USA EC: Dubai

Driving along, having a good race near the top 10 with some other fellows, and then across my room went my obnoxiously loud alarm clock going off! I'm like you go to be kidding me. Luckily I was about to come on the front stretch, and so when I did I pulled to the inside, aimed it straight, slowing a bit to prevent the car from coming back on the track. By the time I turned it off and came back, I had lost probably about 8 positions. Frustrating.

Trying to do what I can to make up for loss time, I began to make a positions, but then I got too frustrated and let it get the best of me. I even lost two more positions on the final lap after I slid off.

One thing I did notice was, everyone was so even on that track. I guess all those slow corners really killed our ability to get runs, and make passes. I dunno, I could be wrong. Oh well, grats to the podium.

Got a nice quali lap in and was looking forward to this one...

Got a sweet start off the line from P5, and got up to 3rd for T1.. Sure enough, I end up with a big hit and off I went .. Looking at replay i was just a victim to Rob who was a passenger aswell after a collision with Don down to T1 :( ... it's so frustrating.

So anyway, I managed to come back on once the field was through, and although I was not going to get onto the podium, the race to finish was still pretty enjoyable.

Had some nice passes all the way up till 11th. this is when i met my match - Ryan Robbins. I had 3 laps to get passed him if i wanted 10th, which in the end was my final goal. There was a group of 4 cars and Ryan was doing very well to keep it infront of me. I had a few looks up the inside but never followed through. Finally on last lap it was crunch time and I got a good run on the uphill to the sharp left hander and tried a pass on the inside´.. Ryan was vigilant and I hit the brakes too late and almost lost it, bad attempt .. He kept his place.. then i made one last attempt out of final corner and i dont know how i did it, but i had much better exit speed and took the chequered miliseconds before Ryan .. Awesome!!!! Nice Racing Ryan, sorry for taking your 10th..

Congrats to podium

Yeah I got smacked pretty hard from behind going into T1 at the start and was pretty much a passenger.

Fortunately after the car finally stopped spinning I was facing the right way on track and was able to continue, car felt damaged though -- just didn't want to turn in.

Anyway, it was still a lot of fun and I had some good rubbin' with Maciej -- he was faster and my car was a little crippled, fortunately for me he made a small error and I was able to get around and say in front (wasn't easy).

Very happy we got a 3rd and 4th for the Team - Thanks Mark.

Horrible race for me- I quali'd 12th, which is about usual for me, but in race trim I just wasn't with it last night. I must have had much more wing than everybody else because it was like I was dragging a boat anchor on the straights. I got as high as 8th in the usual early lap mayhem, but then the field just came rushing back by me. Sent John Onofrey around in a tight corner with a little tap, and after that my heart just wasn't in it. Sorry John! Waited up and cruised around at the back to the finish. Only having signed up under the CT Racing banner kept me from escaping out for a DNF.

Nice win and pretty uneventful race for me. After taking the pole in qualifying I had a decent start but Steve was just amazing from the starting grid taking the lead coming into the first corner. I had a much faster car on cold tyres so I just waited for a decent chance and it came on lap 2. Classic overtaking maneuver but just a bit to much locking of the brakes for my taste and Steve almost had a chance to strike back in the corner exit but lost it under acceleration. The rest was just driving on my own and taking care of the car which was performing rock solid giving me a chance to record my best lap on the last lap of the race.

I am very happy with my race, running as high as third at one point until I spun myself in the uphill left. My pace was good, and If it weren't fro my mistake I might have even been 1 or two places higher.

Congrats to the podium.

Fun race, as usual in the Elises. Light, grippy, balanced and forgiving; what's not to like?

Did a few laps in the morning, but hadn't gone under a mid 43, so I was pleased to nick into the 42's in qualifying. Dropped fuel from the race set but no other changes.

Matjaz was clearly on a different level, so when I got by for the lead on the start (big time clutch slipping - really helps on launch), I was wondering how patient he would be before going back by. But I knew he would sooner or later, so I just figured to drive the first lap easy since there was no reason to really push it on cold tires. Sure enough, he got a run on me on the second lap and went by under braking into a tight right. Good, I thought, proper order restored. But he went a bit deep and locked it up under braking, leaving me room on the inside. So naturally my insta-moron switch flicked on and I went for it! ;-)

That of course resulted in near-disaster as I almost looped it off the corner, barely managing to get it collected before getting overtaken by several cars behind. Nice...

Kind of wigged out for a lap thinking what a dumb move that had been, but calmed down and just tried to drive tidy after that. Was running soft/meds, so the fronts would give up later if I pushed them too hard. Managed to keep the mistakes small from there out and gradually improve over the rest of the race, doing my FL (&PR) on the last lap.

Too bad about the mess in T1, as Rob and Heinz would have surely made life interesting just behind otherwise! But it's racing and sh..tuff happens.

On to (anticipated) suckage in G2!

Another really fun race here at Race2Play. I had a good start from my crappy qualy (forgot to load qualy setup). Going into T1 i see a car go slidding through the corner, after reading i now know what happened. Bummer to the guy's who go taken out.

So there I was in 4th chancing down Brain S. and like he said, he had a little spin in the uphill left hander. I got hit when that happend, but didn't make me go off track or anything. From then on it was just about putting in good laps and not making any mistakes.

Again, great fun and looking forward to the next race!

-m :-)

Exciting race for me. Got the best start I ever had moving up about 5 positions I think on the first lap. Spent the whole race dueling with other cars and with Heinz, who passed me on the final turn (great racing by the way, nice patience). Everyone that I raced with was very clean. My lap times got consistently faster as I learned the track better.

This was my first Elise race and I had a lot of fun. I was happy with qualifying and race times considering the amount of time I have in this car. I'm looking forward to joining more of these races.

That was just a race incident Michael, no apology needed :) I coulda/shoulda stayed wider on that exit and we would've missed.

Cya at the next one :)

Edit: Doh!!... My first upload is acutally coming out of turn 1.