Division 2 Season 8

cool....Good stuff doug.

How the hell did Zampli not win!!!??? lol

He got caught in a 30 lap battle with me, cob and finally stu haha.

Ah, very awesome!

and believe it or not, I was 0.018 from pole...

Wow, very nice Barra. You boys really turned in on! Nice FL times there.

Good write up Stu, well driven mate.

another great start to the season. i just hope i can keep it going, not like last season hahah.

Quali was ok. pole changed almost every lap between Me, Barra and Dougz and i started my last lap with just 3 seconds to go in the session. (if i started the lap after the 10 min mark i would have backed out of it. i was still P2 at the time anyway) anyway it was just enough to take pole away from Barra. after his celebrations started that is lol

now dont you just love it when a plan comes together. The "golden" plan was: *** get a good start and get to that corner first - DONE **** next was, i dont want them in my slipstream for the start straight. so coming out of the tunnel i took the hairpin really tight and exited on the right so i could floor it at all the way to the last corner. a risking thing on cold tyres i know but it worked. everyone else was either battling or a little more cautious with their cold tyres. i had opened up a nice gap and broke away. watching the positions change on the screen i knew to keep pushing and unless they worked together then they shouldnt catch me. so while Dougz, Zamps and Flood battled and slowed each other down i put in 10 laps between 1.08.8 and 1.09.1. from there it was just a matter of pushing hard and the gap opened up to about 11 seconds.
i pitted the end of lap 20 to cover the pack from undercutting me. who pitted the lap before. i was starting to relax after that until i realised that Never was doing a no stopper oooooo hahaha. for a while i was only making 2 or 3 tenths a lap but then knowing how my fronts were going off before i pitted i know his pace would drop soon. think i got him with 4 or 5 laps to go. a shame Never i would have loved to see you get on the podium. Good Effort!!!!

like to thank the sponsor. Mountain Due hahah OH and Aussies Driving School!!!
cheers fellas

Evil? I think you'll find it was Never_Enough haha. He was pretty unlucky not to hold on to a podium. He lost 3 places in the last corner haha.

There was just no catching you once you pulled a small gap, Nugget

hahaha ........ shutup! all fixed sorry Never

it was all in that first lap i recon. if you guys were still in my draft then i think there would have been a 5way battle for 39 laps. pace wise there is so many guys in Div2 who can win. i highly doubt there will be multiple winners this season.

For me that was a race I'd rather forget.

I knew my 1-lap pace wouldn't be strong against this field of drivers (it rarely is), so I was just hoping to not start too far down the field and maybe be stronger during the race. From memory a qualified 6th.
Question: Is pitlane closed during quali this season? I assumed it was.

Actually got the thing off the line reasonably well for once and made up a place after the first corner. From here it seemed like an endless battle between Zampli, Dougz and myself all scrapping over 2nd place while Nugget sped off into the distance.
This was the best part of the race. Quality driving from those guys.

It seemed they tripped over each other slightly coming out of the hairpin at one point and I managed to get a half-break away from them. Out of slipstream at least. But it didn't count for much as I pitted the next lap.

Shame on me for not practicing a pit entry. I went in too fast and having a pit box at the very start of pit lane it seemed I got reset twice. I also sat stationary for a few seconds after the tyre change.
With the field so close this really hurt my position. After everyone elses pit stops I had lost at least 4 or 5 places if not more and was miles down on those I was just battling with.

I knew any chance of a good result was gone; there was no chance of making up that much ground on this field. From there on I was just on autopilot until the finish.
Made a dumb mistake getting on the grass over the hill which put me into the wall and into the clutches of Dutch.
Took me a long while for me and my slipstream to clear him, but he put up a good fight.
Picked off Barra later on as he went wide going into the tunnel.

Brought it home in a disappointing 7th.

no i dont think it was Flood. being that we are not using two compounds there was no need to close it. im not sure if any1 went in for new boots during quali?

haha yeh i was very cautious with my pit entry. i got penalised last season. i think i lost about 2 seconds because of how slow i went in

My race...

Was pretty happy with my practice pace, then couldnt get it hooked up in quali to start with. Didnt help that I came up behind people a couple of time and had to back out of it. Anyway, put a lap together (a PB) and didnt think anyone had made over the line to start a lap in time to beat me, but Nugget timed his run to perfection, and did me in by .018. Oh well, still a front row start.

Got off the line OK, a bit conservative on the inside of turns 1 and 2, allowing Doug past, but got him back out of the tunnel. Unfortunately that gave Nugget enough room to break the slipstream. I got into a massive battle with half of the field for 2 to about 8th, which I ultimately lost when I got nudged into the wall entering the tunnel, damaging the front right, costing about 6 sec on the lap.
That put me in a battle with Stu, Dutch and Never (I think) which would got until the pit stops. I wanted in on lap 19, but with Stu between me and pit entry, I couldnt. That forced me to pit right behind him. Went into the pits right on his bumper, came out not even in the slipstream. .
Put in a few good laps (the first clean air ones I had) which resulted in me getting the slipstream back, and my fastest lap. Then I cocked up the chicane at the top of the hill, putting me well back. I got the s after that, and lost focus, barely able to break 1'10, dropping me another spot.
In the end, I was really disappointed in my race. Should have done way better with the pace I had, but once you have lost the slipstream, it is really hard to come back.