Race 2 - Paul Ricard

Cenotaph · Oct 7, 2011

Hi, first of all let me apologise for my nickname, this is an old RD forum account I have. I'm Tiago Órfão.

Being unfamiliar to GTR Evo league racing, I must say this was a challenging first experience and I found myself where I wasn't expecting to be (top 10), which made me pretty happy. Managed to get a good time in qualifying, best I've done all week of practice, and started the race from 8th.

Those first few laps we were all pretty close and it got scary in the final corner in lap 2(?) but I managed to stay out of trouble. The whole changeable weather is something I don't deal with at all (I'm mostly an iRacer) but with the help of my teammate I made the right choice to wait as long as I could before pitting and avoided a last minute call to put wet tyres and stayed on the drying track to put a new set of slicks later.

Made two big mistakes, but the consequences were not too bad and in the final minutes I managed to get back some positions to finish 7th, which I think is a great result, considering I had very low expectations and I'm glad I could help ABRacing get a solid points finish again.

Let me take this opportunity to apologise for my touch in the back of David Clark's car. I wasn't even very close, but his braking point after the long straight caught me completely off guard, and I hit his car, luckily with no consequences for both of us. We had some pretty intense battle at the end, was really feeling the pressure in the last laps. It was fun.

Congratulations to the podium, and thanks to the organization for the experience.

Göran Johansson · Oct 7, 2011

Hi.
Great race. started too take pole in qualify. I think all has practis alot on rain so that made the times so high. i expekted to drive low 1:43 but 1:44.3 it was. i did many misstakes so i was hoping for 6-9 somewhere but pole

.

Thought for very long if I would take a dry setup, or a wet setup. almost missed the start of my thinking.
Our team mate of the underdogs was thinking a little too long and missed the start. which was very sorry.
But had some small fights with Risto he had less wing so he came up with very fast on the straight and passed me.
I felt I was faster but did not pass in a safe manner so when the rain came, I saw my chance.
into the pits early and put on wets. while my mechanic was struggling with the tires so it stopped raining, of course, that .&%¤#?}
out and try to drive like an idiot but the tires just got hotter. so back and put on slicks and then climbed to 3rd place.
Very pleased to come third my team mate Danne drove the same lousy strategy, and managed to come fifth

great jobb.
so we were cruelly satisfied with the race.

Congratulations to Hugo and Jacob you did it well who dared to stay out and wait out the weather.

Thanks Xose, David, Eckhart, Andreas and everyone else who helps. you are doing an awesome job

We are very pleased to see that the Gubbklubben is 2 but I think that flying Dudes dvlpt to have around 83 points (have not counted it carefully)

David Clark · Oct 7, 2011

Congrats to the podium guys & all that took part.

Quali - 10th - was happy enough but could have gone quicker.

Race - Some good battles going on and i was involved in a few myself

Tiago, no worries bud, luckily no harm was done but after watching it back, i do think you braked a bit 2 late

Anyway, great battling with you and congrats on your 1st race position.

Strategy - I went with dry setup & stayed out while others pitted for wets. I still felt i had the car under control, it was just a little slower. luckily it started to dry again so it gave me confidence i could get a decent finish, i just had to get there first lol. Pitted half distance back on slicks, rejoined in 11th...gained a few positions, lost a few and came home in 8th

My best finish in STC and its only taken me 2 and a half years lol.

1 last thing - i was battling with Yuri (i think) 5th & 6th place...we swapped places once or twice and i remeber you getting ahead at the 2nd last corner, i then got in the inside going into the last...we touched but nothing major but then i see you flashing your lights???
You left the door wide open matey, what did you expect me to do?? anyway you got ahead of me soon after then Daniel done the exact same move on me the lap after lol

DC

Daniel Beck · Oct 7, 2011

Any news on the broadcast download?

Daniel Beck · Oct 7, 2011

Phew! That was and exausting(spelling)race. Did around 50-60 laps in rain conditions to get a decent rain set for the race. Was overjoyed for the rainreports before the race because we did feel that we had found good pace in rain on raintyres.
Q:11th. Made some small mistakes and had to settle for 11th place.

Race: As my teamie wrote. I could not decide on wet or dry setup before the start. We both started with our rainset but with slicks on. That hurt us badly on the long straight. But the it started to rain and we felt that we should do a quick pitstop and put the wets on.

In heinsight we should have waited but gratz to Hugo and Jacob. You showed big "cojones" to stay out and wait for it to dry up :wink:
Dropped back to 20 place (I think) at the 1st pitstop. Manged to pass some of the drivers that had stayed out when it was wet and gained more places when some others whent into pit.

Oh well! The track dryed up and I went to pit for dry tyres again. I thought that the drivers behind would catch up as I had a very slow topspeed on the long straight. But insted I managed to pass some more when it yet again started to rain. This time both I and my teamie Göran decided to stay out no matter what, as it was not so much time left of racing. When the chequered flag showed I was so exhausted as I had been so consentrated on just stay on track and not run out of fuel. I did the last two or three laps as "operation fuelsave". Passed the line with 0.48L left in the fueltank:tongue:

I had some great battles along the way to the goal. Thanks guys, you know who you are.

A big thank you to the staff for the great work you are doing for this league.

Danne

Hugo Hekkenberg · Oct 8, 2011

Thanks for all the thankyou's

I had a decent pace in the practice sessions and the team was well prepared. Our decission of a 1 stopper without the rain tires was the trick for this race. I drove with my big toe and didn't leave the race lines as much as possible. The result is the best i have ever managed, P 1, yooeeeeehoeeeeee...

Also congrats to my buddy Jakob for his second place. At the end of the race i wanted to do a photo finish but there were some drivers between us so that would make it dangerous.

Thanks to the organization and i can't wait to see the broadcast (over and over and over and over again)