SEASON 15 RACE 4 - RACE REPORTS

[Valerio Vinassa]

speed ahead

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

too many mistakes in the early laps ,only a few nice laps with @Phil Shillitoe and a short battle with @kevin Goldmann, then a solitary race.

Congratulations Dino Heiko Peter and all us

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 4th

Not pleased with any of the laps I managed, or didn't manage more to the point, had to settle for a fairly slow lap compared to usual, first couldnt find space then couldn't put a lap together, not a good start to the night.

Race - 5th

Like qualifying, the race just didn't go the way I had planned, I lost a place from the get go, from there was divebombed at turn 1 which put me back in 12th, picked up some places with some decent passes and good racing with a number of guys, those same guys I had to battle again and again as I made mistakes all through the night, the battles were plenty and I'm well pleased with the racing it was great fun, the guys included @Tim McIver (The disappearing man) @Nicolas Rouge, @Artyom Aslamazyan, @Mark Breslin, really enjoying the racing with these cars but I need to find some consistancy and luck somewhere Grats to the Podium as always.

Cyas all at COTA which should be another good race.

 

[Mark Breslin]

Having managed some good practice time (again), I was quietly confident that I could do the whole race on one set of tyres; and so finish top 4-5.....ish!???
After inheriting @David Turnbull 'mojo' and missed much of turn 1 mishap I settled in to the race following @Tim McIver (now you see him, now you don't), with @Artyom Aslamazyan filling up my mirrors.
Until my Achilles Heel struck, and I spun on my own losing my front wing, which then proceeded to wedge itself under my car so I lost even more time turning the wheel as the car continued straight so I could check out any 'small print' on the advertising boards!!!
having then pitted it was just a case of catching someone, so I wouldn't be so lonely. Kevin Goldman was just that guy, who for so many laps defended perfectly, (and on worn tyres).
A special thx to @Peter Decker who I believe could see my battle in the dying laps with Kevin and held back from lapping us.
Also an apology for giving Heiko Kolvenbach a possible heart attack as he was lapping both Kevin and me where I just avoided him after locking up, sliding on to the grass which carried me back onto the track from a botched overtake manoeuvre.

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: One great lap towards the end for pole

R: A nice start but still lost a spot. I tried to follow Heiko for the entire stint, an overtake wasn't going to happen anyway on this track. Tried to do something with the pitstop, but even lost time there.

Since Peter wasn't close anymore it looked like a save p2, but Heiko had his only mistake a couple of minutes before the end, so I could take my gridspot back this way

See you guys next time on track.
btw the forum-section seems a bit dead atm, what's the matter ?

 

[David Turnbull]

btw the forum-section seems a bit dead atm, what's the matter ?

I'm busy decorating the house at the minute, its upto all you guys to keep the place active

also to remind everyone, there was 1 week gap between races this time so 2 days until COTA!

 

[Mark Breslin]

Oh crap....!!! I forgot about that..............thx for that reminder!

 

[Peter Decker]

Yikes, I had missed that tomorrow is the COTA race. Now it appears I won't be able to participate but anyhow, here's a somewhat late report on Hungaroring (I hope to see reports from the rest of all participants too )

Q: 2nd
Once again I didnt time my preparations and finished dinner 20 mins before Q. Not a good choice of dinner either withs lots of meat and potato so guess who became sleepy. Anyway, I guess my qualy lap practice before the race once again paid off. It looked like I had at least around twice as many practice laps as all else I had one really good attempt for P1 but blew it in last sector. Pole is yet to be cracked another day. Stable effort as usual by Dino!

R: 3rd
In last practice start, Heiko in 3rd made an obvious jump start. "Ok, so he'll make sure to cool down for the real start" I thought, but at the real start it looked like a clear jump start (if not as big) again. In one way, this was good, since it made me quite angry and therefore made the sleepiness go away. On the other hand, we need to discuss this. Let's have that in the incident thread.

Before the race, I had done only two 30 min race fuel stints simulating a 1 stop and was pretty sure 0 stop would be too risky. I was still open to change that tho. So in 3rd I got stuck behind Dino and with a growing gap behind. I felt able to go much quicker but couldn't handle the dirty air. All I could do was to 1. wait for Dino to make a mistake (which never happens) and 2. try to figure out if Dino was planning a 0-stopper and maybe go for that 0 stop anyway. A couple of laps before mid-race, still 1-2 secs behind Dino, I over shot in last sector and thought car would be wrecked smashing the barriers. No wings fell off. I didnt lose much. Got a bit stressed tho when I tried to quickly fiddle with the pit menu and decide for request and must have missed I had got some body damage or something. I think I passed Dino who a bit surprisingly to me was it pits. I decided to go in too where the automatic repair made the pit take way longer of course. After that I was all alone and focused on safe driving without hoping for any mistakes in front to motivate me to push as I intend to do Last minutes the gap drastically shrunk tho when Heiko missed and became P2. He took up the pace tho so it was ever going to happen.

It all paid off pretty well with 3rd, but I still haven't had that one clean race as Dino seems to have pretty much every time. Pace-wise it feels like I've developed. If it wasnt for that single clumsy mistake it could have become really intense and interesting all the way to finish!

Well deserved Dino, master of consistency indeed, congrats!

Thanks to all who showed up. I don't know the reasons why we were so few, but everyone, please feel free to ask around for more people to join us. We dont have any cap of 25 racers as maybe it has looked like on the signup list.