USA nGTx: Nurburgring

My first race at this track, I've never ran the GP curcuit. Very fun track but I couldnt get brakes were I wanted them until the fuel level dropped. I wasnt very fast and really had a hard time finding the rythem, more track time needed I guess. I take it as podium finish just to finish without wrecking the car.

Awsome battle Tom. I never noticed any contact that upset the car in that battle. You held up great, I was glad you didnt just give way, that will make a good replay. I had a feeling that chicane was gonna get one of us. Lots of fun I would have liked to have seen how that would've ended without the spin, Hope I didnt upset your car.

Where was eveybody? I feel guilty taking 8th. That was horrible. I spun on the last lap right in front of a Porsche, I'm so sorry to whom ever that was. I should have practiced this track more. Spent most of my practice time for WTCC at Vara. My race lap was almost 3 seconds faster! Me and Riley were trading spins at the back, but other than that, it was lonely. Didn't even see another car for the last 20 minutes. This is a top ten I'm not proud of.

Way to go Kent!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats.

Indeed it was a small field, too bad these NGT cars are alot of fun.

That was great fun until I decide to destroy the car at the last corner onto the front straight, just clipped the barrier but that is all it took. Couldn't restart the car, was in a bad place, just hit ESC.

Prior to that I had a great 1/2 a race with Kent, really enjoyed it. Got a good start and was along side Kent into T1, we both stayed along until T3 where I was on the outside and had to give up. Later on in the same 1st lap I was able to get by on the brakes going into the chicane, left a ton of room just in case, probably too much.

I started to pull away from Kent just a little, but then I made a mistake and he was back on my tail and hunting. It was an intense race but Kent was getting faster and I wasn't so it was just a matter of time until he worked his way around me, but I held him off for about 12 or 13 laps and had a blast doing it.

Once he got by I knew there was no hope of catching or even staying close, so I just went into cruise control mode...then I started thinking about what's for dinner, do I have any wine, what's on TV tonight and then WHAM, I hit the barrier, end of race. Ugh!

Even with my stupid mistake, I still had a lot of fun for the 1st half of the race.

Note to self, gotta stay FOCUSED! :)

Congrats to podium!

Prepared a little for this one and it sure felt nice.

Qual was pretty decent with a mid 57 good enough for pole.

I started with med/med tires planning on no tires at my stop so I was a lot slower than Rob and when he came up to challenge into the final chicane so rather than push the issue I decided to make it easier and get us both through the corner.

The first 4-5 laps I was finding my rhythm and Rob was very fast. I could see he was beating me in the turns, mostly getting off the turns. That is when I realized he must have soft fronts or less fuel than I so I just worked on keeping up with him. After some fuel burned off I was clearly faster and I could see he was struggling with grip so I assume his tires were going away.

As Rob siad this was a lot of fun with close racing. By now it is lap 12 or so and my car is handling very well and coming out of RTL-Curve Rob got very loose and I got a great run at him. His line into BIT was very wide so when he went left I dove under him, we were dead even at the apex and we had a little contact sending Rob off track. I slowed thinking I caused the incident but when he caught back up he slowed so off I went.

I opened up about a 5 second lead when Rob pitted and 2 laps later I pitted with 30 seconds over whoever was in 2nd. Took fuel and no tires and resumed with almost 30 seconds in hand. I later watched the replay and saw that Rob crashed as I was headed into T3 which is probably about the distance that would have been gained by not taking tires.

At this point I went into cruise mode and dropped my pace to the 2:01 pace but had a nice gap of about 45 seconds. Then sure enough, 2 laps to go and I had ANOTHER freeze frame, looking at desktop! This is frustrating, it takes SO LONG for the desktop to draw completely before I can hopefully toggle back. In the meantime I held the brakes and clutch so I wouldn't be bouncing off anything when I got the game back. Finally after 30 seconds, the game is back and I am sitting smack in the middle of a turn and I see Charlie come bye as I am sitting parked.

I got going again and now my lead is down to 13 seconds, no problem 2 laps and plenty of cushion as long as the game stays stable. I caught back up to Charlie but was content to just stay behind him since there was just 1/2 a lap remaining. Unfortunately Charlie spins out of RTL and I T bone him and spin 180! Shit, luckily I kept it running and got straight again and brought it home for the win.

Have no idea why this thing keeps toggling back to desktop, I have most everything turned off for races. All I can think of is Windows Genuin taskbar notification. Seems Microsoft thinks I have a pirate version so this thing pops up every so often, it is the only thing I can think of that would cause focus to leave GTR. Anyway I changed the notification settings tonight after the race so hopefully that cures that issue.

To bad Rob, I hit that barrier in practice once and made sure I was no where near it in race. I was also hoping to get some more cars between me and Matjaz to spice up the championship but with Robs DNF and the small field that sure didn't happen.

Cya all at the next one.

Good clean racing. I went from 5th to 2rd and back to 5th. I couldn't shake Matjaz off my butt for a whole half an hour. Almost let him by because I started feeling tired and sleepy and didn't want to cause an accident. After that my steering wheel came off the desk so things weren't looking good. What's up with my pit crew, they suck. They lost me two positions. I don't get it. I guess I shouldn't complain I came out where I qualified and 5th position isn't bad.

Matjaz, I hope I didn't cause too much trouble with you tapping me in the back. I had to step on the brakes a tad bit early or else I would have gone off the track. I know you weren't expecting brakes being applied there but it would have been much worse if I hadn't.

Anyways, I'm still learning the ropes and I don't get why my pit crew is taking so long.

Congrats Kent for the race, Congrats everyone for clean racing.

Too bad so many left just before the start. They must have had issues. :-( I don't feel comfortable in the Porka at this track so I wasn't that unhappy with quali. Kept my 6th during stint one but two stupid mistakes made me lose contact with Johnny, Matjaz and Dennis who seemed to have a nice battle fore 3rd. Only took some fuel at my stop and all of a sudden I was running 2nd. But Matjaz and Dennis were closing in fast (probably new tyres) and there was no way I could hold them off. I did manage to keep Johnny behind me to finish in 4th which was more than I expected. Grats to the podium and it looks like the teamchampionship will bring a nice battle again with CanAm. :-)

Sorry I did'nt make it guys,my internet decided to take a crap so I missed both the WTCC race and this one. I could have spit nails I was so pissed..

Well, I was coming down with a head cold yesterday and the sneezys came on strong a few hours before the race. And of course...took me out early. Had a sneezing fit a few laps in and watering eyes, so I ran off the track and retired. Be back next week.

BG

Great pics Kent :)

I turned in and the car actually turned IN! Must have been those 1 or 2 golden laps where the tires peek.

Great stuff, think we kept it pretty tidy.

I was on Soft/Soft but I ran some Med/Med distance testing and the Soft/Soft provided an average faster lap (at least over my planned stint distance). I just think you were faster and that was that, probably could have used a notch or two more on my rear wing towards the later part of my stint.

Great fun, now I gotta spend the next month recovering from my 2 recent DNFs -- doooh!