Sim Racers 4 Life - BT20 Season - Sebring

[1959nikos]

Place your race reports here gents.

[deecee52]

Race 1

Started ok but Kane bogged and didnt move , had to brake and stay inline as cars were coming left and right , dropped down the order but managed to scramble back to 5th behind Christoph at turn 2, chased after him until he slid wide at turn 8 and then chased after Kane , I wasnt making any impression on the guys in front but after a few laps I came off last corner to see Kane crashing out so gained a lucky position , after that it was a quiet race with no one near me , pitstop went ok came out behind DJ but couldnt catch him .

Race 2

Started well , got around first corner without drama and suddenly found myself in 3rd behind Tim and Ed , chased after them , Tim did a good job of fending me off but I managed to get near for the long back striaght and used the draft to pass him , caught up to Ed and we stayed together for a lap or so , I couldnt attack as he covered the corners well , then he made a mistake going wide in turn 1 ,this gave me the opportunity to go inside and get the place , after that I was leading but could see Rik closing , I managed to last 4 or 5 laps until he got me on the back striaght , he then pulled into the pits so I was back in the lead , I thought I would stay out for as long as I could and see if I got the point for most lead laps , I had a slow pitstop and came out in 5th , I knew one of the guys in front had yet to stop so I was looking at 4th for the finish .

[cookie]

Race 1- was fairly uneventful- Hart jumped me at the start and i took many laps to get the spot back ,but when Kane crashed i got into 4th place and kept it through the pitstops to the end.

Race 2- not so uneventful .....three or four wide into turn one and as we went for the esses i tried to keep my line but bumped wheels with my teammate - we both went off- and i think collected someone else too -
I got going again and got knocked off by tim i think - well i struggled around and caught up to mel again - i was abit faster but he gave me a rough go to get past - back in 7th - one spot below where i started and hart in front of me again- managed 2 more places after pits and accidents finished 5th -

8) 8)

[Hedlund]

Race 1

Started from the dirty side, so I had my eyes on Kane in 2nd, but he didn't make a good start and I could easily keep the lead through the first corners. Instead DJ took care of 2nd place and he kept a good pace. It took me a few laps to build up a gap but slowly I was getting away from him. Pitstop at the end of lap 6, everything went fine...48 seconds stop I think. When I came out I was 5th I think. It took me ages to regain the lead as some drivers waited nearly to end with their pitstops, but at last I was back in 1st and finished.

Race 2
I started behind someone who did a bad start, and I couldn't get past him. Stayed behind through first corner but some kamikaze drivers behind trying to overtake us at the same time Cosimo managed to get past. And after first corner I found myself between two cars...Kane on the inside. I decided to back off as it didn't feel safe to enter turn 2 with three cars A couple of cars crashed in front of us and disappeared, some were trying to rejoin track as we passed and it didn't feel very safe, lol. I was chasing Kane and Cosimo first lap and on the long back straight I managed to get slipstream on Kane and overtook him. I braked a little too late for final corner and lost control of the rear but managed to drift perfectly through the long corner and in the next corner I managed to lure Cosimo to take the defensive line and got past him in the corner exit instead! Next driver was Tim, and in the hairpin the braked quite early which caused a little pile up with 4 drivers (lol) but no harm and in the next corner I could overtake him. I saw Edwin and DC battling ahead and soon DC were in the lead. Edwin made a mistake in the first sector and I could easily overtake him. Slowly I was catching DC and I had no plan to overtake him before my pitstop but when he got a really bad corner exit I could overtake him, but pitted the same lap. Good stop again, 47 seconds. When everyone had completed their pitstops I was in the lead and couldn't see DC or anyone else near me, so the final laps were an easy trip to finish line. Two wins...can not complain

Thanks for hosting and solving all the problems Paul.

[edwin]

Quali:

9th place which is fairly good for my standards.

Race 1:

Had a good start and saw Cosimo go thru the grass, so i tried to pass him on the outside. We clipped and went off together in some sort of swan lake dance act. (race accident Cos imo) So started of in last place and tried to gain positions. Had a nice fight with Nikos until we went side by side into the last corner (me on the inside). Going into the corner a bit to fast and made a memorable drift into it, but lost Nikos along the way. So felt guilty because i thought i took him out. Finished 9th same place where i started of. but good thing was i had the second start spot for race 2.

Race 2:

Starting from second spot and knowing i can start fairly well and had a reasonable pace during practise last weeks i started confident of finishing this race in a good way.
T1 i was in first place and felt Tim's breath in my back. In my mirrors i saw DC closing in on Tim and the latter one was getting busy with DC which gave me some air. At one point DC overtook Tim and was closing in on me. I gave him a fight i was worth for but at some point started to make mistakes giving DC room to pass me. Not long after that Rikard and Kane came into sight (that is in my mirrors) Rik passed but i managed to keep Kane behind just a little bit longer. But he also was way faster then me and at some point he took a shot at me and we clipped a little in the middle of turn 10 (i think) No harm done Kane but i tried to keep up with him and messed up big time the next turns. Got damage after a spin and limped back to the pits to get repairs. 90 second stop *sigh*. Came back on track and tried to save what could be saved, which turned out to be not much
Along the way trying to make some places up i ran into Tim in the last turn, Sorry Tim my fault i was to close behind and when you had to brake i had no room what so ever to avoid running into you. I don't even know for sure what place i had in the end only thing i know was that Rikard needed a fairly long time to get near me and lap me which he did in his last lap. So my pace really wasn't that bad.

All in all bad results but fun races.

Thanks again Paul for setting this up and all contenders for showing up.
Also want to thank Nikos for moderating this site and keeping all of us together.

[329Kane]

Qualifying:

Got disconnected during practice and qualifying was underway before I managed to find the correct password on the shout box and reenter the server. :-\ Managed to get in a decent lap in qualifying on the front row next to Rik but was unsure of which set up to use for the race.

Race 1:

Was in neutral when the lights went out :o but managed to slot into third place behind Rik and DJC. I didn't mind this so much as I was using a shorter gearing and it was easy to lock up the rears under braking. I had a bit of breathing room behind and took a few laps to get used to set up. After this I started pushing and reeling in DJC just as I started getting close I was thinking should I do my pitstop early to avoid having to battle on the track. Unfortunately without enough practice on the setup I was unable to drive without concentrating 100% and I ended up spinning the car in the last turn impacting the wall hard and doing several flips. After this there was no more debating about what lap to do my pitstop and I ended up finishing 12th. ???

Race 2:

A much better start from the outside and an aggressive inside line into turn one trying to get under Rik. I saw him back out and let me by, I stayed down the inside on the entry to turn 2 which sell me avoid a few people who had gone off. Tried to slip underneath Cosmino in turn 3 but he was having none of it. Rick was breathing down my neck on the first lap and made a spectacular move into the final turn. He showed amazing car control and aggressiveness getting past the next few cars. I didn't have the confidence to make the passes without causing an incident and lost a few seconds. DJC was charging as well only a few seconds behind in third place. I ran a really fast consistent pace with a good pitstop and managed to hold off DJC and finish in second about 7 seconds behind Rik. Really happy overall as I spent most of my practice time trying to get my new wheel adjusted and drove mostly with a default setup playing around with different gears. I didn't expect to be so quick and consistent and even though I blew a good opportunity in race 1 was happy to get on the podium from the sixth row in race two. Thanks to SR4L for putting on an awesome league and look forward to seeing everyone at the next event in Monaco!

Sorry to Cosmino for the slight tap in the rear in the tight right-hander at the end of the first section on lap two. I think four cars all touched each other nose to tail in a little conga line without any serious consequence. Definitely was unintentional.

[hardtohandle]

I missed Q and R1 sadly.

R2. I am running cold with no practice! Last on the grid 17th and I get a nice start and overtake 5 cars in T1, and another 5 on the first lap! Mostly due to accidents. Things are looking good but I got cooked by the cookie monster in the last turn, then in t1 I am a bit scared I am going in the back of cookie and ended up spinning it :. Was way to cautious on the rejoin and it took forever, I am way down the pack now :'(. A few laps later I lost it on brakes into hairpin and wreck into tyre wall, damage car but not too seriously. Steady running to the end, I clipped an out of control Ed whist lapping him and made his day worse, sorry Ed, run OK until the end and finish 9th, not too bad considering I had 2 very costly incidents. Congratulations to Rikard the winning machine and thanks to Paul 8)