USA F3: Montreal

Congratz to the podium. :)
Sorry for slowing you down so much Barry.
I wasn't really trying to block you, just having trouble cornering after the tires went away.
Didn't realize that we were using 2X tire wear, hehe.

Congrats to the podium winners, good job!

I qualy'ed 13th, better than I expected, this was my first race in these cars. Got off pretty good, worked my way up to 10th, then 8th for quite a few laps. I though for sure I would finish with 8th considering the 4 second + gap to the next car behind me. But it wasn't to happen. Coming out of the turn 1 (or was it turn 2?) I spun. I didn't hit anything, thankfully, but lost 2 places, back to 10th. On lap 10 my gauge showed I had fuel enough for 5 laps, but there were still 7 laps. I went a couple more laps, then pitted for a splash of fuel. Lost 2 more places, now in 12th. I had to make up some time now. I managed to and finished 10th. Not bad for my first F3 race. Seems the fuel estimates in the garage are not even close to correct, next time I'll add a bunch more.

DNF. Why? Engine failure. No warning, either.

I was 2nd place...2ND PLACE! ARGH!

It was a great race though, probably the most fun I'd had at R2P for the soul fact that for the first time I was in contention for the podium. I still can't believe my engine blew. It was a real let down.

I don't get it...last 4 races I've been in tune with the car, but either me or the car mess up more than halfway through.

I can't wait until the next F3 or FB race.

Grats to the podium, you all did quite well.

Nice to get another W. Too bad Fernando had problems, since I was looking forward to trying to keep on terms with him. Looked like he had us all covered from qualifying.

I was actually a bit surprised to qualify in 2nd since my F3 record isn't that great, so I looked back afterwards and saw my laptimes were on par with the last time we raced F3's at Montreal. Interesting...

Got underway and worked hard to get some heat in the tires and brakes on the formation lap, but then I got caught out by my long 1st gear and bogged off the line. Must remember to practice starts!

Tom got by me into T1, but I guess the warmup effort paid off as I got back by under braking into the second chicane. I had been worried about Fernando getting an early gap, but as soon as I got around Tom I saw Fernando go off ahead of me on the exit of the chicane. Looked like either a PC problem or maybe mirror-watching, since that's not somewhere you'd normally have a problem.

After that, I knew from the practice and qualifying times I had enough pace to win, so I just watched the gap behind and just tried to run steady and save the tires in case Fernando came back. But he never did, and I could see that others had problems along the way, leaving me with a big gap at the end.

I could get used to that! But it'll never happen, I'll likely get my butt handed to me at the next one... ;-)

Good racing last night. Congrats to the front runners!!

Got disconnected during qualifying and just managed to get back in to start race. Great racing with Jim Watson and Barry K. Barry was faster than Jim and I but patiently waited for the right opportunity. I finally squeaked by Jim and then held Barry for a short bit but went wide on the hairpin and he was gone.

Made one error and spun coming out of the second chicane. I tried to back out of the racing line and I thought I was clear of traffic to turn around and unfortunately collected Jim. My fault entirely and my apologies Jim. You didn't deserve that after a fine clean drive. I saw you lost a wing and were still running ahead of me so I thought you would still finish.

Wow I feel stupid after this one. I guess it's what I get for driving the car for the first time in qualifying and not being completely comfortable with it. I completely threw it away on the first lap. I had a podium car, but tried to hard on the cold tires and threw it into a wall on lap one. The last thing I want is to DNF so I just soldiered on with a completely broken suspension on the left side of the car, and eventually crashed again, braking the right side front suspension and knocking off my front spoiler. I have to say, it was a relief because the car was pulling to the left with broken left suspension and right turns were nearly impossible, so when the right side suspension broke it evened it out, which made the car easier to drive. I guess it's a good thing that a lot of people dropped, I think I ended up 12th.

Fun cars though, I'll be back for more of 'em. With more practice this time. Congrats Steve, Les, and Chris, nicely done.

Had a good qual from a setup I tweaked from my last f3 race here, then decided to try the setup Fernando Babij sent out for the race. I was not able to get completely comfortable with it and made a few changes that really hurt me (steering lock too low, brake pressure too low). His setup felt more stable than mine but once the tires started going away it took me a few laps to figure out how to keep it from spinning under heavy braking.

All in all a fun event, had to start from pit lane because I got a little obnoxious with my tire warming and lost a wing, doh! It was fun to start last and try and make ground up while trying to feel out the new setup and drive it without wrecking. Fortunately I did not hit anything on the few spins I had.

I was having a serious problem with my throttle blipping though. It's like for the first 14 laps of the race I forgot how to do it and was hitting the rev limiter on every blip, I finally calmed down the last few laps and got into a semi decent rhythm, but it still felt awkward.

Well, I was doing a little better than I really expected to that time and ran into some bad luck :( No problem about the contact, Ralph, I realized you were backing out of the line a moment too late. Lost my wing but the suspension was ok, and after a lap or so learned to drive without the wing. The DNF was caused by a disco on lap 16, not the damage. I was running a steady ninth and felt sure I could hold onto it, as I had lots more straightaway speed to make up for having to take the corners more carefully. Just my turn to get gremlins, I guess. I'll be back!