Round 2 - Int. ACV Euro-Sprint - Spa-Francorchamps [Sept 25th]

R1:
Killed by someone ..
R2:
Killed by someone ..

Annoying.

Race 1: In the top 5, car gets twitchy under braking for Les Combes, I get hit by a BMW, I drop to 16th.
Race 2: In the top 3, car gets twitchy under braking for Les Combes, I get hit by a BMW, blown engine, DNF.

I like the 4WD Mondeo. It's a thicc boi that may need to lose a few pounds, but other than that it has no real vices. You can drive circles around the 2WD cars.

So my race 1 went well. Kind of saw it coming, what would happen on lap 1. Came through without a scratch on my car to finish 9th.

Race 2 was a disaster. Could avoid most of the chaos on lap 1 only to make a huge mistake myself at the bus stop and took out Oyvind, who had had a fine day until. I'm so, so sorry, really embarrassed.

The rest of the race was just damage limitation. Had some battles where I tested the limits of the car and this sort of racing. Almost flipped on the final lap, guess I would have deserved that...

R1: Started from the back without time, saw the mess at Eau Rouge happen infront of me, slightly hit an Audi and continued on.

Was nursing a slight issue with the Beemer under brakes(locking them up) and got up close and personal with Jukka's and Jason's Mondeos without intention to, sorry guys. FOV 33 aswell so I only knew space was there or not when the outside car turned in.

I somehow went up to 13th place.

R2: This time, Les Combes was harier and I narrowly avoided running into domino'd cars, but had some bumps with Jan. Then had to take a cut warning for avoiding Oyvind and Jacob at the Bus Stop.

On lap 2 into Les Combes, I must've remembered my brakes from R1 so thought to brake in time, but got majorly "bummed" and flew across the corner complex trying not to crash(and got my 2nd cut warning).

In the end, I was gifted P3 when Thiago lost his rear wing and Juha and Anders came together, didn't get it on the road by sheer performance

As usual my quali was bad,my best turn was canceled by a Blanchimont overtracklimit
I was able only to make a poor lap at the end 2 sec out of my best lap in pratice.

In R1 i was very lucky on the start,pass to 21 to 14 in 2 corner,with some cars stalled and a very impressive crash after eau rouge,i was fear to be bump when i slightly back off
Was not the best race i made but i was 14 th,with some guys after me,tyres were a mess,and in the last turn Dylan touch me,i spun and lost 5 sec and 2 place,but at the Eau rouge i miss my braking and got a drive trough (3rd time ),so i finish 19 th .

R2 was the oposite,correct start,in the Kemmel braking someone hit me hugely on the back...car damaged i was close to DNF but that was still drivable,only really lost time in Pouhon and have some unexpected understeer sometimes...,i make a huge mistake when i forgot to brake in blanchimont,i hit lateraly the tyre wall but the car was fine miraculously  
I back up the pack of Andrew and my teamate and have some great fight with Andrew,very ballsy but very clean,cleverly he wait a mistake by my part,and i did,little mistake but that was enough for him to pass me
I follow him for the last 7 or 8 laps,with my tyres becoming to die little by little,at the end it's 15 th with the DNF,drive trough,etc....

Finally that was good race,really like this car and i think i'm getting better to drive and set it.

Too much mess on the first lap

Cannot complain about anything.
Downloaded the track just before qualifying, only did some laps to find gear setting. Got no lap in qualifying because of track limits and starting from P28 - OK what else to expect without training.

R1 - avoided everyone who's gone flying , climbed up better than expected. Then I lost my car fighting against Mick. He waited for me, thanks for that but you should have driven without that, was my own mistake. He lost so much positions, felt a little sad for him. P15 at the end with a little luck.

R2 - avoided everyone who's gone flying, ended in the Top10 and had amazing fights with Michael and Dylan - I think the best ones I had in a long time. Thanks for racing in such a great manner!

Only had one cut in both races, but almost killed myself with that one.

I want to stress again, if you feel you were taken out in an unfair manner, PLEASE PROTEST, don't just sulk. We are trying to improve the driving standards. If people have to sit out races to learn, so be it.

Ah ok, now I know why I have been so slow. Must have driven the wrong track version looking at those laptimes

Results and Points are up!

The fastest laps are slightly scewed because of the descrepancy between the start-line and the lap-line.

Sorry Jason for contact at race 2

First of all, PM any of us admins if you feel you've been wronged and we'll look at it (Like Richard said). Because of the sheer crazy-ness that the opening laps seems to have been, I'll be having a look at it when I've got some extra time.


Race Report:

Practice:

Didn't spend that much time practicing for this event and it showed. Have had a bit of trouble finding time for the past couple of weeks but had some extra time yesterday so sat down and worked on the car and my driving.
Managed to find some decent time by simply taking the correct lines, it seems it was all about your line and knowing the exact limit around here.

Qualifying:

Qualifying generally went as expected. I struggled to get the lap together but towards the end I was on a flyer on older tires, decided to run long in two goes, and upon heading for Stavelot 1 I was up 6 tenths but unfortunately Denis typed at an in-opportune time for me so I missed the apex, ran wide and had a cut-track at Stavelot 2.

But anyway, 2nd on the grid with the Nissan around here I was still happy with, just frustrating that I didn't get to PB in Qualifying


Sprint Race:

Had a decent start but then I think I am partly to blame for the opening lap issues. I was on the left with Richard W on my right and I had a call of 3 wide as Thiago came flying in his Bimmer going down towards Eau Rouge and as such didn't dare back off in fear of a 4 wide situation to be created behind.

Promptly Richard turned in and got turned across my front end and I backed off then to give him a chance to recover without too much trouble which I think backed up the field behind.

On the run down Kemmel Straight I was swallowed up by a few of the runners and took a middle of the road approach to Les Combes and had a BMW come flying like shot out of a rocket along with the Audi of Juha. It was purely luck that I didn't get involved in it and was able to sit in 4th by the time we got down to Rivage.

Later on the same lap I think it was, Richard passed Thiago between the Stavelot's and Juha saw his chance to put pressure on the Brazerican (Not sure if you feel Brazilian or American so let me know if you don't like the terminology Thiago ) and when we reached the Bus Stop Thiago I think outbroke himself and Juha in sympathy was a bit too late on the brakes as well and, had Thiago not been there with his mistake or Juha been slightly earlier on the brakes nothing would have happened, but as it was contact was made between the two and I were able to just make my way past and up into 2nd behind Richard.

Spent a few laps behind gaining a bit of time each lap until I got into the slipstream behind that beefy Audi and I immedietly got sucked up to his rear bumper down Kemmel.
Was content to just sit behind Richard like I had done to Juha and Anders at Zolder and once again it worked itself out for me.
Richard ran a bit wide at La Source on Lap 7 and I was able to get through the Hairpin relatively well and had a good run on him through Radillion and down the Kemmel straight and went to the outside. I thought I had braked pretty late but Richard was even later on the brakes, tried to make Les Combes but went onto the cerb and, on two wheels, skittered off the road and I were able to take the lead.

Spent the last couple of laps looking after the gap to Thiago who had made his way back up from 5th or there about after the incident earlier in the race but I were able to hold on and take the win by about 3 seconds


Feature Race:

So now onto the far more dangerous second race of the meeting, just like at Zolder I was very worried about what would happen.

I had a horrible start, I had the revs but managed to bog down on the second phase, had to clutch-kick it to get it moving again and conceeded the lead top spots to Richard and Thiago and nearly had to let Anders past as well but I think he got into a bit of strife at Les Combes and I was able to hold onto 3rd.

Really struggled to get into the grove and it allowed Anders to have several attempts at getting past me and after a few laps he had the run around the outside of me at La Source and then our Swedish communication broke down and as such both of us went a good 15 miles slower through Radillion side by side after both of us thought it was the others corner. A Joker Laughing Juha then came flying down Kemmel and went up between us with a bit of rubbing.

Almost through the race away at Puhon on that lap, was thinking about what was being discussed and broke waaaaay too late, a good halfway down my usual braking zone and had an almighty lose moment. Was just about able to stay out of the gravel and thankfully Anders were un-able to get past.

I think that moment woke me up and I got myself back into the grove and started chasing down Juha.
It took me a few laps but I was finally able to catch him.
Had we had similar pace in the 2nd sector I would have made the move down Kemmel but Juha was making tiny mistakes and slowing us both up so tried moves at Stavelot 1, Puhon and "Piff-Paff" (Les Fagnes) but each time Juha was able make his way back past.
The most impressive of these counter attacks was after my pass at Stavelot. I ran a bit too slow through Blanchimont and Juha went for the inside at the Bus Stop and was able to get the car stopped and turned in while I had to let him past. As I said in TS at the time, great pass there Juha!

While this battling was all good and fun it was getting frustrating since Richard was able to run his own race up to 9 seconds up the road.
I finally managed to get past Juha with 4-5 laps to go, can't even remember now where I got past, I think I made it on the second time of asking at Les Fagnes. Was able to gap his Audi enough on the run to Blanchimont to hold on to 2nd.

Put my head down and chased after Richards Audi. I knew it would be a tall order to make up 8-9 seconds in the remaining 4-ish laps but if you don't try you never know.
Despite the tires screaming for mercy I was pushing them to their limit and partly beyond but I was consistently running at around a second a lap faster than Richard on all but the final lap when I made a few mistakes.

So Richard took the win (congratulations mate, excellent drive once again) while I was able to take 2nd and an impressive 3rd for David from outside the top 10 at the start, staying out of trouble and taking advantage of others.


So, overall, a successful run to look after the championship lead for now. I was worried that this would be a bit of a boogy track for the Nissan. It was a handful when running behind other cars, especially when I was battling with Juha in the Feature Race, but on your own the car was doing decently once I got it to work setup and line wise.
While Richard climbed to 2nd in the championship I was able to extend the gap by another 7 points looking at the total standings so that's certainly a possitive.

Now it's preparation time for the Preis der Stadt Wunstorf at the Österreichring which I do honestly think will be difficult for the Nissan. While it's slippery down the straights, the fast nature of the turns will probably make for a couple of very tense races...

But anyway, thank you to everyone who showed up and put on some good racing despite the opening laps of both races

Sprint Race: I started well, gained positions while the carnage took place and even starting from 24 position, I quickly reached 16 without much effort. On lap 7, my son opened my office door and I lost my focus on the braking of the clamp, turned and crashed with the rear end damaging the car a little. Once again, I finished in 21st position, very close to the scoring zone.

Feature Race: That was very good, especially for the disputes with Mick Chapman. I knew that regularity and keeping the tires within the usage temperatures was critical and I was able to do that. In the end, in a thrilling fight with Mick, I got a blachmont overtaking on the last lap and finished 17th. Each race, I adapt to the car that is very different from what I ran in season 96, by the way, even doing my own setup's, I'm improving my performance.

My experience was a lot of good clean racing.  (Granted I got smooshed up Kemmel in R1 lol though I think that was an already crashing car so no problem - Steve Parker is being very unlucky with the crashes).

Particularly good racing with Herr Webber in R2, a great few laps of back and fore.  And everyone else!  All seemed clean and good to me.

Thanks everyone for great racing!

Respecting rulings from Spa, but I totally disagree with decision.

So Spa was an interesting race for me. Lying in a hospital bed looking up at the clock thinking 'they should all be on the grid round about now, formation lap coming up'
I moaned for a few seconds on the bad timing of my surgery that day, tried not to move too much as a fair few gorgous nurses walked on by. Ah its not all bad i said, then looked up at the clock and saw that the race should be starting. I lay there thinking awww I missed out on the race BOOHOO. But then I read everyone going on a about T1 and pile ups and such and I thought Hmm maybe I had had the better night after all

Thanks to those that sent good wishes. And I look forward to seeing you all at next race