Imola (GTC-76)

That sucked. PC locked up during Q. I got it running again but too late for the start. This is what I get for trying to run a Conroe with DDR-400 and an AGP video card.

Sad to hear that Mike.

Quali:
Went good, clocked 2:02. Faster was possible but not really needed.

Race:
Had pretty much uneventful race. Led from start to finish. Didn't had to push in first stint too much. I had 1 off in chicane at the top and one off in first chicane 2 laps before end. I was pushing too hard then, trying to catch low 02's in race trim. It was then that I decided to ease off.

Sad for Jerry losing that 3rd place to Tim 2 corners before end, good work Tim.

Was extremely fun, c ya at next race.

Dammit, evil Simbin netcode strikes again! :)

Qualed 4th, but launched good, snuck in front of Tim on the start, almost creamed the back of Pete's Vette in the process. Pete in his powerful Vette pulled a slight gap of about 2 secs in the first few laps, then he got a little wide at the top of Piratella. I took advantage and closed right up. Seemed we were running pretty close lap times while Pete was conserving his tyres for the whole first half. I would close right up at the brake zone/entrance of the corners, Pete would protect, then blast me away with his horsepower. Great stuff Pete!

By half way, I was stuck behind Pete, unable to pass since he was faster on the straights, but losing time in the corners compared to my best lap. So I decided to pit early, took fuel only. But I came out right behind Ray and Tim, and lost a little bit of time. They both soon pitted, and found myself a 10 sec gap to Pete.

Eased up, with 10 sec to Pete, and Tim 29 sec behind me. Until the very friggin last lap, as I pull up to Variante Alfa, I see Dan's car flash out of nowhere at the last second, I had no where to go, and didn't want to cut track. Tried to ease my way around, but wonderful net code strikes again. I got turned around, went the wrong way down the track for about 100 meters before I realized. *DOH* :D

Turned around, realized my steering was f*cked, ran wide at Rivazza. Tried to climb back on track and T-bone Tim :P as he passed me waving like Fernando waving to Schumi. ;) Have I mentioned how much I love the simbin netcode?

Cripes! I hadn't realized that Mike hadn't taken the start! I knew that I'd seen him well up on the grid earlier. Downer, Mike. So sorry.

And Jerry...??? Sounds like you took a Royal there. Too bad really to bust a gut and lose it to a glitch. Sorry, mate.

I had a decent race but threw away a chance at P5 with a couple of offs and goofed-up pitstop again. In pickup races, I've got the pretty BMW down into the 2:07's but in pre-race, could barely make 2:10's and in our sessions, it wasn't looking a whole lot better. Don't know if I've got a control issue or not. I went out of GTL fairly late in the qualifying to re-calibrate the wheel and joined with a slightly better lap to show for it.

Off the start, I was a little tardy but seemed to pull Tim and Ray going down for the first chicane but decided to ease it up and not get too racy. For my pains, Dean slid his BMW up the inside and I dropped a spot. Oh, well...live to fight another day.

Eased into the race with decent times more along the lines of what I was looking for initially but by then, Tim, Ray and Dean were pretty much gone. Spotted Ray and Dean off in the grass to pickup spots but on lap 8, I bounced over the top chicane badly and the rear got away from me. Handed the spot back to Ray. Carried on well until about lap 15 when I got a little overly optimistic going into the double-lefties after the bridge and the tail came out. I fed in steering correction and gave a splendid clinic on the evils of a counter-slide as I went way off into the gravel but kept going without swapping ends.

I pitted immediately but overshot my guy...did this last time, didn't I?...and had to reverse to get service. I went for rear tires only this time but was a little confused at seeing my fuel requirement to finish the race needing some attention...I'd started with plenty to go the distance. It took a few seconds to figure out how to manage this data and finally decided that I was not interpreting it correctly and ran the figures for top up down to zero before hitting the Enter key. Took a bit thanks to all the confusion and stop clock showed 39 seconds. Arrrggghhh!!! That ain't going to win any badges.

Got back out there in P8 to pick up two spots for a P6 finish well behind P5. A little disappointed at my driving and fumbles both on and off the track but started where I finished so it wasn't a total disaster.

Grats to Enis, Pete and Tim for the podium!

:)

A race full of gaffs for me too.

Wasn't expecting much because I didn't turn one lap here in preparation. But I also didn't expect to sabotage myself either! Grabbed the best car for the amount of points I had, and luckily had a set-up handy for it for this track. Thanks CJ. heeh.

Grabbed a couple quick spots on the start, for 5th, and was chasing Tim without gain when I decided to ram the fence at the top of turn 8. Damn! Took me forever to dig out too. Then about 3 laps later, I hit the same fence in the same spot again! Really made a mess of my splitter. But it didn't seem to affect my car's speed any??

Couple laps later, I'm pitting for what I think is just fuel.........fixed proper amount......set tyres for no-change.....enter.....DAMN! Forgot about damaged splitter!Turned a 20sec stop into over a minute while I wait and listen to my crews wrenches working overtime. This dropped me to dead last again. Son of a biscuit! After that I just cruised around telling myself off. Managed to pull back up to 7th or 8th or something though. Oh well, was still fun.

Convincing win there Enis. Nice!

What Jerry said, only the other way around!!!
I started out with a full 120L and planned on a tyre swap & just a splash of fuel at half time. However, it soon became apparent that at best I could only pull a tenth or two per lap on Jerry. I knew he'd do fuel only, so I figured the only way to stay ahead was to do the same. When he pitted, I stuck in a few quick laps and emerged from my stop 10secs ahead. The handling was a bit hairy towards the end, but I managed to keep the spot. I saw Dan's car stuck at the top chicane on the final lap and had my finger on the Ventrillo button to warn the guys behind, but I was too slow off the mark and Jerry collected the stranded machine! Sorry I wasn't a bit quicker there, mate!
Grats to Enis - you were just in a different league out there.

Minimal practice for me as I was focused on the F3 races, but once I settled on a car I was doing OK. To tell you the truth, I was a bit shocked at my 3rd place qual and it gave me some hope for a podium finish to prevent Enix from taking a big chunk of points away.

I couldnt touch Enis or Pete, and didnt realize how much faster jerry was then me. So I settled for a 4th place finish which wasnt too bad of damage control. Im behind Enis by one point again, but with a TC race coming up I plan to make pass him in points again.

It's all going to come down to Spa... I just know it :)

Considering I've been out of the sim racing scene for the past couple months, and the limited practice I had, I'm happy overall.

I decided to go with the 906 for it's stable handle. I did try a couple others offline before the race, but still felt more comfortable in the Porka.

Got off to a decent start in 4th following Tim. Although I tought I was faster than him in a few of the turns, I just couldn't get by him. Then on the 3rd laps going into turn 4 while downshift, good ol' TSW skipped from 4th to 2nd and send the car spinning. Lost 2 positions.

Pretty much uneventful until lap 18, while following Donnie, he started braking earlier tahn I expected going into turn 1. I had to take "evasive action" not to hit him. Didn't lose too much time, and eventually passed him as he recovered in the chicane.

I pitted on lap 20 as I was planning, but forgot to turn off the tire change so that cost me some time. I doubt it would have changed anything in the finishing order though.

Qualified 5th, finished 5th. Can't complain!

Ray

It's all going to come down to Spa... I just know it :)

Will be tight. :)

Good to see Ray V back in the wars. After your Anderstorp fiasco, I thought you'd flung the disk out the window. Woulnd't have blamed you a bit, either!

Sorry for the short-brake going into T1. Knew you were back there and coming. Forgot to mention it entirely in my report but yes, I was surprised that everything got a little quiet all of a sudden. :)