Welcome to part 2 of our League racing reports from Monza. In part 2, we will hear from the Division 3 and 4 reporters. Hear is the Division 3 report, brought to you by smokinscotty: Ahoy land lovers! Welcome to the big wet! Greeted to Monza with rainclouds and puddles, driving an animal of a car, this would prove to be a real test for the brave souls of division 3 who were brave enough to pull anchor and set sail for 26 laps of edge-of-the-seat racing. S_Close was dominant in open practice setting a blistering pace, and when time came for qualifying he didn't muck about and parked up on pole. Smokinscotty put in a last ditch effort to jump from 5th to 2nd in the final lap of Qualifying to complete the front row. They were followed by Dutch, Gary, Sparklehead, Slambo, Groover, Stumbles, S5aved and Hatfield rounded out the pack of 10 starters. A race of attrition was on the cards. All the red lights lit up and the two orange cars (Scotty and S5aved) made a break for it, only to cop a four second penalty and a large dose of embarrassment. When the race actually started S_Close made a clean break, as the rest of the pack tried to squeeze through the mobile chicanes of the jump starters. Having never seriously blown a start like that, Scotty tried to get off the racing line, allowing most of the field room. However Hatfield had another tremendous start and was moving to the inside to start his climb to the top only to hit Scotty's car and end up in the pit wall. On the opening lap S_close went in too deep into the second chicane, and cut the second apex considerably. Being the gentleman he is he moved off line and forfeited any advantage he may have gained. This gave Dutch a good run up on him and coming into the next turn he made a very bold move around the outside to take the lead convincingly. In this shot, you can catch a glimpse of Sparkles (in pink) having a dive on Groover at the same corner. Unfortunately for him he went in too hot and had to watch the field go by from the beach. Fast forward to lap 5 and things went a little crazy. Stumbles had an off exiting the second chicane and was fighting to try and rejoin without interfering with the racing line, losing a lot of time. Gary got loose entering the back straight, pin-balling off the inside tyre wall right into the path of Slambo. He fired the port side cannons at him and sent him spearing into the opposite wall. (possible lag?) With Slambo Ghosting across the track, and Gary redressing further down the straight, the door was wide open for Scotty, Groover and Hatfield to jump up two spots each. While all this ruckus was happening, Dutch came unstuck exiting Ascari, clouting the wall and handing the lead back to S_Close. And that would be the last the field would see of him! On Lap 7 Dutch had a spin, losing position to Scotty and Slambo. As the drivers got into the groove of the conditions, two main packs developed. Third, fourth and fifth held by Slambo, Dutch and Gary, were keeping each other honest and doing a great job to stay in touch with one another, until Slambo started to ease away and gain on Scotty. Further back Groover, Sparkles and Hatfield had a torrid time. One by one, making mistakes but somehow managing to find each other throughout the race for just long enough to pressure someone else into a mistake. In the end, it was smooth sailing for S_Close who took out the win, combined with the Pole Position and Fastest Lap (1:47.137) of the race to take away maximum points and give his championship hopes a real boost. Scotty recovered well to claim his second podium for the season with Slambo grabbing the final step on the podium. While most struggled, there was some great action in this race. I'm sure there is a lot of relief in the pits that the opening rounds are done with and now we can move on to some more civilised tracks and conditions. Final positions: 1st S_CLOSE 2nd smokinscotty 3rd Slambobagon 4th GTP_Dutch 5th garyw61 6th DRZ-Hatfield 7th groover33 8th Stumbles01 9th sparklehead83 10th S54VED RACE QUOTES: S_CLOSE (1st): Finally got to win a race again, same as Stumbles, season 12 in the nurburgring I think. Started on pole and got a clean good start with Dutch behind, but stuffed the braking mark of the second chicane and cut it really bad, so eased off the throttle to lose the advantage. This was enough for Dutch to get through, so settled behind him and we started to break away. This lasted until Dutch had a moment and gifted back the lead where I stayed until the end. Realised was running out of petrol three laps from the end, so went into safe mode and finished with vapours Yikes!! Well done to Scotty and slambobagan for rounding up the podium, great stuff. smokinscotty (2nd): How embarrassing! Jumped the start massively, copped a 4 sec penalty. Tried to get off line/track so not to ruin anyone else's start only to unghost infront of Hatfield. Can't tell you how sorry I am mate, I am truly embarrassed. From last on the first lap managed to claw my way back through the field and got lucky with a bunch of guys having spins and I snuck up to 2nd. At that point Serg was 10 seconds up the road. I tried to hang in with him but lots of little mistakes saw the gap grow and Slambo was getting closer and closer. Fantastic drive Serg, really excelled in the wet. Set my fastest lap ever during the race and was still way off the pace. Great drive mate. slambobagon (3rd): Well that was lucky really happy with third, possibly could of been a 2nd. Good win s close you were way too quick. Top man Gary for sorting the position after I ran up the back of ya. I'm not sure if it was lag or what but on my replay you clearly spun and when you rejoined u wandered across the track in front of me at the last second, I slambo'd into ya hard and had a very awkward rejoin Lucky not to take out anyone else. Awesome for waiting Gary . I was lucky to grab 2 more spots back by the end of that lap, Dutch had a spin later on so grabbed another spot there. Put me into 3rd. Couldn't catch Scotty mid race but for some reason the last 5-6 Laps I was hauling getting 1.47s every lap posting my fastest lap of the race on the last lap. I guess I finally learnt the track haha. DRZ-Hatfield (6th): Terrible night of what could have been. Could not get a lap in qualifying so started last. Got a good start only to find scotty had falsed and then moved off line so I collected him and had front end damage. Got going and started to run in some laps picking up places from spinners. Got up to 4th only to have my own spin at parabolica on the same lap. Sorry if I impeded anyone when getting back on track, I didn't realise the car had front damage so it veered to the left when I had spun off on the right :S. Clawed back up some more and was behind Groover when he got the thing sideways on the sweeping right after the first chicane. The back end of his car came out and I was into the sand ... In the end I put my head down and got past him though. sparklehead83 (9th): Frustrating nights racing for me, after clinching 5 place in quali I thought I may be in for a decent result here but my lack of consistency and cool in busy situations cost me again, that and my left leg going numb for the second half or the race... S45VED (10th): ...first time with the lights for me, and had no clue when I was actually meant to go... will know for next time! After a million slides and just general inconsistencies I saw Serg coming to lap me on the map haha, so put my head down, slowed up a bit and put in 7-8 consistent low .48 laps (and a .47) to avoid the dreaded being lapped. However, I freaked out when the fuel light came on with 2 laps to go (used to the super events, where if the fuel light comes on you've gotta pit that lap! haha). I noticed sparkie trying to gift me a place on the last lap, but my freak out meant I was still too far back, even with him being so nice! Great report smokinscotty. Congratulations S_CLOSE for scoring max points this round with pole, win and fastest lap. Well done also to smokinscotty and slambobagon for the final podium positions. There seems to be a pattern forming here, with all the winners for the top 3 divisions starting from pole and gaining fastest lap. Will it be the same in Division 4? DoogleDave has the report: Division 4 drivers took their chances this week around the treacherous wet track of Monza, pitting their skills against the slippery conditions and hoping they'd come out roses at the end of it all. Eleven of the thirteen Div 4 teams entered the race and after some doubtful moments for team Emmo (thanks to the PSN), he managed to get on track half way through qualifying to get a lap time submitted, before crashing and going back into the pits, where shortly after the race was started – forcing Emmo to start at the back of the grid. Blindman was setting a wicked pace during practice and qualifying but it was Kiwi who stole the show and took pole position with a 1.48.519. On the grid the nerves could be felt through the pack as the field lined up, waiting for the green light. On the go light, water sprayed everywhere as eleven beasts from hell launched from their starting positions to claw at the track in a vain attempt to gain traction. Turbo and Dbn made the best starts and both managed to gain a position before turn 1. Hitting the anchors hard for the first time the field made it around turn 1 without incident. The race was on with many in the field getting their "race face" on early, letting everyone around them know they meant business. On approach to Roggia for the first time emmo slowed to take the chicane only to receive a tap from 3vil, pushing emmo sideways through the turn and sending him bouncing off the wall (receiving a 10 second penalty). By the time emmo got going again he found himself at the wrong end of the pack. Dbn and Doogle had a good run out of Ascari and both jumped onto Turbo's slipstream, then in a tag-team formation passed by at a rate of knots before hitting the brakes hard in preparation to take Parabolica. Turbo immediately jumped on the back of Doogle and upon exit of Parabolica was able to pass by and take back a position. Unfortunately this didn't last long when Turbo took a line that was ever so tight through Grande which let the back of the Macca step out, sliding the car off into the sand and costing Turbo valuable time and a couple of positions. Emmo managed to catch Haze and passed last place honours to him as he made his way through turn 1 to take his position. Up front, Blindman was putting all kinds of pressure on Kiwi, continually looking for a place to pass, but Kiwi was keeping his cool and left no margin for error as they hurtled around the track. Kiwi was holding Blindman's measure until the exit of Ascari during lap four where Kiwi got a bit loose coming out, creating the opportunity Blindman had been waiting for. He swiftly assumed the lead over Kiwi and from that point forwards remained the leader of the race. Kiwi pushed on and tried his best to make gains back on Blindman in the hope to battle him for top spot, but on the next lap, perhaps with trepidation Ascari caught Kiwi off-guard again. Braking slightly too late, the Macca couldn't get the grip it needed on the tarmac and went too hot into the entry. Going off into the sand saw Kiwi drop a few places as Dbn and Doogle powered on past. Moments later, Dbn gave the Macca too much "jandal" upon exit of Ascari and had an adrenalin surge as the back of the Macca fish-tailed, fighting with Dbn to go off-track. To his credit, Dbn managed to keep it going in the right direction but the loss in momentum left the door open for Doogle, who made it past Dbn and clear into second position. Both Molch and Turbo, running mid-pack began clawing their way towards the front of the race. Molch made it up to third and Turbo up to fourth as Kiwi continues to make small errors, costing him time and positions. Both Molch and then Turbo battling with Ad2 on their way around the circuit until they managed to get past Ad and move further up the field. Mid race, Kiwi made another costly error coming out of Parabolica which dropped him back to sixth, allowing 3vil to claw a position back. Lap 15 saw Dbn DSC and leave the race, leaving only ten drivers on track to fight out the remainder of the race. Meanwhile the fight at the back of the pack continued between Emmo, Kart and Haze, swapping positions and errors as they fought to stay ahead of each other in an attempt to not cross the line last. Turbo began to hit his straps and moved his way into third place after a great passing manoeuvre over Molch down pit straight ending in some very hard braking coming into turn 1. With his sights firmly set on catching Doogle in second, Turbo worked very hard to shorten the gap to Doogle and late in the race was only a second or so behind him. Turbo and Doogle kept up their cat and mouse routine for several laps until on the penultimate lap, Turbo made an error on the exit to Lesmo, seeing him briefly go off-track, losing valuable time to Doogle. Doogle ceased the opportunity and focused on driving a very clean final lap to secure his place. Blindman took out honours to make it two wins in a row, with Doogle taking second and Turbo shortly after rounding out third place. Conditions proved to be tough for most drivers and with the power the McLaren has at its disposal it was hard work keeping it pointing in the right direction in such demanding conditions. All drivers did very well and with that race now behind them, they look forward to grippier conditions as they head to Motegi for a double-header sprint round. *Note: I couldn't see Ad2mny, emmo46 or Kart-No-1 on track, hence no photos of them. I have taken details from their posts on the forum as to their efforts during the race and included them in the report.... Finishing positions: 1st BLINDMAN 2nd DoogleDave 3rd disturboed 4th Molch 5th Ad2mny 6th X-3vi1m00n 7th K1W1-DR1VER 8th Kart-No-1 9th emmo46 10th HazeOne68 RACE QUOTES: BLINDMAN (1st): Well Qualy didn't go exactly as planned with K1W1-DRIVER grabbing pole position and myself along side on the front row , Doogledave and disturboed on the second row molch and Dbn on the third row ad2many and kart on the 4th row haze and memo on row 5 and x-evil moon rounding out the grid. Kiwi got a great start with a 1.56.227 standing 1st lap I had disturboed giving me the hurry up on the chicanes then I started to try and put some pressure on k1w1 he had a bit of a wobble out of one corner and I thought I could get a run up the inside then all of a sudden I froze and disturboed was in second and I was third ( I think I've seen that move on the wacky races good move turboed lol ) nothing like a challenge so I kept pushing on and as soon as we came through the last esses turboed must of put the boot in a bit early and went off the side of the track and lost 3 positions. 4 laps in and kiwi was still in front and coming into the first chicane I knocked on his back door just to let him know I was there, I followed closely around the back of the track and coming out of the last chicane he had a little wobble putting the power down and that was enough for me to get a run coming up to the last corner and taking the lead on lap 5. With no one in front of me I could find my braking markers and try and drive straight . What a battle behind me 2nd and third and 4th and 5,6,7 8 great to watch on the replay ! Lap 4 I did a 1.49 .261 I was pretty happy lap 6 a .004 lap 7 .48.765 great with a clear track and no pressure from behind!. Doogle and turboed were also into the 48s so I knew I couldn't relax even though I had a 7sec lead. Just trying to keep it clean and consistent lap 12 molch turned up the wick with a 48. 523 so I took that as a challenge and set about trying for the fastest lap then boom ! Turboed did a .48.274 ! On lap 14 then lap 17 I rattled off a 47.762 and thought that was it, I can relax a bit now ....no but wait there's more lap 18 molch wanted to play again with a 47.725 S#!t I gotta have another crackdown lap 22 I come up with a 47 .658 now calm down but then lap23 ad2mny joined in with an identical time as me ! What's going on back there. Not to be out done turboed stuck his head up and grabbed the fastest lap with a 47.509on lap 24 I had just crossed the line for lap 25 and new I only had one last lap to have a red hot go as a great man once said! So memories of Brock on his last lap of Bathurst in the A9X can I do it? I went for it but didn't want to loose the race for it as I crossed the line up it came a 1.47.406 pretty happy with that I still had to wait for the rest of the pack to cross the line what a race. A race within a race! Well done to all div 4 racers can't wait for the next battle !!!!!!!!. And no I don't think I'm anything like brocky but we can dream. Race ya next time BLINDMANRACING. DoogleDave (2nd): Very happy with a 2nd place finish last night. That track is tough in the wet and pushing it each lap means you're just waiting to come unstuck - which thankfully I didn't do. Reasonably happy with my quali as I knew I was nowhere near as fast as some but I was up near the front so that gave me a good chance. I made a reasonable start off the line and eased through turn 1, trying to avoid the myriad of cars all attempting to squeeze through. The first couple of laps I just took it easy and didn't try to make any moves, finding my feet and letting Dbn and Turbo ahead of me fight for position early. I think it was lap 3 or 4 coming down the back straight I managed to get into Dbn's slipstream and we both passed Turbo like a freight train, before hitting the brakes hard to slow in time for Parabolica. Turbo was right behind me and passed me by as we got back onto the main straight. As we came out of turn 1 Turbo lagged ever so slightly and I thought I was going to hit him so I steered right which put me just off into the grass and I felt my heart sink (I thought my race was over). Luckily, with some finesse off the "jandal" (to use an Emmoism) I was able to bring the Macca back on track with minimal setback and pushed on to catch back up to Turbo. A lap or two later Turbo hit the gas a bit too hard coming out of Ascari and lost it out onto the grass, allowing me my chance to jump into second place. From there I concentrated on one thing, keeping it on the track. I managed to get to about 5 seconds behind Blindman at one point and then he decided to hit some 47's which blew out the gap again. I realised that short of him making a fatal error I was not going to catch him in these track conditions, so again I settled in for a second place finish and drove my own race. Turbo was slowly gaining on me and with several laps to go he was only a couple of seconds behind me, and gaining with each lap. I decided to throw caution to the wind and pushed my limits a bit further, in an attempt to stay ahead of Turbo. My theory was that if he was faster than me and caught me then he deserved second place, but I wasn't going to hand it over easily. I continued to keep my pace as I high as I dared and with a couple of laps from the finish Turbo made an error which saw me move clear again. From there I eased off and made sure I finished the race, crossing the line in second place behind Blindman, who was just too fast (again). As hard as it was to drive in those wet conditions I welcomed the challenge and it really mixed up the season and made for a different race. Looking forward to the sprint rounds at Motegi next and I'm hoping I can find some speed to stay with Blindman, who will no doubt be up at the front again. disturboed (3rd): I was hoping to improve on my successive 4th placings this round and was aiming for my first podium of the season. In practice I was on pace for a front row spot, but in qualifying it never came together and I grabbed 4th with a disappointing 1.50.xxx Race time, and I got a decent start and was into third once through the first chicane. Lap 2 and Blindman glitched a bit in second spot and vanished into thin air so I inherited 2nd while Blindman magically reappeared behind me seconds later!! A few laps later I made a small mistake and dropped to 4th and not long after that another silly mistake dropped me all the way to 8th spot. Wow, lots of work to do from here. Picking my way through I had some good battles with Evilmoon and Molch etc (and moon, you didn't hit me lap 6, that was me going too wide mate). SOOO hard to not outbrake yourself in the wet! Battling through and I made my way finally into third spot with about 10 laps to go. Blindman had vanished about 16 seconds ahead which was the gap for 90% of the race for me. I could just see Doogle's spray ahead in second so I set about hunting him down. I was catching him relatively quickly and got right up on him a couple of times, but little tiny things here and there would give him a couple of tenths gap back. I was never able to grab the slipstream on the main straight. On the penultimate lap, I went too deep into the top end of the circuit second right hander and slid into the sand losing me a few seconds. Coming back onto the road with dirty and wet tyres the thing was wheelspinning all the way into 5th gear, hairy ride I can tell ya!! The other result of this was that for the previous ten laps or so, Blindman and myself were swapping fastest laps. We must have swapped about 5 or 6 times in that period, with Blindman doing a Brocky and stealing it on the very last lap by just a tenth!! (you bugger, LOL) So I finished third, which met my goal of an improvement, but so tantalisingly close to second position!! Molch (4th): Going into the race I wasn't too sure on my pace because I haven't had too much driving time the past couple of weeks and last round was a shocker for me. However was looking ok in the practice room and yep loved the early racing with Emmo. Couldn't pull a decent lap in the quali so started round the middle of the pack in 5th. Wow what a poor start off the line which continued through the first chicane to come out in 9th place. Through a stroke of luck I found myself in 7th by end of lap 1. Followed Ad2mny for a few laps early on. Was so careful not to get in your slipstream because you lagged a few time times and I was lucky to not get taken out. But was fun to watch you and doogle fighting it out tooth and nail. Clawed up to 3rd and stayed there for what seemed like half the race. Too many mistakes and a couple of sand traps and a fast turbo meant the podium as taken away from me.. Anyway happy with the results still and on to next weeks round. Ad2mny (5th): Another average finish. Think I was 5th or 6th in qualification and got an absolute blinder of a start this time, slotting in behind BLINDMAN for second. Stayed out wide entering the first chicane and dropped 1 place to Dbn. I saw Dbn off the track ahead but didn't realise I'd caused it he was a fair way ahead (3 secs?) If I'd known I'd have waited sorry. Could only see 6 on track all race. Anyway Molch started to pressure and tried a pass up inside at Ascari but held him off around the outside. He must have been cringing every time he came near me with our history lol. Anyhow, I had a slow run next lap on the back straight leading to Ascari and I knew he was right on me, I looked back to see him coming up and I moved over to give him room but the wrong bloody way!! I blocked him like a pro but let him past with a flash of the lights as an apology. Tried to stay with him but now had turbo breathing down my neck and after a couple of runs he made short work of me and took off after Molch. Ran alone for last half of the race, making some little errors here and there, little slides that I caught thank Christ and no spins which I was very happy about. Molch dropped back towards me near the end but not close enough to do anything with and I finished 5th after all the invisible people revealed their positions. Well done BLINDMAN. K1W1-DRIVER (7th): What can I say about my race, it started well but went pear shaped too soon. Then harder I tried the later I braked the slower I went. Made too many mistakes. What let me down was my poor braking technique. So do have something to work on. Kart-No-1 (8th): The good news is that I only had 1 minor off the whole race. This helped as my lap times were not great. Luckily there were a few around me that found the grass or gravel every now and then to allow me to stay in front of them. As usual qualified towards the back and that's pretty much where I stayed however I did not get lapped and managed to maintain a view of several drivers up ahead on the map for much of the first half of the race. Well done to Blindman on his win. In spite of our many driver training evenings, Blindman's talent has failed to rub off on to me. He does have a couple of years headstart on me though. emmo46 (9th): Interesting night, I got into Deks room early and all looked OK and I could see everybody, I ran some fairly consistent laps of practice and even enjoyed a very entertaining couple of laps with Molch. Then just before qually Dek advised that he was setting up a new room, I left the room we were in and went to join his new room and as has been the case many times before my troubles started. After three failed attempts I went back and cleared my cache and tried a couple more times without success. I then reset everything and tried again with no luck. I sent messages to DB and Evil to go ahead without me and assumed they had. I attempted to get in again just so I could watch and get the results for the tables and I finally got in ... noticed that they were still in qually so told them to start when they were ready, I could jump in and start at the back. Once I entered the track I realised there were still 5 minutes left of qually so put in a time that put me 7th. I still had time for another lap but as I started around the Grande Curva I was distracted by car going slowly and put two wheels on the grass and spun. I got back on track and saw Kart coming up and as I was back on the inside racing line thought it best to move to the outside to give him room. Unfortunately he was committed to going outside me and I got in his way and caused him to crash. I texted an apology to him but that sent me back to the lobby and I just rejoined the track as the count down began. Evil must have had a similar experience as he was in the pit lane and was starting with me on the back row. Nevertheless I was just glad to be sitting on the grid at this stage. My start went well and I managed to pass some cars at the first chicane and headed to the second in 6th place. As I braked for the second chicane Evil gave me a tap in the left rear corner which speared me to the right putting my right hand wheels on the grass. With the extra momentum from the shove and only two wheels on track there was no way I could stop and ended up spearing sideways through the chicane and clanging off the barrier then bouncing back onto the track after the chicane exit, I missed everybody I think and even made up a position or two. Unfortunately the 10 second penalty I earned for my effort saw the rest of the field file past and once I got going again I was well back and in last place. I gained on Haze and after a mistake from him at the first chicane I moved to second last. I quickly got past Kart after a little error from him but handed the place back after a slithery moment that cost me a few seconds. I stalked Kart for a few laps and eventually got a better run down the pit straight and took him into the first chicane and began chasing after Evil. Turbo fell back to run between me and Evil for a while but he quickly recovered and passed Evil and I never saw him again. At about lap 10 as I was approaching the last corner I saw an arrow pointing the wrong way in the middle of the corner and as I exited onto the straight DB was recovering and slithering about trying to get back up to speed. I had to slow to figure which way he was going to go but managed to pick the correct side and passed him on the run to turn 1. I quickly handed the place back to him with yet another lurid moment and a lap or two later he suddenly speared into the pit wall at the start/finish line and then a few seconds later DSCd. For a while Kiwi dropped back between me and Evil but he too passed Evil and I never saw him again either. Meanwhile my attempts to catch Evil were suffering from having slippery moments which dropped me back every time I made ground. I eventualy dropped the car all together at the exit to the last corner and Kart got by me. From there on it was game of musical chairs between Kart, myself and Haze as we would take turns chasing each other until somebody made a mistake. I did enjoy some close racing with Kart throughtout the race but he eventually beat me home by over 25 seconds and I just managed to hold off Haze. All in all it was a very poor effort from me and although I set a PB in the race I was still 1.5 seconds off the pace and made way too many mistakes, I was almost lapped towards the end. Well done to the podium, very fast and consistent, good run from turbo to climb back up from just in front of me early on to finish on the podium. Nice report DoogleDave. Congratulations to BLINDMAN for the win and fastest lap. Well done also to DoogleDave and disturboed for the final podium positions. One more time in the rain, stay tuned for part 3 Division 3 Reporter/Photographer: smokinscotty Division 4 Reporter/Photographer: DoogleDave Tables: DRZ-Hatfield Editor: Jamie (Ad2mny)
