USA nGTx: Donington

A Bad and Good race in one.

I punted mark peeler on lap 1... felt horrible, took my penalty drive-through and decided to push forward.
Went from the very back and moved up to 16th. Kept pushing with consistency and was happy to finally end up in 12th.

Let Heinz Petzold by after first pit stop, and followed him around for about 10 laps. Heinz looked like he was just hanging on there at some points. Nice racing Heinz.

Sorry to Garret Diduck, whom I may of given just a bit of a scare when he was coming up to lap me. I came off the final turn expecting you to take the inside, as I slowed down a lot, and instead you followed my line. A bit of confusion, but all is well.

Overall, I'm happy with the result. I need more experience, and this race definitely proved to help.

Congrats Matjaz.

Well Grats to the Podium,

This went from bad to worse,everything wrong happened that has never happened b/4, I thought I had a good set and I got tapped in the opening laps and the car was junk, I just kept falling backwards, I was tapped again and looped it, was very frustrated at this point and decided to pit and cool off, entered the pit and my pit board malfunctioned, something happened while scrolling thru it, dunno, next thing I know the AI is driving my car, and he is slow as shit, if it was fast i would of let it go but danica had her high heels on and was just not up to this task, so I pit again, this time I got ME back, took a few more laps and said...maybe next time, time to park it, so I waited in the hairpin for time to expire 0.00 then I restarted the car and my cockpit view turned to the bonnet view, this screwed me up big time, so what do I care the race is over, I crash it on purpose into T1 and the race isn't over DNF aarrgghh!!!

Edit...I am blaming this all on Kent, he gave me a losing set-up :-)

Jeff, sorry for that second tap. I believe that was me. I too had a race that just seemed to keep getting worse, and I started by putting it in reverse on the starting grid!

Again, sorry about the tap.

Its a racing deal Scott, no biggie.

I spent all week getting that car confortable only to get rear ended on an opening lap. Ruined the tires and the first stint.
Frustrated from there on out. A racing deal I guess.

My apologizes to whoever it was I cut off at the hairpin after the chicance. That corner is so hard to see who coming on the inside of you.

Another eventfull race at Doni. At the start it seemed Scott had his car in reverse which made me bump into Kent and dropping from 5th ot 8th. Then, on lap 2, Scott spun and first Garret and then me went full into him. That turned my nice curved Porka into an old model Volvo :-) and dropped me further back to 16th. The first stint was as Garret promised ... "I'll see you in the race" :-) And yes we did. Sorry for the tap in the hairpin Garret I was just a little too late on the brakes. I saw my teamm8 Steve battle up front with Rob and Dennis and things were looking good for the teamchampionship until all of a sudden Steve dropped in the ranking and then left the game. Wonder what happend there m8. All in all two great races at Doni with a reasonable result. Grats to the podiumfinishers.

Man that sucks, had agreat opertunity to make some ground on Matjas but more bad luck and nerves cost me the win!

Had a nice qual lap placing me third on the grid with Matjas in 4th.

Lights went green and I got a great launch! Too bad Scott's launch was almost as good, trouble was he was going the wrong way! Ouch, I slammed into Scotts reversing car and watched as Matjas waived and I swear laughing as he went by me.

I got rolling and found myself in 5th with Stibling just ahead and Blankenship and Matjas fighting just ahead. Lap 2 or 3 Jeff got a bit wide and I made a run at him on the outside heading out of Hairpin and through Starkey's. I figured I have only the chance to stay inside into McLeans but Jeff gave me a ton of room before that and I got by pretty easily. Then I saw out of McLeans Jeff spun to teh inside. By the time we hit the back straight and I looked no one was anywhere near me.

The replay showed that Scott lost it in McLeans and spun back to the middle of the track taking out a few cars.

I focused on Steve and Matjas ahead and soon caught Steve, nearly running into him several times in the tighter corners. I was getting frustrated because I was clearly faster but couldn't make any moves against his faster RSR. Every few laps I would back off a little, Steve would close up on Matjas and I would close up on both again. So I was pleased that I appeared to be faster than both of them. I was planning a fuel only stop so I figured my best chance was to get them both there. But a few laps before my stop Steve got too loose in Old Hairpin and I got by and closed the gap to Matjas.

Matjas and I both pitted the same lap, in my excitement to get out of the pits I forgot to tell my crew NO TIRES. So when fueling was complete I was in total amazement when I started hearing the air guns :( I sat there helpless as Matjas left the pit road.

I rejoined in 5th and after the stops found myself in 3rd 11 seconds behind Heinze. With my fresh tires I was able to close up on Hienze quickly and got by with just 6 minutes remaining and 4 seconds behind Matjas. I was closing but I knew it wasn't going to a top step on the podium for me tonight. I got to about a half second as we crossed the finish line.

Well done Matjas.

That was a bummer that Rob got taken out passing a slower car, Rob you were checked out and gone.

To Rob Ainscough,
I am very sorry about the collision with you going into the old hairpin. You where P1 and I was slowing to let you lap and the rear of the car just broke lose, don't know if the left rear dropped off the track or from braking. So very sorry. I'm new to this and try my very best to stay out of the way but I guess I din't this time. This totaly blew my mental state. I was so distraught over this I could no longer focus and found my self unable to drive, so I ESC out. Again Rob, sorry.

Kevin Kernodle

George: "all of a sudden Steve dropped in the ranking and then left the game. Wonder what happened"

Well, Boss... shit happened! Ok, there I said it. For about the hundredth time now since the middle of lap 38. Along with a few other choice expletives that I'll spare everyone... ;-)

Motor blew is what happened, same exact spot as in the G3 race, just at 58 minutes this time instead of 28. No photogenic giant fireballs tonight, just silence and a trail of white smoke - game over. Race was a lot of fun up to then though, so not a total loss.

Qualified OK, at a good second quicker pace than I'd seen in the dozen laps I'd done beforehand. Got a great start gaining 3 spots, helped in large measure by Scott's no doubt virgin attempt at backwards driving. Scott: best to actually turn the car around and drive backwards into oncoming racers instead of reversing your way around the track. Check out some public servers sometime - you'll see how it's done... ;-)

After that Matjaz, Kent and I had a good chase for 2nd-4th the first 3rd of the race while Rob just vanished off into the distance. I had pace on Matjaz in the faster bits with the RSR, but I sucked so bad in the slow bits, especially that miserable Foggy chicane that we yoyo'ed in place for a good while. Kent was lurking tight behind us and had several shots to get by me but showed a lot of patience. Finally my rears started going and I started getting loose. Almost looped it in the old hairpin and Kent went by. Some crazy person (named George! ;-)) told me I could do the whole race on one set of mediums so I was planning to try it, but as I approached halfway I was getting so loose that any lift throttle with the wheel turned would start it going around. Fun hanging onto that one through Craner and Schwantz!

Made it to my stop on lap 24 in one piece, but off-plan. The late stop was meant to minimize fueling time since I hadn't planned on tires, but that just wasn't doable. Plan B! With only 15 to go I went soft/med thinking the balance might be better late as they wore, but the setup was for same compound F/R and it just ended up loose for the remainder of the race. Or the remainder of mine that is, which ended a bit short when the motor checked out with a lap and a half to go.

@Steve B - sounds like it's time to fire the entire crew!

I had a few moments of concern but all in all quite happy with my 6th place finish. Pat Dotson and I ran some close laps which made it quite exciting at times, good run Pat.

Good race everyone, Hienz I think I am coming of age now, finally.