iRacing Season 3 Riley - Watkins Glen (Boot) - Jun 8

[Fred Basset]

Well that went well, took avoiding action in the T1 fun, got the black flag and had to go slow up to the Esses, got punted towards the end of the lap and spun round and a couple of laps later could not avoid someone spinning in the Loop. Too badly damaged to continue.

Not a great evening all in all.

Gary

[Paul Thurston]

Well that went well, took avoiding action in the T1 fun, got the black flag and had to go slow up to the Esses, got punted towards the end of the lap and spun round and a couple of laps later could not avoid someone spinning in the Loop. Too badly damaged to continue.

Not a great evening all in all.

Gary

You did break into the 42's.

[Legzy]

Can't believe the number of drop outs in races

No resets

And people pulling out with perfectly sound cars doesn't help.

I assumed that comment would come back my way, but I joined the race to get some back of the grid lovin racing... not to hot lap with cars 25 secs either side in a car that I'm not exactly in love with (though as I said, it offered a bit of hope tonight).
Maybe it's my fault, maybe I'm one of the few slow coaches in a pretty fast league.

Went & had some fun with the guys on the PnG server instead

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Results will be Results will be here when the membersite comes back.

Just want to say thank you to the team, the sponsors, the organiser, and especially to Paul H for falling off near the end and taking all the pressure off me.

[popabawa]

The site appears to be back but no results....  :'(

EDIT: Phew, it's there now

[Simon Gymer]

Avoided the mess at T1. After that I chased Pops for a bit who fell off as I got close and meant we had no battle. Boo hiss. Then didn't see another car for the rest of the race. Was so boring I'm not surprised Legzy quite as it really was a yawn fest.

[Burtoner]

Link is wrong try this:-

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=2076321&custid=18351

[Adam Parle]

Well .... I limped round for 28 laps with a sick car, feels like an achievement!

Starting down the order was a blessing, I managed to slalom through the stationary cars at T1 and got into a pretty good rhythm, although the pace wasn't stellar .... but then it never is with me in this car .

I managed to catch up with Ken, and getting a good run on him out of T1 gave me a chance to pass into the chicane, Ken didn't fight the pass, so we both made it through safe and sound.  After that I had a 5 second gap to Shark, and whilst that wasn't looking like decreasing any, with Ken behind there wasn't any chance to relax.  The gap was growing, but sadly it all went horribly wrong a couple of laps later, I lost the back of the car on the exit of the chicane, and ended up nudging the wall with the front left.

After the nudge the handling was totally knackered, I couldn't take the right handers with any speed at all, and the car was very very twitchy.  I soldiered on, watching the gaps behind shrink rapidly, and the gaps infront to increase with equal or greater speed .... still ... with the number of folk disapearing I figured it was still worth my while carrying on.

Another contact with a wall (damned twitchy car) left the steering further bent, and me having to steer left to go straight on .... although another nudge on the penultimate lap bent the right front, and straightened the steering out again .

After my cock up left me going backwards through the field, it was a dull dull race for me.  I managed to not make a nuisance of myself with the lappers (I think) - and getting the car home was an achievement in itself.  Ah well .... roll on next race.

[picnic]

I whoever I had contact with in T1 was ok.

Sadly not.  A ton of car hitting my front right wheel in reverse didn't do it a lot of good.

Sorry to have messed your race up to then  :'( I have a propensity for acting like a lemming, if someone has an accident in front of me I run out of available stack and crash in sympathy all too often 

[popabawa]

I got a real buzz out of that finishing 5th but got rather deflated when I saw over half the field failed to finish. That's really disappointing considering the results of the first two races.
Seems to me it's largely the usual suspects who are finishing each week, something to be learned there maybe?

Anyhoo....

I managed to take a whopping 0.6s off my PB in qually to start 8th, I managed to avoid the stationary car in T1 quite handily and was up to the giddy heights of 4th!

Shark was 3s down and I kept it that way for a few laps until he started nibbling away in that *highly* annoying way he always seems to manage when he's behind me I was prepared to block () for the last 28 laps but managed a "noob of the year" move to completely miss my braking point into T8 (the boot heel) and sail into the gravel. I have no idea what happened, I thought, "Aha, there's my brake marker... hang on, that doesn't look right.... ARRGH!". Sorry Shark, I robbed you of (yet another) chance to make me feel totally inadequate

After that, I had Ken and Martin close up. I pitted first at halfway, managed a decent stop, pulled a few seconds out on Martin, and waited, and waited for Ken to stop. I thought he had a cunning plan and was getting quite worried he'd get the jump on me but in the end I think something went wrong and he came out behind Martin.

Second stint was a bit dull, I half-heartedly chased Shark but couldn't make any impact so settled for 5th trying to keep it clean. Gotta say, "well done" to Martin who was lapping consistently all race and kept me honest.

Grats to Dave on the win and Paul and Mike on the podiums  

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Another race where I'm really glad to be on the front row!

Was quite surprised to start in 2nd, unable to get anywhere near Paul's pace, though I'd have been closer if I hadn't stuffed up my final lap in qually when I was a third of a second up on my PB!

After seeing the tyre wear in practice it was clear that a change would be required, so I loaded up half fuel in order to keep the weight down and speed up. Race started well and soon Paul and I were pulling away from Oily and Mike in third. I wasn't 100% happy that I was gaining enough time to counter any no tyre strategies, but I was committed now and all I could do was drive as fast as possible.

I was quite surprised that Paul wasn't simply dropping me; he pulled out a couple of seconds gap, but with the tyres going off from around lap 10 onwards I was able to close back up to under a second as the stint came to an end. Possibly he was running 8 wing, and my 10 was giving me a traction advantage on worn tyres?

Anyhoo, wanted to pit before Paul if possible to try and gain track position on fresh rubber, so I dove in at the end of lap 17. Not a great entry and I was a bit tardy down the pit lane, but the stop itself went smoothly, with Mike pitting from 3rd right behind me, and my pit box was in prime position for a foot to the boards exit.

I didn't know for sure whether Paul was changing tyres - I guessed he was and sure enough he was in his stall as I came round on the next lap - and even better, he emerged from the pit lane a few seconds behind me. Now the question was, could I hold him off?

And the answer was... "yes"! In fact, on the new tyres, despite no adjustment in pressure, the car felt great, better than the first stint. They lasted better as well, and the gap was steady at about 5 seconds until Paul started to close up again with less than 10 laps to go. My tyres were again going off, and it was impossible to push, but I figured I had just about enough in hand to stay ahead to the flag.

As it happened, he spun with about 4 laps to go and I was able to relax and cruise round to an unexpected but very welcome win. Well done to him on being far enough ahead of Mike to still finish 2nd, and to Mike for making it two Sharks on the podium.

Was really surprised to get fastest lap too after Paul did 41s in both praccy and qually!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

p.s. Championship's a wee bit close now!

[Ken Murray]

After that, I had Ken and Martin close up. I pitted first at halfway, managed a decent stop, pulled a few seconds out on Martin, and waited, and waited for Ken to stop. I thought he had a cunning plan and was getting quite worried he'd get the jump on me but in the end I think something went wrong and he came out behind Martin.

Yes I'll come to that.

Preparation for this was non existant for me. I have been away at Knockhill all weekend and didn't have chance to get on the server last night. I was late home tonight and only did about 3 or 4 laps before leaving to do my taxi run. I just got back in time to do one flying lap in qually, which had me well down the grid. That was actually an advantage with the T1 carnage and I was running in the top ten after picking my way through it. As Adam mentioned he soon caught and passed me but then had his off at the chicane. The race was settling down now and I thought I'd check the fuel. I'd only had time to just pluck Dave's setups off the Shark site and I didn't know what fuel we needed so just left it as it was. It had 24 gals in I think!!! Anyway I went a good while but I thought I better change tyres because of my recent experiences in the Mazda. I left the fuel at about 10 gals because I thought someone said somewhere that it fills to the amount you set, rather than add what you set! Dunno where I got that from because it wasn't the case. So I was back up to 20 gals or so and just to round it all off I spun exiting the pits and got a stop and go. I'm glad Adam stayed out in his broken car and saved me from being the last finisher. I had some fun with Mike near the end as he lapped me, but he was probably worried I might rear end him because he pulled over after a while and allowed me to unlap myself!!

[Mike Wrightson]

I wasn't sure how well I was doing here and I hadn't managed a full race distance in the official series, so I had no idea about tyre wear.

Qualified well, 4th place and got a decent start, then got clobbered at T1.  Went spinning round and thought the car would surely be wrecked.  But no!  I rejoined in 4th place and after a couple of cautious laps, the car seemed OK.  So I pushed on.  Caught up to James and finally passed him into T1 and completed it into the esses.  I don't know what happened, but he spun at the top of the hill

Made my pitstop and took fuel only, which was a mistake really as the pace dropped off dramatically afterwards.  Knowing I had no chance of challenging the leading pair, I settled down to bring the car home 3rd.

[Paul968]

Had high hopes for this one, especially after qual, but all things considered Dave was just too good tonight. Given the qual gap I was surprised that Dave hung on so well in the first stint, but he never got close enough to challenge for the lead. Then just before the stop I lost a chunk of the small lead I had when lapping Adam. Dave then pitted first and I stupidly stayed out for 2 more laps, neither of which were great, so when I did my (rather average) stop I came out just behind Dave. Within a lap we were behind Adam again, and this time I lost out even more as Adam let Dave by into T2 but by the time I was close enough to pass we were at the chicane where Adam was very slow (presumably down to car damage). I then tried to close the gap, but Dave was very quick on the new tyres and things stayed much the same for several laps. As we got into the last quarter I pushed even harder and I was closing in, but it was white knuckle stuff at times an in the end it bit me with a spin at the chicane. I had a nice big gap back to Mike anyway so it was no problem to recover and pootle round to the finish, but it was a shame not to see what a couple more quick laps might have done to Dave's composure. As I said though, despite all the excuses, Dave fully deserved the win, and the fastest lap just underlines that. Grats to Mike too on 3rd after the 1st corner contact. Big shame to see all the problems on lap 1 and the resultant drop-outs   Don't give up though Dan, we all want to see you racing. Just try to see if you can learn from the experience. Got to say though that this just shows that no resets do not necessarily improve the racing - they just take people out of the race.

ps just to add, not complaining Adam, just the way the cookie crumbles. I just seem fated to trip over you at the moment