rFBMW: Rouen

Congrats to podium in this first race of the new season.

I'm very dissapointed with this race as I was really unlucky at my pitstop.

Qualy was not as good as expected, as I managed to go 1:56 high online the previous night and this time I could only make 1:57 mid that gave me P11.

I had been practising starts, so in race start I kept my position for the first one and a half laps and then climbed up to P10 when another mate spun in front of Nick and me.

I was more than happy with my pace so far and then, right in the last turn in L2, I was put aside by one of the sharks and joined the track almost last place.

I was quite upset at that moment but I pushed again until I regained my 11th position, and then all the pitstops of the guys in front came altogether and put me in 6th position. Then when I pass the s/f line I press pitstop call for the end of that same lap, my crew says ther're ready and... Brian Duray was in my pitstall for sooooooo long that my 15 secs. pitstop became a 4 minutes whole laptime.

From then on I could do nothing but regret my bad luck.

See you again.

I had a strange injection of pace come the race and managed to leap frog a slow starting Nick Phillips and avoid a slithering John Bayes.

John please see the attached screenshot. I don't know why you slowed but from the TV cam it looks like I hit you... but from the rollbar cam you can see I am miles away when you actually start veering.

I was chasing Steve for the whole of the first stint pretty much. Gaining a tenth here, losing a tenth there. Tried on a couple of occasions to force a move on a circuit which is difficult to overtake on. I think eventually I started to lose my concentration and after a small mistake in the fast esses at the end of the lap I picked up suspension damage.

This got more and more uncontrollable until I span out. Had to pit and fell back to seventh. A 50 second stop meant I was well out of contention and the car still didn't really feel any better.

Pleased to be so competitive early on. Disappointed to make such a rookie error.

ho-hum.

Can't believe i won that tbh.

Started near the back and was basically gonna have a fight with Martin for 20 laps for a laugh but when he and Francisco got together i had some clear track and so did some reasonable laps and everyone in front just seemed to have problems of one sort or another so eventually i found myself in 2nd albeit nearly 10 seconds behind Steve.

Pitted on schedule, but it still took an agonizing 13 seconds to put in 20 litres of fuel, so imagine my surprise when i came out only 2 seconds behind Steve so i had to go for it and managed to get by with a couple of laps to spare and held on by just over a second. Very surprised it was that close after 50 minutes of racing, but i feel really bad for Steve 'cos obviously some kind of pit error ultimately cost him the race which he really deserved to win.

Ah well, nice race to 4th for me

Had a mare of a qualy session so was 19th but man I blitzed the opening lap. kept jack behind for a bit then he got past and came to franciso, he must of got a poor run as I nailed him up the hill and then went down Franciso's inside but we touched and both spun :(

Sorry franciso, I didnt wnat to hit you obviosuly but I was fully commited to the inside and braked late but not late enough that I wasnt gonan make the turn so say what you want really but dontexpect me to listen to much. Ive said sorry and thats racing.

Afetr that I got past alan wi an ace outside move and was moving up nicley, stopped late and took no tyres, maybe helped me a tad but not as mcuh as Id of liked. rolled down the laps for 4th and some good team points

Congrats to the top 3 and also a special mention to Nick and Dave for thier collective parking space :P

i did a double-take for that as well

'Is Nick still stuck there?...oh my mistake it's Dave '...

Also, did anyone else notice it was pretty laggy tonight especially at the Esses chicane bit for me.

first question do we share pit stalls in FBMW?

the word for the race is distraction. start 5th work my way up to 3rd. I was running slower the the cars in front of my but faster then the cars behind me so it was looking like a top 3 was going to happen. then i decide i would try to listen to a conversation the wife was having and forgot to take a turn BANG! any chance of a good race was over. From that point i was just out for a drive and still managed to not pay attention a couple times and rip off the front wing :( I was my only competition and lost to myself.

Fun times. That was my first and last (at least for the distant future) Shark @ R2P FBMW event as I am only off work for these few weeks to make your euro timeslot. Great fun with these cars on this track. It was a hairy opening but things steadied out as the race went on, I slipped a few positions from my starting 6th and eventually managed to get on it too early coming out of a turn and smacked my car up really badly. Had a puncture, severe damage. Limped my way back to the pits and spend 115 seconds or so fixing it. Came back into the race in 14th and then just set myself on driving steady and picking off as many straglers as I could. I managed to get myself up to 11th with the next three positions battling eachother several seconds ahead of me. I put my nose to the grindstone and gained a second or so on them for a few laps until I caught up to Alan (10th), Robert (9th) and Nick (8th). From there we lapped a few runs before I came in tighter and made my move. I took Alan first on the front straight heading into the esses. Low downforce carried me into there with an edge on a few occasions. Diving down hill into the hairpin, Nick and Robert were side by side with Robert on the inside. I got right on Robert's ass and stuck to it through the hairpin so that Nick would be forced to take the outside line. That worked and now running 9th behind a very quick Robert. I had to tail Robert for another lap and a half before I finally managed to reel him in like a prize fish coming out of the final set of esses before the last turn of the track. I dived into the final turn on the inside line and we came out almost side by side with me ahead by a nose. By the end of the front straight, I had again taken the position heading into the esses and just had to set myself on keeping Robert in the mirrors for another 2 laps or so. That worked out well and I finished P8 with a few points in a series I won't get to run again. :\

Great racing with you sharks. Lots of fun.

Qualified 2nd to John Bayes which I was very happy with & on the green had a clean start to the race being able to claim 1st place going into the first corner as John had had an issue at the start.From then on held first place for the majority of the race & had a great battle with Jon Weal for many laps until he had a mishap leaving me with a decent lead. From then on turned some consistent laps only to eventually see Jack appear on the radar-oh crap.Heading in to do my pitstop I confused myself with how much fuel I needed to finish & overcalculated resulting in a 17 second stop--Jack took 13 seconds for his stop & ended up beating me by a second--#^@* *$!!!!!
Oh well,always next time,

Congrats to Jack & John Bayes for his recovery & podium.

Its conspiracy Im sure :), last season and this one I had a ISP probs to join an FBMW race here, maybe its a sign to stop my racing as I planned.
Bad, my 1.54 low from praccy was not efficient ;)

Nice clean start at the beginning so well done on that, expected more contact than there actually was into the first hairpin.

Having qualified third I hit the self destruct button early in the race, losing several spots getting loose out of the hairpin on lap 2, then lap 3 I careered my way through the chicane, then got stuck on the outside of the hairpin on the kerb, losing most of the rest of the places available.

Don't who was worse, myself for doing it, or Dave McRoberts who I had warned on TS and then he went and found out for himself!!

Turned into a rescue job from there on in, got unfortunately caught out by Brian as he span out of the chicane and dented my front wing, hence the train that formed behind me of cars slowly picking me off. Hell of a track in these and grats Jack on the win from the back, and to those around me I battled with.

[admin]

Apologies to those who got caught out with duplicate pit stalls, given the track makers I did not consider that would be an issue in setting it for a pit stop so sorry there. Hopefully it did not ruin the event for you.

Again a couple of incidents have been seen that have been reviewed and feedback given, only one to date causing a spin, so good work there.

However please again remember R2P rules in terms of reentry onto the track, however quick you may be going through the grass there are likely to be quicker cars coming up behind. With warnings in both last weeks post race, and a reminder here, please take on board we will be penalising where we see necessary.

[/admin]

Nick