USA G2: Magny-Cours

2:32 pit lap, that sums up my race.
Grats to the podium.

This race was fun, very good stuff. I thought at both the beginning and the end that Steve B was going to have something for me, but I kept on pedalling and the Porsche held on. I never really felt the tires start to go, but I wasn't driving very hard, so I guess they stayed alright.

Congrats Steve and Mark McC, nice podiums.

Qualy'ed 16, finished 16th. Got off to a rough start. I decided to go with hard slicks all around, thinking they would last the 45 minutes better than mediums. Coming into turn 1 at the start and cars are all over the track up in front of me, I go a bit left, then into the grass, come back to the track surface and a car pops up in front of me and I t-bone it. Got a flat tire right away. Had to do the whole first lap on a front flat. Pitted, changed to mediums. Got back out and was a lap down. Eventually finished two laps down. Had a couple close encounters with a couple guys who slowed more than I would've in a couple corners and I accidentally bumped them into a spin, whomever you are, my apologies if it ruined your race, but I saw it as a racing incident and nothing more.

Congrats to Tom for the podium.

This was a fun race! Didn't get a chance to practice at all...grabbed Scott Michaels setup, and just as advertised managed a 1'40 qual lap! (high 5!) Original strategy was to run mediums and do 1 pitstop, but 3/4's of the way through the race, i was still running consistant laps. 2X tire wear? Didn't seem like it. Had great battles with Barry, Gregg and John. Probably swapped places with John 3 or 4 times :) All in all, I feel pretty good with a top 10. See you guys next time!

Nahh, Tom - you had us covered no problem. Tried to run with you but just didn't have the pace. Well done!

Did have a go on lap one though, and almost got the lead. Guess I did actually at Adelaide - for about one second. ;-) But I was over my head, making lots of errors and started sliding backwards after that for a few laps. Lost a couple of spots from a small off, but got my head around it after a few and things came back around.

Had started further up the grid than expected; only did about 5 laps of practice this morning with the same setup from Monza, and the car felt really ponderous and slow. Seeing the Euro race times later today I figured I'd be midpack at best. So 3rd was a big surprise.

Got a good launch, moving into 2nd and stuck the nose under Tom at Grand Courbe, then tried outbraking at Adelaide. Worked, but caught the outside curb on exit and got out of shape, losing all my mo', plus a couple of spots. Kind of wigged out for a while then before settling down.

Watched a great race between Mark C. and my teammate John for number of laps from close behind. With Tracy behind me, we had a bit of a train going for a while. Every lap Mark would brake into Adelaide tight and right, which was the bad line unless John overcooked it just a bit, and then he'd be set to pounce. Took a while, but that's what happened - nicely set up! I think John's tires were unhappy after that, and I snuck by after Mark only to see him go off on his own. I felt for him since I know it's easy to get thrown off when you have clear track all of a sudden when you've been on someone's tail for laps.

Mark was probably the only car on track that might have given Tom trouble, and when he went off that put me up to 2nd again. I tried to close the gap, but soon saw it wasn't happening and switched over to preserving 2nd.

That went ok until late when the tires were really shot, especially the fronts. Had terminal understeer and was losing a couple of seconds a lap. Dodged some lapped cars that got together at one point (most did great, btw) and thought I was going to make it, but then saw Mark M coming and felt like a sitting duck! The pit radio was warning me about the tires being toast, and I wasn't sure about the last lap being the last since I never got a one to go. But it did end on time, which was a good thing for me since Mark M was all over me the final lap - ony a tenth of a second in it at the line.

Feel like I kind of lucked into that podium, but I'll take it!

Because the screenshots just don't do it justice, here is a video of the battle Gregg, John, and I had for 2 laps. Count the passes ;)

*8 changes of position for those of you who weren't counting :D

Nice vid Nils. Good battle going on there.

If I would have had to guess where I was going to finish after practicing , I would have said 20th! , Turns out I am so much better in race mode.
There was some confusions at the start where I was able to gain a spot or two, then I think Garett got turned around causing some slow down again. Drove my way to 8th and had an awesome time on the track racing Nils (kewl Video) and John, I think Nils and I ran the whole race within 3 seconds of each other. I thought it was going to be a bad event for me but I am quite happy with my 7th place finish.

Congrats Tom, you definitely had this one.

Congrats to podium.

Not realizing I was in the top 5 for points, I spent all my time practicing in the Seat and thought I might have something for Tom in race trim.

Since I'm not much of a chatter during sessions I didn't pay attention to the Stewards (assume Tim) telling me to change cars into either the Morgan or Mosler.

Sooo...I'm in qual in a Mosler -- a car I've never ever driven before have no idea how to set it up nor what is uses for fuel. So I spent qualifying trying to set the car up for the race and didn't post a qual lap time.

The car was not setup great but driveable for the race and I managed to go from 25th into the top 10, had to pit for fuel and fresh rubber mid race, worked my way back to 11th only to run out of fuel...ugh!

Lesson learned -- I figured out where the series point standings are on R2P web site!! Dooh! I'm an idiot.

It was still fun, lots of great drivers.

Rob

A strange race and some doubt.I found some pace after the Euro race and made a decision to run med\med instead of med\hard that i ran in the Euro race.So i started in 8th on the inside grid position.I got an alright start and knowing someone will be outside of me,i kept it reasonably tight.Now it gets interesting,i have no one close to me in my fov when suddenly Garret appears moving right to left,contact.Now i think,ok,it looks like i made contact at door level,i feel that since he moved across i am not at fault,so i continue on.A few laps later i get the dreaded drive thru instruction with much dismay.I watched the replay a few times and looks like contact was made about the rear wheel area and nothing looks cut and dried,so in the end you abide by the stewards decision,lol.I finally finished in 5th and now i think i get to drive the mosler.