Round 4 - Grand Prix de Spa [Jul 16th]

 connection lost

everything was ok

So much fun! But I think I needed a co-driver. Was very interesting to see how the group 5 battle turned out. In the long haul, I was leading the class, and if I would have kept it up I think I could have won. But 3 hours pushing hard is a long time, so eventually I wrecked big time at the top of Radillon. I pushed hard all the time since I didn't think I would have the stamina or even the interest to do 6 hours of racing in one go. In the end, it was a loss of concentration that got me. Lots of fun on the way though, good luck to the rest of the competitors!

Argh! Took over the Ford and the moment the timer showed Zero, rF crashed Thank goodness we got a second iron in the fire. Go Juha, go Jan!

Une fois de plus, trahi par les freins au 85ème tour ! pourtant réglés à 85% !

Je crois que je vais abandonner le Gr.5, trop frustrant !

Got tagged at the end of the straight on the first lap-then hit a wall, the car (in which I admittedly had very little practice) didn't drive the same since.

Understeered like a pig mid corner, and oversteered on the exit-resulting in many spins and many visits to gravel traps-apologies to Michal Janak and Michael Dreschler for our contacts, and Martin Lacina went intpo a wall trying to avoid my car.

I struggled on-mainly just wanting Raul to have a chance to drive. Despite its damaged state I think he'll do okay with it.

Hate that it was a lousy run, but it just worked out that way...

After 100 laps the Coxon/Wilks Ford has a 3 second lead over the Mikula/Urick Porsche which is closing in. The second 956 driven by Kowalski, Drechsler and me is a lap down. Titz/Wever in the Rondeau are two laps down and two laps further back are Acerclinth/Jundt/Jacques with the Sauber.

Group 5 has three Lancias on the lead lap, Stephens leading by Chapman and Haas.

Yves Plaçais wrote:

Une fois de plus, trahi par les freins ! pourtant réglés à 85% !

Je crois que je vais abandonner le Gr.5, trop frustrant !

+1

###

Sorry to Gerard, little misunderstanding before Blanchimont, couln't avoid the contact

But please all Group 5 drivers, don't lift throttle or even brake in the middle of the corners or straight afterwards. Had some very dangerous moments because of that. Just drive on your own line, if a Group C Car loses some time behind you, it's their problem.

Unfortunatelly disco for me for this one. But nice race. Im aware that my internet connection is not for this long races.

Yves Plaçais wrote:

Une fois de plus, trahi par les freins au 91ème tour ! pourtant réglés à 85% !

Je crois que je vais abandonner le Gr.5, trop frustrant !

Must be something you are doing Yves as other 935's have finished races.

Sorry it happened though. You was running well

Scott Urick just retired the #2 956 after ripping a wheel off. Jan Kowalski just unlapped himself in the #1 956 and with 22 laps to go the gap between him and Richard Wilks 2.21. Jan Titz in the Rondeau is now third.

Emmanuel Haas leads Group 5, 2.05 ahead of Mick Chapman.

Richard Coxon wrote:

Must be something you are doing Yves as other 935's have finished races.

Juste rouler à un rythme un peu plus rapide que les autres 935 !

Looks like fate said no, yet again in this series, to a finish for me.

A very rare connection loss....local issue, we temporarily lost all internet service. ...for about 5 minutes.

Damn....felt like I was having a decent run, all things considered.

Oh well. Completed over 100 laps. Longest stint I've ever done, personally.
A nice challenge and test.

...maybe next time.

Matthias Weber wrote:

But please all Group 5 drivers, don't lift throttle or even brake in the middle of the corners or straight afterwards. Had some very dangerous moments because of that. Just drive on your own line, if a Group C Car loses some time behind you, it's their problem.

+1000000 a couple times i came up on a gr5 car and was planning to follow thru a corner and pass the next straight (since the corner speeds are actually very similar), but had the car infront brake early/extra on line and had to swerve to avoid. i realize they are trying to be helpful/nice, but never try to let someone by when the cars are on the same line, only when someone is either staggered to the side or along side is it a good idea to lift early or brake extra. i would much rather follow a car thru a corner and loose a bit of time then having a close call. that said, a couple gr6 cars were really aggressive with their lapping so maybe the gr5 cars were just expecting all the gr6 to be like that, when none should be.

Oh no!!!! Connection lost again

Bruno Chacon wrote:

Oh no!!!! Connection lost again

Ah, dommage, Bruno !

James Knowles wrote:

, and Martin Lacina went into a wall trying to avoid my car.

Its the race i was in bad time on the bad place. The worse thing is my disconnection.

Sortry to P956 (Mikula) we hit when i want let you go but my LF brake went off just in this braking, then m,any laps disaster trying fix in pits but no fix, i tryed do next laps , it was wery hard but when 2nd front brake went off it was much better, so i got 9th place overal

Results are up; points will follow shortly.

Tough race. Especially the last stint with 956 was brutal. Pushed 51 laps and nearly still get the C100. Great race by them. I lost too much with 2 spins at turn 1 (+6s min.) and one behind Richard, so there were the +10s in the end at the finish. But lapping in 2.17-2.18s was very risky, so i was happy not to crash the like at Portland.

The lapping was good this time (for me), some confusing situations with cars not getting off the racing line, but its really difficult with these different groups. Nobody was hurt, well then. Had a little misunderstanding with Jason Whited. You made the right thing by going left at braking zone for the Bus stop, so it was my fault.

Congrats to Richard and Richard, and all finishers. And thanks for the great team (Juha and Michael) , useful information every lap, couldnt get answers as quickly as you were calculating, too busy with the wheel. Too bad the game crashed during the swap with Michael for his stint with the C100.

DQ me......wrong engine.....TWIT

Gnaaaah...

That 10 seconds I lost when I went into the gravel @ Rivage early on, and the time lost when I was collected by James, and how that incident completely threw me out of my rhythm


Excellent job by Richard & Richard though and congratulations. Fast and steady, you sure showed what's possible with that car!

Mick Chapman wrote:

DQ me......wrong engine.....TWIT

OH NO!     Man, that's too bad.

Unlucky Mick, you drove well.

Thank you for being honest with us.


That was probably the best win of my sim racing career. Was great to keep the Ford up with the Porsches at the beginning.

Thanks to my teammate for bringing it home and withstanding that much pressure.

Unlucky Jan, Juha and Michael, you drove a great comeback, same goes for Pascal and Scott. Very unlucky guys.

Thanks for all the kind words 

Richard Coxon wrote:

Unlucky Mick, you drove well.

Thank you for being honest with us.


That was probably the best win of my sim racing career. Was great to keep the Ford up with the Porsches at the beginning.

Thanks to my teammate for bringing it home and withstanding that much pressure.

Unlucky Jan, Juha and Michael, you drove a great comeback, same goes for Pascal and Scott. Very unlucky guys.

Thanks for all the kind words 

Grats team Richard!

Jan Kowalski wrote:

Congrats to Richard and Richard, and all finishers. And thanks for the great team (Juha and Michael)   , useful information every lap, couldnt get answers as quickly as you were calculating, too busy with the wheel. Too bad the game crashed during the swap with Michael for his stint with the C100.

Thanks Jan. I have to do something to justify my place in this team because my lap times are on a different planet compared to yours. It was great working with you two. The Ford could have had a nice result but it wasn't to be.

I started with the Ford and got damage on lap 1 when someone sent a Lancia into my side. After that I spun at Stavelot and lost confidence so dropped the rythm and waited for my stint to end.

The Porsche was more fun. I reckoned I could catch Scott Urick but I wasn't making much of an impression despite setting the fastest laps I set all week with the race setup. Jan took over and showed how it should be done, just missing out on the win.

Congratulations to all finishers and the Richards on the win. Second place means more useful points, but there's a trend showing and I don't really like it.

Monza 6 Hours: 2nd by 0.9 seconds
F1 Hockenheim: 2nd 0.6 seconds
Spa 1000 km: 2nd by 10.9 seconds

I think I'll have to change my name to Barichello soon.