First of all, I want to say thanks for the racing guys, best race I've entered, even if my little rants and posistion say otherwise.
Thanks Hugo for setting this up, can't wait for the next enduroevent. Now (may want to sit down if your going to read this post, it awfully long), this will be a race report on mine, but seen as I end up only doing 18 full laps due to getting 3 stop and goes, I decided to sit on the pit wall, and talk to Chris Sykes, Matt Clark and Nathan Magrath about race developments. I will also say who I tought was the driver of the race was and do a race report on him.
Pretty safe and conservative for me, a little bump but nothing big. So I was happy that I stayed on track at the first chicane and getting through it with not cut warning.
The start for most people was okay, only people I could see with a start to forget were; Nathan Magrath causing a slight road block (with Nigel Middleton coming out the worse from the road block) after getting a tap from Carl Middleton to the back end of his petrol Seat, Chris Sykes BMW running into the back of a very caustios David Zafiu's Lacetti (but he recoverd to end up 4th after the second chicane passing Simon Gardner, and Matt Clark's TDI running into the back of Oliver Wickens' Lacetti, but Oliver recovered it to get back into 3rd on the run down to the second chicane. Unfortunatly for Matt, he was nudged wide onto the gravel on the exit and dropped back behind me to 10th before he slid past me under braking for the second chicane (which I had being struggling to control the car on for the past couple of days). Then to top it all off for the first part of the race Geoffrey Fournier is nudged off into the gravel at the second chicane dropping him back to 10th by turn 4, (the first Curve di Lesmo/first of the double right handers).
The only two who had a nice and relaxing first corber were Jesper Bayer and Dariusz Swiderski, who sprinted off into the lead with the early advantage.
Geoffrey Fournier passes me into the second chicane for 8th after I run wide on the exit of the first chicane after running over the inside exit curves, giving me my first warning I think.
So I end up in a Fournier sandwich, as I follow Geoffry, who was having classic rear end happy slidy Lacetti fun.
On lap 4, I get really out of shape heading into the Ascari chicane, and drop back two places to 10th. Next event to happen for me happened at the second chicane following Philippe Fournier next lap, who was just that bit slower than me, so he brakes a little earlier than expected, I brake, but lock the rear's trying to not run into him and end up in my second half spin. Thanks Carl Middleton for not just running into me, must have gave you a bit of a fright doing that, :thanks:sorry.
On lap 7 Erling Bohmer gets a run on me down to the second chicane. Still having a good 70mins+ to go, I don't challenge him for the place, but he then locks up, I move avoid him, but move too much to the right on the exit and we touch. The continue to rub, neither seeming to want to give to each other, until we break free from each other before turn 4. The proced to take the wrong line through turn 5 and get past very soon after the exit. Now down to 11th for me. Unfortunatly for Philippe Fournier, on the same lap, he comes in to server a Stop & Go. (I'll get to them later
.
Everything then settles down for me for a while, until around lap 9 roughly, where I dip my right rear onto the grass under braking for the Ascari chicane, and I luckily escape keeping my car out of the tyre barrier, but drop behind Nathan to 12th. And after that, my night turns from a struggle, to a nightmare, as I get my first of three Stop & Go penalties. I beleive my main problem that night was the Ascari Chicane. I would run wide, having the lefts on the curb, and the rights in the gravel, it gives you a warning, I can't see why. If there is any time gained, it could only be a hundredth of a second for crying out loud. :damnit: So after the penalty, I'm spit back out into 15th, then going to try and be extra caustious ovet the chicanes, as I won't get more warnings, just more damn penalties.
Unfortunatly, by now, I'm nearing the end of my first stint, and my tyres are just dying on me, so avoiding cuts becomes even harder with a car that is now struggling to slow itself down. Nothing happens for three laps untill Nigel Middleton locks up into the second chicane, the waits for me to clear the chicane (thanks mate), and then seconds later, I promptly fall off at the first
Curve di Lesmo (turn 4). I then next lap go for a slow spin at the first corner and end up in the gravel, where at low speeds, my car won't turn under hard acceleraction very well. Probabaly due to changing a code someone had told me about before over on NoGrip. So thats me now backdown in 15th on lap 15.
I then pit on that lap. And guess who follows me in, none other than the leader Jesper Bayer (after locking up badly trying to slow down for the line, :roflol: man :roflol:. Thankfully it seems he doesn't use auto-pit by the looks of it). So now I'm a lap down on the leaders as the likes of Oliver and Garner carry on. This lap was a trigger lap for the likes of Geoffrey Fournier, Dariusz Swiderski and Erling Bohmer dive into the pits after Jesper. With Jesper taking on alot of fuel, as Dariusz gets out before him. With me, coming out in front of Barry Morse (me now in 17th) who I obviously had to let throught due to the blue flags. Unfortunatly for me Barry was very much running his tyres until they could do no more, which didn't help me to try and catch 15th and 16th men (Philippe Fournier and Oancea Gabriel to try and salvage something from this race. Sorry for the light flash, but you were only compromising yourself staying out that extra lap going rather slowly man.
Now were onto lap 17. I get my second S & G! Its either the first corner or that Ascari Chicane again (can't tell, both look as if I could have cut them, but I've seen others run over the
curbs on those corners that much, and they seem fine), so on the Ascari Chicane, if you run wide and get a penalty if all four wheels end up on the curbs, bloody hell. Now back down in 17th again. Then on lap 20 odd, another warning for running wide over the curbs at the Ascari Chicane, 3rd S&G, F*** it, retire, and watch the others.
My driver of the day was Erling Bohmer. What a race to finish 4th, starting from the back in 19th. Lap1, avoids turn one mess by just sitting on the grid for another second or two, and basically waits for us to be done with the first corner, passes some people at the back of the circut and profits from someone falling off to end up 15th by lap 1. Goes a litle wide on lap 4 at the second Lesmo (turn 5). Lap 5, he proceds to hunt myself, Philippe and Carl down as we all squabble with each other, then passing Philippe on the run down to turn 1 on lap 6. Lap 7, him and me have a tussle, but he ultimatly passes me on the exit of turn 5 up into 10th place, next up is Carl, who on laps eight and nine is fighting with Barry Morse, who he passes on lap 9 before the first chicane. Past Barry now on the back straight on lap 9, he then catches up to Carl by the end of lap 11, thinks of passing into the first corner on lap 12, but thinks better of it. Then nails Carl into the Parabolica and is up into 8th, but Carl is having none of it and on lap 13 is hounding Erling around the first chicane, and keeps with Erling for the whole lap, just running deep into the parabolica. Carl does his best, but by the end of lap 14, hes being dropped, so Carl decides its time for a pit stop, and around this time, most people's tyres are starting to show real signs of giving up. Lap 15 and now Erling decides for a pit stop, just as he was coming onto the back of Matt Clark's TDI. After the stop, Erling exits just as Geoffrey Fournier is exiting after his stop. Now on lap 16, Erling is down to 12th place. Lap 16, passes Chris (who at this point hasn't pitted yet) who had just had a trip off-road at the second hairpin to gain 11th. Then as lap 17 starts, Nathan and Geoffrey are passed as Nathan does his stop, and Geoffrey who's serving a S&G penalty. Lap 17, jumps Barry Morse and David Zafiu in the pit lane to gain 7th. Lap 19, and the backmarkers are now coming into play for people. Lap 22, and now Chris has been lapped by Erling. Lap 23 passes Simon Gardner who slides wide at the
Parabolica, now Erling is up to 6th, then jumps to 5th (according to my replay). Lap 27, gains another place, up to 4th now according to my replay. Lap 29, Jesper takes his second stop and is overtaken by Erling and Simon, who are now 3rd and 4th respectively. Now on lap 30, Erling dives into the pit for his second stop, now its a fourteen lap sprint to the finish. Now on lap 31, Erling is in 5th, behind Simon who still has to pit again. Who pits on lap 31, comming out in 6th behind Erling and David. Lap 33, and Erling now has a freshly rubbered Simon hunting him down after being released by David pitting who feeds out in 8th. After about 5 or 6 laps of Simon keeping a steady gap to Erling, he is dropped and settles for fifth. Lap 34 to 44, is a quite period of just keeping it on the road and passing the backmarkers.
So from 19th to 4th. Definitly shows that longer races mean that, even if you don't qualify first, or are near the front by the end of the first few laps, if you can drive consistently, (not necessarily banging in 2:02s all day) keep the pace up, not have any HUGE offs (or get any penalties :damnit: you have a good chance or a podium or better.
More of these really long races please. But do make it on a track where cutting isn't such a problem, this Monza 08 track is far too harsh on people for cutting, I counted roughly 10 stop and goes in that race alone, and not all were given to people racing at the back. Maybe a city track next time like Pau, Macau, Porto, Vara Raceway or just a track where the line between cutting and not is more lenient than it was at Monza, it can't be nice, leading the race, tyres give way just a bit, you slide more than expected, and un-intentionally cut a corner and get a penalty, ruining your race.
I do look forward to the next one, just hope I don't get screwed over with penalties.
