Fabcar: Mid Ohio

Congrats to Tristan, Conor, and Kieron,
Race went well. Made it through 2 stints clean. On the third my tires heated and had to take final turn of the last lap slow, in turn I was unable to control the rear of the car as I was bumped off for position :( Better luck next time.

Congrats to podium and finishers!

Was having a pretty good race, using Tristan's setup. Obviously not the same as his real setup cause he would blow my doors off in the straights, but it was stable and easy to drive and beggers can't be choosers.

Unfortunately I had no time to do any practice pit stops and I discovered the hard way that the pit entry line was about 1 car length from the side of the track!! Seems like a pretty dangerous design IMHO as folks will have to slow down a lot on the racing line in order to get down to pit limit speed.

Anyway, after my normal pit stop, I got a stop and go for speeding in pit lane. So I come in immediately and served it. Then I get a warning that says I must serve my stop and go?? WTF, I just did??? So I come in again and nothing, they do nothing, no penalty count down nothing. At this point the race was no longer any fun, it was just frustrating -- being stuck in an endless must serve my stop and go loop.

Really enjoy the track, too bad the pit entrance is seriously jacked up. Hate to see two or three cars going into the pits at the same time, it would create a pretty nasty traffic jam on the racing line.

Rob, for the record, the setup I used in the race was identical to the setup I sent your way (and to everyone else). Did you change the boost settings at all?

I was so ready for this race trying to make up for missing the last 2 events of S6.

I was running a good pace (for me) and was very relaxed. After the first round of pit stops, I had worked my way up to 6th. Then around lap 28 (give or take), J. Chen had a little off and I went around him for 5th. I was just cruizin' along when I noticed Jerry was picking up about .5 a lap on me and I thought to myself, I just need another .1 in a few turns a lap and I'll be in good shape until the next round of pit stops. Well, my right foot seemingly had a different strategy and decided to stomp the throttle on exit of T1 to make up ALL the time needed until next stop, losing my rear grip and around she came....SLAM! I once again murdered my car. It wasn't pre-meditated, so I think the judge will lighten up on me a bit. ;-/

All in all, it was a good race with a great field of drivers. Tristan, you're an animal!

Grats to Tristan on a great run and to Conor and Kieron filling out the podium.

Also a shout to CanAm teammate D.Morrisette for once again carrying the CanAm banner to a 6th place finish. Great job Big D!

Cya next round!

I wasn't able to get as good a hold over the track as I'd have liked in practice and loosened up the qualifying setup too much and only managed to qualify the Pennzoil Pontiac in 16th. But the track's humps and bumps caught out a lot of cars early on and that helped in moving up the order. Pitstop entry was like playing pin the tail on the donkey but I took it easy in and was able to avoid the grass. Thanks to Jerry, Barry, etc. for racing clean. Would've been nice if I got some more room on the last lap as I clearly had a run on the outside but whatever. Congrats to Tristian on his fine win and for his willing to help out his fellow competitors, and good job Conor and Kieron.

P.S.: Rob, maybe Tristian was getting better exits out of the corners and that's why he was faster than you on the straights.

Congratulations, Tristan, Conor and Kieron!!!

I had a lot of fun even at the back of the pack...Started 14th, but I spun 3 times and put myself all the way back to 22....Regained positions as I had good speed for a Top 10, but after my first pitstop I miscalculated the pit entrance and had a "Drive-Through"...Good battle I had first with George Pole and then Sean Yoder, both of them very clean, and both of them hard to pass....Nevertheless it was a lot of fun...!

Boost?? Oh boy, did I miss something?

I guess I better do my homework next time -- including pit entry and how to deal with a "stop and go".

Sandeep,

Perhaps, but I think I just need to figure out what this "boost" setting is all about. He wasn't the only one blowing my doors off down the straights. Even the folks I got a better exit, I would tuck in behind them expecting to get a good draft down the straight and nothing, they'd just pull away from me.

Ouch, reading Paul's post race pours salt on my wounds because not only did I throw away 5th, could have put some pressure on Paul for 4th if his tires were gone. hehe

It started out so good, ended so ugly. :)

Qual was fantastic, got clear track, turned in a personal best on qual trim.

Followed Barry and Alex around for a few laps until Alex went into turn 2 too hot, and me and Barry had to take evasive maneuvers, allowing Paul a free shot by, and he made the most of it. Spent what felt like an enternity battling Alex, Rob, and Barry. When it was all said and done, came out 5th and saw the splits were 10+ secs to Paul. Damn.

Tried like hell to work it down, only to find Sandeep crawling up my tail pipe during the whole 2nd stint. He had the speed in sector 1, especially out of turn 2. But looks like I had more wing and better suspension setup, because I would pull away in sector 2 through the twisties, and especially coming out of that uphill right hander under the pepsi bridge. We had a great battle, near the end of the stint, he got a good run and snuck by me at the end of the long straight. But I stayed with him, we were side by side couple times through sector 2 and 3. (Probably not too smart by me in hindsight, I tried to pass him coming up over the hill at the Pepsi bridge once, almost launched the car into the grandstand. hehe) Nice job Sandeep, that was fun.

Sandeep pitted first, I had clear track in front of me, and just like at Montreal, put the hammer down and made up the few seconds. Came out of pits with a 3 second lead on Sandeep, and reclaimed 5th back from him. Gave it a shot to try and reel Paul back in, thought maybe I'd get lucky and he'd get caught in some lap traffic. But the gap didn't change much, I knocked a couple seconds off but it was still too large. With 5 minutes left, I decided to ease off. And as usual, that's when bad sh!t happens. :) Started getting sloppy because there was no one pushing me, so concentration wasn't totally there. Just cruising, and coming into that same uphill right turn into the Pepsi bridge, just breathed the left rear on the outside curbing, spun the bastard around and killed the engine, taking off the splitter.

Had to pit for repairs, and had some not so nice words for myself. :) Anyway, great racing by all, this track was great fun to drive.

Rob, to serve a stop and go, you have to make sure you change your pit board. Instead of the regular fuel/tires, I think there's a choice in the pit menu you have to select to serve stop and go. You're not allowed to work on the car when you serve a stop and go.

Oh, and Tristan, you're a witch. :) I drove your setup from last season while practicing last night, and couldn't get the damn thing to stop oversteering on corner exit. Don't know how you do it. :)

Yep Rob, there's a boost setting, but if you didn't fiddle with it, you should have been at about the same straightline speed as I or therabouts...

Anyway, race report!

I knocked three tenths (could have been 6 tenths if I were less aggressive in braking) off of my PB in qual, and knew I had good pace. On lap 5, I pulled an 'everyone else here' and spun going into the right-hand Pepsi bridge corner, due to putting the left-rear up on that curb, and promtply stomping the gas and turning in simultaneously. Fortunately my little honeybunch kept her ass away from the wall, and I got going again after Kieron and Conor flew past. I caught back up with them some laps later, right after Conor found a way past Kieron. Both Kieron and Conor were driving very clean and consistent lines. I hope they both noticed that their respective paces were faster than one lone Ukrainian we may all remember from last season...

I booked around as fast as I could, and sliced through traffic without making contacts. Tom Middleton gave me a big 'ol pucker when he slowed before the penultimate corner to let me by. I missed him by inches!! Guys, yes, it is a very curteous thing to want to make it easy for faster people by, but please bear in mind, it is always, always better to just keep your pace and your line... Slowing down and trying to pull out of the way only increases the closing speed of the two drivers, so if contact is made by accident, it won't be a tiny dent!!

Well, it was my first official FABCAR race so I am quite happy with a 2nd place result. I knew that it was going to be the best I could do with Tristan in the field but that didn't hurt the fun factor :).

In the opening laps, Tristan zoomed away while I battled with Kieron. It was some close racing, something I had plenty of from the night before, so I kept calm and followed him around waiting for the right opportunity. Before that came, Tristan spun out in the Turn 7-8 complex but I knew he would come screaming back up to us so I didn't think much of it. A few laps after that, I got a run on Kieron coming out of T2 and was able to get him going into T3. That happened right before Tristan got up to me so I was able to keep first while he dealt with Kieron for a bit. My tenure as the leader ended a couple laps later when Tristan caught up to me in T9 and passed me on the outside. I had no choice but to give it up since we probably would have tangled had I stuck it out. We came out clean and I resumed the battle with Kieron. For most of the first stint, I had a marginally faster pace than him and built up a good lead, but lost it all when I half-spun coming over the hill in T4. I fought my way back to him but he pitted before I got a chance to pass. Didn't matter much since I pitted a lap later.

Came out in front of Kieron since I took on less fuel and little by little, I began to pull away. It was my cleanest stint since I had no spins or offs but it proved to be tricky with all the traffic. Fortunately, all the lapped cars were courteous and predictable and made life easier for both parties :).

Final stint came and I fortunately came out in front of a big wad of lapped cars which Kieron was in the middle of. I used this to my advantage and began setting my fastest laps including some 1.16s, which was the norm for Tristan but news to me :P. I built up close to a 25 second lead towards the middle of that stint but I lost half of it spinning out due to that god damn hill in T4. I straightened it out and luckily, I was in the clear of lapped traffic so I easily settled back into my groove and pulled a bigger distance from Kieron as he continued to fight with traffic and crossed the finish line with a comfortable lead.

Not a bad race at all. Would have liked to be more consistent without the spins but I am sure that problem will be fixed as I continue to run these cars. I also need to work on my fuel strategy since I barely had a clue what I was doing today and mostly winged it. Other than that, it was a fun and successful race.

Congrats to the Tristan on the dominating win, and thanks to Kieron for a fun opening laps and to everyone else for the clean racing.

Cya next time :)