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Asbjeurn Tverberg
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« Reply #18 on: January 14, 2009, 08:56:00 PM +0000 » |
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"Bugger" was the word of my race. The first bugger was a result of us logging into VROC instead of iGOR. There I have my RSC and NGPLS nick, Niki Auda, and when I logged on to the race server I logged in as Niki Auda. I had to get out and change personality. Bugger! Got in again and discovered that my car was a Ferrari (I'd decided to drive a Cooper in this race instead of the usual Ferrari). Bugger! Got out, and only just noticed that Jack asked if I was okay before I logged in again with the right car. There was only 15-20 minutes left of the practice when I finally could start driving.
Was behind Steve and Sam at the start of my practice, but managed to get a time better than Steve's, so by race start I was pretty certain I had P2. To my surprise I was placed on P3 on the grid! Steve had beat me in the last second of the qual! Bugger!
Start was okay. I tucked in nice and cautiously behind Steve, just to avoid any trouble before we had got well away in the race. In Hawthorn he spun, and I only just missed his tail with a manouver that made me pretty proud of myself. Tried to catch Sam, but it didn't take long before I spun out myself and had to see most of the field pass by. Bugger! Then I had to fight my way back up through the field, and with a series of pretty good laps I finally got up behind Jack. Up towards Hawthorn I tried to slipstream, but he didn't leave much room on any side of the track, so I couldn't decide wich side to pass him on, and stayed behind. That made me make a really clumsy manouver, when I braked a little to less, and nudged him in the gearbox a little, not much but still enough to give him extra speed into the turn, and sendt him out on to the grass. Luckily he kept control of the car and avoided the bank. I stayed behind and waited for him to rejoin before I took up the hunt again, but now my flow was gone, and I made a series of mistakes that effectively took me out of the fight for third.
I hadn't completely given up though, since Jack wasn't more than 5oo meters in front, I believe, but when Sam lapped me that gave me a nut to crack. I wasn't that slow compared to him, and in some sections I was a bit faster, and I wondered what to do if I was in a position that I could've passed him. Would I be allowed to do that, or would I have to stay behind him, and hope that we both would catch Jack? I had the same situation in a race in the 40th Anniversary World Championship, when my lack of concistensy brought me one lap behind a driver that was slower than me in outright speed. Then i wasn't concistent enough to get past him anyway, but still I wondered what to do if I got the opportunity. Anyway, I never got in a position to pass Sam, and before I knew, the checkered flag was waved as we passed the start/finish line, five or six laps too early. Bugger!
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