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This is the post for the results of the Privateers race.
Could you submit any incident reports by close of play Friday 29 January.

Firstly congrats to Hristo and Rick in the championships who both pipped my team mates John and Al H by one point respectively.
(subject to any moderation of course).

Not unhappy with qually but right at the start of the race smoke started billowing out of my engine and it died - never had that happen before, short race.
Apologies to Mike Turner who couldn't avoid rear ending me as I was almost stationary by then - see you finished anyway.

I won't bore you with why Al H ended up hosting (thanks Al) but, not to pre-empt Phil, things should be looking up on the server front from next Season.

All in all I've enjoyed the Graduates and you guys have given me a (fairly) easy moderating job due to the high quality of driving. Roll on Season 19...

Qualified reasonably well with a rare (for me) sub 1.30 and set off cautiously bearing in mind the tight grid. I saw a clear track ahead and was steaming away when WHAM and I found myself spinning 50ft in the air whilst thinking 'What the  ....was that?' It was only on watching my client replay that I saw the that VB had disappeared from view thanks to GPL's online display limitations only to reappear an instant before I smashed into him. Miraculously though, despite my tropospheric detour, the Lotus landed on all four wheels, undamaged and facing the right way. (Pretty realistic this GPL crash engine eh!). I managed to avoid further incidents and finished a satisfying 4th though someway behind the podium.
It's been a an enjoyable season despite the technical problems that marred my first few races (now apparently resolved).

Do have a look at the replay of the crash - I think it deserves the  Crash of the Season award :laugh:

First full season in the 67 ‘s & I think I more persevered than anything else. Difficult beasts to tame – particularly over 30 odd laps on pro-settings. I started 9 races and finished 3. Whilst I’m still Mr Slow the consistency is showing some improvement.
Pleased to have finished the season with over 100 championship points and a 2nd place finish at Silverstone. Mostly down to surviving more laps than others.
As for Monza, I beached the Brabham at Parabolica early on. Escaped the gravel trap but with some minor damage that took a bit off my top line speed (2 secs per lap) but saw me through to 5th place.
Had a first hand view of the airboune Mr Turner off the start grid & thought “that’s a write off” – he must have landed on super-bouncy-inflated tyres.
Season was pretty much dominated to Ric & Al & I suspect they have earned “alien citizenship” & will move up next season.  Hopefully there will be a few more entrants at “mere mortal” level and the moderators will be kind in their selection of tracks. Laguna & Bremgarten were a hand-full but drivable – Adelaide I just never worked out.

Really rotten luck for me :(. Quallied well, had a good start & was trailing Rick which was what I needed to do to win the championship. As I approached Curva Grande I saw Bartosz going wide & he ran into the armco... usually that results in the car staying wide & railriding the barrier so I decided to take a tight inside line, but Bart's car suddenly spun back across the track right into my path! Not only that but it now looked as if it was rolling back to the outside line again :o - by this time I'd run out of options & slammed on the brakes which pitched me into the armco & took off a wheel. (Sorry if anyone ran into me after that). Watching the replay, if I'd held the inside line, I might have just made it through as Bart swiftly pulled off track as soon as he regained control but that would have meant heading straight for a sideways car & hoping for the best :P.

Not your fault Bart - just one of those things. A shame to end like that, but considering what a remarkably incident-free season I've had I really shouldn't complain. And looking at Bernie's laptimes in the Lotus, I seriously doubt I'd have held onto second place anyway. WD Bernie & Steve for the podium.  

So it all boiled down to the best out of 8 races & in any other season I should think 4 x wins, 3 x 2nds & 1 x 3rd would be enough but Rick was such a fierce competitor that it simply wasn't! Well done Rick - great job this race & all season :clap:. I was punching above my weight really - pushed hard mid-season & in pursuing Rick I managed to slice 20 seconds off my GPL Rank time ;D You'll be rid of me next season as I'm off to join the Works boys but thanks to all for providing such good clean racing.  

  

Sorry for the late post but have been putting in long hours at work… which is where I am now.  Shhh don’t tell anybody.

Thanks for all the congrats.  It’s ver y gratifying to win the Championship though I wish me an Al could have battled it out head to head.  Big bummer Al that you crashed out.  It was only that kind of luck that could have given me the big trophy.

I new I had to win.  I knew Al had to finish 3rd or lower.  I had a faster car (Eagle) and qualified on the pole.  So far so good.  But then at the start, even though I thought I got a good drop of the clutch, I saw Bartosz and Al just rip off the line and esily get ahead of me!  I guess we were sitting 3 wide on the grid.  (haven’t seen a replay)  Well, the race was on now.  The Eagle helped me catch Al fairly quickly and I managed a pass somewhere… I really need to download the replay.  Then I chased down Bartosz in his Lotus.  I bided my time since there was plenty of race left and I didn’t want to make a screw up passing.  After a few laps he went a little too deep into parabolica and I pounced.  I got up behind him and the draft down the straight pulled me around just before Curva Grande.  I think the pass was clean because I caught a glimps of him in my mirror as I entered the turn.  Then I saw him get sideways as he faded from view.  But with Al elevated to P2 I figured it was game over for me.  I was surprised to NOT see Heller on my pit board a lap later.  Wow! Could it be?  After a few laps I deduced it was game over for him and I thought about easing up a little spare the car and my nerves.  But nooooo, Bernie matched my best effert for the next 20 or so laps.  I couldn’t ease off until about 5 to go but finally brought it home to the cheers of the fans in my head!

Great fun all!  Great season!  Great league!  I’ve enjoyed racing with you guys.  Thanks Al for the good competition and sorry for your bad luck.

That wasn't my best race.

I had a good start and I was leader before T1. I knew that Rick is very fast here, so I pushed hard and hoped that Rick will get involved in battle witch others drivers. That didn't happened.
On lap 5 gap between Rick and Me was just under 1 second.
Unfortunately I've made mistake in Parabolica and all that gap dissapeared. Rick passed me on front straight and then going into GC I've made another mistake. I was just to fast there and lost my rear, I survived this in one piece, but Al had mowere to go and lost his wheel.
When I come back on track I was on P5 and started to chase Michael Turner. I was still quite angry on myself couldn't concentrate, afther few more spins I just pressed ESC and leaved the race.

Congratulations to Rick for winning championship. Hope to see you in Works next season

I really enjoyed this championship. It was great experience for me and I hope to get little bit fasther next season;)