USA G3: Imola

Tough race! Had an ordinary run in qual, getting caught in some traffic, and never really recovered from there. Managed to avoid most of the spills on lap 1, and settled into a rythm mid race, but made a few mistakes, mainly downshifting a split second to early, and found the rear end was getting very loose under brakes.
See-sawed from 11th through to 15th, the snatched a couple back as other guys were doing it tough on worn tyres and managed to finish 14th, were I qualified.
A lot of room for error on this track, and found myself only pulling 1.57's in race trim, although the car did feel quite stable untill about 5 to go.
Congrats to Matjaz for pole and the win, and also the rest of the podium...
Well done Rob, flying the "Team Venom" flag, I would have liked to have joined you in the top 10, but in the end, I was just happy to finish.

Thanks to all involved.

Good Race congrats top.
Q'd fine, started fine, raced fine. Just a fine race! Rob was 2-3 seconds behind the whole race so the pressure was on but just a straight 30 minute drive, got sideways twice early but solid from then on. Uneventfull but fun.
See you...
RA

Well .. First race i have not completed the first lap !! Disgraceful :(

Well, with the race set to be a cracker for the top3 of the top 5, Steve, Tom and myself, all qualifying virtually with the same time, I had 2 vipers get together at Tosa infront of me on lap1 .. I tried to avoid the collision and vipers spinning, but had drivers behind me commited to the corner and not lifting .. So i ended up being rear ended and hit the vipers and rolled onto my roof, and the car never fell back on the wheels. 4 corners of a race! marvelous

:( now I fear I am all but too far away from the awesome 3 way tie for the title in the last race.

That was a lot of fun. Got a good start, but so did Tom O' -- he was shot out of a cannon!! :) Thanks for giving me the pass Tom O'.

I was working over John M. for a good fight, he'd kill me in the straights but I'd catch back up in the corners -- then Tim gave him the drive thru, poor John. So I was on a push to catch Ryan. But the push just never happened, he pretty much kept me at a 2-3 second gap for the rest of the race -- well driven!

Definitely a lot of fun.

Kris, glad you could make it and finish. I was running low 53's last night in practice, but dialed that back for the race to avoid an curb penalties. It was hard knowing I could take more curb and be faster, but forcing myself NOT to.

Looks like I get the gift of the junkers cars for next event -- me thinks Heinz planned it that way. Good championship fight, 3 drivers tied at 57 points.

I qualified 17th with a very slow time, so I was disappointed with that. Then I got rear ended hard on the first lap and dropped to last place. The first 3-4 laps of this race was pandemonium. Cars going everywhere. Anyway, I worked my way back to 12th or so and then rammed a Porsche that was nearly stopped on the downhill left hander. I am sorry about that, I could not avoid you. I will have to watch the replay, because my car had to look beat up pretty bad. Oh well, it was still fun. I wonder how far back on points I am now!

Lots of close racing in this one.I was in a close fight for P4-P7 when I got a drive thru on L7 ( not even going to comment on it ) took my head out of the race for a couple of laps. Had a great fight with Tom who was very fast in that Z3.I knew GP would kill me if I couldn't get my Viper past him. Made a last lap pass only because of the Viper HP.
Grats to the podium & four UKNL drivers in the top 10.

I was lucky to be in 6th overall before the start of this race and couldn't ask for more than 3rd in quali. It soon became clear that there was no way I could keep up with Garret and that all my attention was needed to keep others behind me. Esteban came close and by once but I managed to regain 3rd soon after that.

And now to Spa. With 3 drivers on equal points in the lead. This is going to be epic. Another fight between CanAm and UK-NL for both the drivers- and the teamchampionship. A perfect copy of US G2. And in both cases I believe Heinz will be the man to watch. :-) We all know more in 2 weeks time.

@ JM: Yes ... you would have been dead by now if you hadn't passed Tom. My waterguns can be very deadly. :-)

Horrendous quali for me! I had been practicing in the Porsche until I saw the results of the Euro race. Switched to the Viper and actually like the feel of it and found a good setup from another track. I bobbed and weaved around many skidding cars on the first lap but my luck ran out and I got collected into the wall. Worked my way back up and towards the end I saw my teammate in front of me who is high up in the points so I backed it down towards the end to provide him with any shake and bake sling shot maneuvers he may have needed...just kidding. Happy with 10th after all that. Spa will be interesting!

Yup, shaping up to be an interesting series finish after this one. Three-way tie, with Garret only 2pts back and Heinz in the spoiler slot in 6th getting a fast ride for of all places, SPA!

Was worried early in practice, as I hadn't done under a mid-57 in my limited time in the Z3 and that looked hopeless. Somehow I managed to just get on pace for Q. Tom, Heinz and I were in lockstep grid spots for the race and it was looking like a very interesting half hour.

Once the green lights hit Tom got his typical rocket launch, and I just managed to squeeze by Heinz going into the T1 chicane. Got tagged lightly door to door by Tom G's Porsche going through but no worry, then saw him get punted by Maciej. Maciej was coming hard so I moved wide for him to go by into Tosa, but he nailed the Viper in front of him and they both got turned. I just got by on the inside, but Heinz got nailed by Maciej when he was trying to get through and that put him on his roof. A damned shame, especially as he was the 3rd car Maciej had hit in the first half lap. Some restraint was obviously in order and the steward took care of that.

Things settled down a bit after that and there were two cars between Tom and me, but they were faster cars and soon he was just ahead. I closed down the gap and once there figured to ride it out for a bit and wait for an opening, then push for one later if it didn't come. We were pretty much interchangeable on speed, with me perhaps having a tenth or two on pace but Tom being more consistent. I made an error on lap 5 that cost a couple of seconds, but got back on pace and our next two laptimes were identical.

Was looking to gradually close back up, but then got caught out when my teammate John came out from his DT going into the T1 chicane. I went by at first just on momentum, but realized the best course was to get him back by with as little disruption as possible. Unfortunately he had some slight errors getting back up to speed and that put me in a Viper sandwich since Johnny G had caught us while we were tiptoeing around each other. All I could do was try to get them clear without losing too much ground and hope they got by Tom too, but I lost a good bit of ground as those 3 laps were a good 2-3 seconds off pace with some errors on my part due to being disrupted.

Got back down to it once they got by, but had lost too much ground to have any hope of getting up to Tom, so the only hope I had was for them to both get around him. And John, GP would not be the only one after you if you hadn't made that pass... So well done! ;-) Was hoping they'd get slowed up enough in battling that I could get back on terms, but it took long enough for them to get to him that that wasn't a factor. I got lucky when Johnny got a DT for some reason (dunno what) so that meant it was back to Tom and I in order, so I just brought it home the last couple of laps.

Well done to Tom, especially at the start - that was a critical advantage. And considering the 2-point gaps for top six and the nature of Spa, Heinz may not have lost so much after all. One thing's for sure, if he can avoid mishap we won't see much of him there!

This was the first time I have ever been 5 sec. off the race pace; a very humbling experience. The Z3 really exploits my weakness as a driver, plus the fact that I haven’t made many laps around this track equals a shitty race for me. I didn’t think I had a chance to get in the top 15 (score some points), but there is always a chance, right? Anyway, it was a fun experience passing 15 or so cars on the first lap, then all those cars came flying by me a few laps later. Hope I made it easy enough for you’ll to get by? As for SPA, it’s another track I don’t know very well, but at least I will have a better chance at a top 5 finish in the Viper.