ROOZ NEWS Season 15 Rd 5 Daytona Road Course 'Special Edition' (part 1)

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Last week, a great member of our community unfortunately passed away. The news of Bruce Hale's passing sent ripples of shock and sadness through all the drivers. Bruce was only a member for around 12 months, but he had made a huge impression on the forum, and made a great many friends as well. Bruce was also just finding his pace too, and was well on the way to moving up in the Divisions.

Some of the RaceOnOz members have written tributes for Bruce, and they can be found here http://raceonoz.com/threads/bj-awarded-posthumously.1085/
A tribute to the much loved man was held at the Daytona round by the Division 5 Drivers. Here is our Division 5 reporter VARDZ31 with his version of the events:

Bruce J Hale, or better known as bjh1012, or just BJ passed away during the week prior to round 5 whilst leading the championship quite comfortably. The ease in which he had won 3 of the 4 rounds was a testament to his love and his dedication to his racing and to the ROOZ community overall.

It was decided without hesitation that he must and deservedly be honoured by his fellow competitors. To make this happen, Brenda (Bruce's wife) contacted STUCAR17 and asked if she would be able to sign in BJ's account and enter the room so that she and BJ's White bodied with Lime green rims # 51 could be present and indeed involved in what was an emotional tribute to a much loved and respected man. But above all he will be remembered as one of the true larrikin's of our racing community. So with Brenda behind wheel of the #51 McLaren, she drove to the front of the field where she took pride of place where Bruce had spent most of his racing time with the ROOZ community, up front.





So with the completion of the tribute lap of the Daytona road course, the final lap for the White bodied Lime green rimmed #51, and the final time that the #51 will be on the door of a car in a ROOZ community race, Brenda peeled off into the pits where the car remained for the entire duration of the race and with that, round 5 was underway.
R.I.P. BJ.

Unofficially, the number 51 will be retired in the ROOZ community out of respect for Bruce's time here, and I am sure it is only a matter of time until it is made official. The Race of Champions (which Bruce won last season), held in between seasons for the winners of each division and selected events, will be renamed to honour Bruce as well. Also a 'Most Improved' award is in the pipeworks for next season in his name.

It is only fitting that we start with the division that Bruce was competing in, so here is VARDZ31 again with the race report:



Round 5 was to take part at the Daytona Road course and as a part of the tribute to BJ a rolling start was required, with the starting order being Castrosfriendche - who secured his first pole of the season, followed by RanoK3n, JAKO155, Copperj32, mmm-homebrew and at the tail of the 6 car field VARDZ31.



During the first few laps the big movers were Copper and Jako The latter would make his way to the lead of the race on just lap 2 when he passed Rano and then Castro, who got out of shape exiting the bus stop, giving Jako the opportunity to pass, but he was fortunate not come grief himself when Castro speared up the track toward the fence.



Jako managed to squeeze through the gap left and was off into the distance. Jako's lead was to be short lived though, as Copper moved from his starting position of 4th to the race lead with 3 passes all within a lap. His move to 3rd was via a sweet braking move going into the turn 3 hairpin on the inside of Rano.



His move up into 2nd place was aided by Castro's misfortune when he was passed for the lead by Jako. Copper's speed was much better than Castro going through turn 12 and there was no chance of keeping Copper at bay. Copper's move into the race lead was also aided by a spin from Jako when exiting Turn 1.



With the early too-ing and fro-ing settling down, brew and Vardz exchanged a series of passes across a handful of laps. Firstly brew lost control on the entry to turn 6 running wide and giving room for Vardz to get by, but only 2 laps later Vardz gifted back 4th spot when he put a wheel onto the grass on approach to the turn 3 hairpin, and onto the merry-go-round it was for Vardz. Brew again ran wide in turn 6, off into the fence this time, and the same result - as was the case 5 laps prior - would see Vardz away in 4th spot.



Just prior to the required pit stops by everyone to re-shoe and fuel the thirsty MACCA'S, Copper would give up the race lead when he ran wide at the turn 6 hairpin, allowing Rano to take over the race lead. So the running order was as follows: Rano out front followed Copper at +4 secs, Castro +10 secs, Vardz +39 secs, Brew +46 secs and Jako +59 secs.

Shortly after the round of pitstops, the first of 3 lead changes would take place. On lap 15, Copper would regain the race lead when Rano, on the entry to the Bus stop, ran wide onto the grass and then careered back across the track colliding heavily into the wall. Just 3 laps later Copper almost mirror imaged Rano's spin in the Bus stop, allowing Rano past and back into the lead. The 3rd and final lead change between these 2 would take place in turn 1, when Rano out braked himself and ran off track up against the outside wall.



But there was still a drama to take place. Copper had managed to create a massive 13 second gap over Rano in the 4 laps after his pass to regain the race lead. It was then that Copper was under the impression that he was going to run out of fuel, so decided that he would need to pit for a splash and go. This would in turn allow not only Rano back into the race lead, but also Castro through into 2nd place, leaving him in 3rd place where he would finish. On reviewing Coppers plight on the replay with his "shortage of fuel", IMHO he had enough gas to home.

On this emotional night of the tribute to Bruce J Hale, yet 1 final drama was to take place, and it was to take place after the chequered flag had fallen. RanoK3n, who took the chequered flag, believed he had cost Castro the race victory on the last lap, when he had lost control on entry to the bus stop. When he returned to the track he did so directly in front of Castro, who in turn collided heavily into the rear of Rano's car.



The 2 drove away but Rano stopped to allow Castro to pass, which he didn't do, so both accelerated away and crossed the line.



Rano, on review of the replay then passed the chequered flag to Castro, saying he did indeed cost Castro the victory with the unsafe entry back on track.
In 4th spot was Vardz, 5th place was homebrew and Jako at the rear of the field.

Round 6 see's teams off to Japan again and to the capital for the only street circuit round of the season.



RACE QUOTES:

CastrosfriendChe (1st): Felt fairly comfortable on this Daytona track. Practice aside over the past week I had only come across it in our seasonal meet & greet...and even then had to dash off for a loo break. Found it slightly frustrating that in practice/time trial mode you start too close to the start line, requiring a minimum 2 laps to get a chance at besting your own previous attempts. Ahh the aggrivation of stuffing up one corner and having to start again. On the other hand it helped me work my way around the track, corner by corner. The main section of the race for me was following Copper and Ranok. The gap was around 8 seconds mostly, sometimes less sometimes more. I knew if they could stick together there'd be an opportunity to keep up with them. Lap after lap I'd start taking .500's out of the gap but then I'd take one corner too wide and lose any gain I had made. I believe it was lap 14 Copper took to the pits. So from 3rd position to 2nd I went, knowing I was pitting on lap 15 I considered Coppers idea and was trying to figure out if I had made a poor pit decision... Still in 2nd place I was pitting behind Ranok and spent what felt like an eternity in pits waiting... By the time I got back on track Copper had taken 2nd place and I was back in 3rd. My feeling was Copper had made a wise decision, as my cold tyres made me cautious and the gap grew between us. Somewhere amongst it, Copper and Ranok were switching positions and I had bridged a gap, or was about to as up ahead I could see Ranok take the first corner too wide, but my focus was too much on him and I followed suit, keeping him in 2nd and me in 3rd. I had a second to consider that that might just be my one chance to pass gone down the drain. BUT now I was even closer than before. Then to my astonishment Ranok took the next corner too wide, and with no time to think, bar a slight jaw drop, I once again found myself following his line and running it wide. At this point I felt like I had truly blown it. It was comical but still frustrating. All I needed to do was be a bit more conservative. I again, proceeded to shadow Ranok as best I could. On the back stretch of one of the last few laps I did manage to take 2nd from Ranok, but had given it back rather swiftly by turn one. Which leaves me with no doubt in my mind...I cave under pressure when someone is shadowing me and I mostly enjoy when that role is reversed. If I'm fortunate down the road, I'll have to work on this aspect of my racing. Perhaps on the high speed Tokyo course By the closing laps, when I thought Copper had 1st covered, I notice Ranok take 1st and then a few seconds later I take 2nd. Which seemingly came out of nowhere. Needless to say my thoughts on Coppers pitting strategy did an about face. On the last lap, with a small enough gap between Ranok in 1st and myself in 2nd, I felt if I could stay on task and have him cave with an ounce of pressure on a corner or two, I might just be able to challenge for his position. Early on it became clear there were a couple of cars battling it out ahead of Ranok. I couldn't figure out if we'd catch them but it seemd like their own battle was going on, with decent pace to boot. Yeah I'm lookin at you Homebrew and Jacko. On the lead up to the Bus Stop it looked like Ranok was going to be held up by the other two. By the time i got close enough I could see dust and my gut feeling was Ranok had rear ended one of the other guys. My speed was on pace and with no room for adjustment I rear ended Ranok. Ranok, with the right idea in mind held back to usher me in front, but I took the decision to maintain my position of 2nd, because my feeling was the involvment of the other 2 cars shouldn't be a reason to lose 1st over, overall (with some quick thinking) I felt you were the better driver. Thankfully you kicked into gear and went off, as until reading your thoughts on the matter, I didn't even think about Copper and the others. Geez epic fail if he had've driven past lol. Only on watching the replay from Ranoks POV did I realise that last mistake of his was driver error. Funnily enough, I thought twice was your limit that night, so a third time...didn't even enter my mind. I also had a situation at Laguna where myself and Homebrew were fighting it out near the end, and he rear ended someone who had finished the race but was still slowly going round the track...I gave Homebrew that one because it was such a no brainer. So my thoughts on it are, yeah, I should've went past ya. Tip of the hat for bringing it up in your review of the race Ranok I'd be tempted to get the mods to readjust the points on it...if only to see what it does for the championship table, which is a greedy thought BUT that aside, it's most likely the right thing to do. Downside being my gain would be your loss...but with 2 races to go...things are getting interesting no matter which way we slice it.

ranok3n (2nd): I was actually hoping to get my second pole for the season as I was able to pull a couple of 1.37's during practice sections.
That wasn't too be as I couldn't seem to pull it together when it mattered. Happy enough to start 2nd on the grid though. The start of the race was opened by Brenda as she started at the back of the grid and made her way to head the parade lap around the Daytona Road Course. This was the best tribute to Bruce I could think of, and with Brenda being able to make it on the night, it just goes to show how much she knew this community meant to him.
We followed Bruce's spirit around the track in single file and as he pulled into the pits, our race was underway. I took it quite cautiously coming into the first corner, but I was going in too easy and that let through JAKO and copper. Over the next lap, JAKO and Castro got into a tangle, which let me through into 2nd again. Over the next 10 laps, it was a cat and mouse game with copper, with him holding a 2-3 second gap throughout. The closest I ever got to him was just over 1 second, until on lap 13 he went in to deep into turn 5 and lost it, leaving him facing the wrong way, which gifted me 1st place.
I had an easy lap 14 and pitted on lap 15. Managed to still come out in 1st place but then it got too heated and managed to lose the position to copper again. During all this, Castro was doing his bit to keep up with us and was always close enough to take advantage of any lost time from us.
After I lost 1st place, Castro managed to find himself on my tail going into turn 1. I tried to take a different line into turn 1, which was a massive mistake, as it unsettled my Macca and I ended up into the grass. Fortunately for me, Castro decided to follow me! After we got our cars back on track, going into turn 3, I decided to run too deep again! And AGAIN Castro decided to play follow the leader! I thought for sure I was going to lose 2nd position when all those mistakes! Lucky for me I was able to keep in front and from then on, I put my head down and started pulling away from Castro a little and hunting down copper. On lap 19, copper again made a little mistake, which saw me take the lead. As history always repeats itself, a couple of laps later I gave the lead back with my own little spin. For whatever reason, I started to lose concentration and the mistakes started flowing, which saw Castro pull ahead of me due to another off road adventure. Castro and I were about 15 seconds behind copper and I was resigned to a best place finish of 2nd if I could somehow make it past Castro. Well, it didn't seem to be his night as he lost his car again and I took over 2nd one more time. I was concentrating so much that the next time I looked at the leader board I saw that I was coming 1st! I found out after the race that copper ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap and had to pit! On the last lap while approaching the Bus Stop, with Castro a couple of seconds behind me, I couldn't wash off my speed and swiped the barriers, sending my car into a spin which landed me back on track facing the right way. I could see in the rearview that Castro was approaching way too fast and with nowhere to go, he slammed into the back of my car. As we exited the Bus Stop, I waited for him to take the lead, but he had other ideas and was also slowed right down to let me resume the lead. After waiting 3 or 4 seconds and realising he was waiting for me to go, I took off as I didn't want to jeopardise our positions any longer in case copper was back in contention for the win. I knew that I had good pace to fight for the lead but with all the mistakes I was making in the 2nd stint I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Lucky for me everyone else had the same kind of night I did and I was able to benefit from it all.
I'm still not convinced I should have kept the lead with the incident between me and Castro, so I'm more than happy to review the results for that as my loss of control was what caused you to smash into me.

copperj32 (3rd): I was 4th going into the first corner and with ranok taking it a bit easier at turn 3 I was able to sneak up the inside and grab P3. Casto was leading with Jako in second. Coming out of turn 10 at the bus stop castro got a bit too much grass and jako shot through to take first and I had enough speed to to pass castro for 2nd. Jako made a slight mistake going into turn one on lap 3 and hit the wall allowing me to grab 1st. I held onto 1st with a 2-3 second gap over ranok until lap 13 when I went a bit deep into 5 and ranok took the opportunity with both hands and away he went. By the time i got going he had about 4 sec on me but i was pitting this lap as i was really low on fuel. Rejoined the race in P5 and took off in pursuit and then the top 5 pitted on lap 14 but by the time I started lap 15 I was back in P2 with ranok still in front with about 4 sec on me. Ranok had a moment somwhere and I was back in front but I always had ranok and castro not far behind. I had another off at the bustop on lap 20 and dropped back to P2 for a few laps until ranok had another moment and I grabbed 1st again. By lap 25 I had about a 11 sec gap back to ranok and castro but I glanced at my fule gauge and realised that I was probably going to run out on lap 26 so I decided to pit for more fuel and keep 3rd place and also hope that ranok and castro might have an off some where which would get me closer to challenge for the lead again but they kept their heads with Ranok taking 1st and castro 2nd. I didn't do a lot of practice at this track and when I did I was lapping in the 41's and crashing every couple of laps so I wasn't hopeful of a decent result. Im going to have to practice these pit stops as I didnt take enough fuel the first time. Great racing everyone and congrats to Ranok and Castro.

VARDZ31 (4th): Yeah guys 3rd should have been my starting position and yes I parked up at turn 1 and returned to the pits...thought that it would return me to P3 (my bad) but then during the "rolling start" homebrew must have been snoozing..... I was concentrating on the back of his car and then I see the front 4 off into the distance. My race .... 4th again battled with Homebrew and JAKO throughout the race at different stages. Early on JAKO had a
spin in the Bus stop and was coming back on track as I was approaching which threw me off track. He stopped and allowed me to regain position and we were both away again. This put the gap between the leader and myself at 24 sec so I tried to put my head down and bring it back which I did up to about lap 6 when I passed HB and was getting the gap back under 20sec before another off. Decided then that 4th was the best I was going to able to get as the gap was over 40 secs and barring any errors from the 3 in front of me. With the onset of daylight and a fresh set of boots I had been able to get into the mid 37s during the week and into the low 37's if I put it together so I thought that the extra point may come in handy and had a crack at the fastest lap which stood at 38'1. was able to beat the fast standing time by .3 and then lower it by another .4 for it to stand at 1'37"333. The rest of my race was uneventful dropped back to mid 38's. until I seemed to be catching a car and was actually thinking I was hunting down 3rd place but as I got closer I could see it was homebrew and he was behind me in the running order. So lost ground on the championship table. Rano and Copper will fight it out as cop will only drop 4 points as his worst round and rano won't drop any as he had a DNS. Looking forward to the last 2 rounds as I enjoy both Tokyo and spa.

Great write up VARDZ31. Congratulations to CastrosfriendChe for the victory on race review, and also to ranok3n with copperj32 for the final podium places.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

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