What an interesting race!

My qual was not so good, ran 1.08.5 in practice and had more to spare, but during qual I made some mistakes and had a hard time finding a good clean lap.

Race start: Got a pretty good launch - since Steve got a drive thru before the race even started, I figured I'd fight for T1 into 2nd spot behind Garret. Steve was very gracious about it (he could have made it much more difficult), much appreciated, I did keep it tight as I didn't want to push Steve off the track.

So Garret and I set off, had a couple of opportunities, but it would have been risky. However, this gave Mark the opportunity to catch up so we had a pretty good 3 way going.

I figured Barry was on full tanks as was I -- but Barry went in early which left me in the lead with Mark on my tail. It was a good fight, but then Mark went into the pits and I was alone in 1st.

I drove my race but got really bogged down by folks that were 1-2 laps down, not sure what the deal was there but it sure didn't help my race.

I had 100 litres and took the fuel down to nothing and pitted. Didn't take any tires and came out 8 seconds behind Barry. Then my DX did weird stuff so I wasn't sure where I was. George and Mark caught up on fresh rubber and I really didn't have anything for them.

I gotta find out how George managed an earlier pit stop with more fuel and tire change that only took 5 seconds longer than my less fuel no tire change stop -- dang George, how did you do that??

Congrats to George and Mark and my teammate Kris for a great performance!!

Great fun!

Ah Sandeep..Its no fun Winning over a driver that way!!
Sry for that.
And its not over till its over!

I am really pleased with my finish. I had struggled with a setup on the Beemer as I don't particularly care for it much. I made a decent start and had a very nice battle with Mark & Rob during the first stint. Just before pitting, I caught up to Heinz and ran a few laps behind him. We pitted together and exited together. We had an awesome battle the remainder of the last stint, nose to tail! We ran virtually the same lap times the entire stint. I was able to get around Heinz heading into T1 only because he got loose heading onto the front straight. We caught Rob with a couple to go and put him back to 4th. I somehow snagged fast lap of the race too! I don't how that happened.

Nice win Barry!

Awesome Race, couldn't have hoped for anything better after my Euro performance...

Grats to podium ..

Had some excellent racing, with Mark and Garret, more so in the 2nd stint with garret it was a nail biter to the finish. Good racing with you.

See you next round

nice come back to R2P with podium... really a good place to be.
Haven't done a single lap @ the national layout before, but got to speed earlier then expected. nothing to do against the monsters before me though :-)
At the start, i was on the inside and Joco came in suddenly after goin wide. Sorry for Pete, who got the kick from Joco after we had this bump.
later on Marko's car froze shortly in T1 and i was goin wide, but i was happy that Joco overtook, as i wanted to save tyres and not destroy my rhythm with fighting.
Seemed to be a save 3rd in early stages, only short moment of fear when looking at HUD which told me fuel for 9 laps when 11 to go ! went slower for 2 laps when thinking about the situation... luckily the fuel wear of the XD is right and i had enough fuel to drive the podium home...

Sorry for turning the light on when lapping... wasn't sure about the rules.
looking forward to the next race...cya guys

Most people I talk to hate this track, but I'm quite fond of it. I tend to drive well here in other sims too. Sure, there are a few tricky corners and braking zones, but they are what make this track challenging.

I was really hunting for a good setup during practice. I started stiff and edgy, then last minute (well last 15 minutes) I changed to soft and easy to drive with less rear wing. That set was getting over the bumps in chicane better, but not as good under heavy braking for hairpin. I was also using 1st gear in the hairpin so I thought that might be an issue at the start.

Quali
I banged out a nice 1:46 on my 2nd flyer and scratched my head... why am I not on pole. I thought Tom or Garret pipped me. I continued to try, but did not improve. Upon seeing Tristan's 1:45 I almost fell out of my chair. How am I going to compete with that?

Race
I decided not to change my gearing and go with what I practiced and qualified with. This appeared to be a sound choice because I jumped in front of Tristan into turn 1. I suspect he was using a similar gear strategy.

I was clearly slower then Tristan and did all I could to keep him at bay for 5 laps. He was literally inches from my rear bumper and peeking inside and outside at almost every turn. Talk about putting on the pressure. It was some of the cleanest and most exhilerating driving I've ever experienced. My goal was to drive the mirror, hold a tight line, and make him work for it on the outside. He tried a couple times, but couldn't make it work till I bobbled in the tight left hander after the right hairpin. It wasn't even a big mistake. It was just enough for him to get inside and pull close to even at the approach to the uphill right hander. Eventhough I was on the inside, I had to let off otherwise I would have take us both out. He had the preferred line. Afterwards, I held on for another lap till I made a mistake (much bigger this time) and almost threw it off the track. I was just pushing way too hard to keep up. I certainly would have crashed if I kept going that hard.

Great drive Tristan.
Kudos to Tom Mak for a strong 5th to keep CT Racing tied for 1st in team championship.

I've run VORRA before in fixed setup races, and did a LOT of testing. One difference between the classes is the wheel distances - short for baja means the rear wheels are closer to the center of the car. This seems to keep the rear from swinging out as much as the Kordonowy. The other thing is going over bumps: The Kordonowy rear wheels will push off for slightly longer than the baha which should translate to more distance, and is critical if landing on offramp downslopes.

About the race, I looked at the replay carefully, here's what I see: B Hedrick in formation lap, turned sharp into the wall, possible because left rear was still on banking and pushed the rear out from behind him. C Hodges got collected which shot him across the track and into the cement barriers.

Lap 1 incident: A brief examination shows what appears to be steering problems for B Hedrick, likely due to the formation lap incident. I believe this was the cause of the bad entry into turn 1. I think G Hedrick anticipated he would need some room entered cautiously. I came in hot, but did not anticipate he would get tapped down into my path, and the 2nd hit from me almost sent him onto his roof. B Hedrick did end up pitting that lap which is why I expect there was damage to his vehicle.

Hard racing, lots of fun. Bumping and banging is to be expected and I wouldn't wish for anyone to get damaged, much less spun. I feel bad for those who can't get back in the action. :/

Well... This was my best finish so faR. Had a bit of trouble on the first lap. Got tapped from behind into someone else that was nearly stopped in the corner, but I think we all got out o.k. Not sure what caused the fray on the formation lap...All I saw was Kordonny buggies upside down and rolling in front of me. The mess on the opening lap knocked me all the way to 11th, which really sucked since this was only a 15 lapper.

But I got out fairly clean the whole race. Had to work my way past several kordonny buggies until I had a baja in my sight. Think it was Mark just before he got out of the race. Didn't see what happened there. Too bad since we were the slower of the 5 bugs and had some great battle potential between us 2.

Ended up 5th overall and 3rd in class. Don't exactly see the difference between the Kordonny and the bug as far as times go at this track. The class distinctions don't seem too far apart. Gotta be something there though.

So I am very happy about this finish. actually had a great race and a fine finish that was not by some odd default. Ran it clean and consistant. Dennis was setting a screaming pace. I was a second off his and Gary's pace for the entire race, depressing since I practiced my heart out for this one. Just couldn't get it under 51.4 secs. Oh well...at least I am improving.

Congrats Dennis and Gary.

Damn, Mark that's gotta sting...... Garry and I had you in a Kordonowy sammy for a few laps.

A ticking sound sounds like faulty blocks on your Hard drive, its probably on its way out so get your data backed up now, and get yourself a new HD

Was fun! :P