UKGPL Season 24 (2013) Formula 2 Trophy - Reims - Jan 20

[ed76]

When ed?

The importer found you as an historic driver so I had to correct it manually. There is no record of you having joined the team. Did anyone send you an invite?

You may need to reply.

yes, Jonny'o asked me to join the team .

[Geoff65]

Disastrous race, again, not of my own doing. Qualified 6th after setting the early pole time on race fuel.....amazed when I realized my mistake, but happy for the coming race. Couldn't buy a draft in qually, every time I crept up close enough to 'someone' for a draft, the bonehead would spin off at the next corner and rob me!  

Got a fair start and had 4th after T1 the first time. We were all a little hesitant in the lead pack early on but it was settling down ok by the back straight. Until the end of said straight. Jonny O played bowling ball and skittled a large portion of the lead pack, yours truly copping the worst of it....ending up flying inverted over the fence.  
Reset and blasted in and out of the pits for a S&G....then settled down to try and catch anyone ahead of me.....Anyone???....are you there? Nobody for miles, and Jonny had continued without hardly missing a beat up to around 3rd or 4th.....Justice?

Apologies to Boggy for cleaning you up at the end of the back straight on the next lap. I didn't think I was close enough to cause either of us any bother....until you braked about 100mts before me.......Arrrrgh.....all brakes locked and a passenger. Sorry again, should have checked prib to see who was ahead of me. Could have been forewarned then, that you would probably brake earlier than me. No damage done.....must be built by BRM this Protos!!  
Set off again in pursuit of the field, and eventually caught a group comprising Dave Curtis, Pierre, Paul Villiers and after a spin ahead of us, Fabio.
Cracking race Dave, had a blast dicing with you over those middle laps.....which dragged us both, after PaulV spun off at the cornfields, up to the Bernie, Badblood group.

Looked like having the chance  of picking up 1 or maybe 2 more places in a slipstream to the finish line......however, Badblood spun at the last corner tapped the wall and BACKED onto the racing line.....you guessed it, right in front of me. Nowhere to go.....BLAM. Of course, I was getting used to it by then    Instead of picking up 1 or 2 extra places, I lost one to Fabio who drafted past me on the home stretch. Congratulations to all those that avoided other peoples accidents. In his defence, Paul did hand me his position before the line....however unintentionally....so I can't be to upset with him.   

Thanks Dave for an entertaining and fun dice while it lasted. Excellent driving on your part.
Geoff.

[Boggy]

No worries Geoff
My first foray into F2 but just couldn't get braking point at end of back straight?? After our little coming together I ended upside down, so S/R and pitstop and was keeping up with the back of field til header failed on pit straight and had to retire
Cheers
Boggy

[EvilClive]

I think the ghost of Mrs Fujikawa is exacting revenge for the demise of Hiki Waza!! 

Either that or I have an extra large magnet hidden in my car somewhere!!!   For the last few races I seem to be getting dragged into other peoples misfortune and this race was no different.
I made a deliberate decision to hang back at T2, because that is where things usually go wrong on Lap1 and with the draft on this track closing 200mtr gaps is no problem. Sure enough, there were cartwheels and somersaults amongst the leaders and I smirked..........but too soon  ,.    Just as I thought I was going to sneak through and gain about 4 places a car lunged at me and sent me across the grass towards the cornfield!!!
After my 300mtr detour I rejoined undamaged but a good mile behind the leaders and on this track without the draft, that is an almost impossible mountain to climb. I caught Al and we enjoyed some fun laps which got more exciting when Tom joined us in his Mclaren. The party grew when FMG and his Protos caught us ( our slipstreaming moves were actually slowing us down I think lol!).
Again I was thinking "hang back, you can only win positions out of the last corner on the last lap" so I had reconciled myself to sitting back and enjoying the ride..................until................ braking for the hairpin at the end of the straight. Tom was in front of me on the outside with Tim and Al on the inside lane, but I think maybe Tom was being cautious and braked just a little earlier than I wanted to and I realised I was closing very fast. Maybe I would have made it without taking Tom off the track, but I opted to throw it off the circuit instead so I tried to demolish the building on the left.....I failed, but the car agin survived intact.

The rest of the race was lonely and without the tow my lap times were about a second off the pace of all those in front, so I trailed in last.
Big Grats to Phil and the podium and thanks to Al,Tom and FMG for some fun laps.

See you all next time, but I am fitting rubber buffers all around my car for the next race!!

[bernie]

Lol Geoff & Evil sounds like you were having my kind of race 

I spent qually sorting out gear ratios and the race trying to get the feel of the track beyond the outer limits of the first corners . Once I got the hang of staying on track and out of the corn fields the race turned out to be lots of fun , suprised because I wasn't really looking forward to this track from previous experiences with it .

Not looked at the replay yet but think I might have helped someone (Billy ? ) up the escape road on one lap , appologies if that was the case , my solicitor will of coarse argue that you selected reverse gear on purpose 

Grats to the podium boys and thanks to all involved for the fun racing   
 

[BadBlood]

however, Badblood spun at the last corner tapped the wall and BACKED onto the racing line.....

I can promise you that the movement was not intentional - I completely lost track of where I was and found myself facing the right way. I thought I would let you past and slowed but saw that you and Fabio were battling and pressed the accelerator as I didn't want to give FL a place as well and got.... nothing. In the melee, one of the kids balls had got under my pedal and stopped it depressing. If I had gone for it from the corner, I would have had time to sort it...

Jim Clark never had to deal with this sort of thing y'know

[Nigel Smith]

Feeble excuse that Paul, you could almost say 'a load of balls'. I can go one up on it too. Last season, can't remember which race, my son hadn,t put the tortoise back in its vivarium, which is in the loft too. Guess where he decided to rest from his wanderings?

[BadBlood]

I have heard of cars being 'torpedoed' but never 'shelled' 

[Geoff65]

I think the ghost of Mrs Fujikawa is exacting revenge for the demise of Hiki Waza!! 

Either that or I have an extra large magnet hidden in my car somewhere!!!   For the last few races I seem to be getting dragged into other peoples misfortune and this race was no different.

Hang on a minute, I only ever had 1 guest drive as a Waza last season.....she's not picking on me too is She??

[EvilClive]

"Hell hath no fury.........." ?

Her influence is far reaching, even from beyond the grave perhaps.

[FullMetalGasket]

I think Evil Al and me made so much trouble for each other that we were caught.

The fact you were fighting instead of working together meant I was holding position approx 6 seconds back - I eventually managed to get the Protos to exit the hairpins a bit faster after a few laps and gained maybe a second over the space of the next 8 or 9 laps.
I only really gained when Natan had his off and rejoined behind your pack and myself before the main straight - I had a draft all the way to the bottom of the hill - In a Protos that means >180mph! and put me in the trailing edge of Toms' (I think) draft.
From there it was easy to catch you guys over the next lap and things suddenly got interesting again.
Then I misjudged my acceleration out of the final hairpin on the last lap and instead of jumping everyone to take 4th managed to finish a whisker behind Natan about half a second before blasting past everyone 
That trick worked for me in P&G driving a Shelby Daytona, but it seems the F2's were too closely matched to let me repeat it :'(

Shame about the accident at the start - had I not been caught up in it then the Protos should have been a contender for proper victory!

[Rainier]

To close off Season 23 which was the inaugural Formula 2 series I should congratulate Hristo & Phil Thornton as winners of the Light & Heavy Divisions. Phil’s reward is promotion to the Lights – which should pretty much scupper his chances of winning but he won’t be saddled with the Ferrari or BT14 again.

Not sure at all !

Congrats Phil for your win with the Light Division.
It seems you really want to drive again with the Ferrari DinoF2 

Congrats to Ed/Bip/Shunji/Eric for his fantastic win on the Heavy Division.
I made one error by distraction and could not follow him but I have no regrets : Ed and his Matra were really faster than my Brabham and me.

Thanks to Ed's slipstream, I got a very lucky pole position.

[ed76]

Jonny has forced me to come and race just started he tried to eliminate me ! With friends like him, you do not need enemies . 
Fortunately I managed to jumped into Giovanni's wheel , which allowed me to return to the head of the race.
I stayed safely in 4 or 5th place to wait between the leaders kill them.
Very strange , I do not understand the Giovanni's maneuver  in a straight line, it seems he has not seen the car "late" in front of him! I was a little afraid of hitting one of two accidents.
After he left one gangster to remove and 10 laps.
But Dave quickly became seppuku and Shunji could make a  "victory triple Banzai" (not easy to master an F2 raising his arms to heaven!)

 

[Phil Thornton]

To close off Season 23 which was the inaugural Formula 2 series I should congratulate Hristo & Phil Thornton as winners of the Light & Heavy Divisions. Phil’s reward is promotion to the Lights – which should pretty much scupper his chances of winning but he won’t be saddled with the Ferrari or BT14 again.

Not sure at all !

Congrats Phil for your win with the Light Division.
It seems you really want to drive again with the Ferrari DinoF2 

Thanks David.  I'm still very surprised to have won but the secret with these machines here was the slipstream.  I didn't make a mistake so I didn't loose the tow.  I lost time under braking for the hairpins but with the long straights that wasn't a problem.  The reason I got to the front was because most other people made a mistake on one of the slow corners and by the time they had recovered they had lost the tow.  A very very rare race, I'm usually the one making the mistakes.  I'm really pleased with a win (due in no small part to JR's brilliant setups )

[tintin]

Hi all,
good fun during the last laps with 4 cars together.
Qualif , i'had the last time ... 
Sorry for the shock with G.Giovani without consequences .
It's a pity for Jonny'O : he should have to win easily against ED76/Asunaru