TAG 2.4 Hours of Daytona

Grats Tristan and Eduardo.

Start of the race was interesting with Kieron following closely, but all of a sudden he disappeared.
In the rest of my first stint I could keep the gap to Eduardo equal or slightly bigger. He gained some time with the pitstop but before the enxt stop the gap was 10 seconds.

Looked like we both opted for no tyrechange in the 2nd stop, and in theory, I should make it without changing.

With a few laps to go a Fabcar lapped me in the chicane which cost me a lot of momentum, and Eduardo got a run at T1, and he made it stick. I then slowed down to save my tyres, but sod's f*****g law arrived. At T1, just after the pitlane, and in the last bloody lap I got a puncture :@. It was my rear, which made it worst, as there was hardly any acceleration nor steering.
Was crawling to the finish line and used the wall at the oval to prevent me from spinning (in anybodies way). But at the chicane I spun and I hope I didn't scare anybody there.

Lost 2 places in the last part of the oval.

Disappointment is what remains after this race, I led for more than 70 laps, and in the last few laps it all went south, as it just had to go wrong.

Really frustrating race for me overall. For some reason when I went to the 6 hour engine tune I lost about .5 seconds a lap and I just couldn't keep up with almost anybody. Started 7th and was immediately able to pass 6th in the Volvo. Then it was just following the front 5 until the FAB's started passing and I accidentally bounced off the side of one going into the last corner of the infield section. After looking at the replay it was totally my fault. Spun as a result and lost quite a few spots.

The next hour and a half or so I got into some pretty good battles with people while trying to work up the field. Gained a few spots from attrition too.

I didn't take tires for the last stop and that put me in third ahead of a quickly gaining Joao Petry. He gained on me going on the second to last lap and made a pass into the bus stop. I somehow managed to catch his draft going into turn one and threw it in there and somehow it stuck enough for me to pass him.

Coming out of the infield on the last lap he gained my draft and was ahead of me going into the bus stop, but I braked a bit later putting my nose at his side. We touched a bit going into it and but he made the pass only to go wide into the grass exiting giving me enough of a run to get ahead of him. I thought he was going to be able to draft pass me but I managed to stay ahead.

Great final few laps.

Sorry about the heart break Jeffrey :(

Glad this race is over :)

-Matt

Gutted, there's no other word. Love the track, love the mod and love the event. Put a shit load of practice in and really got my set dialed in, all for what? getting discoed on lap 17 while in 2nd.

Race started off well as I was able to stay with Jeff and we got a little gap to 3rd. After a couple of laps though Ed started to get in the groove and started to close up. I was able to stay with Jeff but I lost a bit of ground to him once the Fabcars came round to lap us which allowed Jeff to pull a couple of seconds on me.

But then lap 17 came and at the horse shoe everyone vanished and then I noticed my modem signal light flashing, game over. Funny thing is my ISP rang me saying they have up graded my package to a better one. Funny that I've not been discoed since September, then I get 2 in 2 days (got one in practice yesterday). Not a happy bunny.

Would have been interesting to see how the race would have gone. With Jeff and Ed maybe double stinting the tyres as I was planning to change them at both stops.

Grats to Tris, Ryan and Dennis. And Ed Matt and Joao. Unlucky Jeff, that was a tough break.

Cya at next years :).

How long before R2P-TV archive is updated?

Started 18th although I though I was 17th, doesn't really matter. I had watched the replays of the qualy sessions and decided to go with the middle gearing instead of the high gearing I qualified with.

This was a dumb mistake on my part as my race times were much slower than they shold have been. A result this was an excercise in racing clean and being overtaken cleanly.

In the end attrition was my friend and I finished 11th with only a couple of small mistakes and I did not get punted once.

Congrats to the podiums!

Grats to Tristan and the Fabcar Podium
Grats to Eduardo and the NAGT Podium.

Race started out great, worked w/ my teammate Garret to move up to 6th place, near the halfway point of the first stint I caught traffic at the wrong time and lost my drafting partner, this became critical as this was the undoing of a top 6 finish.

After a few more laps I was now engaged in an awesome battle w/ Nick, we traded positions 8-times in 7-laps, this had to be the most memorable point of the race, really great sportsmanship being displayed, giving each other room to race, thanks Nick for making it a blast, then came the first round of pit stops at lap 21. In all theory I was good to go on fuel, pushed hard, kept 6th position for 2H - 18M while driving all alone, nobody to draft with, which destroyed my fuel economy, 2-laps from the end I needed a splash-n-go as I was just wrenched after a hard long race.

Awesome job NAGT's, you guys made passing a breeze.

Well I got a great result from this one but not happy with the performance I gave. I wouldn't have been able to challenge Tristan for lead but I should have had a bit more pace today. I knew it would be close if we did 84 or 85 laps and did my 22 lap stint which takes alot! of short shifting during my third stint and I should have done that on the first stint like Dennis Morissette. I didn't have any spins or damage but just didn't have the pace today mostly because I dread practicing Daytona (so boring by yourself). Then had some bad luck too as all three stops my crew wouldn't start working on car, I had to pull forward, reversing, whatever to get them to start and lost between 5-10secs each pit, really frustrating but good they did finally do it as I thought on the first pit that was my race ender.

Congrats to Tristan and Eduardo, both podiums! Sorry to see Kieron&Paul go and Jeffreys luck today.

Congratulations to all finishers !

Congrats T & E!

Thank you R2P/NASASIMRACING for yet another excellent special event! I've fallen in love with this track I have to say. At first I thought it was boring as hell but it's really all about rhythm and consistency.

My race started quite well, all week I was struggling for fuel mileage and for some reason it was a real battle to do even 21 laps. Something the others appeared to have no problem with. As it happened, I was mainting the gap behind and Ryan in sight up ahead. Until I hit the NAGT traffic. I guess I was being a little too cautious and lost out a lot.

My second stint is where it went balls-up. I decided that it would make sense to limit the damage of NAGT by using this stint to try and do 22 laps. Big mistake. Lost out to Garret and Dennis big time. I then had an unfortunate incident with Barrett when his car disappeared and then reappeared directly in front of me. Took a drive-through.

Third and fourth stints my chin dropped a bit. I've had a head cold since Friday morning and my head was banging for the last hour or so which made for a pretty miserable end to the race. Didn't dull the over-all experience though and I am pleased to finish.

Had some fun battles with each of the CanAm boys! Dominant drive from Tristan, superb work mate and well done to Edurado and the podium finishers in both classes!

Anyway, gotta go catch a flight to california for the CART finale and then back to Daytona again to prep for the 500 qualifying ;)