USA G2: Brno

Well my favorite track x_x Brno bit me again. Quali was slow, the combination of Brno and the Porsche doesn't mix well and I was only 7th. The start was good and I could have been higher up but I didn't want to pass Heinz only to get in his way. After a while I got caught in a 4-car battle I didn't want to be in, cuz of my no-stop strategy, but I couldn't get out of it.

My tires were going away as the rest of the guys in their BMWs were stopping for new ones, so they caught up pretty quickly. Barry and I tangled a few times, by my own fault probably, and held us both up to let Scott by, and then Heinz. By this time my tires were GONE, I had 2 "Tires worn" warnings from my crew cheif, and I just drove it home nice and easy.

Good job Matjaz, Steve, and Mark on the podiums.

Congrats Matjaz .. blinding race pace! .. pity barry fell away in stint 2, barry had some good pace aswell in the first stint

My race was just ruined by a slower front runner who was just way to stubborn tonight.. Ive had good races with you steve, but you were just a different driver tonight.. the incident with derek was not his fault, you closed the door on him way to late, like you tried with me a few times, you really stressed me out ..

I should have picked up a podium, but the battle i was having to get passed steve helped Mark Carty catch up, and we were miles ahead of him in the beginning of the race..This also allowed Barry and Matjaz to pull away into the distance, I was so upset when i realised steve was not stopping and neither mark, should have been a completely different result.

some nervous moments with some names i dont know, but otherwise i was happy to still bring it home in 4th, not where i wanted to though..

My apolagies for missing this one. I went out for a cigarette as I was booting GTR2, and realised the neighbours duaghter had collapsed in the back yard. By the time the ambulance came and we got everything sorted it was well past race time.
Hopefully I didnt cause anyone to miss out, although there will still spaces left when I checked with about 1/2 hour til race.

(Heinz - sorry you feel that way man, certainly wasn't trying to do anything underhanded. I can understand your frustration though, as I was definitely slower on that strategy; honestly I figured you'd go by a number of times and was kind of surprised you didn't.)

As for my race, I'd decided to do a no-stopper after only being about 1.25 sec/lap off qualy pace on hards and 70L fuel in practice. Unfortunately I couldn't match that race pace tonight, and that was the decider. Still was a close run thing and probably a toss-up as to which strategy would be better, but I figured anything that would keep me out of the pits had to be the best call. Bad things happen to me on pit road!

I knew I'd be vulnerable early, running heavy and on hards, and would have to fight the urge to overdrive. The plan was to drive my own race and run conservative, consistent lines. Got away OK in 3rd but got whacked off line by Derek on L1 and dropped to 4th. I didn't go off or sustain damage though, so it wasn't too bad. As for shutting the door, I was just on my standard line trying to hit my apex on less than optimally heated tires and Derek was up on the curbing. A bit optimistic maybe for that early in the race, and I don't think he was quite far up enough to make that move but for sure it WAS close. Just one of those racing deals - not a punt in my book, but not very far on the good side of the line. ;-)

Got going after that and had another car right on my tail for the first half of the race, but didn't know who it was. Saw in the replay it was Heinz, who was quicker but didn't find a way by despite being super close a number of times. I thought about pulling off line and letting the car by, but decided to just stay on plan, on line and not kill my tires. That meant relatively early braking and slow apex speeds to get a good exit, which meant I was hard to get past. No swerving around or overly aggressive blocking since those would kill my own laptimes, but no gifts either.

We got back by Derek about 1/3 of the way in as his tires looked to be going and he pitted, and then I cycled into the lead as expected when the stoppers pitted at half distance. From there it was full on tire saving/gap watching mode, but I still got the worn tires warning with 6 laps to go. Got it a few more times on the pit radio and gradually kept backing it down while watching the time gap, then finally saw someone coming. It was Matjaz who went by cleanly about 4 laps from the end, and from there the gap stabilized so I figured the car behind was another no-stopper.

That was Mark, fortunately for me as I was crawling around the last couple of laps in fear of a blown tire ruining it all - I'm sure he was too! I was relieved to get home on the podium and finally feel like I'd gotten something of a grip on the M3, which has bedeviled me in the past. Bummer about Barry who'd run a great race.

Well unfortunatly things just didn't end well but I sure had a blast getting to the misery. Had a good pace, a good race going with Matjaz the entire first stint. We both had a good pit and out into traffic we went. He got through it a bit better when I got caught up behind Tom O who was protecting his posistion and I got into Tom (sorry man) so I waited for to go back by but lost us both a few posistions. Finally got by him and made my way up to 5th and with a half lap to go I got the dreaded "GTR2 has encountered a serious problem"....(insert 4 letter word)

Ended up in 14th pos.

Congrats Matjaz, Steve and Mark

What a miserable start to the season.

On my outlap in qualy, I nosed it into the wall looking at my telemetry. I lost the nose and had to pit. On my first hot lap, someone had spun into the middle of the track and stopped. As I made my way up to them, they back straight into the racing line! Shame on you. End of qualy.

Things go from bad to worse in the race. I made a great start and gained a lot of positions to be sent to the back when I got turned around on lap 1.

I make my way back up to Barry K. He and I had a very nice battle for a few laps until he got punished by the bad collision code in T1. I'm not sure we even touched side to side, by I saw him exit to the litter. Sorry mate. I gained some spots due to others offs and found myself in the T10. I got turned for the second time by GP. It is tough to follow a Porsche, esp. here where the cornering speeds are quit different between the two cars. GP got caught out.

Trying to salvage something for my effort at this point, I decided to take tires (not original plan) and really push for a top 10 result. My plan was working fine until I disco'd while in 10th.

Congrats to Matjaz!

Quali was a nightmare, I always try and leave myself space but caught a slower car so with that lap ruined, slowed down right down next lap to give myself plenty of room (like 1/2 a lap gap) for next flying lap but caught slower car again, 3 laps without a decent time set i managed to squeeze an average lap in to get 11th.

My start was rubbish, my finger twitched and engaged first gear (1 thing i hate about g25 is the over sensitive paddle shifters) before green light and moved a fraction and stopped but then light changed but i was back in neutral and lost out big time. Must have been about 17th ish after start. A few guys went off in the next few laps, i made a few passes which got me up to 9th and caught up with a 3 car pack. Was driving nice and smooth and my tyres felt a lot better than in practice at this point. I started to push Tom O, but i didnt have enough top end speed compared to him. Then on lap 9 i was exiting last corner and someone in front spun causing me to plough right him, bounced off his car and into wall causing suspension failure.

Gutted, was enjoying the race up to that point. :(

i missed qualifying and my race was terrible, but i wont even get into that. i brought home 3 points so atleast it wasnt a complete waste.

the only good thing all night was that i started in last place (24th i think) and by the time i came out of the first few corners i was in 13th. wow. and thats actually where i finished too.

Heh heh, at least 2 more drivers to get bitten by the Blankenship I see.
That pile just keeps getting higher and higher ...

TC, since you weren't even in this one it might be a good idea to watch the replay before proferring your highly self-valued, but non-universal opinion. Not that it would matter...

Also, personal comments on my driving are welcomed via PM as I'm happy to politely discuss them there.

Cheers!