i6e Endurance Sundays Round Six - Infineon Long - Jun 19

[Simon Gymer]

P.S. The only other thing I would say is please watch the language in chat. I know emotions run high at times, but using obscene words at all is not what we come to expect at SRou so please think twice before chatting or at least when you want to swear replace it with the name of a food or fish or something, e.g. Oh Kipper.

[Fred Basset]

Well an interesting race for me. David mugged me at the start when I misjudged when Jamie would go and then as most of the field know I lost it as I crossed the crown of the road at the long downhill left and speared well off the track. I was very lucky not to hit anything hard but came back on many seconds down. I was in two minds as to whether to continue or not.

Deciding to push on I could see that Jamie and David were battling and I was catching up with them. I got past Jack and Ken fairly quickly, Dave took me a couple of laps and then I worked my way up to David and Jamie. When I caught David he took too much kerb on one corner and was off line for the next. Sorry how this ended David, you half spun and being sideways in front of me I couldn't miss you. I did wait but it seemed like you were waiting for me too so I went after Jamie.

I now had a car that wanted to turn left and not right though so it was harder catching up this time. I got close to Jamie and decided to pit early and try the undercut. I guess you had an off though with the gap after the stop.

From there I just concentrated on finishing, however I did have a minor off again at the same place as lap 1.

Thanks to all the Mustangs, very gentlemanly driving from you all.

Congrats to Simon, Dave and Jamie. Oh Kong ate the banana before the start mate

Regards
Gary

[Adam Parle]

Sorry I couldn't make it guys.  My wife's been in Italy for the last few days, and with her flight being delayed and the kids playing up I had no chance.

I ran some laps last night and I found it a lot of fun to drive in the Stang.

Watkins is next - that was a corking combo last season, I'd hope everyone will make an effort to make it.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

First off, James Minto - hope there're no hard feelings about asking you not to race, I watched you in qualifying and I don't think I saw you string two corners together without a half spin or off. It's not the easiest track to visit in an unfamiliar car and I couldn't in good conscience say nothing, especially when you'd be starting behind the Mustangs.


Anyway, having done two Grand Am Premiere races today I figured my usual approach to Sears Point - tootle round being careful and not pushing too hard - would make another 90 minutes not too arduous, and I was exactly where I expected to be on the grid, behind David, Jamie and Gary and ahead of the Dummer cars, but it was a huge surprise to see Gary have a massive moment into the carousel on lap 1 and run way off up the banking.

That must've dislodged the banana we'd wedged up his exhaust before qualifying because from 20 seconds behind he was absolutely ripping up the track, soon passing me and setting off after David and Jamie. He couldn't quite take the lead before stopping but Jamie made the mistake of not responding to Gary's stop and staying out whilst Gary made up the time needed to have passed him by the time he finally did stop.

Anyway, I was back to fourth after the stops, but able to gently eek into the gap to Jamie and David ahead (I had nothing to lose and everything to gain) until they had some sort of incident at the final hairpin. With David still recovering I was able to squeek past both him and Jamie, who I think was in two minds as to whether to wait for him or not.

Jamie put me under lots of pressure for quite a few laps, but with David's exit I was sure of at least 3rd place, so I continued to push hard, especially as it was apparent that I had better traction out of the slower corners than him which was going to make it hard for him to find a way by. That paid off when he eventually spun in turn 7 giving me about 20 seconds of breathing room which stayed to the end.

Well done to Gary - a return to the series that was more than merely emphatic, especially with a bent car - and to Simon for a solid win in the Mustangs.

[JazzGreenway]

Wow I completely forgot about this race and ran the Grand-Am Premier instead, bah... I promise to be there for Watkins

[picnic]

Shame about the turnout again. That track was not as daunting in the Mustang as I expected so hope people weren't put off by the track.

Guess that was aimed at me, at least partially I hate the place and what with the generous amounts of dropped scores in the championship I decided to watch the golf 

[Simon Gymer]

I, like you, was not looking forward to this track as it always seems pretty daunting, but I don't think I've ever driven it in a slow and soft car before. In the Mustang it was actually quite tame (in comparison to driving it in a fast car or a twitchy car (Skippy!)) as you have a lot more time to think about each corner before it comes and you're not in danger of being spat off just for breathing at the pedals in the wrong way.

[Jove]

I need to rethink how i approach my driving in future once again I wasn't comfortable with the setup i had and felt like i was fighting the car on every corner. I need to put more prep into these races instead of just turning up in practice and throwing a setup at the car.

Qualifying was just a formality and was pretty pleased all thing considering.

The race was going well and had managed to slip in be-hide Jamie at the start and kept within a second of him with no real dramas, we both made the odd mistake but managed to give each other room. I could see Gary was catching and planned to let him by but clipped a kerb and got the car sideways. Unfortunately Gary had nowhere to go but straight into me Got the meat ball flag and bent steering rack so headed straight to the pits where i got fresh rubber, repaired and filled up then started to hunt down the leaders.

When it came time for them to pit Gary was miles ahead but Jamie was only a few seconds when he came out the pits and made a mistake coming over the hill. We had a good battle for a few laps but I locked up the wheels going into the hairpin and got side ways and Jamie hit me (Not your fault mate) and i spun round. Got the meat ball flag again and limped round to the pits with bent steering and got told to much damage race over. I was pretty gutted, Rage quit

[Jamie Wilson]

That was a complete shambles.

I managed to grab pole by accident, as it wasn't a pretty lap, but honestly my setup was about as stable as Michael J Fox in a tumble dryer.

I held a very shaky lead from David early on, but we were both very clearly having a long protracted argument with our respective cars. My race was pretty clearly split into a few segments separated by ridiculous incidents, including a botched mustang pass; a spin, a twitch over the crest into the wall, ploughing into David when he'd locked up, and finally another dodgy twitchy magic insta-spin while chasing Dave.

At that point I OAPed it home in third having not particularly enjoyed the experience of driving like an italian; waving my arms about constantly holding on for dear life.

Looking forward to Watkins much much more!

[Darren Seal]

Sorry I couldn't make this one guys.  Hope to be back for Watkins.

[mr_oily]

Likewise - was never going to happen for me on Father's day I'm afraid.

Hoping this Sunday's iRoC double header will reunite a few of us on track again - see if we can send the iRoC season out with a bang (of sorts!)

Plan to be at Watkins but after campaigning for them myself, Sundays are really not working out at all for me at the moment!

[GizMoTo]

I feel bad for missing a lot of races this season but things just seem to interfere with my fun  :'( still waiting on the bits for my pedals as they are now they are just to unpredictable to do any serious racing 

[Burtoner]

hey all, thanks for race only got persuaded to join and thanks to my team mates, decided to take it easy and race since I was the 3rd car of the mustang, so I could easily get a podium

To be honest little disappointed, Had 2nd in bag when Raimo spun and was like 50secs behind me, only for me to stop for fuel and put too much in, which put me just behind him when I came out of the pits, then spent rest of 30mins of the race, trying to get by, made one mistake towards the end, cost me about 5-10secs off him.

 

[Raimo Piiksi]

hey hey fun race 
with only qualifying as practise for this race my mission was to try to stay on the racetrack.
Was surprised to see I had decent pace. Came up to lap 20 before I run wide and did a half spin. Lost 7 sec to Robert and tried to make up on next lap and lost 2 sec more before I decided to go early for tires and to get more fuel. I knew I could run lots faster on new tires, so I gunned it out of the pit and put in 48 and 47 laps to see me pass Robert when he came out off pits after his pitstop  Set race lap record on next lap and from there on in I tried to hold a steady pace only to see Robert on my bumper and in all my mirrors almost all the way up until race end 
Very fun race and it kind of makes up for the low attendance.
Great steady race to take the win Simon. Good race all

[mr_oily]

It's the last one so I figure some blatant thread stealing is in order....double header Mazda fun this Sunday @ Spa...

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=9539.0