Virginia Shootout

My first shootout... didn't go too well :-/
I thought this was an nGTx week so I just had to throw a TM setup on the car and try and get used to the thing in the 40 or so laps of practice I got before qual. I seemed to be getting along really nicely, qualified 3rd and felt fairly comfortable. The start was a disaster, Dan got a terrible launch from the green flag which bunched me up behind him, then he locked his brakes into T1, bounced off Tom on the outside and I couldn't do anything but run into his left rear wheel, spinning him out, causing the mayhem you see in Jon's pictures. Don't think there's much I could have done about it but I still want to apologise to all those involved :-(
Anyway, I pretty much hung onto Tom's coat-tails for the next 20 laps waiting for him to get bogged down in traffic. Then Tim's setup started overheating on me!!! So I had to take it really easy on the revs which was really messing up my rythmn, but I was still able to stay with Tom. Then on lap 41 my rythmn went to crap completely as I tried to cool the temps and I spun it in 3/4. Tried to roll the thing up the track but didn't see a car coming on my outside and got drilled. There was smoke everywhere but I figured I could quickly spin around, but instead of spinning the car just lurched forward and I got drilled again by Lilley (really sorry, I should have waited). The car was too badly damaged so I had to escape. Threw that one away!
Grats to Tom, sorry to anyone who got caught in the wake of my wrecks... cya.

Qualified 14th. Finished 4th. 5th in the standings overall.

Happy with that for now!

Managed to avoid pretty much all of the opening incidents, got rubbed a couple of times by guys pushing through, including a divebomb from Allen Cotton unfortunately we made contact and I slid up the track.

Got a run on him the next time round and I think he was tapped and in turn hit me sending me off up the track again! I recovered better and took the position. After that had a battle with Laurent Evenisse for a few laps before squeezing through.

After that I tried to settle down a little and work on looking after my tyres. I was mindful of the last event when I did the same after a similar start and was caught out in the end by a hard charging Pete Bunce. More on that later.

Caught and chased Dmity for a couple of laps, I think he'd had a spin or made contact with someone because he was unusually slow. To be honest I couldn't care less what it was as I slid through! I quickly put a comfort gap of a couple of lapped cars between us.

Race stayed pretty static after that for a while until I had a massive scare when I came across a spun James Benoit, I managed to avoid him but it allowed Dmitry a sniff at me. At this point the mysterious overheating problem that Scott mentioned kicked in... I had to back off a bit and try to keep Dmitry behind me ever mindful of the engine blowing.

Not long after this I went a lap down to both Scott and Tom, I was somehow sitting in 3rd by this point. Two laps after that Scott was out and I was in second. I think the message that Scott had dropped out woke up Pete and Dmitry as they soon closed on me. Pete was going far too fast for me to sensibly hold him up, I decided to let him go (although not too easily) in the hope he would have some misfortune later. (He didn't... bugger!)

Dmitry at this point was right on my tail, for the last dozen laps we fought quite hard. He made a great move and got through. I think my noobness to this sim racing malarky meant that I pushed too hard trying to chase him and made some silly mistakes. Twice I had a run on him and had I not been so overzealous in the following turns I would have had him.

Close finish and reasonably good racing all round. Apologies to anyone I may have squeezed or rubbed. It wasn't intentional!

was trying not to spin the tires on the start. had preheated the brakes a bit before the flag flew but got pinched down by tom[very good move on his part] car would not slow enuf and left front was locked up. made contact with tom slightly but slowed me enuf just as i was getting on the gas scott hit me and i spun. lost the left front tire had to pit. came out in 17th and drove my way to 8th place finish. was fun but getting punted on first lap first turn was a bit aggravating.appology accepted scott. was just a bad start on my part.

Had a great car last night and a great race.Was really feeling the pressure of Scott most of the race and was working lap traffic hard to try and separate myself.But Scott would just follow me by the lap cars.To bad he had a spin because it was going to the end iam sure!.FUN STUFF!!
A Big thank you to my good friends Dan and Mike for giving me such a awsome car to drive!!!Man can you guys make fast and stable sets!!Also want to say Sorry to Dan for the start of the race.I could not see you out my left side as we went into 1 and I came down just a littel to soon.Should have given more room on 1st turn 1st lap...Sorry(real nice of me to take out the guy that hooked me up with such a great set)
Had alot of fun TY all for racing hard and clean!