Season 7 - Division 3

Quali in 2nd spot which was a massive surprise for me, it was a PB time of 1.58.6 but still around a second off times I had seen in earlier practice sessions, so I was pleasantly surprised with that,

Come race start and the glitch relating to default setups struck me again giving me a full 110L of fuel. Dragged the thing off the line and managed to maintain 2nd spot, but it was hard going trying to keep it on track with that much fluid sploshing around. You can really feel the difference especially in the change of direction and under braking.

Only a couple laps in I spun or went deep under brakes, I can't even remember what happened, but I dropped all the way back to 8th or so. Pulled into the pits end of lap 9 as tyres were well and truly shot (the green had disappeared 2 laps earlier) and came out in 13th. After all the pitstops from others were sorted, ended up in 7th and stayed there. Tried chasing 6th down, but couldn't get the gap any smaller than 5 seconds. Towards the end they found some extra pace and pulled away.

Gratz to the podium.

Looking forward to next season, hopefully the setuo glitch doesn't carry across for me.

Thanks dj very happy with that with the crap start to the season. Congratulations to you on your near perfect season. Well done @SuiCid3 on second.

I put down an ok base during qualifying and was really pushing when I lost it on the exit of turn 9. Did a power slide over the sector 1 trap and was 3 tenths up, couldn’t manage to grab it so was into the wall, me done for qualifying. Others seem to have had issues so ended up staring from P3.

The start wasn’t great, got hit from behind (nobody’s fault) glitch in the game. Managed to keep it facing forward but lost maybe 2 or 3 spots on the run to turn 1. @disturboed had a big off early in the race at turn 5 or 6 so picked up a spot, then @mwkw1520 overtook me a lap or two later at turn 1. Not sure how I got back in front but;

Once it had all settled down I was in the train coming 5th with @dj2ca and @Anthonyb just ahead and @SuiCid3 and @Bounty05 up the road a bit. I was quick down the back straight and good under brakes into turn 10, had a look at dj a couple of times but couldn’t make the pass. Throughout the week I hadn’t been able to get my head around turn 12 which is an important corner as it’s then flat to turn 14, that made attacking in sector 3 difficult.

As in dj’s write up he went wide on T14, I went up the inside but was still a little too hot, opening the door for Ant who took it. 3 wide through exit of turn 14 into 15. My pit engineer (crew chief app) was getting excited! “you’re 3 wide” (as was I). There was a little bit of rubbing but 3 wide will result in that. Play on.

Pitted a lap after dj, who must of nailed his out lap as he was a bit further ahead than pre stop. 2nd half of the race was less eventful, couldn’t quite match dj’s pace. Got hit with a 5 second penalty so that put me 8 seconds behind. Came home 5th.

Thanks to annewa too for moving over mid race after I’d pitted. She must off been doing a long 1st stint and not yet pitted so while we were technically racing for position she let me through to continue chasing dj. Props.

Sorry dj for not having lights on, didn’t even realise.

We had some awesome racing last night, you were right on my tail, I was barely managing to keep you behind me, bloody well driven mate. All good about the headlights, it was a bit difficult but we seemed to go ok in the end.

Just wanted to add... I had NO TIME AT ALL to relax last night, that's how crazy a race it was.
The only relief I felt were when Bounty pitted, but even then I still had to string together a perfect run for the overcut, and when he made a mistake to give me a bit of breathing room, and even then I still had to keep Ant at bay.

You thought your highlight reel is long dj? Mine would have been my entire race! Start to finish! Throw in qualy as well for good measure!

Lol yeah I was actually just gonna upload the whole race. Even though I had a little lonely spell for a few laps in the middle it was still bloody intense because I knew I had to be on the limit to even maintain to track position after pit stops had been completed.

Out of interest, what tyres did everyone take at your stops? I think Bounty stayed on softs because his were gone late in the race. I only took a hard on the FL.

Softs all round.
Another reason I had so much pressure to make the tyres last the 12 laps

Hard FL with more PSI in it. Rest were softs. If I was smooth FL was getting to 105-110 degrees through turn 6. 120 plus if not

I have no idea how you guys were able to do the pace you did and still make softs last that long. I was pushing hard and my FL was gone after even 8 laps!

Yeah I was thinking about adjusting my pressures but never ended up testing it enough to know what would work.

With the racing you were doing I'm not surprised.
When I had that practice race with you guys earlier in the week, my tyres were gone by lap 9 coz I was driving too hard.
1 lap of driving like that meant half a lap of tyre life gone, and that significantly drops the amount of laps you can do comfortably in the first stint.

Last night, as long as I held the lead, my plan was to drive smooth and not aggressive. Hold the line that allowed me to stay consistent and flowing, make Bounty (or whoever was chasing) do the hard yards.
Leave that minimal gap on the inside and allow them to dive, there goes some of their tyres.
Hug the inside, let them take the outside and try and power through. Some more tyres gone.
I'm normally always harder than most people when it comes to burning out the tyres so I just can't believe how well it worked in this case.

Edit: I also have no idea how my car changed from the all green #11 to the red #4. I didn't make any changes to the car at all apart from pit strategies...

I took softs on lap 12 at 54% end the race with 52% and ran out of fuel on in lap

Race report
How much fun was that. Qualified 4th and got a reasonable start but not as good as some. Ended up after turn 1 dropping back to 5th with @Bounty05 getting off to a flyer. We where all nice and tight with lots of pressure from everyone I got a move done on @Telum at turn 1 lap 2 and then @disturboed got out of shape at turn 5/6 letting a few of us past. Telum kept tge pressure on then he made a small mistake at turn 6 letting @dj2ca through but didn't drop much time.
I had a small 1 to 2 sec gap to dj behind and bounty in front so I tryed to gain on bounty and keep dj away then bounty got a great move done on @SuiCid3 at turn 1 and that let me close in a little. This freight train of 5 cars where covered by about 3 or 4 second and I was having a ball.
Then dj started to really apply the pressure and a ever so small mistake out of 12 just riding the curb and letting the rear step out gave him a sniff and of course telum wanted in on the action we where 3 wide into 13 I got the under cut at 14 then 3 wide into15 then I just got my nose in front at 16 side by side with dj down the straight and somehow came out of turn 1 in front of them both. The front 2 had got a larger gap of about 4 or 5 seconds due to us battling. I started to pull a gap on the boys battling with @mwkw1520 joining the party then the pit stops started. I pitted at the end of lap 12 but came into pits a little hot and got the wall but no great loss taking softs and 20 ltrs of fuel and came out just behind suicid3 and bounty and just in front of dj i thought how am i going to cope with another 11 laps of pressure but the pressure from dj did really come thank god I was able to keep just enough of a gap to be able to run at a comfortable pace and try to hunt down the leaders. Bounty made a small mistake at 12 and let me past with about 6 or 7 laps to go so then it was head down and get into a good position to have a crack at suicid3 on the last 2 laps. I probably left my push 1 lap too late as we came onto slow cars letting me really close in on him but I just ran out of time crossing the line .4xx behind in second. I ran out of fuel half way down the long straight on my in lap
Thank you everyone for a great race I had a ball.
Congratulations to suicid3 on the win and dj for rounding out the podium and a well deserved championship.
Thanks for all the people behind the scenes that make this happen and thanks to everyone in div 3 for good clean racing all season with big fields every week.
See you on track
Ant

@dj2ca because your a numbers guy just like me in the last 4 rounds (because thats all I was good enough to finish) your average finishing position overall divisions is 16.75 and mine is 16.25 yet again not much between us.

Bloody close! That's awesome

Great footage but from 13 minutes is my favourite part. Thanks dj and familiar that was so much fun respect boys

I will put a highlights package together in the next day or so

I know I sound like a broken record but that was a heaps and heaps of fun...great race guys and gal ...best round of the season.My race was sweet I couldn't catch the dudes in front of me but I had a load of fun,I was just trying to get in to the 1:58s,but I just missed out.Congrats to dj well done mate super consistent good luck next season man ...Thanks to Stu and the guys for making Raceonoz happen every season well done Fellas. Cheers

Nah man don't ever stop telling us how much fun you're having, that's the whole point of all this after all!

I hope we are all racing together for next season it would be for me the best clean racing I've ever had with heaps of respect and quick guys and girl driving as hard as they can