RDHGP S5 - Round 8 - Mount Panorama, Bathurst - 31st July 2010

Well that has to be the most pathetic excuse for a race I've ever done.

Got an bloody good start, was 5th and really enjoyed battling with Martin and Andreas in the early squabbles. Settled into 6th and swapped positions a few times as Babij and Amir had some offs.

I decided that I was going to keep pounding round until lap 18 and make my stop, it was all going absolutely perfectly and I was aiming to swap 4 boots and gas it up for the finish.......

But yet again as with so many of my HGP races it ended in total humiliation and a complete disaster. I was on lap14 i think, coming down teh decent to the big left prior to conrod (sorry don't know name). I was slightly wide and fast, started going up banking on the inside, came back down to road level, nose dug in and I was flipped end over end into a massive ditch off course. I managed to get going and found my way to the fenceing along the straight, but couldn't find a way through and eventually got bogged down and gave up.


I'm absolutely furious with myself, I hadn't put a foot wrong all race and then I go and blow it like that!! I'm sure I could have got 5th/6th tonight too................

Oh well, I too will drown my sorrows, but with whisky or something equally strong. I hope gary managed to win tonight though, thoroughly deserved after hauling the Millenium Falcon around all season.

As I go for an early bath, I'd just like to congratulate Stu on once again producing a league of exceptional quality! A fabulous set of tracks and cars, supremely good briefing posts and fabulous event management. A grand job Sir and long may it continue!

damn damn damn

stupid mistake.
I was just to be lapped by stu and amir. I wanted to let them by on the straight because it's little bit difficult in the twisty part to let someone through safely. But then I lost control just in the last corner before the long straight. stu and amir passed me luckely but then I tried to rejoin, and stall the car just in the middle of the road. I heard already the next car comming and to not destroy the race of the leaders I hit the esc button.

Sorry guys

What should I write here? ;(

Good quali and P1. Really enyojed this track.

On the race as usual on the beginning lost few position. But chased people and gained P2. Was very close to Gary. I tried to attack him and we had contact and I lost control. I was somewhere far from the track. Lost many position.

I want to say huge sorry to Jay Adgie. When I was coming back to the track I did not see anyone and suddenly received a big bum. It was Jay. I am sorry mate. my fault really sincere apologies to you . I could have done it in other way. During the race I did not know who hit me, but checked on replay, that's why I say sorry here not during the race.

After it I was on P6 and chased people. Moved few guys and decided to pit. Tried first time but stupid guy in pit only stand, tried second, third, nothing happened he all the time stand, so I must have resigned .

Thank you for a really nice league and for sure I will start on next season. I do not know who will win the league yet, because race is not finishing yet.

Thank you and again sorry to Jay.

My pitstop took like 3 minutes after some big dammage haha then i lost concentration and crashed a few times, was not able to bring the car home... thanks stu and all for this great league

Provisional results are up

Drivers, please post your replays for the video of the finale, thx.

Was quite happy with my pace tonight although I started in 17th or 18th place. At the start I didn't manage to keep the revs up so I was 2nd to last entering the first corner. Then followed some fun corners with all drivers very close together, too bad there were several crashes and spins. In the last corner before the long straight I with several others was unable to dodge the cars in front so the pack wasn't very close together anymore. After some two laps behind (and in front) of Ondrej he let me past because I was faster in the twisty bits. Thanks for that - although I would have stayed behind as long as you're faster on the straight.
Anyway, from then on the race was quite boring for me because I very seldom saw someone else and had two spins - one major spin where I flew over the fence and it took me about 30-40 seconds to get back on track

Finished on 12th and quite happy with that, although I would have loved to get at least one top 10 result this season! Can anyone tell me where I can get my 'character' I should have gathered with the NSU in this league? Is there a desk with prices and stuff??

Congratulations to every participant in this league. Enjoyed it a lot with this bunch and my NSU
Hats off to the very fast ones and congratulations to Amir for the win!

Stu, thank you VERY much for all your hard work! It was all very well organised and if time permits I'd gladly sign up for future leagues organised by you as well.

got a very good start after what was easily my worst quali of the season then I had a good battle with Tom & Andreas and later with Amir... lost about 10 seconds when I came to the pits and my "pit guy" just disappeared so I had to pit again the next lap... luckily it didn't cost me any positions... finished 4th in the race and 2nd in the championship

congratulations to Amir for winning the race and the championship

also big thanks to Stuart for organizing this great league :good:

edit: replay

This race had plenty of drama for me, but none of it race related.

It was great to be racing on my home country track, especially the famous old Bathurst layout. Even though it seemed a high speed and relatively benign layout, the mountain sections seemed to catch lots of drivers, especially "the Dipper" and Forest Elbow.

I expected to be hopelessly outclassed in the Mini and just aimed to keep it clean and finish.
Qualified P15, not last, which was a bonus.
Had my usual sluggish Mini start, although cars were sliding everywhere around me off the line, but quickly latched onto Neil's tail to remind him of last Round, but this time I sneaked through early over the mountain, my only stronger point. :wink: On lap 2, my XD went beserk and I no longer had info on other drivers or placings.

There seemed to be lots of early crashes on top of the mountain, but I managed to thread my way through most of them and actually found myself in P8 after a few laps. Yikes!!. Kept it clean, and decided on an early pitstop to top up the fuel. Mucked that up a bit by forgetting to undo the tyre change, so spent longer getting 4 new tyres which I didn't need. Oh well, maybe that might help later in the race.
At half race distance, it all fell apart. Going down Conrod straight, my PC screen froze for about 30 secs at least. I just put my fooot on the brake and hoped it would come back again, and that I wouldn't affect anyone else. When it finally came back to life, the graphics was totally screwed, but I could see Gary's Falcon beside me. It seems I caught Gary's attention, but didn't hurt his race, phew. I immediately pulled over in the main straight and hit Alt Tab to try to fix the graphics. That sent everything blank. After several more Alt Tab's, it corrected itself, so off I went again, now well and truly last.
From then on it was a fairly lonely race, except for the odd lapping leader. The only funny part was when following Stuart over the top of the mountain, Steve pulled over to let Stuart lap him and I sneaked past too. :tongue:
My engine life was dropping like a stone over the closing laps, probably due to being on the rev limit so long, so I started backing off as much as I could to nurse it home.
Actually ended up P10, way better than expected, but no doubt mainly due to others dropping out or having crashes.
Grats to Amir, Gary, and Stuart for the podium.

Congratulations to Amir on a well deserved overall championship win (provisional I know but surely nothing will change it). Well done to Martin and Andreas for a likely equal second.

Thanks to Stuart for yet another excellent Historic League. :doublethumb:


EDIT: Bob, my replay is here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/410276074/67panorama_WAD.rar

Although I did not take part in the final round I must say thanks to Stu for excellent organisation, choice of tracks and briefings.

Enjoyed it very much :good:

Q: 13h
F: 9th

Huge apologie to guys I screwed up the start of the race, FF turned the wheel full left when I was in the pits, tweaking my race setup. I didn't saw what FF did, and as soon the green light pop out I saw my car attacks other car on the left like a psycho. I started to turn the wheel to the right in panic, so I attacked other car on my right! Jesus! Apsolutely idiotic start, thanks to FF.
Anyway, do not have anything particular to add, not so interesting race for me, except the amazing run and battles with Neil. Amazing job mate, you saved the race. Oh, sorry Neil for the tap in the mountain, I was maybe too agressive.

Big thanks to Stu for another amazing season, excelent track choice and top notch organisation!

qualy: don´t got my best sectors together (was till 5 tenth faster) but still 6th behind the Abarth´s and Gary´s Falcon.

race: The start seemed again quiete aggressive to me. Amir and David get pushed against the wall and Tom pass me on the right and short before the corner he move over on my line as i´m not in the race . With a bit more luck i spin or something else.
But i don´t want repeat me from last. The rest of my race was very fine , only several spins and one big accident which cost me about 30 sec, so P7 at the end was not a bad result.

Overall the league was big fun and with the split second place and two wins my best season so far. I take with me many nice moments in reminding.

:thanks: everyone who take part, Bob for his huge vids and ofcourse Stuart who take care of everything. The cars for S6 seems interesting, so think i will try out the one or other and probably we see us back next season.

Not to forget , congratulations Amir to the championchip win :trophy: - great performance over the whole season, well done.


:ups:

Amir gongratz on winning the championship mate

Well it was great fun while it lasted but sadly i only lasted until around lap 24 where i lost the back end on the long right hander going up the hill and ended up on the wrong side of the fence, but i got the feeling if it was not going to be there it was going to be somewhere else as i had a few scary moments just prior to that.
Basically the first half of the race was great, had some good little scraps until i noticed my engine health had dropped from 100% to 69% so i started to ease up a bit with it. I had thought on starting with a full tank and then making a dash for fuel near the end but instead i went with 40L and pitted around lap 17 but the car never felt the same after that and as the car felt tired and i tired the inevitable happened and i crashed

Thnx all for a fun season of racing, i don't think me and the little alfa got on that well at times but it was still great fun.

Here is a snippet of Predrags start i thought wtf is he up to at the time but no damage done (i think) Me i just think he has been watching too much F1 starts :wink:

What a great finish for me... Although I had terrible practice (you know), terrible quali... race itself was totally different, I didnt go out of the track for the whole race (I did some little mistakes though), when I was practicing I was out of the track for the most of time, I was so surprised that my Corolla is handling so nice in the race... I was still the slowest one, but I did my PB 2:35 when I was fighting with Marc Good (I was so fast on that longest straight behind you!), then I was starting to be catching by the fastest behind me, luckily (for me) a lot of people didnt finish, so I stayed, maybe "last", but on nice 14th place, which is the best result of my racing in this league...

Very, very enjoyable and nice finish of this my premier with you... I was so excited after that all!

Thanks Hans, for the last few minutes with you



About this season, this league.. I was all the time complaining on my car, and yes, I wouldnt choose it again but the true is in another place... thanks to that Corolla, I wasnt never boring, even though I was very slow, but because of my "boat" I had all the time what to do to at least finish... I did, every race I participate, I have no DNF. I am not the last in standings... This was beast league for me, a lot of experiences gained... Thanks you guys, it was me pleasure to drive with you, behind you, against you. And thanks Stuart for the top work you did for us all the time :thumb:

Very excited for next season see you on the track soon!

Congrats Amir.

Thanks all for a great league. After three years of playing gtl and taking part in four previous rdghp leagues I finally made itJ. It was a very good season for me. The abarth and I got along pretty well and thanks to a good and stable set up I managed to keep good results at every race all the way to the finish.
I would like to thank Andreas ,ryan , Carlos, Martin and krzysztof which were giving me a hard time all season long. It was a pleasure racing against you guys. Very clean and gentlemen's racing all season.

Thanks RD and Stuart for organizing the league and keeping this great game going, and thanks for everyone who took part in the league.
Special thank you for Bob Hutchins for his great videos.
See you in RDHGP S6

Congratulation Amir, you deserved for it because of very constant and fast driving. Good luck in next season as well!