Intro to Formula BMW

BLAH!!!

Congrats to the winners! I'm gonna go eat me some Braunshweiger...

Guh. That sucked. Not a good qualy, then I managed to bounce off a kerb and stuff it in the wall on the second lap. After replacing my nose, I was a lap down and the car didn't track very straight after that. Managed to get to 11th, almost 10th. Definitely hope for better results next time.

Had a decent qualy and a got good start, managing to pick up a couple of spots before T1 while driving relatively conservatively.

I managed to draft by Zach on the front straight to start lap 2 and move into a top 5 position. Unfortunately my top 5 was short-lived, as I was blind-sided by the rear of a spinning car in T1 a few laps later, dropped all the way down to 19th, and had to pit for repairs. I managed to continue on after that and salvage a 12th place finish, but I was hoping for better in this one.

I know that stuff happens, but this was a frustrating one for me. The hit obviously wasn't intentional (in fact I'm not even sure the driver who spun into me knows that he did it, since it was the rear of his car that came into the side of mine), but it's still disappointing.

Made me 4 spots! Good enough for tonight, :)

Ack! What happened to the 5-min qualy?

Got stalled behind a spun car in T1 after my 1st hot lap and figured that was it with the super-short qualy, so I hit esc. and went to the pit. Once in pit I saw there was still well over 5 minutes left, my grid spot eroding by the minute while everyone was still out lapping. DOH!

So I took a chance and went back out. Ended up getting balked in traffic anyway, and then hit Jim Day I think (sorry man, just never expected anyone to brake in that little hilltop chicane before the last turn since it was easy flat). Got a drive-through for the esc/return, which I served on the 2nd lap. That nuked any hope of running up front, especially since there was a pit crew in the drivethrough lane and I had to stop and wait what seemed like forever while they refueled me and would let the car go again. Surprised I didn't blow it up trying to get going!

Got out in what had to be nearly DFL thinking I'd be lucky to see anyone again in a race that short. But lo and behold, I kept making ground and ended up 6th somehow. I'll have to check the replay; there must've been some carnage up there or something!

Still fun, but was a bit bummed about the DT. So what was the deal with the Qualy length anyway? I just got into Practice in time for one lap before qualy and didn't see any notice of a longer session; was there any?

Ack! ;-)

Mmm that was a great track. Qualy was quite good, I suppose my 'throw-it-together-and-pray-for-the-best' setup seemed to do the trick!

Had a great battle with the 2nd qualifier, but he got disconnected randomly? I don't know what happened on his end.. regardless, he and I were back and forth. After he left, I pissed away my lead by high-centering on a corner of the racing surface... argh! But that's my fault for spinning off in the first place!

Good fun, and sorry if my roundybouts caused any clinched buttocks... I tried to stay out of the way when I was re-entering whenever.

I cannot wait for the next F-BMW race :-)

Just wanted to stop by and say sorry if i caused any problems for anybody. I had fps problems, but also some driving problems. Need to work on both.

Qualified with a decent lap for me and had worked all the way up to tenth before all the problems. Pitted for repairs, more problems. Then the race was over before i knew it. Finish higher than i qualified, which okay in my book. Love these cars, just wish i was a little faster and a lot more consistant. Time to start practicing for the next one.

Big time mistake cost me the race!After formation lap pulled up to my box,waiting for the green.When i brought up my RPMs I must have rolled past my box.. So when we went green i was given a black flag.As i was coming into T1 Tommy looked like hes was having somkind of trouble,and i hade to really make some moves not to hit him or others.I decided to go the 3 laps before serving my flag to let the race get into a pace.Went into the pits in P6 or so came out in P14.From there on out it was crazy.I had some really great battels out there.And after 11 laps or so i was happy to be able to take a top 5 for this race.
Thanks to all drivers for a good race,and sorry if i drove any of you to hard last night.Another tough place to make passes

Sorry for the no-show last night. Couldn't connect to the internet. Not sure if it's a DSL modem/router issue or problem with ISP. Happened several times lately, but not before a race before. Not a big rFactor fan, but these cars seem pretty neat. Hope to join the next race.

I surprised myself by qualifying 3rd.

After a few laps I was all alone for a while after the guys in P1 & P2 began to gap me. I decided to just run consistent laps and try to stay on the podium, when a mistake entering tricky turn 1 had me facing backwards after the left side of the car had been stopped by the wall.

I was lucky to only lose one position, and I got back underway in 4th not far behind David Fish. I was gentle with the car at first, since I didn't yet know if it had been damaged to a point of affecting the handling or the tracking. After a lap or so it seemed like it was okay, so I set off to try and catch David and battle for that final podium position that I had given him.

Over the course of the next couple of laps I managed to catch David once, but another small mistake caused me to fade back a little. I set off to try and catch him again, until he made it easy on me when his off in T1/2 allowed me to pass him while he was in the grass gathering it up. He caught me quickly though, and I had to resist the incessant urge to click the look back button to see what he was up to while I was closely monitoring the gap between us on the HUD.

Sometime during all this, one of the guys ahead of us retired, so now we were fighting for 2nd instead of the final podium spot. I could get almost a full second on him only to lose it in a different part of the track; rinse and repeat.

I inherited P1 when the remaining car ahead had an off, so now our battle was for the lead! I managed to stretch the gap to over a second when we encountered some lapped traffic, and took the white flag with a fairly comfortable lead, only to lose it all in the last few turns since David was apparently pushing hard while I was simply trying not to screw up.

In spite of the win, that was one of the best battles I've had here to date. Awesome racing David, it was really fun.