Donington Masters

Sorry I quit, my concentration and the fun factor had been shattered.

After the start and a few changes of position I was left behind Matjaz. I could barely follow his car as it kept lagging by a few meters back and forward. Hugely distracting.

I made a mistake and dropped back a little. With a clear track my lap times improved and I was soon back on his tail.

Last bend I was punted off, then the driver pushed through me to carry on. I was furious.

I recovered and ended up between Darren and Pablo. Coming into the chicane Darren was early on the brakes so I had to be too. Suddenly bang and that was me spinnig again.

In all fairness to Pablo he was good enough to give back the position.

After being taken out twice in 1 lap my concentration was gone and I was no longer interested.My driving suffered.

I caught and after a few laps of following I manged to pass Darren but he then jumped me in the pits.

I followed lap after lap but could not get through.

Once I finally managed to get ahead of Darren I soon made a mistake and went off on the grass.

Afraid that was enough for me. Just too fed up to carry on.

I don't know what it is with me and R2P. Everytime I race here I just seem to get caught up in accident after accident and it ruins any enjoyment for me.

I got an excellent lap in qual, including a great run through the chicane. I wasn't so confident about fighting for pole but there it was.

My start was mediocre but Kent's one was even slower so I was able to keep the lead. In the chicane Claus slotted behind me and we pulled away from the rest. For a long time he was tailing me but never got close enough to attack, and also I had the stronger engine just in case. Slowly I built up a two-second-gap and in the last laps before my stop I lost a bit confidence. Little mistakes here and there allowed Claus back on my tail.

My stop was great, I got back out with over 10 seconds to Claus. Samuel (teammate of Claus, coincidence I'm sure ;-) ) was ahead of me without having made his stop. A bit of gamesmanship ensued but eventually I got ahead under braking for the chicane. No problem there anyway as it was a battle for position.

It was an exciting race, during the first half I was pushing just about at maximum.

Hard race with alot of very fast guys out there, spent most of my time either on my own or defending against drivers who had caught me up. Good driving from all for the most part and just one incident at the end where I was given back the position anyway, thank you for that Mario.
I don't know what it is with the Saleen but I just don't get on with it atall, so I'm quite pleased that I kept it on track all the way through and enjoyed the battles I had along the way.
Grats to Ari, Claus and Kent.

I punted you Brian the first time. I watched the replay again and I happened exactly as in Pablo's case. Actually he was a little more aggressive than me. Last 3 laps before I punted you, you were always locking and taking the wide line. I entered the turn normally and when I saw you skidding I pushed the brake a little more, I hoped you would go through, I think an inch more and we'd race happy. Sorry about that :(
I run out of fuel half a lap to the end after a great battle with Pablo, Heinz and Matjaz.
I think it was the most demanding race I've been in.

I can't agree with that Cristi.

I did lock a bit but entered the corner with good pace remembering how slow that bend is.

Your line is completely wrong and you are aiming directly outwards from the apex and unlikely to make the corner.

You have come from very deep, too far behind to pass and it's a T-bone.

Why no position back or voluntary stop and go?

Edit. After watching replay again. My line was almost identical for the 3-4 laps beforehand.

Braking hard, a little inside left lock up and then turning in late power out early.

There was no difference in the lap you hit me.

As my original thoughts. You were right on the kerb on entry to the corner, far too early. You have then went straight into my side punting me off.

If you did not hit me chances are you would have either run off or very very wide.

Another great Donnington event!

As I am sure you all read in prerace chat, I did not want to race today, I am just way to busy with a home remodel to take teh time out of a Saturday, but alas, after discussion with teammates I raced.

Just missed pole, maybe a little better tire management and I could have had it but wasn't meant to be, well done Ari.

My start was crap just spinning tires even though I was feathering the throttle so Ari got away cleanly. As soon as we hit Old Hairpin I was pushing really badly and already started thinking I made the wrong tire choice. At Coppice I was really wide almost driving into the sand and just flashed Claus by knowing I was in trouble already.

Heinz came up and pressured me for quite a while until I finally figured out where to brake with no front grip, temps were only in the 70c range. Once I pulled away from Heinz and found some rhythm I actually started closing the gaps ahead to both Ari and Claus and then pitted.

Was tempted to not take tires and ended up changing them but went to soft fronts. Exited the pits about 4 seconds behind CJ. Got the tires up to temp and started running some great laps with a good feel to the car. Matjas opted for no tires and soon Claus caught and passed him. As I got closer I made a mistake at Old Hairpin and just managed to keep it off the wall with a long slide through the grass.

Back at it and soon saw CJ made a mistake at Fogerty allowing Matjas back by. Only took a lap or two and CJ and I were together as we both passed Matjaz who graciously gave us the positions.

After that it was just push push push to try and stay with Claus, in the end it was a fruitless endevour as Claus began to pull out as my tires wore out. In teh end, Ari was just too strong today and my driving just isn't up to par with the lack of racing I have been doing.

Again well done Ari, Grats to Claus on the championship and to Krue for helping with points when we needed it.

Dont know if I will make Mid Ohio we will see.

It took you a while to recover and at that moment I didn't consider a DT was necessary as I thought you just closed the inside. Different drivers have different lines there, I always tried hugging the inside cause the outside is ungrippy.
I know it's my fault and I would gladly change what happened but I can't. This things unfortunately happen when you are in the heat of battle in GTR2 where the collision is not the best part of the sim.
I gladly will serve a penalty from the stewards.
Sorry again, hope you won't hold the furry too long.
Cristi.

Cristi, I know it was just an accident.

Nobody sets out to take anyone out, but as you probably know it's not nice and it does upset you.

I tried a few races at R2P and was already more than unhappy with the amount of incidents that take place.

There is loads of very fast drivers here and it seems everyone wants to try and keep up at all costs.

There is no friendly atmosphere and it's win at all costs or that is how it reads to me as a person who rarely visits R2P.

In the short amount of times I've raced here I find myself at the centre of crash after crash. I've had to listen to the most unfriendly comments I've came across in sim racing.

The only races I've enjoyed usually revolve around my own teammates.

I just can't find any enjoyment here.

It's good to race and pitch youself against the best drivers. Unfortunately I've barely had a race where I've been able to race to my standards.

I'm never going to catch the best drivers but I can usually do ok.

I've never had any issues finishing further down the field when I know I've lost to better drivers fair and square.

I really enjoy sim racing but have always said that when the fun has gone I would quit.

No more R2P for me

Oh dear... Some kind of sudden brain fade when i went to choose the Lister LOL. Before i knew , we were in qualifying and there were a room full of fast cars :p.

Hoped for some rain or other unusual weather but it was perfect for fast laps and everyone just disappeared in to the distance.

Had a long 1st stint and on some point Ari was closing in after his pitstop and i thought that maybe i can slow him down a bit and see where CJ is. After some defending it was clear that CJ was too far away to realistically keep Ari at bay so long , so i let the inside free when we approached the chicane.

Bit of a nudge there while going into chicane , dunno really which one did what but anyway it wasn't anything major...slightly irritating at the time i have to admit LOL , but i guess so was sitting behind me so no biggies :D.

Ah yeah , about the strategy Ari... It wasn't that complicated plan that i would have chosen that car and strategy just for slowing someone down :D , but when the chance was there ,it was worth to check it out. But i hope it was fair enough , didn't hold you very long and you were taking it pretty easy too. Gave you plenty of room when you lapped me later ;) :D .

Well.. Opted for fuel only strategy , but the few laps before going in and some problems in the pit cost me a lot of time. On 1st stint my times were slow but consistent , but after taking some more fuel ,the lap times went pretty inconsistent and even slower than before. Tires held up somehow but it wasn't worth it anyway ,pace dropped too much and overall pace was just too slow.

Rather sad event for me but at least got it home in one piece ,but anyway team did a nice job and scored a double podium finish , Ari did a good run and took the win but a solid run from both CJ and Kent was a great result.

Ah well , cya in finale :).

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Samuel

A very demanding race for me after signing up very late and not doing enough testing + I was driving quite sick and with a fewer. Almost decided to park it half way through, but I just love this cars so much and it's been so long since I drove them, I just couldn't quit, so I continued till the end.

My qual run lasted for only 2 laps and then my engine started to overheat. After one fast lap I decided it was good enough and parked it to save some strengths for the race.

My start was a bit hectic since I had to avoid the car in front of me who was very late off the line. Still everything ran smooth from then on and after a couple of laps I settled behind Heinz. He was sideways a couple of times and I managed to sneek up behind him until he eventually ran wide and gave me the spot.

I kept my advantage until my pit stop where I decided not to change tyres but looks like it was a mistake, since I lost a lot more time driving with very worn front tyres for the closing laps of the race. I was more or less a sitting duck for the guys with fresher tyres so I didn't cause to much troubles to them except to Heinz who brought along Christi and Pablo.

They were on my tail and I did some defensive driving, shutting the inner line going into the chicane but than ran a bit wide and had to cut the chicane. Decided to give the spot to Heinz so I blipped my lights to him and he went inside approaching Melbourne (see screenshot) and Cristi was trying to pass me on the outside as well. Great racing and we survived that three wide situation but it was just a matter of time before I was passed by Cristi and Pablo as well. I continued in 7th and got my tyre warning 3 laps before the finish so I just nursed it back home and saw Cristi slowing down as he ran out of fuel on the last lap giving me 6th place.

It was very tough to keep my concentration in the last couple of laps, my vision started to go away and I was really driving with my last atoms of strength. Still it was worth it... a great exciting race and a big congrats to Ari for wining it.