Intro to Vette Viper Challenge (Euro)

Very disappointed. Got a very bad start, then got back into it. Had a good group of us racing from 10th back to about 15th, running nose to tail, good racing & dicing, then...........CAT ATTACK !!!!!! She likes to jump up on the desk & walk on the keyboard, right in front of the screen & all !!!! :( :(

Needless to say very bad to happen when I'm racing online. So, I had to ESC out, as she had stomped on enough buttons to make it impossible to keep going. :(

I was competitive & having fun, using manual shift & running well. I guess I will just look forward to tonights VVC event, hopefully she'll not do that again, if she doesn't want to use up one of nine lives !!!!! Good race guys, was fun. :)

William, do yourself a favor and put the cat out for the next race!

PLEASE!!! No dead cat stories! :- )

Congrats to my team mate Conor for his great win.

Not much to say about this disaster. Got punted real hard going into T1. See screenshot, that's me flying!!! :- )

Is that my 15 seconds of fame??? lol.

After getting punted a second time, I decided to just take it easy and stay out of everybodys way and finish the darn thing.

Also, the pace was just too quick for me to maintain for 20 laps, like every lap was a quali lap... ugh!!!

I'm more into an endurance pace and this was no enduro!
And heck, I just turned 60 a few days ago and I'm feeling my age. Where's my prune juice? :- )

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!!!

Dan

Exciting race, especially the start and first 2 laps when my car was very nervous on cold tyres. Start was quite good for me but Ari had a very nice run on the outside with his powerful Viper. Luckily he had to brake not to hit Conor's car and left me enough room to stay along his car going into the first turn. Then came that long right hand corner so I managed to stay inside and keep the position. Then came my little mistake when braking for that very slow combination of turns and another big understseer when accelerating out of the last corner. Again I had Ari and Mark attacking me from my slipstream but I somehow managed to stay ahead. After that my tyres were starting to grip so I managed to pull away and I even started to close the gap towards Conor but I've already lost to much time in my first 2 laps so he was about 5 seconds in front of me. He was driving superbly and I was not able to close the gap + my soft front tyres were also starting to lose grip big time so I just settled down and brought home a second place finish.

A big thumbs up to the backmarkers for watching their mirrors when being lapped.

Yay, two in a row :). Was definitely not expecting that. Guess I really like this track :).

I was really pleased with this win because I will be using the Vette for next season in GT-Invitational so getting all the practice I need is very important. The car actually didn't handle like I wanted it to but it was still very fast. Going into qualifying, I was very determined to get the pole and I was able to pull off a 1.18.5 when all of a sudden, the lobby crashes. We started all over again and I wasn't able to pick up my speed. I settled with a 1.18.7 which barely beat Matjaz.

For the race, I got a better start than I did in the GT3 cup race. Knowing my car was very good on cold tires, I tried to use that to my advantage and pull away from the rest of the field. By a few laps, I was almost 5 seconds away from Matjaz, so it worked pretty well. Near halfway, my car started to really push and Matjaz creeped up a bit to 3 seconds. But a few laps later, my car started handling a lot better for some odd reason and began pulling away again. Through the rest of the race, I just cruised so I didn't make any mistakes that would cause me to spin or crash. Playing it conservative slowed me down but Matjaz wasn't closing in too fast so I had a decent win.

Great race guys and props to Matjaz for hanging in there :).

First time racing these cars, and first time at the track, didnt expect to be fast, and I was not disapointed.

Event was fun though, and thats the important thing. Got involved in the first courner crash, looks like somebody got in way to hot and a few cars span, nothing much I could do but pile in.

Got caught up by the quick guys over the last few laps, let them through ok until the last lap when (I think) 3rd and 4th caught me, they where srapping it out and I didnt want go get in the way, but I could'nt find a way to let them past, and ended up spinning in front of them, so sorry about that, bet that scared the willys out of you.

LOL !! :) I promise Dan. No Worries !!! :)

Decided late to get into this one. I took the default setup and made some standard changes to it. After the race I think I could've used a bit more gear, but it was fine and competitive nonetheless.

Got a decent start ... took a few, gave up a few ... and was running 12th or 13th once the racing got established. Made my way up to about eighth, and lost it to Steve Parsons after dipping off the track and letting him get a run.

As I was chasing Steve back down a lap car got between us and my gap fell to about three seconds. Cleared the lap car and started pushing again to catch Steve, logging my fast lap during this time.

Caught Steve and managed to get position on him when he went wide into the entrance of Turn 1. I pulled out another couple of seconds, and ended up needing them on the "final" lap ...

When the lap ticker hit "20/20" I thought "Race over, 20 laps done." But as I started cruising I started wondering where the "Race over" message was ... It wasn't coming up ... Oh, and Steve sure seems to be coming on pretty hard, huh ... Uh oh ... Got back on the horse and, sure enough, next time around got the "Race over" message. Whew.

Good run all. Lots of fun.

Well that was a blast. just finished watching the replay.

For my first race with you guys i wasn't expecting much -- except being lapped by Conor.

Unfortunately for Conor, he caught up to me while all my attention was focused on trying to judge by sound whether or not i was going to be able to turn in normally to that chicaine and complete a pass from the outside. thought better of it and was leaving room on the inside. i'm sure it looked to you, Conor, like i was letting you by and then chopped you off.

have to admit though that i just didn't expect you to have gained that much ground so quickly and didn't see you turn in. realized my error in the middle of the chicaine.

thank you for holding on to it and not making me the goat of the day.

I didnt plan on running, but with the low Viper turn-out I had to jump in and give those Vette's a run for their money. I hadnt turned a single lap in the car or on the track before my first qualifying lap. I had a base setup that I tossed together at a Brno race last week so i went with it.

Start of the race went well for me, gained two spots to be sitting in 5th. Rode the rest of the race there with a good gap both front and rear. I wasnt expecting a 5th place coming into the race... 10th or lower is all I was thinking. Luckily, I found the line about half way through the race because my 5th place was going to be taken away from me if I hadnt.

NOTE
I notice some of you newer guys are talking about moving out of the way of lead-lap cars. It's a "no-no"... please dont. Hold your normal racing line and let the lead-lap car make the move on passing you. drive like you normally would and you wont be an un-predictable moving chicane. If you see them coming to you when you are abot to hit a long straight, then feel free to move offline and slow up to let them past, but otherwise, dont change your normal line or speeds until THEY make the move.

That was excellent fun, very impressed with the race discipline and good clean but tough racing. That was my first event with race2play and i'll certainly be back for more!
Qualied 8th which wasnt bad considering it was my first time with a Vette at this track and only the 2nd time i have ever driven it ! I was tweaking the setup after every run.
Race started well, amazingly clean considering there were 21+ cars bolting down to T1.
Found myself upto 6th after a couple of laps and feeling good, but then either the rear tyres broke away or i got a rear contact as the car swapped ends un-expectantly and i dropped to about 14th.
The rest of the race was superb as i fought my way back upto 10th after some great battles with noteably Sweetland and Trede?
I was closing on the 2 guys in front by 3 seconds a lap towards the end but alas the race finished just as i got closer.
Great stuff !