GP'79: Longbeach

This car/track combo is so much fun that I went into autopilot enjoying myself out in the lead... of course you can only go so far not concentrating on the driving before you hit something.
Shame I had to DNF with the win in the bag, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Cya next time.

Congrats to the podium and all the one who finished this tough race.

I damaged my suspension in lap 30 and my wheel displaced about 45º to the right, since my (discrete) laptimes went 6 secs off. I could only try to finish and hope to gain some position thanks to other racers mistakes. Finally a 10th place is not that bad...

See you next race.

What a gruelling race to do 80 laps on a street circuit! Phew!

I had to do it that hard way!
After a few laps of warming up, and still in 3rd as per the grid, first there was long battle with Alex, who I just could not find any way past, and that was keeping Milan at very close range behind me too! But to stay right on a rear wing, so you are ready to pounce at any chance, is very hard at any track - more so here! Alex was supposed to be the one to error, but I did first!
It was very lucky as a big spin at the end of the pit area straight managed to not hit anything! But I resumed in 8th spot then.

A handful of laps to get back to Roberto and Aubrey who were fighting it out, and I got an easy pass on Roberto and then another 'rear wing chase' of Aubrey this time. Byt ehn back in 4th.
But again, I eventually locked up the rear wheels and spun out, and then dropped back to 6th. And another need for a long recovery. Sigh.

I was starting to recognise the rear end was a bit too slippery and needed a lot more care to assure I kept it under control, instead of those wasteful errors!
But after 10 laps or more to catch up to Alex ahead again, I did the same thing yet again! Lucky to have no major incident or damage for three spins so far! Phew!

A handful of laps later I caught Alex again and eventually got to sneak past him and head to track down Aubrey once again!
It took ages to catch Aubrey but once I was there I was being held up, but there was no way to get past him seeing he was driving too well incessantly! Pressure pressure pressure... bu the would not error!
Finally he made a small error into the last turn and I dived through the inside edge line and we had a bobble and off we went. But I had just enough gap to hold off the notably faster Ferrari into Turn 1 and luckily I was able to make sure I did a perfect run out of that hairpin to remain ahead and clear. And from there I got to move away into clear track.

One more rear end slide a while later! But I have enough lead over Aubrey that he didn't catch. And then I was off to hunt down Roberto - except he was lapping at equal speed to me anyway! About 12secs ahead then. And 25 laps to go.

As best as I could do, it was still not helping reduce that gap a lot! But in the last 10 laps or so I began running slightly better laps and Roberto losing a bit of time - being safe, or tires wearing(?). So I managed to get within 4 seconds with 5 laps or so to go, but could not get any closer from there.

So 3rd was it. Qual 3rd... finish 3rd! LOL

Good to see Roberto came back, and of course demonstrated how well he can drive!!

A surprise to see Scott turn up! Too fast, and probably crashed out on purpose so he can get a Williams FW07 next race! lol (j/k)

I thought the better F1 teams would want to recruit drivers with good results, but all I keep getting is sold off to a lower and lower team!! I better start crashing out of races too !! (Tho I guess I did one, sort of. A full game crash type crash-out).
I suppose the Ensigns sort of look good... and evil... in black.

Good race, but my mind, as other Sundays (hell it seems bad news come just before Monday! yahooo...), was far far away from this race, I was totally unfocused.
/ot
I should go back to the "no woman-no cry" status.
/ot
I break right rear sospension before T1, I guess someone hit me in my slow start. Personally I tought it could have been a safer start, especially in a long race like this. T1, from my POV, was a little messy.
Most of race behind Aubrey, so hard to pass you! But staying behind I could save a little of tyres and fuel (even too much).
Bas pace was a little better, so no chanche to get him, I try to feel if the car was still balanced, but in the last 25 laps I suffered lockups, especially on last hairpin, and 2 or 3 times i kissed the wall with front tyre.
Last 10 laps i managed the gap, I always watch this, in my mind i was thinking: "10 seconds and 10 laps...ok i can loose 1 sec a lap" :P
Pity it doesn't always work like this.
All in all a nice race from me, but driving unfocused is double demanding.

Grats all finishers, not only the top!!

Started near to the back, and spent the first few laps going steadily to avoid an early exit. Spent the early part of the race dicing with Kevin Banic, and we exchanged places a few times, usually as a result of a mistake.

The second half of the race, I had Christian gradually closing the gap to me. Initially from about 13sec down to about 4sec, only for him to hit some sort of trouble, which resulted in the gap going back to about 16secs. Again this gradually became less and less, until with 10 laps or so to go, I had been caught.

Sorry Christian if you expected a big battle, but with only a few laps to go, and some points in the bag, I could not risk trying to defend too much, and getting a DNF. ;-)

Overall, I was pleased with my lap times compared to those drivers ahead. I paid the price for a very cautious start, which cost me a lot of time.

Well done everyone again, for the respect everyone gives to others on the circuit. - Excellent racing, and an excellent series.

I had a good start and soon positioned myself behind Christian. I was a little bit faster but not fast enough to overtake him so I just sat on his rear wing waiting for his mistake. Unfortunately I was the one who started making mistakes and after a major one (sorry for that Christian, luckily nobody got hurt) and few small ones I lost him. Later in the race I got into a secure 6th position - had over 20sec of advantage on the guy behind me and the gap was increasing so all I had to do was to drive safely home. As usual I failed :) I don't know what happened and I don't have motec data to check it out - I spun in a part of a track where it shouldn't have happened to me - I didn't make a simple mistake of applying too much acceleration so my best guess is that one of tires got overheated and became slippery; I hit the wall and lost front right tire - guys in pits were helpless so all I could do was to give up.

Wow.What a race.

Got off to a good start. Unfortunately I came in to fast into T1 and there was some tyre rubbing :-( Sorry about that everyone.

I settled behind Roberto which was slowly pulling away. Managed to gain a couple of positions and was into 6th place. Things were going well for me.

Tomasz was trying to pass me and I knew it was going to be difficult to keep the fast Ligier off my back. Fortunately for me he made a mistake and I pulled away a bit.

In my eagerness to gain positions I came on throttle a little bit to late and slid into the tyre wall at the pit :-( Slow and sideways .Fortunately only minor damage to the rear end which the mechanics managed to fix and at the same time I got some nice fresh new tyres on :-)

I started climbing back up. I was closing in on Ross ,but with about 9s gap I spun just before the final corner :-( I quickly managed to recover and started pushing to catch up again.

I was prepared for a battle for position,but luckily Ross decided to let me pass :-) I was in 5th and unable to gain more positions.

I was planning to let Peter work a bit to lap me,but he was way to fast so I let him by. For the remainder of the race my focus was to not let Aubrey lap me LOL :-)

It was a great race. Grats to everyone who survived it.

Great race for me was that 10 laps when I'm lasted.
Looked at replays it looks like real one on Long Beach -:).
Start was a risky part and luckily I just slightly touched rear of Alex's car I hope without damages.
First laps were very exciting with Peter ahead of me with his Rebaque and Bas behind with Wolf. Actually in one moment top 5 were on one shot, very exciting.
Some close call was it there but this kind of track (that I loved) is responsible for hard close racing. Slowing from 6th to 1th gear is always hard to judge when you could not see a brake lights of car ahead. I really enjoyed these 10 laps of close racing.
Then Peter lost his car on braking before downhill and I was lucky to avoid him, but on the next corner on downhill I pressed pedal too much and lost it with some wall contact.
After I released that my steering wheel is bended and the car was not going straight due suspension damage. After another spin I decided to parked the car in T1 escape road safely.

Rest of the race I watched from an local elite restaurant near track with some nice ladies around -:).

Great racing guys and congrats to all finishers of this hard race.
Specially to winner Bas, Roberto and Peter with that Rebaque thing -:).