DIVISION 2

wont be racing tonight.

Good racing tonight fells. Brief summary.
Started pole by doing a "floodsim" and grabing it in the dying seconds, veno and stumbles rounded out the top 3. Got a decent start and slowly started to get a gap back to veno and stumbles of around 2 seconds. By lap 6 I started to drive for tyre conservation with the idea to no stop it.

By lap 10 I had a gap of 4 seconds and my tyres felt decent so I gave it a shot. After every one pitted I had a gap of 25 seconds odd to veno (was hoping for more). This soon turned to a gap of 23 odd seconds to flood with 7 or 8 laps to go. I was running 31-32's at the time and was crunching the numbers, I knew it was going to be tight.

By lap 17-18 I had dropped to the 34's with a gap of about 12 seconds, lap 19 I have a small off the lap time comes in at a 1:37 (so I lost about 3 seconds). Going into the last lap the gap is now down to 2.7 odd and I know due to my mistake Im now a sitting duck and there is nothing I can do about it. Floodsim catches and passes me down the back straight with ease and goes on to record a 2 second win.

Now the no pit run is a contentious issue at Nique racing It was clearly the wrong strat as there was a pretty decent gap back to flood pre pit stop........But I could of made it work considering my mistake cost me 3 seconds, would I of won?? Who knows but it would of been a grand stand finish.

Congrats to Floodsim on the win

Top 3
Flood
Tek
Veno

Flood u can still win overall if firewind gets 3rd and u win next race, its on between me and bonus to for 3rd.

I also went the no stop strategy and it wasn't long (about lap 6) when I realised that the gap to the leader was too big and that the pitters will be just a couple of second behind, not the 10-15 I had strategised. Could have pitted at lap 10 but stubbornly stuck to my strategy to bring it home 7th nearly 8th (barra, close finish) Unbelievable pace there Teknique for tyre conservation. I stuck to 1:31's and assumed the pit lane would take 40 secs. I really needed to beat Venosuala just to ensure top half of leaderboard, oh well.

Fastest Laps Trial Mountain Reverse.
1:27,963 Stumbles
1:28,061 Teknique
1:28,880 Floodsim
1:28,951 Venosuala
1:29,090 Stuart
1:29,540 Anon
1:29,707 Barra
1:30,833 Darko
1:31,137 Miki

Darko's last lap last corner slide into pit lane and nearly taking out 3 teams pit crews, priceless.
Also his pit box was in no-mans land. Nearly lost his refueler with cars real close in the narrow area.
1 race to go, Enduro at Grand Valley East Reverse, 55 laps. Like to see Teknique do that with no stop.:lol:

Well done to Flood and the guys who made the 20 laps on one set of tyres.

I had an incredibly boring race, started 7th (I think) and was very cautious into the first chicane and came out 8th, with Darko well behind (I assume you jumped the start or were left hanging by the network). Followed the pack for the first half of the race, pitted and found the gap too be larger. Apologies to Darko's fuel man, who I think I ran over on the way out of the pits.

My only excitement came in the last couple of laps when I caught Miki on what appeared to be pretty bad tyres. I made a pass on the left hander just before the last split time, and then proceeded to slide all the way from there to the finish. I think I cut the first half of the last chicane, went sideways trying to make the 2nd apex and then struggled to get power down to the line, while going all over the track. Miki had a go at going to my right, just as my fishtailing went that way. In the end, he ghosted through me for the place by less than a tenth. Probably a fair result.

Thanks for the comments guys on my first race win in the Sunday league.
It feels nice, but a little bittersweet, I would have liked to have won with Fire and Bonus in the field, and overall i'm not all that happy with the way I drove. But a win's a win, and I'm glad I was able to capitalise on their absence.

I came into the race not expecting much as I had no practice during the week.
Set the quickest time in pre-race practice, which wasn't really quick (1:28.9 I think), but couldn't replicate it in quali and started 5th.

Made up a place off the line and early on in the race I was keeping up with Stumbles and Veno, while Tek was pulling a gap out front. Think I gave you a couple of small nudges there Stumbles, sorry for that.
Lost some concentration which put Stu right up on me, and when I ran wide somewhere it gave him an easy pass. At this point I thought my race was done as I was falling back from the leaders and Tek had a 10s lead, but managed to knuckle down and get back past Stu before closing the gap to Tek to 8s before my pitstop.
Coming out of the pits I was 32s behind Tek.

Not sure if Stumbles had a problem somewhere before his pitstop, or if it was the AI problem he had, but passed him while he was still sitting in pit lane which got me up to 3rd after pitstops were all sorted out. It soon became clear Tek was going for a 0-stop so I would have to chase him down over the last 7-8 laps.

Veno was somewhere ahead, but I couldn't tell where. I started to put in what I thought were some clean, quick laps which put Veno in my sights. And when I came around the final corner to see Veno crashed, sitting sideways on the start/finish line, I had an easy pass.

I didn't think I had enough to catch Tek; i'm not sure of the splits but I didn't feel I was taking enough time out of his lead to catch him, but as the race went on the amount I was closing each split was increasing.
With 3-4 laps to go I was closing in about 1s per sector, so started to get nervous as I thought I might have a chance. It was going to be close. Was trying really hard not to make a mistake because I couldn't afford to.
How did you feel Tek when you saw the gap closing every split? haha

Coming into the final lap, the gap was about 3s and I was being very cautious, I hate driving on wearing tires. But coming onto the back straight I clearly had more grip than Tek and got a better run out of the corner which gave me the pass down the straight and the win.

Brave strategy by Tek. I certainly wouldn't want to try no-stopping in this car. So props to him even though it didn't pay off.
Hunting you down was great fun.

I'm not so sure. By my calculations and taking drop-your-worst-round into account, even if I win, Fire only needs to finish 6th or better and he'll wrap it up.

nice. sounds like a great race Flood!

Well done guys!

Congrats on getting fastest lap stumbles, just a hundreth in it. I reckon I could of done a slightly faster lap with a set of fresh tyres. And yea Flood it suxs being hunted, I much prefer being the hunter. There wasnt much I could do, its not a great feeling losing the lead with half a lap to go. Was thinking of going defensive down the back straight but you would of made it around the outside anyway.

I know it would of been closer if not for my slight mistake, cant complain though other than that I had a mistake free run. Good to hear I wasnt the only who tried a no stopper.

I think I'm getting worse, so no chance of me winning anything for a while me-thinks.

Correct Stu, that last couple of laps with Stumbles were awesome. He was a machine on that track and misfortune coupled with a story of man against the odds, cost Stumbles in the end. I put in a cracker in qualy with 1.28.3 and was feeling very pleased with myself until Tek pipped it which quickly brought me back to earth. I got off the line well, made sure I got through the first few corners safely and went about trying to keep up with Tek who was looking the goods. All the while I had a pack of hungry MP40s on my tail waiting for a mistake. I was always going to pit on lap ten and at the time was happy to see Tek keep going. A suicide mission I chuckled to myself at the time. Lap 11 I noticed Stumbles was missing which I was quietly pleased about (sorry Stumbles) and went about ensuring I drove a solid second half to the race hoping to eventually run down Tek. The next four laps I got distracted and put in some very average laps. By Lap 15, Floodsim had reeled me in and got me I his sights. I gave myself a talking to, come on son, get it together I told myself! Rather than respond to the inspirational words I went to water and went off the track on the last corner. It was the slowest crash ever. It wasnt even a crash. I just got stuck on the wall and couldnt get off. I came to a really slow stop and had to reverse out of it. It seemed to take forever. Floodsim just selfishly drove by. I though he might have pulled over to make sure I was okay but no. When I resumed I had every man and his dog (Stu and Stumbles) in my rearview mirror. I was frazzled. Out of the zone. In big big trouble. I saw Stu get massively sideways shortly after that and Stumbles had broken the shackles and got out on his own. It didnt take him long to catch up to me and from there those glorious laps began. I had another chat to myself. Its time to be a man Veno. Grow some aggots son!. Memories of Floodsim cruising past giving me the bird were fresh in my mind. From there it was a true story of inspiration. One for the ages. I pulled myself together and got back in the zone. For 2 laps it was a dogfight. Stumbles had an off on the final corner and the rest is history. There were emotional scenes at the Veno house. In reality Stumbles misfortune earlier cost him but Ill take it. My first podium. Up there with marriage and childbirth. The End.

I was wondering what happened to my at the time pole. I knew that Tek had beaten it but wasn't sure if any one else had. I thought something had stuffed up cause I started 4th. But it all makes sense now.
Enduro next, big season finale'.
Then onto the voting and stuff for the next season. I'd like to confirm my interest in another season and like the multi tyre div's.