Monterey Grand Prix

*Sigh*

I keep comming back for more punishment don't I? P.b. in qualifying put me third on the grid and 10 laps into the race I'm looking steady.

Until I make a tiny tiny mistake exiting 4 and the thing is pitched into the barriers.

Intense racing...Q'd inside the Top 10, but in the early laps, Francesco took advantage of my "downshifting" mistake and tried to overtake me before the corckscrew, missed a little and hit me in the left rear suspension, spun me around and the damage wasn't that bad, but enough to affect the car's handling, lost a lot of time and next laps the car would not respond quite as I wanted... Had lots of battles including with the "Erickson's" which hold me up a little bit in order for one of the brothers to catch me, and almost achieved sucess, maybe next time ;)... Then, lost it twice and into the wall! Plow!!! Then almost to the end, Rob just plowed into the rear of my car in T-1, I believe due to the draft as he was coming hot trying to pass another lapped car... I recall hitting Francesco, not intentional, but had almost no brakes...don't know if it affected your car, but sorry....Well, it was fun even until the end battling with CT's Bob...Almost, almost, needed 1 more lap... :D

See you guys next race...

tough race

i qualified well and was pretty consistent for the first 60 laps and was looking solid in 4th but then had a major accident when i T-boned someone at high speed (6th gear)...don't remember who it was. i tried to avoid it but in the tire smoke i could'nt see he was rolling to the right. atleast it was right by the pits and i could get the car fixed. 125 seconds later i was in 9th and finished there.

Nightmare of a race. Sorry if i got in anyone's way, spun far too many times. Blew my engine because i was beached on a kerb. Must have been last lap as i am surprisingly credited with 10th. Glad this race is out the way...

Grats To George, Steve and Kris

Qualy went terrible, I had more in it but ran out of time.

Race, took the green and set a comfortable pace but knew something was wrong from the drop of the flags, during practice I was able to go flat out thru turn 6 in 6th, This was not the case in the race, opposite lock big time,white knuckle every lap. I managed to pull out a 38 second lead on 3rd place up until lap 55 and then the confusion to break the ol concentration took place, b/w 3-4 I was allowed a pass which caught me off guard, then b/w 4-5 I received another pass which caught me off guard, then the biggie, one driver was half on the track and half off b/w 5-6 which made me change my line to avoid the situation which placed me off line for...T6, got the opposite lock going and couldn't save it, head for repairs and bring home a 4th.

Thanks to all the slower cars for the great sportsmanship showed to let the faster cars thru.

Cheers,
Cya in Japan

Grats to the podium.

Qual was, well, let's just say i couldn't find any free space even on the outlap. Never got a good lap in.

As for the race...

Not sure what went wrong in this one, but it just seemed like there was far less grip in the race than in practice. I had left the server and rejoined and i suspect my 2nd connection wasn't the best. Going into Qual I noticed pings were all a bit higher than usual, and in the race several cars warped when they were around me, and the old "rFactor error" bit me several times. As Ralph said recently, you take a corner exactly as you've taken it 15 times previously in the same race, but this time the rear end decides to come around on you. This happened more than once in places i'd had no trouble at all in my 3 full fuel stints (online) with the same setup.

Lost all confidence in the car when that happened.

Omar, sorry for the touch we had goin into T5 in the first stint, i had no idea you were there. And when we exited the pit with you just behind me, i wasn't sure about the running order. It took me a while to realize that you were actually several places ahead of me. Sorry for that too.

i noticed lag too. it wasnt bad but pings were averaging about 175 for me, and for about a lap i was behind morisette with about 1000 ping. that was pretty shaky.

Bah. Car was never comfy. It was too loose all race long. Barrett, I second your observation that the track was "less grippy" in the race. I did not have the loose feeling at all in practice earlier, but come race time, the car just did not feel hooked up at all.

To Mike E., at one point near turn 6 you were kind enough to allow me to pass. I have to apologize as I think I may have squeezed you a tad bit after I got in front of you. I had a brain lapse and forgot where we were on track, and braked for turn 6 which I sholdnt have. Hopefully I didnt catch you off guard too badly.

No problem Barrett, that's racing, I actually enjoyed the battles with you and your brother... There was some good action today and I enjoyed it! ;)

See you in Japan!

SAYONARA!

Sorry for the Tap in T1 Omar, still getting used to the sudden lack of front downforce when one runs close to another car.

Also sorry to Francesco for the same tap in T1, slowly learning these cars, but all my fault.

It was a fun event, some wild action by some lapped cars, but survived most of it and tried to stay out of the way for those lapping me.

See you all next event I hope.

Cheers, and congrats to podium.