Estoril 400k

Well, I qualified 6th in class, mades a ton of mistakes early. I had just pitted and about 2 laps after my pits stop I got the 1 FPS bug, and crashed out! Dammit, nothing I could do. Well, good thing i didn't spend too much time getting ready for this one.

Sorry for the early exit guys - painkiller induced stupour again. Judy says she can't tell the difference.........

Well, that was...erm...interesting. I was in 7th spot some 18 minutes left and got disco.

Not a bad result for me at this track. Nothing spectacular, just a decent drive that would have netted me a podium but I goofed it late in the race giving Tommy my podium spot (POINTS LEAD TOMMY!!!).

The 1-stop strategy decision wasnt made until about lap 20 of the race. Tires were showing good wear so I decided to go for it. Very tough with 40 laps on the tires, but it was surely a challenge that made some excitment through-out the race.

Samuel... I think I gave you a tap on the rear bumper around mid way through the race... Sorry man, I saw enough room between us but I think the game disagreed.

Grats Enis on the first S3 win, and Wilfred for yet another great run.

Woohoo. Pole, fastest lap, and a win. It was great. That was AWESOME!

It was uneventful race for me. I opened gap of about 45 s till first pitstops (I guess you guys were making a lot of mistakes) and that was it. Last 20 laps I was behind Scott and I was wondering why aren't you letting me by, but then I saw you wer chasing Joe, and I backed off.

Congrats Wilfred.

After a too long hiatus, the sponsors offered me a chance to get back in the car with the conditions that I bring the car to the finish line. I suceeded. Yay for me! I gotta say I had a blast running in the back with Tom and Joe. Halfway through the race I got tunnel vision and was simply trying to pace Joe with that BIG ASS'ed Lambo. Heh. Felt good to be back on the track.

My apologies to Adriano. While Tim and I were fighting for position and you were between us, I suffered a major brain fade, missed my braking point, and just plowed into you. :( Sorry about that. Certainly wasn't intentional.

Qualed with a personal best of 1:40.2. I was pleased, but just couldn't put together the whole lap. I'm sure I could've done better, but I just didn't put enough time into building a qual setup, so I'm not disappointed.

Started the race on MED/MED tires since the track temps were over 100F. I was running quite well, but had a brain fade that resulted in an off-course. From there on, I had rear tire overheating problems. Strange, because with the harder fronts it usually reduces rear tire temps.

So when I pitted (a few laps early 'cause the car was damn near undriveable), I wasn't sure what tires to put on. The temps had fallen. So MED rears would *have* to work. But what to run up front? MED fronts won't get up to temp. Soft fronts may loosen the car up too much and cause more rear tire wear.

I opted for the SOFT/MED setup since that what's worked so well for me in practice. It worked great! By the end of the 2nd stint, I'd caught up to Tim. However, Tim was on a one stop strategy and I had one more stop to make. Ah well, time to pit....

Came out of the pits without losing a position, but Tim was 1:13 in front of me...or thereabouts. I kept plugging away and was picking off 0.5-1.5 seconds per lap. There was still no way I'd catch him, but all of a sudden he had an off! I went from 28 seconds back to 5 in a matter of seconds! Now time to really push and reel him in.

The problem? Barry was in between us and runnning very quickly! I managed to just barely squeeze by Barry, but any little bobble and he was right there. Barry showed us some very sportsmanlike conduct. He was a lap down so instead of fighting us for position, he just hing out right behind us and watched the battle unfold. Thanks again, Barry!

So Tim and I were duking it out and with 3 minutes left he got sideways in the funky medium speed left hander in the middle of the track. It was just enough to let me get past! Tim struggled to keep up the pace (his tires were older, mind you), but looped it a lap or so later. On the last lap I told Barry to at least unlap himself from me in appreciation for all his patience. :)

Tim, great drive! I know you were struggling with that car, but you did a hell of a drive.

Tommy

Qually, Kinda s*cked .....I cant get the car right with low fuel....I better had taken my race setup and do qually with that. Ok 3rd was oke but my time was very very poor, as I was faster in P2 wit my Race setup! arghh.

Race:
Well race was hectic in the beginning. GT cars not really up to speed I recon ;-) Though I knew my race setup was good so I passed Ari on the straight and then tried to make CJ nervous and that kinda worked, but he spun and I got a big piece of his car.....oh no. Car was damaged and tyres were somehow very bad after that. Fought my way back a bit and had some good overtaking with Tim and some others. But I had no balance in the car whatsoever. and I alrdy got a tyre warning in lap 20!!

I pitted in lap 25 because I had a few close calls. After the pit the car was better, but not how it should have been. I could push and push hard and tyres kept pretty good. After Ari pitted in lap 45 or so, I knew he was on 1 stop. I really needed to keep the pace up and I did.

After my last stop i was 2nd in NGT, but I was gaining on Ari quickly with 30 min to go. Lost some time with lapping and getting lapped, but I still gained and with 20 min to go the gap was only 4 sec and I was more than 1 sec a lap quicker so I was preparing for a nice battle. Though at that time I had problems with a lapper, spun infront of me and I locked the brakes and hit his car :-S. Oh no I thought, this cant be happening.....guys please if you spin 3 times or so a lap, get new tyres please ;-).

Now I thought that I couldnt catch Ari anymore cause gap was 18 sec again and only 16 min to go, but I always try my hardest and I got 1sec alap back till it was 12 sec or so and then Ari made a mistake or he had probs with lappers, I dunno. Only 3 min to go we were fighting like doggs hehe, I had a good exit in last turn and got a good sliptstream, was last lap (I thought with 1 min to go) and I took the risk to overtake....It wasnt a good manouvre and I locked and got into the gravel, I was glad I didnt hit Ari, but he spun a corner after that. Hmmz I didnt know what to do....wait for him and let him pass again, or drive on through. I kinda felt responsible so sorry Ari, then I didnt have my head clear anymore and I went into the gravel again, but still no Ari and I decided to drive to the finsih.

Hmm I guess I won in NGT, but it was messy race and I dont really feel like I won or got over the finish in 1st.
Dunno what happend to CJ neither...saw him spun on the straight some time and then saw him left a few laps after that, too bad for my teamy.

Oke cya all next race....hopefully alittle less drama. Grats ENIS for your win mate! good job!

Whoa, the CRAZY!tm Croatian comes through with a win!! Grats friend!!!!!

Steve, you asked, I delivered. :P Although I predicted something else. :)

Suddenly points table looks interesting. ;)

This is very interesting season (winners wise, S2 was very interesting too), 5 races 5 different winners.