Imola Masters

Fun race.

Took the Lister and had decent pace, maybe a top 5 car. Got a pretty sad start and then had to dodge Ari as he re-entered the track. Next lap he got along side and I gave him the position unchallenged. Then when he caught back up to Hienz we soon had a 3 way battle as they slowed racing each other.

This went on for about 5 laps when I got a little bit too good a run off the final corner and tapped Ari just enough to send him around. Waited for him and we both lost 3-4 positions. Next time by I served my drive through.

Rejoined in 12th and noticed that my pace so far in the event was really slow compared to what I practiced at so I gritted my teeth and started bringing down my lap times.

Pitted lap 20 and managed to passed 3 cars on the pit exchange. moving me up to 7th. Then I ran down D Brown and we had a few lap with me trying to get by, even a few taps but neither of us suffered, it was fun stuff.

Finally I got by and the rest of the race was pretty boring until I realized I was short on fuel and had to go really slow the last 2 laps.

My apologies to Ari there, I wasn't even planning an attack, it just happened.

Great race, but anytime there is a chance of getting penalties for cutting, I will get it, and I did lol

I had a really good start from 4th to take Claus and Ari and chase Pablo for the whole first stint. The gap stayed on around 3 seconds, but he pitted 2-3 laps later and rejoined 5ish seconds ahead. Then we were stuck behind backmarkers and I tapped one of them, sorry for that. I served a drive through at the moment Ari was pitting, and he rejoined ahead with worn tyres. I attacked him, we had a great battle, I almost took him around the outside of Tosa and Piratella but didn't quite work. Then I got the cutting drive through I said so finished 3rd. Good enough :)

Grats Pablo and Ari!

Well done Pablo, Ari and Xavier! 1:42's ... too good by far!
It was similar to last nights enduro. Started well in the first stint, and caught Darren and Mario. Started making a small gap, and then towards the end of the stint (I think, I can never remember) I lost it, allowing the guys back past.
Pitted and was first too careful on the cold tyres, and then not carefuil enuff. Spun it good and proper, and lost lots of time. Managed to make it back past Barry, Ed and Miguel, but that was the end of any progress. Too many mistakes, not enuff practice.
Need to review first lap, got bumped off track, not sure what happened.
But all in all, good clean racing. Thanx everyone!

OK. Everything I wrote in my original post above was a loada rubbish. My memory is not what it used to be.
I never caught Darren in my first stint, I only "nearly" caught Darren ...
After being bumped off on lap 1 I had to fight back from the back of the field. I "think" the bump was why Mario got a drive through. No hard feelings.
Barry was very gracious letting me by. Thanx Barry. Ed also let me by if I'm not mistaken. Thanx guys!

Congrtats to Pablo who was in a different league, and podium guys and thanks to the drivers i had battles with for being patient :)

Ok that 550 is one handful! i couldn`t get rid of the understeer these Ferrari`s tend to give and on top of that i had violent snap oversteer when it did finaly bite on the front end!! coupled with a bad choice of keeping soft medium tyres on meant i had to not only fight to keep my position on the track many times over but i had trouble keeping it on the black stuff, i also had a new seat and wasn`t used to the feel yet, so with all that i felt i did ok - had a few 3-4 lap battles along the way with Claus, Kent and at the end with Heinz all very enjoyable even though i knew in the end it was gonna end up with me losing the place eventualy :P which is why i chose to not fight too hard.

Great quality of drivers today, just a pity 16 of the 25 drivers showed, a top ten would`ve felt more deserved :P but this seems to be the trend lately.

For me i need to start doing more in the GT`s :)

My start wasn't that good which allowed Xavier to get alongside. Then I missed T1 braking and dropped to 6th. Soon I was in 4th behind Heinz but then I had a lag collision with him - there was at least 50 cm between us. Luckily that one worked out with minimal time loss and no position changes.

Then like Kent said, I got a nudge from him while I was behind Heinz, dropping to 9th. I started passing people, eventually I got to 3rd. My strategy was to skip changing tires, and due to Xavier's drivethrough I got out in 2nd. He had much more pace at that point, and my mistake allowed him through... but then he got another DT, and that secured p2 for me.

Grats to the Podium and Race winner Pablo.

I had a pretty good Quali run, For a while couldn't believe I was out Qualifying CJ and Kent in listers aswell, but CJ went and set the record straight soon after I got happy about it.

Race started well for me, Ari went wide, CJ half spun at the chicane, which is really something you don't see the master doing, so was hoping he would have more of that the whole race long, as I was up to third now. But the pressure was mounting, Ari was on my bumper for a long time, and i was trying my best to defend P3 from a 575 and knew i would be passed sooner or later, but the more i was defending, the more David, Kent, CJ all closed up and i was getting nervous being the leader of this train.

Soon Ari tapped me, but understood if it was lag, It was a lucky escape this time. Ari also got into a spin at final chicane which lifted the pressure off me for a while.

Not Long before everyone was back hounding me again, and eventually got sacked a few positions and then got dealt a major blow in my race, having issues suddenly with my braking spots was running wide and offtrack in some places, eventually being given a black flag by the game and having to stop and go... this was 2 laps before pit stops aswell.

Came in for stops and saw Dave and Darren as my targets for positions, possibly Kent aswell.
Took a while to catch Darren, and he let me go through, thanks bud, Then Came my biggest challenge of trying to pass mr.brown quickly to keep my target of getting passed or atleast up to kent.

David had other plans, cutting Final chicane twice, first after a major late braking attempt and keeping his foot down, which i was not happy about, and then another cut, not as major as the first one, but was not helping me in my mission to get passed as he always kept a good advantage down the start finish straight, and i had nowhere else to get passed .. Eventually I was close enough to mount a challenge at corners 4 and 5 and the juice was worth the squeeze as i relished that pass with alot of pride, but the finality of it was, kent was now too far, and I had no more time to to make an attempt at 1 final position.

Now, I must admit, the rest of the season is my playground, only the good cars left now... booooya

Grats to all, and a nice grid turning up, thanks to you for keeping GT masters alive!

Sorry if i ruined the end of your race Heinz by trying my best but in fairness i weighed up the odds of letting you by early on to see if you could catch Kent but i`m here to race and i enjoyed our little battle whilst it lasted, you should know me by now that i don`t cut on purpose - twice i lost the back going into the final turn because my tyres were shot and i was pushing very hard on worn tyres and i didn`t want to lose another position, i knew you`d get by eventualy - which you did ;)