Well, well, finally this hard 9 race season long championship came to an end… a longer post for the season finale.:wink:
To EndUrance team this final event was all about securing its 2nd place in the Semi-Pro division team’s championship, for that in an advent of a possible WoF vicotory we needed a top 10 finish from both virtual racers. Also under team’s aim was the securing of the last podium place in the individual division championship for João Andias and the possible elevating to 5th spot overall for Abdul Ahmed.
If mathematically the things might have looked easy for 3 of the 4 team objectives for this last event, in truth, situations out-side of the event itself made the things harder than they looked as both virtual racers were impeded to practice conveniently for this last event. Abdul struggled with ISP problems (“Mom’s” & mobile connection did the trick… don’t forget Race needs a INET connection to even fire-up), João gave a forced “vacations” to his G25 pedals as the accelerator actuator by early week showed severe imprecision on its operation.
Fortunately coming event day all was in place for both racers,
Abdul was at “mom’s”,
João had a reasonably “rested” accelerator and both those factors in the end had little influence in the race itself.
________
(
3rd)
With such a wide track, a shortened field of about 15 starters (all who started just needed to finish to score points), the grid itself was of relatively little importance.
Did a very low 28 in both qualifying sessions, a time just a little bit of my PB (just high 27) so was very happy with my display as I had managed to find a good compromise of sensibility-operations problems for my accelerator pedal.
Race (
5th)
1st StintAt the grid itself was given an above average engine, I was also joking with future
Semi-Pro division champion
Kevin after his unfortunate connection problems had sent him to last place on the grid; something of the likes: “
the last place is the safest place…”.
Did a sufficient start, and went for the faster paced out-side line on the tight first turn. The things were going very well as although I was only in front in the outside line but above all, should had the inside line for the second corner…
Coming out of nowhere from the
opposite direction, a
Rise Wagon car placed itself head-on when I was already going back at the power, with no room to avoid him, an head-on collision was certain…
That event effectively broke the peloton in 2 or 3 groups and I dropped to the back of the middle group in 7th being pressured from behind in that first lap.
The
Ferrari itself had little damage from the all thing; it dropped a few “engine” health points and had almost unnoticeable aerodynamic damage (
top speed drop). As I was in a 2 stop pit strategy, decided to complete the stint normally and get used to the new behavior.
Early in the race overtook
JMR (
WoF) for 6th and
Abdul let me go by for 5th as I had a quicker pace at the time. Was trying to bridge the gap to the front group (
replacement driver for BHR was 4th at the time) when did my 1st race mistake; perhaps lack of adaptation to my accelerator abrupt operation, did a power spin exiting the first turn seeing both
JMR &
Abdul back in front dropping again to 7th.
A few laps later, after a spin by
Abdul, was again in 5th. The distance to the leading group was now above 10 seconds and although I was gaining time on my pursuers I was slowly losing time to the front.
For all race I would go to “battle” with the fast S, I don’t know if it was because of direct aerodynamic impositions of the first turn incident, or even psychological ones, the was certain is that I rarely did the fast S cleanly… no joke.:frown:
Exactly at the lap I was going to stop for the first time, lap 20, I had a really bad moment at it (
the S) and went rear end violently into the fence. Lost the rear wing but luckily the bent rear suspension didn’t come off (
or it would have been the finish) and I was able to limp to the pits yet entering them in 5th.
With the time lost "crawling" back to the pits plus the about 1 full minute needed for repairs, had to do some quick thinking. The race was lost, likely 5th & 6th too so had to risk it… Maybe wrongly, but had to be quick, put a lot of fuel in and aimed for a
40 laps stint
From then on the race was kind of “alien”/”new” to me….
First circulating deep in general classification, with a pace 3 seconds above my “usual” race pace than later due to the 2nd (or single middle race) pit-stop from everyone climbed in the order but at times had to fence myself from faster paced people (C. Vick for instances).
At race finish the tyres would go all the way to below 40%, the car was "skimming" all over the place, with both front end pushing (entering corners) and power-siding (existing the corners) but all would go relatively well.
At lap 41 after everyone had done its 2nd stop (single stop “users” had went to the pits about lap 30), I found myself in front of the 2nd group and my usual race adversaries for the event were about.
Abdul came fast, let him go and waited for JMR… At start of his last stint he didn’t come… the gap kept itself above 10 seconds (about 15 sec). Than the first peloton (giving me a lap) and a few guys wanting to un-lap themselves come by. As I didn’t had the pace and the car was moving a lot I didn’t want anyone near me. So lost quite a bit of time doing wide lines to give them the inside one, with this JMR bridge above 6 seconds and the gap to him was now bridgeable by him until race finish.
Did my math, notice that at the current rate, I would have him on top of me for the last 2 or 3 laps (my FL tyre was at 38% the rear ones weren’t much better).
Fighting
WoF racers at the end of an event wasn’t new to me, above all I knew, as usual, I had a faster car going straight, the election place to overtake…
When I was thinking, “
I will park the car there & there… give him the outside line there and there…” All of the sudden,
JMR disappeared, at 1st I thought it was from my side, than I saw people on the mini-map… Sorry mate, definitely not fun:frown:, very unfortunate, but at least he (
you) was (
were) classified in 12th because of doing above minimal race distance.
In the end, although a lap down from the front group, the team finished with both cars in top 5 (
Abdul 4th, me 5th), positions more than sufficient to reach our pre-race objectives and even sufficing to improve
Abdul final championship position to 5th.
________
Overall clearly the team had a sort of 2 “paces” all season, a part of the season where the things went more or less well and the team was there about among the division fastest (
team tBR1). To the end of the season (
maybe starting at Barcelona), due to some lack of luck and technical problems from both virtual racers, the team really lost same championship momentum.
Even so, when one of the racers had it all going wrong for him, the other was there about…
From my point of view this final 4th 5th sealed a fair 2nd spot in the championship; special thanks to my team-mate
Abdul for all his efforts to be there always (
the team had full roster all events… with no replacement driver… I will find one Abdul, I promise ).
A big congratulations to team BR1, they clearly were “above the rest” in the division.
Congratulations to the WoF team for its strong 2nd half of the season (leading them for a small margin to 3rd spot overall). Special thanks to BHR for "providing" practice "facilities". Thanks to all other teams who managed to present a constantly full roster in all events (this last one was surely a “freak” occurrence statistically).
Congratulations to Kevin for the much deserved win of drivers’ championship and Ivo for his deserved 2nd spot. As stated at other events, clearly there were about 8 to 10 people with a pace very near each other and surely a podium place wouldn’t be strange to any of them.
Will just finish by stating that as although it is known F1 is far from my “cup of tea”, this championship was also by far the best I was in. I’ve been participating in these “
Eric’s” championships' since
AF3KGPC days, and they do are above the rest. Both in organization, motivation, conditions and perhaps more importantly “ambient”. Thanks
Eric,
Staff,
RD and
all who took part.
