FIS [Novice]

Disconnected.
twice this weekend

I joined this race on a whim, so didn't have any practice or testing time behind me to develop a setup or...

test for reliability problems...

Qual went better than I expected considering that there were a few guys who had been doing 25's in the practice that I saw I pulled 2nd on the grid out of the bag. Nothing fancy really as I had decided to plumb for the medium tyres (wasn't sure if parc fermé was in effect, some were saying it wasn't... it was, lucky I didn't go soft)

Race start was confused by the pole sitter spinning comming out of the Parabolica, so I ended up as the de facto pole sitter. I overheated a little on the grid but nothing major.

Got a good start but whilst nervously getting used to the grip (or rather lack thereof) I let Thomas slip through to take the lead. After a few laps however, he made a mistake and spun for the first time exiting lesmo 2. Took the lead back and tried to work on conserving fuel by short shifting and turning down the boost to 1. This mean that Thomas had massive straight line superiority and he soon caught and re-passed me.

Not long after that though he span for a second time and I didn't need another oppertunity so I put my foot down for the next few laps. My strategy paid off when Thomas had to pit twice, and I had only to pit the once. (Glad I went with mediums for qual)

It stayed pretty much static and then after Thomas's final stop I was way in the lead... over 40seconds.

Then came disaster:

Brake failure going into Ascari on the penultimate lap. Lost front wing and badly damaged suspension. Spun at parabolica and lost rear wing. Tried to fix it in pits but was sat there for 100seconds before the engine expired.

I hope my bad luck now stops.

My apologizes at the start. Everyone vanished I had a bit of lag on my end, as I got discoed during qualfiying.
Not sure what happened but the motor went up in smoke, I think from the damage I got.These car are really quick, so easy to get turned around.

I started to get the hang of it, I left the default setup in because I'm not familier with any of it. Hope I didnt ruin anyones day.

Well done guys, just wish i was their to race, sounds really close!! Blumming graphics card! froze up everything twice causing me to spin on the parade lap (embarrasing!) and running a red light on the pit lane start. Hope to be racing again with you guys soon.

take care

James

PS Congrats to Tom on the victory.

Sadly I didn't wake up in time. Was looking forward to this.

Seems everyone have problems with these cars :)
Quite embarrassing start for me caused by a total lack of grip. I was amused - my car spinned at the start even I was using lunch control. I was lucky to get only minor damages, recovered quickly and pushed to catch up with the rest of the grid.
And the surprise #2 - just at the s/f line my engine decided to give up and it wasnt even overheating - water 83 deg. C, oil 105 deg. C. Strange. Sabotage I suppose :)))
CYA next time

Yeah I wasnt to thrilled with my performance either. They are quick to get turned around. I just takes some time to get used to the cars quick reactions.

You pretty much need reflexes of a cat to maintain these bad boys.

My engine went rather quick too, I was running 19700 rpms I wonder if thats too much for racing.

My race started good when everyone kept spinning and I didn't . But after my first pit I then got on a spinning row on cold tires . Oh well , I thouth , it's a loooooong race so maybe things will go better . I was in P4 on lap 45 when my front left brake broke . Went in the wall , tried repairing in the pits but the engine died while waiting ....
The super softs held better than I thought they would .
I was running a 85% BP and brake duct size 3 , figures I should have left it at 4 :(

Hehe, Jonty, you have the same problem I have.

Barely made it on time when I overslept! Only Practice I got was during qualifying and spent that time figuring out gear ratio's for my Vanport set-up. It was during warm-up that I realized my wings were set at 40/40!!! No wonder I couldn't get over 175mph on the fast sections! lol

Things happen so fast in these things I'm not sure what happened at the start, but I got nailed real hard from the rear. Took it easy till I was sure there was no serious damage. Had a few fun laps with some of the boyz, but was mostly my usual lonely race for the most part with an occasional off to wake me up!

The car was great (lucky to not hit anything during my several offs) until 2 laps from the end when I lost my brakes and went spinning wildly out of control. Took it real slow till the end where I was very surprised to end up in 2nd place. I'll make sure and increase my brake thickness next time and try to get some practice in too! hehe

Congrats Thomas on your great win! : )

Dan