Division 2 season 10

Great race guys, I will do my race report tomorrow, but was pretty happy with my fastest lap so just to check it...

Race order and fastest laps (pending protests etc)
1. joe90. 1.44.626
2. Natman 1.45.123
3. Stu. 1.45.479
4. Beannie 1.44.422
5. Dutch. 1.44.696
6. Barra. 1.44.446
7. Cob 1.44.683
8 N64. 1.45.174
9. Groover. 1.44.372**
10. Flood 1.45.326
11. Stumbles 1.46.241
12. Aero 1.45.992

So close...

*shakes head. What a disapointment. After an astonishing quali session, by miracle taking pole, the race was on! After grabbing the holeshot, I was pinged into a scary drift by beannie and cj, who was then knocked onto the sand by natman. I contiued to lead until beannie made a quite ridiculous move after the short straight, shredding my rears. But I still kept the lead. I fathomed it would be another titanic battle. However, a malfunctioning HDMI cable would cause some serious pixel stretching, and occasionally a black screen. Fearing it would ruin my race, pressed on. On lap 3, beannie made another somewhat interesting move after the short straight. I gave him room, and he took the lead. But at the 2nd hairpin, I decided to give him a taste of his own meds, and charged up the inside. It worked. He slipstreamed me down the main, but braked incredibly early, gifting me the lead. On lap 5, I cut the 1st corner, so I ceded the position to beannie. This made it a 4 way battle for the lead between me, dutch, joe and beannie. The next few laps provided some of the most incredible racing i've ever been a part of. At one point i was surrounded down the main, but who dares wins and I still came outin front. On lap 8, i decided to pull away, reeling off a 2.5 second lead, I then preseved the tyres, planning a no stop. On lap 10, beannie pitted, which was very early. 4laps later, I pitted. This was where things go from good to very, very bad. Beannie is ahead by 2.5 seconds, and the car feels horrendous on cold tyres. The HDMI turned the screen black down pit road, though I could still hear the race through my Turtle Beach PX5. After furious adjustments, the picture was clear exiting. A blew a sigh of relief. Or so it seemed. After starting the second sector. The inevitable happened. Screen was black. Desperately hoping to save the car through judging the feedback in my G27, i tried to save the car from spinning. But as the screen came back, I was facing the wrong wall in the gravel. You f@&w&_ping c@&t! I was down in tenth place, and the chances of finishing ahead of my nemesis was gone, let alone the win. It didn't matter anyway as the car felt tremendously slow. To rub salt into my wounds, grooves was approaching at a vast rate of knots. On lap 17, Grooves made a hilariously ballsy attempt into turn one. It was never going to work, and he slid into the tyre barrier. Trying to avoid him, i hit the wall too. My recovery time was gone. On the next lap, we commenced our battle. We continued to trade places. On lap 20, he dived up the inside, but it didn't work, and received a very harsh penalty. At the end of lap 21, I see a backmarker in the distance. With a toot of the horn, i hoped he would let me past. Until I realised, it was Stumbles! This was for 8th place! I dispatched him easily. And that's where I finished. Congrats to Joe, Stu and natman on choosing the correct strategy. Congrats to grooves on also earnig the fastest lap, a 44.3. It was a race of incredible highs and desperate lows. I'm now cursing my decision to pit, and my HDMI cable. I must say I will be investing into a new one. Thank goodness you can drop your worst round, as this round has put a huge dent to my title aspirations. I'm also banking on penalties, but I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.
Good luck for Tsukuba everyone!
Cheers, Jono.

You were 2nd on my screen stu.

Stu I see you as 2nd by 0.026

Race report:

After "blitzing" practice, i qualified a modest 4th place.
Off the line and brake way too late, passing CJ and Natman, and giving N64 a love tap up the rear, nothing major, didn't unsettle him. i back off and let natman and CJ though while maintaining pace, notice CJ a little slow after taking a tight line after the first corner, and tap up the rear, however natman (whilst taking the inside racing line - as much as possible with 4 cars battling for possy) nudges CJ and has a small slide into the boonies, unlucky!

I settle in 2nd place behind N64 and coming up to the end of the short straight, notice N64 taking a wide line (which i didn't realise is his normal line), and make a bold inside dive on him. I couldn't pull it off and send him a tad sideways, backed off and gave him enough time/room to continue in 1st.

Same thing happens on lap 3 (i think), end of short straight and N64 brakes earlier on the outside line, i again make a bold move on my "normal" line for that corner, and scrub panels taking 1st place. I get a bit cocky, and understeer in the chicane and hand N64 back the lead.

many laps fly by with TTRJoe, Dutch, myself and N64 all swapping places until about lap 10. Looking at lap times, i realise i am getting no where fast whilst in the heat of the battle with 3 other competitors. I make the decision, on the fly, to pit a lap earlier than i was anticipating. I see the other 3 continue on, and i think/hope i can get a good outlap in clean air, which i do.

Dutch pits next lap, and i make a position on him by about 3 seconds. I have warmer tyres and manage to pull a bit of time out on Dutch, i then notice N64 pits and again, make about 5-6seconds on him with Dutchy behind. Great!! All we need now is for TTRjoe to pit and i should be running in the lead. Not sure what happened to N64, but he may have had a spin on green tyres.... great again, i think.

Lap 15/16 comes by and i think to myself, hang on - THESE GUYS AREN'T PITTING!!! omg, nerves occur and I need to be on the hunt. I keep thinking Smoooth, quick consistent laps and i hope i can catch the guys in front.

I manage to stumble across Stumbles who's struggling with grip, and i manage to simply overtake him on the outside. Next up Aero. Next thing, on lap 17 or 18 Aero pits and i think - that's very late, he should have kept going!

This puts me in 4th place behind TTRJoe, Natman and Stu who haven't pitted. The gap kept coming down from 38seconds, all the way to about 14 seconds coming into the last lap. All this time, i've managed to get Dutch away from me (about 3/4 seconds behind) and without him getting into my slip stream.

Last lap, i push and push, and manage see Stu and Natman ahead battleing for 2nd - i push and push, and coming into the back straight, settle for 4th place across the line. Another lap and i may have had Natman and Stu for 2nd place, but it was not to be!

All in all, a great race, at an unfavourable track, and managed a decent points finish. Next up, Tsukuba Sprints !!!!

EDIT: BTW, if anyone was wondering about my early braking at the end of the straight, i was trying to be careful - many practice sessions but still couldn't get the best braking point under slipstream. N64, thats why i pretty much handed you the lead on that particular lap, i was too nervous of running on!!!

I won't have time to write a complete race report but Stig & Beanie have got most of it covered WD.
Well i'm pretty stoked with that win for sure!
Never managed to meet anyone in the week for practice runs so was alittle nervious about how fast i was - did a complete race run and found the tyres were good to go the distance barring any major scrubbing from accidents etc. - everyone was keeping thier race stratagem pretty close to thier chests so it was a great relief to see Beanie,Dutch & then finally Stig swing right into the pits.
Those first 10laps were just outstanding - so close with just little taps here and there but it was enough to obviously affect the others tyres.
I knew if i could hold my laps in the 1,47 to 48 range i should make the finish up the front and was watching with great interest Nat & Stu battling each other 5sec behind hoping they would keep thier distance.

Thanks guy's - looking forward to next weekend!

Probably a stuff up on my part Stu. I was mainly concerned with the fastest laps. I will check my replay again tonight. I remember thinking it was close though.

Race report...

I was reasonably confident of my pace going in, given that I did a 1'44.4 on Thursday (on half fuel). Couldnt really get it together in quali, only got a 1'45.0 good for 7th or 8th. Got an OK start, but Groover? got a flyer and blew past me. Tried to keep my nose clean in the first few corners, gave Stu a little tap, then got walloped by Natman as re returned to the track between turns 4 and 5. Then settled in, watched Stu and someone else out brake themselves into turn one and got to 7th at the end of lap one, and got T-boned by Natman again at turn 4 on lap four as he half spun.

A couple of decent laps and I was on Cob's rear bumper and we got to chasing down the top 4. Dont know what you were thinking Cob, but I was hoping to draft each other up to them. It worked on a couple of laps, but a mistake by one or both of us generally didnt help. Got within a couple of seconds by the time we pitted though.

My tyres were still pretty good when the guys in front started peeling into the pits, but given my poor recent form at making tyres last, I went in to be on the safe side on lap 13. Came out right on Cob's bumper again, and we were never more than 1 second apart for the rest of the race. By lap 15, I realised that there were a few guys not pitting, and I wasnt going to catch them.

Oh well, on to beating Cob.... we were that close in pace that right place right time was the key. My plan was to pass at the end of the straight at the start of lap 25 and hold off the challenge. My plan got f#^ked up when Cob was good enough to keep the inside of turn 2 and hold me off. Hmmm.... best hope from here was sticking really close and hope for a chance. Got my best run of the race on to the back straight on the last lap and was able to pull alongside and make the pass. Woohoo. Now all I had to do was get onto the speedway cleanly, which was not a given. Did it well enough and just hugged the inside grass/wall all the way to the line. Another 100m and I was probably toast.

Anyway, great racing Cob, I think the only paint we swapped was at the double hairpin on lap one, which was entirely my fault. Well done to the lads who made the tyres work.

yep totally stu.. from my view i was holding the outside line (because i knew there was 1 or 2 cars on my inside) then i got knocked onto the grass.. really didnt look 50/50 from where i was sitting, but i didnt watch the replay, so ill take your word for it. I normally keep my cool, and i probably would have continued on... but going from 2nd to last to 11th to last in the space of two laps through no fault of my own took its toll... like i said, i didnt want to ruin anyone elses night driving angry. chalk it up to experience..

Bloody hell, we're equal on points beannie, it's on now!

haha N64 , i'm not taking too much away from it at this stage. i could be missing 2 rounds yet.
this week is tough, i'm camping all weekend at straddie island and may not make it back in time for the race start... and at this stage i could be in cairns for round 5 or 6 for a week which could put me out....

Noooooooo, screw your trip, nothing is more important than GT5. NOTHING!!
But have a nice week anyway.
Cheers, Jono

there is a chance when i'm in cairns, taking the PS3 with me. though i'll be using a 3g wifi usb dongle (like greendog does) and only a PS3 controller... not the most ideal but i can still play (pending lag)

just realised a nonstart (NS) does count for drop round - that's good if i miss a round, i shouldn't be affected much (hopefully, if other rounds are good)