Magny-Cours 400k

Now thats just plain annoying.
I admit, I didnt prepare for this race as much as I should have. I did absolutley no laps of practice, and was just relying on Finn's Hockenheim setup to work straight out of the box (and of course, it did :D).
Qualifying went well, I suprised myself again with a 1:38.7, which was 2nd behind Janko who was on another planet. But he's not involved in the championship, so I didnt mind too much.
Janko blew away from me at the start, but I was able to hold the rest of them behind while I found my feet. Kent got passed me before the first pitstop, but again I didnt mind too much because that just put me second of the points chasing cars, and I was pulling away from Darin and Ari.
I waited until the last drop of the 100L I put in at the start had burned away before pitting, and worked out I could make it to the end with 85L, so a reletively light car. This meant I could really push to the finish, and imediatley after my stop I was in the low 1:40s and gaining rapidly on Pete and Ari ahead. Then KABOOM! My engine dies on me. Temps where both in the 70s, so I am really really pissed off... random engine failures from a probable podium finish do not help with putting a season together :(

Sorry for leaving, I hope I didnt cause any problems... I would have stayed as per Kent's request if it where a short race, but I've got other things I could be doing with a whole hour.

My season isn't starting any better. I nailed the wall at the last chicane on my outlap so I had to start last. It took me a few laps to get around Bob, and as soon as I did, I got 1fps. I just did my best to hold it straight and slow down, but it obviously caught Bob by surprise. I got a nudge and bounced off the wall. After that cleared up, I caught Bob and passed him again then spent most of the first stint trying to make up lost ground. I eventually got around Dean, made my one stop and was hoping to pick up a few more spots by the end of the race when my engine blew with no warning. I was very easy on it, didn't over-rev on downshifts, had a conservative redline, and temps never got above 93. Bad end to a bad race. Oh well.

Sorry about that Adriano, you just all of a sudden popped into view. I could have ended my race right there and still be in the position I finished in. Not sure what the deal was, but I was nowhere near my practice times, and felt like an old lady getting passed out there today. At least I didn't disco!

Now this was a looooong race... i felt like my arms will fall of, my back was killing me also and my ass hurt a lot...

Got 1st in qual and pulled away, since there was quite a battle for 2nd. I was able to lead all the way to my pit on lap 47 and when i came out, Kent was right on my ass! Then 35 laps were all just looking at the mirror, very tough racing, but at end seems that Kents tires died, and i was able to have relaxing last few laps (as relaxing as they can be after 2hrs 15mins of racing...:P)

Traffic was very OK, i also tried to be OK for the faster GT cars, once it didnt work out quite OK and CJ went to the gravel, but was able to rejoin.

I am sorry to one of the ppl i was lapping at around lap 60-70 and i bumped him, i just couldnt brake hard enough. I think it was Dean or Barry. Sry for that.

Grats to CJ for GT win, and to all others for this marathon. Thanks to Tim for inviting me.

Well that was interesting. I had just a horible qual although I don't think I could have done anything with Janko but I have practiced about where Scott qualled. But okay I figure it's a long race not a big issue.

Once we all got our pace together it was basically a train Janko, Scott, Ari Darin and I when Darin almost slid off at T3 (nice save Darin) but this allowed me to get by. It only took me a lap or 2 to catch Ari and Scott. From the looks of it Scott was really holding us up and Ari kept trying but couldn't make it stick. the 3 of us were only running mid to high 41's so I know we were just handing this one to Janko with Scotts pace dictating the rest of us. I decided to get more agressive soon Ari made a mistake and I got by him. Some laps later I was on Scotts butt and it was all I could do to keep from nudging him due to his braking points. So finally I went inside him at Aldelaide and we ran side by side until the final chicane at which point he forgave the position.

Now I look a I am 14 seconds behind Janko! and I haven't even run a 40 yet. So I turn up the wick and start laying down some laps and when I pitted I was 11 seconds behind. I had a decent stop even tho the crew decided to fix something although I hit nothing so I dunno what they fixed.

I proceded to run some of my best laps of the race and when Janko came out of his stop I was now 1.5 seconds behind him and sure enough a gaggle of GT cars show up to screw it all up. After the traffic I was 3+ seconds back and closed it up over the next 10 laps to as close as .5 when the same GT's lapped us again :( That's when I noticed fuel was looking close, and I made the decision to slow down and start short shifting, letting Janko run off into the distance. Well I was crawling the penultimat lap and thinking Nuno was leading I figured I had to do abother lap. Well I crossed the line and 5 seconds later the race ended DOH!

Was a great run for me no matter what, and I was pleased to at least make Janko drive a little for that win.

Congrats Claus and Janko.

By the way Scott, there is no "random" failures I am pretty sure the server is set at "time scaled"

Thats correct Janko actually you did 85 and I did 84.9 :P

Thx for the invitiation again Tim.

I entered the server 5 minutes till qualy, so i didnt have time to practice and i didnt even have a setup. I changed something in standard setup and hoped it will work lol. I got 5th position in qualy, it would be better but damn phone rang and i had to park my car in gravel and lost 3 minutes there.

Only goal in this race for me was to finish the race. So i maxed the downforce for stability and reduced rev limit too much. In race i battled with Enis in first half of the race mostly and we had 2 contacts, hope these didnt caused any major damage Enis. After second stops i raced myself in 4th position. The guy in front of me was nearly 1 min ahead of me and 5th guy was 20 seconds behind me. I tried to keep that gap without making any mistake and did so.

Im happy to finish the race in 4th, but i was lapped by CJ even i didnt make any major mistake and its annoying lol :/

Scott, there are no random failures. Might be timescaled if Tim has it turned on, but not random. From my many Kablammo experiences, if it isn't from overheating, then it is a combination of downshifting too hard, and bouncing the revs off the limiter too much on acceleration.

Closest finish ever! ;)

Thank you Mr Nilsson, that was a most gentlemanly gesture to follow me around for an entire lap as I was running out of fuel, and to finally push me over, when you could have easily just drove on by.

What's the address to the Finn Ranch, I'll send over a case of this:

:)

No incidents at all for the entire race, really happy with that. Spent the whole race in an OTHR sandwich. ha. After the pitstops cycled through, found the back of Pete's pink car. Margin was down to 1.3 at the closest due to Pete negotiating some GT cars lapping him. But he pulled away soon after.

Settled into a comfortable rhythm, pretty even gap from Pete to me to Finn. About 10 laps to go, look over at GTRPD, notice that I have a lot less fuel than I thought I did. Looks like my pre race math didn't take into account the nice warm temps. The hotter it gets, the better the Michelins stick. My race pace in the first stint was much better than my offline practice pace, which meant I used up more fuel. Doh! Started short shifting, last lap crossed start/finish with 1.5 litres, but a whole lap needs 2.3 the way I had been driving.

Eased off on the long straight going into Adelaide, was going to wave Finn by, but he slowed down and waited for me. So off we went nose to tail. I even shut the ignition off a couple times to coast. Trying to squeeze every drop of gas. :) Finally sputtered out coming out of the last chicane, and Finn gave me the final push.

Thank you Finn!! I'll be happy to return the favor in the future. :)

Oh, and sorry to Sam, seemed like every time you came to lap me, it was right in the middle of the first turn or at the top of Chateau d'Eau and we'd almost run each other off the road. :D Also, Enis and Nuno, how about painting your Lambos something other than black. hehe. You melt right into the asphalt in my rear view mirror. ;)

Well I kinda figured I was going to be a bit off pace here, but I really was ok until I got some damage. Qualified 4th with Kent behind me.

Race started pretty exciting Janko took off but Scott, Ari, Kent and me were nose to tail for many laps. Scott was holding all 3 of us up for several laps and then Kent finally got by him. Ari had an off right in front of me in Imola and dropped back for a bit. I ran right up on Scott and made a couple moves as Kent was now pulling away from him. I blew a couple corners in a row and Scott got a bit of a gap and then Ari was back on my rear end so I had to concentrate on him.

Ari finally got by about lap 30 something and just after that Steve and 2 of the lambos all passed me headed down to Lycee and then proceeded to crash into each other comeing to a complete stop 3 wide in the middle of the track. I of course had nothing to do but hit one of them, there was not even part of a seam to sneak through.

Well after that I was damaged and pretty much off the pace, it cost me a few extra seconds in the pits but Scott still came out right in front of me. He started to get a bit of a gap and my pace was at least 1 sec off now with the damage so I couldn't really stay with him. Scott then blew his motor and Pete was the last to pit and that put me back in 4th. From there it was boring as hell with a big gap in front and behind all I could do was try and stay awake.

Looks like the points will be pretty tight now for the season, Grats to CJ and Krue for the 1-3, we still have a comanding lead in both team races.

Oh and BTW Scott there are no random engine failures when the serveris set as Tim does in time scaled, "it only brakes if YOU brake it".

I have had some fairly decent practice sessions around here, since I wanted to do well after my win in S3. But it seems I used all my luck here last season. Q - went fine with the fastest lap I had ever done here, but still only good enough for 7th I believe, but was quite pleased with it compared to the competition present.
Onto the actual race, I hit the drive button and all I see is trees?!??! ESC, drive again... TREES!!! After trying some suggestions offered, I cannot get to start on the track. So I start driving around once I am told the green light is on, but I cannot get onto the track. I decide to try some exit in the other direction and get at DQ, so all in all, a very short race day :-(
But as per the request of everyone, I kept GTR2 running to minimize the damage to everyone else.

It was absolute amazing seeing the battle between Conor and Steve, and also Tommy in the end. Legendary stuff! Almost 2.5 hours and still so close :-)

Congratulations to the winners! See you all in 2 weeks time.

Well I dont know how I broke it... the radiator opening was at max, and I was taking it easier than I did at Monza... oh well.

The reason I was so slow at the start and was apparently holding you all up was because I planned to pit very late (as I said, I hadnt prepared for the race so I hadnt worked out the maths of how much fuel would be needed, etc) and planned to put in the fast laps on fresh tyres and low(ish) fuel in the final 3rd... of course there's also the fact that I'm in the cruddy TVR! I've gotta get a better pick for next season...