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Post by Richard Wilks on Jan 7, 2024 21:02:10 GMT
Was a fun night, sorry for anybody that i got in the way spinning on the second race. I guess this fat audi needs more work
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Post by Jason White on Jan 7, 2024 21:02:51 GMT
I owe Little Al Iquino an apology, our contact was largely due to me blowing my shut off points in both hairpins on lap 3. I'm very sorry he couldn't continue
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Post by John Thim on Jan 7, 2024 21:05:37 GMT
Had a fun fight in both races with many people and especially John Thim - sorry for the tap late into race one, I let you by a lap later or so when it was safe to do so without losing many positions. Well I kinda started that. With the hairpin thing, brain fade there. Sry for that. How touringcar goes, I figured we where even when you tapped me back. Other than that great racing, alot of wheel-banging. Worth the sweat. Also sry to Jonathan. I just could'nt aviod the sudden stop in time there.
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Post by Dante Barbera on Jan 7, 2024 21:10:11 GMT
Had to hastily switch PC due to the other one again freezing and cobbled together what I remembered of the setup. Not yet comfortable in these FWD cars, but it will hopefully improve over the season Donington is a track I love, but that has never been kind to me, somehow I always feel much slower here and I can't for my life find the key to going quicker. Dante, it was me who hit you, your car got sideways right in front of me in the downwards section and I could only hold my wheel and keep the gas, or I would have spun with you. Unfortunate that you rolled, should have just spun and recovered. That's the race !
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Post by David Sabre on Jan 7, 2024 21:22:13 GMT
Was a fun night, sorry for anybody that i got in the way spinning on the second race. I guess this fat audi needs more work Yes that was me, you spun sideway across the track in front of me and I couldn't avoid you, it took us both off a long way on the grass. Very poor starts for both races (despite practicing good starts) dropped me down the order and I spent both races fighting to get back up the order, good fun but only 10th and 13th place finishes. Sorry to whoever I hit in the first race at the first hairpin, I missed the braking point and went sailing on into the corner.
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Post by Fernando Porteiro on Jan 7, 2024 21:22:49 GMT
Can't participate... Going to visit my dad in the hospital... He has cirrhosis of the liver.... and ontop of that.. has caught covid while in the hosîtal, so i'll have to go in wearing full protection against any germs. I'll probably arrive back home too late. Sorry to hear that. Hope he recovers fast, and may you find him in good conditions even with the challenges
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Post by Michael Drechsler on Jan 7, 2024 22:07:08 GMT
Ladeez & dudes, what a night...
...considering I really don't feel at home with these front wheel driven buggers, the results probably weren't as disatreous as anticipated, but then, the season is still young and not everyone has sorted its car out. Me neither, still doing random things trying to get behind what's working which way, and everything is so counterintuitive, from the driving to setting up the car. Thus, suddenly after not getting the car under 1:38 the whole day, some random shock absorber change suddenly shaved a second off of my time, just right before Q1 started. I couldn't repeat that, but 16th was okay. R1 started, and I got reasonably well of the line, others even better, but I could make up two positions, held my position and closed the gap to Naxto, but in lap 5, I had an incident I'm happy to be able to tell I got away with it, but that cost me two positions. But I could continue with just two positions lost, and slowly got into the back of Naxto again. In lap 11, into Goddards, I slightly misjudged his speed, or better lack of the same, and sent him sideways, but he could avoid spinning. But finally, I could get past him. What followed was a defensive battle against Petr's Volvo, which I ultimately lost, but I ended in 14th, and that was okay. I was pleased I could do a couple of 1:37s in the race.
Trying random things again, I switched the bump and rebound settings around in Q2, and all of a sudden, I got the car into the 1:36. 15th, noice! That I quickly applied onto my race setup, and tried another thing with gearing and wings, but both didn't really seem to work well, so I quickly took that away again. What followed was a pretty rad race! Start was like before, but this time, I couldn't gain a position. Instead, I found myself in a pack, where everyone was having a stab at everyone else, and I made the best of my assets. It seemed, I had a pretty good car on the brakes and turn-in, but fell a bit short on acceleration. At least, I could tuck very tightly under the other cars through Redgate, McLeans, the Esses, Melbourne and Goddards, but fell a bit short on the quicker sections. There was a lot of tight racing, here a nugde, there a love tap, everything reasonable. I remember battling a Peugeot for the first few laps, and watching another one in my mirror, and all of a sudden, a red Ford became quckly bigger in my mirrors, and before I knew, I was in the middle of a great chaos and lost six or seven positions. I could quickly get back to 16th again, but had to give that position to Robin in his Mondeo. Instead I went after Simon in the Vectra, which was far more interesting to me, as he's a competitor in the Independents Trophy. It took me a while to fetch him, but in the end, that went easier than thought. Richard in the Audi hassled me for a while thereafter, but I could keep him behind me, and in the second to last lap, I had the satisfaction to intercept Moises in his Pug. 13th, that is okay. All that work to keep my front tires alive obviously paid off. And if I'n not completely wrong, I finished as best independent driver in both heats. That would be very nice! Though I expect the competition to stiffen up, soon.
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Post by Juha Bos on Jan 7, 2024 22:31:25 GMT
And if I'n not completely wrong, I finished as best independent driver in both heats. That would be very nice! Though I expect the competition to stiffen up, soon. You did, and you scored pole twice so you're on maximum points. Well done.
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Post by Michael Drechsler on Jan 7, 2024 22:45:42 GMT
I better take a picture of it while it lasts!
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Post by Jason White on Jan 7, 2024 22:52:53 GMT
I better take a picture of it while it lasts! Alberto and I will have to up our game
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Post by Juha Bos on Jan 7, 2024 22:55:05 GMT
A win and a second place, an almost perfect start to the season, I'm very happy with that!
I tested a lot for this one. The Renault is a obviously a good car, but I did hundreds of laps around Donington to ensure it would provide me with sufficient confidence for Old Hairpin without inducing more understeer everywhere else.
Despite all that testing, and Jonatan convincing me my brake bias left something to be desired, others had made a better job of their homework and I started from second place in the first race and on row 2 in the second one.
The car felt great in the race though. I had a bad start in race 1 and found myself in a battle with Ruben in the Vauxhall, Ricardo in the Ford and Niklas in the Honda. I got my nose in front the latter two, but Ruben provided more resistance. Unfortunately it ended up with him going into the gravel when he reappeared in front of me at the Craner Curves when I was carrying a lot more speed and I couldn't avoid him. By then Anders had made use of all the confusion to take the lead. I didn't find a gap so I had to settle for second.
I made another bad getaway in race 2 (I should practice another method) and found myself chasing the same bunch as before, minus Ruben but with Jonatan thrown into the mix. I quickly disposed of the Volvo by going round the outside McLean's and passed the other two at the Melbourne Hairpin. They then started to fight amongst each other, with Dave in hot pursuit, leaving me with a comfortable gap. Dave then found a way by, and some extra speed as well. He kept closing in, but I held him off and we made it a Renault 1-2.
Brands Hatch is next. A track I don't like at all so I'll just try to survive that one.
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Post by Jonatan Acerclinth on Jan 8, 2024 9:50:25 GMT
Somewhat split about last evenings event...
I felt like I had the pace to be up there and challenging for podiums but not the utmost pace that I had hoped I'd be able to coax out of the Volvo, but something I had feared...
Practice: Due to other circumstances, my first proper laps with the Volvo at Donington were yesterday. Took a few changes and came close to what I wanted out of the car, but not quite there.
Q1: Spent the Q session getting up to speed again after a break. I'm always a slow-getter it seems, though I'm relatively consistent...
A, dissapointing, 35,8 shows that far more pace was possible, but the limit of addhesion was not something the Volvo was willing to balance on yesterday. But 6th on the grid was a good outcome in this stellar competition with the top 10 within a second.
R1: Had a good start and snuck up the inside of the car ahead, can't remember who it was and came out in a net 6th after a fast start for someone around the outside.
Spent most of the rest of the race within contact with the leading quartet behind Anders and ahead of Wilks behind, by a few seconds.
As others fell off the track or had bad luck, I found myself in 3rd position with Juha ahead of me, Anders just in front of him and the Ford of Mendes(?) behind. Had the pace with 5 laps to go to have a go at Juha and had a couple of small stabs but didn't quite have enough in the tank with the heavy Volvo and more or less settled with 3rd place in the opening race.
Q2: Going into the session, I was up to speed and had a 35,5 on the cards if I hadn't made a few mistakes on each attempt, so a 35,7 and 6th again on the grid, a dissapointing 6th...
R2: Had a good start again and looked up the inside of Juha going into Redgate. Was positioned in 3rd coming out of Redgate and ran behind Mendes and Fernández with Juha in hot pursuit. Got held up by the very early braking Ford of Mendes going into McLanes and Juha did a good oportunistic move around the outside to take 3rd away from me. Then going into Melbourne, I tried to follow Juha through but I ended up running a little bit wide and when Mendes touched Juha in the rear, it held him up and I went into the back of him, got sideways and was sent a little bit further sideways by Dave who were right behind me, nothing much any of us could do about the whole situation.
Rejoined from the infield in 7th I believe it was, behind Richard in the Audi. Sat behind him for a couple of laps and felt a lot quicker. Going into Goddards hairpin, I misjudged how the stack-up would be and gave Richard what felt like a slight nudge but it unsettled the Audi on the awkward camber of the turn and he ended up slow-spinning ahead of me. I decided to wait since I was the reason for the spin. Sincere apologies again mate.
Rejoined in 18th or so, obviously again behind Richard. Spent another couple of laps behind him and gave him a couple of "hurry-ups" around the track, especially on the run from the Old Hairpin up towards McLanes, and on that same lap he ended up running wide at Coppice, I was fortunate to just thread the gap before he went sideways when trying to rejoin and collected David who was running behind me.
Spent a few laps trying to catch up to the rest of the gang, caught and passed Perreira and, I seem to remember, Robin in the Peugeot and Ford respectively. Then the charge was on to catch the top 11 runners, I think they were running as a group from 6th to 11th or so.
Caught up to Anders and CO a few laps in. He was able to pass Petr and he then was very curtious to let me by. I sat behind Anders, who then was able to pass Ray when he had a moment trying to pass Rob in the other Nissan.
The battle continued with me giving Ray and his Audi the big hurry-up on several occasions, almost making the pass on him when I got a run out of the Old Hairpin and we ran more, or less, side by side all the way up to Coppice and I then had a chance to go for the move into the Esses, but with a coming together between Rob and Anders ahead, Ray turned in earlier and may not even have seen me going up the inside. But as I felt the move was a bit of a dive, I back off and let Ray retake the position from me and Petr got by as well.
Ray was very quick in the hairpins and got by Petr into Goddards a couple of laps later and promptly let me by on the S/F straight to allow me to try to chase after Ray again and give it a go to take 8th away from him. In the end, I put him under heavy pressure for the final 2 laps, and the pressure showed as he made the tiniest of errors going into the Esses where he broke just a bit too late, ran deep into the left and I was able to just about time the cut-back out of the right of the Esses and powered by up the hill heading towards Melbourne. Broke on the inside and made sure to get the car stopped and parked her on the cerb in the middle of the turn, with a slight nudge to follow and then got a big enough gap to brake properly into Goddards to secure 8th. A very decent comeback drive for a few, probably, valuable points come the end of the championship.
Now we're heading to Brands, a track where the Volvo proved to be a real weapon last time we drove this champinship a few years ago, so I'm trepadatiously hopeful for a similar performance both from myself and the car, to build on a decent start to the championship challange.
Well driven by everyone in this opening round, seemed like an, overall, fair and close fight for everyone during the two races.
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Post by Anders Nilsson on Jan 8, 2024 13:55:12 GMT
Great fun racing looks like its gonna be a close championship . Somehow i got a win in Heat 1 for wich im both surprized and happy with Race 2 was another story tho i felt my strenght was gone, been down and out with covid since xmas day and it showed. Did mistake after mistake and Rob De Vries payed the prize for it. After we had gone side by side for 3 corners i misjudged braking for chicane and hit his rear ending his race so sry for that ! . The only way from here is up cu all next round !
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Post by Ruben Fernandez on Jan 8, 2024 19:39:03 GMT
Well, no points for Vauxhall in the start of the season. I did two great qualis with the Vauxhall touching the pole with my fingers, finally P3 in both. A great start in the first Heat but I knew I did not have the enough race pace to keep the BMW and specially Renault behind me. In lap 5 I did a little mistake entering Starkey's Straight that cost me loss speed so I lost the little gap I had, and in the Melbourne Hairpin I saw in my mirrors a "missile" in blue colors, so I knew that Ricardo was going to be very wide (becareful mate) because I braked later. I could avoid the crash and he touched my front fender but I lost time and speed, and when I was speeding up the corner, Anders appears by surprise (sorry mate I could not see you) and hit me in the front losing time, circumstance that Juha took advantage of and mantained a duel in the finish straight. I could take the inside in the first corner, but Juha hit me a little, exiting the first corner another hit, and down to Craner Curves another hit (Juha loves me ) so I had to make a different line and when I was ahead of him, he gave me a little "kiss" and I ended up on the wall (I knew you did not have room and time to brake, great battle, race cars stuff ) . In the second Heat another good start, I tried the inside to Niklas in the first corner, bur he did a good job closing me the door so I decided an exterior movement to get more speed exiting the corner but I failed a gear (4th instead of 3rd) and I went to gravel. From there the race was over for me so I tried to finish the race, but I did many mistakes and I had two penalties due to lost of concentration. No my ideal start, but the Vauxhall team don't give up so early. Congrats to Anders, Juha and the rest of the podiums and all people who make this Champioship possible. See you next
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