PLMS: Lienz

This was a real shame... these cars are just NOT suited to the 24 hour track, I really wish we had run the GP Long layout, its a far more enjoyable drive. Anyway...

Qualifying went well, didn't practice a single lap but managed a decent time and got pole. Would have gone quicker if I'd known where the finish line was :P

The race started well enough, I misjudged where Roberto was going to accelerate and ended up right behind Sam which was where I didn't want to be. He made a mistake later in the lap and I took 2nd overall, with a 5 second gap to Roberto. I was driving well within myself, had a perfectly clean car, then the backend just took off on me through pinball alley on lap 4... I saved it, but I was offline, clipped the armco right on the exit, spun, and backed slowly into the hay bales... and some how that blew my engine?!? Whatever...

ah well that was a fun race, qualified 2nd. was going well in 3rd in the GT2's, started to pick the pace up abit after around lap 5, slowly catching in Tristan and Kieron. Tristan made a mistake and i managed to get through. Then after Kieron and Tristan pitted i still had about 8 laps of fuel left. Tires felt fine so i kept going, but got distracted a few times.

Then the virus scanner kicked in, i haven't got a clue how to completely turn the thing off, even though its set on scan manually when i tell it to but it still scans automatically :( so parked to the side, tried to turn the thing off, eventually it shut down. Started going again but got red mist at trying to make up for lost time, went into pits, quick break to the loo, then back on track and just made silly mistakes and it was pointless trying to carry on. I agree with Scott that the GP layout would of been a much better choice and misses out alot of the stupid town section. I think 100% damage is abit much, for other tracks like silverstone etc its fine but for lienz its abit much when you have walls at either side, even nords is a safer track then lienz :p

Uh what a plonker, The class win was in my pocket and I threw it away.

Had a good first couple of laps and managed to Get past Sam to move up to 2nd in class. Scott pulled away from me and I pulled away from Sam. Tristan soon cought me up though so I let him passed only for him to stuff it in the Armco a corner later.

After I saw Scot leave I was watching the Gap to Sam which had come down a lot by then. Pitstops came and everything went ok so I was soon on my way again, coming out 35 seconds behind Sam. Think Sam spun so the gap closed to 25 secs, then I spun so it went back up to 30.

Noticed Sam had pitted then I saw his car stopped just after the pit Exit which I figured meant he was having probs.

From then on I was just keeping it clean, then I noticed tristan had caught me up but he was a lap down, so I let him past and just tried to keep in range of him so I knew he wouldn`t re catch me on the track.

Anyway, must have been about 15 mins left when I missed the braking point for T1 and hit the Bails. At first I thought I'd stalled the engine, but it wouldn't restart. I'd killed the engine a couple of laps from the end. What a bloody idiot!!!.

Oh well, it character building at least.

Grats to all the finishers, that's one hell of a tough track.

Cya Panoz GT2, it's been fun :D

Great job by the overall winners in both classes. :)

Not my best performance, think I managed to hit everything I possibly could & then some. ;)

Been an interesting season & I'd run these again if they come back.

Happy Holidays everyone.

That was crazy and intense.

My cliff escape ranks up there as the luckiest mishap I've ever survived in online racing. I outbraked myself into the first downhill lefthander after the top of the hill crest, and while my nose slid off track, I was forced to gamlbe between a head-on with the armco end (which was closer), or a big 'ol tree (which was slightly further away). I chose the tree, and in doing so, somehow pooped out between them, on the wrong side of the armco. The collision punctured a rear tire, so reversing uphill around the far side of the tree was not an option. With an engine overheating from revvy frustration, I decided to chance the only way I had out... down the sheer cliff!

I eased the nose downhill, and braked as best as I could to slow my descent, but a gain of velocity was inevitable so all I could do was hold on tight!

The rear of the roof collapsed after the collision with Mother Earth, but thankfully this is rFactor, so the Panoz righted itself after some seconds. Luckily I landed out of the way of Roberto, who flew past in the GTR-1 to put me a lap down.

I limped back to the pits on two functioning tires, and miraculously, my pit team had a 60-gallon drum of Elmer's Glue handy, so I was out of the pits with a fully-functional car after only 40 seconds! Two laps later I set my fastest lap of the race. My crew ate their Wheaties this morning, crimony!

Now the race was on between Tommy C. and I to decide the PLMS GT2 title. Kieron was nearly a lap ahead of us (and kindly let me by on my pursuit of Tommy), so a class win was out of the question.

I entered the pits with Tommy for our second stops, but noticed I was not putting my speed limiter on at the right place!! Tommy shot way ahead to the real pit entrance mark, and I frustratingly exited the pits after the stops again 15-20 seconds down on him.... time to get a move on!

With less than 15 mins remaining, I caught Tommy's bumper as we entered the bumpy uphill gauntlet. I nosed to his left through the fast left canyon sweeper, and we braked side-by-side into the treacherous "jumper" right hander, though never making contact. An exciting moment!! Tommy was sure not going to let me have it easily ;-)

From there it was conservation mode. Soon, Kieron had a meeting with the petrified hay bales, and I was back in the lead!! After not getting a qual lap in, getting stuck on the wrong side of a guardrail (twice!!!), flying down a cliff during an agonising 8-minute lap, then retaking the lead to the similar misfortune of others, I think you could say I was happy!!!!

FANTASTIC race, and farewell to an amazing series. Hopefully S8 or S9 will have PLMS make a showing to some proper venues, like Sebring, Mid-Ohio, Vanport, Birmingham...

longest race report ever. adieu!

What? I back into a hay bale at 2mph and loose my engine, and Tristan flies off a cliff and wins the race? WTF is up with this game?!? :P

Anyway, congrats on the championship Tristan ;-)

Tommy Christian won it!! He completed more races, so he is the victor.

Tough Race, as predictable.
It's a pity this serie is at its farewell, because the only types of cars I can drive reasonably "well" are these in which you must be very sensible with right foot.
My race was almost flawless, but after ~30 min I spin in the double hairpins just after the fast part, but luckyly I crashed both front suspensions, so the problem was symmetrical.
The lap after i spin again, so I had to "reset" my lines and approach to these turns, and after these all went fine, "driving reset" completed!

Congratulations survivors and champions!

Oops, my mistake, congrats Tommy!

looks like this was my first and last Panoz race here :(

knowing that the first sector being so tight i decided not to qualify.

In the race i was taking my time as its a long ass race, but once again i get hit by someone thinking that its a sprint race. The pits did fix my damage but the car never felt right, it was even worse when the car was light on fuel and used tyres.

after about a hour i just started cruising so i was trying to finish, i had one scary moment when i almost went off the cliff where Tristan got stuck. I managed to just stop before going over.

Once you get a feel for these cars they are quite enjoyable, i do hope they will make a return here in the future, also i haven't looked yet but i hope this layout of this track gets used again sometime. Its a very cool track :D

Simon