Once upon a time lived a man and he went to see his newborn child to the hospital. He asked around and they directed him to the area where babies were kept. He came to the first room with a sign "IQ over 150". Not too hopeful he went in but the nurse said his baby is not there. He went to the next room with the sign "IQ 150-90". He went in confidently but the nurse said his baby is not there. He was a bit said as he went to the next room with a sign "IQ under 90". But his baby wasn't even in there. So he went on and on the last door there was a sign "Truetom".
I think I cooled down enough to write a report. Or maybe not (pops open another beer). Ok.
Q1 - lucky to have the best time as Q2 was flooded. How was the warmup lap - I don't have much experience in that.
Yes, Ruskus, I started on soft wets - what else can you put on when it's flooded?
Car was going superb and I didn't believe my times - wtf, do I have a speedbug?
Looking into my mirrors I forgot to brake into the 3 - left handed corner. Mistake N'1.
Managed to recover and drove more carefully (with only 2 more mistakes) to half of the race. Even managed to overtake Paul968 and Ruskus.
(Sorry, that was the first time
). The car was slowing down and I assumed it was due to worn tyres. When I pitted I was surprised to see my tyres were not so worn (only about 15).
I also saw I'm using much less fuel. What did I do? "Ok, guys, give me another set of soft wets and only 60 litres of fuel! Hurry up!" The crew looked at me with incredulity on their faces. 3,4,5 second. "HURRY UP, GODDAMIT!" Ok, slow motion goes into motion. Came back on track but the car was going nowhere. Then I got enlightened - MAYBE it's not because of the tyres?! Oh yea, look at the track, look at the sky (no raindrops), do you hear the tyres scraping the dry tarmac?
Ok, what is, is done. You're still 2nd, go, drive, others have yet to pit. Rusky is far, but not
that far! Ok. Drivers went to pit and finaly I was second again, Ruskus 1.07.xxx in front. Go slow, go stable, the third is 45 seconds behind. Rusky PITS! OK! GO! Damn, he's out, 3 sec infront. His tyres are cold, press him, cloooseeer! WTF? 2 sec in one lap? No way. Ok, go stable, the hothead may still make a mistake.
No? No.
Ok, 2nd is ok. Driving.
Go on wet part of the track, cool the tyres down.
10 minutes to go: "You're low on fuel. Pit at the end of this lap."
Pit: "Ok, guys, give me fuel for 15 minutes, no tyres change. Go!" 3,4,5 seconds. "GOOOOOOOOOO!". They must have been confused. Or vengeful. Offended, maybe?
They put 60 litres of fuel in and changed my tyres to unknown dry component. Yes. Really! No, I'm NOT joking. :'(
4th back on track, with no chance of holding the fifth (JonM) behind. I wanted to give up. But also, I wanted to give my superb car, which
luckily heroically achieved the best Q1 position a chance to finish. Jon went by. Really? Didn't even notice, was too busy keeping my car on WET track wearing DRY tyres. 5th - and I must be satisfied, right?
Dave, please add another smilie and name it Truetom. But it has too look REALLY stupid, ok?!
Congrats to all who finished and to Ruskus for a great tactical driving. And to all other drivers, smarter than me (ugh, all of them!
). Sorry to PRibeiro, who spinned while letting me through.
Sorry to another (dunno who) driver who I hooked while we were desperately trying to decide who's gonna take which line.
All of these (apart from my stupid pit-crew) would not have happened if we (I) had more experience with wet races. To smartly realize when the track is getting DRY!
Damn, I work tomorrow. Can't even get drunk!
TT
