UKFormula USA FB: Mosport

Game froze twice in practice... tried something quick before qualifying... froze again in qualifying... hope it did not ruin anyones session...

I quit as to not ruin anyones race.

See you guys next time around.

This was my first FBMW race and it was fun, even though I didn't do well at all. Qualy didn't go well either, couldn't even get a time to match my practice times. Also, something weird with my force feedback - during practice it was quite mild, but as the race started it really kicked in full force, and I just wasn't prepared for that.

In the race, first lap, one guy spins out in turn 6, right in front of me, and I hit him, knocking off my front wing. A minute and a half in the pit stop and back out again, a couple laps later I caught a bit too much grass and went off, brushing the wall and loosing my rear wing. Back for another minute and a half pit stop. Just couldn't get it together at all.

But it was fun and I'm definitely doing it again!

Well, I gave it my all, but it just wasn't enough. Late in practice, my downshifting paddle started to act up again, so i had to switch to the stick (DFP). This probably cost me about 2 tenths worth of speed as I couldn't control the steering wheel smoothly enough with only one hand on it.

In Qualifying I was about 4 tenths off Wyatt and knew the only way I would have a shot was to get a good start. I got a good jump off the line, but my car bogged when I shifted into second gear. I stayed close eough to Wyatt to get a great draft down the back straight. I must of cought him sleeping because he didn't take a defensive line at all. Once I was on the preferred line, he had to give me the spot.

I knew that Wyatt was a lot faster than me, so I just took very defensive lines in all the passing spots, forcing him to try a risky outside move. He didn't dissappoint, and on lap 2 he took a shoot around the outside of turn 6. I managed to hold on around the outside of turn 7 which gave me the inside of turn 8. He tried again on lap 4, but this time while I was shifting down for turn 8, my car shifted from 6th to 4th. This locked up my rear end and put me in a nasty slide. I bounced off Wyatt, which helped me straighten the car out. I fell to a second behind, which was enough to cancel the draft down the back straight and Wyatt pulled away like I expected. I pushed to the finish, to take a strong second.

It was great fun racing Wyatt, I look forward to next time. I only hope I can mount a worthy challenge.

Well it was a fun race...even if filled with dramas!

A late join, using the Euro pasword when I saw there were only 21 drivers that had turned up. But that left me time for just 1 Qual lap chance, and I managed to miss a corner and lose a ton of speed across the grass. So I think I was 18th for the race start.

A good traction start and I had made my way up numerous places within a lap, but had a number of incidents along the way to a 10th place finish.

A good early battle with Tristan and Amir.

1) Flying down and around Turn 2 I was rounding up RalphK and someone else there fast, so I ran around the outer right edge for the pass. But Ralph came out off the left side and ran right out to me and we collided and bobbled and he flicked off the left. Sorry that was the result Ralph! It looked like it might have been fatal.

2) Chasing down Amir, he lost the rear end ahead of me in Turn 3 and in my attempt to be able to pass him on the right as he slid around, I lost my rear end also then! DOH
Flicking back around to get going he came along and clipped my front end so then I had some suspension damage. sigh
That pretty well set up a run of laps between us to battle it out for that position.

3) Breaking free of Amir, I caught GreggM and chased him down the front straight. I couldn't quite get to overlap him, so I stayed out of line with him to the right because I could run full speed around Turn 1 on any line anyway, so I was hoping he would fearfully back out before then and I could shoot around past.
But by the bridge he had not backed off, so I gave up on the idea in case he was going to swoop down to the apex and crunch me. I backed off throttle to drop in behind him for the turn, but I guess he did decide to give up the fight right then (!), because a split second later he braked and came back into me before I could do anything! Yikes. And that contact spat him off the track! So another messy outcome - sorry that happened Gregg!

From there on it was relatively uneventful....phew!

Unfortunate race for me! :(... I made another one of my "Signature Starts" and I passed 7 cars from 16th. place and by lap one I was in 9th. position... I went wide in T-3 and took precaution by looking at my mirrors and came back on track, made it OK! Pheww!!! Kept the car on the racing line to avoid contact with other drivers, unfortunately my teamm8, was closing in and tried to hit his "Apex", I'm assuming he thought it was clear, but we had light contact, just enough to send us to the wall, and my car took a big hit, reminded me like the test on last Sunday in Formula Vee in Mexico (that's were I hurt and burn my ankle)...Went to pits, but I was real surprised about the time it took to fix the front wing and a left flat tire, a astonishing 168 seconds...I guess my "Crew" was falling asleep!!! :) ... Fixed the car lost 3 laps, came out and I had a "Drive-Through" penalty, came around again, went out, and I was faster than a lead lap car, passed him and I got another "D-T" penalty, came back to pits and pretty much that was the end of the race... :( ... Worst finish in "OW"...

Congratulations to the Top 3!!!

Apologies to my teammate, but I didn't see it coming... ;)

Best!
OG

Great track for these FB's! Quite a spread in the qualie times, almost seemed like multi class racing. I was in the middle, and after a few laps of close running my pace isolated me in the middle - way ahead of the slower, not near fast enuff for the hot dogs.. Kept Charles back for a while but a couple minor offs to grass and by he went. 2nd lap frm end, I got it back has he had a big off in final turn, made it into top 1/3 for the fini.

Good Race, congrats podium.

Good drive KR you stayed close the first half, almost crashed yourself trying to get on my side! Then I began to slow a bit and you made3 your way past; great steady driving. I picked up a gift spot on the last lap to finish in top 5!

Fun race, fun cars, tough luck for iDT this race but it's a long season!!

See you next time.

RA

Boy that was fun!
Decent practice times for a top 10 start hopefully.

Qualifying was the first disaster. I moved over to let a faster car past and went off and broke the suspension.

Race start the car ahead was slow getting away and I tapped his rear and came to a stop as 2 or 3 cars sailed by. No problem, plenty of race to go. Was in 12th after passing several cars off on the grass and was having a good dice with Jim Watson, looking for away by. Amir and Peter came screaming up after they tangled and went off. Amir made it past with a fairly risky pass as I was ready to move over following the normal line and luckily spotted him in time. Next came Peter, who I didn't see in time (sorry Peter)as I was focused on the car ahead. Limped to pits, lengthy stop to repair damage and back out to at least finish the race.

I am glad you got to finish Ralph!
These cars cost a TON of time in the pits! Which is very expensive, but I guess it is probably somewhat realistic.
And it makes it extremely important to keep them running intact, which I have not been able to manage to do in the first season races this time! lol