Round 1 - Long Beach - Saturday, 7th April 2018 - Sign-Up
May 6, 2018 6:48:27 GMT
niblips and XRF Lemarrrr like this
Post by XRF HammerPH on May 6, 2018 6:48:27 GMT
Well what can I say about tonight. So much hope going in that we would get off to a solid start with everyone able to compete. Gutted for Pete and Rich, especially the latter who I know loves his Indycar and of course got us all together for season one last year. Really disappointed for you mate
Qualifying was very close with the top 5 in the 1:09's separated by. Just 6\tenths with Karl taking the pole from Hurt with a nice 1:09.143 against Hurts 1:09.360. I had to abandon my attempt after setting a 1:09.695 which Micko just bettered on 1:09.628 while Mike got a 1:09.715 and Dave rounded out the session on 1:11.077. I sat in the pits after the first run to take a call and also I needed to sort out my out strategies as I had a bunch saved for another series that I knew would confuse things if I had to change on the fly for any reason.
Those of us that did manage to get in had mixed fortunes with Mike suffering an early spin that spoiled his night and Hurt picking up damage at the end of the first lap at the turn before the hairpin. I just managed to avoid being collected there but wasnt so fortunate at the same spot later in the race. Micko and Karl had got clean away, not sure if they were aware of the formation lap lol but I had fun chasing them down over the next 20 minutes. A really fun part of the race for me. I made good progress until the wheel shake started around the 15\20 minute mark. It certainly makes things very tough and i was having to manage things very carefully to see me through to the halfway point. I did consider stopping early for the primary tyre but was aware that with the lap times being run i needed to get to about 27/8 minutes to enable me to make the rest of the way on fuel. With about 20-25 minutes on the clock and having kept within 4 or 5 seconds of Micko and 2-3 of Karl I inherited the lead when the pair of them ended up in the turn 1 culdesac, something I almost did myself a couple of times as well during the race. With Karl dropping out at this point I was left with just Micko to deal with, a common theme of late lol, with a gap of about 8 seconds between us as the pit stops approached. Just as I was thinking of making my one planned stop I came across a struggling Dave in the section before the hairpin and as I made my way around his outside his car drifted across on me and I had nowhere to go but into his stricken car. With suspension damage as a result I opted to come straight into the pits while changing to my damage repair strategy which allowed Micko to reclaim first spot. The stop wasn't as long as I thought it might be but as I made my way down the pit lane I realised why... They had neglected to add any fuel..👎 disaster!! I thought that would be it as far as winning but immediately set the fastest lap on my fresh rubber and followed it up with two more similar efforts before having to come in again. A quick on the fly strategy adjustment, adding a full tank of fuel and also another set of tyres to try to reduce the tyre wear induced wheel shake I would encounter over the closing laps. Once completed Micko was once again leading and I set about the 25 second gap whilst trying to keep it smooth and gentle on the tyres.
Having taken about 5 seconds out of it in the next couple of laps I was then surprised to see it dropped to just 14 seconds on the following one so Micko had clearly had some issue which was confirmed as I crossed the start line to see him pitting again. Once that stop was completed and he was under way again the gap between us was a handy 24 seconds. With about 22 minutes remaining there was still a lot of racing to go and plenty of chance for mistakes on this tough track.
Our pace was pretty similar and the gap remained stable overall. I dropped my fuel mix to normal to try to ease the tyre wear but was still able to maintain consistent 1:12's throughout which although slower than my practice times seemed to be about par for the course last night. The first signs of wheel shake appeared with about 10 minutes to go and gradually increased so I was taking it very carefully and getting off the throttle a little down the straights and braking early for the corners at the end of the long straights. The gap hadnt really come down much and stood at around 19 seconds when Micko made a mistake and it climbed up to 25 seconds with 10 or so minutes remaining. The closing laps were just a case of taking care of the car, hanging onto the shaking wheel down the long straights and keeping it nice and smooth through the corners. I took the last two laps nice and easy as the timer dropped making sure not to do more laps than necessary and came across Hurt at the start of the final circuit so lost time there as I waited for the safest place for him to allow me through and then cruised round to take the chequered.
PHEW!! Tough race, this track is a real car breaker so it was really pleasing to make it through the race without a mistake, especially in those spells when the tyres start wearing and the wheel wants to put you in the wall 😮. I need to test out how to prevent or at least reduce that before COTA but even more so before Indy, that would be a nightmare there 😖. I'm just glad I don't use too much wheel weight or I would be nursing very sore shoulders this morning.
Well done all that managed to get on the grid and race and commiserations to those that couldn't, so frustrating as I know you guys put in some hours at this track. I hope we can find a solution before the next round. Nice battle again Micko, we may not be directly racing wheel to wheel but it's a lot of fun nonetheless and concentrates my mind as I know any mistakes will be punished 👍👏
Qualifying was very close with the top 5 in the 1:09's separated by. Just 6\tenths with Karl taking the pole from Hurt with a nice 1:09.143 against Hurts 1:09.360. I had to abandon my attempt after setting a 1:09.695 which Micko just bettered on 1:09.628 while Mike got a 1:09.715 and Dave rounded out the session on 1:11.077. I sat in the pits after the first run to take a call and also I needed to sort out my out strategies as I had a bunch saved for another series that I knew would confuse things if I had to change on the fly for any reason.
Those of us that did manage to get in had mixed fortunes with Mike suffering an early spin that spoiled his night and Hurt picking up damage at the end of the first lap at the turn before the hairpin. I just managed to avoid being collected there but wasnt so fortunate at the same spot later in the race. Micko and Karl had got clean away, not sure if they were aware of the formation lap lol but I had fun chasing them down over the next 20 minutes. A really fun part of the race for me. I made good progress until the wheel shake started around the 15\20 minute mark. It certainly makes things very tough and i was having to manage things very carefully to see me through to the halfway point. I did consider stopping early for the primary tyre but was aware that with the lap times being run i needed to get to about 27/8 minutes to enable me to make the rest of the way on fuel. With about 20-25 minutes on the clock and having kept within 4 or 5 seconds of Micko and 2-3 of Karl I inherited the lead when the pair of them ended up in the turn 1 culdesac, something I almost did myself a couple of times as well during the race. With Karl dropping out at this point I was left with just Micko to deal with, a common theme of late lol, with a gap of about 8 seconds between us as the pit stops approached. Just as I was thinking of making my one planned stop I came across a struggling Dave in the section before the hairpin and as I made my way around his outside his car drifted across on me and I had nowhere to go but into his stricken car. With suspension damage as a result I opted to come straight into the pits while changing to my damage repair strategy which allowed Micko to reclaim first spot. The stop wasn't as long as I thought it might be but as I made my way down the pit lane I realised why... They had neglected to add any fuel..👎 disaster!! I thought that would be it as far as winning but immediately set the fastest lap on my fresh rubber and followed it up with two more similar efforts before having to come in again. A quick on the fly strategy adjustment, adding a full tank of fuel and also another set of tyres to try to reduce the tyre wear induced wheel shake I would encounter over the closing laps. Once completed Micko was once again leading and I set about the 25 second gap whilst trying to keep it smooth and gentle on the tyres.
Having taken about 5 seconds out of it in the next couple of laps I was then surprised to see it dropped to just 14 seconds on the following one so Micko had clearly had some issue which was confirmed as I crossed the start line to see him pitting again. Once that stop was completed and he was under way again the gap between us was a handy 24 seconds. With about 22 minutes remaining there was still a lot of racing to go and plenty of chance for mistakes on this tough track.
Our pace was pretty similar and the gap remained stable overall. I dropped my fuel mix to normal to try to ease the tyre wear but was still able to maintain consistent 1:12's throughout which although slower than my practice times seemed to be about par for the course last night. The first signs of wheel shake appeared with about 10 minutes to go and gradually increased so I was taking it very carefully and getting off the throttle a little down the straights and braking early for the corners at the end of the long straights. The gap hadnt really come down much and stood at around 19 seconds when Micko made a mistake and it climbed up to 25 seconds with 10 or so minutes remaining. The closing laps were just a case of taking care of the car, hanging onto the shaking wheel down the long straights and keeping it nice and smooth through the corners. I took the last two laps nice and easy as the timer dropped making sure not to do more laps than necessary and came across Hurt at the start of the final circuit so lost time there as I waited for the safest place for him to allow me through and then cruised round to take the chequered.
PHEW!! Tough race, this track is a real car breaker so it was really pleasing to make it through the race without a mistake, especially in those spells when the tyres start wearing and the wheel wants to put you in the wall 😮. I need to test out how to prevent or at least reduce that before COTA but even more so before Indy, that would be a nightmare there 😖. I'm just glad I don't use too much wheel weight or I would be nursing very sore shoulders this morning.
Well done all that managed to get on the grid and race and commiserations to those that couldn't, so frustrating as I know you guys put in some hours at this track. I hope we can find a solution before the next round. Nice battle again Micko, we may not be directly racing wheel to wheel but it's a lot of fun nonetheless and concentrates my mind as I know any mistakes will be punished 👍👏