Atlantic G3: Imola

An other pathetic 18th place. After encouranging practice I had a dismal qualy. Then in the race three events outside sim racing ruined my race, one resulting in about a minute spent in the gravel. I refused to retire and carried on. Not that I would have been in the top 10, but it was a frustrating race, my worst at r2p. Congrats to everyone else.

That was my first outing in the ViperCC so I didn't know what to expect in qualy or the race. I qualy'd decently but left a second or two on the track.
I had a pretty good launch at the start and slotted in 6th behind Tommy C and just in front of him was Bruce F. We followed each other extremely tight for quite awhile sizing each other up. I worked my way to a spot to overtake Tommy and got along side him and then pulled back hoping to get him there in the next spot. I guess that light the flame as he then quickly disposed of Bruce at the next corner and left us in the dust! I cruised behind Bruce for the remainder of the race with our gap ebbing and flowing from less than a second to 2.5s. This happened about 3 or 4 times! With about 10mins to go, I was about 2.5s behind Bruce and pushed to catch him. With 2 laps to go, I made a good exit out of Tosa and was right in his tailpipe going up the hill to Piratella. I was going to try and outbrake him to the apex. Being too much of a gentlemen racer, he gave me plenty of room, actually too much room and got into the gray and then into the grass. Sorry Bruce, that was a wonderful race we had going. In fifth, I cruised home with no chance of catching Tommy about 10s up the road.

Good race guys. Well done Scott, Ari and Bobby for your finish's.
Very scrappy race for me today.
My quali was satisfactory starting me in 9th position and I knew that my overall race pace is always better than my qualification so I was hopeful of a good finish.
For the first few laps I was very consistent and had a good battle with John Mueller for a while then after passing him I was behind George Pol's battle with Garret Diduck. That lasted a fair while. I was quicker than George through Variante Alta but couldn't quite get past into Rivazza. Eventually I got impatient and went for the pass. Getting off the racing line I just didn't have quite enough grip and I George and I connected which I'm very sorry about George. I waited for him and dropped down to 11th.
After the tap I drove pretty erratically whilst trying to get back and had some minor offs. Decided to cool it and just go for a top ten.
In the end I finished where I started in 9th though maybe one more lap and I could have had 8th because Bruce seemed to be struggling with tyres.
Result was better than I deserved anyway, so I'll take it.

after being hyped up about the big bet with can-am guys
i ran out of fuel on the bosses setup -
of course me being slower i should have put in more fuel ... my bad - 4 mins to go and i got the call to pit for fuel . i neglected that - ran 2 more laps and crossed the line with 8 seconds left ,,, dam i could have had 18th place i think , but , i learned alot today - add 5 laps Xtra fuel cause im so slow ...
otherwise i had a great time - enjoyed the courtesy of the faster cars being careful to pass the slower guys - congradulations to the podiums -
Russ

Fun race. Was in 4th for a bit, and then Tommy took off and I was in 5th. Garret and I had a nice battle for 5th (see his post)... lot of fun, both pushing hard. I knew he had a good run on me and I wanted to make sure I gave him room. Unfortunately gave him too much room, caught the grass, and then spun across the track. Went from 5th to 8th in a flash.

With a few to go, I was pushing hard to catch 7th. Got within range so if a mistake was made I could capitalize... and instead I made a mistake. Decided to take it easy until the finish line.

Good clean racing everyone - lots of fun.

Well, good result, but I was hoping for a more interesting go of it.

I started the race conservative and was happy to settle in about 4 or 5 seconds behind Bobby and Ari. As my tires warmed and fuel lightened I started to push on a bit and got the gap down to about 2.5 to 3s by mid race - no doubt their raging battle slowing them a bit.

Just as I was starting to anticipate mixing it up with the two of them, they tangled going into the chicane on the back straight. I cruised past both of them and was pretty much home free from there. Racers luck smiled on me today, but methinks that I missed out on some good fun.

Anyways, it looked like pretty clean racing tonight. Thanks all.

My start was a bit bad and got passed by 2 cars, into Villeneuve i tapped Barry(H) but to my luck he miraculosly saved it, i was happy with that ;) After that a good battle with him and another Porsche and Viper in front. after 10 minutes or so i had to avoid 2 vipers coming back on track from the sand in the 2 90 corners going down, didn't spin luckily but cost me about 5 seconds or so.

Managed to overtake the vipers and set out to catching Barry again. By the time we got back there again my tyres seems to be pretty hot and i spun unfortunately. After that started pushing to gain back, but it seemed my tyres and car had by now formed an unholy alliance and 3 more spins followed :P

End of the race lying 11th was on the last lap and saw Barry slowing and i saw a finish-flag in screen, so i thought race over and slowed down too until some porsche ran me by lol and i tried to chase him back to the finishline, but too late ;) In the end it seemed it was just a run-out-of-fuel thing, ok lesson learned hehe ;) Grats to Scott for the win!

Kind of disappointed with my performance in this one.I never got into a groove & felt like I was fighting the track.Lost a position with the finish line in sight due to a lap car, but didn't feel that bad because it was my teammate who got the spot. Grats to the podium.
Scott, you've been on a roll, nice job.

Thanks, John. Indeed, not sure if the results are due to me taking the next step, or just good racing luck. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far so good.

Pfff ... that Viper sure was a hand full at Imola. Quali was not good. Nearly 1.5 secs from my pb. Garret had a good start past me and that had its consequences for the first part of the race. He had 2 or 3 scary moments but I couldn't benefit from it. It's so easy to lose the backend of that Viper and I didn't want to risk taking us both out. But like his pic shows ... it was close from time to time. Got 6th in the end after John had a spin in the last lap. Again my compliments to Damon for showing good sportmanship after we touched. Grats to the guys on the podium.

PS ... wonder why the results have disappeared. :s