Intro to Vette Viper Challenge

A good clean race. Backmarkers were very considerate and I had no incidents. Maybe my luck has changed? (fingers crossed here).

I qualified in 4th but due to my slow starts fell to 6th or 7th very quickly. I'm just too cautious in turn one I guess. Got stuck behind a Viper for a couple of laps which allowed the race leaders to get a big jump on me. Passed him and got within 3 seconds of 2nd place driver for a bit. Tires started to wear thin towards the last making it very difficult to keep the pace.

Wow, what a way to muff up a great start. Ended up 3rd behind Jay after T1 and then got a great run on him on the pit straight. A moment of indecision and an underappreciation of just how deep I was braking into T1 meant that I punted Jay. Jay spun and I ended up with front-end damage, slowing my car by a whopping second per lap. I stopped and waited for Jay to get going again and ended up 12th. From there it was a tough drive through the field with my damaged car. Had a tough time dealing with Dennis but finally got past him. Then understeer really took its toll on my tires, causing even more understeer. Even got a warning about my tires. I was about 2.5 seconds in front of Jay with a few laps to go and he was able to reel me in my car was pushing so badly. Last lap, Jay tries to go inside at the mega-left turn, but I see it and take a tight line myself, making him have to slow up and giving me a cushion, but then I muffed up the turn up the hill, opening up the door for Jay to get past, so I ended up finishing 5th. Was fun!

It's becoming apparent to me that I sometimes get too eager when entangled in traffic. I was more concerned with passing two Corvettes than with the track, which resulted in me gassing it a bit too much while still in the turn, kicking the rear out and nosing it into the wall.

I CAN race well enough to run mid-pack, I just need to work on concentration.

Well took the Provisional, so I was in back. I wanted to stay out of the way, since I had not done many starts in this Sim. Got a good start, passed a few in turn 1 and kept good pace. Had to work my way up & finally got to about 12th, behind Mike Arn, he & I had a great dice from there on out. I tried to get him going into T1 early on & couldn't. He was faster in some parts of the track, I was quicker in some others, so we had a great chase. Finally on lap 19 I tried him into T1 again, could not get him, locked the brakes a bit & tapped his right rear, he saved it , which I was glad for & we chased around to the finish. Had a blast, Mike ran clean & it was great fun to chase around like that. Thanks Mike !!!Good Race. Great racing guys had a blast.

I noticed that the Viper isn't very popular. Well, it was more popular and successful in the Euro race, but still not given much of a chance. I think maybe choosing faster tracks that give it a chance to stretch its legs on the straights would help even out the numbers. Maybe Dubai GP instead of National, or Zhuhai, or tracks like that. Hopefully Magny-Cours will be a good track for the Viper.

Got an ok start and settled in behind Tommy. As Devin has said he got a great run off of the last turn but found the rear end of my Vette in the braking zone. Round she went and back to 10th. It's all fun.:)

Had a great time trying to make my way back up the field. I tried everything I could to get past Dennis but he held me off for many laps. I finally got a good run onto the front straight and took the place.

I caught up with Jack and hounded him for a couple of laps until a momentary lapse of concentration saw me give him a love tap...and around he went. I got it going again and thought at the time that Jack had managed to get going again, as I saw a blue vette flash by. Cool I thought he's got the pos back...it wasn't until I viewed the replay that I realised it was Dennis, not Jack. I should have waited Jack..many appologies.

I plodded on after that with a damaged car and cursing my decision to run mediums fron and rear. The rear tyres were really going off. I tried to smooth it out and see if I could get some life back into them. That actually helped a lot and I was able to catch up to Devin. I pushed as hard as I could on the last lap, tried every move in the book, then to my good fortune, Devin had a moment at the essess and I rather cheekily took the position.

Good racing all.

I'm having a devil of a time figuring out where you really fast guys find the balance and all of that grip. When I try entering the fast turns as quickly as some of you guys do, all I get is miles of understeer. I reckon 1% of it is my set up and 99% is me. I'll keep practicing.

It's a lot of fun racing. I reckon I'm well and truly a mid-packer.

Being this was my first race with Race2Play, I was worried I was going to screw up the first race. Luckily everything went without incident. I ended up being a little too careful and lost a few places in T1, racing for a lap in 4th place, until the incident in T1 where the vette was bumped. That allowed me to get back to 2nd, then I spent the rest of my 20 laps trying to reel in Tommy. Consistency paid off for him, and we had a good hard battle for a good portion of that race. Good racing! :)

Was quite surprised to get the pole since there were quite a few fast guys here. I guess they threw me a bone and let me grab the pole, which is a rarity for me!

Was fortunate enough to hold the lead into T1, but never got a moment's rest. Before I knew it, Chris was ALL over me challenging for the lead! He reeled me in and didn't let go until the 2nd to last lap when he bobbled a bit and gave me a 2 second "gap". ;) The last lap I just took it easy and tried not to make any mistakes and it worked. I took it with a 1 second gap to Chris.

GREAT race, Chris! You were very gentlemenly and very quick! You were faster than me. I was just fortunate to keep you behind me for as long as I did! Cheers! :)

Tommy

After 2 DNFs in my first 2 races here, the gameplan was just to run consistents laps and not screw up. I'm thrilled with a 6th place finish so mission accomplished there. I know I made things tough on a couple of you quickers guys who were patient enough to ride my bumper for several laps, I did my best to hold my lines and run clean, I should have had the virtual mirror on because it was really tough to tell where you guys were back there without that center mirror.
I'm slowly getting a handle on setting these cars up to be drivable so I'm really looking forward to future races, you guys are tough as hell and its a blast getting in there mixing it up with everyone.