iRacing Season 5 - Phillip Island - January 02, 2011

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

That was intense.

Intense is a very good word for it.

Made a spur of the moment decision to switch to GT3 only to find the grid quite lopsided compared to round one. With Picnic in the Mustang too we had a good spread for Team Shark though and I was pleasantly surprised to find more steering feel than I remembered from when I last drove the car, allowing me to show some reasonably good pace, well short of Dario's speed but comparable to the rest.

Not quite sure how I ended up ahead of Raimo after qualifying 3rd but I threw away the place when I dropped a wheel off and fell back to third before my stop. Fuel usage was higher than I expected so I had to stop slightly ahead of half distance. Bumped the fuel up one click thinking that would be plenty and changed tyres; resumed somewhat down the order but on clear track and pushed very hard until Raimo and Dario stopped. Was surprised how much time I gained over Raimo, and even more surprised to see Dario pit again to serve his penalty.

That put me in an unexpected lead and I carried on pushing hard, but the gap reduced fairly quickly and I was wearing my tyres out muich quicker than during the first stint. To male matters worse, the fuel was looking increasingly tight, but with a big gap behind the pair of them I decided to just keep pushing, and if they both got past me I would splash and dash. Once past Raimo, Dario wasted no time catching and passing me, and Raimo was soon all over me like a bad suit, but with the laps ticking down I somehow managed to hold him back despite him being very obviously quicker in some places.

Fuel was becoming critical and I had about a lap and a half left when the white flag came out. After defending like mad for one final lap I crossed the line with half a litre remaining to take a hard fought second place.

The Corvettes were mostly very sensible. I think there were two occasions where they tried to pass round the outside of T2 and T9 when I was on worn rubber and just couldn't hold a tight line, and we had one very scary moment near the end where Mustangs on three difference laps and Corvettes all ended up packed into turns 2, 3 and 4 with unfortunate consequences for one or two of them, but these things happen.

Results up

If "Peter Ridley" could wave so we can identify your forum ID I'll link the results up properly (though you may want to forget this race ).

[Raimo Piiksi]

Wow epic racing again guys 

Could hold a decent pace and stayed out until lap 28. After pit Dave was in front and Dario behind.
Dario came up on my back pretty fast and even if its difficult to pass. He only needed 1,5 laps to find a way past 
Hot on his wheel I managed to follow him to catch Dave, and we had a very enjoiable last laps with accident in front of us, and at one point we where side by side through a copple of turns with vetts and laped stangs. We both survive and I got one more chanse to draft and pass down to hairpin, but a lapping vette came up behind so I didnt dare to take the risk.
Those last laps was crazy, and I reccon Dave was sweating as much as I did 

Cant wait till next race, even tho Laguna is not my favorite track 

[popabawa]

I think the results import is broken, I seem to be leading the GT3 Drivers Championship!!!

I knew I'd struggle here, it's not my favourite track and there were some big boys out to play as well... After a small family emergency interrupted qualifying I decided to stick with my 'tortoise v hare' approach and take it steady and it pretty much paid off.

A safe 4th was about as much as I could expect, not being able to even come close to matching the pace of the top 3, grats guys.

You Corvette drivers were fantastic

I think Samu said he'd be joining us next race, that means I have 2 weeks to enjoy my championship lead...

[Gazza49er]

That had to be the hardest thing ive done in Iracing, concentration levels needed were intense.

Qually was mad, and i just couldn't find a clear lap until one final go with 3 mins left and managed to sneak up to 6th.

Start was great, was keeping up with the guys ahead and managing to keep Ian behind, settling down until the Stangs came up    They were all very good but it was very hard to keep your head in the traffic. Made two little mistakes when i was over cautious going into the last corner staying behind a Stang and Ian took advantage (good move), and then i got confused in traffic and missed my braking point and hit the brakes to hard and spun across the corner luckily not hitting anyone but this let Simon past.

Was managing the tyres ok and did a reasonable pitstop and then was mostly on my own for the second stint trying to catch Simon but had no chance really unless he made a mistake.

Overall happy to finish and 7th isn't to bad but could of been a little better.

Grats to both podiums. 

[GizMoTo]

i was over cautious going into the last corner staying behind a Stang and Ian took advantage (good move),

that was a cracking race with you from the start;)

 I could keep pace with you but to pass needed something to give me the advantage I saw you had eased off to see what the Mustang was gona do I had a fraction more time to see what was going on  and the gap started opening up I was able to keep in tight and  I floored the gas and went for it,    it was my only chance so I took it 

[Mike Wrightson]

That went as well as could be expected

I was very lucky not to miss this race with a broken hand!  (Wii bowling should not be done close to a coffee table) but it was OK after practice and I managed a new PB in qually for only 5th on the grid!

All i could do was drive my own race and see what came of it.  Stayed with the lead group for a bit and got past Darren when he misjudged a Stang.  I repaid him the favour quite a few laps later and I cold not close up again.  After a spin I was even further back and I was almost resigned to 5th place.

Ran as long as the fuel would go, which let me take a shorter fill and a fresh set of tyres.  Now I just went for it to see what would happen.  Surprisingly I was gaining a bit.  Then I gained a lot on Brendan and with 10 to go I was right on him when he went off at the hairpin.  Piled on the pressure and was rewarded when he locked the rears and I nipped past into T10.  Had to push really hard to keep him far enough back that I could still plan my approach to traffic and it worked out.  I almost didn't realise I had caught right up to Darren on the last lap, but I couldn't get close enough to worry him, but 3rd was excellent!

Great race guys and congrats to Steven, you were in a different class today

[Paul Thurston]

Can I hijack this thread with a quick advert for Tuesday's sprint league race?

It's Indy cars at Road America.

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8806.0

Thanks for listening.  Please carry on. 

Paul

[mr_oily]

Absolutely gutted to miss this one, had been looking forward to it since the Watkins round but having been away for NY just couldn't make it back in time unfortunately.

Brilliant to see the good support for the series continue, catch ya at Laguna!

[Ste Jones]

After my false start at Watkins Glen, that was much more like it   I was a bit worried about my race pace after practice on Saturday, as I was really murdering the right-front, but I tried a few tweaks before the race and, for once, they actually worked. The car was a bit scary on cold tyres but, after the first few laps, I had about 10-12 laps where the tyres didn't really drop-off at all. I'd even go as far to say the handling was sublime!

I will apologise to the guys at the front of the grid for my rather over-ambitious start. I didn't want to keep the field bunched all the way down the straight to the green but forgot just how far down the straight the start/finish line was. I took off and it seemed to be an age before the race 'officially' went green. I normally hate it when people bolt as soon as the pace car comes in but I almost did exactly that.

Finally, I'll just reiterate what others have said, the Mustang drivers were all superb. I'm sure I probably pulled a few dubious manouevres on some of them but you only have a split-second to decide which way to go sometimes, and you don't always make the right decision everytime! That said, I only had one really scary moment in the entire race, which was just one of those things anyway. I just want to thank the person who decided to put a gravel trap on the outside of the lefthand kink before the hairpin, otherwise I'd have been buried in the wall!

Congrats to all the other podium finishers and thanks to Adam for organising everything

[Mike Wrightson]

Some race video.

First section is what happens the first time the Vette's lap the Mustangs, then some in-car with me chasing Brendan near the end for 3rd place and some TV cam from after I got past him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ELwPX6osaw

[popabawa]

Great vid Mike!

The first section is pretty exciting seeing the lapping, it's pretty hectic but nice to see very controlled and sensible driving overall

[lazlow]

Any chance someone could make the replay file available...I forgot to save mine, and I need to look at an incident.
I know that the file size is big but I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

[GizMoTo]

Any chance someone could make the replay file available...I forgot to save mine, and I need to look at an incident.
I know that the file size is big but I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

I have it but at the moment I've nowhere to upload it to and I think 539 MB {.rar} file is to big for email  actual replay is 846 MB

if you have anywhere I can put it I'll gladly upload it for ya

[lazlow]

Any chance someone could make the replay file available...I forgot to save mine, and I need to look at an incident.
I know that the file size is big but I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

I have it but at the moment I've nowhere to upload it to and I think 539 MB {.rar} file is to big for email  actual replay is 846 MB

if you have anywhere I can put it I'll gladly upload it for ya

539 MB ...didn't think is was going to be that big!! Think I might give this one a miss....that'll teach me for not saving it

[GizMoTo]

if ya can give me a rough idea of what laps you want to look at I can cut it down for ya ??