Intro to Historic F1

I got lucky in Q and got a clear track. Looks like the other guys didn't, so I got pole. Yaay!

Smooth formation lap, got brakes and tires warm, coolant and oil temps OK, then I realize:

THERE ARE NO START LIGHTS VISIBLE FROM THE FRONT ROW!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

111111111111111111111111111111111

ONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONEONE

Everybody did a great job avoiding me as I got away late. I think I was P5 by turn 1.

Got past two cars (I think it was Steve and Dean), and got a good rhythm going.

Tristan came up behind me like a bat out of hell and took me on the straight. Renault power kicks ass.

I hung with him for a few laps and then the tire temps started getting silly, so I decided to hang back and hope for a mistake.

Tristan didn't make a mistake, but David did, so I was in P3. Then Peter had a problem and I moved up to P2. David recovered well though, and seeing as I couldn't do anything with Tristan, I made sure David got a good draft down the straight and gave up P2.

After that it was just cruise mode, trying to avoid my usual DNF. I had fun watching the P1-P2 splits. Just two more laps!

Sure it's an "Independent" race, but a podium in my first F1H event with a new team, and hopefully an end to my DNFitis, I'm stoked!!!

I love these cars! Every bit as much effort as that miserable Panoz GTS from the other night but in a different (good) way. More like you've got your hands on more than you can handle than like there were some suspension pieces left off when it came out of the garage. Like shocks... ;-)

Told myself after Brianza I was going to give the Renault a whirl since it looked so fun there. For some reason I did a few laps at Jarama with it (fun track!) and not Dijon. DOH! Barely got a lap in before Q and started 6th, which was lousy considering how much motor that car has. Jeez that thing just takes off on the straights! But I was clueless in the twisty bits, and the bumps were really giving me fits.

Got a decent start (thank you Mr Renault), but almost followed Tristan into the gravel at T1 and lost a few spots getting all four wheels back on track. Got going and tried to settle in and get a feel for where the limits were. Had pretty bad understeer, but managed to get up to 4th in a few laps. Then I saw Tristan coming hard from behind on lap 5 and missed my braking point watching the mirror. Went off and nailed the armco, slipping back to 6th and getting right rear suspension damage as a result. After that, the car was pulling hard left the rest of the race. Would over rotate in all the left turns and push like crazy in the right handers, which kind of sucks on a clockwise track... ;-) Took a few laps to get adapted to driving with the wheel cocked sideways, but finally figured it out - brake really early on the rights and soft pedal the gas on the lefts, then let the motor make up for it on the straights. Even managed to get back by Dean for 5th very briefly until I got squirrely in a left, high-centered on the curbing and went off again. No further damage but that was that for any racing for position.

Lot of work, lot of fun. Very nice driving by everyone I encountered as well. More, please!

What a great race!

My Qualy was quite good; strange how I was .500 of a second quicker on Softs than I was on Qauly tires... I suppose having the boost at '10' can melt the rears rather quickly.

I feel sorry for the chaps on the front row, I was not aware they couldn't see the start lights. I rocketed past at the start, but forgot how cold my brakes were! Hand over hand, somehow I managed to not spin and stall in the gravel.. came back on in 10th or 11th (I think), took a deep breath, and began working my way up the ladder.

Kudos to everyone tonight, I did not encounter even the slightest bit of rough driving. A very classy field 8-)

Mike, we had a fantastic battle for a few laps. I could tell where you were much faster at times (braking, for example), but I kept those crazy turbos in check until I could see your rear end getting western later on. I broke out in a cold sweat while chasing down Peter (edit), and managed to keep the lead after drafting him down the straight due to his overzealous braking. My nose was a bit shorter after that!!

In the closing laps, I nearly ran out of fuel. 2 litres left as I crossed the line.

Absolute exhilaration... Thanks again all, I can't wait to participate with you more!

Great fun race.
I sat in behind David for many laps, working out where to pass him. We were comfortably ahead of anyone chasing so there was no real rush. I knew I had a good advantage through the last turns area and then onto the straight, but a fractional loss in the area right after the hairpin, so it needed good concentration to get set up for that main straight pass. I did a few tests runs and backed out seeing they were going to be neck and neck into turn 1.

The first time I got the run David took the outside of Turn 1 and that meant I had to slow right down for the inside line! So that meant he held the upper hand there - great planning by David!!
The next run I made sure I got the outside line, and even though I could brake much later into turn 1 every time chasing him, he amazingly matched me right down and around turn 1 that time too! (I probably slowed too much to allow for outer line lack of grip).
So both times we were side by side around that area, until the outer car won each time....which on the second time was me!
Then I got to run better lap times and moved ahead more and more.

It was an excellent battle with David, and I have to go and watch that replay!!

Lapping other traffic kept reducing my gap to the cars behind, and the whole race lap times had been quite delayed over my predicted race length time and I had to leave at 10-30pm. I thought the race would just fit into that, but there were 4 laps still to go at 10-30pm.
I had a League race and a 15 minute qualifying window from there so I did the one more lap and then left so as to make it there in time!

Of course on that last lap I did, I came across a slower car and was held up notably and a Renault chasing me caught up and then got to blitz past in the straight! Not that it mattered by then. But they are like rockets when in a straight line!

I didn't see any start lights at all either but saw the Timer start counting, so I knew to go then.

Tristan, nothing to apologize for, stuff happens.
Great drive man!

Good Race. The first 3 laps were great, I was hanging on in 6th. Then I crash on the start of the final corner, a corner that gave me no troubles in practice. Lost my wing, so I knew it was over, 2 minute pit stop... I decided to limp around to avoid dnf even though it was an independant race. Very dissapointing but all my fault.
Good Race see you in the official races!

well, i have to say i'm very disappointed in myself, my mistakes in qualifying and the race cost me a potental win.

on the flipside, i had a great battle with Peter, whos high level of driving saved our butts on more than one occasion in turn 1. we had a great battle for about the first half of the race. for some reason, i just could not run a consistant pace with peter hounding me, and to make matters worse, i was slow down the straight and out of the last turn, making me easy pickings. i fought Peter off as long as i could, but nothing doing and he got by. then a lap later while trying to keep up, i messed the hairpin and spun, dropping to 4th.

After the mistake, i held nothing back, it was time to go, and push like crazy. i closed in on my teammate Mike Waltz fairly quickly and he must of let me by. so now i'm trying to catch tristan and peter. a few laps later i see peter in the dirt at tturn 1. so now tristan is 6 seconds ahead. I was catching tristan at about a second a lap, but ran out of time. i ended up a little more than 2 seconds behind.

I would like to congradulate my teammate Mike Waltz for his awsome Pole and my teamate Dean for his great 4th place finish. CanAm 2-3-4, we rule. Let the new season begin. :)

Excellent race. First, I would like to thank Peter Valkovic for his setups which gave my Shadow a 2 sec advantage over the ones I was running and felt A TON better. That was awesome Peter, and what was really awesome is that you were 3 seconds faster then me when you were practicing in the Shadow!! Very impressive.
The race was very satisfying because even though I made 3 mistakes, I was giving 110% every lap.
The 3 mistakes were: 1)at the start I accidentally put 2nd gear in too quick, nearly stalled 2)lost it under breaking mid way through the race at the last left hander 3)lost it under breaking a few laps later while I was being shown blue flags. Other than these sillies, I had a good--unfortunately short-- battle with Ray Gillespie and an excellent cat&mouse chase with Anthony Brooks.
I am really happy I ran this car because of deAngelis in this race, although for the season I will go back to either my usual mount The Blue Madame Ligier or perhaps switch to La Signora Rossa Ferrari.
Congratulations Tristan, and thank you Peter again.

This was the most difficult race I have ever tried. The first few practice laps I did I could not even get around to the finish.

I knew the race for me was going to be all about attrition, so I cranked up the downforce and set the gearing out to give me a lot of newbie-torque so I could press the accelerator down without too much wheel spin.

The strategy ended up paying off as people were falling out of the race left and right, and I kept moving up places. I felt a whole lot like a parasite in the race, but if I run more often in this class I hope to start actually racing for places instead of just saying alive.

This track is also one of the most evil tracks I have ever raced on... almost every turn is decreasing radius, off camber and changing altitude, and the apex is far out of sight. I cannot believe "real" F1 drivers, in these cars, had the sack to actually race on this track!

This was not fun at all, but it was challenging and a little bit rewarding for me. Not sure if I am going to do this again.

Nice job Brian. I'm pretty sure there were a lot of real F1 drivers who "cranked up the downforce and set the gearing out to give a lot of newbie-torque".
To finish first you must first finish!