9.0
Darko + 9.1
Copper + 10.7
Homebrew + 17.6
Jack + 24.1
castro + 24.9
Stoner + 28.1
Ostey + 58.9​

After the first round of stops Vardz found himself in the lead with a good out lap, but that was again short lived as Jako with a light fuel load and fresh rubber continued to lower his fastest lap of the race and pull away from vardz at almost a second a lap.

With Jako pulling away and increasing his lead, the rest of the field had spread itself out, with gaps back to the following drivers ranging from 4 to 10 seconds. Everyone was settling into their race pace which in the end saw the entire field have individual fastest laps separated by less than a second ranging from 20'22x to 21'21x. This will certainly make for some great racing across the remainder of the season.

Lap 20 saw Ostey DSC and Jack have an unfortunate incident where he lost control coming onto the main straight and in his attempt to re-join he entered the pits for an unscheduled stop.

Lap 22 and Copper is the first to stop with the gaps as follows
Jako 1'19"514
Vardz + 9.2
Copper + 18.5
Darko + 23.0
Homebrew +30.3
Oblisc + 45.2
Jack + 48.3
Stoner + 55.6
Castro + 56.2
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Lap 26 and Vardz is the last to stop and comes out in 2nd place, only 1 second in front of copper. The fight is on for the remaining steps on the podium as Jako has cleared out to a 15 second lead and in the process again reset his FL to a 1'19"154.

Vardz with the fresher boots maintains his gap over copper and eventually pulls away over the remaining laps. Darko who is in 4th spot makes a charge for the 3rd step on the podium, but the laps run out in his chase of copper and falls just .6 seconds short of a podium finish.​

But the dominant driver of the day was Jako, finishing 14 sec in front of Vardz and bagging the trifecta of Pole & Fastest lap bonus points - 25 points on the day.
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This is Vardz signing off until next round at the deceptively difficult GVE reverse for round 2.



Race Quotes:

JAKO155 (1st): I must be honest, I was very surprised how I raced, qualifying was better than average doing a 1:20.3 for PP.
Start of the race I felt great and my first four laps were excellent averaging High 19s. Then I lost control on the double left turn coming up the hill which gave Vardz a 2 second lead. I was coming up fast until lap 9 where I nudged him on Turn 1 making him lose speed. So I decided to slow down and let him pass before the tunnel. First pit stop I was ahead by 2 seconds, but because Vardz had a good lap after he pitted a lap before me, I was 1 second behind, I only got a comfortable lead (8 Seconds) at about lap 24 when Vardz lost control just after the first tunnel. The last 6 laps were exciting because I had a little with battle with jackbc57pn,I ended up losing control at lap 33 and he drove off into the distance and he stayed ahead of me making sure he was on the lead lap. You have the potential to be a great racer buddy . Anyways claimed my Very first Cleansweep (FL,Pole and win). Congrats Vardz and copper for making the podium. Well done everyone

VARDZ31 (2nd): Round 1 of my second season has started the same way as my first season with a 2nd place. Congratz Jako on your win, you had awesome pace from the start of qualifying... when I saw your 20'35x go on the board I thought wow that's with a full tank. Still managed to grab P2 with a 20'7xx and a start off the front row and away from the impending mayhem. Dragged Jako to turn 1 level with his rear quarter panel and held the inside line through 1 and tucked in behind Jako going up the hill. As the first few laps turned over Jako was in sight but was increasing the gap slightly until lap 4 I think where he ran wide into the fence at the double left handers before the climb up the mountain. I slipped by him and by the time we crossed the S/F line I had a gap of a tick under 2 secs on him. I managed to hold the lead to the first of the stops when I went in on lap 11 and with a good out lap came out on front of Jako when he stopped a lap after I did. But with his pace the lead was short lived and a mistake in the turn 5 tunnel was all he needed to get by me sooner rather than later and a mistake 2 laps later at the same point saw the lead out to 6 secs and I finally conceded that fact that I was racing for the 2nd step of the podium. The rest of the race was comfortable for me not really pushing that hard staying in the 20's but doing enough to keep the gap back to 3rd at a safe distance. The only real drama that occurred for the rest of the race was at lap 30 when Jackbc57 decided it was a good idea to battle me so he wasn't lapped.... This allowed copper & darko who were 6 secs back, back to within 3 sec and it was only that he ran a little wide and left half a gap for me and I had a crack...I may have touched him on the way through....sorry if I did... (edit). Again Congratz Jako and to Copper for rounding podium. Welcome all the new boys to ROOZ and to Div 5 and look forwarded to GVE and round 2.

copperj32 (3rd): Well I think Jako's going to be the guy to beat in Div 5 this year. Man he had some pace. You're supposed to be slower when you go from a controller to a wheel lol. Anyway I had a decent qually and ended up starting from 4th on the grid. I managed to hold onto 4th at the 1st turn but I had oblisc and darko breathing down my neck. About lap 4 or 5 Oblisc and darko managed to get a run on me going up the hill as I lost too much speed coming out of turn 7 relegating me back to 6th. I managed to stay with them untill the 1st pitstops. I pitted a lap earlier than oblisc and darko and took on no fuel to try and undercut them and it worked. I could see oblisc and darko in the pits as I came down the main straight. After a couple of laps I noticed that darko was now behind me and seemed to be catching me real quick and again he got past me (can't remember where) and the chase was on again. I managed to undercut darko in my second pit stop on lap 22 and take back 3rd position as I only put about 16 litres of fuel in (what was I thinking). I had a decent gap to darko until about lap 30 and I could see him getting closer each lap. I crossed the line in 3rd with only vapours in the tank. I was sure I was going to run out coming over the hill down to the finish line and see darko go flying past. It was an awesome race, pit strategys played an integral part and it definitely pays to practice them as mine was I'll play it by ear and see what happens. Good job by the newbies who made it on track as the ones that I encountered got out of the way. Bring on race 2 at GVER----Like this track more

Oblisc (6th):
Thanks for the race Sunday night lads. I was close to not showing up I was so damn ill but thought I would stick it out. Could barely keep my eyes open with this flu. I hadnt turned the ps3 on in a couple of weeks so I was a bit rusty. Ill be practicing a bit this week to bring it for round 2. The first race made me appreciate pit strategy and fuel strategy as I had neither haha! I started from 6th I believe after the most frustrating qualifying I could imagine. Made up a few places over the first 3 corners and sat in 3rd until I ran wide on around lap 9 heading on to the main straight. From there my concentration lacked and I made silly mistakes. First pit stop was lap 11 in which I got undercut by copper or darko. I held pace for a while after the second stop but after another spin from a silly mistake I lost my last position to homebrew. My last stint was a little less eventful and I did pull homebrew right back in for the last 6 laps or so but at that stage it was too late. From the chatter afterwards I think he under fueled for the last stint and backed his pace off for last 4 or so laps. I promise to bring it next week!

CastrosfriendChe (7th): Yeah great job with the podium guys . As I said at the end of last night (and it's worth repeating) you've come out and set the pace for the season ahead. Bastards! lol. Oh well challenge accepted. My race was a non-event. Kind of hoping this first race will become my dropped round. I actually did misplace my glasses the other day and although I can't blame my performance on blurry vision, I've got a freaking migraine that won't quit, mix in lack of practice and well here we are. Their name escapes me atm but I was tailing someone around mid race and was having a good time doing so. Fairly well matched though they had the edge. Watched them go into their first pit stop and decided I'd go into mine come the next lap. When I entered I wondered how I'd fare position wise with so and so ________ when they came back around. I was slightly shocked when they drove by and had a decent gap in front of me now. I knuckled down and come the next pit stop I'm sure I reduced the gap but this time I pitted first and then a lap later they pitted. Low and behold I came around with a decent gap this time. Still not sure of the mechanics of that aspect of the race, perhaps we differed in fuel amounts so pit times varied...plus our own performance on the track. I know I came close to running out of fuel on the tail end of the race. Ok onto GVE-R ...wait, I've never even heard of this track lol.

Nice work there VARDZ31. Congratulations JAKO155, off to a flying start with pole, win and fastest lap. Well done also to VARDZ31 and copperj32 for the final podium positions.

Now for Division 6. Take it away PurpleDog

Round 1 of Season 3. New car. New locations. Some new faces, some old ones. Welcome to another exciting season of ROOZ Sunday League.

This week the field lined up at Deep Forest Raceway to kick off the season in the Roadster TC, a racing version of arguably the world’s favourite economy sports car. Low powered compared to last season’s McLaren monster, but light weight, the spritely MX-5 is set to make for a season of thrills, rewarding the most consistent drivers with finishes well up in the points.

Qualifying saw Pat take the honours of pole position from nomad and Dog. Newcomer SOC posted the fourth fastest time, and the other fresh faces that made it to DFR, Janii and Kev filling out the small grid.​

As the starting board lit up, Janii and SOC got a little excited and let their brakes off early to incur start penalties, allowing Kev to scoot up the inside and start chasing the top 3 to the first corner. Pat had gotten away to a clean start, but Dog and nomad trying to out brake each other almost came to grief. A bit of paint was swapped up till turn 4, where a small but forceful tap from Dog coming out of 3 saw nomad run a cutting line up to turn 4. Realising the error, Dog backed off to allow nomad to keep his position.

Pat by this stage had managed to get a small but comfortable gap on the 3 cars battling to get to the front of the trailing pack. Dog and nomad went wide out of turn 8 one after the other, with nomad faring worst and having a spin which saw him fall to the back of the field.​

As the field settled in for a stint, Kev managed to stay close enough to Dog’s tail to pounce when Turn 8 once again caught him napping at the end of lap 7. After his 8th tour of the circuit, SOC decided to see if his pit crew could find the wall magnets hidden in his bumper and get some fresh rubber and a drink for his Mazda.

Kev came in for his first stop after 9 laps, handing second place back to Dog, and allowing nomad to sneak back up to third, a terrific recovery from his off at the end of lap 1. Lap 12 saw Dog head to the pits for some new boots and a top up, allowing Kev and nomad back through, and which saw a terrific battle ensue through the third sector of the course as they fought to gain an ascendency. Nomad clearly struggling on a badly worn front right had no choice but to let kev through before coming to the pits to get some badly needed tyres.​

On the same lap, Pat had pulled in from a 30 second lead to wake up his pit crew and refresh his tyres for a second stint, getting back out on track still in front.
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Lap 17 splits:

1: Pat
2: Kev + 03.962
3: Dog + 20.670
4: nomad + 38.755
5: SOC + 1 lap
6: Janii + 1 lap​

Lap 18 would see Dog climb back up to second after kev pitted for the second time, which he would hold until pitting himself on lap 22, with nomad also pulling into the pits at the same time.



The end of lap 32 would see the race liven up again for Dog and nomad, as Turn 8 once again claimed the purple MX-5 allowing nomad to overtake as they approached turn 1. With Dog picking a better line he was able to duck under the RZR entry and fire out of the corner with a better exit speed to retake the position. Unfortunately at this point, nomad’s Roadster lost power and he was forced to retire, leaving Dog with an easy run to the line, just one and a half laps away.



After 34 laps, and a solid drive, Pat took the chequered flag with a gap of 33.891 to Kev, and Dog a further 17.635 seconds adrift rounding out the podium. Pat made it a clean sweep with pole and fastest lap for Turn Left Racing. A great start to the season for him, and his team.



Looking ahead we have a trip to Grand Valley Raceway, using the shorter east circuit, which pre-season testing has indicated will be an even tighter race.



Race Quotes:

Patg65 (1st): Taken me till my 3rd season to get my first win.

janiifacee (4th): Congrats on the win pat had a good first week I crashed a lot but will get better. And sorry to webnomad I think I clipped you a little when you passed me will work on my race craft during the week hopefully I will improve . Great race everyone looking forward to next week.

Nice write up PurpleDog. Well done Patg65 who also got a great start to the season, with pole, victory and fastest lap. Good race to from the final podium positions, kevkumkwot and PurpleDog.

So that is all from race 1. Some great battles as always, but made all the more close by the little Mazda's forgiving nature.

Next round will be at Grand Valley East reverse.

Till next time!

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