Round 5 - Milwaukee (Jun 12th)

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

One car was going very slow in the middle of the track and maneuvering to avoid it, spun when back on the gas. Apologizes to Mike whom I took out and anyone affected by the incident.

All I know is I was coming to the Start/Finish line when a red car came across the track sideways and I hit it. The start left a lot to be desired.. way to fast...Very disappointed.

 

Really sorry Bob, having caused your retirement

Well that was a eventful 20 laps or so. A good start and restart got me into the lead only to be hit in the rear going into turn 1. Then after about 20laps a crashed car was right in the middle of the back straight just as I pulled out to lap a car, no chance to avoid the car. Race over.

So, uh, I was just taken out by the pace car.

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

 

Really sorry Bob, having caused your retirement

Alberto, No Problem..."just one of those racing deals." Thank you for all your help...

power flashed on and off at house and lost connection. was in a big pack, I hope nobody was impacted.

No worries Alberto, messed me up pretty bad but i limed it to the pits with a flat. car was horrid slow after repairs but almoat finished but lost power at house. rain in area. dangit. wanted a top 10 and was in 11th when I disco'd.

i am glad that is over!

great driving by lead cars. perfect setup and overtakes while lapping my crate.

What happend to the "2 car lenghts between the cars on restart" rule??
I mean, I had a feeling I was the only one giving space... and geting it in the rear

After countless laps trying to learn my way round the track (thank you Alberto for your invaluable help ) and trying to make the car handle well and put the power down second place is a lot more than I could hope for!

After a well-timed caution and pitstop I found myself trailing Richard and beat him in the somewhat confusing restart. Mere laps later, under yellow again, I left a bit of a cushion between me and the pace car, got the prompt to speed up and got sent to the back of the pack - and on top of that got a stop & go for the entire pack couldn't get past me in time for the green flag Those late yellows allowed me to make my way back from almost being a lap down.

As a result of my seemingly vain practice runs and right up until the race itself I thought the track is horrible to drive and West Allis is a shithole, but boy did I enjoy this race!

For those wanting to watch the broadcast, here it is (though it still has some "getting better quality in" to go).



Sorry in advance, I did cough a couple of times, was running out of voice after 100 laps

Trenton was a nightmare. Milwaukee was an hellish nightmare.
Blew my engine in qualifications....again. Then during the race I was unable to push the car without loosing it every two laps...again. I was just a danger on the tracks with all my spins. i was unable to follow any one from the start. the car became twistier as I damage my rear wing then bent three of the four suspension and finally damaged my front wing. At the end I was totally in disarray as I was coping demotivation, anger and fear to ruin the race of someone (which I did).
All I've done on that race are spins you want it you get it, trying not to be too dangerous for those (quite a lot in fact) who lapped me and failed and finally crashed into Mike Becknel.
I should have retired on this one as I wanted to at half race.

Definitly it's not the car which is the problem. It's just the driver totally unsuited to those races. I'm totally unable to drive on short oval without loosing my nerves, my car and any motivation. On speedway I barely managed to survive. It seems I'm not suited at all to race on oval. Even with the best frame and a very smooth engine I'm just out of pace and pilling up spins after spins.
I'm also drowning in setting up my car as it seems I don't understand how it behave on brakes, on throttle, how to use the gearbox and so on. In fact I don't undestand at all the basic of oval racing. Today I thought my set was correct...well the race proves me it was just a sh... piece of junk.

So I'll have take some time to ask myself "should I stay or Should I go?". I've two weeks to decide to let free my car or not.

After a decent qualifying and a good start, my race was looking promising until the first restart when David cut across my nose and caused front-right suspension damage. After that, a combination of compromised handling, pitstop errors, and a lot of poorly timed yellows made this one to forget.

Congrats to the pointy end of the field!

No worries Ludovic, my day was already baked to "crispy" level

Uff that was intense!

The qualy was ok, but would have been better, i made a small mistake on my second lap wich was a shame, but still was a good position to start.

Now for the race, i was never very confortable with my setup, so i gambled on 815hp and trying to run to the finish. That pretty much made me run with either a very heavy car, or very worn tires the whole race, but thanks to many yellows at the end, i was able to stretch the fuel to the end, so a top 5 finish is a very good place to be! My car had the whole right side and the nose damaged (this last because of a stray wheel i hit!) so i guess my car was equally "balanced" in that regard and i could keep lapping more or less at the same (slow) pace all the way to the end.

So all in all, best foyt (altough that mk3 was flying!) and a good points all for me, congrats to Richard, dominant performance, and let's see what the rules change bring!

Ludovic Tiengou wrote:

Trenton was a nightmare. Milwaukee was an hellish nightmare.
Blew my engine in qualifications....again. Then during the race I was unable to push the car without loosing it every two laps...again. I was just a danger on the tracks with all my spins. i was unable to follow any one from the start. the car became twistier as I damage my rear wing then bent three of the four suspension and finally damaged my front wing. At the end I was totally in disarray as I was coping demotivation, anger and fear to ruin the race of someone (which I did).
All I've done on that race are spins you want it you get it, trying not to be too dangerous for those (quite a lot in fact) who lapped me and failed and finally crashed into Mike Becknel.
I should have retired on this one as I wanted to at half race.

Definitly it's not the car which is the problem. It's just the driver totally unsuited to those races. I'm totally unable to drive on short oval without loosing my nerves, my car and any motivation.  On speedway I barely managed to survive. It seems I'm not suited at all to race on oval. Even with the best frame and a very smooth engine I'm just out of pace and pilling up spins after spins.
I'm also drowning in setting up my car as it seems I don't understand how it behave on brakes, on throttle, how to use the gearbox and so on. In fact I don't undestand at all the basic of oval racing. Today I thought my set was correct...well the race proves me it was just a sh... piece of junk.

So I'll have take some time to ask myself "should I stay or Should I go?". I've two weeks to decide to let free my car or not.

A lot of your problems were caused by shifting down in the corners, we advised you to stay in 4th as the car will be easier to drive. But yet you chose to shift down

Results and points are up.

I trust you will look into the fact that the pace car plowed into cars on pit lane? That must not happen again in the fall race. I'm really gutted, I had a great run going on until the incident that sent me into the pits there. Really kills my championship hopes.

Jacob Fredriksson wrote:

I trust you will look into the fact that the pace car plowed into cars on pit lane? That must not happen again in the fall race. I'm really gutted, I had a great run going on until the incident that sent me into the pits there. Really kills my championship hopes.

Do not worry, we will look into it.

Dana Schurer wrote:

After a decent qualifying and a good start, my race was looking promising until the first restart when David cut across my nose and caused front-right suspension damage. After that, a combination of compromised handling, pitstop errors, and a lot of poorly timed yellows made this one to forget.

Congrats to the pointy end of the field!

I was on the lucky end of those yellows. Each time you got within 5 seconds of me, another yellow flag appeared and back to the end of the pack you went.

My race started badly, some confusion at the start meant I had to serve a Stop & Go. I didn't know if you can serve those things at the end of a lap during which a yellow flag appears, and I wasn't taking any chances so waited for the end of the full course yellow. One lap lost.

I worked my way up the field and surprisingly landed a top 10 place, way above what I expected. Mike and Dana were both getting closer, but their bad luck meant my place was safe.

Thanks all for organising and for the racing.

First of all, big apologies to Raul, I was to aggressive at the last restart and shouldn't have gotten into the situation where I nearly took you out.

Insofar, I should be careful with expressing my dislike for the start of the race, where someone hit me hard during the first FCY and broke off my rear wing, resulting in a two minute stop and three laps down right to begin with. Okay, I was on my way to the pits anyways, because I got involved in the collision at the start, but that was rather unneccessary. That wasn't the end of the day, because soon, I came into another carnage that cost me two wheels and another two laps. From there, it was a mostly rather lonely race trying to catch up, but usually being one lap or more behind my competitors in front of me. Speed was alright and should have resulted in a nice result, but so, massively down on the field and seriously pissed off, it wasn't the most enjoyful experience.

Prolly it would have been a better idea to watch soccer tonight...

Yes very intense.
I am very thankful for my 13th place finish. 1st thanks of course to the organizers of the league and race Well done
Thankful to Bob Wilson for two points. I'm in it for the long haul with this league and was contemplating taking the Mongoose-Foyt as my main ride. But when Bob stated that he wanted to race the Mongoose at Milw I figured I'd just see what one-off rides showed up. 2nd, Bob sent me a number of 72 Eagle-Offy setups that helped me a lot.
The #34 Eagle -Offy is a fine car and I'm sure someone with more experience would have Qualified and Finished much higher than I. By Sunday morning I was still learning how to control it.
My apologies to everyone how had issue with me. Please let me know. A number of times my spotter would say "clear" and I'd wonder what was that about since the spotter had not said anything about somebody being outside or inside.
Not much to say about the race. The yellows were very difficult. I never thought about the "2-car length rule". I kept on getting messages "stay behind------". But I missed turning something on so I had no idea of the name of the drivers around me. Also saw "you are going too slow" or "you are ahead of the person you should be following" Not sure how I managed not to get any penalties. I made only one pit stop. Not sure what lap. There was a yellow, got to my pit stall 74 sec for repairs. Green flag while in the pits but another yellow soon after. Some confusion on my part as to when I could leave my pit stall.
As the race progressed I saw that I had enough fuel to go with out another stop. I got to lap 140 but had no clue what lap the leaders were on. Lost control on the backstretch . Tried to make it to the pits but lost control again out of 4 and ended up with my nose against the guard rail. I figured that was it for me and pushed ESC. I got a message on the screen that said "Exit to Monitor & Cancel" or something like that. What is the correct way to exit after an accident? After the field bunched up behind the Pace Car I was able to get away from the fence and get to my pits. By the time my crew put a new nose on the race had ended.

Thanks for reading.

I want to apologize Michael for hitting him, altough to be frank, that's not what happened in my game i just remember getting into that corner, and my car got hit on the right side...but your car was not in front of me directly, nor did i get any damage from that, only on the right side of the car i wonder if it was a lag issue...

Richard Coxon wrote:

A lot of your problems were caused by shifting down in the corners, we advised you to stay in 4th as the car will be easier to drive. But yet you chose to shift down

I've had no choice there. The car was to much understeering in 3rd. It was only driveable in 2nd. In 4th..well no way at all. I will have end my race into the wall.
Something was definitively wrong on my gearbox set. But I was already at the lowest level possible there.
I should have perhaps try to adapt the gearbox a bit longer instead of shorter and use only the 3rd all along

Really very strange car for me in matter of setup

If the car was understeering in 3rd, you were probably entering the corners too fast. But shifting to 2nd wasn't the best thing to do at all. These engines are designed to use the low end torque of the engine to pull the car out of the corners.

it was understeering when I try to accelerate in fact. As soon as I hit the throttle the car was understeering then bruttaly oversteering as I try to compensate.

Get a bad driver with european driving style on an oval and you get a nigthmare I was always trying to use the up end torque. Not sure I could manage to change so radically my driving style

BoB Holada wrote:

Yes very intense.
                       I am very thankful for my 13th place finish.  1st thanks of course to the organizers of the league and race  Well done
       Thankful to Bob Wilson for two points. I'm in it for the long haul with this league and was contemplating taking the Mongoose-Foyt as my main ride.  But when Bob stated that he wanted to race the Mongoose at Milw  I figured I'd just see what one-off rides showed up. 2nd,  Bob sent me a number of 72 Eagle-Offy setups that helped me a lot.
           The #34 Eagle -Offy is a fine car and I'm sure someone with more experience would have Qualified and Finished much higher than I.  By Sunday morning I was still learning how to control it.
           My apologies to everyone how had issue with me. Please let me know.  A number of times my spotter would say "clear"  and I'd wonder what was that about since the spotter had not said anything about somebody being outside or inside.
           Not much to say about the race. The yellows were very difficult. I never thought about the "2-car length rule".  I kept on getting messages "stay behind------".  But I missed turning something on so I had no idea of the name of the drivers around me.  Also saw "you are going too slow"  or "you are ahead of the person you should be following"  Not sure how I managed not to get any penalties.  I made only one pit stop.  Not sure what lap. There was a yellow, got to my pit stall   74 sec for repairs. Green flag while in the pits but another yellow soon after. Some confusion on my part as to when I could leave my pit stall.
As the race progressed I saw that I had enough fuel to go with out another stop.  I got to lap 140 but had no clue what lap the leaders were on.  Lost control on the backstretch . Tried to make it to the pits but lost control again out of 4 and ended up with my nose against the guard rail.  I figured that was it for me and pushed ESC.  I got a message on the screen that said "Exit to Monitor & Cancel"  or something like that.  What is the correct way to exit after an accident?    After the field bunched up behind the Pace Car I was able to get away from the fence and get to my pits.  By the time my crew put a new nose on the race had ended.

Thanks for reading.

Good finish Bob, thanks for the kind words..always willing to help if I can. History repeated it's self today...The Mongoose was destroyed at the 1975 Rex Mays Classic when Mel Cornett spun in turn 3 and was struck by John Martin on around lap 26...I was on Mel's crew that day. Today it was destroyed again at the start of the race. Kind of ironic.