rF2 Caterham Academy @ Watkins Glen - Fri 20th May, 2011

Stuart Thomson · May 20, 2011

Robert - it's a 2 race event

Quali 2 starts in 3 mins

Norman Biscuits · May 20, 2011

Eventful evening, cheers Mr Thomson!

R1, I jumped just before the lights changed after, I think Hans, set the seed in my mind with an uber early get away.

Got a drive through, and then ran a mostly lonely race pulling back a few people and ending up 9th or so. Was happy with that.

R2, oh my god, so many apologies! I started the chain reaction that destroyed quite a few cats.

I guess I overestimated the slip-streaming ability of these cars. Thought I'd flown past Dmytro and then I saw a lights flash. I assumed that was a signal that I was clear, and started to move over, alas, I was still completely alongside him and there it all got a little messy.

Car was still fine, stuck on the edge of the track, and then Nuno arrived, trying to avoid the previous accident and it was very very over. Sorry again.

Enjoyed these cars very much though and I'll definitely be in for more.

Dmytro Botnarenko · May 20, 2011

Guys, sorry for the blockage in the second race at the of the long straight. I was thrown to the wall after a bit strange behavior of some person, I lost a wheel, but could not get fast out of the race, as sometimes happens that in rFactor is not working ESC and I have to forcibly terminate the application to withdraw from the race.

Bob Miley · May 20, 2011

That was a great first race night.

Thanks Stu and all drivers.

Robert Woodward · May 20, 2011

Well that was certainly a great start to the caterham comeback!

5th/19 in race1 and 8th/19 in race2

, race 2 was the most fun for me chasing after Stuart....until i ran out of fuel, forgot to save my setup with race fuel in ><

A massive sorry to bob hutchins, 3 of us trying to overtake each other on the same corner at the same time and i thought i could make it passed so i tryed to brake late but after seeing you overtake me i locked up my brakes and killed your car

Thanks for bringing the cats back Stuart

Next friday is my last day of year11 secondary school so i wont be joining next weeks race so ill see you all in two weeks!

Hans Sneep · May 20, 2011

Glad the Cats are back,speed is ok But...
Quali was good 9p from 19 is not bad fore me,than the start totally forgot the start procedure was watching the timer left corner going down to zero hit the throttle "False Start DQ" Dammmm

Race 2,fumble my Quali run in the fence 20 mtr before the line engine dead,not they only one with trouble so start on p 16 an waiting
when the cars go from the line so dead last through the first corner on the tail from Stu trying to keep up passing guys in trouble, lost contact with Stu bit running 3 sec. behind, but lap times going better an better p9 now, But... lost the car go slow against the wall an the engine decided to quit,second Dammm..

All an All having big fun (in race 2 than ) cant wait to the next race,an it was good to see "Old Cat Drivers"again!!

Thanks Stu fore bringing the Cats back !!

Ross McGregor · May 20, 2011

Race 1 was exceptional, with myself, Oscar, Erik & Nigel breaking away and running 4-wide in places! Me & Nigel came together resulting in me losing the train, but 3 'hot-laps' and i was back in the draft. After trying to position myself to get a run on Oscar and Erik on the final lap, Erik ran out of fuel and i couldn't quite get close enough to Oscar to challenge. Great racing though guys.

Race 2 was incident-packed and a little disappointing because of that. Evan was squeezing through a gap that wasn't quite big enough and tagged me up the straight. Luckily, we both continued unharmed (dab of oppo!) but there was plenty of chaos up ahead in the next two laps. Avoided a few spinners but got caught up in the big incident at the right-hand hairpin, and ended up battling away with a recovering Stuart & Tim. Tried to catch Erik in 4th (who DNF'd) then Bob in 3rd, but was too far behind and didn't have a slip-streaming buddy!

Thanks for tonight Thommo, good to have the cats back, and nice to see a healthy grid. Congrats Oscar & Ryan for the wins, and the rest of the podium. (And all finishers of race 2!)

Tim Ling · May 20, 2011

Great to be back in the Cats!

R1: Messed up the superQ, but a good start saw me in the middle of the field after a few incidents. Then spun after being hit, recovered to spin again on my own. Didn't finish last, as Erik sat stranded 20m for the finish line. UL Erik.

R2: Q12 and kept it clean until I got bumped after the 180deg right. Hit the barrier and slid back on to the road to carry on, miraculously without hitting anyone. Got caught in the accident between Norman, Dmytro and 2 others, but managed to rejoin again. Then came some awesome racing between myself, Thommo and first Rossco, then Robert. I had a big grin on my face for the last 6 laps

Ross found some hotlaps and vanished, Robert found he didn't have enough fuel, and I found T-Boning Norman had damaged my car as Stuart edged away, so I concentrated on brining the car home.

Thanks Thommo, Hutcho & RD!

Erik Tveit · May 20, 2011

Tim Ling said:
Great to be back in the Cats!

R1: Messed up the superQ, but a good start saw me in the middle of the field after a few incidents. Then spun after being hit, recovered to spin again on my own. Didn't finish last, as Erik sat stranded 20m for the finish line. UL Erik.

Like in : You Lose Erik? :tongue:

Bob Hutchins · May 21, 2011

Not a good start to the Cat season.

After a decent quali for race 1, I got hit by a jump starter so got a drive through but never having one of these before I pulled into my pitbox so got a DQ.

Race 2, messed up quali so started last. Not bad I thought so great start saw me take a few places. After some good slip streaming on lap 1 & half way into lap 2 I was now upto 7th. Couple of good laps to follow & was behind my team mate BobM who I was looking forward to having a good race with. Sadly not to be as I was taken out by a very late braking manover which ended my race.

Thanks goes to Mr T for setting up the event, grts to Oscar & Ryan on their wins & wd rest of podi.

Evan Madore · May 21, 2011

Not a good start to the Cat season.

Cat season!? There will be more? Is there some sort of schedule?

William Levesque · May 21, 2011

Bob Hutchins said:
After a decent quali for race 1, I got hit by a jump starter so got a drive through but never having one of these before I pulled into my pitbox so got a DQ.

Not to be harsh or anything, but... Drive Through

I think I'll have to sign up for this next time, the racing reminds me a lot of Formula Vee

Senad Subasic · May 21, 2011

whoops, nvm, better go to sleep.

Ryan Callan · May 21, 2011

William Levesque said:
Not to be harsh or anything, but... Drive Through

Be a bit more polite to others please William.

William Levesque · May 21, 2011

It wasn't said in a bad way though, sorry about the misunderstanding...

Tim Ling · May 21, 2011

Erik Tveit said:
Like in : You Lose Erik? :tongue:

Not you lose! I meant unlucky

Tim Ling · May 21, 2011

Evan Madore said:
Cat season!? There will be more? Is there some sort of schedule?

While a Cat league would be great, last time it was tried there were a lot of problems with peoples attitudes which killed the idea dead. I'm not sure Thommo or Hutcho would want to try again.

To be honest, some of the driving last night was less than clean, which could make a league a nightmare to look after. But maybe that was just people getting used to the Cats. I'm sure the lack of apologies and waiting for people was just forgetfulness.

Erik Tveit · May 21, 2011

Tim Ling said:
Not you lose! I meant unlucky

I were only joking. Kind of figured out what it meant before but lol, I lost anyway.

Evan Madore · May 21, 2011

Tim Ling said:
While a Cat league would be great, last time it was tried there were a lot of problems with peoples attitudes which killed the idea dead. I'm not sure Thommo or Hutcho would want to try again.

To be honest, some of the driving last night was less than clean, which could make a league a nightmare to look after. But maybe that was just people getting used to the Cats. I'm sure the lack of apologies and waiting for people was just forgetfulness.

I think why it seems the racing is not clean compared to other leagues is due to how close you race in these cars compared to others. In fast GT cars, for the most part there are larger gaps in between competitors. In these slow cars however, the field stays pretty bunched up. Reminds me a lot of the Skoda's.

Either way, it is very fun. As long as people protest incidents the day after the race, problems should sort themselves out. Just my take. I would love to see a Caterham league.

Erik Tveit · May 21, 2011

I've always wanted to have a league where you have a track off road and race in all different cars where one track may be bumpy as hills and the other be tarmac. But LOL, my dreams :tongue:

But I've always liked close gap racing.