USA FT: Barcelona

Hey Tristan, it was an FT race, not an F3 race!!! Who let the F3 car in? :P

Yikes, I am at maximum corner speed at 99% grip, and he's a second a lap faster. What color is the sky on your planet?

Burgundy.

Sorry about that little encounter on the straightaway Tommy, I slowly was moving to the left and didn't really notice it, but looks like everything stayed the same as it would have even if that didn't happen :)

Hmm, I would have guessed something more ... evil :) It's hard to make burgundy evil. :P

NP Matt, good racing with you. Yes I was right along side you on your left, guess you found that out when you moved over.

Should have been a great race for a middle spot, but crashed halfway thru on turn 1.

Very disappointed,

But, it was fun sitting in the pits watching Mr Fay and Mr Di Pino fight it out!

got some really darn good drivers here just like in F3. congrats to the podium.

pleased to see that even tristan - great job as always - wasnt putting up 53s like AI do here. I was alarmed because of that going in to the race. the skill of the field was very obvious in that everyone got thru the first lap cleanly which doesnt always happen at this track with its turn 1.

had a great duel with bob, who i dont get to race much anymore, and he beat me straight up. i made one mistake and that's all uncle bob needed. he passed me on L9. good work, bob!

great series you fellas have here.

p.s. I havent seen them in awhile but the Tommys are pretty darn awesome. really raised your games guys.

I used to think that setting up an FT and a FBMW were the same, and that probably gimpped me. After not have been driving an FT all S5, and I have been driving the FBMW for S5, they do NOT setup the same. But, I also had forgotten how much fun these cars are to race wheel to wheel. I practiced more laps than everyone else and I still had trouble finding front grip. So I decided to dial in as much oversteer as I could handle and hoped for the best. Turned out to be OK, not fast, but OK. I was pretty surprised to make the top 10 in qual since I made a mistake, didn't want to screw up the guy behind me and esc'd with only 1 lap on the board. Turn 1 was awesome guys! Everyone just drove it in hard and deep and everyone mamaneged to come out of the first few turns undamaged. I got by Joe for 9th, but on the next lap I overshot T1 and Joe got back by. Pretty much I was just trying to keep sight of the front runners, but soon all I could see in front of me was Joe. And he was pulling away too, until I found out just how much better the car would turn if I kept my foot in the throttle and did less trail-braking. Soon, I was able to grab his tow on the front straight, and got right up behind him, hoping to get his attention in his mirrors. Must have worked bcause on Lap 9 he finally bobbled and I got by. I was almost thinking to hold up and wait for him so we could duke it out to the finish line, but then I said to myself "fuckin' Joe would bury me if he could, so I'm going" LOL Great fight there Joe. I pretty much joined this race at the last minute because there's a few guys in this series I never get to run against with my schedule. I'm glad I did. Grats Tristan and thanks all for a great race.

Fun race; spent most of it rubbing the paint off Tommy G's car... ;-)

Didn't have any time to prep for it and only got a lap and a half of practice, but figured it would be OK since I've been doing OK in the FT's and Barcelona's old hat.

Was surprised a bit by the difference in la Caixa, since I'd only done the GTR2 version of the track. Gather this is a newer layout, but kept going too deep thinking the darned straight was a bit longer! Car felt pushy in Q using the set from the last race at Silverstone, and a bit short on gearing, so I dropped some rear wing, added a bit of spring at the back and changed the gearing a touch.

Probably should've left either the wing or springs alone since it gave me some nasty off-corner oversteer that killed my exit speeds, which in these cars is vital. Had to pedal it off the corners and nearly looped it a number of times, but had a great race with Tommy that lasted from lap one to the end. Got by twice, but made mistakes both times and gave it right back! Lost some ground on one near-spin mid race but made it back to him on the last lap. Thought I might have a shot at drafting by at the line but ended up locking the fronts in the last corner when I almost hit him under braking and had to clamp it down - game over.

Well done Tommy! New paint job's on me... ;-)

Love the picture Clay. :)