Vintage GT: Dubai

Another interesting and entertaining race!!! I qualed 8th (I think) and lost a spot or two getting through the T1 jumble. I was in a tangle with John and Pete and maybe one other car as we were dicing for the next couple laps. It wasa challenge 'cause even though I was in an underpowered Jr I was able to get in front of John until the long straight. He went under me and Pete shot through as well. It was a little dicey as guys were breaking early and having a hard time staying on the racing line for the next couple laps. I tapped John coming out of the first chicane and didn't stop - in all honesty John you were braking very early at times and were all over the place, it was tough to predict where you were going to be. After that I was about 10 seconds behind Rick in the Abarth and I was slowly closing the gap. I finally caught him with about 6 minutes to go approaching T1. I was inside and decided to wait and as I tried to move left to set up the turn and brushed the brakes the car dove left and I brushed the wall which ended any chance of passing Rick - rats that would have been a bonus even if he was in a slower car. From there I just put in the next few laps to wrap up the race. On to Hockenheim.

All I can say is WOW!!!. Qual'd fourth. Couldn't get anywhere close to my practice times in qual. Had a Porsche, Alfa GTA(Tommy) and a Grp 5 abarth in front on the grid. On the start, I knew I would get Conor's abarth due to the HP. The Porsche(Mike A) just drove away from everybody and Tommy and I where left to battle for the next 5-7 laps. Tommy was turning laps about 4 tenths quicker than I. He slowly pulled away.
1st 1/3 of race, I turned 1:15's, 2/3 of race I turned 16's and last 1/3 was in the 17's. All in all a good race. I didn't burn the points and can choose another 9 pt car at Hock. Nice running guys and see you at Hock.

I felt a bit like a clod bringing a sledge hammer to a knife fight in my Alfa V, but it was the only car I could turn decent times with. Was a hoot fighting off Conor in the first few laps, I'd totally dust him on the straight, then turn after turn that little snub nose would get bigger in my rearview until he was right on me in the the slow left hander before the entry to the straight. I built up a 3 second lead, but at the cost of completely using up my front left, it turned out. I got the "Tires Worn" warning and decided to pit a couple of laps later. In retrospect we were closer than I thought to the end of the race, and I would have been better off staying out and slowly fading off 2 or 3 spots, instead of pitting and losing 7. *sigh*, plenty of points left for the last 2 races...

Well, I am sorry I missed it. I have been sick all week and hadn't practiced at all so I thought I would sit this one out.

I think I turned about 20 laps this week split between 6 cars. Basically no practice at all. I figured I would blow my points this week in the hopes that nobody else would, thereby ensuring a first place finish. That panned out pretty well in the end. Now I'm going to count on the horses in a 6 point mustang to get me some points next week.

Fun race guys :)

Had no idea what I was going to pick today until this afternoon. Didn't expect the Abarf Gr.5 to be that good but the damn thing was nimble through the corners which allowed me to gain a bunch of time. Got 3rd in qualifying and quickly lost the position to Bryce on the opening laps (that was expected). Soon had a fight with Michael in that Alfa and it was close for a lap or two. As he said, he got me on the straights with ease but I closed up in the slower section and made a race out of it. But I couldn't keep up and pulled away. It was until the later part of the race when I caught back up to him and we started battling again since he wore his tires out good. Unfortunately, the battle was short lived as he went into the pits to get new tires. I was alone from then on but still placed a 4th which is still good :)

Cya guys at The Hock...

Great Fun again everyone. I qualified 12th and finished 9th, so for me my best race yet. We had some great dicing the first 1/4 of the race between the 8th-14th. Mike in the Porsche came by me (10th at the time) 16 minutes into the race, I wanted to type "you gotta be kidding me" as he went by, lol. Tommy C. in 2nd place came by with 12 minutes to go and 2 laps later the Porsche lapped him. I think we will see a Porsche fest at Hock by those who can afford it.

I had settled into 10th place for the remainder of the race after I finally got a gap on Pete in the Elise. Our gap stayed the same lap after lap it seemed. I then noticed I was in 9th place with Pete still behind, towards the end though my gap back to 10th place dropped big time. Turns out that Michael was making a run back up the grid (I did not notice you pit) and if I had to go one more lap I would have lost the spot.

I am looking forward to Hock but will need to get some practice in the Porsche to see if I can run consistant laps in it.

Thanks again everyone!

I can post a stable setup for the IROC. One minor bobble/correction and no spins for me last night.

The setup will only cost 5 rental points!

If anyone takes a Porsche Widebody they're in for a repeat of my performance. I'm sure it's good for a 1:01 flat at Dubai -- about 10 seconds faster than the IROC.

Edit: Here you go... Porsche IROC Setup

Took Alfa Jr again, just used the same setup as last week. (I'm lazy :D)

Unfortunately, no one for me to play with this time, everyone either went expensive or cheap. :P

Was all by myself for the whole race, only thought was to make sure I kept Rick behind me so Conor can close some of that gap in the standings after I blew it last week and let Rick get by me. ;)

Just ran my laps, pretty even througout, built up a 15 sec lead to Rick in the little Abarth. All was fine until 5 mins left, Mike came up to lap me in the IROC, and my FPS went to hell. Down to 15 fps for no apparent reason. Did someone crash and send debris across the track somewhere? :) Almost lost it right into Mike's IROC. Had to back off and ease up the pace.

I'm actually upset I ended up 6th due to Michael pitting. I was expecting to finish much further down and getting some more rental points for Hock. hehe

Conor wrote:
"Didn't expect the Abarf Gr.5 to be that good..."

All i can say is that it obviously ain't the car!

Would have been fun to go another round with you Jerry, but i picked the (seconds slower in my hands) Abarth5 over the Jr on a whim because it actually made that chicane section -- that i really hate -- fun!

Just went with a mildly tweaked default setup. Wish i'd tested more to reveal the problems i discovered under hard braking later in the race.

I knew i'd be way off pace, but i didn't expect to screw up T1 a couple times (very sorry to the guys that were behind me -- i know i disrupted your race -- wish i had a replay so i could be more specific with my appologies).

Anyway, this leaves me with enough credits to make car selection for the last two races more interesting.

See you at the next one.