2-hours of Bahrain

First the track sends me spinning into the wall for a reason I can't determine (loss of ground effects? Downforce? I can't figure it out). That sends me way back in the field as I have to limp around for a full lap without a rear wing.

I get everything repaired, then come back onto the track. A few laps later, I get a drive-thru penalty for not following the blue flag warning, which infuriated me because I was pulling away from the blue flagger behind me.

I get so mad I start hammering the desk with my fist, which spills the soda next to me. I start impatiently hollering for a towel, so my fiance comes in and starts cleaning it up, but then lifts the corner of my flat screen up so all of a sudden I'm racing on a 45 degree banked oval. That sends me into the sand again (but I bite my tongue).

I'm so discombobulated and angry by that point that poor Allen Cotten gets a full broadside of my car as I go to make a foolish pass. Glad he didn't get spinning.

I gun the engine in absolute frustration, resist the urge to smash my wheel into shit, then sit on the side of the track for 2 minutes trying to cool off.

My mind kept coming back to the blue flag penalty, though. I couldn't cool off, so I just escaped.

I approached this race tentatively, on the basis I had not had much practice, as we had been away for the weekend as the race day was my wedding anniversary!

Happy just to settle into a rhythm with one eye on those around me challenging for the title.

No shows from Dmitry and Aubrey helped, and so Larry, Juan and Omar were the ones to watch out for.

Considering the lack of practice looked on for a potential race win towards the end, waiting for Scott to make a mistake from 14 seconds behind, with Grecian keeping me honest and closing.

Then had a blown tyre which span me into the wall, bent the backend and knackered my left rear brakes.

Tried to hold on to 4th with Omar closing me down but eventually the lack of brakes got the better of me and slammed into the wall head first busting the engine.

Big apologies to Goran who must have wondered what on earth I was doing as I kept sliding off, sorry bud I was doing all I could.

Omar should now have a big lead I reckon with one to go.

Could not believe how dark it got though, really was pitch black at the back of the course!

Cheers
Nick

HaHaHaHa good one Tim. 2/3rds of the race in pitch black?
That was painful.

And not to brag, but for my own Driver's Page record keeping, this was my first hat-trick: pole, win, and fastest lap.

Congrats to Richard for the Howston win, Chris for the ZR 3rd and putting the championship out of reach, and Scott for what should have been a win, but a 2nd none the less.

Start was an abortion, no warm up lap as the lights said go go go. 1 of the protons span just after the 1st chicane and I ended up going up the arse of another proton as he braked trying to avoid the spinner Apologies to whoever that was that I hit, couldnt stop my tank that quick). Car was damaged and waited for field to pass before carrying on. Was losing a second a lap to Richard and couldnt do a thing about it until pit window. Onec car was repaired I was able to hold Richards pace but couldnt nick any time back. THEN.... some fugger turned the lights out, I couldnt see a thing going into most of the turns and had no chance of spotting most of my brake markers. Lap times dropped from 2:11s to 2:18s. Richard was having the same probs I think and I must have gotten used to driving blind quicker than him as I started to reel him back. Fortunately Richard had a good buffer and I just couldnt get him. Well done Richard and other class winners.

Good News: First race in over a month (new card). Had a blast for 1hr,58minutish approx. First time racing at night. I thought by checquered flag it be dusk...I was wrong. Great job by all cars. Super fun. I had a good battle with Juan in the very beginning-- he spun and I t-boned him, car was shot after that. Had a lot of fun though.

Bad News: I am the world's biggest idiot driver: about two minutes from the end of the race, with 3rd place all set and something like a two lap lead to Omar, 16sec behind Scott, I....put 1st gear in by mistake- engine kabamo, boom. Finished.

Congrats to Grecian Worship nice win.First off I didn"t know it was going be a night race and didn"t have a button programmed for my headlights, but luckily the headlights eventually did come on by themselfs right before it was pitch black.But still I found it extremely difficult driving in the dark,couldn"t really hit my marks at all and then about 10 minutes or so from the end I had brake failure, even though I had my brake ducts set at 4, so that was unexpected.Then I went in the pits which took 37 seconds so I thought maybe it might get repaired, but no such luck.Continued to spin quite abit the last 10 minutes because I couldn"t slow the car down at all without any brakes.Big Congrats to Richard on his win too.

Scott

My 1st Proton race, no setup, no practice, just a eill to enjoy myself and a pesky girlfried kissing me on the cheek all the time during quali :))

Was disapointed when in chat I asked if anyone had a setup I could try but I was ignored which felt pretty shit..didnt think ppl are that selfish.

Anywho had a great race, so much fun. As it got dark I was smiling big time as I love driving in difficlut circumstances. Never did a rFactor night race before and neither have I done a pitstop lol

Just before my final stop I was cruising and up came Scott so instead of fighting him I decieded to let him by and stay close so I could use his lights for better vision :))

Good battle with most Protons and clean sensible driving by the other class racers. Grats to Scott thou, he deserves the win more than myself.

I am sorry for the mess I have made at formation lap. That was incredibly stupid from my side and this will be my nightmare for the next few months.
I have lost my position at the start of formation lap and after the first chicane I have found myself to keep losing positions. This baffled me enough to lose also orientation at the track. I caught slippery side of the road with my wheels and spung right into the traffic. I am not sure if it was stupid to try to stay still to let others bypass me but what was really stupid - to change my mind after series of hits showing that staying still doesn't work. Trying to move my ass from the road I collected one more victim. Sorry...
You may laugh though. All of that was so rediculous that should look funny.

I think all of that could be avoided by adding a pair of phrases to the breefing before the race. One of them - to remind the leader not to hurry at manual formation lap. The other - to remind others not to pass each other during formation lap.
I am not trying to excuse myself with this. I am very ashamed to appear one of the reasons for need in rules. But unfortunatelly I am not the only reason why they are needed.

Grecian, I really missed your request for setup: whenever someone asks I always volunteer one of mine. They are not necessarily good, but I would have been glad to help. Sorry I missed that. I must have been on track or having coffee.

What a race!.... This should have not been a "Standing Start" race, I start slow obviusly because I was under the impression of a formation/manual lap start and all of the sudden everyone is racing... My teammate spuns and I am not able to avoid the contact, I did brake, but it wasn't enough...I was already upset because of the start, then I leap around, spinning in pretty much every corner, because I was rearended and it cause me to loose my wing, finally I made it to pits, fix the car and started to chase cars to at least make a Top 10 finish...Some of my best laps were in the dark :O (that's how much pressure I had on myself)... Then, I was about 17 seconds behind J. Izurieta, but I didn't have enough fuel to finish the race, so I called my "Crew Chief" and told him that only needed a "Splash & Go" requested fuel for 4 laps and we had a problem with the hose and filled for 10 laps...:).... Luckily for me, Jorge also pitted and I kept 4th. position...2 laps to go and all of the sudden I see myself in 3rd. place...Before the end, Grecian was catching me, but didn't make a clean pass on me and punt me off track... I assume, probably was not enough lights to see the braking zone, plus we had 2 slow cars ahead of us...mmm.. I had fun, by charging all the way from the back to 3rd. place...

I didn't see G. Worship's request for a setup, because I step of my cockpit to record CCWS in Houston..Sorry m8...I don't have issue giving setups up, but I didn't see your request...Anyways, You didn't need it... Congratulations on the win for all classes...

OG