Dubai TC

This one really hurt us thanks to a stupid mistake from me.
We chose the Cortina and didn't really know what to expect in the race with all those Alfas but I think we chose absolutely the right car. I had an advantage at the start and got into 2nd ahead of Joco and for a few laps I was very comfortable there. Spyros was too quick and there was nothing I could do to catch him but 2nd was good with me.
After 6 or 8 laps roughly Joco put a surge on and closed right in on me. The next few laps are a bit of a blur, I really wanted to watch the replay but mine didn't copy so I'll have to wait for the download.
Joco passed me then I passed him back, then he got me again and there was a lot of side by side and switching back going on, it was great fun but exhausting!
Joco had passed me again and Ryan almost got a look in as well which had me watching my mirrors, then I made a stupid mistake by putting a wheel on the grass on the exit of the penultimate turn. The car went sideways and just went straight for the wall on the opposite side of the track and crushed the front end in. I was at the pit entry so I didn't chance another lap to see if I had a puncture or suspension failure, I just drove straight into the pits and sat there long enough to go 2 laps down, slapping myself in the head the whole time.
Ended up 13th, the only other action came after I came up to Spyros who was recovering from a big slide, I lifted to slot in behind him because a couple of seconds made no difference to me. Just as I slotted in behind him he flashed me by, I had lost all momentum so I could no longer just drive by. In the confusion Spyros went wide in the next turn and I felt terrible, I was really glad to see it didn't cost him the win in the end.
The Cortina was awesome, I didn't change tyres when I was in the pits, we ran the harder compound and it did the same laptimes from start to finish and it had the edge on the straight. I'm just really pissed off that I didn't stay up in a podium spot but threw it away instead. Hard work ahead to try to recover from that.
Grats to the podium and well done Simon on getting the Cortina to 4th and some decent points.

I do not know what happened, the game buger, by the time I knew it was too late to join the race.

See you soon.

Absolutely great race! Just finished watching the replay and couldn't decide which battle to watch! Darren-Joco-Ryan, Simon-Aaron-Zoltan, Jose-Juan-John-Bartosz, amazing battles with Ryan and Joco till the last turn! What to say. Imagine Darren with them and it would be a R2P highlight!!
Excellent driving from anyone from first to last.

For me things went pretty well. I took the pole and kept the first place at the start. The guys behind me were pretty busy with their fights and I managed to pull away with a 6-8 secs lead.
Only at the end of the race I made a silly mistake and trying to let Darren pass, cause I thought he was in a fight with Bill (I think), I spun the car twice letting Joco and Ryan get very close. I am lucky it was in the last lap, Joco and Ryan were coming in alarm :)!

Congrats guys, another clean race from everyone!

[Edit] - I thought Darren and Simon would have major problems with their tires in the Cortina and I was the one with no rubber left at the end of the race :)

Much better result this time around in the HRL. I qualified 6th at the last few seconds after having a few offs with the empty fuel load.

Where to start this race was a hard drive all the way till the end. Lights go green and we head off with me ducking in behind Sal, with Chris in tow.

I didnt seem to have the pace I had during practice for some reason .15s were easy to get, come race time I was pushing it really hard just to maintain a low .16 but My team mate Zoltan had a good pace off the start so I let him take point and hunt down Simon and possibly catch up to Ryan and the rest. I saw that Zoltan had a nice run on Sal so I followed suit the next lap making a nice clean pass on the inside of turn 1 after getting a good run up the long straight.

Zoltan and Simon had a bit of a lead on me but I was determinded to join the fight and help my mate get passed, closing in on his tail and track his every move in hopes to give him a push passed Simon. Lap after lap, they fought hard, with Zoltan trying to sneak a run pass at just about every corner.

Eventually Zoltan got worn out and flashed me by with the task of taking on Simon, I pushed hard to close the gap before I knew it. I stuck with Simon on his tail trying to find a safe way by.

I felt faster but Simon just had some great runs off the faster corners. I finally found a line off the final corner where I could get a good run up the hill and maybe make a inside pass if Simon would go wide. Now I see what Zoltan was going thru, lol.

I came very close to getting by but I just didnt have the nose far enough and eased up so we could safely make it to turn 2. Simon continued to drive on like we were not even there.

With a few laps lefts I found some speed again off the final corner and decided to push it hard into turn 1 hopefully shaking Simon up and making him go wide but I broke to hard and the car jumped hard right (something I knew in practice I was eventually gonna do, LOL!) so I locked the tires up hard so I wouldnt spin back on track and take Simon out.

I waited for zoltan to zip and thought the cost was clear looking at the GTR 2 XD but I forgot Glen was a few laps down and coming in hard I started to move then slam, somehow I had no damage but with 2 laps to go and Simon and Zoltan had a 10 second lead on me it was game over.

I ended up were I started but still finished much better than the first race so I felt real good at the end.

I just gotta say I loved the action, well done holding your own Simon to both of us. You must have been driving with 1 finger on the wheel but I was soaked by the end of this race.

Been a few races since I had this much fun. Well done Spyros and Ryan on there great finishes as well.

Ryan you lied, you said you was alot slower than us lol!

The screenshots tell the story of my race :). Plenty of good racing. Very close battles with Darren and Joco. I was hoping to challenge my teammate Spyros for the win today, but it was not to be, nice driving mate!

My qualifying effort was not very good. I am capable of much better times with a light fuel load and fresh tires. I was actually pleasantly surprised to get 4th place on the grid with my time.

At the start, I could see Darren get a better jump off the line and power past Joco to take 2nd position. Simon Shepherd also got a good start in the Lotus and came up from 7th position to pull along side of me before turn 1, but I had the inside line, so I was able to stay ahead of him. I settled in behind Joco and watched him try to pass Darren for many laps. I was able to keep pace with them and was waiting for my chance to make a move.

After Joco moved ahead I spent a few laps trying to pass Darren. He did some nice defensive driving and stayed on the inside line whenever I got close enough to challenge. I was much faster through the Esses, but he gave me absolutely no room to pass. It was fun, and I was sorry to see him clip the grass and lose control. I give you guys props for choosing the Lotus Cortina, it is such an unforgiving car!

After Darren hit the wall I was free to focus on Joco. He had about a 1.5 second gap, which I was able to close down, slowly. I got some good looks on the inside and the outside, but to no avail. We were both drifting the car nicely through turn one, and turning some pretty fast laps. I finally managed to pass him with only a few laps remaining in the race. Then on lap 33 we were approaching the esses, and there was an incident up ahead involving Spyros and some other cars. Someone had taken out the turn marker before the esses and I lost concentration for a second. I missed my turn into the esses ever so slightly, and Joco made a nice inside move entering the esses. I think we rubbed paint a little, but it was clean driving. At that point, Spyros was just ahead of us, and we finished a very close 1-2-3. Nice effort from my teammates this round :). See you all at Vitus Parc!

@Aaron, I was slower until I spent an hour practicing with Spyros and mastering the controlled drift :).

Where to start. Qually for some reason didnt go very well, i was near half a second down on my PB.... with heavy fuel.

Regardless, i got a nice clean start an made up a place or 2 off the line. Darren had the speed advantage between the two of us and could see him giving Joco a hard time which was nice. I knew the Cortina wasnt as quick as the Alfa's through the esse's and the tighter corners, but the little Cortina held it's own down the strait.

I think Sal was the first one that was on me, but i just knuckled down and got on with it. Few laps later i see Zoltan catching up but he didnt get close enough to have a look. Then come Aaron, who was humping along and getting very close indeed .... 'Pah , you aint getting through mate' I knew i just didnt have the speed , so i just kept my line and went into 'Sunday mode' ie- you best work very very hard to get past me fella, but make no mistake Aaron .... I WAS SWEATING!! but keeping my head and focusing on what i was doing rather than who was behind me see me home in a very comfatable 4th. A result that im very happy with, being the team with the smallest budget we know that this is going to pay dividens later on in this series.

Very very gutted for Darren, i reckon he could of pulled off the 2nd place easy, and looking at the points we would of been on top. But hey ho Apex will be back and next time we will be stronger!

Epic race by everyone again, i think this is the best series ive ran at R2P, and running with you guys i know its going to get better and better. Till next time chaps!

Great race, as usual!

Like others in practice I was comfortable in the high 16s, low 17s but in the race I could just not find the extra second that would have made the difference. During the middle laps I was getting anxious about my left front which was overheating badly but as the race went on the problem seemed to just fall away? Possibly I was driving a little more smoothly. Whatever it was I started to close on Salvatore who was obviously having the same problem with his tyres as I had.

I was able to catch him but overtaking him was not easy, fortunately Salvatore went a little deep into turn one on the penultimate lap which allowed me to slip through and I was able to hang on for 7th place.

Great fun, it does not seem to matter where you are in these races, there is always a battle to be fought.

The Mini's could hold there own from entry in T1 to the second to last turn, but on the start/finish straight the Alfa's and Cortina's just blew us away. You could overtake an Alfa before the finishline and he would just drive past you again before T1 undoing all you're work. But nevertheless Bartosz and I had great fun going fast with that turtle.

See you all next time.

Great driving by both of you guys with the Minis!

Offline practice ( a week before) and i was feeling optimistic choosing the little alfa, on default setup (race fuel) i was in the mid 16's easily from the 2nd lap onward ( i normally do 10-15 laps and they were always under the 17's), i wanted to choose the cortina but i couldn't lap under the 18's (well done those who were lapping in the 16's!) and the Abarth as well but with the little fiat it would also be impossible to fight with the alfa's straight line speed so i excluded that choice.
I thought i could get in the top 10 easily, maybe if lucky a top 5.

In online practice i choose my setup and was lapping just as in offline practice, a bit difficult to find that rhythm, but was happy the same. In qualy i thought i'd put a bit more front brake and take out a little rear tire pressure. Qualify went ok even though i was a bit to slow, i had been faster with race fuel in practice (old setup). Stupidly i kept the qualify setup, put in the fuel and went for the race.

The race started well, in the first laps i felt confident and even though not on pace i was moving up and it seemed i could hold the pace of the 4-6th place cars. but then the car turned into a pig! and i was really struggling to hold them, i was checking my times and was 1-1.5 seconds off pace. I wasn't panicing yet as chris (8th i think) was more or less 5 seconds behind and didn't seem to catch me, was just upset that i wasn't lapping like in practice and i was hoping someone in front would make an error (yeah like that was going to happen!).

The more the laps past, the more i was struggling and sweating to lap in the 17's!!! (offline i don't think i ever did a mid 17) instead half way through i was even sweating more to do 18's!!! and i was getting very upset, the front left was glowing red (that never happened) and i had lost the train ahead and the car from a pig became an elefant, i don't recall ever to have made such an effort behind the wheel, i wouldn't be surprised if i had smoke coming out of it.

Last laps chris was catching me fast and i couldn't do nothing about it, i tried to hold on but he passed me eventualy on the penultimate lap, i made it as hard as possible for him but i knew how it was going to end, i couldn't do nothing about it, well done for insisting Chris.

I must stop touching my setups before races, this was another disaster for me, i had a comfortable setup drifting in the corners and quite precise in the chicanes and on exit of the fast corners, i just blew it again like in the last championship (pre-race tweaking).

Anyway well done guys clean and tough as always, see you at vitus this time i swear i won't do no more pre-race tweaking, i thought i had learned that at St Jovite! Guess i need a chief engineer to slap me from doing these stupid choices.