USA FT: Limerock

Rough quali. Traffic mess everywhere. I spun dodging slower cars, only got one conservative lap in.

Race was a disaster thanks to someone else's network troubles.

I had a good start and was up to 7th before Scott Novotny seemed to have a disconnect. He warped out of 5th and then reappeared right on top of my FR wheel. The driverless car just continued to turn left and drive me off the road and through the grass. I rejoined in 20th.

On lap 5 Ralph Kemmerer turned into Tristan Bayless at the highspeed sweeper and they both went off and became wingless trainers. When RK came back on he was way off the pace and likely had to brake more than normal for T1. Under braking he drifted into "the fast lane." The car I was drafting behind swerved and missed him but I wasn't able to get down to the slower pace and I punted RK. Apologies.

I did have fun working my way through traffic.

Unfortunately my fronts were toast by the time I got up to 10th. Kevin Banic was nice enough to make a mistake going over the hill, hitting the hidden jump in the grass (rolling to his obvious death) which allowed me to have 9th.

A better result than I'd have bet on going in, for sure. Zero prep had me using qualifying for practice, since I'd hardly managed a lap in the few minutes before without going off or going back to the pits to try something else. Was sucking bad! Had gone in with a setup from Brands that had worked well there, but here I was plagued with terrible understeer, especially in the faster corners. Made some guesstimated changes for the race after getting a lucky lap in and crossed my fingers.

Bogged a bit at the start but it went OK. Picked up a spot when Scott went poof and disappeared halfway into the first lap, and when I saw a mess behind I wondered if that was due to his warp. I see from David's post it must have been - too bad. After that, I just focused and tried to get into the 55's and run down a podium spot, but never made either.

Gained another spot when Tristan went off early, but a minor off of my own on lap 2 and then a near-crash over the hump on lap 13 when I was getting up to Francesco sealed my fate. Got close to him again at the end, but would've needed some more time to look for an opening since our pace was really close overall. Well done to the podium guys!

I lost my connection tonight I hope I didnt screw anybody up. I am gonna put some time in this weekend going over everything and making it the best I can.

Much better finish for me than my qualy indicated.

In practice, I had a top-10 car. Mostly low 57's, but a few mid 56's for good measure. In fact, I was exactly 1 sec off the fastest car in practice. Astonishing for me. I'm usually behind a good 3-5 secs.

In qualy, I got out with the first pack of cars, but pushed way too hard on cold tires, and started making mistake after mistake. I was in a mental tug of war between not getting stuck in traffic, and turning a hotlap I knew I could. The split attention, along with tires I didn't warm properly, meant I was overdriving the car. Had a few offs and a few close calls with others (hope I didn't screw anyone up), and ended up hitting a wall. Best I could achieve with bent steering/suspension and no front wing was 19th with a mid 58. Oy!

In race, I managed to pick up a few spots in the first few corners. By the end of lap one I was up to 13th or so. Attrition gave me a few more spots, and I think I managed a legit pass or two. Ultimately reached 8th before midpoint of race, and was slowly closing in on 7th. Unfortunately, I was incinerating both left side tires. By lap 12 or so they were going off. I had to give up my pursuit of 7th by about lap 14 (even though I got within a few car lengths). Just ended up fighting understeer and oversteer in equal measure. For the last couple laps I just focused on keeping the car stable and holding on to 8th (9th was closing, but no chance of being caught in the time remaining... assuming I didn't screw up).

Good race overall, I guess. Not quali though, was way off my pace from the practice session just 2 minutes before. I gained a position right off the bat when Scott jumped the start. I drove hard to race Francesco, he was my target, and before I knew it, I was leading! No clue how, I forget when it happened, but I just drove a defensive end to the race and wound up winning. Funny how these things happen.

Good race Agustin and Francesco, you kept the pressure on really hard.

Oh well bad day just got worse.

Busted my butt to get home fighting through traffic to fire up my PC and then it restart itself 2 minutes before Qual. Finally got back into server for Qual only to be taken out twice before I could even make a lap. Was pretty mad about that. Then got into the race and got DQed at the start. Guess I jumped the start or something. Don't really know. Turned off my PC and went my butt to bed.

Good race, congrats to the top.

Had some good battles, fun driving guys.

I gotta practice for the next one...I was too damn slow!

See you at Goldenport another great track!
RA