2009 RD Touring Car Championship (RACE On)

[Xosé Estrada]

U Could also say sorry for Reying to out Brake Me and Smashing ito me, then not even waiting. i went from 9th to 17th. Cheers Mate!

Fabio you can fill a race report, but is not OK to accuse on reviews

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

GRID 4 (the dirty dozen )

yippieh, best race for me in ages!!!

quali: with very little preparation as usual I was glad to put in some decent laps which landed me in p11 of 12.

race: a perfect outlap (thx Ludde) and a clean start but I gave Jelle a little love tap towards the end of lap1, which he mastered perfectly, trying to avoid him however sent me on the grass and down to 12. From there it was some great and ultra clean racing which saw me go to 5th just before I pitted and 6th after pit. In one lap Jelle and me swapped position three times, loved it! I came out just behind Björn and in front of Menno. Couple of laps and a neat 180 degree turn later I was comfortably in 7th behind Menno. I was then handed 6th when Menno had to pit again and 5th !!! in the very last turn as a Honda parked on the inside of that last turn, obviously sans fuel (I had all of 1.7 l left ...). My teammate Konrad took 3rd, so what a f... good result for the BlueFlaggers . Along the way I did a lap with rather full tank that was 0.2 better than my quali, lol.

GRID3, beware, the Flaggers will be among you. Next stop Mid-Ohio, where I played for the STC this Thursday, one of my fav tracks.

Big thx to the dirty dozen, Gunthar for the great track mod and RD for settzing this championship up.

 

[Jelle van der Knaap]

race: a perfect outlap (thx Ludde) and a clean start but I gave Jelle a little love tap towards the end of lap1, which he mastered perfectly, trying to avoid him however sent me on the grass and down to 12. From there it was some great and ultra clean racing which saw me go to 5th just before I pitted and 6th after pit. In one lap Jelle and me swapped position three times, loved it!

Nice driving mate! We sure had fun!:wink:

 

[Andreas Löffler]

First i hate this track, second much more with that layout. :tongue:

Anyhow i made a fine 6th place in qualy and could go similar laptimes first. But lap by lap my car goes more then more sideways, so accalaration wasn´t really possible. With 30 min to go i pitted and then after some laps i got the same effect again.
More and more cars was summon behind me. Ries said later the Loffler train but i would say the gay train - everynbody was hanging on my ass. :wink:
With 15 min to go i know there is no chance to hold them back but i tried my best. At least P15 with full destroyd car after touching a wall. My pace was good for top 10 but with that tyre wear, it was undrivable to the end.

Really intense race with a for me unlucky ending - thanks everybody for racing.

 

[Michel Usal]

Group 3

Qualied in 17th and finished 4th eventough I was "brutalised" twice This race was really great driving fun. I made my first, and few laps on the track this morning, just making sure Steam was up to it. Made a quick setup to have a stable car. Before race start, I tought the best way to have some kind of result was by nursing the tyres, the very best I was hoping for was 6th with an excellent race. All trough the race, I tried to keep the tyres at the right temp, only pushing harder when there was an opportunity. Well, there were more opportunities than I was hoping for. Had some very cool battles with a few guys. Huge, huge fun. Congrats to podium and to Dan for his 1st pole.

 

[Christopher Aponte]

Not to take anything away from you, but I was actually bumped off-line after going side-by-side with Rami and had to lift because I ended up in the marbles where there is no grip at all (it's T3 by the way, T2 is the left-hander in the first S-bend). But it was indeed a great fight with you, Marcin and Rami in the first stint!

true...but I want to see it as it happened in my eyes LOOOOOL :wink:
and yes it was T3....but some might say T1 & 2 might be only T1...confusion

 

[Danny Pattiwael]

Ma na ma na!!:bang:

Qualified 3rd and was a bit nervous on where to be placed on the grid with the bug on Donington in my head. Got to start 3rd.

Marksu and Martijn was ahead of me and I tried to keep up with them and build a gap to those behind. I lost a bit of ground to those at the front, but when the tyres started to fade off I felt more like home. Car was brilliant! Gained on them and stayed out 2 laps longer than Markus, and one lap longer than Martijn just to spice things up. When I re-joined Martijn had a big gap, almost 11 seconds. I thought that he must have either driving to fast in the pitlane or gone for a special strategy. I started to gain more and more and eventually gained over a second per lap. I cought him on the penultimate lap and went for an overtake, but he defended his position. Out on the very last lap I got a good run on Martijn and we were side by side for a while, it was some great racing:doublethumb:.

Only 3-4 corners later we caught 2 Honda's that were fighting and it was sooo tight, but we both managed to squeeze through. Kept it together and finished 1st. That was a nice revenge from Donington!

Thanks for the racing tonight and see you next time!

WOW Linus, great Job !!! Nailed another one, sweet revenge indeed.

I had a nice race also, although the result was not what I had hoped for. I qualified bad, 13th. I had no pace or grip, and later on I knew why, the track was damn hot. Tyres were 110 C at left front.

Race was on and I managed to keep the gap and pressure on front guy, but after few laps I got tapped from behind by Gabor Ludvig and sadly lost many places. No problem things happen, although I was quite irritated at first, but then next laps I had great fun with many drivers. First I can recall is of course my fellow BVM mate Hansi Josefsson whom I managed to overtake at the pitstop. But he gained up on me after I got stuck behind Caramidaru and he slipped by after I got off my line trying to overtake. Nice move Hansi. After that Hansi got away.Other drivers like Bruno Sousa Ferreira and Gabor Ludvig gained up on me, and for many laps we were fighting and I had fun. Eventually I got away with it, and finished 9th. Could ve done better I guess but well that's racing, and comapred to previous races I had lots of battles.

Hope to see you next time and thanks for the nice racing all..

 

[João Andias]

GR 2

Finally a clear RWD event, BMW guys should be happy with this one. :wink:


Qualification (7th)

As usual & like many didn’t have much time for practicing, nevertheless knowing the track well really helped. Managed to circulate in the low 54s a few times in the session which was the fastest I ever went around here with a TDI, finished 7th.


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I really don’t understand what happened again at the rolling start, or better… Why are people doing it?:frown:

Last race at Donington I even asked in my race report to please avoid such maneuvers… Again, someone slammed brakes in the straight after the final corner, leading to immediate chaos in the position above 5th… Cars spinning, cars overtaking others before the start finish line and the like…
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It is very simple; in real world once the pace car goes in (here we don’t have one so we use the “last corner”), drivers are allowed to accelerate but have to keep position before the start finish line (meaning they can’t overtake before S&F line).
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So to be short… Yes, keep it about 100 km/h… Want to be nice? 2 or 3 turns before the last turn slow it a bit more to compact the field, exiting last corner, slam the accelerator… and don’t put brakes after that unless all hell breaks loose in front (like it happen for the guys above 6th in our division start).

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Well, back to my small race report…


Race (4th)

With the high temperatures tried to do a balanced (but slightly slower) setup that paid with an easier car when the tyres were really "going" by the end of each stint. Due to the high engine oil temperatures the car would go to lose 20% engine health by the end of the race (from an 86% start :wink.
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At start, form my 7th position I could see people spinning in my mirrors and a 407 (Michael) really moving much faster in the middle of the pack coming from the mid/back of the field straight to the front spots before the start finish line. This funny event would sort of shape the race from then on. Early race, this 407 had a slower race pace than the people around it and as such a considerable gap immediately opened to the front guys. People from 4th to 9th slowly went by it one by one and the even funnier thing is that this 407 would finish the race in the exact same spot it started, 14th.
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I don’t want to take nothing away from the front 3, especially Linnus & Martijin as they clearly had a race pace about ½ a second quicker than the rest of the field. In the final laps I really followed your fight with XD… :wink:
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An interesting group formed early on from 4th to (at least) 8th and we basically fought among ourselves for the last 2 qualifying places (4th & 5th) the rest of the race (after the pit-stop the “group” become smaller).
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Had very good, fun & fair fights with Giorgio (C30), Remco (Accord), Mika (Accord), David (Accord) and finely my last & perhaps the best, Fernando (407) whom I had to deal 2 times (before & after the pit stop). Much tanks …

Finished the race in 4th with a considrable gap of about 15 sec to 3rd placed Markus and twice as much to the front 2.


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With my disco at the first event, after my recent controller problems (previews event), I can’t hide that I’m happy because of finely moving to the first GR from my initial 96th championship qualifying spot. Thanks everyone who took part in this last event, see you guys in Ohio next week.

 

[Wayne Reed]

Group 3

not a good 1 for me Q 20th

then after 8 laps my frounts were gone to bits then i spin and hit the wall.

hope i have a better race next week thats if i can get this track to work it keeps CTD

 

[João Andias]

G2

Hi

Just i cut the finish line in 5th my game crash i hope the validation of result...

It is all ok, http://leagues.racedepartment.com/results.php?type=official&leagueid=10&menu=season :wink:

 

[Danny Asbury]

Group 3

Not a fun race today. I've given myself quite a lot of time to calm down, so I'm a little more clairvoyant now. That being said, the driving going on out there is bad, plain and simple. I was spun on 3 separate occasions, and was run into 2 other times but I managed to save spins. There are a few guys in the FWD that are very clean, but it would seem that at least 60% of the field drive with the mindset that if they can't get around someone, spin them. Toward the end of the race I was finally able to go against some highly respectful drivers, but they were in BMWs also, so they took extra precautions not to hit other drivers.

Some of the bullheadedness of the FWD guys needs to stop. It makes the races unenjoyable. I'll back off so to not hit the guy in front, but then some guy in one of the FWDs will just blow through me. It's ridiculous. I've yet to touch anyone in the RDTCC, but I'm getting rear ended on a regular basis. It's very frustrating, because I'm usually one of the faster cars. It makes it almost impossible to advance into the higher groups. To be honest, the only reason I'll show up next week is to show my reliability as a driver so to get into other leagues in the future. But the over aggressive driving really needs to stop. Just because you may be faster than the car in front on a few corners does not give you the right to beat said car off the circuit.

I'm looking forward to getting into ALL RWD events, maybe people drive safer.

 

[Ryan Callan]

I can't say anything but that you are correct Danny.

 

[Dubravko Vučković]

Group 3

Not a fun race today. I've given myself quite a lot of time to calm down, so I'm a little more clairvoyant now. That being said, the driving going on out there is bad, plain and simple. I was spun on 3 separate occasions, and was run into 2 other times but I managed to save spins. There are a few guys in the FWD that are very clean, but it would seem that at least 60% of the field drive with the mindset that if they can't get around someone, spin them. Toward the end of the race I was finally able to go against some highly respectful drivers, but they were in BMWs also, so they took extra precautions not to hit other drivers.

Some of the bullheadedness of the FWD guys needs to stop. It makes the races unenjoyable. I'll back off so to not hit the guy in front, but then some guy in one of the FWDs will just blow through me. It's ridiculous. I've yet to touch anyone in the RDTCC, but I'm getting rear ended on a regular basis. It's very frustrating, because I'm usually one of the faster cars. It makes it almost impossible to advance into the higher groups. To be honest, the only reason I'll show up next week is to show my reliability as a driver so to get into other leagues in the future. But the over aggressive driving really needs to stop. Just because you may be faster than the car in front on a few corners does not give you the right to beat said car off the circuit.

I'm looking forward to getting into ALL RWD events, maybe people drive safer.

Sorry to hear that, but you always in any league have more agressive and non agressive driver, and you can be faster but race is race..like i was faster than luliu or manuel..but i need to wait 3-4 laps and fights with this guys becouse they very good and agressive defender.. i waiting and waiting..and in the end i pass tham..sorry luliu ones again for little touch i lost grip..shame u lost control....and you can advance in next group, last week i dry in gr4...this weekend i drive gr3. and i hope next one in gr2 ...just to need calm..and waiting ...race is 55 min..and last night i was damm fast in race..but that didnt help to be 1st..one more ..race is race.. i hope you will change mind becouse is GREAT league..and very good drivers on..

 

[Fredrik Tackman]

This was really intense ,made a less better Qual than I use to and took 12th place.
Had good racepace and tirewear and could maybe have challenged for 2-3 place if I hadnt been pushed off track in turn 1 after about 8 laps and lost 5 places up to 15th.
Made a early pitstop to get by the que of cars in front of me,came out behind Andreas and thought YES (a fast guy) now we can drive fast and catch up a little,s4-5 laps after Andreas tires began to give up and I tryed to get by but he was doing a heroic job defending his position,at last I could sneak by and got one more place before the finish line where Wayne run out of fuel (and nearly scared me into the wall passing him??).

thx for very good racing

 

[Michael van Scheppingen]

GR 2

At start, form my 7th position I could see people spinning in my mirrors and a 407 (Michael) really moving much faster in the middle of the pack coming from the mid/back of the field straight to the front spots before the start finish line. This funny event would sort of shape the race from then on. Early race, this 407 had a slower race pace than the people around it and as such a considerable gap immediately opened to the front guys. People from 4th to 9th slowly went by it one by one and the even funnier thing is that this 407 would finish the race in the exact same spot it started, 14th.

Well regarding to my start in this race... after my f*ck-up confusing the rolling and standing (sorry about that) start I rejoined in 14th position. After the last turn I slammed the accelerator and noticed a crash in the front lines and people avoiding the incident by braking or otherwise. The right side was clear and I decided to go.

As noted I was, for some strange reason, not able to get the 407 up to speed. There was something terribly wrong. My rear wheels locking up when braking and with the accelerator floored not being able to pick up a good pace. My fastest lap was 1:57! during the race while I'm able to do 1:55's constantly. I still have to figure out what's wrong but I think my G25 foot pedals potentiometers need some good cleaning since it looks like the they are at the end of their life cycle as such.

If I offended anyone during the start... I apologize! But to often I end up in the back of the field being to much of a gentleman. Since I was not able to keep up I didn't put up much of a fight to keep people behind. Especially since I was tapped a couple of times in the corners bringing me out of balance and breaking my suspension in one occasion I decided to finish the race in my slow pace and make the best of it. So I ended up where I started, 14th

Hope to be more of a challenge next week at one of my favourite tracks Mid- Ohio!

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

GRUP 3

QUALI i did practice al week, had a club event on barcelona 03 ,i love the circuit had a 1.3.967 but did a 1.54.469 had no ideea why but was 6th with along side me Iuliu on 5th and David on 3..go ROMANIA.

RACE after again a forgot about formation lap...and went in a flyingstart..soon realid and got into place...good start but in warm-up i was stupid enof to change a bit my setup...and after only 2laps i realised that i had heavy understeer at exit from corners....no whey to put the power down.then i got bumpep, was fighting true the field...i was passing..they where passing..realyu fun....then i did a stupid mystake and changed only front tyres...wow, i was harder then a BMW to drive...i don't now what possion was in..but had a least 4-5drivers behind me...at least in 4ocasion(4laps) a Honda Bmw tried to pass me on first corner but i kepped inside line,brake realy late an managed to hold them,i got use to the sideways tending of the car and for my surprise i was chathcing 2felows in front of mee...but finaly to the releaf of those behind me..i lost the rear and got on sand..then was even harder ...realy tried ,realy work my hands off to finish this race.rear left -7.7% rear right -4.2% acording to Motec

i did some bumpes in the race,only because they brake realy early but evry time i waited!

even to bad result i had awsome fun ...lot's of overtaking.i liked this race

10-x RD and u all

 

[Manuel Spierenburg]

.then i did a stupid mystake and changed only front tyres...l

same here. huuuuuuge mistake
Think I got you in the second last lap in t1. I had to pit again otherwise was not enjoyable.

Danny I totally agree with you it was too aggressive for me also when I was in FWD.
I know you don't have to wait in league but I find it very respectful so I did when I tapped you.

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Group 1;

Qualified 14th. Which was considering the circumstances not bad but I was not pleased with it. I was at least 0.3 faster in 2 faster laps but screwed it twice.
The formation lap was initially ok, but for some reason everyone was doing a emergency stop on the straight. People were sliding and crashing. Not nice at all.
I managed to avoid the cars and could gain 2 or 3 spots before T1.
Then it was time to settle and getting ok laptimes. I think I did the whole race in only 1.55/1.56s but I was consistent. Due to some initial defending my tyres worn a bit too fast. I got a not so nice bump in T3 which caused me to drive over the marbles and lost 2 positions with it. I gave enough room I thought. Never mind, I survived and passed him in the 2nd stint
Pitstop was good, I took some extra fuel because I was unsure about the fuel amount. Still a fast stop and passed a few cars. Still in 17th positions were others still had to pit.
In the end I was closing in to the top 10 drivers who battled a bit to hard I think. They began to slide and I could sneak through passing 3 cars or so.
I could hold P9 just and was very pleased with the end result. Glad I knew the track from the GTR2 BMW M3 league Had almost no time to test this track in WTCC

Grats to Rami and all other Top 8 finishers before me

Only one round to go, still in Group 1. Yeeeee

 

[João Andias]

...

Danny a few "points"…

Specially with the points system this championship has, don’t take much notice of your final total points/position. What I remember from the 2 races I did with you is that you are correct & fast while virtual racing; if we think about it, that is what stays associated with your name regarding my person and I’m sure many others (fast & correct).
I’m not saying with this that it wouldn’t be nice to have you in the GR1 for the final race, after all like you I came from the 4th Gr and my objective was clearly to go the GR I thought to be sufficiently quick to go to (same as you, the first).

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Now saying that… have you seen the replay regarding those “bumps”?

Many times when we are virtual racing (specially if like me you use “real driving position”) we think some “bumps” are “unfair” and too much… Only to see after in the replay they were not that unfair after all (the guy had ½ car inside, I changed my trajectory too abruptly and the like…).
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If I remember correctly 2 races ago you had an issue with me; in race I waited for you and later in the forum (after watching the replay) I explained why from my point of view I wasn’t culprit of the incident.
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At the time the league responsible “hinted”/ asked for a formal complain, I honestly waited for it too…
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Although from our about 120 starters “only” about 2/3 remain and likely this 2/3 are mostly dependable/fair virtual racers, I’m sure a few “corners” here & there need adjusting yet (I had very close, fun, fair racing this event in Gr2, not a single touch).
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If you don’t “formalize” your complains, the people who are repeatedly doing this will keep doing it without perhaps knowing that maybe they are virtual racing outside this club rules.
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Notice by saying this, as explained before, it doesn’t mean I agree with the necessities or the process the league administrators use to go about this kind of business. But I do understand them and have to go by it since I’m compromised with this league.
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Everyone has to be mature enough to understand that if one can lose 15 seconds on track to “that” faster guy, he can also lose 10 seconds by penalization after a failed braking and a bump into someone else.

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In my over 70 RD events I’ve formally complained what? 5 or 6 times… Like me, most of these virtual racers still are racing here nowadays and most importantly both me & them surely learned from those situations.
One I remember never virtual raced here again… no problem, either he was too immature for the type of virtual racing we have here (for instances he though bumping others was a way to virtual race) or he was too immature to accept the judgment of others. (Or simpler, he moved to other form of virtual entertainment, hehehe…).

So in short, I do agree with your post (that is why I "thanked it"), but… if you were unfairly treated by others in this event, please, formally complain.

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...

Michael, just a few things,

Yes you were a bit slower, the gap to the front 3 grew very fast in the first 3 or 4 laps, but as I typed the front 3 really had a race pace above the rest of us (about ½ sec/lap). Only typed your name in my post because I noticed there was another 407 on the grid, so I didn’t want any confusions regarding that…
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Although I don’t fully agree with your solution to the problem, I fully acknowledge you didn’t create it (far from it), since it was someone well above on the grid who braked on the start-finish straight (I suspect he did it because there was a “confusion”/”misinterpretation” with an administrator in a past GR2 event).

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Another thing is that I fully understand your frustration regarding your controller problems, last Gr2 event my accelerator didn’t reach above 80-90% (dust/dirt in the actuators and poor gear shifter is the Aquiles heel of the G25).

I spent all race fencing-of someone (fun) & losing places (not that fun), received well above 10 bumps in the all race, was overtaken many times in pure acceleration exiting corners and 2 challenges gave me suspension damage. In the end I didn’t “complain” because in my view with the very close racing the class has (the difference between people are all in the hundreds) a car that can’t reach 100% acceleration (mine last event for instances) really becomes a liability to the rest of the field.

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Cheers,

 

[João Andias]

...The formation lap was initially ok, but for some reason everyone was doing a emergency stop on the straight. People were sliding and crashing. Not nice at all.
I managed to avoid the cars and could ...

Now I’m almost sure… the all business is actually sort of funny …

Last GR 2 event at Donington (perhaps GR1 too), someone (the pole sitter?) braked in the straight (start-finish line), as the distance to the start finish-line was shorter, people mostly avoided the trouble that come from it (but as always I complained in the race report ).

Later an administrator who I’m sure only sow the “final result”, I mean, only noticed the cars all "bunched-up" going over the start-finish line, typed something of the likes: “finely a nice start, everyone was close together!”…
So some people I’m sure though: “ha, to have a nice start it is required a slow-down in the final straight” :eek:

I think it is all a misunderstanding; yes it would be nice for everyone to go by the s-f line all safely & fast bunched up tougher but that is hard to manage even in real live (due to the concertina effect when accelerating exiting the corners).

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I think the administrator words were more in the context of avoiding “brake tests” & “big gaps” between cars that showed up in some past events on the slow lap itself…:wink: