SEASON 9 RACE 8 WATKINS GLEN RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

 

[Bob Miley]

Had a big screen freeze, tried to escape out but when it came back was in last place and there didn't seem to be any crashes so continued. Was a pointless effort really, after the freeze graphice were very jerky, specially near other cars, then blacked out again going into T1, came back on with me almost taking Vale out and went into the wall so quit. Hate quitting but was to dangerous for others to continue.

I think a rebuild is on the way before the next race.

 

[Dino Paolini]

q: 5th with a nice superpole lap

r: There was no real race anymore after the incident on lap15. After I flew over the barricade I kept searching for a reentry point for about 2 minutes, it just came on the other half of the track .-.
Was not much use driving the rest, but I did it anyway since I somehow only got some damage on the wings and no lost tire. Car understeered for the rest of the race and I came in last obviously.

Shame as my practice was good and the setup was a nice one. My second half of the season is a complete disaster now, also with missing the next race
Hoping for the next season now. Cya

 

[David Turnbull]

qualifying - 2nd (due to the restart, but 3rd in superpole)

race - 1st

started well enough and kept my 2nd place, started pulling away with sean until i made a small mistake and reik managed to catch right up and pass me, i followed him for a couple of laps and got a run on him at the end of the straight, going into the downhill left i sized up for a pass and went to the inside, reik had a small moment and spun out putting the power on i think so i was back into 2nd and chasing down sean, it was very close all the way tot he pits when i was within a second, i managed to have a very good pit and came out a good distance in front of anyone, i settled into a rythum and got to the next stop on lap 36 without incident, another good pit say me keep the lead by 12 seconds to 2nd place, i just cruised it home to the end making as little mistakes as possible, finished around 9 seconds ahead.

grats all great race, cya for the next one

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

bad Quali 2sec far my pb
R14
at restart Im in 13th a robbery and in first 2 or 3 laps its was fun a nice train running on Watkins until a my ex friend mmmmm was Peter? hit my in T1 and Im sure he hit me
deliberately ruining all the paint and a bit the mirror and I dont want talk about my pit box men was a tragedy a infinity grumble I had to pay 6 beers to keep calm my box, 6 beers each of course but when I jump out of pit my car was new Im in last position but with fresh livery new engine new suspension and a Club of drunks at box so with much attention tried to finish the race.done.


Congrats all and thanks PrestoGp for event

see you all at Interlagos


PS ..... have a problem my mechanics was still drunks and dont let me in they have my house keys anyone give me hospitality?

 

[Peter Marshall]

I'll put on an ice cold keg for your crew at Sau Paulo Vale

Congrats podium and thank you Nico; the restart was very kind of you to do so, although I would have been just fine watching from the garage...

A nice chase after Chirlie and then Marko; thank you gents.

 

[Reik Major]

Congrats to David for another great win and to Tim for making it from the back of the grid into 2nd!

Qualify (4th - starting 3rd in restart):

I had two big mistakes in my lap so I ended up in 4th with a 1:12:0xx. Top 3 were all in 1:11:8xx. That looked cool.

I have to give in that I left the track in the final corner with all four wheels. I know it cost me some time instead of gainig something, because I had to lift and couldn't accellerate as early as usual. So my initial thought was that this time loss is punishment enough. Crossing the line I was a littel bit unhappy that it still was a 1:12:0xx. Please let me know if I should have lifted a short while on purpose after the mistake or if the time loss due to the mistake itself is punishment enough.

Race (3rd - same as last year): softs 58 l / softs 58 l / softs 58 l

I was a bit afraid of the start due to my long 1st gear which I needed that long for other turns. So my start was ok but still slowly. Jim came up on my inside and Marko got a little bit blocked as there was no room between Jim and me. Jim took my 3rd position through T1 but I had a good slip stream. So having a long 7th gear I could make it to his inside on the long straight and regained P3 then.

Sean, David and me had a nice, close pace. I could see David pushing hard on Sean for a few laps. I calmed a little bit to see what would happen. A few laps later David got a little bit slower, so I could catch him on the long straight and overtake him on the inside into the quick right hander.

There was a small gap to Sean and I wasn't really able to close it at this stage. Later in the stint I lost a bit of speed due to tyre wear, so now David made pressure on me. In lap 14 or 15 I had to defend on the inside for the slow right hander after David got very close through the fast right hander. I missed the corner, got into a drift and David had no chance to avoid a little contact which send me into the wall. Sorry mate!

Luckiely David went on unharmed and I didn't loose a wing or wheel but received minor suspension damage which slowed me down by ~ 1 second or so. I think I lost ~ 12 seconds or so and Jim in 4th had closed the gap to me again. Due to the damage I pitted one lap earlier in the end of lap 17.

I don't remember in which position I rejoined but I think one lap later Tim and Jim came back from the pit close in front of me. I was able to catch Jim again on the long straight, so I now was in P3 behind Tim (2nd) and David (1st). Sean had mistake in the pits so I think he was 5th close behind Jim (4th), right?

Through the whole second stint I consistantly lost time to David and Tim. They were just quicker. In the end of the stint I struggled with the worn tyres which were one lap older than Jims and Seans tyres. In addition I made slight mistakes, so Jim and Sean came very close. To cover myself I already pitted in the end of lap 35 instead of scheduled lap 36. Jim and Sean followed me into the pits very close and parked further in front of me.

When I left my spot, Sean left his one in front of me, too. Jim followed close behind. Now we had three thrillimng laps with two hard attacks by me on Sean, which he covered very well. Once I tryed to go deep onto his inside into the ultra fast right hander. But Sean didn't give in and held the outside line. Due to braking into the corner I was close to fly off. But later I made it next to him there and was able to claim 3rd position then. Again he held the outside for a while so it was very tough to overtake him. Very good racing Sean! It's good to know you can trust in someone when fighting him very close.

David and Tim were far away now and my small gap (~2 sec) to Sean kept consistant. So I was hoping for some rain in the end of the race to get a slight chance for a better position. But it didn't happen so I finshed in 3rd position which seemed to be a fair one for me this day.

Finally I'm happy for Tim that he held the championship fight alive. And I'm happy for the innocent victims of start 1, who got a 2nd chance for a nice race. A good choice in my opinion.

As always I like to thank Nico, RD, MMG and Gunthar very, very much!

See you in (rainy?) Interlagos...

 

[Chirlie Williams]

Q- 11th
R- finnished 9th had a few problems but will be in other thread

least we all have 1 restart each left lol

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

I'll put on an ice cold keg for your crew at Sau Paulo Vale
.....................

seems there are beautiful girls at Sau Paulo so i suggest also a double true cold shower for stay relaxed my Team

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Grats David and Podium !
Q 2nd
R 4th 67 66 66 meds

Another great race and racing, early on had good pace adn could maintain the lead but my 1st pitstop was shambles and lost about 20 secs was quite as David was sitting behind me watching my entire pit lol. After that i came out behind Jim and Reik was behind the entire 2nd stint couple times gettign clse to Jim but so hard to pas with mistke here. I though ill try n pit 1 lap earlier but Jim and Reik pitting same time anyway but amazing my 2nd pit was perfect lol musta have been karma i manage to jump them both.
A few laps later intense great racing with Reik i made very small error t1 and Reik got good run into t5 and made the pass.

On the restart i dont think it should have happened as this is unfair on everyone else who has had incidents in previous starts without option of restart, they stuck by what they thought was the rules but ill make another thread for restart to keep separate from here.

Thanks Nico n RD !
Cyas all Interlagos !

 

[Valter Ostman]

Grats David, Tim and Reik!

Q: 15

R: 12

The first few laps in the crowd with Kurt and Tim was exciting.
After a while distances between cars was long and the driving like any practice laps. P9
On lap 15 Anthony had closed from behind. He made me try to increase the speed. I fell into the usual state of reptile behavior and did some terrible over-driving ending in a 120 degrees spin over the T9 crest. I dropped from P8 to P11 between Nicolai and Vinchenzo. Can racing get more fun?
On lap 16 Vince overtook me right after the same T9 crest. On the next lap Vince and Nicolai lost their places again during our pitstops. Thanks, praise, praise, thanks and praise to the pit-crew.
Lap 34 P12, Vince chasing close behind. Pitstop, and Vince goes on.
Lap 36. Despite no mistake was done in the pit, Vince comes out from pits in front of me. P12.
Anthony is trailing me for a few laps. He is definitely faster but he needs to come really close. Finally on Lap 39 he gets into position and can pass me. I can breathe out again, that was fun. P12. Anthony gets out of sight before the finish. But Tim and Reik, as always in alien velocity, laps me during the final minutes.

Thanks Nicolai, Daniel and all involved in this fantastic league

(There was no noticeable lag between me and the gentlemen from Oz in this race)

 

[Reik Major]

Since I'm having so much fun and racing action during the last races I felt it was time to make a vid about my last race. Hope you like it (even though the sound sometimes gets slightly out of sync )

 

[Valter Ostman]

Nice vid mate! Better than some of the TV broadcasts. You showed the essentials of the race and didn't change camera to that nice bimbo in the pits during an interesting close duel.

 

[Reik Major]

Thank you Valter!

Luckiely german TV coverage most likely shows that bimbo only in a small window during racing or sometimes just the sound if he finds a DNF-driver for a quick interview.

 

[Valter Ostman]

Thank you Valter!

Luckiely german TV coverage most likely shows that bimbo only in a small window during racing or sometimes just the sound if he finds a DNF-driver for a quick interview.

Germany is well known for quality products

 

[Jim Hawley]

Nice vid Reik

I think that's the most I've ever featured in a Reik video

Jim

NB. Just checked my diary, I have a small window for a bimbo this Friday eve

 

[Reik Major]

Thank you Jim. Your pace was surprisingly fast.

 

[Anthony Ishak]

Nice Vid Reik , full of action and great racing ..

My apology, I did not have the chance until now to mention how amazing my race was and how much fun i had racing with Vale, Peter, Valter , Nico and Vince .

it was right from the back when i got the chance to race Vale for few great laps , then after passing him Nicolas made a small mistake and i passed him , then i pressed hard to stay ahead of Peter at the same time to catch Valter who was few seconds ahead and was driving so well i was not able to catch him not before lap 15 if it was not for his little mistake when he accelerated a bit harder and turned his car around so i moved up to P8 , Peter was very close behind and pitted a lap earlier and came out ahead of me as i had a slow pit stop when i overshot my spot .

Out of the pit in P11 with Valter close behind i start chasing Peter who is having fight with Nicolas , i slowly start closing the gap to them but on lap 22 i took T1 in 3rd gear instead of 2nd gear and lost control of the car , went wide, Valter went pass me but i was able to get back on track ahead of Vince , the fight started again, Valter was flying but the gap stayed the same between me him and Vince.

lap 30 started and now i am very close to Valter , i had in mind to do a late braking so i could be close to him at the exit of T1 but the late braking was a bit too late and lost control of the car again and lost position to Vince who was right on my back, by the time i was back on track Nico had closed the gap to me and he is now right behind me , and as usual he had more rubber left on his tires than mine and fight start getting hotter and by lap 35 the pressure kept rising so i decided to pit and get rid of those slippery tires.. great racing Nico .

i went out in P12 behind Valter with Nico somehow passing both of us in the pit , i managed to close the gap to Valter and tried to put him under pressure but he is defending very well and kept his position until on lap 39 when i tried a pass he saw me coming so he did not shut the door ( gentlemen racing ) and we managed to go through the turn with me ahead , great racing Kompis .. I spent the last 10 laps of the race chasing Vince but it was a mission impossible to catch him.

It was an amazing race, thank you guys .. it is worth mentioning that i did not feel anything wrong with the grip level this time, i was doing 114.0 - 114-4 during the practice stints i have done prior to the race and in the race i my PB was 114-2 so i can say that the grip level for me was exactly as the practice time.

Congrats to David, Tim and Reik.

Me and Joe got invited by the 888 Vodafone team to watch life the V8 supercar race tomorrow Saturday at Sydney Olympic park , nice gesture from them as they are going to celebrate their championship win at our restaurant on Sunday night ..

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

I'm late too, too much things to do atm.
Q 16th
R 13th
1-stop strategy that could be rewarding but I made too much mistakes, and lacked for practice on this new track for me. I hope I was not too much in the way when being lapped.
I should be better at interlagos. CU there.