nGTX Estoril

well...
Gotta say I could have done well. Had a fast setup tonight, and was practicing on a 3/4 fuel load. Did not realize that once I got down to 14 gallons my rear end would get totally loose. It happened on both stints. Guess I should have had a bit more wing. Had contact with a couple of guys when passing. People kept it tight tonight. Hope nobody wrecked from those incidents. Tried to make the best of what racing room there was. It was a fun ad challenging race.

I could have qualified in the top 5 for sure if I hadn't decided to go with a lighter load and softs for three laps before i decided that wouldn't work out for me. My best times were on mediums with the 3/4 load. Fastest time was in the mid 140's.

Once I made the change and got back on it was traffic, traffic, traffic. One of the slower guys would not let me by, and I had no time to stop and wait since time was running short. That proved itself when I was on my hot lap, finally, and the session ended. Don't know if better quali time would have yielded a top 5, but I know it would have been better than it was, not even a top 10 tonight.

Still trying to improve my setups. Learning a lot, but can't quite tweak it perfectly yet. I'm getting fast, but tires go a bit quicker than in the past because of my driving style...if you want to call it that.lol.
Congrats to the podiums.

Apologies to the driver of the red Ferrari that I tagged in pitlane. When I hit my Pit In Request button on my G15 keyboard, my computer switched back to the desktop, although I was still in the game and connected. I was driving or rather careening along blindly for awhile. Finally made it to my pit stall, then the ignition button wouldn't work and I couldn't refuel, race over.

10th was a gift for me tonight. I've never been top-ten competitive here, and qualified true to form in 12th. Got through T1 and T2 fine, then was elbowed off a little rudely in T3. Had a mostly uneventful first stint after that, picked up some spots as people spun, and was in 12th I think when the pit cycle started. I stayed out a little long, was worried about the fuel estimates. Pit stop was neverending at 61 seconds. Came back out behind Gregg and glued myself to his bumper for almost the entire 2nd stint. Man, if racing was that much fun all the time I'd never do anything else (wait... do I ever do anything else?) We were very evenly matched, a little give and take over various parts of the track. I waited for a big enough mistake to give me the edge but it didn't come. Finally I got a good run on the short straight and decided I had to go for it. It's very tough to outbrake and stick an inside pass there- I locked up a little and definitely took more room than I deserved, but Gregg had a careful eye on me and we got through without touching. Now Gregg was glued to my bumper :) A couple of laps later it was coming down to the wire and Gregg put the exact same maneuver on me- I was also keeping a careful eye on him and tried to give room, but he locked up a little more than I had and we touched, putting me in the sand. Thanks for waiting up, Gregg, my only regret is we didn't get to continue that fight to the checker. Picked up one last spot on the last lap to somebody out of fuel maybe? Top 10 was definitely a steal, and I'll take it ;) Congrats podium! Looks like the top 5 was particularly tough tonight.

What a great track...excellent race everyone!

Qualified fairly well considering the lads who were here tonight.
I made my way down into turn one picking a line I felt I could work with if trouble would arise, it got tight right at the apex with 3 cars vying for the same spot I managed to slide my way through and move up into 8th right behind Ryan L. I got passed Ryan a few corners up the road, starting to pick up the pace a bit, I knew my selection of tyre compound (medium fronts and hard rears) was going to need at least 3 good laps before I got the temps up. Sure enough (apology time) going into Curva 2 I start to pitch the nose and the rears are not yet there to grip...sideways I go... Now the apologies, sorry Ryan and especially Garret, you and I both took on some severe damage.
Well I let everyone pass I could see and dropped to the rear. After that it turned into a great race between Mike Kolar, Ralph and myself.

Damn for being in the 11th & 12th positions it certainly felt like we were racing for first place...good race MIke, sorry for the last shot at passing you, I forgot I adjusted my brake bias on the fly and had a little to much in the front which caused the lock up trying to turn in, well no positions lost and a clean finish.
Cheers to the Podium!! hooray!

Ralph, that was my rear end you rammed. Just sitting there in the pits having some Gatorade and the next thing you know, whammo! I felt so violated. ;-) NP, sh..tuff happens.

In fact it already had, continuing my unbroken string of pit nightmares. Didn't really know what to do for pit strategy, so I rolled the dice and tried fuel only and kept the same med/hards for the whole race. No idea if that was a valid plan or not, but I stupidly didn't fill the tank fully for the first stint, which made no sense at all if I wasn't changing tires. All that got me was a longer fill than needed, which occured to me while waiting for fuel - DUH! And for some reason, when I came in and chose no tires on my pit board and hit enter, my pit crew just stood there for about 10 seconds doing nothing before fueling me, and then when they were done, they just stood there again for a similar time with the guy standing in front of my car. Finally they said "go" and for some reason I couldn't get a gear - nothing was happening; clutch in and me wailing on the paddles but nothing was happening. (That was when you came in and nailed me Ralph.) Finally the mystery pit demons let me go and I got got a gear and peeled out of there with only minor rear end damage. Loonnng stop though, especially considering it was fuel only which blew the whole idea of doing that to begin with.

Had been in third going in after trying to hang onto Rick K. and Barry H. early and slipping into a steady 5th/4th for most of the 1st stint. Came out in 10th and started making up ground, although the tires were pretty much gone by then or else the damage to the rear was mucking up the downforce. Draft-passed Dean S. into T1 a couple of times trying to get back into the top five but didn't have enough grip to stick it under braking and lost the spot both times. Was hanging on for dear life with nil for grip late hoping to get another shot at Dean when I screwed up in the twisty bits before the S/F straight and Barry K got by. Ryan L. was about to also when he got a bit of a surprise. My no longer shiny 3.6L V8 went kerblammo and turned into a fireball in his face.

Man, that was a lot of work for it to end up like that, but as crappy as the car was by then I was kind of happy I didn't have to drive it anymore! Takeaway from the event; I still am doomed if I have to pit - that's a given. But at least I didn't run into anyone tonight!

1st of all , my apologies to Gamlet B for punting you after your pitstop when you came between Kent and me.

I came in too hot into T3 and run out of space , i went for inside hoping you would have to brake early with your cold tires and that i could slip by easily , but it didn't quite worked like i was hoping and i run into you. Very sorry about that , my fault completely :|. Glad to see you didn't spin there or loose very much time.

Well... Race it self went allmost perfect. Had a very good car and i was pleased of the laptimes. Didn't have any other problems in track than the above mentioned small incident with Gamlet B and my car felt like nothing could go wrong.

Kent had a great start and he went into the lead on T1 , i could keep up with him , but just barely and when he came into pits , the gap was only couple of seconds.

I had planned a fuel only strategy and my tires were working pretty well when i came in on lap 24 , car came to a halt and i did a quick look at the pitboard... AND I HIT THE DAMNED ENTER KEY WITHOUT CHANGING THE TIREMENUS TO 'NO CHANGE' ... !!! I mean... there are many ways to loose a race and i've tried most of them , but this one hurts LOL .

Couldn't believe what i had done and i was just looking at my finger in disbelieve... i didn't just push the enter , didn't i... it wasn't me... heeeeelp :P

Well... just got the car running when Kent stormed by in mainstraight and joined back to track 9 secs behind him.

Rest of the race every lap i did was in 1:39's , but it wasn't enough and Kent took the win by 1 or 2 secs margin. Didn't have anything more to give and i feel like it was one of the best stints i've done in ages , but it was too late to fix the damage done in pits.

Well done mate , good pace there in early parts and steady 2nd stint. Thought i had it covered when you pitted halfway, but then i blew it in pits...thou it's hard to say how it would have ended , but i felt i had a good shot for the win :).

Another good race in nGTX series dispite the brainfarts i had , but this series is one of my favorites in R2P :).

Cya in next one and thanks to all who joined in ;).

-----
Samuel

Man that sucked.For some dumb reason i miscalculated the fuel.Put in fuel for 27 min for starting and pitstop fuel,goodness knows why.I found out in the 1st stint that i wouldn't have enough on the 2nd stint,but when i pitted i just could not find how to add fuel,so went without.
bazza

I signed up for this race a while back knowing anotherleague I was in would be done. Well I forgot about it and at 6:25 my time my wife says, what do you want for dinner and I looked at the clock, that's when I remembered LOL.

Joined the race room with 1 minute left in P2 and saw I didn't have any set for the RSR. So I toggled out and got one from Claus, when I toggled back the game crashed. So I rejoin and qual has started. I have NO laps in and a setup I have never tried. I lowered fuel and got in 2 laps with the second one good enough for 3rd.

In warm up I did a couple test starts and found it was easy to stall the car, so I changed first gear down a click and now it was easy to spin the tires but I left it changed.

Lights changed I floored it and noticed Barry was still sitting there. By the time I grabbed second he was just starting to roll and I got by easily on the inside. I could hear Krueger on my left but couldn't see him so I figured I must have the lead. About that time I realise I am way past by brake marker and I stomp the brakes and the rear starts coming around on me. GREAT I am going to spinout right in front of the field. Somehow I managed to hold it together and came out of T1 clean and ahead.

So I am real nervous now, Krueger is brutal on cold tires and I procede to overdrive the entire first lap but somehow maintain about a second gap. For the next 14 laps I am driving like every lap is qualifying and Krueger is right with me. The only time it got to 3 second gap was when he had a little issue with a lapped car.

My strategy was, start heavy, pit early taking 4 tires and enough fuel to finish and hope the others stay on track. With the lap times going off at Estoril the way they do I figure I can gain enough to cover for someone that doesn't take tires. At the least I will be close enough that my fresher tires should make it likely to catch them.

So I am sweating it out for many laps since there are 2 guys ahead that waited until lap 24 to pit. I have been gaining almost 2 seconds a lap and the gap to 2nd is down to 14 seconds when he pits. As I go by I see Krueger is pitting too. After Krueger rejoins I have 9 seconds lead but it isn't over yet.

Krueger proceded to take almost a second a lap out of my lead and my car is getting pretty bad. Luckily when I start the last lap I had over 2 seconds and crossed the line with only 1 second lead. WHEW

Great racing Krueger and I am not sure I am sad that you meesed up your stop :P

Again I only just made it in under the wire. These Sunday nights are tough! Not 1 practice lap AGAIN! Gotta stop doing this. hehe.

Had another horrible qually too. Actually got taken out by someone re-entering the track in front of me. But who cares. hehe. I was still in the race! :)

Silver-lining: It turned out to be quite fun back there. Grabbed a few spots before turn 1 and then had some great racing fighting in the ranks. At one point, Gregg spun, Ryan tagged him, John dodged, and Garrett finished him off, all in a flash right before my eyes! Wicked.

Got into a great battle pressuring John for countless laps, but could not get by. Awesome driving dude, I was trying every angle on every corner, but he wasn't budging. Unfortunetly, he went around after contact in the chicane, and I must apologize as this was all my fault. I'm sorry man, no-way I wanted it that way.

Managed to climb up to 2nd before I needed fuel, and with no new rubber, it went fast. Came back out to settle in to 6th after the cycles had run their course. Steve started hounding me shortly after that and I found myself in another good battle. He tried a few times to outbrake me into 1 as his car had much more straight speed than mine, but I had much more grip than he apperently. :) Twice I re-took as he went wide(way cool!), and the last time he slid off and didn't catch back up. But I still felt some great pressure non-the-less.

Had a lot of good battles in this one, and it was very competitive out there tonight. Just wish I hadn't bumped John. Sry again! Felt bad about that all night!
Grats to the podiums. Cya out there.

Qualy was tough and I ran into a lot of traffic and eeking out a 10th. I had a good race setup so I was looking forward to the race. All was going well until I exited the blind T2 and saw smoke! Next thing I knew, I was T-Boning Gregg in the passenger side! That incident effectively ended my race. I had front end damage and a flat left front. I managed to crawl to the pits where I spent about 3 minutes! The crew kept saying there was a "severe mechanical failure!" and "hurry up, we're loosing positions!" I sat there so long I thought the game had frozen. Tooled around in dead last for most of the race just slightly ahead of the Race Admins in the pits! I wound up 15th and had no battles tonight.