DNS Challenge Kyalami Vintage GT

What a race! Until I wrecked my car by slamming into the barrier going into the s/f straight. After that ordeal, I watched most of the race & saw John do the same to the barrier at the pit entrance. I could feel your pain John:)
There were many great battles going on, worth checking out the replay.

Congrats to Miguel, Mike & Barrett. I was a little slow off the start but caught up quickly before turn 1. I had a nice battle going with Bryce for a few laps; 2 wide through those deadly corners & coming out unscathed! Nice driving Bryce. After a little mishap, I got back on track & had some fun with Mike K. until I blew it into the barrier. I watched the replay & saw my car twirl endlessly into the black hole.
The only thing that really bugs me about tonight is that I ended with a DNF. I hate those 3 letters & try to avoid them as much as possible.

Hopefully I can make it next week & actually finish the race.

Mike

Yikes. Lots of casualties this time around.

I was resigned to not competing with any big-HP cars, apart from Mustangs and maybe Cobras. I was pleased to see a late Ferrari entry too - welcome to NASRL.

Figured out I could make up a lot of lost lap time by making the shortest possible pit. Stretched my first stint out on a full tank to fumes and pitted on Lap 25/26 (I think I might have pitted last... leading a lap or two no less!). This ensured I took on the least amount of re-fuel (and thereby less time). Tires were barely touched (as expected), so I didn't need new ones. Pit time was around 25s (based on offline testing, I didn't check during race). Looking at the lap-by-lap results, total laptime spent was only 38s! I'm sure that was a fraction of all the other stops requiring tires and larger fuel loads. Where I thought I'd be getting lapped once or twice, I ended up staying within reach of podium purely on economy, strategy, a little luck (attrition... scary!) and slightly more patience than usual. If I hadn't made a couple usual brainfade mistakes (a couple offs, a lazy near-spin), I would have stayed within real fighting chance for that podium, possibly even the second step.

As for battles, I enjoyed several along the way during my first stint. Superb dicing back and forth. Brilliant sportsmanship at every contested turn as well.

A little disgusted here. Had a great pit plan. Was gonna run 10 laps and head to pits just to take a few gal of fuel and back out. In prev races, the Daytona has almost made it without a pit. Almost... Sp I figured to get in early and then pick off cars later. Nice surprise in qual. Found myself in 4th. Had great draft help from some cars. Start of race found the Daytona in 2nd by the 1st corner. Had a few epic battles with the vette boys!!!! By lap 10 I was in 4th with Mike K and Mike M just getting by. So I headed into the pits. Pulled into my pit box and the pit crew sat there with there thumbs up there.... Did you guys pay them off? I tried everything I could, moving forward, cutting engine, moving backwards, cutting engine. NOTHING!!!! After 2 minutes of screwing around in the pits and ruining my race, I headed out on track over 2 laps down and disgusted. Finally said F'it and disco'd. ARRRGGGHHHHHH

Congrats Miguel or is it Mike :)

I stunk up the field. I can't set up period end of discussion. I'm seriously considering putting my race life to sleep. You guys are awsome to run with---behind.
I just hate riding around if you know what I mean.

Just thinking about it for now. Sick of getting pissed off.
I practiced more for that race than any other and couldn't get any better.

Again congrats Miguel.

I had a pretty decent qual, pb'd by a fair margin and was satisfied with that. Got a great launch on the start, good enough to give Mike C and Bryce a good scare before backing off to be safe in T1 as can be seen in the screenshot. The first 8 laps or so were fantastic, lots of great battles up front with Mike M, Mike C, and Bryce.

Lots more attrition than I expected tonight; I guess with higher speeds come bigger wrecks. Mike C was drafting me for an upcoming pass no doubt on the straight; I'm guessing you were so deep in my bumper you missed the turn-in for the kink, got on the grass, nailed the start of the barrier and cartwheeled spectacularly onto the track. It was really something to see in the rearview, like something out of a movie since you were so close.

I was totally freaking out when Bryce started reporting that the pits didn't work. I'm thinking "OMFG, not another screwed up track". Bryce, I can only guess you were slightly out of or past your pitbox- once you miss the box in GTR2, there's nothing to do but come around again, if you back up at all they won't take you.

I had to pit earlier than I expected for fuel, and afterwards it became clear that I was having a mileage problem and couldn't finish even on the full tank I took on. I had a little aero damage after tapping Mike C when he spun earlier, wonder if that cost me some mpg? I tried rev limiting and coasting for a few laps, but that wasn't making any difference so I went all out hoping to pull more gap to whoever was behind me. Made a reasonably quick splash'n'go and hoped for the best; in the end I think both Mustangs had to make another stop also and I ended up right back in 5th. Satisfied with that but I think it's a lost opportunity giving up some points to Pete & Barrett in the Lotii when I might have stayed ahead if I had run a smooth race.

I qualified about where I expected. I was hoping to get a good start and maybe hassle a few thunderous vettes early, but something odd happened with the lights. I think something went haywire when players joined the grid and then escaped back to pits. I remember seeing grid full and then all of a sudden 3 of 4 rows on the tree we lit. Mike E just in front must not have been ready because I took out one of this rear tail lights when the lights went out. I could see other confusion too.

Barrett and I were hopless in the beginning of the race. It was one of those ebb and flow type tracks. I even got around Bryce at one point and he just rocketed by down the straight.

In time, the speed caught up to some of you which spread things out a bit. I concentrated on smooth, clean laps at a pace that was as close to quali pace as possible for my little cobra. Pushing this hard with a full load of fuel took a toll on my tires. I pitted 4 laps earlier than I planned.

Barrett surpised me by getting out in front on the pit exchange because I saw him go off a couple of times. They were only slightly off, but enough to give me a 12 second gap. He made it up by not taking tires in the pits. Nice work Barrett. Fortunately for me, I had a fresh set and was able to close it down and pull away. I'm sure he must have been double frustrated because I had power over him on the straight.

I never put a wheel wrong the entire race. That was the key for me.

Grats Miguel!

Man, those Vettes were scary fast in the mirror on that long straight!

Even if i'd had enough to take the pole (and i knew i didn't), it was obvious that the Vettes would just blow by me on the way to T1. So i just did some more full fuel practice during the Q session.

Driving the Lotus around this track with reasonably competitive times required getting T2 perfect, for me anyway. And that meant some delicate balancing of throttle an brakes, letting the rear start to break free, then catch it with the gas. It's a lot easier to do in practice when you don't lose positions by getting it just a little wrong.

I got it wrong several times.

I was counting on the pitstops to work to my advantage, as the Lotus is very easy on its tires and doesn't drink too much. I forgot to test the pit speed limit, and i'd never seen a track in GTR2 that didn't enforce it, so i didn't risk it. Still, i was able to "pass" Mike M in the pits by taking no tires.

In the end, Mike just ran a more consistent race than i could.

Very nice run Mike!

After Mike passed me, and i realized i wasn't going to be able to retake the position, i shifted focus to not letting the charging Pete get close enough to smell blood.

A better than expected result.

Ah those track edges and my lack of focus bit me a couple times, finally ending my evening. Actually the first lap when I got the tires off surprised me as that hadn't happened previously in all of my testing. Worked my way back to second behind Miguel and thought I might be able to catch him but another tire/road edge set me back 5 more seconds. Changed fronts in the pits, came out 5th and when the stops cycled was back in third. I glanced at the standings on the screen for a split second and the fatal tire issue and subsequent suspension damage ended the evening. Oh well. Early Sunday evenings are not proving to be my best time to race. Typically we have spend the day scrambling to do things around the house, eat dinner in a hurry and head upstairs to make the race. Focus has been a problem in almost every event this year - or maybe its just age catching up with me. Oh well - the driving part is a blast - hopefully there's a good finish left in me by season's end.

Hi guys!

My 'debut' here was not so bad at all. I was testing 3 cars to get in the league (Jag / Fez 275 / Cobra 289) so I had to spend some time knowing a little these cars. As time was getting short and just because I did similar times with all cars, hehe... I decided to pick up the one who consumed less gas, Ferrari nº 26.

So, hours before the race I got some free time to do some laps, focusing on get better braking and correct tires.

I managed a decent qualy time (1.33.2) so I was very confident to battle for a place in the middle of the pack.

Green light, gained some positions on lap 1, but the 88's didn't waste time to show their power and went away of my sight.

So my spot was to be as consistent as I could, trying to not do any handling mistakes. Maybe, with some luck, I could get a better position during pits.

During the race I got some nice battles with many cars, especially against Bodin's Cobra. He was faster than me on the main straight but I saw his car very unforgiving on brakes ans turns, and it helped me to get many overtakes.

Unfortunately I did 2 mistakes that didn't let me try a 5th or maybe a 4th position. First, when I entered the pits, I just forgot to turn off the engine. I spent at least 20 seconds waiting for the refueling that never started... So I woke up. Well, my father said one time: "Son, if you'll see that you'll do some shit, at least do it well"... Yep. So I forgot that I was not using auto clutch. When the car was ready to go on pits, I let the engine die. Oh my... More time spent starting the engine, yadda yadda...

But I didn't finish yet. I calculated my consumption bad, so I had to do a splash in the very last lap. Lost my 5th position.

One thing that I didn't liked so much was to see few cars crossing the checkered flag. The race become a little boring after the pit.

Well, despite my stupid errors, it was a nice race anyway!

Thanks to all and the warm reception here.

Congrats to podium!

Cheers,
RW

Hurrah! The first pole for more than year of participation. Definitely not bad together with a victory and the best lap time.

And only two serious mistakes:

1) Thank God, Ed has kept the car on track (excuse once again Ed).

2) I too many times have practiced stop procedure. But online my pit-box has appeared more close to entrance on a pit-lane. I had passed by, and I had to come back a backing. Fortunately Michael is not right. Though I have wasted some time.

Congrats to Mike M. and Barrett with podium.