rF2 Caterham Superlights @ Zandvoort 79 - Fri 23rd July

[Toby Davis]

Well, not at all shabby. Don't know what was happening at the start in r1, everybody was asleep I think - went from 3rd to 1st by the start finish line! At the first corner I had nearly 70metre lead... but not enough to shake the tow, and Nic and Ries were soon on me. I defended like a lawyer from them but three wide into turn one, I got tapped by Nic - span into the barriers, rear suspension was f*cked, Ries escaped. Then it was a question of hunting down Nigel, which I managed, and we did some dicing - then I made a stupid move into that flat right where the track wiggles a bit, and although we were side by side, I guess he assumed I would back out - second trip into the barriers, 3rd was a certainty then.

Race 2 - 4th to 1st off the line (what the hell are you guys doing?!), then I pretty much held it steady... until that wiggly flat right caught me out again, this time I took too much kerb and nearly rolled - the correction forced a spin, which put me 4th. Reeled in Stu, got by him and Adam. Then it was Nic again - this time I slowly caught him, got in his tow, and after a bit of a battle, I drafted into first into turn 1... he then preceeded to lose the back end and roll off the kerb - hope I didn't cause that...

So 3rd and 1st. Not bad, not bad.

 

[Ross McGregor]

Race 1- qualified 2nd despite not setting the timesheets on fire in practice. Lost a couple of places at the start and found myself in 4th. (My guess is that a lot of people either use autoclutch or don't have a clutch pedal, as in my case, Toby!) Was right behind the lead group, and had stu right behind me, and was just watching and waiting while they duked it out ahead when suddenly i was staring at my desktop screen, with HP update wondering if 'i would like to check for updates now?' No, i certainly did not. When i clicked back onto rFactor i was scraping against the barriers but thankfully hadn't taken Stuart with me. Unbelievably rejoined in 12th or something and had some great fun battling back up to 4th, with Adam first, and then a half-race long duel with Jeffery that went to a slip-streaming conclusion at the finish line. Great racing!

Race 2: Started 3rd, and more or less held this position into T1, even after a poor start. Everything was quite controlled and calm into T2, but then into T3 i was punted off (and over!) after a rather daft manouevre from the guy behind. He waited, but i was now at the back of field and had to set about another recovery drive, whcih started badly as i was almost tapped into a spin immediatley after joining the track. So after a couple of laps of pushing i began to catch the pack, avoided a few spinners/crashes/rollers, and had some more great racing with folks (including Jeffrey again) and was only 2s off the battle for 4th by the end of the race. Still, i'm a little disappointed by the fact both my races were interrupted through no fault of my own, but it did give me a chance to have some great racing with just about everyone in the field!

Cheers stu!

 

[Chris Butcher]

Race 1, I had qualified really badly because of a spin. Got up into the top 10 in 3 corners, then next lap got taken out by Ozan Ulkugil, and dropped back into about 16th. He didn't wait and just carried on racing. Had a great battle in the last few laps with Alex on my way to 8th place.

Race 2, had a brilliant start (People sleeping with auto-clutch) got up to 4th, then turn 2 I hit Ross (sorry, you caught me out with your braking, I normally brake much later into that corner) Waited for him, then the corner after he and Ben were battling. It looked like to me that Ben overtook him cleanly, Ross lost the back end and took Ben with him. So I'm afraid its not fair for you to say "almost tapped into a spin immediately", from my eyes it looked like your fault. That was basically it for Race 2, trundled around on my own for the rest of the race.

So not happy really about these 2 races, but bad races happen. Thanks Stu, see you next time

 

[Ross McGregor]

Race 2, had a brilliant start (People sleeping with auto-clutch) got up to 4th, then turn 2 I hit Ross (sorry, you caught me out with your braking, I normally brake much later into that corner) Waited for him, then the corner after he and Ben were battling. It looked like to me that Ben overtook him cleanly, Ross lost the back end and took Ben with him. So I'm afraid its not fair for you to say "almost tapped into a spin immediately", from my eyes it looked like your fault. That was basically it for Race 2, trundled around on my own for the rest of the race.

Don't worry about it, i normally brake later into that turn as well, but was being cautious as it was the first lap.

As for incident #2; I won't argue about it, you maybe didn't see everything.

 

[Ries Notenboom]

Quick review of my race ( I could only join for race 1 ).

Qually...39.4 Wasn't good for me so not happy as in qually I should have done a 38 high at least but only managed a 39.4
Still shouldn't whine to much as p2 was well over 1 second behind.

Race....Well Tobi...I stood there searching for some bleeding lights !!!! Where's the lights where's the light's can't find the bloody.......o **** they racing and few cars wizzed passed me rofl
So was in for the hunt and I thought due to slipstreaming it would be easy to overtake as I knew I was faster but also knew that it would be veyr hard to shake anyone off lol. So we battled with the 3 of us and I was thinking this is gonna be some fun and intresting 25 minutes !! And you 2 crashed each other !!
Bugger was my thought and was just racing against the clock after that. Had a solid lead but had to make it exciting for myself ! I didn't have enough fuel and only realized split second before the pit entrance !! So made a pit in the final last lap to get fuel and even took new tyres ( only had time to untick repair body lol ) but still came out with a 5 second lead to p2 !!!

Brought it home for a win.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

what a craking couple of races

practice went really well & after i leeched stu`s setupi started to threaten the 1.40`s & near the end i was following ben and managed a 40.4

quali my lap didn`t go well & only manged a mid 41, but was supprisingly still good for 5th.

race 1. start went ok but taking it easy in 1st few corners i dropped back behind Stu. starting lap 2 i had could stay with the bunch in front and with none threating from behind i was relaxed and having fun, the Stu spun out followed by th enext the guy & i was in 4th but in nomans land. till toby & Nic had there moment & i was into 2nd, but running on my own i had lost speed and when Toby caught me i was able to stay with him and we had a few fantastic laps which i was hopeing would go to the end, but a slight missunderstanding and going into the fast snake i was a little wide & turned in sharpe as not to run wide and made contact which lead to Toby spinning. i backed off a bit hopeing he could catch back up but he was a long way back and i wasen`t sure where 4th place was & didn`t want to loose the podium.

race 2. starting 5th again & trying manual clutch for the 1st time but bogged down & once again was behind Stu, after some tactical bump drafting we caught up with with 3rd place but a missed braking point by me almost took Stu out but thankfully just ended with me half spinning. i rejoined behind Neil & Wayne, but on the next lap Neil ran wide at T1 leaving just the 2 of us to have some great slipstreaming to the end 7 i just pipped wayne by .001 to the line to get 4th.

overall my best result in the cats at one of my favorite tracks, thanks Stu & RD

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

Great night for me.

Quali: Struggled all night for speed but got a setup for nick and was going a lot better (thanks ) Qualified in 11th I think it was.

Race 1: Made an okish start but half spun at turn 4. Thankfully some nice chap drove into the front of my car to make me face the correct way and continue without losing much time (Thanks ). Slowly move up the field which resulted in having a 3-way-battle with Ross and Jeffery. Realised the race was 5 minutes longer than I though so had to slow down to save fuel but I was keeping close enough to Ross and Jeffrey that I could profit from any problems, however none came about and I finished in 6th with 0l left.

Race 2: Started from pole and used the timing info to know when to leave the grid. Made a great start and led comfortably into turn 1 and was able to hold onto the lead for half a lap but Toby was far too quick and shot past me. Had a long battle for second before Nick got through and was then in a battle for 3rd with Stu. Nick and Toby both went off on the same lap so I took the lead and just about led my 2nd lap ever at RD. Nick squeezed through on the inside at turn 1 and Toby caught us up to take 2nd. I continued to fight with Stu for many more laps until he crashed at turn 3. From then on I was just trying to stay close enough to the the front 2 to profit from any problems and that I did when Nick rolled it at turn 1. 2nd place was a great result for me.

Thanks to Stu, RD, and all of those I battled with.