GT3: Anderstorp

Man I am happy to finish 3rd behind two of the fastest boys on race2play.

I made it home in time from work and had an ok race setup and no qualy setup. Qualifying went ok with a 33 flat and I was third on grid.

As soon as I got on grid I knew I would have some computer trouble in this race. Heinz got me off the start and stayed ahead for some time. He spun I grabbed 3rd and saw Kent was only 5 secs away, I pushed hard for about 5 laps but was unable to gain ground on Kent so I decided make sure I got home with a third. Had a few bad moments in the grass due to some 13fps moments, overall very happy to finish 3rd to Tristan and Kent.

Congrats Tristan on a nice win and Kent in a solid 2nd.

One to forget for me.
Didn't qual real well at all, and it wasnt until race start that I realised that some of my setting were wrong with the aids etc.
Was having a great battle throughout with several cars - Barry, Garret and John to name a few, and was running as high as as 11th at one stage.
With 5 mins to go, and my rear tyres almost shot, I managed to get loose on the left handed berm, and eneded up see sawing on top of it. Took me about 30 seconds to rock the car free, and rejoined in 16th.
Thought I had allowed plenty of fuel, but alas ran out with about half a lap to go.
A big thankyou to Petzold Towing services for getting me through the last couple of turns and across the line. Saved me a DNF, so much appreciated.
Congrats to the podium, this was another tough one.

I can empathize with you Chris (re: a forgettable race). After recovering from a self inflicted spin on lap 1, I was upto 19th. I had a great race going with Anthony (I believe) - we traded positions a few times and had some nice door to door racing going (great job Anthony!) but came across lap traffic. He got by, and I didn't. When I committed to the inside the lapped car and I had a coming together and he spun out. So I went to serve a drive through, got the buttons messed up and did a full pit stop. On top of that, I violated the pit-speed limit on my way out and got another drive through. Finally, I finished off my night by spinning on cold tyres and nailing the barriers. Oh well - this race was progress over first race, maybe race #3 will result in finish.

Qual was interesting, I didn't have a particularly good lap my first flyer and almost lost the car surely costing me a few tenths. Then on my second flyer I got so sideways I had to brake to save it so I slowed a lot trying to cool the tires for my third lap. It was not to be tho with the tires pretty hot I basically matched my first lap and parked it. Well done Tristan!

Got a good start and was even with Tristan but he had the inside and I didn't want a repeat of Sepang so I braked very early and fell in behind Tristan. The first 2 laps were very interesting being so close to Tristan I really had to be careful to not drive through my brake points.

After about 3 laps the 2 of us opened a slight gap and I found that I was able to hang pretty well with Tristan, but that was short lived. As we pregressed into the race I found myself driving too deep into the braking areas and losing valuable time and soon Tristan started pulling away.

Only thing that kept it close at all was trafffic but Tristan managed to open up as much as 3 seconds on me at one point and all along we were opening up the gap to 3rd.

No real moments for me besides one slide into the first banked turn but managed to keep it from spinning out and brought the car home with a solid 2nd and still had Tristan in sight! whooohooo!

Well done Tristan on the win and Ryan on a solid third.

Congratulations to the podium.
I thought I got a good start but the guy in front did not and I plowed right into the back of him. I think that was Brian F. Sorry about that Brian.
Several of us were in tow for quite a few laps. I ran off track in turn two just a bit and let a few go by which put me down to 15th I think. Then a few laps later I got a bit squirrely in the tight left hander turn 6 and spun. That let Heinz get by (Who incidentally, I made contact with earlier in turn 4). Sorry to Heinz for the contact in turn 4. You closed the door on me pretty quickly but I was also breaking a bit too late and looking at the replay you had the line. Sorry again.
After that I made up a few positions from attrition and I think I passed someone in the pits too.
I can't wait for the next one, where hopefully I can fix the under steer before the race.

During practice, I could not get a handle on the track. I was barely into the 34's and thought it was going to be a long night.

Just before quali, I felt I had nothing to lose so I made a gearing change which helped. That alone couldn't have been enough to drop my times by 1.5 seconds. I just started to get comfortable with the track. My race time was quicker than quali so it is clear I just didn't know the track well enough.

Race: Rob started on the inside in P5 and I was just a bit further back on the outside in P6. I think he knows I get blazing starts so he slashed in front of me on the outside straight away. My goal was to pass him on the outside in T1. With my path blocked, the yellow GT3 pulled up to fill the void and I was stuck in the middle 3 wide. I didn't realize this till after the replay, but still 3 wide, my left rear hip checked Garret's right front on the entry to T1. I feel terrible this happened, but I had no idea you were there and I was the meat in the sandwich so to speak.

2/3 of the race passed and I had 4th all locked up through smooth driving and no major mistakes. I was very happy in this position considering how much I struggled in practice. I had a few little bobbles here and there and a couple trail braking moments. I was in cruise mode. Eventually I came up on a rookie driver 2 laps down who wasn't heading the blue flags. He must have decided to himself that I wanted to battle for the position. News flash dude... I didn't. He ran very wide on the exit of a turn and I thought, ok, he is wide, he has the blue flag, let me by here and don't impede my progress. After looking at the reply, I can see extreme steering angle to get back on track. This causes a large collision where I get airborne. Luckily, I didn't stall the car and ended up pointing in the right direction. I put the car in gear and take off slotting into 6th between 2 cars. I'm on the inside for the very next turn and then punted in the opposite direction of the turn into the sand. Now I'm something like 18th. Dissapointing!

To put the cherry on top, I catch up to Mr Rookie again and he decides to hit me just past the exit of turn 2. He turns right when I am inside. After watching the replay carefully, I can see he simply drives very eratically and fights for every position. A dangerous combination. I don't know if heading the blue flags are a golden rule, but it should be.

Tom, fantastic battle mid race. You had me sweating bullets.

On the start i plowed into a yellow car sorry but i got past a few people and was up to 16th or so and then my dad came in and messed up my concentration and it was over. Congrads Tristan!!!!!!!!! Sorry mike i did not know who was who i just got confused.

You have to be spot on with a qualy lap in this series. A 10th or 2 makes a huge difference where you start.

I don't particularly care for this track so was just looking for a decent finish. T1, L1, Heinz' car sends me flying off to pit exit. Heinz, not your fault at all. Sucky netcode. I found myself in 22nd and 3 or 4s back. I put my head down and pushed forward. I had some excellent battles along the way and nice fair racing. I worked my way into 7th on the last last when I couldn't avoid a spun Brian as he was straighting it out mid track. I lost 8th to a steady Barry Kennedy.

Blue flags mean nothing at R2P other than to let the car ahead know that a leader is behind. It does not mean ALLOW THE LEADER THRU.

However, with due respect for the faster car I always head the blue flag and allow the faster car thru.

My point is simply that the blue flag rule is waived here at R2P.

Grts Tristan and Kent , nice double for the team.. 8)

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Samuel