USA FT: Birmingham

I clicked the Race button while my rFactor timer still showed 10 seconds left before the start of the formation lap, but instead of being put on the grid I was put into the pits. Has this happened to anyone else?

Congrats to Tristan and Eagle Racing... awesome racing all season guy!

My typical quali mid field, I actually thought I was going to do a tad better in this department, but could not get those 1:01's. Good job to all you speed demons up front!

Had a good race, the start was busy up front and much going on, I knew to take it easy and go off line as much as possible to avoid the concentration of cars going for what they knew best...the racing line. I picked up 1 or 2 P's and then settled in. The racing then got tough, had some real intense battles with Vance Hone and Rob A, good driving guys that side by side shit was awesome and from my point of view very professionally done! A total adrenaline shot and need more of that!!

Ryan was hoping to stay on your tail but just didn't get comfortable for the first few laps, not enough practice this time, missed the usual duel.

I am happy with 6th and the season in rTrainer, great cars to drive!

Congrats to all podium finishers!!

@ Steve W - haven't had that happen, and I entered the grid with only 7 seconds to go. Weird.

Almost didn't make this one; jumped in at just after 9:30 and got booted for a track geometry mismatch, which surprised me since I'd just raced the long version of the track on R2P the other day. Tabbed out and DL'ed the track again from R2P and reinstalled but got the same error again. Thinking there was a file in use preempting an overwrite I shut down rFactor and reinstalled the track again and that did it - got in just as we went to Q. Strange!

After that I was scrambling and just grabbed the setup I'd used at Laguna - used it with no changes, which luckily worked pretty well for this course. Pushed hard in Q and just squeaked into the 01's for 3rd on the grid. Quite happy with that as I knew my lines were not that good, especially in the chicane where it was easy to lose or gain a good chunk of time.

Race start was pretty much the story for me. Bogged it badly off the line and should've lost at least two spots, but found a narrow opening on the inside of T1 as Rob and Tom bumped wheels just to my outside. So I ended up gaining a spot into 2nd behind Tristan instead of being 5th! Tristan rapidly checked out as he was on a completely different level than the rest of us, but Rob, Tom and Kent were right behind me and looking to make life very interesting.

I gradually eased into a solid pace after sliding around too much on the opening laps, and then caught break #2 when Kent went wide off the last corner trying to get a run on me down the S/F straight. Rob and Tom followed him off (funny how that happens - done it myself), with Rob half-looping it out of the grass and into the pit wall (done that too). End result being a bit of a gap that I could ride till the late laps, not even thinking about trying to get up to Tristan. I knew where my limit was and these things don't let you lose momentum without paying for it big-time.

That was the plan for the late laps as I'd started pushing a bit and Tom caught me with a couple to go. I knew a self-induced mistake was the most likely way to lose 2nd so I just dialed it back a half-click to make sure I didn't screw up. As twisty as B'ham is it would be tough for Tom to get around, but he did a great job of trying. We touched wheels on a couple of occasions but no harm - just good close racing. I probably couldn't have held on much longer so it was good (for me) the race ended when it did.

Congrats to Tristan for cleaning our clocks in FT this season; we were truly all racing for 2nd.

That was a fun race even if I visited the pit wall on front straight (pushing too hard too early).

I had an issue during qualification that left me in 4th spot (again my own fault) with a damaged car.

Got a good start, but had to make major avoidance move from hitting Tom in front of me -- green is for GO Tom!! ;)

I saw Steve stuff the tiny hole so it was move over or be moved over, unfortunately Tom was on my outside and there wasn't really any room for me to move as I was the meat in a sandwich.

I had a good race setup and was in the 1:01.8 range so I was looking forward to a good 2-5 fight and we all know Tristan was just gonna check out (which he did) so the real fight was for 2nd place.

Then another brain fart and a I get loose going onto the front straight and drift into the wall and lose my front wing (which is so vital in these POS cars). I had thought about going into the pits but decided to try to salvage a top 10 if I could keep the car on the track without a front wing. I did my best to hold onto 6th at the time, but they all started to pick me off one by one. Guess I should be glad I minimized damage to 9th place finish.

Had a blast even with my mistakes.

Congrats to podium.