Concord 200

...Missed the Race...Cause I'm an Idiot...

On a good note, I see that my teammate Jeremy won the race! Great job to you, and all my other teammates. See ya at Dover!

Congrats to Jeremy on the track record and winning the race. Great driving by all. Had a very good car and was running with Jeremy and Conor for most of the race until a car spun and ended up right in front of me and BAM, T-Bone. The car wasnt the same after that. Was lucky to finish 5th. Congrats to the Goulds Pump Racing Team on a job well done.

@Charles, no problem. I know it was accidential and unavoidable. Good to see you back racing with us :)

Very sorry about that Michael. I had been racing nose-to-tail with Francesco for a bunch of laps when I finally got a wheel on the apron and it went around. Very sorry.

Good race by all. Congrats to the podium. And to Jeremy for that incredible qualifying lap.

Congrats Jeremy and podium.

I want to appologize to Antonio and everyone else for bumping him in turn 3 and bringing out the first caution.
Other wise I think I ran pretty clean. I came up with my own setup so I'm sure that was why I got lapped 3 times.
But I Qual'ed 20th and finished 11th. So I'm pretty happy over all.

I've had my fair share of close races and have lost all of them, but tonight's case, it was such a blast that I don't even care one wit that I came in 2nd by 42 hundredths of a second :). That was so much fun and clean that it would have made NASCAR jealous :P

The past few stock car races have been disasters for me and I needed a good finish to boost my confidence. I was able to get a good handling car but never tested it on long runs which hurt me in the race.

Qualified second to Jeremy but went to first right after the start. Held the top position for quite a few laps even though Jeremy and Mike were much faster than me on the longer stints, but eventually, I let Jeremy by so I could get him out of my hair. Luckily he didn't drive away too far from me as the caution came out soon after. During that stop, I took out some wedge to make it better on the longer stints and that worked out really well. On the next stint, I kept up with Jeremy the whole time without falling off much. We managed to do an almost a full fuel run until another caution came out which turned out to be the last one of the night. I made yet another wedge adjustment and was ready to go.

The last stint was about 30 laps of tense racing between Jeremy and I. I stayed glued to his bumper and made sure I didn't lose him. There were a few instances where I could have pushed the envelope but I didn't want to risk it until the final laps. With 5 to go, I made a move under him going into T1 but caught the edge of the apron and nearly spun it in front of him. Luckily I caught it and kept it straight. I soon got up to his bumper again and planned my next move. It came on the final lap after I got a good run on him out of T2 and pulled to the inside to try and pass him into T3. I was able to get under him and secure my line, but he held strong on the high side and I knew right there that this was going to be a photo finish. We came out of T4 side by side, nearly equal, but he had the preferred line through the tri oval and barely sqeeked by with the win. Very close but nonetheless, very clean racing. T'was a blast :). Great job Jeremy.

Cya'll next time :)

Great work guys. Outstanding win Jeremy.

Had an excellent car but more bad luck. Somehow Bob got turned backwards on the wall and there was no way to avoid the nose to nose collision. To make matters worse, coppers busted me for speeding. Dropped all the way to 19th but at least finished the race.

Good race congrats to the top.

I lost a gamble by not pitting on that second caution. I bet there would be another caution within 20 laps but there wasn't so I had to pit under green which put me down 2 laps and that was it :( I don't know where the other 5 laps down from leader came from but I ended up 7 laps down. Oh well I was glad to finish, but will be sure to try and stay on the lead lap next time.

Can I pass the field and pace car to get my lap back or do I just pass the field, get my penalty cleared, but stay behind pace car?? This would make me a hazard so I would just stay behind the field(towards the end, as I did this race.

Sorry to Gregg and Tom for passing you on fresh tires while you were battling around lap 110. As soon as I noticed you were battling and I went wide and let you both pass.

It was fun watching the leaders name flip flop the last few seconds nice race up top guys.

See you next time
RA

Miles off the pace in a long run and not running as fast as I should have in Qual. Turning into a little bit of a pattern at the moment for me.

Qual did not go well when a reasonably good car got loose twice on my fast lap and cost me at least half a second.

Race started reasonably quietly with my main aim being not to make any silly mistakes, unfortunately this meant I wasn't aggressive enough and lost a few positions. There were a couple of little moments; including a big bobble in front of Francesco Zargani which I apologise for.

There was a moment when a big wreck unfolded on the front stretch and whilst lifting in anticipation of a spinning car I was whacked from behind with such a force that I actualy spat right out through the accident and gained like 5 positions! I skipped stopping at the first caution period and decided to wait for a second caution; it came rather quickly.

In the second stop I decided to leave my damage and go just for tyres. This would put me up to around 8th in the pack but unfortunately this was not to last as the damage, although not critical, maginified the push I was getting out of 4.

The next long stint felt like a long time spent in reverse, with a stream of cars overtaking my sorry ass. I tried in vain to get round 4 without dropping ludircous ammounts of speed. It turned out to be a pointless endeavour as I ended up clipping the wall about mid stint and flying across the grass at high speed. Evidentally the gods were on my side as I managed to keep the car under control and roll onto the apron to pick up where I left off.

Had to stop twice more under green conditions (each time ignoring the damage) and had a drive thru penalty thrown in for speeding in pitlane also.

After the final caution I decided to simply tootle round at the back, letting through the couple of guys behind me when they proved way too fast for me to stay with.

I tried to be considerate to the leaders and give room to those I was racing with, I apologise if I held anyone up or squeezed anyone too hard.

Gotta practice those long runs with other cars some more else I'm going to struggle to see a top 10 again any time soon.

Enjoyed that even though it was 3.30am when we finished!

Have not done a league stock car race for 14 months having left NR2003 world, so did not know how I would do. Took the setup on here and shored up the engine as it seemed likely to blow at the high rev limit, however it seemed to come good in the second part of the fuel run and managed to be fairly competitive.

Few close calls and even managed a 360 and carried on, apologies to anyone I got too close to but thoroughly enjoyed it.

Just got caught by the leaders when a yellow came out to go a lap down otherwise last few laps could have been more fun for me.

Obviously the mod has issues with yellows etc, but hopefully when Arca arrives those will all go.

Cheers

What a race. I totally screwed up my qualy, making an error on the first lap and spinning in the second. No problem, as I had really focused in practice on the girl being to run on the long runs. I remembered, as Tim rightly pointed out, that cautions tend to be rare here (in the end there were actually more than I expected), so I worked feverishly to produce a car which would start fairly fast and then I could drive a bit more conservatively without too much push and without destroying the tires. What I am discovering here is that, while it is true that you have to let the race "come to you" at the same time you cannot sit back to much in the earlier laps at any of these events. So you have to find the right balance of salt & pepper! Basically the whole pattern for the long runs for me was start off pretty quick, then settle in and conserve the tires hoping to make decent green stops. I was very, very lucky, because I got yellows each and every time that I had my tires almost finished. I unfortunately got a few bangs (par for the course) and left a few CT Racing decals on the wall myself, so by the last half of the race my car wasn't sweet anymore but still quite drivable. Basically on the last 20ish lap, I knew I would not be able to aim for a top5-- everyone in front was just too good plus I knew, just knew, that 20 green laps meant that EXACTLY at that magical 5 lap to go I would have nothing to offer save a smile and a wave. So I'll take my 8th position, I just have to figure out a way to have more at the end of runs.
A couple of notes. Jon Weal, it was great racing together, I don't even remember the bobble but that's because my brain is bobbled to begin with-- all cool m8.Bad luck for the rest of my teammates. In the early part of the race I saw Bob coming across the track when he spun and I just avoided the accidents that ensued-- it just goes to show that as always in these races there is an element of luck as well. Great job by Scott (who got a flat tire under green) and Gregg anyway. CT Racing will come back stronger at Dover. Thank you Tim as always for stewarding us. Congrats to the podium.