1.5 hours of Orchard Lake

A much better race for me this time around, still knowhere near the pace need to compete for podiums.

Qualified 5th and let Pablo pass me because I just didn't want to deal with him trying to pass me. Half a lap later he spun off and I never saw him again.

Follow Barry, and Dennis for quite some time but never had a chance at challenging them. By the time the frist stops came they were long gone.

Quite a boring race for me.

Is there any chance that we can move the start time for this series earlier by 30 minutes? Really is a bitch finishing these and then jumping into a F1 car and right into qualifying.

EDIT: nevermind, I forgot there are some that come from and even earlier event into this one.

I had three accidents in this race and I'm very sorry about that :(

In the lap 37, second turn, I tried to overtake Gregg (I think he was a lapped car) but he went to the right side where I was braking and we crashed. In the lap 57, I think Ralph wanted let me pass, but I braked too late and you braked early, I'm sorry :( In the lap 65, I hit John in the first braking, he went from the left to the right side of the track while he was braking and I had not enough room to avoid him, I'm sorry. What a bad race, I'm sorry again for that accidents :(

tuff race for me today, just learning of Tom Middleton's passing just before the race. Some how I missed the original post. Some people were sending me messages saying "sorry about Tom" , I was misunderstanding it for not racing this season with me. Had no idea of the tragidy.

did ok thinking of him the whole race.

Kevin

Congrats leaders. Great battle CmC and TB!
On the whole a bad race from me, but it was ok at the time. I nervously shredded my tires on the first stint and spun 2-3 times total. But had fun in the Fabcar for a change, I just need to keep it clean form the start.
Good racing form everyone around me. Traffic both ways was good.
I'll see you next time in the woods!
RA

Yeah! That's right... We're faster than Protons 8-)

At the beginning of lap 3, Conor had a run up behind me into T1, but our closing speed was such that a collision was almost imminent. With no time to spare, Conor jerked to his right to avoid hitting me, putting himself down several positions. Really a class move; Thanks again.

The car never quite felt 100% here; I flip flopped between softs and stocks on the front end all throughout practice this last week. I just couldn't make my mind up. I began the event this morning with stock in front, soft in rear, and the wings set at 3/6. Bad choice!! My fronts were overheating at the end of the first and second stint, due to how hard I had to keep pushing in an effort to stay on pace with Conor, who I feel had the edge on me almost everywhere. I had bad gearing for slow speed corners, not enough gearing for the top end, and overall too much wing!

At the final pit stop, I gambled and put softs on front, and increased the rear wing to 7. With half a tank of fuel now and fresh tires, I went out there and put in the very fastest laps I could... a couple of 11s. But Conor may have done the same thing. His race pace was even faster in the 3rd stint.

Conor exited the pits at the beginning of the final stint just as my glowing brakes eeked their way past him into T1. So close, this race!! I pulled a small gap while conor was getting his tires to temp, but as soon as they were, he was right behind me again. He got by me on the front straight as we now had two laps remaining. I stuck as close as possible to him, knowing I had an advantage out of the corner leading onto the backstraight banking. I drafted as best as I could, but did not get completely side-by-side with Conor. The white flag flies, we screamed into T1, and I got on the brakes as hard and as deep as I thought physically possible. I kept them from locking up and I **barely!!** got past conor. I concentrated very hard in the slow corners to make sure i got a good exit out of the very slow left (again, bad gearing hurt me a ton!), and took the next sweeping right and left as fast as possible, to make a 200m gap from Conor to prevent him from drafting past on the banked front straight. Across the line, less than a second between us. Intense!!

I must say thank you to Conor; What a blast. I am still aching. On to Rouen, where Conor and others are very strong (and i am not! love that place though...)

Close, but no cigar. Actually, I'll take the cigar anyway since the race with Tristan was just an utter blast and getting a 2nd place behind the best driver here at R2P after continuous battles on track for the lead sure feels like a win :).

My setup was obviously a low downforce package with a wing set of 2/5. What surprised me the most was how well it handled in the slow speed sections of the track. The mechanical grip was just excellent and really gave me a sight edge over Tristan for most of the race through there. In the final sweepers, however, he had the advantage, and it would usually give him a decent lead over me as we got onto the oval. I would then reel him back in before T1 and on many laps, we would dive into the corner side by side, beating and banging. It wouldn't even stop there as it usually continued through the slow section as well. Just awesome racing :)

Tristan alluded to the mistake I had in the early going where I went off. I could have easily slammed into him but it was a long race and just wasn't worth risking it. I kept it right, stayed in the grass, and fortunately for me, came back on track in 4th. I lost quite a bit of ground to him after from fighting Barry and Dennis to get back into 2nd, but after I cleared them, I slowly closed in on Tristan and finally got to him before the 1st pit stops started. From there to the end of the race, we were rarely more than two seconds apart from each other, barring the pit stops.

Speaking of pit stops, I must have done something right today because those stops saved my ass from losing more time than I could afford. Many occasions in the past, Tristan would gain tons of seconds on me and I have never quite figured it out. After each stop today, I found myself getting to T1 almost at the very instant Tristan arrives at the same piece of real estate. Kept me in the race, and I still can't remember what I did differently ;)

For the final part of the race I took on light fuel and soft tires, which is quite radical for me since I am usually a pussy when it comes to race strategy. I needed to do something a little bit different than usual because I was in a different position than in past races. I knew Tristan was going to do something along those lines so I tried my own variation. It worked pretty well for the first few laps in the stint (which was like 6 laps left in the race). Ran the fastest lap in the race and did manage to pass Tristan for the lead with about two laps left. Unfortunately, my tires overheated on the final lap. He got around me going into T1 and from there, I couldn't do much to get back up to him. The interval was too great to really catch his draft on the oval and while I did pull up a little bit to him, it just wasn't enough. Still, losing to him by .4 ain't bad at all :).

Once again, great race man. Hope I can give ya some more pressure in future races :)

Look forward to Rouen...

Man, this track and I just don't work together. This was worst than my S6 appearance at Orchard Lake. At least in that one I salvaged it with a fun battle with Greg Mulgrew.

I had a low aero package similar to Conor's, was running high 1:13s on race fuel stint in practice last saturday. Busy week meant no practice up until this morning = not a good idea.

Woke up late, slept right through the alarm. Kent, we're not all early risers on a Sunday morning like you. ;) Jumped in the shower and got on the server just before qual. Didn't even eat breakfast.

Was half asleep through qual, horrendous lap. :) Didn't get into a groove until it was too late, by then, I had some minor aero damage after an attempted late braking maneuver on Alex Fed early on. The car handled like crap, and I wasn't exactly super sharp.

Meh. Rouen can't get here fast enough. I ran some laps there last saturday while practicing for this race. Now that track rocks! :)

I also don't like this track and even worse, found I am really slow here. My setup doesn't seem to work well in the fiddly hairpins and I was losing a lot of time in and out of them.

Pretty much stayed out of trouble, didn't deserve a top 10 finish on pace alone but a fair few people had problems and that gave me a boost.

Had good fights with Ryan and Garry in the early stages, otherwise an uneventful race for me.

After practice Saturday night Dennis and me were both running low 13's and were discussing that Tristan would be in the 12's. Actually we said he will probably be in the 10's but that didn't happen....whew. I was pretty content with my 13's as race pace and was se to go.

Qualifyed 4th with Dennis 3rd with both Conor and Tristan up front (great laps you 2).

Race went pretty well. I was following Dennis when Conor had an off and fell behind us and I did my best to hold him off but that just wasn't meant to be and it wasn't long he got by both of us so I tried to push Dennis to see if we could keep in contact with Conor but he slowly crept away.

Dennis went a bit wide in turn 2 so I went underneath him to take 3rd. The entire first stint Dennis stayed right on my tail as we pulled a small gap from Kent. I was still worried that Kent was going to find that "Lap" and catch back. I've been racing with Kent a long time and know what he's capable of but it didn't happen this race but it's soon to come. anyway into the pits as Dennis and me were on the exact stadegy. Which BTW the fuel calc's are way off. I had a bit better pit and got out just a couple seconds ahead of Dennis and it stayed pretty much the same for the rest of the race. I was watching Tristan and Conor swap back and forth for the lead and looked like they were having a blast up there.

Congrat once again to Tristan for the win and Conor for second. See you at Rouen!