Magny-Cours (GTC-76)

I found a bunch of speed in the car (Ford Escort) in the first 10 laps of the race so I was able to run much better then my qualifying position. Was doing well, passed mid point of the race and was just planning on coming in for a gallon of fuel as tires were still performing perfectly. Accelerated out of the 180 and next thing I saw way a flash and flames all in my cockpit. I nearly jumped out of my chair! Pulled it off the track and let it burn itself to the ground... the marshals just watched and laughed... I swear!

Had a great scrap with Banta early on, great driving David, two wide through the chicanes was "good times"

I was very pleased with where I was running, 4th and it looked as if I would have finished there if not for the failure. It is all on my shoulders though, I was revving the b-gebbers outta that little motor.

Well that was fun. :)

Qualified 2nd, behind Pete. It was a decent lap.

Got off great, kept my second place. Followed Pete at 1-1.5 s distance till he decided to stop in lap 15. I knew he will take tires, so that was my advantage. I got in pits 2 laps later, took only fuel, and got out with around 20 sec advantage. I tok it easy on outlap, partly because I wanted to heat up tires, and partly becasue all cars dissapeared to me and I had Bob in front so I had to took it easy. Lost about 6.5 sec on that lap alone. :O After that I got into rythm, and just kept it steady. Pete was gaining on me about (+/-)1 sec a lap. I knew I just have to stay calm and win wasn't so far away. 3 laps to go I had some 6 sec something happened to Pete and that was it.

Was great fun. Grats Pete for great fight, you kept me on my toes. :)

That was a fun race. Decided to run the Capri, which turned out to be a nice car for this track. I qualified last, :) not much of a surprise.....anyhoo- ended up 8th.

Tim, I was right behind you the black smoke started pooring out of your car and there was allot of it. The Flames were quite impressive by the way and the marshals just watched like you thought, but were also cooking hotdogs on the hood of your car :)

Nice win Enis!

Damn, points race is getting real tight with Tim blowing up here ...

Launched great, driving into turn 2 I was going straight ahead, and saw Banta go flying across my hood. I guess we made contact, although my wheel never moved, looks like simbin netcode was having another "moment".

Drove alone until the last few laps when psycho Banta ;) came roaring back and I blocked him like hell on the inside of every turn. Last lap, going into adelaide, I had nothing left on the front left tyre, locked it up, we touched doors, and I overshot the apex and Banta took back 3rd.

Well, i showed up not having run a lap at magney-cours in GTL in a GTC-76 car period. I choose a car i was comfortible with, the Capri, and after practice i was sitting second with a 1:52.5 or something, about a second and a half slower than Pete's Pantera, no surprise there.

Qualifying was not good for me, i totally forgot about the no esc button rule and donnie reminded me and i quickly got off track . i ended up watching the last 10 minutes of qualifying. but my 1:52.6 held onto 3rd.

In the race, i didn't get a bad start, but it doesn't mean it was great either. Me and Jerry Chen were racing hard into Estoril and bumped, sending me flying into the wall. Of course i was pissed, but i also knew i had the 3rd fastest car and there was 30 laps to make up the difference. After making sure my car drove right, i took off pushing to the limit. About lap 5 i started to chatch the back runners and made pretty quick work of them. When i came up on Jerry M coming out of 180, he spun, thus another position gained. now it's lap 7, i'm in 7th, and it's about a 10 second gap to the next pack. Around lap 10 i caught 6th (I don't remember who it was) but i got by fairly quick. Next was Donnie. He was the hardest guy to pass yet, and since he was in a Capri too, i didn't have a power advantage. I followed him around for a lap looking for his weeak spots. on the second lap i took advantage of it getting a great run out of Estoril and getting along side on the back straight. having the inside line for the hairpin, i just breaked a little later than him and blocked the line taking the place. While looking back i saw Donnie spin exiting the turn trying to get the jump on me at the exit, oops. Next was Tim in that escort, always a tough guy to pass, even if i'm 2 seconds a lap faster. Tim did not disappoint, making us run 2 wide through several turns and chicanes. I finally got the uppr hand and got infront, and once i did that , i pulled away. Now i'm in 4th, only Jerry C is in front of me and he's 10 seconds away. I started pulling in the gap, but my tires were fighting me every step. i managed to get the gap down to 7 seconds before jerry pitted. i ran a few more laps and pitted as well, dropping me down to fifth. since i took tires, my stop was a little longer, but having freash tires let me push to the limit for the last 10 laps. Once again i had to catch and pass Donnie, and he put up quite a fight this time. i got by him with about 6 laps to go. Now Jerry C is about 6 seconds away. I'm catching jerry very fast, about 1.5 seconds a lap and around lap 28 i'm right no his butt. I can tell his tires are shot, and with 2 laps to go, and the huge grip advantage i have, i'm in no hurry to force the issue. I noticed that jerry had a hard time in estoril which leads onto the back straight, so on the last lap i make my move. Jerry Blocks the inside of the straight, so i got to make the pass on the outside. This battle ended in a braking contest into the hairpin. Jerry's tire were just to worn and he locked up bumping the side of my car sliding very wide. I just took the normail line and it was over. Finally i was back in 3rd place and that where i finished.
I looked at my fastlap and noticed i ran a 1:52.157 in the race, my fastest lap here yet, and i did it very late in the race, LOL.

It turns out that the crash in the first lap was a blessing, i got to really test myself and had a lot of great battles. If noting had happened, i probably would of had a boring racing because i was too much slower than Enis and Pete but too much faster than Jerry's 906. I have to say this was my best race yet.

I WON!!! I WON!!!

No, not the race. Just the simple fact that I taste victory in not being disco'd for a change! Yippee!

I did a reasonable amount of pre-race for this event so no excuses on performance. I was hoping for a somewhat better qualifying time, tho, as the other day I WD-40'd the steering pot...it had been a little jumpy for the last month and I was hoping the extra smoothness would pay time dividends.

Dropped a spot to Tim off the line and saw in the distance David trashing off into the barrier. Ugh! 'Well, too bad for DB...that's the end of him.' I went hard after Tim and Dan going into the Adelaide hairpin but wimped out down on the inside to let them go and promptly got passed by Dean and Jerry M. DOH!!! I'm just too, too kind. I repassed Dean on the run up to the switchback and took back Jerry's spot when he went wide in the 180. All's well that end's well...truly lucky there to be essentially back where I started.

Tim was well up the road, tho, so I just put my chin down and started to click off laps and started to slowly reel him in. I'd seen him practice the Rebel 'vette earlier in the meet but he'd settled on the Wee Hand Grenade instead. It was interesting to see that I'd pull in gobs of time on him over some portions of the lap only to hand a large share of it back elsewhere. In all this, Dean is getting a good view from just a few seconds back.

I'm slowly closing in on Tim when I finally see another Escort not far off Dean's tail. One of the blue and white Escorts. Wait a tick. Hmmm...nobody started an Escort but Tim. I hit the 'look-back' button on my steering wheel...'D Banta'. 'Bugger! I'm in for it now!' There's a tidy little pack of Tim, moi, Dean and David covered by maybe four seconds. Enis and Peter have simply checked out and are long gone...never did see either of them the whole race.

David dispatches Dean in short order and is now pressurizing me. He's obviously quicker but a Capri is a Capri is a Capri and I've got every bit as much steam as he does. I try not to get flustered in holding him off but as Dave mentions above, he gets a fine run off Estoril and pulls down low as we skim along the main straight. I take a peek with the look-back and there's enough room to casually move over to the right but that's hardly kosher. We both steam into Adelaide and I give him lots of room...enough rope to hang himself by if he goes in too hot and overshoots! Ha-ha! But no, he tracks low on the inside and I power 'round the outside. A little too much power I fear. As I put the throttle down, the rear tires break traction and the back end slowly arcs across the road right in front of Dean's 906. Sorry about that, Dean! Must have given you a start. In checking the replay, I reckon I dropped a good 7-8 seconds in fumbling about in the grass. Could dearly have used them later.

After recovering, I pressed on and started to catch Dean to close right up on him late in one lap. Rather than risk a dodgey pass, I decided to head for the pits for my stop. For some reason, there is no light indicating that you've got the speed limiter engaged on the Capri so when I hit that button on the way in, it was largely a matter of faith as to whether I was going to stay within the limit or not. The stop went a well as it could at about 11 seconds for only one hit of gas...no tires...no damage to repair. I got back out quickly and started laying down some good laps hoping that my rapid stop would pay off later if those up ahead had longer service scheduled.

Squeeled with delight to come round one lap and see the 'D Banta' ID tag still in the pits! Gotcha! I couldn't tell if the tag was moving or what but it was clear that I was going to hop-scotch him in the pits. Well clear of Estoril and heading down the main straight, a check of my look-back button showed nothing...zilcho. 'Wow, I've got him covered!'

Saw Tim's Escort parked just beyond the 180. The book on these cars is pretty much that under 'time scaling', they're very likely to explode unless the revs are kept well below maximum. I checked the replay later...impressive stuff there, Tim! Sorry...you had a good drive going.

As the end of the race was just over the horizon, I picked up Jerry's 906 just up ahead in P3. With a big effort on my part and little misfortune for JC, I might snag the position. But wait, what's this in my mirror? 'D Banta'. Sigh...

David has closed unseen by me to within perhaps three seconds so again, I know I'm in for a fight. I up the pace very slightly being careful not to overdo it and forcing David to go even faster to catch me...there's always the chance that he'll err with a hot pace. The gaffe comes...but it's mine, not his. Going into the final complex, I slip just a little wide in the first element and by the time I recover position to make a run at the chicane leading onto pit straight, I just know that David is there. Descretion was the watchword under such a circumstance so I lifted and saw David squirt through the hole for P4. Ah, me...

David pulled away smartly but I kept up a reasonable pace to not fall too terribly far behind and I didn't want to lose so much ground that if David caught Jerry's 906 late in the going and they got into a melee, I didn't want to be so far back that I couldn't pick up the crumbs as it were. The last lap and I can just barely see them up ahead and hey!...something is going on up there! I see David's ID tag and no Jerry...but only for a moment. I just catch sight of the 906 apparently recovering about three seconds ahead. It's nowhere near enough to get excited about so I just motor to the finish for a decent P5. The replay showed Jerry's 906 wobble under braking for Adelaide and dash across to drill David's Capri. The big Ford held its ground, tho, and managed to secure a great P3 drive from a disastrous start.

All in all, a pretty good meet. Sorry to see that some who'd signed on for this event couldn't make it. Too bad.

Grats to Enis and Peter for the runaway. Nice drives, fellas.

Great run, Enis. This winning thing is getting to be a habit! I drove my balls off in the second half to close down the 'pit stop' gap. Almost got there, too, posted a series of fastest laps, then went just a tad wide at the T1 kink & the gravel sucked me in! Dan spun right in front of me on the last lap - sorry mate, couldn't quite avoid the contact! Managed to slow it down, so the damage wasn't too great & we both continued without loss. In the end I finished about 17secs behind - exactly what I'd lost in the pit stop!!!