Round 5 - Watkins Glen - Saturday, 30th June 2018 - Sign-Up

Same here especially the front left, but I don't think I can get the PSI more even between the 4 than it already is. There's not much we can do about it here me tinks...

Is the weather for the race the actual weather in WG today? Because it says 94F (33C)
Or what's it going to be for the ambient temp?

Another great event last night, congratulations to Niblips, Rich and Sarge on their podium finish. After a dominating practice and Quali sessions I was hoping for a better result than P6 but after a few unplanned trips to the pits I had no one to blame but myself. Got a good start in the race from Pole, pulling away from Rich in P2 until I got some oversteer in turn 1 and hit the barrier on lap 3, limped back tho the pits and fixed the car, got back out 1 lap down, headed back out and came out in the middle of a battle between Sarge and Karl, on fresher tyres I overtook Dean heading towards the Bus Stop and I think his front wing clipped my LHR tyre causing a puncture, slowly made my way back to the pits for service and repairs. Deciding I needed to push hard to get back into contention I had a couple of smaller offs but nothing serious and came home in P6 4 laps off the lead lap. Although I’m disappointed with my race I’m really enjoying our series and I’m looking forward to the challenge of the Texas Motorspeedway in 2 weeks. Well done everyone 👍🏻

Thanks Dave! I do believe I knocked off your rear wing when we were coming around the last corner by the pits about half way through. You swerved off the racing line to avoid me, but at the same time I swerved to avoid you! I couldn't break in time and luckily it was just a tiny little love bump.

Still really weird and unfortunate that it managed to just pop off like that at such a low speed. In the heat of the moment with the battle with Karl I couldn't think to say,"coming on the outside", my apologies as that probably could have been avoided.

I think youre right about my front wing giving you a puncture, I'll have to check the replay but I do remember slightly tapping you around the eSSeS or near the innerloop chicane. I thought it was more of a side to side hit but apparently not! I guess this is what makes it so interesting to me and keeps me coming back! 

Also, everyone is getting really close in the points! IT'S ON!

QUALI:

Forgot to post my race report.

Quali - I usually never really do that well with quali to begin with so gave it one low fuel run with my race setup at the start and left it at that. was in P2 but fell down the order by the end of the session.

Race start was not great. Was kinda worried about contact at the start and ran wide in turn 1 dropping me back to last. Followed Pete till the last corner when he went a little deep and got a poor exit onto the start/finish straight then passed him on the inside into turn 1 on lap 2. Then, the next time through there i saw Lemar off to the inside of the track spun out and moved up into P5. There were wing bits strewn about so i knew he would have to pit and i figured that would make him have to do 3 stops before the end, and likely put him out of contention for the win after his brilliant pole lap time.

At the end of the next lap (lap 3 only) i came up to Pete who must have had an incident because he had stopped as well and came out of the pits just ahead of me, which didn't help the progress i was making catching up to Sgt. and the rest of the pack. I wasn't able to get by him on that lap and when we came around again Lemar was just exiting the pits as well, so now i had two backmarkers between myself and the pack. I continued to follow and hoped their pace would drop off enough so i could make the pass. I was on the black tyres and was pushing but their pace wasn't as great as fresh reds.

After a lap or two more Micko had some contact with someone or something and was going slowly out of the loop. Passing him moved me up to P4, but i still had Pete and Lemar between me and the next position car. A lap or two later Pete had another slow final corner exit and i used push to pass to overtake him down the straight. He followed me through the next corner where i went a little wide and Pete took his front wing off by tagging the back of me (1h01min mark). On the next time by the pits i saw that Rich was in there. We wrere just starting lap 9 and that was the early window for making a two stop work in my testing. I stayed out and plodded ahead. My fuel level was lower and the black tyres were just starting to do some good lap times and i was catching Dean little by little.

Dean passed Greg and he started to fall back into me. Then on lap 11 we were side by side going down the back straight to the inner loop. Greg was on the inside defending his position and i was on the outside. UI was going to back out of it before the corner because it was too dangerous, but then i saw Greg in my rear view mirror and i took the position. Ahead now was only Dean in P1, and the gap was only a second or two. I wound up following him for the next bunch of laps. I couldn't get enough overspeed anywhere on track to make a move on him except at the inner loop, but it was too dangerous to try to make a move through there. Then at the end of lap 14 he got a slowish exit from the last turn and i used P2P to get along side him into turn 1. With only a few laps of fuel left i pushed like hell to try and build a little gap to him before the first pit stop. By the time i called for my stop a couple laps later the gap was almost 4 seconds. I rolled into the pitlane and looked for my pit box which in practice and quali had bin a red one about halfway down, but i forgot we had to restart the lobby due to issues with the game, and my pit box was now the first one in line. I drove past it (1h15min) and had to reverse into my box to get fuel and tyres. That mistake cost too much time. On top of that the crew lost a wheel nut which took more time for the pit stop. Dean was stopping on the same lap and exited the pits ahead again. I was gutted i would have to try and make a move on him all over again. Also, while we were in the pits Rich came through to take P1.

I was 7 seconds behind Dean and 9 second back from Rich in P3 to start the second stint. Dean was on fresh Reds, but was not pulling away, in fact i was catching him up quicker than i thought. I was within touching distance within a couple laps, but i couldn't get by. I looked at the lap times and saw I was losing almost 2 seconds a lap by being behind Dean so i decided to pit early in the hopes of finding some clean air on the track to put some fast laps in and jump him that way. The stop was much smoother this time because i knew were the pit box was and no crew member lost a wheel nut. Rich had stopped a couple laps before me and when i rejoined the track on Lap 28 Rich was about 5 seconds behind me. and Dean was almost 30 second ahead.

Over the next laps i put my head down and pumped in some solid lap times. The gap to Dean dropped a second or two each lap and when he finally pulled in for his second stop the gap was down to 19 seconds. Rich was still chasing me and was only 3 or 4 seconds behind. Dean rejoined in P3 about 10 seconds back and with 9mins on the clock left to go and all i had to do was keep Rich behind and not make a mistake. The last few laps were fun. I used 6 or 7 P2P's in those final laps but the gap to Rich didn't grow. I should have altered my fuel level for the last stop instead of leaving it at a full tank, then i might have had slightly better pace at the end. But even still, with 2 laps to go the gap to Rich was still 2.5 seconds. I would have to make a huge error for him to win.....but i didn't.

It was a fun race once it finally got going. The issues in the first lobby were strange with two guys getting chucked to the pit lane while the rest of us started the formation lap....then a bunch of us wound up with penalties for going to slow while we tried to figure out what was going on. I think maybe we should get rid of the formation lap and just use rolling start.



Here's my video. Race start around the 50min mark.

Great vid again bud 👍👍

Absolute genius 🤣😆😂

I don't think we should worry too much about any jumping the start tbh We are all of a like mind in terms of our racing and any accidental jump start is not going to have any great impact over the distances we race. Happy to go with whatever everyone else wants to do.