Porsche 917 League - Round 2 - Kyalami - Reports

[1959nikos]

Great attendance again.
We even saw Harri at her rare nowdays outings, I hope wrist is getting better Harri.

First race started good for me, by lap 12 I was 16th but a strong hit sent me to pits with a 3min stop.
I ended last with no points

Second race was better, I took some hits but others got it worse so I ended up 19th, that gives me some doesnt it.

Teamie was superb, he even got podium at 2nd race, congrats Dan B

Place your reports here boys and girls.

[edwin]

Ooo how i missed this competitive racing against humans 8)

quali:

8th with a pb so okay for me taken into account i didn't practice as much as i should.

Race 1:

Went wide in T1 evaporating my 8th starting spot to last place in the race.
After that was able to do some good lapping and was able to overtake but just made to many mistakes.
Last lap of the race i was in 11th but dear me.....i hadn't put in enough fuel so in last corner the car was dead but i had enough speed to make it to the finish line......only Mel was able to take away my 11th > leaving me 12th.

Race 2:

Was more concentrated now and had a nice race. At one point i was 5th and DC came up from behind. I could hold him for 2 laps but he obviously was to fast for me and outbraked me in T1. Could somewhat hold on to him and was hoping he at one point would make a mistake but knowing DC that wouldn't happen. 6th after such a long time of being out of racing well that works for me.

Thanks guys lot's of fast people here and some new faces too but racing was clean and enjoyable.

[Edvvc]

That was a tough Sunday. However the starts of both races were much cleaner than Road America with drivers anticipating hazards and generally giving enough room.

Quali: I lost the feel of the car around this time and couldn't do a decent sector 1 which was crucial to a fast laptime. Not being able to set a car up properly is costing. 1:10.82 in practice but 1:11.0 in quali.

Race 1: Good start and was chasing David Hart for a brief bit but then lost places attempting a messy overtake into turn 1. From then I just didn't have the pace. Towards the end I was chasing Ramon but he was too fast.

Race 2: Got a very good start using the full width of the track (it's legal, right?) and made my way into the lead for a bit. As expected the Daves arrived and had no problem getting past. At this point I was third, I took my pitstop but it was occupied :o Thankfully I only had to wait about ten seconds but isn't there some way to avoid this happening in league races that doesn't involve coordination of all drivers in the warmup? Exited pits to find myself in fourth but could not get past Dan Bayford.

[Harri Mac]

For a bunch of reasons I can only manage to run race 2 for a while so will be always starting from the back. A good learning experience for the is season I think.

Race 2

I saw a yellow flag appear at the top of my screen and lost concentration briefly and lightly struck Dan Minges on returning to the track. Sorry Dan, I think my field of view is too narrow and I didn't see you, your number was obscured by mine on the position line too

I also had an incident with Shannon, sorry, I thought a gap had opened but you were taking an different line and the door slammed shut at a point where there was nothing I could do.

I did just manage to avoid running up the backsides of Edvvc and Dan Bayford who had passed me under blue flag, phew!

Looking forward to the next races.

[deecee52]

Qually

Went out and set a time I was happy with which eventually netted me third place .

Race 1

Got a good start but dropped a place to Ed , spent the next few laps battling with him but I had hamstrung myself by setting the rev limit to 8400rpm to try and stop the smoking , this meant I was compromised off the last turn and I couldnt get the draft quick enough to get the pass in before the first corner , pitstop went ok and came out behind Dave Hart , battled with him but again my rev limit hampered my race , finished 2nd.
The smoking engine must be a fault in the model as even with a low rev limit I ended up smoking as did most cars , very distracting when trying to pick out your braking point .

Race 2

Got a good start and survived the first lap , slowly made a few positions then came up to Rick , battled with him for a few laps but he was leaving no gaps so I had to keep close and hope he made a mistake , this he duly did and I was off again , pit went ok came out just in front of Ramon but I got the blue flag so i had to back off , I had a lot more grip than him and I could see i was faster , on the penultimate corner I got close so I could get the draft out of the last corner but totally misjudged where he would brake , I stood on the brakes but couldnt avoid hitting him hard , I pulled over to give the place back and saw a red car go past and into the pits which I thought was Ramon, but on the replay I saw it was Tim . Mega sorry Ramon my fault entirely .
After that my car had taken damage and was reluctant to turn right and was frying the left front tyre , had a little tussle with Ed and managed to get past but I was praying he didnt come back at me as the car was getting loose . Again Ramon my apologies for ruining your race .

[Mauro]

some statistics after 4 races:

[ricikrick]

Qually ok ....in the mified-ish

race 1 giong good-----until trying an overtake on my teamy (Very Sorry Tobias) crashed and burned,lots of damage 5 min pit stop end of race
2 laps down finished 20th

race 2 started.. you guessed it 20th good start steady race ok pit stop got upto 7th place so good result

well done podium guys
good points Tobias
3rd in team champ

[Edvvc]

Some of those pole position statistics look wrong. There have only been two qualifying sessions.

[Mauro]

yes, poles value doesn't matter much
it consider starting grid for both race (qualify for race 1 + reversed grid for race 2)