Imola 400k

Jeez, that was bad. Just made it in under the wire in the first place. Then when the lights go green.....I'm not going! Gearbox won't engage! ^%#$@@^&*%#^&*! Everything else is good but just can't have any gears. Damn.

I esc off the grid to get out of the way of the start, to find that only my shift up and shift down have been changed to "---"! WTH. I didn't do that! After fixing them, the race button was still red.......but woudn't let me back on. (wasn't holding out much hope though) It's too bad there's no-way to start from the pit-lane when something like this happens. In a 2-hour race, a lap down at the start isn't that bad. hehe.

At this point I esc'ed in frustration and completly forgot about other disco's.........I have my fingers crossed guys.......sry 'bout that in advance.

I'm off to go fire the particular mechanic who messed with my gearbox now. Good luck, see ya's at the next.

Nice. 2nd GT-I race in a row that I had someone in my pitstall. Thought I could make it around again, but couldn't. Just as well, don't think I would have made up a single position today.

Doh. Sorry guys, was at a poker game last night. Managed to stay alive to the last 4 (out of 14 cow-orkers) until 11:30pm. Slept right through my alarm clock. These 8am start times are killer on sat morning. Hope you boys have fun.

About 15 minutes from the end of the race, I tossed my headset down onto the little side table I have (where I put my keyboard during an event) and it hit the ESC button for me.

Total bullshit way to end your race.

Well, I guess that was a bit of an improvement over the last two, but still not great. Didn't get a good lap in qualy and started 5th. Because of the high temps I made a last-minute decision to go for 2 stops. I need to quit it with these last-minute changes.

Start was ok. I followed Pete for a bit, actually got by him, then he repassed me. Then, once again, I got 1fps. Ran it into the gravel and lost a spot to Tim. Caught Tim, passed Tim, then got it again in the same spot. Another trip through the gravel. Caught Tim again but had my first stop come up. Naturally, about 5 laps after the stop, the rain came. I held on for a few more laps, came in, topped it off, and took intermediates. From there, I just ran til the end. It was fairly uneventful from that point. I suppose I can take some solace in the fact that I missed fast lap of the race by just a few hundredths.

I wont bother with a full post race report, suffice it is to say I sucked bad.

Apologies to everyone for getting in the way when i took the wrong tyres when i stopped for wets.

Extra aplogies to Marc, Steve, Ray and Darin for some very bad braking resulting in spins. I know its a little too late but i did slow and wait for each of you after each incident.

Well, a race to forget, even qualy was awful :(

Ugh, that was not a good race for me.

Everything started out fine with a good qual lap. Had some battling with Enis and got around him after a mistake so I placed myself in 3rd.

Everything went down hill when the rain came in the 2nd stint. I wasn't too worried about the rain though, in fact, I think i drive better in the rain than on a dry track :P. But i got caught up in a incident when Tom spun around in T1 which collected Barry, which eventually collected me :(. I knocked off Barry's rear wing so I wasn't at all happy about that but I thought my car was okay....WRONG! Had a flat left front tire so I had to drive my way all around the track again to get it fixed and this happening just a few laps after my 2nd stop to get wets.

So, I came in again, got some new tires on the fronts, topped off the tank, and headed out again. Many laps later, the rain stopped so I came in again to get slicks and picked up a few spots in the process. With just about 20 min left in the race, I started tracking down Sam who was in 4th. I felt that I was faster and got within 8 seconds from him at one point, but lapped cars pushed me back and from there, it was impossible to catch him. I finally finished in 5th, which ain't too bad, but I had the chance to take home a podium finish and threw it all away :(.

Grats to the winners. Sorry to Barry for hitting you in the rear like that. Couldn't veer around you fast enough :(. Also, sorry to Ari for running each other off in the closing laps. Just tried to push it but it was a bad spot to do it :(.

Cya'll at a better track....Dubai :) :P

Grats to Claus and Ari on thier wins.

This was a tough race for me, I have been having back problems lately and found it very uncomfortable to drive during practice. Qual was interesting since I was not running very good lap times and just was not feeling the track. I was in the second postition when I started my last lap, my tires were slippery and had no hope of going any faster but when I crossed the sector 2 line I was well up on myself and managed to just sng the pole from Darin.

Race got under way and again I am driving like poop, soon I made an error and Darin got by me. Ari was right there too so I am thinking, what is my problem. Darin and I managed to build a small gap to Ari when I started catching Darin. Soon he had an off in the same place I did and I retook the lead again. That was short lived as the GT cars were passing I went well wide a Tosa and again Darin got the lead. Not many laps later he had an off at Variente Alta and I got by again and proceded to open up a nice gap.

I was approaching my pit in window when the rain came. I was really struggling already and the wet surface just made it that much harder. So I came in and got wets and rejoined with an 8 second lead on Ari, I guess Darin had trouble with his crew. So I maintained that gap to Ari and soon the rain stopped again. Ari ducked in behind me and I knew I was in trouble when on my next lap I was +7 at sector 2 line. I pitted and took too much time changing pit options and rejoined 2 seconds behind Ari.

I was faster and figured it wouldn't take too long to find a way past. Well that turned out to be a bit optimistic as I spun out in Villeneuve giving Ari a nice 8 second lead. Then to make matter worse a few laps later Ray caught back up to me and I went to give him some room and drive straing into the grass at Ravassa? (the last double left) and I slid through the grass and almost collected Ray :( Well now I am 17 seconds down to Ari amd I am just cruising to the finish. Not sure what happene to Ari but the last 4 laps I made up 16 of those seconds but I am sure he was just conserving for the finish.

Eek interesting weather, just like I had feared.

At start I could feel the car wasn't acting too great, sliding all over on med-hard tires, and when Nuno challenged me at Alta I just decided not to contest that pass and let him by. Eventually car started working and I could pressure Nuno abit, the Saleen was dynamite on the straits in slipstream of the Lambo, so got up on the side a few times, but race was still pretty early so I didn't go complete for it. After some 8 laps Nuno spun in Aqua, I barely avoided by slowing down alot, but he quickly got going again and for the rest of the first stint we were never more than 2s apart, I lost some ground in traffic, then he pitted and I immediately hit the request button to go in next lap, but lot of traffic ahead and lost lot of time on the inlap, perfect stop tho and when I got out I had over 10s lead, increased to 16s before I pit again.
It had started to rain by then, was hoping I could stay out till close to my pitwindow atleast but slicks was getting hairy so decided to pit on lap 40. Bit of brainfade, fresh set of soft wets, not the best idea since the rear overheated basically before I completed the outlap, quickly got the rear up to 120-130c, but to my surprise I was increasing the lead so I stayed out a bit, just tiptoeing it around the track.
Dunno if Nuno had probs coz lead had jumped from 16 to 33s after all had pitted for rain tires. So with the gap now increased to 50s I went in, after 8 laps on way too hot soft wets, for some hard wets and topped up the tank to finish the race on that, so quick stop again.
Knew Nuno needed to go in again for more fuel, and when I got out I was just 5s behind him and just ahead of my teammate. I overtook Nuno after some laps and he went into the pits again to fuel up and probably get slicks too since it had now stopped raining. So now had almost 1m20 gap so I decided to go in ASAP for slicks and no fuel since I calculated by the time left it should hold with what I had in the tank.
Well it just did and ended the race with less than 0.5L left, had to short shift some the last few laps.
Well done to the survivors, a good race for me since I didn't hit anyone, and traffic was as always very pro in letting the faster cars by.

Today....Just not a good day for CanAm Racing. Sh#@ty Qualifying, Sh#@ty Start, Sh#@ty weather, Sh#@ty race, Sh#@ty finish.......Just a Sh#@ty DAY. I was the last place car running. Dean had a problem and couldn't start the race, It started raining just before the mid race, I hit a car that was spinning out and got my rear wing knocked off and just to add to it my fastest lap of the race was S>>>L>>>O>>>W...OK so I go to upload a screenshot and after I see it come up it's from another race. SHEEESH

Barry