i6e Endurance Sundays Round Two - NOW AT VIR FULL

[Paul968]

Sorry to hear that Rob. Had you noticed the track change to VIR Full?

[popabawa]

I eventually managed to just scrape into the 2:07's last night.

This can be a frustrating track but makes for some good racing as there's always plenty of mistakes!

[Adam Parle]

Same here - into the 2:07's, but it took me an age before my brain engaged and I stopped throwing it off the track every lap ...



Server is now up for the practice session by the way - see you guys in there in a bit.

[Adam Parle]

*** RACE IS 51 LAPS ***

[Burtoner]

I thought Endurance races are set time, not laps?

[Adam Parle]

Yes ... and no. Hosted session races are on a lap basis ...

[Adam Parle]

Server is going live now

[popabawa]

GAH!

What a great race that was shaping up to be...  :'(

I came out of T3 so see a cloud of smoke and realised Shark had spun, I thought I was following Raimo past to find Shark in my way So sorry Simon, hope I didn't destroy your race.

My car was pretty well gone and limping to the pits didn't seem a very good idea for all that way.

Very close between the Mustangs, I'm gutted I missed out on the rest of the battle...  :'(

[Burtoner]

Gah that was really tough race, sorry to Adam didnt judge my braking point at turn one, then well tyres were issue and couldnt really keep the car on track lot then, till i got new tyres with about 10 laps to go..

At least this race is out of way..

[Adam Parle]

The less said the better....

After a PB in practice, I was off the pace in qualifying, but with a group of us on a similar pace it should have been a cracking race.  It wasn't to be....

After getting spun out on the first flying lap I was 7-8 seconds behind the guys in front, and never really made a dent in that until the DP's lapped us.  Into the Snake I was watching my rear view - worried about a DP pushing through, and that was enough of a distraction for me to lose the car and hit the wall.  A couple of laps later I headed to the pits for an early stop and a fresh car, but after that I was never catching anyone.

Off tracks followed as mistakes crept in, and it was just a question of keeping going till the chequered flag.  Not a lot of fun in the end, after what promised to be a good one.


Thanks to the DP's - common sense seemed to prevail, and on this track it needed to.

Glad to have that one out the way for certain though.

[JazzGreenway]

Whew, had to work hard for this one... we had a good start with Pops, Adam, Simon, Raimo and myself pretty close together.
Unfortunately a few accidents happened and I found myself battling with Raimo for 1st place.
Coming out of South Bend Raimo made a little error and we were side by side coming up to the Oaktree. I outbroke myself a little and went offroad, giving Raimo a good advantage.

Around halfway the race Raimo pitted, giving me the lead. I started with a full tank, and was planning to stop late for a splash-and-dash and not changing tires, hopefully catching up to Raimo.
I made the pitstop and rejoined only 2 seconds behind Raimo, and then spun off again at turn 1, giving Raimo a significant lead. At this point I was pretty frustrated

Some laps later I found Raimo going slow with damage so I could easily overtake him, with Simon just a few seconds behind me I was in the lead once more. I then proceeded to spin off AGAIN on the penultimate lap, that wasn't one of my best moments ever to put it lightly, would have been a victory otherwise

But overall this was yet another epic race, great driving overall, awesome fun... thanks everyone!

[Simon Gymer]

No worries Pops, I'm surprised anyone made it through that gap tbh. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't made that mistake and spun. I just slammed on the brakes and had no idea where I'd stopped. I didn't dare move as I looked left but there was just a cloud of smoke so had no idea what was coming or where or which part of the track I'd stopped on. I was waiting for the smoke to clear when there was an almighty bang as you hit me full on.

Car was still driveable, but I knew something was pretty wrong when Adam passed me on the straight with ease and I was lapping 3-4 seconds a lap slower as Raimo and Jasper did their double-act thingy up front. Decided after 3 or 4 laps to pit and hope that I could make it to the end with a full tank of fuel. I must admit I'd forgotten that they do the black magic instant repair thing on your first pit stop and my car was like new again. Still, I'd kind of lost heart by then thinking this was going to be a very lonely dull race as Jasper and Raimo were 15 seconds up the road when I pitted after losing so much time to them with a broken car.

As the race went on the main excitement was DPs making moves in ridiculous corners. I don't think they realised how much we were having to back out of corners to avoid them smacking into us half the time. Even so I must admit I was pretty bored and uninterested at the time anyway, so wasn't that fussed about it all.

After Raimo made his stop he was very oddly only 5 seconds up the road and when Jasper made his he was again not far up the road either, but after some offs and losing time with the DPs they were getting too far away and I'd settled for 3rd. However, with just a few to go, I don't know what happened with Raimo or Jasper but suddenly I was only a couple of seconds behind and then even more luck as like a blur I was past Raimo and then Jasper fell off at the end of the straight to completely gift me the win.

I think that is probably the most jammy result I've ever had in my life and I was a bit gutted for Jasper as he was on for a nice win there to lose it so late like that.

Really annoyed about spinning on lap 8 though as that put paid to what was going to be an epic battle between I think probably 5 of the Mustangs who were all on similar pace.

[Darren Seal]

Now that was tough!

Starting the race in 4th I was hoping I had the pace to fight Ian for 3rd place.  However, after receiving damage when David clipped my right side on lap 6, any plans I had went out of the window.  It took me a while to re-adjust to the offset steering wheel and the different handling, and even though my pace was nearly a second a lap slower than usual, thankfully I was still able to keep Jamie behind me.

After the pitstop I felt more confident in the car, so I pushed harder.  I managed to reduce the gap to Ian to under 5 seconds.  Unfortunately before I could get any closer Ian had an off at the Oak tree and then quit.  This left me to cruise home in 3rd.

Thankfully my damaged car didn't effect the result in the end.  While I would have been a lot closer to Gary and David, their pace was just too good.  Very impressive guys...  

Congrats to those that finished on the podiums...  Thanks for the Stang drivers who were great as usual.

P.S. Sorry to Simon for cutting it a bit close heading into T7...   A slight mis-calculation on my part.    

[Raimo Piiksi]

what a race lol.
I could smell the victory of this one lol, with 14s back to Jasper with 5 laps to go I thought I had this one.
Robert came out of pit 5m in front of me, and I had to stay behind him until he run off at the downhill near the oak-tree.
Then unfortunately we made contact after he slide over the track and back. This bent my backwheel and the car was dangerous after that.
Next lap I came into turn 2 and run out of rooooad and into tirestacks. Now Jasper was 0s behind and on next lap had no problem outbreaking and passing into turn 1. Then Simon was on my tail and found and easy way past at turn 1 also. It looked settled for 3rd, but had a bit of luck when Jasper also run out of track some corners later.
Great race all, and very good driving from the DP boys also.

Grats to finisher's and podiums 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

So sorry Simon, hope I didn't destroy your race.

Don't worry - the jammy sod conspired to win anyway.

My worst race for ages - especially frustrating as I had an absolutely brilliant race yesterday in the MX-5 at Spa that I won from the pits.

Car felt okay but as usual I had poor pace - I just can't get through the Esses and Oak Tree like everyone else can. Never have been able to in any car.

Race started okay, was just about staying with Jamie, but I don't know whether it's my hayfever making my eyes itch like mad or just a complete lack of concentration tonight, but after half the first stint I slid off and lost touch with him. After that my focus disappeared, and a few laps later I somewhat inexplicably lost the car on the exit of Oak Tree and lost a bucket load more time.

Pitted at the end of 25 and on fresh tyres I had a few good laps, but soon my concentration floated away again and I completely missed my braking point at the end of the back straight. Went straight to the scene of the accident and busted up the front left quite badly. Worse still, I was stuck in the tyres, so I had no choice but to reset, losing another half a lap. Unfortunately, with the stupid new half baked damaged repair I got 30 seconds of optional repairs but still had completely busted suspension.

Had to tool round the last dozen laps with the car barely able to stop or steer, just to finish ahead of Dmitry, who was having connection nightmares. Did the final lap just sitting behind Shark ready for a photo finish.