nGTX Hockenheim

Wow, a fun one! Great racing with Sam and Rick early, then the car that froze on track threw me off and I lost a few seconds, but was still running comparable laps. When I saw Sam pit at half way I assumed he was getting tires. I went 5-6 more laps then pitted. I had planned on not changing tires but chickened out at the last second figuring Sam was smarter than me and I better do what he did. When I saw him go by as they were just jacking my car up I knew I had made a mistake :(

After everything sorted itself out with pit stops I ended up around 6 seconds behid Rick. Since he had put on new tires too I couldn't make up any significant time on him. I always end up staring at the pit board too long and losing time in pit lane.

Oh well, it was still a great race, but it would have been fun if I was a little closer.

****A special thanks to the guys who were fighting for 9-11 (I know Dennis was one of them, but sorry I can't recall the other names atm) in the closing laps for letting me by unimpeded...very much appreciated since you guys obviously had a good fight for position going there.

Congrats again to Samuel for the win and Rick and David for the podium.

First a major "sorry" to Wade Rodacker for the tap in T3 on lap 1 (i think). I was trying to leave plenty of room because your car was kind of jumping back and forth, but even though it looked like you were well clear, some kind of invisible forcefield apparently extended an extra two or three feet in front of my car and got you. Thought of pulling up and waiting for you to regain the position but there was a crowd behind me (see the blog re: race ettiquette, that i've been following closely).

Also a "sorry" to Ryan Larscheid who i inadvertently dive bombed in T2 as a result of being a bit too dim-witted and not seeing my brake point approaching. Still trying to get the timing right in close trafic so as to not fall back, but i screwed up. Compounded that error all the way to the double right by being way off pace, thinking you were running even on my left and going to reappear to take the position back.

And also a "sorry" (is the inventory running low yet?) to Rick Knapp for holding him up couple times, while i was uncertain if we were fighting for position or not (not a lot of places to safely do a look behind here).

other than that it was an OK race until i overfilled at the pit stop. i was able able to run a lot longer than i'd planned, and i mistakenly thought it better to just hit enter than to try to recalculate the fuel needed. still had 25L in tank at the end. wonder how much time that took to add.

so it was a learning experience for the most part. just happy to be here after my troubles entering the server this morning.

P.S. -- i really don't like this track.

Something came up and I couldn't get in the race. Hope fun and good racing was had by all. Congrats to the winners.

Quite an action-filled race for me. It seemed like almost every single lap I was in a battle with someone for position. Started off cleanly and maintained my position in a long line of cars. Had some door-banging with a few guys during one of the early laps that gained me a few spots. Held my ground for awhile, but made a few small mistakes and fell back a little. After pitting, I was in P9 with a decent gap over P10, but had a little spin that put me back into 11th. Tires were really slick the last 10 min of the race and I just tried to keep it on the asphalt. Overall, a very fun race with lots of excitement.

Barrett, I'm pretty sure it wasn't me you dive bombed in T2. I checked the replay and noticed I had some contact with a few cars over the course of the race, but I don't think you were one of them. Hopefully I didn't cause any major grief for anyone. It looked like just a few small "racing incidents" to me.

Good racing there again in the 1st half with David P and Rick K. After a bit modest qualifying i was in P3 , but start was very clean and didn't have any probs in T1. Tried to challenge David there early on and after couple of laps he went a bit wide , getting stucked onto curbing a bit so i could make an easy pass to the 2nd place.

Rick had build a 2-3 secs gap and no matter how hard i tried , i couldn't close the gap more than a second or so. David was hanging on my rearbumper and i couldn't shake him either ,so i decided to came into pits at halfway but didn't know for sure if i'll take new tires of not.

After quick examine of the pitboard , it was clear that the tires were still in good shape and the car balance would prolly be better again with more fuel. I had some problems just before pitting , but took only fuel and it was the right decision this time. Car felt ok again and after all the pitstops , i had about 18 seconds lead before it started to drop down.

Quick math said that i would be ok , but seeing the gap going down several seconds a lap sometimes is a bit nerv wrecking everytime :D ... Glad that i could keep it in track for the rest of the race and take a win , tires were sliding alot and few more laps could have changed the outcome :o.

Thanks for the good race Rick and David and congratulations for the podiums , 1st half was exciting stuff again 8) .

Thx to R2P and other drivers too , everything went smoothly and racing was good and clean... Cya soon again ;).

------
Samuel

Not too many quiet laps in this one. First half of the race Mark was glued to my bumper, good clean racing from him.After pitting worked my way up to 5th place, but with 10 to go Gregg & Garrett caught me 7 the last two laps were intense.I thought the race was over when time expired but had to due one more lap with 0.5 fuel left. Made my way around in 6th gear & coasted the last 100 feet to finish 6th.Good clean racing all the way around in this one.

Started 6th and got a good jump at the light. Tried to be mindful of cold tires but coming out of the double right-hander I spun the rears, and lost it into the wall. I slipped back to 12th at this point and just tried to be patient seeing 6th to 11th in a small train ahead. There was a bit of a dust up (cannot remember where) and I snuck through and into 8th trailing Garret and someone else ahead of him. I would pressure and fall back and noticed Garret starting to lock the brakes more and get a little squirrely at times. I finally slipped under him at the entrance to the double right and concentrated on hitting my lines to hold off the pending pressure. Then into the final right before the front straight Garret smacks me and sends me spinning - can't say I understand this one. Now I am back in 12th as traffic goes by and I have more damage and super heated tires. Within the next couple laps I come up on some traffic in a battle for position at the entrance to turn 2. I am not sure exactly what my fault is on this one - I go low on the inside and the other car (red Porsche) stutters and slows down a lot more than I anticipate. I spin him around and wait to see if he can get going quickly. Realizing I am blocking the turn I decide to go. If I am at fault - I apologize. I enter the pits and decide to take fronts only, and not repair damage. Well two laps later I am in 12th and Garret comes out of the pits just in front of me. Unfortunately it is apparent that my car is too damaged and rear tires too worn to mount any kind of challenge. My two tire strategy helped me move up to 8th where I stayed and drove almost completely by myself for the remainder of the race. On to Valencia...

Kind of a dissapointing race for myself, had a good setup and one of my best starts ever,passed about 4 cars before turn 1...Barret, no problem at all, i had to let off slightly beacause the guy in front of me bobbled on the corner.....I got going again and was going to run 28's easily but 2 laps after there was so much lag on my end i just couldn't drive anymore so i parked it........

@Ryan: No, it was you. Late in the race when Dennis and i got by. My description was perhaps a bit misleading. There was no contact, and i managed to hold the apex by locking up while you were going a bit wide on your failing tires, but it definitely wasn't a move i planned. Just a reaction to having misread the situation.

Watching the replay, It doesn't look that bad and i'm probably being too hard on myself. Turns out it was Rick that i could hear but not see on the next bit of road. Driving blind, i just tried to leave enough room for whoever it was.

Had Dennis all over me for several laps as i slowly closed on you and i was planning to try the pass at the end of the next stretch.

Dennis got by later when i lost some momentum letting Rick by (finally) and left the door wide open. Should have held the inside line and taken the passing lane away from you Dennis.

It was a very fun race. Thanks, guys.

Non-stop action for me this one...only time I had to rest was during my pit stop...which this time went as planned, even took on the right amount of fuel!!!
Very happy with my quali-4th this gave me a chance to actually chase and watch Krueger and the boys, hung in for a few laps but then said "Not this race" and began to drive my own race. Only to find Dean S realing me in, Dean we were driving hard, great close racing by the way, I was very confident and comfortable driving in front and behind you, thanks for the excitement. I just couldn't keep that pace up, found my brakes were over heating (700+ deg) which kept forcing bad corner exits and didn't want to risk off track excursion so early on.
Then I was in an excellent battle for 6 - 9th with Dennis, John Mueller and Garret, that was some awesome driving guys, the stuff that makes GTR2 & R2P well worth the time invested!! I couldn't believe it, I was pushing hard with plenty of fuel the last 10 laps trying to get back into 8th, when Garret comes from nowhere and forced me to drive even harder, he would close the gap on me in Sector 2 but I had an advantage in Sect 1 (I think) beacause of that we are now on John M's tail with only 6 - 7 laps to go! Garret makes the pass on me, I stay right behind him to see Mueller right there, here we go 3 of us bumper to bumper, side by side, in the turns, down into the braking zones, nobody giving up an inch! John I think you got loose and garret and I make the pass, we pull out a small lead on the last lap, I see the checkered flag come into the left corner of the screen and Garret pulls over, mmmmm I say I slow down thinking it's over then notice I gain a position when I passed him....yeah, sorry you ran out of fuel Garret it would have been a great finish.
great driving by all, even the slower traffic yielded when possible.
Congrats to those fast guys on the podium and to Dean for pushing me hard for 8 -10 laps!!!