iRacing Season 5 Endurance - Laguna Seca - January 16, 2011

[Robin Durrant]

I know, if I wasn't such a gonk then it would have. I was so annoyed at myself. Oh well.

Must mention that the Corvette's were very good tonight. Guessing they're kind of getting used to the Mustangs now. Still one or two dodgy overtakes in to the Corkscrew?! 

[Mike Wrightson]

Can my roll be included in the end of season highlights?

Sure  In fact if anyone has some good racing moments, PM them to me and I'll see about putting a little movie together.

[JazzGreenway]

Well, a good race for me! Had a decent start and managed to hold on to the back of the front runners (except Samu who seemed to be driving a Vette ) until the Corvettes came. I didn't have a whole lot of practice here so the traffic took some getting used to, and that cost me a couple of times. Finally I got into a rhythm and managed to stay out of trouble generally. I had a few minor misunderstandings with Vettes and lapping Mustangs, but no contacts thankfully!

I have to say the driving standard was great, I had no problem putting trust in the Corvettes and even had me giving too much room at times. Thanks everyone!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I'm quite happy with the result but not particularly pleased with my performance. Stuffed up qualifying by stupidly running wide Nico Rosberg style on the pit exit, then losing the tail when the right side reached the tarmac and clouting one of the Corvettes who was coming out behind me.

Real fun battle with Dave. I need to have a few more iR starts before I know whats going on, and he rather jumped me. He made a "cut" mistake at corkscrew and I slithered pass. My first ever iR stop didn't go well and I overshot. Come out 1 second ahead of Dave and the battle was. Trouble was I had shot my bolt. My poor little hands (aaargh you say) were aching and my arms falling off.

I realised during the formation lap that you haven't done many rolling starts; I struggled to keep behind Dario with you using the whole of the track and decided to make sure I was back on the inside line for the final turn come hell or high water, which worked rather well.

For the first few laps I had really, really good pace, getting a 1:38.9, but I destroyed the tyres in the process, and not only got a black flag at the corkscrew, handing not just one place back to Ginsters, but letting Jasper past as well. To add insult to injury I touched the back of a Corvette in the corkscrew and bent the front a bit.

The car felt like junk after that and I couldn't pull away from Adam or Blunder behind. I agonised about whether to take tyres or not but in the end decided that I couldn't afford a reset, and would have to change them and hope that the car's handling would return.

Stopped a lap or two ahead of schedule, and after that the car felt great again; with hindsight I should've stopped 5 laps earlier still, but of course I couldn't know for sure that the tyres were the problem until after I stopped. As it turned out I might just have squeaked past Ginsters who came out of the pits a few laps after me, literally right in front of me. We had a great scrap for a few laps before he started to eek out a gap, until there was an unfortunate mix up with a Corvette that turned him round and I think sucked amnother 'Vette in the mess too. That gave me 4th place back and, unable to make any impression on the ~8s gap to Jasper I just settled into a rhythm and tried not to get too many new black flags, not especially easy with a big bulge of damaged bonnet on the ride side of the car!

Was a tad miffed with myself at the end - almost avoided getting lapped by Samu, missed out by just one lap.

[JazzGreenway]

For the first few laps I had really, really good pace, getting a 1:38.9, but I destroyed the tyres in the process, and not only got a black flag at the corkscrew, handing not just one place back to Ginsters, but letting Jasper past as well.

Hah, I almost ran into the back of you there, didn't realise you had a black flag and figured you'd pick up the pace. It was especially scary since Vettes were lapping us to the right but I managed to sneak past through the middle

[Raimo Piiksi]

Good racing again guys!  and kippis to Samu and Steven

Very slow but exciting start. Iain came up and passed into last corner on lap 0. Looking good for a nice battle when Iain suddenly dropped 
In any game I have ever driven on this track, I always have bad luck. Thats why I have an epic distrust in this track 
On lap 5 into 1st corner 3 vettes where batteling, as I turn in I get a small scape from Brendan and my steering is 50 degrees off. I try 2 more cornes, and deside to call for towtruck. Rest of race was just trying to survive, waiting for what this track could throw up next. Had a couple of hairy moments, and I'm sorry for any confusion or dents.

See you all for the 2h on Daytona 

[GizMoTo]

for a track I totally detest that turned out to be a cracking race can't believe I only had 4 incident {slight off track type} after my practice sessions so I'm more than pleased with my result


sorry to a few Mustang drivers I was a little confused a few time as to your lines the closing speed was real difficult to get a handle on  don't think I touched anybody {well didn't according to the result page} I remember on lap 33 coming out the last turn on the inside of a mustang I caught in the corner of my eye this car loose it on the dirt and to be honest I shut my eyes for a sec and prayed he didn't collect me .it was answered and I was on me way

I seemed to spend quite some time chasing my team mate  in that race which must have been a little confusing to some mustang drivers seeing the same car pass them in quick succession

have to say on the whole the mustang drivers awareness was superb yet again it is good to race with guys ya can be pretty sure of what they are gona do 

well done podium of both classes 

thanks to ALL for a superb night entertainment i think i lost a few pounds in that race with the way my shirt was {had to have a quick shower  }

till next time 

[Reign Man]

First of all, big  apologies to Brendan for the contact toward the start of the race, not really sure what happened, but I just couldn't slow down enough. 

Put some practice time in yesterday for the race and was happy with the car.  The car today felt nothing like it did then.

I got one clean lap qualifying..Just as the chequered flag was waved and managed to pip second place on the grid 

Got a dreadfull start and was immediately down to 3rd place...the car felt awful.  Probably just the pressure    I made a lot of mistakes and lost a couple of places and ended up hitting Brendan into the last corner (so sorry).

I struggled on , the car was understeering like crazy (which I simply loved ) and to make matters worse  I rear-ended my teamate who had just rear-ended Darren  .  It was just a mess, a total mess!! 

After that, Darren and Gazza pulled away while I understeered around the track (oh the joy!) until around lap 35/36 when I pitted.  The car felt so much better, and I was able to have a decent pace up to the finish.

Thanks to the Mustang drivers who were great and sorry to one stang driver who span in front of me and I just could not avoid.   I hope I didn't cause to much carnage on my way through the rest of you stang drivers.

Grats to Podiums  (Gazza for Team PINK in 3rd) 

Roll on the next one

[Mike Wrightson]

That felt better I thought, lets look after these tyres.  I then promptly had a huge slide at T1.  Great!  Plodded round just trying to get to the finish unscathed, but had a few misunderstandings with the Mustangs, even getting a slow-down at T1 after contact with Ian Bassi.  Sorry Ian, thought you'd seen me there

I can not remember that, did we have contact?  I did not have any contact incident points.  Half my fault as I don't even remember seeing you

Ian

Ah, after consulting my replay, you can't remember it because it wasn't you, it was Raimo    Apologies again Raimo.

[Raimo Piiksi]

Ah, after consulting my replay, you can't remember it because it wasn't you, it was Raimo    Apologies again Raimo.

No problems Mike.
I saw you comming and was making room for you, when I had a small lock and cut in front of you. Good work saving your equpment 

[Ste Jones]

That was an eventful race, almost a bit too eventful at one point! I got a few laps practice in on Friday afternoon, with the plan of getting a few more in this afternoon, but that didn't work out. I went into the race with no idea on fuel strategy and no long run testing either, so it was a bit of a journey into the unknown.

Qualifying seems to be more stressful than the races here With such a short session and so many cars it's quite hard to find a clear lap. My last lap was a bit of banzai job, caught a couple of Mustangs in just the right places, and broke my PB by three tenths to get pole. I was already sweating after qualifying, I think I could have filled a bucket after the race

I managed not to jump the start this time and the first part of the race was a fairly relaxed affair. Mike was never too far behind so I couldn't back off, but I'd got a nice rhythm going and was just going with the flow. As I hadn't worked out a strategy I decided to split the race in half and play it safe with the fuel load. Just as I hit pit exit, after my stop, I came across a huge gaggle of cars, then realised I was right behind the battle for what was then second place between, I think, the two Pseudo Racing boys. They both pitted in quick succession after that but I knew I'd lost some time and wasn't exactly sure where Mike was. As it turned out I was okay but I'd pushed quite hard for five or six laps and took a lot out of the tyres.

As the second half of the race wore on I was starting to struggle both with the car and myself. The tyres had really fell off a cliff and the car was sliding around a lot, plus with the constant concentration needed round here, and I had to back it off a notch to stop myself doing something silly. With only about seven laps to go I came up to lap Pete into the last bend and, in cruise mode, decided to pass him after the corner. As I pulled alongside though he hit the astroturf and spun into the side of me - cue completely knackered steering! (by the way, no hard feelings from me, it was just one of those things). Part of the reason I like to build a big gap if I can though, especially in enduros, is for just these eventualities and it paid off in this case. If the race had been another two laps longer though it may have been a different story

Congrats to all the other podium finishers, I know it was definitely one of the hardest races I've done. I think hoping for three-in-a-row at Daytona may be pushing my luck slightly

[picnic]

Laguna has never been a track I've enjoyed, great spectacle for watching but I hate driving the place. This is backed up by I've never had a race here where I've been on the pace  I couldn't fathom the braking last night either in the Stang. Seemingly braking at the same place I'd arrive at the corner 10 mph faster and it just wouldn't go round. This resulted in too many understeer moments off the track Again, sorry for my mistake Steve. That was initiated by one of those moments. Glad you still got the win, I was mortified when it happened. I hate screwing my own races up but REALLY hate screwing up someone else's.

I quite enjoyed PI 2 weeks ago but last night I just wanted it all to end. Hopefully next time out at Daytona will bring back some love for the Stang.

[Brendan]

I think I owe you an apology, Picnic.  I had a brief look at the replay last night and noticed that I chopped you off in the penultimate turn and you went off track.  I thought I had more of an overlap but the replay says it was a lot closer than I thought.  Hope it didn't affect you too much.

[Gazza49er]

  wow what an event that was!!

Again Qually is so hard with so many on track but i managed to get in a decent lap at the death and was quite happy with 5th. A great lap by Adam my teamate though in 2nd 

Start was weird as i got hit up the rear on the formation lap in the last corner which thankfully didn't do much damage to the car but it kind of made me late on the start and Brendan took advantage. Few laps in i was doing ok just holding on to the 3 cars battling ahead. Then Adam made a mistake at the corkscrew and i got past along with Darren i think. Was trying to stay with Darren but he was a bit faster but i think he got slowed up with traffic and in the final corner we all seemed to bunch up and i caught his rear and Adam then did the same to me  i didn't think any harm had been done but Darren half spun i think and i felt bad going past. He caught me back up and i waited for a safe place to let him back past me. By this time i was really struggling as i had destroyed my front tyres and with Adam on my tail i decided to pit a few laps early for new tyres ( front tyres were in the 40's    )

Came out with no Corvettes around me in 6th i think and just tried to not make mistakes and be very careful with traffic and it worked as i didn't see any other Vettes for the whole second stint which eased the pressure. Had one squeaky bum moment at the corkscrew when a mustang tried to let me through on the outside but i was more than happy to wait but kinda made me outbreak myself a little and scrabble through the corkscrew but got a slow down. Couldn't quite believe i was now up to 3rd and with no one catching me so just brought it home for an amazing 3rd.

Was great to have my Teamate back and we worked well with a great 3rd and 4th for the team 

Grats to Steve and Mike and the mustang podium.

[ginsters sponsored]

Sorry for the noob question but, do the tyres automatically get changed at pitstop? I used F(something) to get fuel sorted but couldn't see one for tyres.