Bristol Shootout

What a race!!

I am still cooling off... my arms are sore!

I drove conservatively here... waay to conservatively. I thought when Dan was behind me, he was a lap ahead of me!! I had very low expectations of my pace as I had a difficult time honing a comfortable setup. (In the end, my trackbar was right on the money for good exit speed, but my mid corner balance was off. Bar rates and wedge were still in need of tune when Qualy rolled around.)

I never had a look at the standings window, because I never had both hands off the wheel! I let Michael Bush by at one point, thinking he was Conor, thinking 'here's another car a lap ahead of me, I should let them by to chase Dan.' D'oh!!

This was an exciting, fun, truly thrilling race. I can't wait for more. Until next time!

Sorry if I screwed anybody up with my spins tonight. :(
Just not my night, I guess...

Tristan I was wondering why you did that :)

I joined the server right before qual, I had just gotten in from work. I knew it was going to be close, so I put in a bunch of laps last night. Made some more changes right before the race that really seemed to help some more. Started 17th but soon found myself last with some people that were in a lot bigger hurry than I was. I got lapped twice really quick just trying to get into rythm. Every time I got going I had to let more cars by. I was trying to catch Kurt and would get within a second and then let some cars by and would go back to three or four seconds... This happened about 3 times. Then somewhere around lap 50 I went to the high side of the track to avoid two stopped cars, this must have effected a lot of people because shortly after this I went from 16th to 9th :) Just rode around the rest of the race and collected my top ten. Very happy with the result and with the car for the most part. Was catching a few cars late in the run, now if only the car could be that good and that fast from the drop of the green flag... Well Congrats Dan on the win, and see everyone at the next one.

I also want to point out;

The top-6 finishers from the US event would have finished ahead of the winner of the Euro event. Wow!!! Fast pace in the US of A... word.

Well given the USA's greater experience of stock cars, you'd need a bloody good kick up the arse if you didn't :)

There's only one way to run a Shootout at Bristol....wide open and dodge the bullshit with your eyes closed. Crashes and stuff went my way, as I was pretty much able to run cleanly. A couple of times I had to finally use the brakes to manuever though traffic. Once I moved up to a small pack. One of the drivers slowed down and moved up to let me through, but when I stabbed the brakes to get the front end to hook up and dive under the pack, the front end of the car just took off right up to the wall into Jim Barisoff. That was all me Jim! Very sorry. I made sure from then on to ride the brakes a little bit before I actually got to another pack of cars, and this helped keep the nose planted. Got to Tristan a number of times, but just couldn't get it done. I was also surprised to be on a quicker pace than most of the cars coming out of the pits with new rubber. You know I have this setup saved on more than 1 disc!! LOL Grats to Dan and Tristan. I'm ready for a SCC race here!

BTW Pete, you and some of the other guys over there outta stay up late one Friday or Saturday night and run with us. I would run the Euro events, but if I want to continue to do this hobby, I cant call out sick from work. You guys run in the middle of the afternoon here.

Looks like you weren't the only one, Bob. A couple more guys did the same thing, but not successfully. ;)
Not a big deal, I'm used to bumping & banging on short tracks.
I got screwed up trying to avoid a spinner by going onto the apron & cooking my tires by half-spinning.
After changing the tires (& forgetting to turn repairs off, of course) I caused a chain reaction by people trying to avoid my spin in turn 1. Damn car is loose on cold tires!
Again, very sorry for causing such a mess. :(

This was a wild run!
I managed to stay out of trouble and dodge a few close calls. During practice my car was great running 15.2's & 15.3's, but from the start of the green flag my car never would stick to the track. I felt I was running on ice as many other drivers seemed to be doing. I just ran as consistent as I could and managed to finish in 5th.

Congrats Dan.

thx guys

tristan it was a blast running with ya. i am guilty of the bristol bump and run but hey it's bristol!!!
man had to dodge quite a few spins myself i also was preparing to exit out of a turn passing a slower car but he spun it off and i ended up tapping him slightly and half spun out on the apron. thats when tristan and conner got by me. i guess conner got whacked cause a few laps later we went by him. a great race for sure.