TC65 Abarth 1000TC @ Sprints - Tuesday 21st April 2009

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: TC65 Abarth 1000TC
Track: Road Atlanta Short / Crystal Palace / Mallory Park
Conditions: 18.00 In-Game Race Time
Practice: 19.00 GMT / 20.00 UK / 21.00 Europe (15 mins)
Qualification: 19.15 GMT / 20.15 UK / 21.15 Europe (5 mins)
Race: 19.20 GMT / 20.20 UK / 21.20 Europe (20 laps)
Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note 2: Abarth skinpack will be used, please download HERE.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

almost missed this, thanks to Andy for reminding me

just installing tracks now :wink2:

 

[Amir Margalit]

i am having trobles with my internet connection. i got disconected and coudn't enter the server again, i will try to join for race 2.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

i am having trobles with my internet connection. i got disconected and coudn't enter the server again, i will try to join for race 2.

race starting

 

[Warren Dawes]

First up, I'm really sorry if I caused chaos in the last race. My PC froze for about 45 secs and I couldn't do a thing, couldn't even exit. I exited as soon as it started again, but the graphics were totally messed up. I hope I didn't ruin anyone's race, but I suspect I did considering where it happened.

Up till then, I was really enjoying this event. Great little cars on top tracks.

Race 1: Fluked pole with a good time, but no idea how.
As usual, wasted pole by dropping back to about P6 after the start by bogging the Abarth down badly off the line, and then went lawn mowing half way round lap 1. Thanks to some others having off's, and some great scraps with Stuart and Matt, I worked forward to finally finish P3.

Race 2: Qualified P5 I think, but finally learned how to get the Abarth off the line (rev it's heart out). Had a great race with Knut, swapping places a couple of times, and managed to sneak home in P2 just in front of him.

Race 3: Another good start from P4, and jumped to P3 for a few laps.
Then the dreaded PC freeze ended everything.

Grats to Sam for winning Races 1 and 2, and I assume he pulled off the hattrick this time. Thanks to Knut for some great close racing, and I hope I didn't wreck you in the last one, but I suspect I might have. :behindsofa::sad:

 

[Sam J Simpson]

Great Night, thanks for organising it Stuart, 2 poles, 3 wins in a car I have never got on with............until tonight :rotfl:

Race 1, RA short, 2nd on grid, managed to launch it OK to get into 1st, made a few mistakes during race but had enough of a lead not to be harried by them, damn that track is BUMPY!!

Race 2, Crystal Palace, pole but Matt launched every bit as well as I did but I couldn't see him at my side and we had a minor touch in T2, sorry for that, didn't punt you did I?, I hope not as I saw you in my mirror ontrack after it happened, pulled a lead and kept it until end, good race.

Race 3, Mallory, I made the mistake of saying there would be offs before we got there, there were, one of which was me flipping it at hairpin:laugh2:, Stu came upon me upside down, car got flipped right side up by the game and I managed to carry on, Stu was pushing me hard at the start until, I assume, he made a mistake at Hairpin which gave me enough of a lead to have my flip and still win :victory: great fun in nutter mobiles.

Thanks again

Sam

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

First up, I'm really sorry if I caused chaos in the last race. My PC froze for about 45 secs and I couldn't do a thing, couldn't even exit. I exited as soon as it started again, but the graphics were totally messed up. I hope I didn't ruin anyone's race, but I suspect I did considering where it happened.

Up till then, I was really enjoying this event. Great little cars on top tracks.

Race 1: Fluked pole with a good time, but no idea how.
As usual, wasted pole by dropping back to about P6 after the start by bogging the Abarth down badly off the line. Thanks to some others having off's, I worked forward to finally finish P3.

Race 2: Qualified P2 or 3 I think, but finally learned how to get the Abarth off the line (rev it's heart out). Had a great race with Knut, swapping places a couple of times, and managed to sneak home in P2 just in front of him.

Race 3: Another good start from P4, and jumped to P3 for a few laps.
Then the dreaded PC freeze ended everything.

Grats to Sam for winning Races 1 and 2, and I assume he pulled off the hattrick this time. Thanks to Knut for some great close racing, and I hope I didn't wreck you in the last one, but I suspect I might have. :behindsofa::sad:

I managed to steer slightly away when you suddenly stood still. I got some scratches on the side of the car and went off, but no biggie. Don't worry Warren it didn't cause much trouble Only bummer was missing the battle we were supposed to have

Race 1 Qualy: 3 and finished 2. Lovely track this one, was picturing the driver bouncing around inside the car. Wasn't too much action during this one, but lots of fun.

Race 2 Qualy: 8 and finished 3. Had a good race with Warren:skywalker:

Race 3 Qualy: 3 and finished 2. Very nice track, felt I had good pace with the Abarth around the long corners. Another(!) good race, this time with Stuart. Managed to steal his 2nd place aswell:victory:


Seems like the small cars give the most fun! Maybe because they are more manageable for me Anyways another great event. Thanks Stuart, Warren and RD. Can't wait for RDHGP!

 

[Glenn Morris]

Sorry for being late as buggery Stuart. For some reason I couldn't get on the server for race 2 - GTL kept crashing :-(. Shattered too, cos I liked that track the most lol.

Anyway.
Race 3 - Qualified 8th? Not fast enough to do any damage to anyone from anywhere really. lol.

Started well, but halfway through turn 1 (on lap 1) I thought I was squeezing Andrew (?) who was inside me through the corner, so moved out a touch. This bought the rear out and I was facing the wrong way. Damn. Kept going, managed to make up a few positions due to people spinning. Got back past Andrew(?) but then on the last lap I understeered into the gravel at the first corner, hit the tyres and rolled. Must've done some suspension damage, cos I spun at the hairpin straight after that too.

Thanks Stu.
I should've put my headset on to chat to you blokes during the race.

 

[Matt Crouch]

Race 2, Crystal Palace, pole but Matt launched every bit as well as I did but I couldn't see him at my side and we had a minor touch in T2, sorry for that, didn't punt you did I?, I hope not as I saw you in my mirror ontrack after it happened, pulled a lead and kept it until end, good race.

Nah we just tapped it was fine Could tell you hadn't seen me before it happened. Managed to mess it up myself after a lap or two anyway by locking up into a wall . Also apologies to Hans for a couple of rather unlucky hits in that race.
Only just managed to sneak "second pole :wink2:" in the last few seconds of qualifying by a very small margin anyway, very close times from 2nd-5th at least

was a rather amusing event even though whenever I got anywhere good a mistake knocked me back down again. Muchos dankes. Also thanks Sam for setups :yo:

 

[Hans Sneep]

Nah we just tapped it was fine Could tell you hadn't seen me before it happened. Managed to mess it up myself after a lap or two anyway by locking up into a wall . Also apologies to Hans for a couple of rather unlucky hits in that race.

No problem Matt most of the time I do it to my self or hit something or get of and riving all by my self now I did three complete different races,RoadA sh. not very good Quali on 9 place finn. on 6 place 2 laps behind but I finished .

CrystalP went better but I have problems with the short Quali.time one or two mistakes and Quali. is over,I always make mistakes after the start I think I am nervous ,it takes a few laps to come in a good rhythm bud by that time the rest is after the horizon,finn 7 place.

Mallory is tricky, set the car wrong for a corner and your history, the long first turn is not easy I managed to get my car on fire in practice.
Started on place 9 but getting big problems with the low Sun hitting Nigel
who was standing in the grass, suspension broke down back to the pits to repair took more then 2 min. back on track again but after e few laps I went back to the pits to watch the race from there, seeing some great fights between Stuart and Knut, seeing Sam on his roof but still making the triple Goncrats Sam :laugh2:

As always a great event with some nice people thanks all:rotfl:

Hans

 

[Andrew Evans]

mexcellenté event chommo mate... these are weird little asthmatic beasties... took ages for me to get the feeling after having run a lot of radicals in evo testing recently... cornering ability is slightly different...

can't really remember much detail... i was pretty incompetent at all races... brutal cut warnings at road atlanta - got a s&g on my first excursion across the grass in lap 1! dug all three tracks though... even mallory - which i hadn't been especially keen on after testing it in evo ages ago... setting sun was loooooovely....

good to see some geezers on ts... catch y'all thurs for league testing... :wokka:

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Glad to see everyone appeared to enjoy themselves :good:

I'm always on the lookout for nice short tracks to throw low powered funwagons around on @ approx 1.00.000 a lap - that's fun, right there.

The Elites are very good in that respect too, so they might become the 3rd vehicle in our short track sprint cadre.

Anyway - to the event. First off - Teamspeak was very funny, as usual. Me, Evanso, Nige & Croucher having our own little gigglefest.

Road Atlanta Short - I lurves this track, and the bumpiness on it is a really nice change from the "billiard table" surfaces we often encounter. Of course, the bumps bit me in the arse, because I went sideways off them a couple of times, depriving me of what looked to be shaping up for a fun battle with Warren & Croucher. Still, it's always an absolute hoot, swooping down that left hander to the s/f line trying to lose as little momentum as possible.

Crystal Palace - a bit more of a "classic" track layout, the 2nd to last corner a lovely 3rd gear (for me) drift. Quallied OK, avoided early incidents, had a slight issue with one of the walls, allowing Simon B to pass, and we then had a really good bit of racing, for what felt like a thousand years, but was probably about 10 or so laps, until he unfortunately locked up in a braking zone and allowed me past.

Mallory Park - Sam said before the race "a 56.xxx is a good time round here" and I thought "oh shut up, I'm lucky to get into the 58's". Needless to say, Sam knows exactly what he's talking about as I was doing 57.2 - 56.5 during the race. Sam and I quallied 1 & 2 and we had a great battle for about 7-8 laps, being < 2sec apart at any one time. I started to suffer with tyres with about then, and Knut - who was driving very smoothly as far as I could tell - was making up lots of time in the hairpin braking zone. Had a great little duel for about 4 or 5 laps, and then he got past on lap 19 out of 20 doh, I had no answer as I way pretty much on the rims by then . You didn't nick "my" 2nd place mate - you drove a better overall race :good:

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I don't mean in the above that we'll only ever use the Minis, Abarths & Elite for sprint racing, but they are probably going to be the least frustrating on the very tight, short courses, as they all handle so well.

 

[Simon Bacon]

Someone mention Elite's?? Luvverrrly:skywalker:
Last night Abarth meet was terrific again, thanks to you all.

Road Atlanta - there's always an exception to the rule and this was it. Could not get on with this track at all. Stop an' Go after 3 laps of getting it all wrong effectively ended my race.

Crystal Palace - fantastic track, some of my best racing with Mr. T behind until I spun on Lap 11 (ish) I think. Managed to stall the car right on the apex so figured quitting out was better than trying restart and causing carnage. Still, did so with a HUUUGGGE grin.

Mallory - my favourite, driven it a few times in real life (my parents live 10 mins away) and love the sim version. Anyhow started last on the grid (lack of effort on my part) but made my way up to 7th by Lap 2. Thanks to a few spinners I found myself, momentarily, staring at Knut's brake lights until he figured out Gerrards and left me for dust:laugh2: Trundled around in 4th grinning light a mule until the a last lap, bit of a brain fart aloud Matt to get within a second of me but nothing would have robbed me of 4th. One of my better GTL performances:dance2:

Cheers all (big mention to Sam for setup help - tweaked them to my own liking, hope you don't mind - but a rock solid base to start on.:thanks

Simon