Welcome to Part 2 of our League racing reports from Silverstone. In this part, we will bring you the Division 3 and 4 reports. Here is the Division 3 report: GRID: razor4797, garyw61, hosie09, andrew_f_41, FloodSim, Ad2mny, X-3vi1m00n, Stumbles01. Flustered by a DSC at the start of qualification, Stumbles01's qualification did not match his true pace. garyw61 got a brilliant start, jumping off the mark straight into the lead before Abbey. hosie09 bogged down off the line, losing 3 places, but retaking Ad2mny out of Abbey. Stumbles01 got a good start to, moving up ahead of X-3vi1m00n briefly but falling back as they approached Arena. razor4797 drafted past garyw61 into Brooklands, taking the lead. andrew_f_41, FloodSim and hosie09 exited Arena 3 wide, and while hosie09 got the best exit, Ad2mny snuck past andrew_f_41 and FloodSim along the straight. FloodSim stayed on the outside and andrew_f_41 drafted them both into Brooklands but out braked himself, splitting Ad2mny and FloodSim down the middle and running wide onto the grass recovering just behind Stumbles. Now Ad2mny started to struggle, having started the race with no instruments, he was driving blind to speed references, losing a lot of time in the second half of the circuit. Both hosie09 and Ad2mny ran too deep into Copse, running wide. FloodSim moved alongside Ad2mny into Maggots, moving up to 4th. Ad2mny rode up high on the ripple strip at Maggots, now zig-zagging from one side to the other with low traction, losing time again with 2 wheels on the grass, and then allowing X-3vi1m00n up one spot as he ran again on the grass at Becketts. FloodSim ran wide exiting Becketts, running straight across the grass at Chapel and losing a large amount of drive and dropping back in between Stumbles01 and andrew. This also created a large gap between the lead 3 cars of razor4797, garyw61 and hosie09 back to the next 5 cars, running line astern nearly 2 seconds back. Ad2mny slowed too much at Stowe, losing 5th to Stumbles01 and briefly holding up andrew_f_41 and FloodSim who were entering Stowe side by side. andrew_f_41 drove out of the corner and up into 6th, while Ad2mny fell all the way back to last behind FloodSim. Lap 2. Stumbles01 was looking for a way past X-3vi1m00n out of Abbey, and as they entered Arena, andrew_f_41 drafted them both, breaking through onto the straight. Stumbles01 stayed alongside X-3vi1m00n along the straight, but dropped back not getting andrew_f_41's draft. X-3vi1m00n ran a little wide at Luffield, opening the door for Stumbles01 to slip past. Meanwhile, up ahead the leading trio were running nose to tail, but both garyw61 and hosie09 drafted past into Stowe. hosie09 fish tailed on exit, losing drive and dropping back into 3rd. Lap 3. hosie09 came alongside razor4797 into Arena, but a bit of panel bashing on the switchback pushed hosie09 a little wide with two wheels off the track. razor4797 slowed to let hosie09 ahead on the straight. This gave garyw61 a bit of a breather and spread the top 3 out slightly, but it was to be short lived. Ad2mny finally sorted his instrument problem into Arena with a quick pause-un pause in the braking area. Stumbles01 got a brilliant run out of Luffield, outbraking andrew_f_41 into Copse moving to 4th. razor4797 got a good hold of hosie09's draft out of Chapel, trying an outbrake into Stowe but hosie09 stayed on the outside, holding 2nd position into Vale. As they exited club, hosie09 oversteered slightly giving razor4797 the better drive onto the front straight, and as they started Lap 4 razor4797 passed hosie09 into Abbey. Stumbles01 also got loose exiting Abbey, losing 4th to andrew_f_41. Lap 4. garyw61 ran too deep into Abbey, losing some of the lead he had on the duelling 2nd and 3rd places. Both FloodSim and Ad2mny ran wide in the middle of Arena, dropping back slightly, but Ad2mny recovered better, drafting then outbraking FloodSim into Brooklands. Ad2mny drafted up to X-3vi1m00n into Stowe, but trying to get early drive caused a fishtail which dropped him back behind FloodSim into last. Lap 5. The battle for 6th really heated up this lap. FloodSim got good drive on X-3vi1m00n out of Woodcote and made the pass into Copse. There was a little tap on exit and X-3vi1m00n lifted slighty to maintain his line, which allowed Ad2mny through on the inside as well. Ad2mny still had good drive and came alongside FloodSim at Maggots, eventually moving ahead into the left turn. X-3vi1m00n ran very hot into Maggots, running wide and onto the infield area. As he rejoined on dirty tyres, a huge slide cost him a lot of ground. FloodSim still had a hold of Ad2mny out of Becketts and drafted back up behind at Stowe. FloodSim had a huge dive on brakes into Vale closing right up. Ad2mny rode up onto the ripple strip, unsettling the car and starting a fishtail. FloodSim saw a gap open up on the exit and dove in, just as Ad2mny's fishtail swung back the other way. There was light contact made to FloodSim's outside rear wheel which didn't seem to affect him, then he oversteered as he put power down on exit, having a half spin onto the grass. He rejoined the track in last but soon after parked up. He said after the race he had been struggling for consistency and could not find any pace. He did not hold Ad2mny responsible for his spin, saying it occurred after the contact. Lap 6. Stumbles01 came along side andrew_f_41 into Arena, making the pass stick as they exited the sharp left. razor4797 drafted past garyw61 into Stowe, taking the lead. andrew_f_41 was pushing hard to keep with Stumbles01, and an attempt for better drive out of Vale had him fish tailing wide, losing ground on Stumbles01. The field was really spread out now and overtakes were few and far between. I guess this just attests to the even abilities of the drivers. razor4797 pushed hard but could not break free of garyw61. By Lap 11, the lead 2 were still hard at it. hosie09 hovered about 5 seconds back in 3rd. andrew_f_41 slowly closed the gap back up to Stumbles01 in 4th. Ad2mny in 6th was 10 seconds further back, with X-3vi1m00n 5 seconds behind in 7th. FloodSim parked up on Lap 10 as he was really struggling, around 30 seconds off the rear of X-3vi1m00n. Lap 12. garyw61 had a great run on razor4797 into arena, and even briefly flashed into the lead as they entered the sharp left, but got bad drive on exit and losing ground on razor4797. Lap 13. Things looked up for garyw61 as he regained razor4797's tow leading up to Stowe, but a slide into Vale by garyw61 lost all the ground he'd just made back up. Lap 14. garyw61 was pushing hard to get back up to razor4797. A little too early and heavy on the power at the first right into Arena saw him oversteer and run off the outside of the track, allowing razor4797 to pull away and put hosie09 right on his tail. andrew_f_41 was now right behind Stumbles01 at Arena, but they were now running laps that were only a couple of tenths apart and were holding positions. Same too for Ad2mny and X-3vi1m00n in 6th and 7th. Lap 15. Stumbles01 lost his 4th place as he missed his brake marker into Copse, running wide and losing a lot of speed. A touch of the grass exiting Becketts caused Stumbles01 to spin out, losing touch with andrew_f_41 but far enough ahead not to lose any more places. Ad2mny got a bit excited when he saw Stumbles01 start to appear on his map but the gap opened back up again. So for the final laps there were no position changes. Hosie09 tried to bump-draft garyw61 up to razor4797 but he was too far ahead. Ad2mny started to feel the pressure from X-3vi1m00n who was slowly reeling him in, but on Lap 19 X-3vi1m00n ran a little wide at Arena in between the right-left then again at Luffield which dropped him too far back to challenge again. On the final lap hosie09 popped out of the slipstream and moved up to 2nd at Stowe and managed to hold garyw61 off to the line. Razor4797 finished 1st with a lead of just under 6 seconds. andrew_f_41 finished 12 seconds behind the battle for 2nd. Stumbles01 was a further 10 seconds behind in 5th, Ad2mny 10 seconds further back with X-3vi1m00n just under 2 seconds behind. FloodSim was still parked up but claimed 8th position. Fastest Lap: razor4797 2:07.337 RACE QUOTES: Razor4797 (1st): A good race last night guys. With Bernsy not racing, I knew I had to score as many points as possible to keep my championship hopes alive, and fortunately, I did. On my final flying lap I got pole, just ahead of Gary. I got a decent start but Gary got a much better jump and was leading into the first corner. Gary and I were close for a few laps until Hosie caught up and turned it into a three way battle. I'm not sure what lap it was, maybe lap 8 (?), but Hosie and I made a little contact coming out of the right hander of turn 3. It may have been lag or even my own fault as I haven't experienced many lag punts before. He dropped back a little and I felt like I should do the right thing, so I slowed and let him past. Gary now had a few seconds advantage over me and Hosie. We caught him within about 4 laps and it was close again. I got into the lead and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the race. I think Gary might have made a mistake somewhere because I got out to a comfortable lead pretty easily. Well done to the rest of the field. From the sounds of it there were some nice fights. I'm really happy to have used Silverstone to my full advantage and I am now in a great position to win the championship. It will be a very exciting finish at Bathurst next weekend! hosie09 (2nd): I ran wide a few times on that fast right hander that used to be the main straight. And it got worse near the end with lack of front grip. The few times I did do it and caught Gary I just nudged him so he stayed in front. It's not right to try and overtake when it wasn't earnt. garyw61 (3rd): You should have just gone past me though mate (hosie09), it was obvious that you were going much faster than me by that stage. Your clever plan to bump draft us closer to Razor nearly worked though! It was a race of 2 halves for me last night. The first half I managed to have a great battle with Razor by jumping in to his draft every time he got past me, but a mistake saw him sail off in to the distance. Didn't take long before Hosie caught up with me after that, and we stayed together for the rest of the race. Great racing by both you guys, thanks, had a ball. andrew_f_41 (4th): Good race last night, Qualified fourth, I think? Decided I could go between Stumbles and Flood, on the opening lap, into the tightening left near the old pits. Which I did, but forgot about braking went well wide. Had a tough time trying to catch back up to stumbles and Moon, I was catching them at 1mm/hr! Towards the middle of the race, was very close lap times between Stumbles and me for many laps. He made a mistake before I caught him.. I was struggling to work out how to get round him, so that made things easy! Lonely finish. Stumbles01 (5th): Another disappointing night, had some great racing with Andrew in the middle, but I ran out of skill on lap 15 and ran wide, then spun coming out of Maggots or Beckitts (out of the esses...lol) and that was that. Luckily, Ad2Mny and Moon (X-3vi1m00n) were battling each other and had dropped back a bit so brought it home in 5th. Ad2mny (6th): No dash display for first couple of laps. Got a good start too then just got in everyones way trying to sort it out. Eventually on lap 3 when i was last, coming into the first tight right hander, paused it in the braking area for a millisecond then unpaused (timing it perfectly mind you and not losing any time, just sayin...) and it come good. Flood and 3vi1 were going at it and on lap 5 they tripped each other up enough for me to find a way past. Into the last left right before the final chicane I rode up on the curb and got a bit of oversteer and started to fishtail, but just as it was swinging back the other way FloodSim tried to squeeze by on the inside. I tapped his outside wheel then he spun out the other way. Not sure if that was my fault, don't think it was as I was out of control and it was only a light contact so I kept going. He parked up not too long after. 3vi1 started catching me slowly then got to a certain distance back and stayed there. Got a bit excited when breifly I saw I'd closed on Stumbles but he pulled the gap back out. Lap 19 or 20 made a little mistake mid lap near the fast S', and looked like 3vi1 had the better of me but he made a little mistake which cost him plenty, and I held it together till the end for 6th. So tense it was for me trying to keep my lap times up with 3vi1 pushing so hard behind, and kept fading out thinking about the incident with FloodSim. FloodSim (DNF): Sorry for parking up last night guys. I'm not familiar enough with how to drive the track so struggled to get any clean laps. Fluked a 2:09 in quali to start 5th but soon fell a long way behind everyone else after a heap of spins and mistakes. At half race distance I wasn't in the contest at all and was sweating my arse off (35c in Brisbane yesterday) so I packed it in. No hard feelings Ad; I spun off after the tap I got from you but it had no affect on my race or my decision to stop. It was my own inability to stay on the road that put an end to my night. Congratulations to razor4797 for the triple crown: pole, fastest lap and victory! Well done to hosie09 and garyw61 for the final podium placings. Now we will move on to the Division 4 report. Here's DoogleDave: This round saw teams battle around the famous Silverstone GP track which had all the elements we love so much about our racing - speed, crashes and some close, hard racing. Dutch managed a time of 2.07.6 during qualifying which saw him secure pole position and headed the field on the grid. On the green light Emmo launched off the grid and jumped from fifth to third by turn one. As the field made its way around the first few corners without major incident, Dutch and Molch began their domination at the front of the pack, slowly breaking away. Dbn dropped back a spot after Doogle passed by, on his way to make up ground on Emmo. Coming out of club at end lap one, HR31 ran wide which saw him lose his position to both Castro and Homebrew moments later. Dbn drove hard to try and make a pass on Doogle but ended up pointing in the wrong direction, losing a position. HR31 caught Dbn and kept the pressure on which forced Dbn to over-drive, putting the power down a touch too early coming out of Luffield, ending in another spin. Yet again, Doogle and Emmo start playing cat & mouse as Emmo continues his great pace around the track with Doogle close behind. This battle lasted a few laps until Doogle took a chance and made a pass under brakes to sneak past Emmo. Emmo kept the heat on Doogle and followed in his slipstream until pushing too hard coming into Vale where oversteer got the better of him and the car briefly left the track, conceding his position to Haze, who was chasing hard to catch the two. Mid-race, Haze drove straight off track coming into Brooklands, hitting the wall head on and it took some 30+ seconds to return to the track. This costly error saw Haze drop from fifth place to ninth (last). Meanwhile at the rear of the field, Castro and Homebrew enjoyed their own battle, taking turns at running wide or “almost” losing it on the grass. Haze drove with determination after his crash and eventually closed the gap, passing Homebrew and continued to chase down Castro. At the same time, Dbn inched closer to HR31 and eventually caught him. With a great run out of Stowe, Dbn passed HR31 coming into Vale and moved up to fifth place. Lap 16 saw Dutch really put the screws on Molch, who had been leading the race for the majority. Along Hangar straight Dutch used the slipstream to overtake and grab the lead over Molch, coming into Stowe. Molch kept his cool and continued the pressure on Dutch to keep up the pace. His reward came two laps later when Dutch ran wide coming out of Chapel, allowing Molch to slip back past him to reclaim the lead. From there, Molch held it together and although Dutch made a final push on the exit to Vale in the last lap, Molch managed to hold him out to take the victory (with Dutch right on his tail). Doogle followed soon after to take out 3rd place, his second podium in a row. Final placings: 1 Molch 2 Dutch 3 Doogle 4 Emmo 5 Dbn 6 HR31 7 Castro 8 Haze 9 Homebrew Qual lap: Dutch 2.07.6xx Fastest lap: Dutch 2.09.2xx DSC: nil (YAY!) DNS: Fertro, Disturboed, Hatfield, Nicko I again spoke to some of the drivers post-race to get their impressions of their efforts: Fertro:“Damnit, the usual Sunday issues have arrived” *Fertro was a DSC for this race. Better luck at Bathurst! Emmo (4th): “Had a good, fairly straight forward race last night, qualified 5th, got a good start to move up to 3rd by turn 1. Dutch from pole and Molch started to gradually pull away and DB didn't take long to put me back a place but he then slithered wide coming onto the old start/finish line and fell back. A couple of laps later Doogle got a great run onto that same straight and took me into the fast right hander at the end of it. I managed to slither back past him again at the esses just up the road but he got by me again shortly after. I tried to get back at him but nearly ran into the back of him twice, I nearly ran off track at the end of Hangar straight and then did run off in avoidance at the sharp left after the pit entrance. Luckily the area off track was firm and I only lost a couple of seconds but Haze slipped through in that brief moment to put me back to 5th. A lap later Haze power oversteered off to the inside coming onto the new pit straight and I was clear to chase after Doogs again. All that had happened in the first seven laps and from there I settled down to try not to make any mistakes and close on Doogs if I could. I guess he was about 4 seconds in front and I held the gap for a while but then he slowly pulled away. With about 4 laps to go I was starting to close on him and with a big gap behind me I decided I could gamble a spin against trying to catch him. I very nearly did catch him, catching would have been one thing, passing would have been a bit more difficult. In the chase I set my best lap on the last lap and very nearly stole FL of Dutch. a lot of nearlys there, but I enjoyed the last few laps.” Doogle (3rd): Yes, the first half a dozen laps were great fun and when I passed Emmo and then he got by me not long after I thought we were in for another long and arduous tussle (a la Econobox Cup), but when he spun on the last chicane around lap 6 that gave me the opportunity to stop worrying about being chased and just hit my markers lap after lap. For a brief period I started making some ground on Dutch (who I think had recovered from an error) but his pace was high and I realised it was unlikely I'd be able to catch him unless I really pushed hard (probably too hard), which would see me come unstuck, so I settled into third position and just kept my head down. Come the last few laps I decided not to push it too hard in fear of making a dumb mistake and have all my efforts taken away and watching Emmo pass me by. I must admit, on that final lap I noticed Emmo getting closer and closer and I started thinking maybe I'd taken it too easy at the end of the race but with only a couple of turns left in the race I knew as long as I didn't try and overdrive I'd sneak over the line for another podium finish....which thankfully worked out. Looking forward to the final round at Bathurst Dutch (2nd): Yes a win would have been better for me here but Molch to his credit ran a great race and definitely deserved the win. I admit I had drank more than was helpful before getting online and wasn’t feeling the best but im not going to use that as an excuse. What lost me the race was my consistent inability to really get becketts right and this is where i really messed it up on lap 9 to give molch something like a 9 second lead on me. Our pace was very even iI thought but i ploughed away as best iI could, hoping to claw him back and I made small consistent strides into his lead but I think he may have had a few hairy moments as well to lose larger chunks of time and after a while i was right back on him. Passed him on the inside at Stowe but I noticed in the laps that followed that i was definitely not taking Stowe or maggotts/becketts anywhere near as good as molch, but possibly taking vale better. The end result was I just could not get away from him. I ended up messing up becketts again and watched molch get about 3-4 second lead on me with maybe 3 laps left to race. Had my chance on the last go into vale but just wasn't good enough and Molch took the win. Well done mate, i really enjoyed our even pace and you had me pushing the entire time. Lets see if i can get a PERFECT race at bathurst to spoil DRZ's hopes and actually WIN a race this season Though if i am honest, i haven't spent a lot of time there and know nothing about the pit glitch so will be tough. And more laps means more time to make mistakes (my trademark this season) but I'll certainly give it a go. The final round of season 01 will be held at Mt Panorama where Dutch needs to finish better in the top two spots to claim championship victory for this season over Hatfield, who will not be in attendance for the final round. With the pit glitch looming some strategy will be needed as to when teams decide to pit for fuel and tyres. Should be a good contest for many drivers! Congratulations Molch_82 on victory, and also to GTDutch and DoogleDave for the final podium positions. Stay tuned for Part 3! Division 3 Reporter/Photographer: Jamie (Ad2mny) Division 4 Reporter/Photographer: DoogleDave Editor: Jamie (Ad2mny)
