i6e Endurance Sundays Round One - Road America

[Burtoner]

Only done some practice during practice session before race, but was pretty confident here anyways.

Started 18th which I think was pretty good behind Pops, didnt think we have a great race together, was very hard to actually pull an overtake on this track, which I managed to do a couple of times, the first half of the race was awesome racing with Andy and Pops, I pitted halfway a couple of laps early than Andy and Pops, as my tires were bit bad.

Somehow I managed to beat them both in the pitstops!, only do a half spin, to let Andy through, couldnt catch him after that by that time I was a good 30secs ahead of Peter

Probably one of best races I had in mixed class, just like Spa race I did on Sat night

[Darren Seal]

Qualifying proved to be frustrating.  I just couldn't hook up a decent lap on the odd occasion I found myself on a clear piece of track.  Thankfully only Gizmo managed to take advantage, leaving me 4th on the grid.

The race started well...  Gizmo took a look up the inside of Paul heading into T5, which compromised his exit.  This allowed me to get the run on him heading into tricky T6, which gave me 3rd place.  I managed to stay with the two in front until we caught the Mustangs.  From that point on frustration set in.  It seemed every time we met a Stang the two in front would nip by on the straight, leaving me to negotiate it through the corners.  :'(  After several laps of this I was soon cut adrift, and left to concentrate on improving my gap over Gizmo.

Towards the end of the first stint I managed to reel in Paul after it was his turn to be held up.  While trying to overtake two Stangs heading into T5, Paul half spun, allowing me to slip through into 2nd.  After a few laps of pressure Paul began to struggle on his tyres allowing me to pull a 3 second gap over him.

Paul pitted on lap 21.  Maybe I should have done the same, because on my in-lap I lost nearly 3 seconds to a Stang on the back half of the track.  I left the pits with Paul breathing down my neck.  I knew I was in trouble on cold tyres and that proved to be the case as I missed a few gears at T5, gifting Paul 2nd again.

On fresh tyres Paul was very fast.  I could do nothing to stop him disappearing off into the distance.  Thankfully his insane pace soon dropped off after this tyres started to complain.  This allowed me to reel him back in again to under 2 seconds.  After several more laps Paul dropped a wheel off into the dirt exiting T6 and darted off to the left and into the nearest wall.  Real shame....  It could of, should of been a real scrap between us to the line.  Unlucky Paul.....

With David 10 seconds down the road, and Paul now struggling with a badly damaged car, I was allowed to cruise home to a comfortable 2nd.

Congrats David on the win.  Impressive debut!  You showed great pace and clearly deserved your win.  Also congrats to Shark for his win in the Mustangs...

See you all (hopefully) at VIR....

[BorchersDK]

Meh, another write off.

Had spent a lot of time adjusting myself to the car, and getting it set up how I feel it should drive, so that I would feel very confident with the car. I managed quite well, and Im on the right track.
I really enjoyed the race, however short it was for me, but the car was very fun and forgiving to drive. I just suffer from a very dry cough these days, so I prepared for the race with plenty of warm tea, and I even lined up several Läkerol pastilles to lotion my throat during the race . Just wasnt enough sadly, I kept coughing myself off the track basicly. 3rd time was it, while I was sitting there in the graveltrap in the last corner, coughing away, I figured I might aswell retire and spare myself (and possible others).

Was a shame, really enjoyed it, and I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers of entries.
Sadly I wont be able to join on VIR, because Im not home that weekend, so I have to wait for Homestead I think it was.

[purdie]

I managed quite well, and Im on the right track.

Always a good start 

shame about the cough mate, we were in a for a battle royale

[Raimo Piiksi]

Great race all,
after a bit of hassle in qualifying, I just managed to get one lap in before the flag. By share luck I hit the 2nd position  
A bit of mixed race for me. Simon just inched away and I was left with Adam and Jasper behind. Then after Jasper got past Adam I saw him sticking to my bumper. And on my bumper he stayed, and also alongside a couple of times. So after 70-80 minutes with Jasper on my bumper I was very pleased to finally get a 4-5 seconds lead. Only to kink myself four laps from the end and then have to do a pitstop that cost me 2 places.

Epic racing Jasper, that was great (sweating) fun.

Can't wait for VIR. Will for sure be a diffrent challenge for us all  

[Robin Durrant]

Bugger, B*llocks and Arse!

Thought the race was next weekend....

[Rotaxmax125]

First race in the Dp for me. Bit of a new experience for me with the closing speeds when catching the Mustangs. Looks like a need to find a fair bit more speed look forward to the next race

[GizMoTo]

sounds like a lot of us where new to the DP 

apart from a practice run when I first got the car I hadn't driven it at all


this to me makes this race even more of a success considering how it went so many new drivers to one of the cars so maybe an even bigger well done is needed

WELL DONE ALL!!!
there ya go 

[Simon Gymer]

Sorry, only just got back to the forums since the race.

After deciding the DP was too stressful I plumped for the Mustang despite only having raced it twice before. Still, it's such a compliant car that it's a doddle to drive so it's quite relaxing and you can get up to your maximum speed pretty quickly. Once I'd worked out how quickly you could go around the kink and the carosel the rest just slotted into place.

Start of qualifying didn't go as planned as I was chasing Raimo for the first stint when a DP came barreling towards us before the last turn on the first flying lap I got completely focused on the DP in the mirrors, stayed right expecting the DP to go left and then found myself rear-ending Raimo who had also stayed right. Sorry for that Raimo, I wasn't even looking forward at the time. Quickly reset to the pits and started again. Managed to drop into the 2:30s, although I think there was even more pace on a perfect lap, possibly into the 2:29s, but Road America is so long it's very hard to do a perfect lap. Anyway, to my complete surprise it was enough for pole position. After seeing Raimo and Jasper do so well in the previous endurance season I was hoping to be in 3rd not 1st.

As for the race, well nothing much to report. The occasional divebomb in daft places by DPs, but other than that I just slowly pulled away from the other Mustangs and cruised home for a fairly comfortable win. Not what I expected at all, but gladly received.

If VIR is next then I really won't expect to do well there as I just don't get on with VIR, but as I did better than expected here at Road America, anything is possible.

[popabawa]

Well done on the win Simon, that was an impressive debut!