Barcelona 400k

Well, that pretty much sucked for me.

Had a brain fart in qualy, had a little spin and promptly hit ESC without thinking :(

So I qualied last or not at all.

Race start, I look in my rearview mirror and there's someone sitting in my rear seat ???, as we pull away for the formation lap, i feel a bump from behind and wonder if my new uninvited passenger decided to smack me on the head, but I saw that it was a Viper that had parked on top of me on the start line ??

Anyway, race start went as planned, kept it on the track in turn 1 then while passing 2 of the slower ngt's at the rear, I saw the morgan on my left turn in earlier than I expected, had to get off the throttle but it was too late, FINN, I'm really sorry about that, i did not expect you to turn in carrying that much speed :( My bad.

Spent a few more laps getting past some ngt's and had a half spin and then began to fight my way back up, I apologise to any other drivers who I may have hindered on my quest to catch back up to the GT class. Just got past Tim when suddenly, my FFB dies and my wheel resets itself to default steering lock, suddenly had a floppy wheel and 23 deg of steering lock on my setup, so a VERY twitchy car. Got another half a lap and my ISP decided it was time to reset the ADSL network and my race was over :(

I'm really bummed, put in a lot of practise for this race only to make a handful of laps :(

Good luck to my buddy Craig, bring home a win for us :)

Sorry I had to bail all. My in-laws show up, then my neighbor and there kids came ove to play. Too much internal bleed-over to stay concentrated or keep the pace.

Right.

Started with 85 litres of Neste Racing Fuel and med-med tyres because temp was around 40. I planned to do just one stop and see what it would do.

Lap 1 T4 I got hit by another car, which according to above testimonial, was piloted by one Mr Pike. I and my beloved Morgan race car exited T4 tangentially and by the sound of the contact it was a costly one, indeed. Limped back to the pits getting messages of "Yer splitter's gone ya wanker!" and dove in for repairs. According to my pit board just about everything needed repairs and it took a loooong time. Filled tank with 100 litres and took new tyres and re-planned to save what could be saved. When I re-joined I was lap and a half behind everyone.

After pitstop car was about 2 seconds slower but good to drive. I made my pitstop at Lap 60 and took soft-med tyres and went for finish. At that point I was 3rd in GT2. Close to finish Klint gifted me a couple of points by disguising it as accidental Esc-hitting. Thank you...LOL

Ended 2nd in class which considering 1st lap events was very nice. Which is nice.

Congrats everybody!

Now off to where ever the hell we race next.

PS. Dave, no worries, shit happens.

Finally I finished race, and what a race.
First 12 laps been pretty exciting but then happened something strange. During braking I hit something invisible and start to fly :) also like one F550 behind me.
After that my race was only low speed surviing with damaged car.
Great race Jeff and Tim.

Qualifying, well with the longer session, GT1 & GT2 together I was able to take the time and three stop the set-up, saving my best for last but not good enough to upset Craigs apple cart :) I have not seen a qualy this close yet, the top three were separated by 0.0.0.050 Way to go Craig on your pole! Well done. The race well seeing I was starting third I figured I would just pace the guys in front to settle into a groove, while chasing milan he had a hiccup and from there I moved into second behind Craig, every time I got near his car the lag was immense, in one lap I nearly hit his car 5 times, heartbeat check now! I proceed to hunt Craig down but his line was spot on and our times evenly matched so there was no room to make a move and then taking into account the lag… so I figure to pressure him to see if he buckles and he didnt :( I got a run on him on the front stretch and said to myself…make it stick or back off now…I took the off line and stood on the binders at my normal marker (Oh boy) which left Craig no room for a turn in, from there I took the spot I set my pace around placing 1.41 or better laps and hit an 1.39.4 fast lap & began distancing myself about 1.5 seconds per lap, at the half way point I had a 45 second lead, I said wow but I made one huge mistake, it was 100++ degrees, I forgot to change my radiator, too small (oh Boy) I built up a lead to a full lap ahead of Craig and Joe, In the closing laps Craig was getting racy :) I didnt mind but seeing there is only 7 minutes left in the session I wasnt going to fight him and let him by, but as I am foot to the floor @ the SF line his car is stopped (lagged) Oh MY!, I take an evasive maneuver and hit/glance the wall hard, I hunt Tim down he inspects the damage and he confirms visually its okay :) but one lap later I seen he had an off, Craig, and I got the lap back, I cross the SF line with 2.15 to go, and I really don’t want to risk throwing it away on an extra lap so I 3rd & 4th gear it the final lap and stop my car short of the SF line to wait for time to expire, while doing so, Tim gets out of his car behind me, sits on his hood and has a smoke, I crack a cold brewskie, yes I got out of my now bolted and riveted car doors (thanks to HPDE) to have a cold one, then the timer expires, I jump in real quick and take the long journey of 6 feet to accept the win :) I want to thank Tim for having the GTO race series, I really enjoy the heck out of it and the competitiveness of this entire race sim with both the I & O, my final way to go on all the competitors, great race guys and nice win Tim! I want to thank my race frame for making me comfy, I want to also thank my new pit crew, the 5th one of the season for THE 42 second pit stops:)
Joe you are now knocking on the door of your first win!!! Keep up the pressure buddy!!!!!!!!!!!

after making a balls up of the ivit race i was looking forward to this one,should have just stayed away ,after changing to buttons for gears ,i found that when i got into race mode i automatically went for paddles in the critical moments,which often put the mossie of balance and that thing dont need an excuse:-) decided to 1 stop and it seemed to be working out,but inbetween cars passing me i got one of those long slow slides managed to catch it but didnt get of the brakes in time and some one hit me pretty hard from behind,im not sure who it was i was looking back and it looked to be a black lambo,but when i got turned from wall it was a viper,sorry to who-ever it was.took pretty heavy damage and had to limp back to pits ,long stop and when i got back out car was not much better so decided to call it a day.

congrats to jeff and tim for their wins. awesome run, as always, by craig.

i like this track and the lambo likes it. about 2/3rds of the way through I was 11 secs behind whoever was in 2nd. But I need to figure about better pit strategy or make tires last longer. three stops is not working out. happy with the third here. disappointed with the with the DNF in the invite. all in all, I've had worse days. anyway, onto Andersonville. oh joy, another track to learn.

Enzo, I dont believe I touched you at any time. Great job by everyone that I saw.

i dont know who it was joseph,all i was doing is apologising to who ever hit me,as i was braking into turn 1 i looked back and saw a lambo,but when i got turned round it was a viper,im guessing it was a bug.

I understand Enzo. The only reason I mentioned it is because you and I were on track together a few times and you were very considerate especially when you had the damage. I dont know how you managed to control the car as well as you did. Pretty awesome display of car control.

All I have to add is this real scary moment near the end...