RDHGP S5 - Round 5 - Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham - 24th June 2010

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
Premium
Welcome back to Round 5 of the RD Historic Grand Prix, Season 5

We hit the second half of the season on a high after a couple of the best events I personally think we’ve run in RDHGP since I’ve been involved. There seemed to be good racing right the way through the pack both here and at Mo I Rana, and I have no reason to think that Round 5 will be any different.

I did receive a couple of Driving Incident Reports after the Mont Tremblant event, however. Details of the results are down below in the Incidents, Investigation & Penalties section. I’m not going to go into detail about them, beyond reminding people that I consider all aspects of the incident, from all sides. I don’t assume the innocence of the reporter, nor the culpability of the reportee. Once I’ve reviewed the incident, have come to my own conclusions, and if I feel that I’d like some other input before responding, I go to totally independent staff (ie not involved at all with the League) for their view on things, and whether they agree or not with my findings. That’s my process, I’m convinced that it’s the fairest way of doing things, and it will remain in place.

We head south west over 1,000 miles and into the USA, passing over Lake Ontario, and 5 US states (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky & Tennessee, travel fans) and into Sweet Home Alabama, and the Barber Motorsports Park. It is generally agreed on as being one of the best and most fun tracks we’ve driven on in previous Club events, and now it makes its GTL League debut.

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Circuit Notes
The Barber Motorsports Park is located about 5 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama. The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum opened in 1988, created from the private collection of local dairy owner George Barber, who was also a Porsche driver in the 1970’s. 15 years later, in January 2003 the track was opened as the Barber Motorsports Park, with the Vintage Museum on the grounds. Both the Porsche Driving School (2003) and the Kevin Schwantz Motorcycle School (2009) moved to the Park permanently from their previous locations. The Rolex Grand-Am Series & the AMA Superbike Championship have both held rounds at the Park since it’s opening in 2003, and this year, IndyCar added Barber Motorsports Park as both an Open Test Venue in February, and and the 3rd round proper of the Championship in April, won by Helio Castroneves.

The track has 3 layouts, and we will be driving the longest, 2.38 mile, GP configuration, the same as the IndyCars, but I suspect we will struggle to match the track record time of 1:09.455 in our vintage 65 Tourers. The GP circuit has a flowing character, is quite generous with an average 45ft (18m) width, and exciting with its 80ft (32m) total elevation change.

Birmingham GP starts on a good length straight, but like some of the preceding tracks, it’s all business almost immediately. T1L is an absolute brute of a corner, diving away down and left, the kerb you need to attack out of sight until after you make your turn in. Turn in too early, you both earn yourself a cut and, as a bonus, completely unsettle your car over the kerbs. Turn in too late, or go in too hot, and there is a sandtrap with a steering-wrecking wall very close behind it.

The exit of T1L is a short downhill, and then uphill blast before you set the car up for the difficult and patience testing T2R. This is a blind, crested, wide 180º turn, starting uphill, cresting at the apex and then diving away downhill for the exit, all the while testing your setup and your patience on the throttle as you need to carry as much speed as possible through here, but getting on it too soon can easily spin you, or send you out onto the grass. Once settled out of T2R, it’s full acceleration back up another hill for the blind and crested T3R. This is a simple corner, but the cars will all go light as you turn over the crest, and any instability will be exposed here.

A good length straight follows, and a chance to maybe get into the slipstream before getting hard on the anchors for T4L. There are several ways to approach this turn, and as a result, the blind, downhill braking zone is a bit of a movable feast, and not the easiest to judge when following someone closely. Get on the gas as early as you can, throw the car through T5L, nothing more than a full speed kink followed by another good length straight.

Waiting at the end of this straight is the Corkscrew complex of T6R, T7L & T8R. T6R is guarded on both sides by tyres, followed closely by T7L, a blind downhill turn, which is in turn followed by T8R, the vital off-camber exit. It’s vital, because it leads on to the extremely long and fast back straight where any time lost from the Corkscrew will be almost impossible to get back until the next lap.

Accelerating hard out of the Corkscrew, you reach the first of 2 high speed chicanes, T9L & T10R. This is a standard flat, fast chicane and, despite being guarded by tyre stacks, is attacked at full speed, and out onto section 2 of the long straight. T11L & T12R are an entirely different proposition, T11L shallow, but diving away after turn in, only to bottom and climb again almost immediately into T12R, a longer 90 where the track continues to bear right and uphill into T13R.

T13R is a quick, accelerating corner, the exit leading uphill to a sharp crest that makes the ideal braking line and zone for T14R much more difficult and unsettled than a constant hill would be. T14R is a positive cambered uphill and then downhill 90, and leads onto the short squirt for T15L the 90 that leads back onto the S/F straight. There is a bumpy kerb, and a cut indicator, on the inside to unsettle and punish people who take liberties at corner entry, and a sandbar waiting on the outside for people who take liberties on the exit. From there, it’s a flat out dash across the S/F line and onto another lap.

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The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
  • All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
  • T1L – The first turn here has the possibility to cause huge problems if people don’t respect each other. I am really tempted to put a “no-pass” rule in place for this corner on Lap1, but I will give the benefit of the doubt to you all. Do not make me regret my decision.
  • T4L – As mentioned in the Circuit Notes, this hairpin has a lot of different, but perfectly good lines through it, and as a result, braking lines and distances are extremely variable. Another result of this is that it is a favourite overtaking place. All of the above means that extra care is needed here.
  • T6R, T7L & T8R – The Corkscrew. This complex is approached at high sped followed by heavy braking through a curve, and guarded by tyre stacks. Be aware of people around you as you enter this complex. The most dangerous section for contact is into T6R – do not assume that you can just turn in without knowing who’s there on your inside. The most dangerous section of spins is exiting T7L, so be prepared to avoid stricken vehicles through here.
  • T11L & T12R – This chicane is guarded on both sides by tyre stacks, so overtaking into here is extremely dangerous, and could well ruin more than one person’s race, so exercise prudence through this section.
  • All points on the track – General Items
    • No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
    • The Track must be re-entered safely so as not to ruin other peoples races.
    • Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There is 1 new No-show infractions now being levied on Drivers after Round 4.

Roman Kruszewski

This infraction will be carried for 1 race and then rescinded. Any further infraction of this type by this driver will result in removal from the League.
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1 driver removed from the League after a second No-show infraction.

Jakub Dylewski
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Andreas Löffler raised 2 Driving Incident Reports against Neil Gault and Bob Hutchins in Round 4.
The Report against Neil Gault was closed without any penalty as a Racing Incident.
The Report against Bob Hutchins results in a warning to try and prevent avoidable contact when being passed.
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Steven Palmer raised a Driving Incident Report against David Cuthill in Round 4.
The Report against David found him at fault for an unsafe rejoin of the track, causing a wholly unnecessary accident and severe damage to another competitor’s vehicle. This results in a 20 sec penalty applied for the Mont Tremblant classification, dropping him from 9th to 14th place.
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1 driver who was carrying a Conduct infraction now has that infraction rescinded.

Andreas Löffler, who reverts to a clean record.
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Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.


No report = no review.


Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.)


Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.

Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.

Scoring System
I have extended the points distribution method down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.

The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1

1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
 
A fairly quiet race for me.

I got an average start from 11th, more wheelspin that i'd have liked. got a few places in T1 and got in line behind Andreas and David. Once again my race played out as expected. Good start but only steady pace so I'm naturally out of position from T1 so I'm either on my own losing time to the cars in front or I'm constantly getting mugged by faster guys who've had bad starts.

I spend the majority of the race just losing time to the front runners, Ryan had an off ahead of me at one point which allowed my to pass him and David, putting me 6th which I was well pleased with. Pretty soon I was falling back though and after a half hearted battle with Carlos and Peter I was 9th and with bald tyres.

I had a tense last couple of laps with Predrag and Bob close behind but i managed to hold them off for 9th. Once again a net gain on my grid slot and a top 10 finish so I'm happy, just not a very exciting race.

Grats to the winners and thanks Stu for setting up a great evening's entertainment!
 
Whoaahh! Great race, finally!
Finally I drove the whole race without any major mistake! Finally I was consistent and faster in the second half of the race. Finally the race that I enjoyed completely! Finally I had nice battles with more that one driver!:D Finally I will stop to write "finally"!

*cough*

Qualified as 12th, ended as 11th, great result for me.
I must apologise to Stuart for contact in T2 after the start, I thought that I had enough room there.
From lap 2 I had amazing run with Steven and Gary, thanks guys. :) I had fantastic battles with Gary in the middle of the race also. Both Steven and Gary made a mistake so in the second half of the race I was chasing Bob till the end. Last few laps was followed with subtitle "must catch Bob, must catch Bob, muuuust catch Bob". :) I was slightly faster than Bob just enough to close the gap and couple of times tried to overtake, but Bob was good enough to save the 10th place. Great driving mate!

Far the best race for me, and I know now for sure that after I got fired from that awful awful job, my driving improved so much in term of consistency. BLoody job, I drove every race before this as very very stressed and tired.

Congrats to podium and to all finishers!
 
Not as enjoyable as I would have liked, but still had some fun. Man, this League is hard work in a Mini, you drive the wheels off the poor thing, only to have almost the entire field cruise past down every straight.

My only goal in Qualy was to see if I could get below 1.43 secs, which I managed. Sadly that brought me the lowly spot of P16 on the grid. :rolleyes:
For once, I managed a reasonable start but was immediately locked behind the big, black, scottish, roadblock. That rear end certainly fills the windscreen of a little Mini. :tongue: I soon slipped back through the traffic but had a few nice laps with Neil, Hans, Bjorn, Stuart, Carlos (what were you doing this far back ?). I then had an unfortunate touch with Neil in the hairpin, resulting in the Mini rolling several times and ending on the roof. I waited for the rest of the field to pass, then had many lonely laps trying vainly to catch up to someone/ anyone. I eventually caught Hans who was being held up in traffic, and this resulted in a long battle with Hans till the finish. He was clearly faster, but had trouble getting past, and made a couple of slight mistakes to give me breathing room. But everytime I opened a gap, Hans kept hunting me down again, well done mate. Towards the end, we came across the big black beast which was now down to the rims, I sneaked past quicker than Hans, which allowed me to hold him off till the end.
Finished P16.

Thanks to Stu for organising, and big thanks to Hans for the fun racing together. :)
 
Despite my P2 I am not fully satisfied. I had huge problems with fps on S/F straight and T4. FPS went down dramatically and I had to drive by heart. Really strange feeling when I did not feel the car and lost many on T1 and T4. My pace was 0.5 s slower than offline.

Nevermind, quali on P4 with my PB. Start as usual very bad, lost 4 positions and must be careful on T1 to stay on the track. Short battle with Tom. I was behind Martin, very nice battle, It was seen Martin is very experienced driver and knew hot to legaly block and predict ma movement. Meantime mistakes of margalit and Ryan. Finally I moved Martin and I had alone race on P2.

Grats for Andreas for cosistent pace and for Martin who did not allow me to be calm.
 
Very eventful race for me, and it seemed to fly past.

Quallied 8th (which I was more than happy with), got a decent start, but got boxed and sandwiched between Andreas, David & Krzyzstof into T1 - nothing particularly malicious in there, mind you, just the result of a lot of cars and a limited amount of space.

Once T1 was negotiated, the field settled down and I was behind Grzegorz. Coming out of the corkscrew, I got a good run on him through the first of those 2 chicanes, and got past into the 2nd, but was a bit worried about where he was and so I tried to keep a very tight line on the exit to make sure he had some space. Unfortunately I got on the gas a bit too soon as I came off the kerbs, and spun. Got round pretty quickly, but was now in 21st, so it was going to be a recovery drive from there on in. I suppose in a way, if you're going to go off, it's better to do it on lap one while everyone is still pretty close together.

Drove back through the field, having some cracking little dices along the way with pretty much everyone - all very fair and clean, and most enjoyable. Some cracking little moments with Warren & then Steve, and then I started closing in on Carlos & Lenno, who were having the classic Abarth vs Falcon duel. This little group was increased when Ryan recovered from a spin just in front of them. Got past after a lap or two, and then my next target was Ryan who was by now right up Bob's trumpet.
Down the S/F straight (no fps issues for me there) I suddenly saw Ryan and Bob go off in T1. That gave me a clear run on Tom, and after making that one stick, I had a big old gap in front of me to Grzegorz, Martin & Amir (which I didn't think I could close), but I could see a recovering Gog & Diaz scrap shaping up behind me, so my focus shifted that way.

Both of them are annoyingly quick :) and so I had to push to keep a gap, and I stuck in a set of my fastest laps (it's annoying when you suddenly find a better way through a particular section after a couple of hours of practice, quali and half a race :D ), and because of that I opened up a big gap behind - probably aided by the fact that Carlos & Peter were now slugging it out for position - and I suddenly found that I'd closed heavily on the group in front and I had Grzegorz in my sights. After our long old battle at Mont Tremblant where it was so very very close, I knew it'd be hell's own job to try and get past.

I just got a decent run on him out of one of the slower corners, I think that tyre wear may well have been a large issue here, and nipped past, managing to hold on for a surprising and pleasing 5th. Very enjoyable race on a brilliant circuit. :good:

One issue I wasn't too pleased about, though.
There was some chat going once some people finished - but there were other people still driving and racing. Just because you have finished doesn't mean everyone else has.

If I see any more of that, I'll treat it exactly the same as chatting during the race. It's not like the odd "Thanks" or "Sorry" which is manners - it was lines and lines of stuff all coming up quickly. It's the height of arrogance, selfishness and bad manners and I don't want any repeat of it.

I don't like finishing on a sour note, but it was bang out of order, IMO.

Anyway, off to the UK for the next round.
 
my race

qualy:

Could manage a high 40 which means P3 close behind Peter and close in front of Krzyzstof but with a huge gap to Ryan in P1, about 7 tenth´s i thought. It seems Ryan become faster and faster, very impressive.
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race:

My start as usual - bad. :tongue: Fall down on P6 but already first lap i could pass TBR teammate David and Martin both in the last long righthander. Next lap i had AMir ther in front of me in P3, he close the inside but with more speed outside and the further lefthander i could take P3. This was really nice fair racing with givin room each other. :good:
In the same situation Ryan and Peter had her unlucky situation where Peter spin and i, Amir and David could pass Ryan on the s/f straight.
Now unexpexted in P1 i tried to open a gap to Amir and due the fact that Amir had also to defend his position it works. Could increase the gap in the next laps to 6 sec but was still unsure if Ryan who would be normally much faster will come or not. Later my XD show him only on P8 which gives me finally the 2nd win in the end 13 sec before Krzyzstof.
I´m very happy :) cause after qualy and the bad start (again) i wasn´t thinking to have a chance to win. This season seems really like a roller coaster for me. Hope it don´t go down now again and i can stay on the upper area. I´m looking forward to the next runs what will happen.

:thanks: everybody for racing, cu next one.
 
I then had an unfortunate touch with Neil in the hairpin, resulting in the Mini rolling several times and ending on the roof.

So sorry about that, i thought i had made a clean pass and never felt a thing but from the replay there was a small touch on my back 1/4 from your front wing which was enough to send you flying, i did see you tumbling in my mirror but i thought u had been hit from behind. Are you using standard bonespring settings or have they been tweaked?
 
Are you using standard bonespring settings or have they been tweaked?

No problems Neil, as I said in the chat, just one of those unlucky things.
Yes, I'm using standard GTL settings, never changed any bonespring settings (not sure I would know how). The Mini is often likely to roll easily if nudged in the right place on a tight turn.

I should have given you a bit more room on the inside I think, but I lost sight of you in the mirrors.
 
I cant really find anything exciting to say about qualifying 17th again,and finishing 18th of 19 runners,i had some ominous feelings in practice that this could well be another Knutstorp and it was.
Congrats Andreas and podiums.

Thanks Stu & RD
 
Well, after a busy Friday, finally my race report. I had a quality race with a busy opening few laps and looking to make amends for my last round mishaps, which I did, but this nearly came to a nasty end early into my race but more about that in my report.

Quali: Feeling quite confident with my setup I set off to post a good time, in my book. I left the pits on a low fuel run but after the warm up lap this did not go to plan. Every time I was on a good time I kept coming upto traffic which inevitable, even though the person would make way for me to pass, I would loose time. After some laps I came in and went to my race setup for the last 10mins of quali. Again after getting things warmed up I kept hitting traffic or making the odd mistake and all this didn't help me improve my time. I could now see myself down in 18th/19th place and seeing that Lenno's falcon would be infront, which I knew would be a mission to overtake until the later stages of the race, set about getting my act together and putting in a time I knew I could from my testing runs. Now with only 5 1/2 mins left I set about my task knowing I had only 3 laps to do it in. The first of these I did improve but only by a few tenths and not enough to move me up the grid order & with only 2 laps left time was running out. On my penultimate lap I pushed all the way round without making any mistakes or catching any traffic & by half way round saw I was up around 1/2 second on my time so kept the focus and went for clean lines and knew I couldn't afford any mistakes. As I crossed the line and into my last lap I checked my time & saw I had beatin my PB witha 1:41.9xx which inturn brought me up the grid to 15th & with that in mind pushed on the last lap but as one does pushed a little to hard & by half way round saw I had lost time. Now infront of Lenno's steam liner I was happy with my time and my position on the grid.

The Race: As I lined up on the grid I found myself behind Steve and noticed I had Lenno right behind me which prompted me to think that I must get a good start or black beauty, aka the falcon, would get by me on the first straight we come to. See it was a very tight grid I knew there wasn't going to be much chance of passing people off the line unless they got a shocker of a start. Pointing my car slighty right, hoping to go between Steve & Hans the starter dropped the flag & we were off. Got a good start but so did Steve & as I tried to head between him and Hans I could see Steve also going right looking to protect the gap. As I got between Steve & Hans & with T1 fast approaching the gap that was there just seemed to disappear so I had no alternative but to back out before we entered T1 so I & them can get round it safely. As we all got round T1 safely and now heading upto T2 I could see Lenno was right behind me so knew I had to get a good exit out of T2 so he couldn't get by me on the straight before T3. This I managed to do, just, but in doing so was a fraction late on my braking for T3 espesically with cold tyres & before I knew it was heading quickly towards Steve's backend. Fearing the worst I thought it was going to end badly but as it turned out I managed to haul my car up enough to only make light contact with Steve, who after the race told me he didn't even feel or know we had made contact, which in turn Lenno made light contact with me & with that we carried on down to the corkscrew of T4/5/6 with me on the outside of Steve and Lenno still behind me. On the run down to the corkscrew and with the contact on Steve on my mind I could see I had got a better drive out of T3 as I was pulling along side Steve on the straight, so with this in mind I was not going to contest the corner and let Steve go through the corkscrew before me and duly slowed up but this allowed Lenno to close right up and to make matters worse Steve thought I was going to contest the corner so he also slowed up, found out after the race, so with both of us slowing up and Lenno right behind it must have looked a bit funny as both of us were expecting the other to take the corner. Eventually Steve took the initiative and went through and as I followed I found on exit that Lenno was trying a sneaky move on the inside of me but I managed to hold of his advances and stay infront. This was to become crucial as I managed to just hold him back as I saw Stuart spin, as he wrote in his report, on the hill and we were still only on the opening lap.

Lap 2, now in 11th, due to some falling off, I've managed to just get enough of a gap back to Lenno so as not to feel he would be able to make a move on me unless I made a mistake and consentrated on Steve who was just in front. All going well when we apporach the corkscrew again and Steve gets out of shape on the exit which enables me to get by on the inside and upto 10th but before the end of the lap I saw a stranded Peter before the last turn and inherited another postion as I crossed the line to end the lap. Lap 3, and with a gap to those in the front group and with Lenno about a second behind, I set about trying to catch those in front as I could see Grzegorz & Tom having a little scrap which will surely slow them up a bit. Before the end of the lap Grzegorz had got past Tom and I had a 3 second gap to him amd of course Lenno still around a second behind me. Over the next few laps I managed to bring down the gap to Tom to around 2 seconds and extend the gap to Lenno by about the same. Around lap 7 & just before crossing the line I saw Ryan & David off line on the start/finish straight and after crossing the line found myself in 7th.

Knowing that I now had serveral guys behind me, having their moments in the early stages of the race, and who had qualified ahead on me I knew I would be possible meeting them later on down the line when they are trying to recover from there earlt misdemeanors. With this in mind I settled down to put in consistant laps without mistakes and also keeping the gap to Tom steady as I knew the later part of the race would be interesting knowing that tyre wear was going to be a factor. First on the come back trail was Ryan, who by lap 10 was right on my tail. As I knew he was faster than me I was intent in just letting him by and this was the case at T3 but at the corkscrew he got out of shape on the exit and so I was promoted once again. Loosing a little time to Tom, the gap now at 3secs, I continued to race at my own pace but by lap 13, unlucky for me in this instance, Ryan was once again right on my tail. As we approached T1 I stayed on the outside hoping Ryan would again out brake me and take the inside line into T1 as I had no plans in contesting the corner. Instead we made contact and both went off and in the process I lost 2 places, to the recovering Stuart & Carlos, before I could get back on track. As I did just before T2 I noticed that, yes you guessed it, Lenno was on the outside of me, probably seen me recovering back to track and took the safest line, but with a bit of luck I managed to hold the inside line to exit the corner in front of him, phew, and carry on my merry way, plus the car felt ok after my incident, another phew.

Over the next couple of laps I managed to hold Lenno at bay, again pulling out a small gap, but on lap 15 found I had the recovering Peter behind me and by the end of the lap he got by. Now in 10th and past the halfway point in the race I was content with just bringing it home, lucky to be still in the race, and knowing that there would be no more chances of picking up anymore positions. As the remainding laps went by, 16/17/18/19/20 I had a gap to those in front and to those behind and thought this was it, just a drive it to the finish line job, how mistaken was I. After taking a look at XD I could see Tom was ahead by about 6+ seconds and Predrag was behind by about 4+ seconds and as the laps counted down I was gaining on Tom, just a little each lap and Predrag was bringing down the gap to me. Now in the area of tyre wear I thought there might be a chance to catch Tom but it wasn't going to be easy but at the same time I didn't want to push it too much so as to make a mistake and give up my position to Predrag who was now within 2 seconds of me. Lap after lap the gap to Tom came down but by now I knew there weren't enough laps left to catch and pass him and with Predrag right behind my thoughts were to just keep the gap to him. On lap 26 I had Tom right in my sights with Predrag now only 1 1/2 seconds behind and as Tom was slow out of T2 I was right on his tail as we approached T3. I knew if I got a good exit from T3 I might have a chance of passing Tom on the run down to the corkscrew but the chance was gone when I found myself having to take avoiding action, and nearly loosing it, going into T3. Tom braked much earlier than I had judged and as I had taken my normal braking spot nearly collected Tom mid corner. Somehow I managed to avoid this but this put me in a slight spin but I managed to hold it drifting around the corner. This allowed Predrag to close right up on me and I had to pull out all the stops to hold my position which to my relief I managed to do and bring it home in 10th.

Thanks goes to Stuart for putting the league together and bringing us another wonderful track to race on. Thanks to Steve, Lenno & Predrag for being perfect gentlemen drivers and making it a great race. Congratulations goes to Andreas for winning, wd rest of the podium. Right, now onto round 6, my home GP at Silverstone and hope to see a full grid for this one. Thankyou and good night.......................
 
Time to report,

Birmingham is a track I like a lot ,there are a few tricky spots but overall I feel comfortable on this track.

Quali, going ok this time, did a pb 1.42.791 put me on P 14 an pretty pleased with it,(Bob your time:1.42.920).

Race, I now the car can be fast on the start but T1 is close by an don't want take risks, Predrag was slow on the start but stay behind him,good trough T1 an passing Carlos !? he was all over me an in lap 2 going to wide in the U turn made contact with Carlos who could continue,but I was off,back on p21.

So the chase could begin,Senad in front an Peter off, let him fight for it for one lap Senad had his moment on the strait,not giving up easy on Peter but let him pass me, ok p20 now.

Passing Warren who had his problems an most surprising to me I could keep up with Peter for a few laps,Bjorn dropped out so back on p 18.

In front a group with Peter Knut Neil an David on 2-3 seconds,so that was my target slowly going closer ,I think that Neil an David had a problem ,David off in the corck screw an Neil close in front (p16 going well) trying to catch Neil but he don't give me any room to pass him,
Warren closing in with David in his mirror ,I going wide a bit trough the grass that was al they need to pass me back to p18.

Half way the race now,the fight with Warren has start, Neil in front an David chasing him an past Neil after a big fight, I made some small errors giving Warren space but every time getting back on him,he was fast through the corners an I on the straits but always to late to have a clean pass on Warren,very enjoyable racing!

Then we saw Gary in front an Warren slipped through ,now me but that takes more time an Warren was driving a way,I was close on Gary over the hill to the last 2 corners fore the strait
I now that I must do it there so <pushed>Gary a bit wide with my Abarth an take the inside corner first. Sorry Gary a bit to aggressive from me.

Again after Warren on p17 now an a few laps to go,the gap was to big an my tyres loosing grip.
I take it a bit easy now holding my place keeping Gary behind an not making mistakes,closing the gap to less than 2 sec on Warren an than the race coming to his end.

Great race for me despite p17 it has giving me much fun in racing again.

Keeping up is one thing passing Warren some thing else, not worth the risk sending us both off,thanks Warren pretty good racing again.

Grats ,Andreas Krzysztof an Amir
Thanks Stuart an RD for putting it all together
 
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