15-04-2013, 10:32 AM
After 2 weeks of constant track pounding and heaven knows how many setup changes the big day finally arrived and I was as ready as I was ever going to be, bring it on .
Checking the fast laps page on the league site I could see that there was no way I could ever win it unless DJ , MW and Gorka all fell off those guys were a class above me , but Bryan , Jason and me were close on times so these guys and 4th place were my realistic target.
I had decided my approach to this race had to be one of controlled aggression , I am a weak wheel to wheel racer so I didn’t want to get into a scrap especially on this track where its so easy to make mistakes , I spent a lot of practice time going out on cold tyres and pushing hard to find out where I was going to have problems and where the grip was going to be missing, I was hoping that my first 2 laps would gain me space to concentrate on the beating just the track itself .
Quall
Went out early as I knew back markers would spoil lap times here , chased DJ hoping he would drag me along , managed to get into the 29s but then hit traffic , I decided to settle for that in the hope that traffic would hold back Jason and Bryan who had gone out after me , luck was with me I got 4th which was my target .
Race
Got a good start with no drama’s and chased after the top 3 , could see Jason and Bryan were the guys behind me so got my head down and drove as hard as I dared , the top 3 were pulling away as I expected so I could choose my own lines and braking points which allowed me to slowly pull away from Jason , at the end of lap one I suddenly caught up to DJ and Gorka so I new they were fighting hard , they started to pull away again so I breathed a sigh of relief as I didn’t want to get involved in their tussle , I had a 6 second barrier between me and Jason and was just beginning to feel comfortable , lap 2 and my tyres were great so I expected now would be the time for Jason to push and have a go at me as he would be in the same condition , so I went into qualy mode and pushed hard , I think that was the best lap I have driven , it certainly felt it until I came upon Gorka across the track , fortunately I could see their tabs above the hedge so I had a warning and slowed for the corner and managed to negotiate the wreckage , I was watching the times between me and Jason constantly and on I think lap 3 it suddenly went up to 20 something seconds so I knew he had gone off somewhere , this allowed me to breath easier and back off slightly , I pitted on lap 6 and all went ok
On lap 7 Gorka appeared in my mirrors and I made a mistake and hooked a kerb which made me slow up , so he pounced and was away , I thought it was pointless me chasing him as he is the faster driver but then I noticed he was not pulling away from me and I suspected he was carrying damage , so I started to drive harder to catch him , this made me make another mistake which fortunately resulted in no damage , at that point I decided not to be greedy and settle for an unexpected third place , so I just drove for a finish .
I did it I actually finished in one piece , soaking wet , totally knackered with mega wrist ache but I beat the green hell- YAHOOOOOOOOOO
By the way thank you to all the backmarkers who drove very well and moved over and caused no dramas for me .
That was a very intense and fun race , but thank God we only do it once
Checking the fast laps page on the league site I could see that there was no way I could ever win it unless DJ , MW and Gorka all fell off those guys were a class above me , but Bryan , Jason and me were close on times so these guys and 4th place were my realistic target.
I had decided my approach to this race had to be one of controlled aggression , I am a weak wheel to wheel racer so I didn’t want to get into a scrap especially on this track where its so easy to make mistakes , I spent a lot of practice time going out on cold tyres and pushing hard to find out where I was going to have problems and where the grip was going to be missing, I was hoping that my first 2 laps would gain me space to concentrate on the beating just the track itself .
Quall
Went out early as I knew back markers would spoil lap times here , chased DJ hoping he would drag me along , managed to get into the 29s but then hit traffic , I decided to settle for that in the hope that traffic would hold back Jason and Bryan who had gone out after me , luck was with me I got 4th which was my target .
Race
Got a good start with no drama’s and chased after the top 3 , could see Jason and Bryan were the guys behind me so got my head down and drove as hard as I dared , the top 3 were pulling away as I expected so I could choose my own lines and braking points which allowed me to slowly pull away from Jason , at the end of lap one I suddenly caught up to DJ and Gorka so I new they were fighting hard , they started to pull away again so I breathed a sigh of relief as I didn’t want to get involved in their tussle , I had a 6 second barrier between me and Jason and was just beginning to feel comfortable , lap 2 and my tyres were great so I expected now would be the time for Jason to push and have a go at me as he would be in the same condition , so I went into qualy mode and pushed hard , I think that was the best lap I have driven , it certainly felt it until I came upon Gorka across the track , fortunately I could see their tabs above the hedge so I had a warning and slowed for the corner and managed to negotiate the wreckage , I was watching the times between me and Jason constantly and on I think lap 3 it suddenly went up to 20 something seconds so I knew he had gone off somewhere , this allowed me to breath easier and back off slightly , I pitted on lap 6 and all went ok
On lap 7 Gorka appeared in my mirrors and I made a mistake and hooked a kerb which made me slow up , so he pounced and was away , I thought it was pointless me chasing him as he is the faster driver but then I noticed he was not pulling away from me and I suspected he was carrying damage , so I started to drive harder to catch him , this made me make another mistake which fortunately resulted in no damage , at that point I decided not to be greedy and settle for an unexpected third place , so I just drove for a finish .
I did it I actually finished in one piece , soaking wet , totally knackered with mega wrist ache but I beat the green hell- YAHOOOOOOOOOO
By the way thank you to all the backmarkers who drove very well and moved over and caused no dramas for me .
That was a very intense and fun race , but thank God we only do it once
Understeer - is when you hit the wall with the front of the car
Oversteer - is when you hit the wall with the back of the car
Horsepower - is how fast you hit the wall
Torque - is how far you move the wall when you hit it
Oversteer - is when you hit the wall with the back of the car
Horsepower - is how fast you hit the wall
Torque - is how far you move the wall when you hit it