USA FT: Putnam

Grats CM on the win. Bad luck and foolishness combined for a disastrous race for me.

Rob spun avoiding contact...3 things: I thought the racers behind me were very close and on the verge of passing or hitting me on the inside and I thought Rob's car would stay on track and spin completely or be on the edge and finally I thought I would hit him or have to stop in front of the pack if I went inside so I went wide and he snapped wide. Lost my front wing and race over, huge waste of time :( so disappointing.

Lesson learned: when someone spins going into a turn always go to the inside, play it cool and slow and hope that everyone behind you is observant and carefull too. Watching the replay 5th place was 4-5 car lengths back and I had to make a huge change of line to go around him. I guess thats what I get for not being very comfortable in the car, I really thought I would hit him if I stayed inside. Oh well, F the FT anyways!

See you...
RA

Hey R2P I see the lap-time log!Thanks! Good to see some more stats, the only other thing I would like to see is a line graph of posistion throughout the race.

Good win Chris.

Sorry to Ryan and other's behind me. Ryan I actually spun while on the brakes at the exit of the turn, not going into it? I got a good exit at Turn 4 (or was it 5?) and perhaps too good and found myself having to get on the brakes hard to avoid contact with Tommy. Think I may have still tapped Tommy a little, but by that time I was into a spin and on the grass and just a passenger. I did think I was far enough out there mowing the lawn backwards that I'd be clear from any contact. Rule of thumb is always aim your car at the spot the car in front started to spin -- it is highly unlikely they will remain there.

Qualify was not great, made a big mistake at the final corner onto the straight on what was gonna be a 1:10.9 lap. But the 1:11.3 was good enough for 2nd but I was disappointed in myself. Got a good start, looks like Steve bogged it from pole, but Tommy got a great start up the middle (nice job!).

I followed Tommy into T1 covering the inside but there was a pretty good gap between us and the rest of the field. I was close behind Tommy (probably too close) and then I had my little issue which put me at the back of the pack, sorry again folks.

I got back going again, but the car didn't feel right, not sure if the contact out on the grass with Ryan had caused some damage, but the car had a wicked push after that and just didn't want to turn in. Not sure what happened to Steve and Tommy, but I found myself in front of them. But it was still a lot of fun working my way back into a podium spot -- at this point I had nothing for Steve and ran wide at T1 letting Steve cruise by for the spot. Car was very difficult to drive and I could see Tommy gaining on me but I think he ran wide towards the end of the race which gave me a small buffer zone. Pretty lucky to come up in 3rd.

[Warning: cry baby excuse coming] I've never raced Putnam and didn't get any notable practice so I had a lot of concern. I was still mostly learning the track and line when qual came and I didn't have time for setup work. Just worked to get something that would stay on track.

12.1 in qual was my fastest lap at that point.

I'm racing with Chris' team for FT since all my NVIDIA teammates deserted me for FT-A. :-)

Got a great start. Could have pushed the issue for 4th and 5th but wanted a good first showing for GRG Ltd and chose to fall in behind the team owner. :-)

Moved up into P2 when others had their issues. I knew I only had a mid-pack car and track knowledge but I wanted to fairly defend the spot in hopes of letting Chris build a large lead.

The first was a blue car (to me) that I was sure was Ryan. The laps where I blew the exit of T10 onto the main straight I would hold the center of the road and go very deep into T1. With the off camber, decreasing radius, an inside line was impossible to hold so he backed of two or three laps in a row and then eventually fell back. Looking at the results, this seems to have actually been Jesse. Not really a points teammate but I wouldn't have defended so hard had I known.

Shortly after I held off Steve the same way but then he made a fool out of me, setting me up in T3/T4.

Now at a stage where I was foolishly driving with my mirror I blew T5, put a wheel off and spun, letting two have a free pass by.

P5 is more than the car deserved. I just hope some of my position defending helped Chris to win.

Nice one Chris; did what you needed to do, and nothing you shouldn't have.

Can't say the same for myself, as I made an error that put both TC and me off on lap 4 and mucked up both our races. Basically just misjudged where he'd brake into T5; very similar thing (in the same place) to what happened to Rob on the opening lap. When TC checked up I floored the brake and drove straight off hoping to miss him. Thought I had at first since I didn't feel or see contact, but found out once I got reoriented that must've just caught him since he'd spun. That was 100% my bad for not being more cautious and sussing out his braking points better. So I stopped and waited for him to get away in front and we resumed. (Sorry for that one, TC; you were right to be annoyed.)

I was back there after starting on pole (with a lap .4 sec faster than I'd seen in practice) since you can't see the lights at Putnam from the pole position. So I had to watch my mirrors for movement and listen to engines to figure out when to go - a sure way to get smoked off the line. The grid and light positions may match the real track for all I know, but there's a wee issue there for the sim.

That dropped me back to 3rd, then I tucked under Rob's spin to take 2nd. Was following Tommy and waiting for an opening when I saw Chris was getting onto us, and got a bit impatient I guess. The blunder dropped me 5 spots to 7th, and from that point it was just chasing. Got my head down and matched my qualifying pace, but figured out with 2 to go that I wasn't going to see Chris; well done to him. Had some good fun along the way; was surprised to see Rob go off in 1 and figured he must've had tire or other issues, and enjoyed a short but fun dice with David. These cars require very tidy cornering to maintain exit speed, so I just tried to hold it tight and hope he got into a corner too deep. Took a few, as we were nearly wheel to wheel through turns 1-3, but he got into 4 a little hot and I got through.

Felt bad about turning TC and offered to forfeit the result after the race, but the steward said no. Minor bumping really doesn't bother me, but I don't like taking folks off so am going to work on getting through some events with the paint shiny. My mechanic will love me... ;-)