ARI Fun Race #13 Portugal

[Fergy]

Well done to all who attended tonight or this morning in my case. Although I had a new wheels and little practice I had a lot of fun as usual.
Looking forward to a big turn out for the last race of the F3 Fun Race series at Malaysia in two weeks time.

[Lecram]

Qualify: Pole but not by a lot.

Race 1 was for me decided by the pitstops. Came in ahead of Johannes and got out 2 or 3 secs behind.
Struggled with pace, unable to catch him so 2nd place. :-\

Race 2 I had a nice fight with Nik but I screwed up later first lap and damaged my suspension a bit. I then almost took David Cruickshank out by braking too late. Sweet bloke as he is, David promised me a night out with him to get over it and I ofcourse accepted but again, that costed places. Made my pitstop quite early (maybe too early) to repair damage and to try to have a clean track in front so I could gain time and that worked. Last lap I was in 3rd till I ran out of fuel entering the final corner of the race. >

Race 3 I normally would have started in 2nd but it only was fair to make me start at the back, no problem.
I tapped Bryan who was really struggling with his new wheel it seemed, srry for that. I waited for him but decided after some moments to move on. Got up to david Coyne till the stops and we both pitted same time. I dove into the pit a bit faster than him but kept the speed limit so that was another place gained. Came out behind PaulC and for the first time, I noticed the tire wear on a drivers car. Paul's left rear had a black stripe in the middle, his right rear showing a stripe at the outer right part. Never noticed before and very immersive. A lap later, still chasing Paul who was 4th, the leaders were in the pits and got out just before Paul and me so that was exciting. Some cars touched in that battle and it got messy but I could avoid most of it and gained 3rd place, behind Nik Babin. No fuel problems this time and not much gaining on Nik after that so that was it.

Well done all, till next time

[Psinet]

Sorry guys. Once again 5am was beyond me. I tried but gave up by 1am. Hope you all had fun!

[gorgias1976]

Mi report.

Qualifying
I spent half the qualifying updating and testing my new pit strategy. Since we were not changing tyres things changed completely. I did some calculations during that session and decided to change from 6-5 lap strategy to a 9-2 strategy. This meant starting with more fuel but changing the pitstop duration from 42sec to 27sec (refuelling 16l instead of 40l)
I managed a 4th place which was not as good as I'd preffered.

Race 1.
With such a heavy car I struggled to make my usual fast starts. Managed to go safely through the first curve begind Johannes and take Nik's position at the first curve. At the braking of the third curve I suffered a sudden mayor drop in frames and ended losing control and hitting the tyres pile, damaging the car an finding myself in the second half of the pack struggling to control the car mainly on the brakings. Thanks to my quicker pit strategy I managed to recover the place to Everon, Martin Cooper and David Coyne at the end of the race.

Race 2.
Starting 6th I managed to avoid the hell that happened behind me. I saw through the mirrors some car braking too late and taking many cars behind. So I found myself at the end of the first pack. At this point some people at the front had incidents and so I started taking positions. People started pitting and that left me second, and finally first for a single lap. In my calculations I was about to make it third after my pitsop. But at the very last lap before stopping Marcel T made a mistake in front of me and I could not avoid him crashing into him and losing some seconds that costed me a couple of good positions (nothing to blame Marcel T, he spun and he could do nothing to avoid me either). I finally ended fifth (don't remember well)

Race 3.
Start from the back was careful. At the exit of the first curve I found myself in the middle of a sandwich between Nik (I think) and Fergy. Though no drama happened car was slightly damaged there. I was in a heavy traffic group of cars at this first lap. At the second lap, David Cr made some kind of suicide dive to somebody's white eve at turn 6 ending in a collision and a spin. He did not wait for the cars behind to pass (me included) and tried to recover unsafely crossing in my way and therefor crashing into him and severly damage my car. At this point car was undriveable and ended crashing at the chicane 2 curves later. I decided it was not worth going on, repairs would take several minutes and due to anger I left the server.

[1959nikos]

Report from the back of grid.

Although Im quite familiar with Portugal, I couldnt build up some speed in there, so all week my laps were sluggish. At the end I managed a 2:01 something which was not bad really (for me).
I even managed to pass poor Fergy at quali, who obviously had strong arguments with his brand new wheel.
MarcelT (whom I was very happy to see him with us again-Thumbs up MarcelT) had similar times with me, so battle between us looked good to go.

So it did in first race, me and MarcelT had the closest finish ever in the history of back markers.

Second race, I stumbled in some accidents and finished waaay behind MarcelT

Third race it was a long battle again with MarcelT, who after pitstop, dissapeared somewhere front, only to reappear 2 laps before finish, where he made a lot of mistakes and I took the lead and finished ahead of him.

At this point I would like to mention an incident that impressed me most.
After pitstop at third race, I saw 2 white cars approaching me and I had a blue flag.
I was at 12th place out of 13 and I didnt notice that the one car of the two, was Jesus who was 13th and obviously was trying to gain my place.
I opened the gate and let both cars pass safely, Everon who was lapping me and Jesus who took my place.
At the moment they passed me, I realised my mistake but...cest' la vie.
And then the incredible thing happened, Jesus, realising my mistake, gave me his position back letting me to pass him and we took battling over again (which he eventually won as he was much faster than me).

Well, I believe this is the biggest sportsmanship moment of the year, me bowing to you Jesus sir!

[Paul_Ceglia]

Qu.
Didn't go all that bad got 7th which I wasn't happy with but looking at the times above me I wasn't to sadden by my performance. Decided to pit lap 6 during races.

R1
No major mistakes with this one had some good racing with DJC pretty much right on his gearbox first half even into to pits. I lost time leaving the pit box dropped the clutch a little to much almost stalled out costing me time which I couldn't make up finished 5th if i remember right

R2
Strong start until I made a major amateur mistake @ T4, Losing the back end and not controlling it, went into the grass but didn't suffer damage. I stayed there until it was clear, that put me in the back of the pack spent the rest of the race fighting my way back up which was fun. Nikos had a great pass @ T1, I broke early and he took his spot back on the inside but he lost it @ T4 soon after Stay steady to the end and finished 6th I think.....

R3

Starting in the middle of the pack had a good launch and stayed solid until Marcel W. was in my rear view. Hallas was in front of me Marcel behind me Nib in front of hallas T6 I broke late to take hallas on the inside but locked the tires for split sec he turned in and I punted him off the track Marcel drove on by and I waited for Hallas to rejoin and continued the race. Last lap last turn ruined what would have been a photo finish between me and hallas when again making a amateur mistake coasting me two spots.

Lots fun as always and really looking forward to the 60's F2

[Paul_Ceglia]

At this point I would like to mention an incident that impressed me most.
After pitstop at third race, I saw 2 white cars approaching me and I had a blue flag.
I was at 12th place out of 13 and I didnt notice that the one car of the two, was Jesus who was 13th and obviously was trying to gain my place.
I opened the gate and let both cars pass safely, Everon who was lapping me and Jesus who took my place.
At the moment they passed me, I realised my mistake but...cest' la vie.
And then the incredible thing happened, Jesus, realising my mistake, gave me his position back letting me to pass him and we took battling over again (which he eventually won as he was much faster than me).

Well, I believe this is the biggest sportsmanship moment of the year, me bowing to you Jesus sir!

That's good stuff!

[1959nikos]

Nikos had a great pass @ T1, I broke early and he took his spot back on the inside

He he, I did that to MarcelW too, he was very surprised to find me in there.

[Fergy]

Sorry guys. Once again 5am was beyond me. I tried but gave up by 1am. Hope you all had fun!

I got up at 6:00 and qual was at 6:30 am our time. Race started at 7:00 am. Hope to see you next time.

[Fergy]

Great reading guys, love the sportsmanship story. Those kind of things are what makes this place so good

[turtle]

Report from the back of grid.

Although Im quite familiar with Portugal, I couldnt build up some speed in there, so all week my laps were sluggish. At the end I managed a 2:01 something which was not bad really (for me).
I even managed to pass poor Fergy at quali, who obviously had strong arguments with his brand new wheel.
MarcelT (whom I was very happy to see him with us again-Thumbs up MarcelT) had similar times with me, so battle between us looked good to go.

So it did in first race, me and MarcelT had the closest finish ever in the history of back markers.

Second race, I stumbled in some accidents and finished waaay behind MarcelT

Third race it was a long battle again with MarcelT, who after pitstop, dissapeared somewhere front, only to reappear 2 laps before finish, where he made a lot of mistakes and I took the lead and finished ahead of him.

At this point I would like to mention an incident that impressed me most.
After pitstop at third race, I saw 2 white cars approaching me and I had a blue flag.
I was at 12th place out of 13 and I didnt notice that the one car of the two, was Jesus who was 13th and obviously was trying to gain my place.
I opened the gate and let both cars pass safely, Everon who was lapping me and Jesus who took my place.
At the moment they passed me, I realised my mistake but...cest' la vie.
And then the incredible thing happened, Jesus, realising my mistake, gave me his position back letting me to pass him and we took battling over again (which he eventually won as he was much faster than me).

Well, I believe this is the biggest sportsmanship moment of the year, me bowing to you Jesus sir!

Hi Nikos and all!
Thanks for your kind words
Obviously I had the blue flag too and Everon was approaching very fast at the same time that you opened the gate. Being in the middle, it didn't feel safe to me to brake so sudden so I thought it was safer to pass you and give your place back afterwards 8)
Everything turned out well, no accident, so I am also happy with the result.

My report:
For the first time, I was not so lucky as in previous races and my final positions in all races didn't met my expectations ;D
I did my personal best in the qualy but I sttrugled all races to keep a regular pace and made a lot of mistakes, still so much to learn

Thanks everyone for another nice racing evening!