Was very tired after an early morning, but I really wanted to be present in this last event of the RDVLN series put together by Yves.
I wasn’t present in all of them, far from it, but did a good share of these events and had good fun doing it. :good:
Qualifying (2nd)
By now most of us really know this track very well, was a bit far from my PB for a two lapper at the Nord for the class and above all was very tired and had a few exits. The result was I only managed to put in one timed lap.
Race 1 (3rd)
I knew I should be slower than Bruno, but I did have the fastest car in straight line of the event. So if somehow I could jump him in the start, as there are no clear overtaking points in the Nord short of the power-hill, maybe I had a chance.
From 2nd on the grid did managed, to jump to 1st, I knew he would be faster in the high aerodynamic support areas so I would be holding him, all I needed was the concentration and not to do mistakes.
But when one is tired, the mistakes are something very hard to keep away.
On the 2nd lap, at the flugplatz (airfield, quick 240km/h right hander at the beginning) did a newbie mistake and although without touching the wall did a big grass excursion. Although on a zone favorable to my setup, with this Bruno was really on top of me and I decided it was fair to him (since I was really holding him and making mistakes) to leave the door open.
From there it was a kind of calm drive in 2nd; Bruno quickly won about 4 seconds in his most favorable circuit part only to be losing a bit less than 2 seconds in the parts favorable to me, so naturally he built a comfortable lead.
The 3rd and final lap came about, Bruno up ahead 4 seconds and Gary behind about the same time and I with nothing to follow or to wary about.
Tired minds drift away to other non simrace thoughts, on the last 3rd made funny mistake that made me do 2 spins and seeing the other Lister go by… Well, I could have smashed into a wall, so I guess that definitely could be worst. In the end was 3rd, with 2 fast event participants up-head, didn’t trash anyone’s race so in a way was quite pleased with the result.
Race 2 (1st)
With the grid inversion, as usual this race was a very different “animal”… With 3rd in 1st race was 6th on the grid with Bruno right behind.
Remembering well the good start he did once from similar position, this time I closed the inside line better keeping him there :wink2:
Unfortunately, while doing the 1st turn I could see very well behind the pile-up involving 2 of my event direct adversaries. Right there I saw how they dropped to below the middle of the pack, leaving me potentially with this one in the bag in away one never wishes…. Well, I though, all I have to do is to keep this 4th and arriving at the power-hill do the draft overtakes, I’m too tired for anything fancy.
While calmly “sailing” in 4th (although everyone was very near from 1st to 5th), entering the bridge I really jumped on my sit has unexpectedly a C5R used my C6R as a "brake pillow". Result, bump behind, bump in the front, a car losing 3 km/h in 5th, and 5 km/h in 6th on the quick parts.
Well this certainly spiced the things up a bit… at the power-hill the things were no longer easy any more, but nevertheless managed to arrive 1st at the last chicane entrance (Hohenrain). With the recent long overtake this time I wasn’t asleep so when a 2nd bump in the rear sent me into the wall again, at least I didn’t jump on my sit this time. Another C6R made rear contact with my C6R; this just goes to prove that Corvettes did have an attraction to each other in this event. As I did a full spin, dropped to 2nd with 1st 3 secs up-ahead… the car was now doing 5km/h less in 5th and a staggering 7km/h less up the power-hill (6th gear) all result of aerodynamic decay (I didn’t lost the splitter nor the wing).
In the last lap the S7R up-ahead (Giorgio Migazzi) was doing interesting slides so in the end I did managed to close into the draft on the power-hill… gained the inside line, I’m sure he had pity of my damaged car, so he let me go by in Hohenrain without much effort :wink2:
Congratulations to Bruno and Gary for the 1st race, congratulations to Giorgio and Miguel for the podium in the 2nd race.
Thanks everyone who participated, in a way in normal circumstances the first race (the “cleanest”) would be my favorite, but as I was very tired, the “action” of the 2nd kind of kept me awake 
Thanks Yves for the event organization, and above all for the entire series at this great circuit
Btw, get that shoulder well, Ferrari’s “spa” facilities are at your entire disposal as you will be "needed" at the coming Monza event.
As usual thanks RD for race & forum server.
