USA FT: Toban

3 laps to go....From 7th. to 4th...and then..............

DISCO!!!... :P

What a luck!...Well, maybe next time...

Congrats to: David, Chris and Jesse

Tough luck, Omar - but take heart; at least you lasted longer than I did! ;-)

Was a short one for me. Ran about the pace I'd expected in Q, but sure didn't expect to be nearly a second clear. I remembered Wyatt had done a 1:02 and could almost see it, but couldn't quite get there - still scrubbing too much speed off in spots.

Knew my 1st gear was going to be sketchy for the race start since it was really too long for a good launch. Tried some practice starts and slipped the heck out of the clutch, but still got it handed to me off the line and dropped to 3rd into T1 as Tommy and David got around. I thought Rob was coming too for a minute, but then he got into a nasty looking snap spin on braking into the tight right at the top of the hill!

Had a fun, close dice with David after that for a couple of laps, but got a run onto the front straight and drafted by into 2nd. Not sure what happened to David after that, but as I was looking for a way around Tommy I noticed it was now Chris crawling up my rear. Ended up getting a similar run onto the S/F straight as I had with David and drafted by Tommy clean, but he forgot where his brake was and we ended up in the wall - me missing lots of parts and done for the night. Really TC; I'm feelin' the love, but your subtlety needs a little work... ;-)

Well done to David, Chris (leading the series) & Jesse. Looking forward to the next one! Looks like the field should be growing a little since Maciej and Mike M. should be out of FT-A and into FT on ranking.

Was anyone getting stutters last night? I got spiked by a quick power blink before the race and when the comp rebooted, I was stuttering in the race. I will need to look into this and possibly reinstall my main rfactor. My development one ran smooth, but becuase I was at top speed in the car when I lost power, It may of done some damage to the exe. I tried GTL after and all was smooth in it still. Weird and a pain in the race.

BG

After my shortened qual (aka 1 lap) due to my PC locking up solid - pretty rare for rFactor to do this to me and I ran diagnostics last night for 3 hours and all came out good from hardware stability standpoint - anyway I was still somehow 4th on the grid.

I was looking forward to a good race, Steve got off a little slow, but David got away very well!! Followed top 3 into T1, tapped Steve a little but he was able to hold it - sorry Steve! Then T3 I braked early not wanting to get into any early drama, but I got into what I can only describe as a disconnected controller to car experience. Don't laugh, I didn't have my foot on the brake, but my wheels were locked up solid?? Tried to hold on but car decided to (shoot off track) without responding to any input from me. I've had this happened before (pretty rare) where it's as if my controller (G25) goes OFF LINE for a few seconds then comes back to life.

Was frustrating, BUT that wasn't what ultimately put me down in the order, it was all me, made two mistakes on passing, one I was able to recover from, the other took off my front wing.

My first mistake was when we were 3 wide going down the front straight into T1, I was in the very bad position of being the meat in a sandwich. I got on the brakes way late into T1 as I didn't want to cause a mess -- I took Tim's advice, rather than cause a mess brake way late and take to the grass - which I did.

Then I was coming up on Omar for my 2nd attempt at a pass and again messed it up -- this time I touched the wall and lost the front wing. I should be thankful I came out in 6th spot considering how poorly I drove the race.

Congrats to Podium, job well done.

P.S. yes Bill, me too, had to reboot my PC 3 times before it would come back to "smooth" again. Very strange considering I'd practice for almost 1 hour online without any issues. Off line I can run forever without any issues with or without AI drivers. Not sure what is going on, but I've had several "strange" online only experiences with my PC lately. I don't know if it is Vista, my ISP, Tim's server or what, but if it continues I'm gonna have fire up a packet sniffer and log to file and see if I can identify a problem.

Qual:
It was okay. I wasn't able to practice or work on setup until the same evening so I was glad I got to a respectable pace. I started from a setup Chris sent me so props to him for that generosity. I put in a pretty quick lap and then had some trouble at the "mini corkscrew" left-hander that had me into the wall with 3 min left.

Race:
Start was good for me. I can hold my own on starts and with Steve's first gear it was nice to gently ease by and nearly tuck under Tommy.

Knowing Steve had the pace on me, I just wanted to cleanly and respectfully give him a challenge for a few laps. Having him drive away from us would be boring for everyone. :-) Had a wonderful time. Protected the inside just enough while being able to stay all over Tommy. Whatched Steve try an awesome outside move once that didn't stick but I could see his giant attachments when he got even. At one point he got by on the inside of the hairpin but had to go too deep for that line and slide through so I got to cross over and stay ahead for another half-lap.

Ultimately I got schooled on the final turn. It doesn't matter what you know if you don't use it. Not taking a proper late apex to ensure top speed on the straight (regardless of what Steve was doing) was pretty dumb and the penalty was watching Steve blow by at a startling speed delta.

SB: "Not sure what happened to David after that, but as I was looking for a way around Tommy I noticed it was now Chris crawling up my rear."

Actually, it was still me. Depending on what skins pack you had, Chris and I had the same paint. I stayed on you guys for a while. Chris and I both caught back up as you and Tommy fought hard.

Another miss of the final turn put about 4 or 5 car lengths between me and you two as you went into T1 and handed me the race. I watched the replay. You can't fault Steve at all on that one but I feel for Tommy. I think the issue is that everyone handles T1 quite differently and you can definitely enter it without braking at all. I think that is what happened. Steve broke, Tommy didn't. It happened so fast and such a fast speed...

Anyway, I was stunned. Nobody in front of me. I was actually a little unhappy about it since that means being the rabbit for 13 laps. But I held it together. Only a few lapses in concentration as I worked on my victory speech (normally a race killer) and I was able to bring it home without a fight from three fast guys who had trouble.

Rob,

Not glad to hear you have some problems too that night. But is good that maybe it was not my install. I did not get to try last night but will look into my fix and let you know if I find one.

BG