Pacific G2: Spa

Congrats to Podium and winner George ...

I was dropped on the starting line, couldnt believe by how much i lost out, but the catching up was fun, and so was the racing from there!! Wow it got hairy by first pit stops and during the 2nd middle pitstop stint... was enjoying the driving alot..

Was caught very quickly by guys who put 4 tyres on 1st stop, i only changed rears so ended up trying to hold the pack up so by 2nd stops it would be an interesting last stint.. unfortunatly something happened to kent in the process and thus helped me get 3rd.

I thought i was going to be quick enough in final stint to challenge george and jeff, but i messed up again in the pits and put fuel in?? i had none selected before the race.. so was unhappy with that..

Getting a 3rd the final podium spot is a happy end, i enjoyed the race, thanks all...

Great Race Guys, Grats to George on his win WTG, great drive.

I felt I had a top 5 car tonight, I qualy'd not as good as i would have liked but a solid 2nd, ill take it.

Race started of my usual losing positions by turn 1, I didn't get flustered b/c I knew I had some good speed, I sat patiently at P6 when I felt i was being held up but couldn't get around the car i opted pit stratagy #4, got the stop done lickety split, the next lap after the S/F line I see Kent exiting the pits, knowing he was leading I felt I had made the right pit call, I chased him a bit until he looped it, kept chipping away at positions, then pit stop #2, right on schedule but quicker, much quicker, exited and chipped my way all the way up to george, but ran out of laps.

Grats George, Thanks Kent, Grats Heinz

Cya in S6

Thanks R2P for putting on another great show!

I think I brought a knife to a gun fight. I was really off pace. The car really coulda' used some softer springs up front or a smaller bar; but Spa is a fun track and the BMW was a blast to drive.

Grats to George on the win and Jeff on the Championship!

I knew I was taking a chance with the Bi-Turbo but I really dislike that BMW so I went with it. Turned out to be a good choice for me and managed to just get the Pole.

Got a nice start and quickly opened up a 1 second lead but I was getting good pressure from behind for a couple laps. Then whoever was in 2nd went off at Aue Rouge and I soon had 5 seconds to play with. I went with Soft fronts and knew my lap times would drop off late in the stint so I pushed as hard as the car would allow with a full load of fuel.

By the end of lap 8 I had a 13 second lead and radio'd my crew to tell them "man this is cool". But they misunderstood me and thought I said "I need Fuel". Much to my surprise as I pitted and saw the fuel hose get attached and the chief yelling at me to turn off the engine. WHAT?!!

Well I exited my stop in 12th and Jeff came right up on me on my out lap. I was thinking, shit I have no chance for a win now, 100 liters of Fuel and WAY down in the running. So I put my head down and pulled a comfortable gap from Jeff and closed right up on George. All the while we were catching Hienz. Meanwhile everyone else is pitting and soon it is Hienz(1), George(2) and me (3). George made a bobble and I was able to get under him then I made a run on Hienz at Blanch but I was outside and slid in behind him for the chicane. Got a nice exit and made a fake to the inside, much to my surprise he gave it to me and in my excitement I looped it into the wall and watched as Hienz, George and Jeff drove by.

I turned the car around and started to go when the chief says "You have a Right Front Puncture" SHIT! an entire lap of Spa with a flat front (sigh).

Somehow I managed to get all the way back to 4th for the finish well behind the podium runners.

Grats all, cya in S6

Congrats to the winners!

Qualy'd 15th. Got off to a bad start - I'm sitting there in my starting space when a second before the green light a car behind me jumps from it's space, hits me forward so I get black flagged, then jumps back to it's own space. Weird! But it put me 45 seconds behind right from the get-go as I had to pit for the black flag.

As I slowly took a few seconds away from the car ahead, I didn't have a chance till he pitted, I also pitted behind him, around 30 seconds back. My crew must've been hot because I came out before he did by a margin of some 10 seconds or so.

Now I'm one position higher, but guess what? The car ahead of me is 45 seconds ahead, shoot, same gap! Once again, as I slowly take back a few seconds, getting to my 2nd pit stop lap, the back-end comes loose and the car hit the barrier, flattening one front tire. I struggled back to the pit. I come out, once again, 1 place higher I think, and around 45 seconds back.

That's how it ended - I managed to close up a bit, finishing about 30 seconds back. I drove this race alone all the way through, not too exciting. I don't like this version of Spa - the bus stop chicane really sucks. I much prefer the newer version with the short chicane turns.

Really kicking myself after that one. :( I had the setup and the strategy nailed, and I was on my way to my best GTR2 finish yet, when I lost it in Eau Rouge just a few laps from the end and got a flat. Oh well, if you're gonna crash, that's the place to do it in style!

Somehow I don't quali well at Spa. Again my fastest racelap was faster than my qualilap. Lost 2 positions at the start but was running 6th just before stop one with 2-5 in sight. Then I got into the Heinz-Ke(n)t(chup)-sandwich and made the bobble Kent mentioned. Then he lost it in the last turn and I was chasing Heinz for the lead. We had a great run over Kemmel onto Les Combes and I managed to get by there. My compliments Heinz. You could have slammed the door there but we didn't even exchange paint. After the 2nd stop I got into the lead. Knew I made two f*ck*ups in the euro-race and didn't want to repeat them here. So I took it easy in those two turns but the margin to Jeff was enough to finish first. Grats to Jeff on 2nd place and winning the championship. Great job!!! And also to Heinz for getting on the podium. Seeya in S6 for sure.

Pit crew didn't serve me on my first pit stop (is that a known bug?), no fuel to do another lap my race was finished :( Not much else to say.

What an awesome series. I had some reservations about making the race (with practice at 11pm, for me it's pushing it) but I am glad I stayed-- I love racing like this, even if my rank takes a hit...I had a decent qualy, although having practiced just with race setups I got a race time. Got a good start, but then I had a solid run up in the 5th and 6th spots. One of my biggest weakness in all my racing is my pitstops-- I am a complete Mr Bean. So I had been working on them. And it paid off-- well partly!! :) The first went perfectly, my first flawless pitstop in my r2p career! It felt like I had won a race... I got up to 2nd spot before my 2nd pit, and I performed a classic Zargani/Chaplin disaster pitstop. I had been worried that I was setup too marginally on fuel (both at the end of first stint, where I was literally on fumes, and the second where I had to pit a lap earlier than predicted). So I pull in, shut off the engine and decide to increase my fuel-- so I load enough fuel to drive from Spa to Hong Kong because my stupid arrows are very sensitive and I am like "too much fuel! gotta take some off, quick" and while I try to do the arrows have magically moved over the tire selection and selected the hard bubble-gum. So, I am like oh jimminy crickets, change the tires back...and my arrows are totally psychotic by this time. It is at this stage that my crew chief, who I think I share with Kent Welker, tells me-- brilliantly and with quite a nice annoying tone-- "Are you going to make up your mind?" Seriously, something like that the bastard tells me. He is the one drunk like a sailor on leave in an exotic sea-port, who should be helping me! So I in a panic I hit the return key and proceed to stay in the pits an extra 30-35 seconds by which time I've had enough time to prepare myself a nice pastrami sandwich and chew a couple of tums to soothe my maledictions and foul chants invoked in the general direction of the drunken crew chief and his lousy mistress, who I discover later was entertaining him while I was busting my family jewels by seeing just how fast I could take Eau Rouge without the assistance of one of the diapers that are routinely present in Ground Effects Racing's new motorhome. In anycase, to make a long story short, I come out way behind. I am behind Kevin Inkman, extremely heavy on fuel and with cold tires and I pull one of my best moves in my incompetent racing career. Coming out of Eau Rouge, while we are lapping traffic I pull a Mika (I know, do not say the name of the gods in vain) and pass lapped traffic and Kevin. However, he is a very good driver and he stayed right on my tail all throughout the race until the checquered flag.
For some reason I love the G2s, I am really looking forward to next season and this was a great bunch of guys to race against to.
@Bill Johnson: it was great to see you on the track. Hope to see you at more G2 events in the future. It took me a long time to barely get competitive in GTR2 and it's still a strugle, but it's very rewarding.

Man I was having some real FPS issues in 3 spots on this track which eventually ended my race. Was getting real annoyed by it too. Entering Eau Rouge, it would drop all the way down to 18 fps and still framing, creating downshift and steering probs and eventually crashed. and if anyone created any kind of smoke or dust or spin etc. it became undrivable. Same thing at Rivage and entering the bus stop and I turned everything down to med on the graffix and made no difference. I do not have this problem at ANY other track. I really need to resolve this problem if anyone has any ideas please please speak up. I have 3 races left here and one of them will be a 3 hr. race. I don't think I can put up with this for that long and may have to pull out which sucks.