Texas 200

Nice Victory Bob!!!!!! Well Done!!

Qualified 13th with no apparent pace, even in the practice an hour before. Never once got into the 28's, and expected to struggle big time.

I'd decided to stay out when the lead guys stopped, whatever the position - simply to try and avoid the rear of the pack which over the last few races had proved a disastrous position to be in. And low and behold it paid off! A race full of cautions meant it wasn't full race distance, but I was high up the pack for quite a while.

Early on the car wasn't quite right, so when I did pit I amended the track bar - this made the car loose, so at the stop after that I changed it the other way - past the position of my original set up - but it turned too tight! However I had been running in P6 at this point. A change at the next stop back to my original set up position and the car felt really good.

I led the race for 2 laps (my first lead in Oval) and ran P2/P3 for quite a while. With the car feeling so good and in P2, it all went AWOL into T2 following a restart.

Charles led on the outside, Jon was in P3 and crept on my inside and I moved to the inside too as I was moving to potentially attack Charles. Despite sending a strong signal not to pass into T2 by edging further down the track, Jon still went for it - as I backed off the throttle to let him go and turn in, Charles was turning down into the turn and that split second where I was unsure of Jon's position meant me and Chalres touched - sending me into a spin and Charles into a brush with the concrete wall. Very sorry Chalres.

Repaired damage at the caution pit and the car still felt good. I slowly moved up to P10, and decided to pit when a late caution came out - just for fresh tyres to get a jump on the leaders (who hadn't pitted). Had a race out of the pitlane with 'The Michael' (LOL - only chance I'll ever get to do so probably!!) but he just beat me to it.

As we continued with time running out the frenzy ahead was manic, and sure enough as Ron Coles went onto the grass on the start/finish striaght and rejoined ahead of me, I chose the wrong option of heading low and speared up the rear of his car. I got a front right puncture, Ron ended up in the wall - and no caution flag!! I was a lap down as I pitted and 2 laps down as I re-entered after repairs and fresh tyres.

Got one lap back due to a lucky dog when another caution came out, but with 1 minute left to race someone up above decided they would warp me, and so I barely managed to drive the car around for what ended up being a 1 lap dash to the finish for the leaders. P10 in the end - hey, it's a top 10! And I led!! And I had fun!!! What more can I ask - LOL.

Debuted the new livery here today, pity I gave the panel beaters a bit of work. Good job I'm the team boss and get away with these things. See you all at the next one.

EDIT - Oh, and congratulations to "The Michael" Lilley who, with 1 race left, appears to be unreachable in the Drivers Championship.

Thanks Gregg!

I took the time this morning to try a few different things in practice. I worked like hell to get the car set up to where I'd be able to go flat through turns 1 and 2. Even though I was able to figure out how to do it,no matter what, I couldnt break the 29s. Until I moved weight to the rear and then changed my driving from keeping the throttle down in T1 and T2, to lifting for a split second entering T1 and then bury the throttle again. Next thing I know, 28s were easy. But, I believe working on Turns 1 and 2 is really what helped me today, as I was able to close in on any car that was in front of me in that section, since I was able to keep the throttle pegged in turns 1-2. Of course, Mike and David got tangled up early and really werent a concern, otherwise I doubt I would have done any better than 3rd.

Lost connection other then that with Michael and David with damage it left the door open for a possible win but not today. Congrats Bob

Not a very good weekend for me. Got a 5 day weekend. had 2 days off then my birthday and then the weekend, It seems everything fell into place to give me that 5 day weekend. I was hoping I'd have luck racing, I decided to compete in atleast 1 race everyday and 2 on some days. None of the races ended very well, I was happy with my top 20 finish on friday, but overall, a very bad birthday weekend for me. None of my races really worked out right for me. I was a bit upset with my horrible performance during this week that in this race i pushed too hard to get up in position, I avoided the wreck on the first lap and got excited and thought i had a good chance if other drivers were also struggling with the track. So i started pushing harder and ended up spinning twice by myself. Overall i learned a few lessons, but it was entirely my fault for getting erritated at my bad performance and in the end making my performance worse. Hopefully Thursday's race will go a little smoother. sorry guys for the poor sportsmanship on my part, I should have took a deep breath and relaxed a little, but its in the past now, only thing to do is move on. Congrats on winning Bob. And good job on the top 10 finish Andy, looks like all the bad luck you have been having is turning around for you.

Signed up for this event intending it to be a "throw-away" while I work on fixing my connection issues. With no expectation of finishing because of this, I hadn't practiced much. Got a reasonable setup together that was looking like a mid-packer.

Unfortunately, Michael and David had an accident on lap 1 and despite slamming on and taking evasive action I slammed into the back of Michael. Lost my top end speed, the car was handling fine but I had nothing on the straights. During the stops I was adding a click or two of tape at a time trying to eek out more speed.

I was generally hovering around the top 5 all race, leading as well at one point. I couldn't get a strategy together though and wound up out of sequence. Toward the end I had the pace to challenge at the front but didn't get the break.

I had a couple of incidents. First was when me Charles and Andy went 3 wide into T3. I had the low line and was trying to hug the apron. Sod's law came into play and I ran up and pinched the two of them slightly.

On the final lap I had a similar accident with Charles again, got the inside going into the tri-oval and we basically tried to take the same piece of tarmac at the same time. Charles span out and I just barely saved it. Sorry for your spin dude, we were racing hard... always a shame for that to happen.

Looking at the lap times it looked like it was a wreck fest. I hope R2P officials have plans to clean it up for next season.

Apparently a few people had self-spins. There was an awful lot of cautions and it got quite frustrating after a short while.

I like when everyone gets frustrated. I dont, and it helps me in the long run. Of course, I wasnt one of the cars that got collected either, so I wasnt pissed off at all.