GTX: Imola

Heh... I just hate my luck.... FFS im so mad now... On my part i did everything perfect. Started well with soft-med, then changed only fronts in pit. Was leading.. would be a great fight against 550... with my VETTE!!! :(

And then 25mins to go,... a lock-up from grfx card... things just froze and i got pinky things on my monitor... I so watned to kill someone at that point. I ll just give this 8800GT another try today, but i got a feeling that tomorrow im changing it for ATI. F*** off Nvidia!

I should have never entered this race, took about 3 turns to realize I didn't want to be there, won't do that again.

Was quite pleased with the pace of the Lister in quali but on heavy fuel it was a different matter. I agonized over a strategy but nothing I tried would make me any faster in the race so I just went with the normal, stop half way and get new mediums and fuel. I came out behind George who I presume didn't change tyres and I couldn't pass him although I tried pretty hard. Team mate Heinz caught and passed us both and then George had trouble when we got behind a smoking 550. I took advantage and got past George, lucky for me because I don't think I would have passed him any other way. Then I followed Heinz to the finish and he gave me 5th to help me in the points standings. I'm still going to need a miracle trailing Claus by 8 pts. but every little helps so thanks Heinz.
Grats to the podium, unlucky Janko.

Good Race!

Quali was ok, couldn't do an PB's or match my FL's from prac, but it was good enough for 6th.

Start was good, Got a better start off the line than Kevin Savoie and made it stick. I was trying to catch Claus but he was insanely solid in the lister. Kevin was always threatening from behind, until Jan got passed .. then My gap to Claus just dropped while i tried to defend against Jan. Eventually made a mistake allowing him past, but he had to work for it...

Then A few laps before pits, I got a wicked double upshift into 1st gear coming out of the last corner before Tosa. Almost ended my race, but it didn't. Valterri and Darren got passed and was a little P.O'd my hard work was screwed.

Somehow it ended up being George Pol infront of Darren and Myself after pits and Valterri had dropped down the order. Darren was hassling George on fresh tyres from what i could tell.. I made up a 6 second gap to that battle, and got passed both, while darren still tried hard to pass..

Darren did pass, so let him by for 2 extra points in his championship battle.. Good luck for Spa guys.

P2 was a great result and the really more than I could've hoped for in the Lister. Car was great for qual but with heavy fuel it was just not a match for the 550s, heck I couldn't even keep up with a Vette, which looks strong here as Conor proved yesterday in GT-I aswell.
Still I was keeping within visual distance of a couple 550s as I pitted and had a blistering fast stop only needed some fuel and new tires, and managed to leapfrog them both having 15s lead when they had pitted so now I was running in 3rd.
I knew I had to push when the tires were still good coz they would be dropping off alot in the end as they did in the first stint. Some 20mins to go I suddenly get promoted to 2nd after Janko who had done a great job in the Vette till then got probs. So after then I can just control the gap to the charging 550s behind and finish P2, altho I have a couple small mistakes here and there that takes some time out of the gap plus getting past backmarkers in the Lister is really tuff without some major help from them, but all did a great job there.
Ofcoz could've hoped that there be more guys between me and Darren so still some work to do at Spa, but looking forward to it.

Well, that went better than my last race here.

Was dissapointed with qual, really scruffy laps, not one I was happy with.

Started 7th, got off the line well, but immidiately got boxed in and lost a spot after Tamburello. Settled in behind Heinz who made his Saleen as wide as a house. Was much faster, but passing on this track is extremely difficult.
After what seemed like many many laps, and getting increasingly frustrated from loosing secs by the corner, I tried to upset him by weawing side by side in his mirror, but braked too late entering Willeneuve and lost some secs by saying hello to the botanics.
Calmed down, settled in again and got a great rythm going. Caught Heinz back up and finally got by him after he made a small mistake exiting Minerali. Quickly made my way up to Darren in his Lister and just motored past him entering Piratella.
Then set my eyes on catching Agustin in his 550. I knew he was gona be tough to pass, but, rather conviently, he made a mistake and I went by.
Was really feeling comfortable now and hammered my quickest laps in right in succesion. Was catching Claus by around a sec pr. lap until I made a braking error in Piratella and went wide, loosing 5 secs.
By this time, I had Agustin in my rear again pushing me.
Could see the gap to Claus kept plummeling. Was absolutely hammering the car, extracting every last horsepower. Was running out of laps and finally came to the conclusion that unless he made a mistake, I wouldn't have time to catch him, so concentrated in keeping Agustin behind.
Made a stupid mistake exiting Variante Alta on the last lap, allowing Agustin to catch right up. Side by side entering the last corner on the last lap, none of us was going to let go, we traded paint in the chicane but then Agustin lagged heavily. I decided to back off to avoid us both going off. What a battle after an hour and 15 minutes of running, never been in anything quite like it.
Shame it had to be decided with lag (Agustin, get that fixed please), but thats how things go sometimes.

That was much better than yesterday in GT Open. I knew the Lambo would manage the distance on one set of meds and this time I believe it brought me at least two positions. Had Darren breathing down my neck for almost the whole 2nd stint and yes, it was that smoking 550 that caused me making a mistake and Darren finaly got passed. Good racing there Darren. I enjoyed that. Glad we're finished with Imola. On to Estoril and Spa for the season finishers. Looking forward to the next two weeks at R2P. Grats to Marko on the win and to Claus and Agustin for completing the podium.

Well.. not the most glorious race in my career LOL . With a now already typical 2 laps preparations and obviously a bad car choice my race was doomed before the start, overheating engine didn't help but all in all the pace was sad from start to finish.

Only thing worth to mentioning was the 1st half when Mark McLean was chasing me through the stint , i was horribly slow on some places but Mark had enough patience to wait his strategy to kick in. Thx for the clean racing Mark , i know i wasn't the easiest car to follow but you did a nice job there.

Congratulations to Marko for the win and big cheers to CJ for bringing the Lister home on a 2nd place , fantastic effort. Grts too to Augustin for the last podium place.

Cya in the finale... :)

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Samuel