Division 2 season 10

PSN is back online..see you there!

This was by far the most odd race of the season for me, with a small grid, the first multiple winner, and lots of penalties.

After doing a 25.0 earlier in the day, I was pumped for qualifying. However, I went from 1st to 7th very quickly, with grooves getting pole.

At the race start, I failed to overtake 90% of the field like the previous 2 races There was a bit of biffing and bashing between myself, barra and joe for 5th place. I manage to keep both at bay.
(continued in part 2, my fone is about to die lol)

CJ made it look easy (any chance he could be shifted to Div1 before the next race)
Well done mate.
I just could not keep pace and was quickly left behind - had a good battle with Barra Dutch & Stumbles at the beginning but did not pitt when they did and lost contact - race done.

@ Stig - all good mate - you were way faster than me and slotted your car nicely in amongst us as best you could.

Thanks for the race guys.

Gratz to all. Its a tight track, and it appears everyone had a good run.

Unlike my previous rants not really a lot to report;

Managed to get on the server earlier than normal, so good chance to shake off the cobwebs. Thought I had finally secured my first pole for the season, but alas was not to be. Groover came through right on the buzzer to snatch it, and put me in 2nd. Gratz Mate!

I believe the first turn was where I won the race. Unfortunately groover scored a corner cut penalty on T2, and I slotted straight into 1st. Groover challenged a bit over the next few laps, but given the tightness of the track, and the fact that he had cob nipping at his heels the whole time, I was able to steadily pull away as those two battled. I pitted on lap 15, and exited still in 1st , this time with flood about 3-4 secs behind me. As Flood and his chasers were losing time fighting for position, I was able to pull away again, and snag the win.

Always nice to take max points J But from a race perspective, it was pretty boring for me. I was keeping and eye on the standings, and it seems many of you blokes had some great battles.

Cyas on Sunday.

I really enjoyed this race which was good as i was initially disappointed to be so far off the pace again. Practiced during the week with a 26.1 and thought that this would be up there. Not to be with times in the 25's on offer to many but it did seem like the grid was pretty tight and that a long close race was ahead of me.

Turns out i was half right, or a quarter right depending on how you look at it.

Started 7th finished 7th and had a great battle down the back with barra and joe mostly for most of the first stint. that was really great fun actually and i think for the most part we had pretty even pace. Again sorry for the taps barra. Barra pitted one lap early for the undercut and made it work but the rest of the race i couldn't get near him, could barely get into the 26's and then made a mistake 2nd last corner putting me into the sand. Finished the race half a lap behind the leaders which really is more than a second per lap slower. damn

I kept hoping barra would repay the favour from Monza but it was not to be. it looks like he did make a mistake a couple laps from the end but i was too far behind to capitalise.

But like i said, another enjoyable race. so thanks.

On to next sunday- I'm tipping Mark Webber and me for the race wins. I bet you I'll be double wrong!

Results:

1. cjmonkey (1'25.506)
2. Floodsim (1'25.850)
3. Cob (1'25.896)
4. groover (1'25.888) ^Pole
5. N64 (1'25.463) *FL
6. Barra (1'25.574)
7. Dutch (1'26.310)
8. Joe (1'25.940)
9. Stumbles (1'26.589)

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Edit: And because I should be doing something more productive, here is the table...

1. cj - 90
2. cob - 85 (79 after drop worst round)
3. beannie - 76
4. Stu - 70
5. Joe - 62
6. N64 - 60
7. Natman - 45
8. Barra - 33 (32)
9. Groover - 31
10. Flood - 28
11. Dutch - 20
12. Stumbles - 12
13. Aero - 5

Wow, only 2 of us with points in every race, and mine was due to there only being 10 present last week when I disconnected.
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Well, for the first time since round 1, I turned the PS3 off with a smile on my face. No lag, no disconnection, and I came out on top of an epic battle!

I hadnt done much practice (~10laps) since I wasnt sure whether I could even make the race. Ended up having plenty of time, and got into the race room to do some practice. Nearly crapped myself when my PB of 1'27.0 was 1.7sec off the pace. Got to quali, and improved my PB to 1'26.004, which was only .15 from groover's pole time, but pretty sure he had plenty in the bank. Started 4th, and got belted from pillar to post to be 2nd last by the time we had negotiated the loop for the first time. Didnt help that I thought I had punted Cob, so I was distracted checking my mirrors to see if he actually ran off. Turns out the hit wasnt as hard as I thought and he was still next to me.

Settled into a 3 way battle with Dutch and Joe for the first half of the race, with Stumbles putting his hat in the ring occasionally. Realised very early that unless the driver in front makes a mistake coming onto either of the straights, it is virtually impossible to pass. As a result, I was driving the widest RX-7 ever to come off the production line. The three of us swapped positions a few times, and there were plenty of light bumps, but definitely nothing worth waking the stewards for (from my view).

Knowing how important track position was, and how much tyre wear hurts here, I pitted lap 14, hoping to undercut Dutch, who was just in front of me, and keep Joe off my tail. End result was that it worked, just. As I rounded turn 1 at the end of my outlap, Dutch came out of the pits on cold tyres. I managed to take the inside of the double left and clear him by the time we hit the right hand kink. I have a feeling Dutch gave it up a bit, but it still felt good. Head down time to get a gap. Managed a lap of 25.5, a whole 1.5 sec quicker than my best of only 40 min earlier . Then all I had to do was keep it clean. In the process I almost caught N64 and groover's battle, but a shortcut penalty on the 2nd last corner of lap 29 (my only penalty) fixed that.

Even though my fastest lap indicates I could have done better, I dont think I was consistent enough to get much better than 6th. If we race again tonight, with the extra 40 laps of running under my belt though...

Now, Laguna Seca... can someone tell me how to get around the last left hander before the uphill run to the corkscrew? I always either run wide, or reeeaallllyyy slow through there.

How did I get fastest lap? ] ImpossiBRU!!!
I don't think it's neccassary to report on anything until the pitstops, aside from 2 penalties costing me bucketloads of time. I pit on lap 14, on an undercut strategy. Since the win was out of reach, I was hoping to get on the podium from this position, but it was not to be. I gained around 5 seconds during the pit stop faze, but my underestimation of the grip off the racing line and penalties cost me dearly. The pole sitter was hunting me down fast, and here began a titanic battle of attacking and defending. For (from memory) 6 consectutive laps I tried to make my car a lot wider than it was. However on fresher tyres, and a few mistakes from me, grooves went for a move into the double left on lap 29. This tipped my car into a vicious slide, which I managed to hold. I desperately tried to keep up, but went off in my attempts.
I was a little disappointed with my race, as I knew a solid points finish would propell me into a chance for the title. It would take a miracle to win it from here. Well done cj on winning again.

Scratch that. I can't win. 8.(

A satisfying result after a season of mediocre performances. Even though I was definately not the fastest guy on track, to come away with a 2nd place leaves me feeling as though I can still match it with Div 2 (sometimes).

Thankfully I was reasonably familiar with the track as I remembered racing on it once in an MX-5 series last year.

Qualied 5th, but made it to 4th after a few corners as I think Barra had some problems in the beginning.
Kept pace with Cob and Groover for the first few laps with N64 close behind but never in a position to overtake.
Eventually N64 made some mistakes (shortcuts?) and managed to drop him, while getting closer to the Cob/Groover battle.
I could see there would be no way to get past those guys on track, so chose to pit and see how I went with the undercut.
It worked a treat. When pit stops were done I was at least a few seconds ahead of Cob and didn't see Groover again for the rest of the race, so i'm thinking he must have had some troubles somewhere.

CJ was ~3seconds ahead, but quickly found I had no chance of catching him as he steadily extended his lead.
My goal from there was to keep a close eye on what was going on behind me and bring it home for a podium finish.

N64 and Cob battled for a number of laps, which gave me some breathing space, but once Cob got away from that, a few sloppy corners and lack of concentration by me meant he slowly started to catch up. CJ getting further away all the while.

However that was all he could manage, and over the last few laps I did start to pull away from him a little.
A really enjoyable race for me.

I'll be at F1 next weekend so won't make it to the final round.
Thanks to everyone for the racing this season.

Great to see you were rewarded with an excellent result floodsim. Makes it all.worthwhile doesn't it

I mis-placed my power cable for my G27 prior to the race, so I was amazed to qualify 5th on my one clean lap. Trying to drive with ZERO force feedbackos extremely disorientating, and as a result, penalties were the order of the day at the start. After dropping way back, 40s after just 3 laps, it was futile to carry on.

Congratulations to the Season 10 Div 2 champion, CobMcCool! Utterly deserved after a drive of a champion!

gratz cob! well done mate! as for me.. well i had one of *those* races.. nothing going right in or out of the car.. :-z
the disconnect (which has never happened to me before this season) was the icing on the cake...

wd to all drivers... stella season! look forward to season 11..

tough luck CJ - i think you only needed a 4th to take the championship... great season guys - it was fun throughout, pity i couldn't make autumn ring, otherwise i could be well in the running, but a 3rd place in the championship is nothing to be snotty about.

good clean racers everyone, so very enjoyable!!

Results:
1. CobMcCool
2. Barra333
3. TTR_joe90
4. Beannie84
5. Stumbles01
6. GTP_Dutch
7. CJMonkey (D/c)
8. N64TheStig007

(i'm pretty sure CJ D/c'd after N64 parked it.

Pole - Barra (i think?)
Fastest Lap - Cob (i think)

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Table: (Points after drop round)

Name (total)
Cobmcool 105
Cjmonkey 96
Beannie84 88
TTRJoe 77
Stu 70
N64thestig007 64
Barra333 52
Natmanscoop 45
Groover33 29
Floodsim 28
Dutch 28
Stumbles 22
AeroHdt 5
Firewind 0

Beannie, with about 8minutes left I came back after finding my cable to do some laps in an attempt to get the fastest lap and/or get a place on Dutch, but it doesn't matter