Round 8 Texas MSW - Saturday, 6th July 2019 @9pm UK
Jul 9, 2019 9:10:08 GMT
XRF Lemarrrr, hurtmagurt, and 1 more like this
Post by XRF HammerPH on Jul 9, 2019 9:10:08 GMT
Thoroughly enjoyed this race at the weekend guys, some really epic battling with Tyler, some of the longest, closest and cleanest racing i've had with our cars within a few tenths of each other lap after lap. Very much like the earlier Indy 500 battle with Daz but this time for even longer. Just makes you crave for bigger grids so more and more can enjoy similar racing. It is of course very disappointing that we have fallen so low on numbers but it's certanily not for the want of trying and while there's some of us still turning up for them i'll make every effort to attend as many as I am able.
Quali:
Very happy to continue my run of good form in qualifying for these oval races, notching up my third pole out of three. I seem to have a decent handle on the oval racing so would love to see even more in the game. Just under a tenth ahead of Greg in second place and one and a half tenths from Tyler in third. Very close. I put enough fuel for a good run of laps on each run and each time my last lap was the best. 24.062 on my first run (lap 12) , 24.020 on my second (lap 28) and then 23.981 on my third (lap 37), 0.141 from my best lap at the track but more than happy to set it when it mattered. I didn't get a tow at all in this session, just couldn't seem to time it quite right but knew from my practice that a sub 24 was there with a pretty much perfect lap.
Race:
Held the lead into turn 1 and initially pulled a little gap to Greg and the pack behind but he pulled it back over the early laps until he got right on my tail for a spell. It was around about lap 16 when suddenly he was no longer there and I saw him dropping down the board and then spotted him on the inside of the back straight. Shame as it looked like we could have some fun together for a bit longer. The gap to Tyler and Karl then grew until it reached 10.2 seconds on lap 24 but then with the aid of the draft they started to close by between 3 and 5/tenths a lap until I pitted on lap 49 with the lead down to just 2.7 seconds. Karl had fallen behind at this time and Tyler inherited the lead for a couple of laps until his stop and then when he was back out and up to speed we were just a second apart with Karl a further 9 seconds adrift and Dave at this time just shy of 2 laps down.
Myself and Tyler remained nose to tail for the whole of this stint with the gap mostly around the 2/tenths mark and only once above 5/tenths. Brilliant racing. Tyler had great speed down the back straight but I think I was slightly better in the corners and holding a tight line and forcing him to the outside enabled me to keep the front spot until we pitted again on lap 93 after a bit of an incident getting past Karl which left both myself and Tyler with major damage. We called a caution at this point while the two of us got repairs and restarted the race on lap 100 with Karl now leading, Tyler second, me third and Dave 4th and unfortunately still in the pits having had an incident under the caution.
I managed to get a decent restart and jumped Tyler but Karl kept strong and held the lead for the first 5 laps until I got past on lap 105 and retook the lead with Tyler following me through and dropping my team mate to 3rd. We quickly pulled away from Kalr and resumed our intense battle with the gap even smaller than before. Tyler managed to get past down the back striaght when I had to lift when getting past Dave around turn 2 but I kept on his tail and had a real major overspeed down the straights and just 4 laps lapter timed it just perfect to claim the top spot again down the straight/finish striaght and into turn 2. Tyler had a bit of an incident requiring him to pit early so I then held about a 30 second lead until my next stop on lap 144 and after that the gap was steady at around 10 seconds until Tyler suddenyl started lapping about 5/tenths a lap faster and the gap tumbled until it was just 6/tenths on lap 182 when he pitted again. Our out of sequence strategies only adding to the drama. I took my stop on lap 194 when a dropped wheelnut costing about 9 seconds did not help my cause and I came out of the pits just as Tyler sped past. The 4 second gap he had then grew by half a second a lap as I found my car feeling a bit sluggish and was resigning myself to the second spot on the podium until lap 216 when I heard over the radio that Tyler had had a problem and the gap dropped, he pitted and I took back the lead. Once he was done in the pits he rejoined and the gap was now 87 seconds so I knew that with the pit stop laps taking about 57 seconds I had about 30 in hand so Just had to make sure the stop was clean and I made no mistakes. I decided that as my stop was going to be around 8 laps from the finish that I would just top up the fule and leave the tyres alone.. they were worn but not badly so decided the risk of another wheel nut problem was not worth taking. The stop was clean and I was back on track with the solid lead still in place so just brought the #7 home for a much needed first win on the season.
Having lead for 208 of the laps I would certainly have been very disappointed to not take the win here but Tyler was quick especially in that 70 spell before his problem and looked on for the victory.. I love oval racing. Nascar anyone lol.
Here's my quali and race recording:-
Quali:
Very happy to continue my run of good form in qualifying for these oval races, notching up my third pole out of three. I seem to have a decent handle on the oval racing so would love to see even more in the game. Just under a tenth ahead of Greg in second place and one and a half tenths from Tyler in third. Very close. I put enough fuel for a good run of laps on each run and each time my last lap was the best. 24.062 on my first run (lap 12) , 24.020 on my second (lap 28) and then 23.981 on my third (lap 37), 0.141 from my best lap at the track but more than happy to set it when it mattered. I didn't get a tow at all in this session, just couldn't seem to time it quite right but knew from my practice that a sub 24 was there with a pretty much perfect lap.
Race:
Held the lead into turn 1 and initially pulled a little gap to Greg and the pack behind but he pulled it back over the early laps until he got right on my tail for a spell. It was around about lap 16 when suddenly he was no longer there and I saw him dropping down the board and then spotted him on the inside of the back straight. Shame as it looked like we could have some fun together for a bit longer. The gap to Tyler and Karl then grew until it reached 10.2 seconds on lap 24 but then with the aid of the draft they started to close by between 3 and 5/tenths a lap until I pitted on lap 49 with the lead down to just 2.7 seconds. Karl had fallen behind at this time and Tyler inherited the lead for a couple of laps until his stop and then when he was back out and up to speed we were just a second apart with Karl a further 9 seconds adrift and Dave at this time just shy of 2 laps down.
Myself and Tyler remained nose to tail for the whole of this stint with the gap mostly around the 2/tenths mark and only once above 5/tenths. Brilliant racing. Tyler had great speed down the back straight but I think I was slightly better in the corners and holding a tight line and forcing him to the outside enabled me to keep the front spot until we pitted again on lap 93 after a bit of an incident getting past Karl which left both myself and Tyler with major damage. We called a caution at this point while the two of us got repairs and restarted the race on lap 100 with Karl now leading, Tyler second, me third and Dave 4th and unfortunately still in the pits having had an incident under the caution.
I managed to get a decent restart and jumped Tyler but Karl kept strong and held the lead for the first 5 laps until I got past on lap 105 and retook the lead with Tyler following me through and dropping my team mate to 3rd. We quickly pulled away from Kalr and resumed our intense battle with the gap even smaller than before. Tyler managed to get past down the back striaght when I had to lift when getting past Dave around turn 2 but I kept on his tail and had a real major overspeed down the straights and just 4 laps lapter timed it just perfect to claim the top spot again down the straight/finish striaght and into turn 2. Tyler had a bit of an incident requiring him to pit early so I then held about a 30 second lead until my next stop on lap 144 and after that the gap was steady at around 10 seconds until Tyler suddenyl started lapping about 5/tenths a lap faster and the gap tumbled until it was just 6/tenths on lap 182 when he pitted again. Our out of sequence strategies only adding to the drama. I took my stop on lap 194 when a dropped wheelnut costing about 9 seconds did not help my cause and I came out of the pits just as Tyler sped past. The 4 second gap he had then grew by half a second a lap as I found my car feeling a bit sluggish and was resigning myself to the second spot on the podium until lap 216 when I heard over the radio that Tyler had had a problem and the gap dropped, he pitted and I took back the lead. Once he was done in the pits he rejoined and the gap was now 87 seconds so I knew that with the pit stop laps taking about 57 seconds I had about 30 in hand so Just had to make sure the stop was clean and I made no mistakes. I decided that as my stop was going to be around 8 laps from the finish that I would just top up the fule and leave the tyres alone.. they were worn but not badly so decided the risk of another wheel nut problem was not worth taking. The stop was clean and I was back on track with the solid lead still in place so just brought the #7 home for a much needed first win on the season.
Having lead for 208 of the laps I would certainly have been very disappointed to not take the win here but Tyler was quick especially in that 70 spell before his problem and looked on for the victory.. I love oval racing. Nascar anyone lol.
Here's my quali and race recording:-