LMPC: Brno 400k

Wow - what a disappointment. First off congrats to the winners, the series champion and all the finishers.

First turn incident lap one - I got a jump on Andy as he exited the last corner onto the S/F line, but but he out-braked me into T1. I was in his blind-spot and I probably should've given up the position. He came down for the apex, and I started to understeer as I was braking. And Bam! we touched. I still haven't figured out how to do a drive through - so I got stuck in the pits for awhile. And that's the story of my race - I never recovered from it.

I had a "moment" later trying to get by Abuzant, I locked the brakes in front of Heinz. Then I cut in front of Heinz (I didn't see him), and then Abuzant spun on the next turn as he was side by side with Heinz again. We probably took a few years off his life.

Finally - I got worse fuel economy in my second stint than my first. I'm not sure why, I even had a few spare laps in my back pocket after pitting late and adding in some spare fuel in case I did my math wrong, but it still wasn't enough.

Two punctures, about par for the course for me in this series, I just find these cars so unpredictable. 36 laps in a row I take a particular corner with no problems, then on lap 37 the rears lose a little grip so I correct and lift a little and I just get a tank slapper into the wall. Being my in-lap it wasn't too costly but a few laps after the stop I did it again, d'oh! I was able to come back to 3rd thanks to Jan's problems, but Barry had a firm grip on 2nd and was too far up the road.
This series was an exercise in concentration, and it taught me that I could use alot of improvement in that department.
Grats to Heinz on the win and Charles on the series victory.
And thanks to Heinz for the great work in helping us get APR's first sport's car championship.
Thanks for putting on the series Charles.

Right, unpleasant words comming up, you've been warned...

I'm done with this buggy piece of shit game. Got screwed over by the shit fuel estimate with was a full 10 laps wrong over the course of the race.

Pitted the 2nd time to add some fuel, game throws another bug and decides to hold me in the pits for over 2 mins due to a "mechanical problem". I never hit a thing all race.

Then, to top it all off, the game decides to fill me up with 2 laps short worth of fuel. Parked it after that, in "protest".

I've had it. The CD has been cracked and thrown out. On to rfactor 100%.

Cool race, cool and frisky cars . Well done mr Hodges. No practice, no setup, and I was getting high hopes for 5th, unfortunately the game estimated wrong the fuel consumption so I had to make another stint .. and spun it on the exit ( forgot to change to 2nd or to lift off after pitlane ... stupid mistake ) . Anyway, one of my favourite tracks provided an excellent race.

LE : Besides occured fuel estimate, I was running with 2.5 cm / 4.5 cm ground clearance, Radiator 5, minimum rpm and wing 25 .. as XD was showing 108% at oil temp, even with this settings. Can anyone clear for me how I was supposed to be running .. or is it normal to heat up like this ?

Congratulations Heinz, Barry, and Darren, and Apex for the team championship!

It was a nailbiter out there. I had little practice due to a cold and with only a 3 pt. lead over M. Mraz, I had to finish no worse than one spot behind him (assuming he finished in the top 6) to secure the driver championship.

Qual: Major control (and concentration) issues had me back in 12th!!! and with Mraz starting 6th, I had my work cut out.

race: By the time I got to the 1st turn, I had made up 3 spots and from there, it was keeping my head down and staying on track. Had a few offs, but nothing serious. My head felt like crap after 2 hours and I just didn't have much energy to 'celebrate'.

Thank you everyone that competed in this mentally and physically demanding series. Congrats Martin M. and Darren for rounding out the championship podium!

Super late entry, never driven or seen Brno before the event. By the end of the race I'd grown to like the track and really threw caution to the wind, ending up with the 5th fastest race time. But that was because I had nothing to lose....

Qualified P7, could have gone quicker but crashed and lost the engine. And my set up was a gear amended Spa LMPC which was a wet set up - so plenty of wing. And I found out that this was going to be a big problem in the race - I was very quick in corners but struggled big time to hold any advantage gained by the time I hit the straight! So off the rolling start, Eduardo Fernandez in P8 got a great tow from me down the straight into T1. I lost him in my mirrors, so left space on the inside of the corner - more than a car width. Seeing the replay, he understeered into the corner and tapped my rear end behind the rear wheel - spun into the gravel. And of course that is a curse with these flat bottomed cars - I lost over 30 seconds on that lap alone. Angry at the time, watching the replay it was a racing incident - so no hard feelings Eduardo.

But I was still learning the track - and T4 in particular was catching me out. I had in total 5 issues in the race there - but the one on Lap 17 eventually ended my race as a competitive one! I went straight into the barrier - lost the front splitter and got a front puncture to boot. The lap back to the pits was over 3 minutes, then the lap after including the stop for repairs (and a full tank with new tyres) was another 3m 13 seconds! But I carried on in the hope that others would have problems. My lappery slowly got quicker - able to lap in the 1m 43's towards the end of the stint.

I pitted on Lap 55, but in the run up I was trying to work out what fuel I needed to put in the car. XD showed a usage of just under 2.4 litres per lap, but I couldn't work it out in my head - and I ended up panicing and short filled the car to the tune of 10 laps worth of fuel! So, having struggled to get by Abuzant (I monstered him in the corners, but on the straights!!!) and spinning in the process, I pitted again on Lap 62 for a fuel only top up. That took me to the end of the race, where I was lapping as fast as Barry Hedrick (he was behind me but never closed until I let him by on the last lap following another mistake by me).

So 4 laps down in the end, but as always had great fun with these cars. Also found a track I really like!! Congrats to Heinz on the win and Charles on the Championship. I only missed one event (Dubai) due to holiday - Monza I got wheel calibration issues sat on the grid and so had to leave. Thoroughly enjoyed it all - for me it's a pity there will be no GTR2 series. P5 for the Phoenix Racing team, P11 for me in my first Championship (50% or more).

Donuts were the order of the day at the end as Heinz and others celebrated - I'll get a picture up for posterity!!

Grats Hodges for championship win!

I have to admit that was fun. Very suprized with my finish especially after boneheading on the formation lap and starting at the back of the grid. After getting some practice last night and with a fuel calc from XD needing 185 ltrs to finish this race I figured that by being conservative I could do this on 1 stop and it worked. It was close but in the first stint I got an extra lap before going in and knew I was set for the race if I just stayed in the 42's :-) IT WORKED. Brought it home in 2nd place of course after some misfortunes of others but I'll take it.

@Jan- XD has never let me down as far as fuel calc's. The in game calc's are way wacked in this mod. Sorry for your woes man.

Had fun today. Thanks

Congrats Heinz for the Win!!

Congrats Charles for the Championship!!!

Grats to all, Charles on the Championship, Darren on a podium for race 200 at R2p and bringing home a Championship with me. Barry on the podium aswell.

My mission today was not to do anything but finish in top 5. We had 1 target and that was the championship.

To bring home the win, with the championship aswell is an honour.

Had not practiced quali pace at all, as i was struggling to get the car to work in race trim with the heat and tyre wear etc. etc. Finally got it sorted 15 mins before quali, so was happy that was finally sorted.
In quali found out how fast i could really go, but Jan was the quicker man and was happy to let him have his race for Critical mach. I was sticking to my race plan.. dont race Jan.

Race started well, and i was working on looking after my tyres and fuel, after working out what we needed to do for a 1 stop before the race. My pace was pretty good, was keeping in touch with jan, who seem'd to be pushing, but i wasn't sure of his strat.

He had a slight spin middle of stint 1, and i closed the gap, and started to hassle him a bit, i was hoping the pressure would get to him. It did eventually and he spun.
Jan was even more determined now, and while i was still sticking to my race, he was murdering his car to get back, and i let him passed when he caught me. Jan came into the pits earlier than what the window for a 1 stop was and knew already he would not make the 2nd stint without another stop. Celebrations put quickly aside, as it looked like Jan had realised this, and with Darren having to fix his car in pitstops, I thought Jan was pushing his car to the limit now to maximise his gap for a 2nd pitstop to come out ahead of darren and to try keep 2nd.

Things started to happen for me aswell, i had some interesting moments with lower order drivers (as eduardo mentioned :P )

I also had a major off after lapping barry, got a wicked double shift snapping the car, and held my breathe as i watched my car apprach the barriers (had visions of dubai), but the kitty did its job and stopped me just in time. A few later i got a small slide, and put it in the wall, got a puncture and had to limp back to pits .. luckily i had a lap on everyone so came out ahead again.

Jans DNF was a surprise ... even more reading the reason.

Happy to end this, end S9 with a win!. Major concentration needed in this series for sure

Well done to all!