well this was another adventure for me. I love MINI racing as the cars are fun to drive and the field can be very competitive through the whole grid.
Quali went waaaay beyond expectation for me. I had a setup in the car that kept tires in excellent temps on the long run for the race. I dropped the fronts to 24.8 PSI and rears at 25.8. Went out and stuck a FLYER 38.245 for temporary POLE over
Marty, BRandon and Keith! but then some sniper from across the pond rips a lap and snatched pole with 2 minutes reamaining. Who is
BEN "TUSTO" TUSTING anyway?:rotfl:
R1 sees me reponsible to get a good start and not create a travesty in T1. With new found speed comes unwanted responsibility! :time-out: I set off solidly only losing a spot to Keith. so far so good! but then I lose my braking point and end up tapping
Keith when I PANIC CHECK the car in T1. Meanwhile Aritan has jumped WAAAAAY inside and doesn't get slowed down in time and contacts me and I go off track. Others suffer contact as well and its a bit of a mess right off.
I resume DFL and try to put some laps together and gain positions.I am chasing
Aritan and Yassen in to T1 when
Aritan gets deep inside again and has contatc with
Yassen. I get a good run off 1 and punch
Yassen in the door. Sorry man I had no where to go. Well I gain a few but ultimately run out of fuel with 2 laps remaining in 11th spot. OH well there's always race 2!
R2 sees me in 11th and I am looking forward to seeing if I can translate speed into racecraft. I get a crappy start and end up DFL lap 1. What happened to the pilot who Q'd P2? sheeeesh!:Cry:
So now I am chasing
John S, Bob L, Aritan and Yassen who are all within view at least. I nail the right hander after the hedge line and get a killer run on
John while Bob is avoiding a long lazy loop through the grass, he come across the track in fornt of
John and me. I have a car width hole to the curbing and shoot through to pick up 2 spots.
A lap later
Aritan passes Yassen and I do the same when he runs wide on the last turn before the startight.
Aritan and I are very equally matched on speed right now and he catches a big group of cars. he gets past
YVES in T1 and right on
Marty's bumper. Meanwhile
Willie Watt has gone to CANCUN off T1 and we all get past him.
2 laps go by and its
Aritan, Yves then
me all running our guts out. I get inside
Yves in T1 but ease out of the corner to not wreck him and I and continue a fun battle.
Yves gets an unassisted lazy spin coming out of the hedge turn and I pass for 8th still trying to reel in
Aritan.
Aritan catches up to
Joao and I close on
Aritan so we now run bumper to bumper to bumper. This is what its all about! a good fair battle for position regardless of where in the field you stand!
Well then in T1
Joao runs wide,
Aritan stays online and I try to pinch inside of
Aritan thinking we can both lockout
Joao before the esses in the hedge area.
Aritan holds further inside than I expect and I tap him and kill our progress. Sorry man not intentional by me.
About 10 laps go by and
Aritan is relentlessly pressuring
JOAO! Finally
Joao runs a bit off in T1 and Aritan and I get past. WOW that was a ton of work!
The final scoring of R2 has me in P7 and I am feeling good about running a good race and not "screwing the pooch" for a change.:clap2:
Thanks again to
Eric K, Keith and
RD for setting this up! An extra beer for Keith as it appears he has decided to be a lead dog and assume more duties for this US/AUS group.
:yo: YOUr passion for the FUN and racing will elevate this group beyond my highest expectations could have been for a simple online racing sim!!!!!:rapture:
here's some screenshots from the action as I saw it tonight.
Kennet doing a fine job leading the pack into T1 R2! ( btw check out Marty and Yves door to door. BEn T and Keith are REALLY tight!)
John Sydenstriker about 2 feet from salvation in R1!
Bob Luneski putting on a demo for the Blue Angels in R2!
YOu gotta stick the landing to get the Wings! (the corner worker is completely unfazed by the crash)
