Hidden Valley 100k

Sorry to Mark and Joco.

No worries Kevin, it's racing!

I had an ok Quily, with a pretty good start i jumped up a couple spots coming out of T1. I just wanted to get into a good groove and let the race play out. Got bumped off the track and lost a couple spots early, but got them back about mid point. Then i found myself alone, 14 sec ahead was 3rd, and 17 sec behind was 5th. With about 10 to go i got the old "tires warn, take it easy" so i did.

All in all, good times!

Congrats up front.

-m :-)

My qualification was terrible. I tweaked the setup to be a bit more stable, but it was for the worst. Was far off my PB of 1:06.2.

Start of the race was instense, I tried a move on the guy infront, but there were so many cars side by side that there was very little space, and I backed off before I was pushed into the wall.
At the beginning of the race I was just following the others, couldn't get close and overtake, but I did gain places by others flying off.
Then just before halfway Janko punted me off and I lost some places and alot of time. He didn't wait, do a drivethrough or get penalized by the mods, so that's a disappointment in sportsmanship.

Halfway I had the tires worn message and I went in, thinking others will do the same. But I was shocked to see nobody else get in. I dropped back to 14th with only 15 laps to go. I even got lapped by 2 drivers, but they were so fair to let me unlap myself, as I was quicker on new rubber than they were at that point on worn tires.
I was pushing like mad to gain places, and I did. In the end I climb upped from 14th to 6th, the place where I qualified.
Don't know how you guys lasted on 1 set of tires, but noway I could of managed that. And besides, I hate running on worns, and it was a huge blast to overtake people at the end.

I expect next time the race time changes that official statement is made in "Pre-race". Is that too much to ask?

Qualifying:
I didn't make it in time for qualifying session as it started 30 min earlier than it said few hour prior to the race on the event page.

Race:
Started on the last place, P20. Finished 8th which wasn't too bad, but I had good pace for top 5 at least. Interesting race nevertheless.

Started of nicely, by T1 I was already 5 place up, but in the middle of T1 someone has hit me at least 3 times, and only proper and fast reaction from my side prevented me from going off track. Shouldn't this kind of contact also be considered as drive-through contact?

Later in lap 1 Larry A. got his position back, but he had to slow down for the next corner as he was far of ideal line, I however was on ideal line. I didn't expect him to slow that much down in the corner and by the time I realized he's that slower it was already too late. I did serve my penalty Larry but I know that don't make you feel any better. Sorry.

I was dead last again, after serving the penalty. From then on I was pushing to gain some places back, and as a result had a 2 half spins, which in total cost me about 15 seconds. From then on, lap 7, I was 45 seconds down the leaders and lost 10 more seconds by the end of the race, mostly due to traffic.

In lap 29 I pushed Steve K. of the road. I was totally surprised by the early braking, and had no time to react. Sorry. You are free to report me if you like.

Few laps later Jeffrey over took me on newer tires.

I got a good start and avoided some problems behind me on the first lap. I kept 8th from the start and on the last corner of 2nd lap, i put the power down and spun out .. I waited for field to pass and did a U-turn on track
(sorry but there was no way i was escaping to avoid that, and track was clear)

I then just kept the car on the road, passed people making mistakes ( and some pitting )

I was getting warning after warning after warning about my tyres, but wasnt going off, only a little slower each lap.

Managed a comeback from 16th to 5th

Well done podium, and Darren getting a win again after a dry patch

Enis, the qual actually started 1 full hour LATER then originally advertised, not earlier (only for the Euro guys though). This was done to accommodate the U.S. time changes over night. Check the series page, it says it all.

Yesterday when I checked the event page it said 16:45 is the qualifying starting time, I expected that to changed to 17:45 today because of clock adjustment in the USA. It did change to 17:45., but qualifying session started in 17:15. That's what I mean.

Quali was reasonable but only good enough for 5th on the grid. Had a good start side by side with Joco and managed to get into 4th. Then Janko had an early problem out of the final turn so I was up to 3rd. Then Kevin had a similar problem a few laps later and I got into 2nd behind Rory who was flying. The top 6 were all really close still but Rory and I moved away a bit after this and as the tyres got worn I started to close the gap. Janko was back to 3rd and catching me up again soon. I put some pressure on Rory but couldn't pass until he had a bit of trouble with his tyres. Joco was behind me on fresh tyres so I let him go and just tried to stay with him and not spin out on my worn rubber. Janko took Rory and got right behind me with 3 or 4 laps still to go, I had to hold him off through turn 1 a few times and it was a pretty intense finish. Really pleasing win in the end, grats Janko and Rory.

Qual went OK and had pole... Opened a gap, but then made a mistake in the last turn and i was back in 6th possition... and loosing a lot against the leader.

It was frustrating since my pace was faster but still it was crazy hard to pass on this track... Got by some guys, then got behind Jeffrey, coming out of turn 1 i got realy close after his small mistake, tried to get him next turn, the slow righthander, but it all went wrong... I seem to brake into that corner later then most guys, Jeffrey got in middle of the road defending possition, i did what i could not to hit him, but it was too late... Realy sorry, nothing more i can say, i was quite pissed with myselft at that point...

After that i was flying to get close to Rory and passed him God knows how into turn1, i was sideways there and very lucky not to hit that blue fance... Then had a nice fight with Darren for the lead, but it was just not to be...

Grats Darren for win and sry again Jeffrey

Don't worry Janko. Things happen so I'll see you next race :)