USA GT: Magny-Cours

It was a great race. Congrats 1 and 2!

I pulled away nicely the first 45 min. but Michael Chriss recovered from some problem and was one second behind me when he pitted. I stayed out for 5 more laps and enjoyed a few laps in a false first place. I decided to get fuel only so I could come out with a bigger lead on MC, and my hard tires felt good enough.

It worked, but didn't help much. I came out 8 seconds ahead of MC who caught up and passed me in 3-4 laps. Soon after that 22 minutes left and 5th was 20 seconds behind when I get the tires worn notice.

So I did what I could, trying to save the tires and only loose one second per lap to 5th, and it worked perfect, ended up 3 seconds ahead at the end. I was sweating it though, one spin or even sideways skid would have put me in 6th. It turns out Barrett Erickson and Tommy GUnn were dueling for 5th spot and were the ones slowly gaining on me. Luckily for us MC had a problem and we passed him in the pits, handing me a 3 spot and moving the other up.

So great race, if I hadn't been driving it would have been a nail-biter!!

Congrats to Jeff Stibling, Dennis Morissette and Ryan Ansoon you guys are always fast.

Sorry Kent I get em too and they suck. There is no way to drive with one.

Thanks for the great race Barrett!! Les you too because you were on my ass forever! That is the kind of racing that reminds me why I joined R2P.

Sorry you couldn't race Kent.

I had a frame rate issue at the start and crashed. As I worked my way back thru the field, everyone raced me clean and fair. My fuel calculations must be wrong, as my strategy should have worked, but I ran out of fuel from 3rd, with 7 laps left.

Congrats you guys, good race.

I had a good race for awhile...I had my eye on the retaining wall on the outside of the front straight and finally succeeded in hitting it on lap 22.

I'm still not in total control of the car, but I've stopped messing with the setup. I'm considering not racing in any more GTx events and move to slower sports cars because once in awhile I do something stupid which interferes in the competition in GTx. For example, Jeff was behind me and about to lap me, and I went too wide and sideways on a lefthanded hairpin, and spilled back down in front of Jeff...I could have ruined his race if he wasn't such a good driver and sportsman. I think I should drive some of the slower classes to get more experience, and only come back here after I've stopped doing stupid things...well...at least less stupid.

Congrats to Jeff and the rest of the podium.

Bit of a yawner job by myself. Q was terrible, and on the opening lap, a Lambo blasted me going into the 1st corner turning me around and damaging the rear. Got back in line from dead last and tried to get back as many spots as I could but being packed with fuel to the gills meant I was pretty heavy and relatively slow until some burned off. Had a terrific battle for a long, long time during the first stint with drivers in the 8th through 11th positions. Great job gents.

Second stint is where the yawner part really kicked in. A bunch of us after the race mentioned that Magny, when you are alone, can lead to "brain fade" and that certainly happened to me. I was in 7th hoping to hold onto it with a 20 second lead on David "Cat" Fish when I noticed that he was running me down pretty well. So, I tried to wake myself up and of course I looped it at the sharp right at the end of the long stretch. Well, that was all David needed and he ended up beating me by a good 10 seconds or so. Great run Cat! Good to see you back and you are driving like your old self again.

Great job by all. This series is pretty cool.

Great Race Guys.

Q went well, but i felt i left some on the table but it was still good enough for P1.

R Somebody needs to tell maintenance at the race track the third row of lights on the stating grid are burned out? Haven't these guys any spare bulbs? Race starts i got a lot of wheel spin but enough to keep P1. Start running my laps (very consistent) and slowly pulling away from dennis up to 12 seconds after lap 15, i catch traffic and it all disappears. From there i lost my rhythm and became choppy so its time to pit.

Second stint was much of the same, this track has a "brain fade " deal with it, but in all every competitor was great. Steve do not worry, you looked great in your formula "D"

Grats to dennis & ryan on you podiums.

That was ugly! Cars kept spinning right in front of me. Happened about 5 times. I hit three of them! Dropped from 4th to dead last on the first lap. Lost my front bodywork early in the race and went a lap down. Then I was pushing too hard to catch up and made a few mistakes on my own.

well that was one helluva fun race!

great, close, competitive but courteous racing with a lot of people in the mid-field pack during the first stint. then a second stint that was all about trying not to be run down, first by Aubrey Windle, then by Tommy Gunn (who was definitely making his Vette work right).

opted not to change tires at the pit stop, a decision based largely on having made a few mistakes in the first stint that cost me about as much time as a change would take. i also had a desire to see if the michellin's would go the distance.

this turned out to be a key decision, as i came out a handful of seconds in front of Aubrey , who was soon on my rear bumper.

i'd expected Aubrey would get by in a lap or two. i didn't see him go off at T1 and lose the position to Tommy, as Jeff and Dennis were coming thru about then, but i did notice that the gap had widened and i could breath once more.

but not for long, as i saw the gap quickly shrinking again.

i had hoped to run a bit more conservatively in the second stint, but thanks to Aubrey and then Tommy, i instead had to find a way to push the car just as hard without stressing the rear tires too much. by the time i'd worked this out, with brake balance, going a bit deeper into 180 and being _very_ gentle on corner exit throttle, Tommy was only about a second back.

and for the next 20 minutes or so, i had to work my ass off to maintain that gap.

in the late laps we were closing in on Dan Ortega, who'd been running pretty quickly earlier but was now showing in P11. just as i was beginning to feel like the lambo filling of a vette sandwich about to get eaten, Dan let us thru cleanly in the 180 (thanks Dan) and we continued on.

it was only now, that i noticed that i was P4 and the car that i could see just ahead was Ryan in P3!

"damn," i thought, "a chance for my first podium? is there time?"

but that line of thought only lasted for a turn or two before Tommy refocused my attention on not losing 4th.

Luckily, the race ended a lap later.

Great fun guys!

'Grats to Jeff on a fine win, Dennis on a strong second, and Ryan for a smart race on worn tires to bring it home third.

Congrats to Jeff, Dennis and Ryan! : )

Also like to thank Tommy, Michael, Barrett and Les for some real close and exciting racing.

Don't know why, but I usually get really good starts off the line. This was no exception as I found myself in 8th at t1 from 11th!

By lap 2 I found myself running 5th with the above mentioned boyz all around me. It was a fantastic 1st stint running with these quys.

Had one close call while battling with Les in his Saleen when the five of us came up on a wounded David Fish 90 deg on the track, the old reflexes were just enough to barely miss the Fishman. Sorry to see my teemy in distress but looks like you at least were able to recover with a respectable 7th after all your troubles! : )

Don't know what I was thinking when I opted for a 2 stopper. Guess most were on a 1 stop strategy, so I lost a lot after my 2nd stop (from 6th to 11).

Thanks again guys for a real fun race!

Dan