GP'79: Buenos Aires

Great fun, Thanks Christian for setting this up. Sensible driving by everyone I encountered, both from in front & behind.

Frustrated with myself, that I managed to get the fuel comsumption so horribly wrong. This effectively threw a possible P4 away, due to the last 20 laps becoming a fuel economy run to the line. Mike and myself were pretty close up until that point, running similar lap times.

After my mix up with Car selection (my own fault), I was driving a car I'd never driven, so to be safe I put on some extra wing. It cost me on the fast areas, but in the 'twistys', It felt pretty stable. Maybe the extra wing/drag caused the fuel problem. I'd put about 57 laps worth in, but by lap 30, I only had enough fuel to get to lap 46, if I'd carried on at the same pace! So I just slowed to save fuel, and to get at least to the line, and keep running.

Roll on Interlagos - I haven't driven that circuit yet, but being the '79 configuration, I'm already getting dizzy just thinking about it! ;-)

Wow.. What a race.I'm lost for words. It's by far the best race I've ever had. There was so much going on that I don't know where to begin.

Qualified 5th and got off to a good start. Had some problems getting into my rhythm in the beginning, I was 1-2 seconds off pace and a bit frustrated. Then I got into the 'groove' and things started working out for me.

Seems like the front runners were having problems battling each other, and all of a sudden I was into 2nd :-)

Unfortunately that didn't last long. Oliver was chasing me down and he was a bit faster than me.

After a good fight he got by and I accepted to drop to 3rd. Apparently he was pushing a bit to hard 'cause he hit the curb in front of me and his car bounced into mine and burst into flames. It took both of us out and there were parts flying all over. Oliver: not to rub it in,but it looked awesome :-)

I was afraid that was it for me. But to my luck my car was still working and it only got minor damage. I dropped a couple of places and began to fight my way back up.

For some reason my DFP decided to make an extra downshift after outbraking Kevin and I went on the grass. Back to 4th position :-(

Then with few laps left Peter on pole was out of the race. Kevin was in the lead,Aubrey 2nd and me 3rd..Wow.. Time to try and reel in Aubrey for 2nd position.

And what a battle it was. He was absolutely not going to let me by this time. I've never had such a tuff battle for position . But it was good clean racing. My heart was beating 200bpm + LOL

In the sloooooow right hander on the last lap Aubrey spun and I regained my 2nd place. A shame it had to end like that ,but it was good fun while it lasted.

It was a pleasure racing with all of you, this kind of race reminds me why I absolutely love these cars. Amazing.

Grats to my teammate Kevin for his first win and to everyone who finished. And thanks to everyone who joined.

Hope to see you all at Interlagos

Hmm,I can only upload 2 screenshots now ? :-( oh well ..

That was better than watching F1 on TV. For me it was spectator day after being shunted out on lap 6. Didn't matter though as was a pleasure to watch the podium finishers battle it out. Peter was in a league of his own and but for 51st lap mishap would have lapped everyone. However the respect everyone had for a fair fight in these wonderful old cars was a sight to be seen. Really some of the best racecraft I've seen online.

Christian, I promise to learn interlagos and do some practise. If I did something wrong on lap 6 to have caused accident, do let me know.

F1 News: "McLaren almost loses their lead driver in a high speed crash after a catastrophic VPU failure!"

McLaren Team driver Peter Valkovic had a lucky escape from serious injury after a major failure in the 07 cars VPU unit which sent him off track at the fastest stretch of the Buenos Aires track, at over 290kph. The VPU unit controls all graphics systems and on lap 51 of 53 laps, and with a very comfortable lead, the sytem shut down and left Peter with no visibilty and a need to slow a 290kph rocket whilst totally blind.

Peter explains, "It was a rude surprise and a shame for the race. As soon as the VPU system shutdown I knew I had to act fast and just brake as hard as I could in a straight line and hope I would slow before hitting anything. But occuring right before the actual braking zone of the back straight it meant there was not going to be enough distance left to come to a stop, and less so without being able to see and control braking optimally.
The VPU Recover system brought it back on line after 10 seconds or so, but not until after the car had run into a barrier and suffered severe damage. The visuals were badly corrupted and it was hard to make out the track (or anything really) but I hoped I could continue on and limp around the last 2 laps. Except when I drove on and got to the next right hand corner I found out that there was actually no front left wheel due to the damage, but I was not able to see that in the visuals. So that brought an end to any chance to go on."

Ron Dennis was heard cursing in the garage, all the way from one end of pit row to the other! There are likely to be some heads rolling at nVidia, who are the McLaren VPU suppliers, as they are on a lucrative contract to McLaren and that could be put in some jeopardy now.

Ron is quoted to have said (yelled), "We are a professional team, and we deal in professional qualities. This is not a professional quality performance from nVidia!!!"

I can't write a proper race report, because it would take about a week. :) Here's som highlights... I thought this would be a boring race of attrition, but instead it was nearly constant action! With some careful manoevering in traffic, I managed to take the lead for the early laps. I held up Peter for about 7 or 8 laps. I spent most of the race holding up somebody. The biggest battle was with Christian. Had him behind me for about 15 laps. My brain was spinning like a top as I tried to decide when I should block or hold my line. But on the very last lap as we came around to lap a Tyrrell, I must have been a little distracted and had a little half spin, fortunately leaving just enough room for Christian to avoid a collision.

If it wasn't for Peter's horrible luck, that probably would have been the best race I've seen!

Great win Kevin!! And makes the practicing pay off!

When I had lapped everyone but Kevin with a few laps to go I could see I had JUST enough time to catch him, but I was thinking how close it was going to be and how ironic it would be if I crashed trying to pass him on that last lap or so! And thus he would then win! But I was just going to see how things went and go for it if things were fine, otherwise too bad.

Then a lap later my graphics card crashed... thus so did I.
Heap of crap!! Couldn't wait THREE minutes more, after more than 1.5hours! Bloody incredible.
Plus, seeing I run 94% brakes and can't lock up wheels even if I want to (on the road anyway), when I floored the brakes right away when it froze it really should have been able to come to stop fine from where I was. So I don't know why it didn't, and I have to go and check the replay. I assume I was not actually heading straight down the track during that blind period.
Also, if the stupid VPU Recover had brought it back even just seconds faster (than about 10sec or so) I probably could have saved it still too.

Must have been destiny...

At least I will get to use the M29 again for the next race.
(All races will be one McLaren or another for me).

Peter: how very unlucky. You were so far ahead and had lapped almost all of us. It kinda concerns me that I also have an nvidia graphic card,I hope it doesn't decide to mess things up for me at some point :o)

Yes,you can drive the M29 again next time :-)

I have to drive the Alfa Romeo (ARRRGH ) or M28 at Interlagos.

Don't think I can make a full race in the alfa so it will probably be M28.
Well, only got myself to blame since I decided to have the credit system in the first place :-)

Congrats to Kevin, Christian and Aubrey and very sorry for Peter's nVidia failure.

This was my first race for Slow Racing and my first race with a '79 F1, so I really thought I could not make to the finish line in such a long race and with such good drivers.

But I managed to finish though my pace was terribly slow. In fact, while I was practising online last friday I could take corners at faster speeds than I could today in the race, and I didn't change my setup at all.

It seemed as if everytime I tried to repeat the maneouvres I did when practising, the car went very wide, so I could never keep a pace of 1:48 low or even 1:47 high, that was the time I did on practise sessions.

About the race with all the other drivers... in fact I could only pass Dan and Ross (due to him going slower to save fuel). I tried to let everybody else pass me by easily, as they where much faster than me.

Although it was a tiring race for me, it was fun and I'll try to be there at Interlagos.

Thank you all for this race !!

What can I say, I am just thrilled with my first win. Even though it was a gift win due to Peter's misfortune. Still proud of my focus after spinning early in the race. Some great battles there were. A special thanks goes out to
Christian, who's Mc Laren setup he gave me moved over the
Tyrrell just great.

I hope everyone will continue to race this fine series. Has the most interesting tracks.

Thankyou to everyone sending there congrats to me. And round of Congrats goes out to Slow Sideways Racing for there first race finishing 1, 2, and 5.

Kevin