PC crash my end and it looks serious, hope to see you on track soon :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Oh dear, good luck. I've been looking in Jan sales for a new for myself. Haven't found anything worth recommending yet...Best I've seen is an i5 Lenovo desktop with separate graphics for 599...........
This was my first venture into 66s, and the first time I have driven the mod in a couple of years. I think I have a lot to learn, as I cannot get tyre temp, no matter what tyre pressure/wheel/bump rate/rubbers I use. I ended the race with 120/130F (about 50C) apart from my front left...that can't be right??
I knew I was 2.5 secs behind the likes of Dean from a practice race last night, so spent my day (sad!!) playing with all the 2L cars to see what felt best, and ended up in the Brabham BRM. Happy to end up only 1.4 secs behind Tristan, and pleasantly surprised that this meant P4. As far as I could see the getaway was pretty clean, but I could immediately see it would be hard to stay with Tris, Dean and Clive. What was less clear was that Florian would provide so much competition. He might have been Q5, but 0.5 secs behind meant I was hoping to stay on Clive's draft and lose Florian. This was not to be, and finishing the race with 9 laps fuel might suggest why...
Florian kept coming at me then falling away, and I assumed he was having to cook his tyres to get close and hold back to cool them. He made a couple of attempts to pass me into T1, but made sensible decisions to hold back. At one stage I could see him waving his fist in my mirrors. Quite funny, but perhaps energy better spent on concentrating?
Eventually though he got past, about L16. I didn't think he'd have the pace to gap me, and I expected a drafting competition. Sadly it all came to an end at T1 at the end of the next lap. At the time I thought I had cocked it up and rear ended him, but looking at the replay I'm happy with my braking point, and noticed that Flow is fishtailing ever so slightly suggesting he had *marginally* overcooked it. Contact occurred, and that's a shame, I don't think either of us did much wrong...
I then did what I shouldn't have - let him rescue himself before I moved off... That left Rainier right behind us, but I assumed we'd pull away. The incident certainly rattled my concentration, and also seemed to affect Flow, as he didn't move away as fast as I'd have liked, and didn't want to start fighting with Dave. I was therefore happy that I was able to draft Flow on the straight, and move away from him....however, either because of broken concentration, or a loss of tyre temp, I had two offs in the next couple of laps, and ended up behind Andreas, Dave and Flow. Not too sure what happened to Flow, but Dave lost it just as I came close and let me by, and that meant I had about 7 laps to catch Andreas, who was 8/9 secs up the road...
I love this situation, and went for it. I was delighted to get right behind him in about 5 laps (suspect he had an off which helped?), but this turned to terror as I tried to take him in the run down to T1 on L33. To start with he disappeared for a full 4 seconds, then returned to dance around the screen for another 5 (Andreas, I've checked the server replay, its definitely you, not me...!). Not too sure who was warping, but its a mriacle we didn't feel the wrath of the GPL crash engine...
I thought that was it, but the last lap was...interesting... Just as we crossed the line to start the lap Dave R was trying to get his failing car (?) into the pits, and then a few corners later BB was having issues. Sadly this unsighted me for the start of the fast uphill section, and when I misjudged the entry into Hondenvlak and lost a fraction on Andreas I suspected that was my chance of P2 gone. However the fun wasn't over, as Jethro gave us both a moment as we found him in the middle of the track at Panoramabocht. I seemed to get the better of that, and tried my best to get a better exit out of Pulleveld than Andreas. I think I actually did, but it just wasn't enough to get me past, and I ended up 0.11 behind. Superb fun.
Vielen Dank fuer die Spass, Familie Gebhard!! And well done to Dean for nuking the opposition.
Arf^3