Welcome to the penultimate round of ROOZ's League racing series. This week the drivers once again travelled to Japan, to cut laps around a bus route (R246) in the Shibuya districts of Tokyo. This track is very heavy on the right front tyre in the normal direction of travel, and its long radius corners and double apexes can catch you out if you get too eager. A recent update has altered the handling of the cars, which is to some's liking, but most would rather things weren't changed yet again this season. As always, in part 1 we will here from Division 1 and 2. Here is Division 1's report, brought to you by warrior2167: The penultimate round of the championship is now upon us. 29 Laps at the Tokyo street circuit is more than enough to catch any driver out with its monstrous kerbs and concrete barriers. Along with that challenge, a recent update had altered the driving characteristics of the car, thus all bets were off and this race could go to anyone. The series welcomed two new quality drivers (Baz_1414 & whiteracer) and was boosted to 10 for the qualifying session. During the session, Mint had set the early pace and was holding the top spot until warrior snatched it in the dying stages with a time of 1:28.984. Amazingly this was his first pole of the season and just shows how close the drivers all are. 2nd went to Mint followed by Anon, ROTOR, Optimus, fastboysmith, thestig, Cyber and Baz. Whiteracer had disconnected and was unable to join the race in time. The lights went out and all drivers got away smoothly, warrior is able to hold the lead of the field. Lap 3. Mint is desperate for his first round win and is quickly putting pressure on warrior. He's able to close up to the rear bumper on the final corner and picks up the tow to move into the lead. Following closely are Anon and ROTOR who are within striking distance. Baz's first race won't be a memorable one, as he is disconnected. He was having trouble throughout the practice and qualifying beforehand. Thankfully there is one more race to look forward to. Lap 8. There's a fantastic race for 5th taking place between Cyber, thestig and Smithy. Cyber is the biggest mover of the race so far, up two spots and if he could just pull away, he could focus his attention on chasing down 4th and 3rd. Lap 9. Anon is the first to blink, pitting, followed by Cyber and Smithy. Lap 10. Mint is in, also into pit is warrior who is in just a second back. ROTOR and Optimus follow suit. warrior tries to jump Mint by putting less fuel in, but it doesn't work out. He is now in a disadvantaged position, being behind and needing to put more in at the next stop. thestig stays out, trying the risky 1-stop strategy and now inherits the lead of the race. Lap 13. thestig's tyres are completely worn out and he has no choice now but to pit, but before that, he can't react quick enough as Mint and warrior come charging past and Mint is slightly held up trying to overtake. The small time loss allows warrior to close back up to the bumper and draft by on the next lap. Lap 15 Positions & Intervals 1. warrior 2. Mint + 1.133 3 ROTOR + 7.691 4 Anon + 9.866 5. Smithy + 27.217 6. Optimus + 30.097 7. Cyber + 30.985 8. thestig + 47.094 9. Baz - Out 10. whiteracer - DNS Lap 16. Cyber has to pull into the pits and does not take any further part in the race Lap 19. warrior pits for the 2nd and final time, coming in a lap earlier to defend himself against the possible undercut. Anon is also in trying to undercut ROTOR in the battle for 3rd. Lap 20. Mint and ROTOR are in, followed by Smithy and Optimus who come in nose to tail. The earlier stop works for warrior, but not for Anon. Smithy and Optimus come out in their relative positions. Lap 24. On his one lap fresher tyres, Mint has been lapping a couple tenths faster the warrior, Both drivers are pushing the boundaries, but unfortunately Mint steps over it and makes contact with the barrier at the exit of turn 1. Lap 25. ROTOR is on for his 1st podium result, it's not over yet as Anon is doing everything he can on his older tyres. Lap 26. Optimus has been catching Smithy over the last few laps and moves by into 5th. Smithy had not put the correct amount of fuel in at his last stop and was forced back in. He comes out just ahead of thestig and the two now duke it out to the end. Final Lap. warrior crosses the finish and breathes a sigh of relief as he knows that without the error from Mint, it would have been extremely tough to hold him off. Results. 1. warrior 44:53.660 2. Mint + 5.740 3. ROTOR + 19.091 4. Anon + 21.767 5. Optimus + 57.371 6. Smithy + 1:06.326 7. thestig + 1:07.798 8. Cyber + 13 laps 9. Baz -DNF 10. whiteracer - DNS RACE QUOTES: warrior2167 (1st): Starting from my 1st pole of the season I was able to hold the advantage out of the first turn. In the opening laps I tried to save the tyres as best I could, but with the higher wear it just wasn't making a big so difference, so after Mint got by, it was full speed the rest of the way. I stayed roughly a second behind Mint for the 1st stint and was planning to jump him in the pits by fueling the car less, but it didn't work as Mint went back out ahead. The 2nd stint was going much like the first until Mint caught up thestig, who was trying a 1 stopper. He was held up a bit and at the same time I set my fastest lap of the race to find myself right on the bumper on the exit of the last corner which let me draft by into turn 1. I tried to pull a gap but I was making some small errors as Mint was pilling on the pressure. To make sure Mint couldn't undercut me in the stops, I pitted on lap 19. The 3rd was the toughest of all as Mint was closing me down on his fresher rubber. Maybe that extra pressure helped me because I was driving the best I had all race. I was in such a zone that I didn't notice that Mint had spun until the next lap timing split, when 7 second showed up. I breathed a sigh of relief and brought the car home. MINT_GTR (2nd): I wasn't able to nail a lap in qualifying but was still pleased to start 2nd. The start was solid and fell straight inline with warrior, I gathered the lead after lap 3 and was able to hold till the first round of pitstops. Warrior's pressure was relentless in the 2nd stint and by lap 14 he regathered the lead with a blistering lap of 1.28.7 in the process!! I was happy to stay in 2nd and bide my time till the final pitstops arrived. Warrior pitted a lap earlier and without repeating last round efforts, I managed an extra lap this time. After all pitstops were said and done, I had the slight advantage of better tyres and the gap remained at 1.5sec so it was GO time for me. I pushed hard to get the lead under a second by lap 25 and also beat my PB in the process. Much like the season has been for me though, I blinked first and spun at the 1st corner on lap 25 and gave up all chances of a well deserved fight to the finish, crossing over in 2nd. ROTOR-AU86 (3rd): Wasn't too bad, was a pretty boring race for me to be honest... Not much going on, However I could see in the distance Anon was struggling with tyre wear so I had tried maintain my tyre wear, with that I was able to pull in Anon towards the end of the first stint. Anon pitted on lap 9 I knew I had a chance to undercut him and that I would also have a lap fresher tyres... Fueling low with about 32litres was spot on for the second stint, and was just trying to keep a mid 29 laps, towards the end of that stint I had increased the gap however needed to put 55 liters of fuel in to finish the race which allowed Anon to catch back up. I knew Anon was pushing hard to try and catch back up, but I also knew it was killing his tyres... I held on for comfortable 3rd place finish Anon666 (4th): Got to say, glad that's over. I saw Cyber in the pit with mechanical problems and nearly joined him. The new car settings are tolerable, but what the new update has done to the T500 (steering wheel)... man it's horrid. Was going OK after the first stint, then got to the pit and pressed the OK button!! No, 60L!! The extra time cost me a place and then driving a second stint with full fuel was too much. I pulled myself together and had a run at Rotor in the 3rd stint, but by lap 26 my tyres were cooked. Nice work there warrior2167, and congratulations on pole and race win. Well done also to MINT_GTR and ROTOR-AU86 for final podium positions. Now we move on to Division 2. Unfortunately there is no report available, but the results were as follows: 1. stuart170773 2. faine555 (fastest lap) 3. Crunch630 4. CobMcCool 5. TTR_joe90 6. t_b_williams 7. razor4797 8. COME_AND_GET_ME7 9. leeboy910 10. natmanscoop 11. Jim_aka_theman RACE QUOTES: stuart170773 (1st): WOW, what a race tonight.....Qualified 3rd with a time that I have been running all week so was happy to be up near the front. Got a decent start, but then was too cautious in turn 1 in traffic and got swamped, finding myself back in 7th. I decided to look after my tires to get to lap 10, and with a few guys spinning, (TB) and a great scrap with COB and Razor towards the end of the first stint, I had managed to get myself back up to 2nd. My second stint was good, pitting on lap 21, and I came out right next to Faine who had pitted a lap before me. I managed to stick with him for 2 laps before he made a second gap, but then a small error in the long right hand sweeper saw me take the lead with 4 laps to go..I later found out he had refueled the tank to the top and was struggling a little on tires but miss daisy will take any win !!!!! Managed to get home by about 10 seconds, lucky but ill take it !! t_b_williams (6th): Threw my race away after taking too much curb at Turn 9. Spun and watched the entire field go by. Made a few places after that and had a mighty mind battle trying to decide whether to 1 stop to try and make up some more places. Got to lap 10 and thought bugger it, I'll go for it. surely my tyres wont be that bad by lap 15. They got down to 1. Put a few extra litres in just to be safe, but this let the only other 1 stopper (joe) jump me in the stops after he had pitted a lap earlier. By the end, I was in seventh when I saw razor pitting again, not knowing his dramas, I was delighted. Caught Joe right at the end and knew the one lap differnce in our tyres would give me the edge but just couldn't capitalise. So after being last, I'm more than happy with a 6th. razor4797 (7th): Disappointing night for me... Started 4th. Got a decent start and was running 3rd until my first pit stop at about 1/3 race distance. My pace was fairly good. By the end of my next stint I was within the top 5. Due to a lack of practice and fuel knowledge, I stupidly decided not to fill up on my second stop, thinking that I would make it on fuel. Wtf was I thinking....... Would surely have finished 3rd, except I had to make a third stop with 4 to go as I would have ran out of fuel. Kicking myself now as I ended up finishing 7th, when I could well have been much further up. leeboy910 (9th): What a race. Was going really well. Got a rubbish start and was 11th out of the first corner. Worked up to about 5th by first stop. Pitted with Crunch about a second behind. His pit was right in front of mine and due to PD being apocalyptic dingleberries, my car got stuck leaving the pits and I lost the place. Was absolutely spewing and then spun twice in the last corner trying to catch up. Game over. Kept plodding along but tyres were shot and I was resigned to watching other cars overtake me... The McLaren is not a great car and I can't wait to be rid of it to be honest. Congratulations stuart170773 on your race win, and well done also to faine555 and Crunch630 for the final podium positions. Stay tuned for part 2! Division 1 Reporter/Photographer: warrior2167 Tables: DRZ-Hatfield Editor: Jamie (Ad2mny)
