Magny-Cours 385k

All us Porsche drivers spent the past weeks in full test mode and we all had competitive cars on race day. I think that showed in practice and qual with Porsche's making a good show of speed. I was content with my qual speeds, nothing special but kept me near the leaders for the start of the race.

When we got to racing I was doing just fine for a few laps. Just cruising and buying some time before I started picking up the pace. I tried hopping the curbing in the final chicane as I saw someone had already knocked out the pylons for me, but as it turned out, they were just invisible to me. I went for a curb-hop and my car came to an abrupt stop. I got rear ended, turned around, and a big chain reaction ensued. I got going again, but that told me to not use those curbs anymore Not long later I did the same thing by accident. Just had a really good turn in and clipped the invis-pylon again. Still no big deal as I hadnt lost all that much time and car was in "OK" shape still.

On my lap 20 I came across the slow moving Chip in the Morgan. Not sure really, it all happened too fast. He was moving slow, and I was at 140mph. I railed him good and we both went off. I was in 4th at the time, and now had a flat left-front and some major damage to the car. The only plus side is that we were right at Pit-In and I wasnt far off my pit window anyway. So I when in (as if I had a choice) and the crew did a fantastic 37sec pit stop including the repairs (beers on me fellas).

The next hour of the race went as planned. I was a bit slower now due to damage I assume, but I was still holding a decent race pace. Worked my way back up to 4th after a 4-way scrap with Hedrick, Adriano, Banta and myself (that was SWEET!) and found myself in 3rd after Fish had some issues.

In the final stages of the race and in 3rd... I couldnt ask for much more. Krueger was in full attacke mode though, making up time on me each lap. Next thing I new he was 5 seconds off my rear bumper. Traffic kept me lapping a bit slower then I wanted and Kru finally caught up to me. We had an enormous battle for 3rd spanning 5-6 laps. I kept a clean line and there wasnt too much he could do to pass me (I hoped). But to do this for another 20 laps wasnt going to be easy.

Kru did slip around me just as we approached lapped traffic (Adriano and Banta) at the same time that Todd was lapping all of us. Todd knows that if Im in a battle, Im not moving over... I figured that the two lapped cars ahead would see there was a leader and two lead GT2 cars in the heat of a bar-fight and would alloow us all to go on our merry way. That is not the way it worked out though... I tangled with Adriano, went airborn into the tires, flipped a few times and then to top it all off got stuck on a pylon with a flat tire. I was furious (I really was Adriano) as I felt Adriano raced us into the turn (first fast chicane... bad place for 2-wide), but now that I look back at it... that's just racing right? I stuck myself into a risky spot... I pay for it here and there... sorry about that Adr!

At that point my race was done. I considered DNFing as I couldnt get off the pylon. finally did and slowly made my way to the pits for new tires and repairs. That lap time? 5+ minutes including wreck and repairs. 7th place in class was all I could muster after that...

Yep Hell race for me too.

First my apologies to Dean, I hit a invisible cone right in front of him and totalled his car when he hit me.

Grats to the guys that kept it clean and finished.

Now for my rant, IF A GT1 CAR IS PASSING A GT2 CAR STAY ON YOUR LINE!

I feel I had a top 3 car today but lost 4 positions (at least) from off due to GT2 cars going off line to let me by when I had already gone off line resulting in off track excursions for me. One Morgan got coned at the last chicane and I clobbered him losing a splitter and suspension damage that cost me a 4 minute pit stop. Managed to come back to 6th place salvaging very little from a very frustrating race.

A podium finish ... Racing you guys it has to be earned, so I'll take it. Disappointed as I feel I threw away second place in the final stretch, but the race is the whole 2:18 and not 2:00 so that's on me.

First couple hours went extremely well ... I avoided the kerbs and had no spins, no contacts ... I checked up behind GT2 cars to make my passes under throttle as opposed to late in the braking zone and minimize surprises ... And came out of my final pit stop with a 30-second lock on second place.

My eyes got big and I forgot I had full fuel and cold tires and wandered off Turn 2, my lead dwindling to 12 seconds by the time I wandered back on. Still OK, though, as I was holding it and even stretching it a tenth or so a lap. Then I caught Tim and Sam battling hard, and we all caught up to Adriano, and by the time I cleared my gap was down to about five seconds. Then I got tapped and turned around on the next turn and watched second place drive away.

Thinking I could push and make it back up, I made more mistakes, including a meeting with the Pylon O' Death (which surprised the hell out of me). One more spin later in the hairpin at the end of the long straight and Enis was right on my bumper for the last podium spot. That was sobering. I refocused and got back to form, and was able to hold him off till the finish.

Boy, those first and second hairpins sure got nasty toward the end of the race.

Nice run guys. Congrats to the winners.

MagnyCourse was once again as difficult as it can be , this track sure ain't on my favorites list and often i found myself struggling here if the setup isn't just right.

Track temps were in the limit of medium or hard rear tires and i went for safe option and took medium front and hard rear , on top of that i went uncharacteristic to a high down-force setup. Turned out to be a big mistake since i had severe braking problems in almost every corner and my straight-line speeds were just pitiful.

No matter how much i tried to adjust the brake-balance , damn tires just kept smoking...from the replay i saw that they aren't even locked up most of the time , just smoking and loosing the grip :? . Ppl went by left and right and on early laps i had my 1st accident , Adriano (i think) hit the pylons in last chicane and as i was closely following him , i bumped into his side-panel while he was spinning. Got some small damage there , but apparently i saved Adriano from a spin there too :D.

Lap later i get the same last turns a bit wrong and D.Fish had a jump on me into the main-straight , side by side we were closing the 1st turn but i felt i was still the 1st of us and turned in , David must had felt the same since he was turning in too with same speed :roll: . I had the short end of the stick since i was on outside and after the high-speed travel over the gravel trap (gravel trap my ass , ice field more like it :lol: ) , i hit the wall with a nice double tap to the front and back .

I was a bit upset after that , but when 2 determined drivers both keep their head :mrgreen: , things like this can happen and I'd say it was a racing accident , both of us could have backed of , but we didn't and that's all there is :).

Amazingly i didn't loose any wings and car was still in ok shape under the twisted outer-skirts , prolly lost some aerospeed , but car was already so slow on straights , that i didn't even noticed it.

Continued the race from 22nd spot , kept on struggling with med-hard tires and i was just so slow that it hurts :lol: . I had one more strange incident on 1st stint , could have been little over halfway , when a car (Esteban i think) came from left !!! , when i was coming into the last hairpin. My F360 got some new body-shapes again :P but the incident itself didn't actually cost me any time , few tenths maybe... so it was only a scary moment actually more than any real damage or slowdown. The other guy had more problems and he spinned after we collided.

After more slow and difficult laps it was finally a time to go into pits and i decided to change to soft-meds. From there on my race was actually going quite good , car was looking like it had gone through a grinder , but it still run surprisingly well with the 'right' compound. High wing was a bit of a problem , but otherwise racing felt good again :) . Had a pretty lonely 2nd stint but after CJ lapped me :shock: , i tried to keep up with him and that kept me honest and up to a good racing speed.

After some hick-ups with lapping a car , CJ dropped behind me and i got back on the lead lap with GT2 class. Thought that i hang in there and move a side if i'm in the way , but car was feeling better and better , so i could keep running about the same pace as CJ. We kept on going like this the rest of the stint before CJ came into pits 2nd time and i continued a few laps with my own.

Took another set of soft-meds and while i was on pit-road i saw Tim zooming by on main straight , gap was about 5 secs and the chase was on. Pushed really hard to catch Tim and managed to reduce the gap about second a lap. Just when i was behind Tim , my tires were on the edge of overheating and it was a good time to slow down a bit and settled behind him.

Tim was doing good solid laps and the pace was just right for me to keep up but not to overheat my tires. It was looking like it's going to be a nice fight to the end and we had some good close fun racing there for a while. Some traffic , both slower and faster , splitted us up momentarily , but soom we were again nose to tail 8) .

BTW , no need for apologies Tim , i don't think you were overaggressive on lappings , i was just too cautious few times and made some bad decisions to move over when we were been lapped :wink: .... i just couldn't feel but sorry for the GT1 cars hanging behind us so long and 'had' to let them through in a wrong place :roll: :D . Our fights were definitely the highlight of the race for me and i enjoyed them a lot , too bad it all ended prematurely :( , could have been a great fight to the end.

After Tim and Adriano had their accident , rest of the race was just keeping it on the track and rarely i have been so pleased with the 3rd place than this time :). After all the action and hard work i was very happy to finish this race and score some points to the team.

Congrats to all brave souls who survived this demanding track , well done all podium guys 8) .

Was fun to substitute Will in F360 but unfortunately car isn't exactly in same condition as it was when i got it :lol: ... sorry Will , but your mechanics are not going to get sleep for a week after this race :mrgreen: , I hope the budget still holds up :lol: .

Cya on track... 8)

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Samuel

Since i had only one day of practice where i ran about 12 laps, and didn't have a single dry lap on the setup i raced, my goal was to just finish, and score some points. i had a terrible qualifying, just never got the car hooked up. in the race i started around 20th but quickly began moving up at others fell by the way side. my race pace was slow, but i was on a one stop, and driving a setup i had no time with, and had soft tires on the front. i managed to keep my nose clean, only making small mistakes that wouldn't harm the car. there was a good scape with about an hour to go between me, Tim, Adriano, & Barry for 4th in class. i just let the other 3 fight it out while i just watched and waited for something to happen. i guess something did happen because i finished 4th in class.

i'll try to be more competative at the next races, but 4th place points for just trying to finish with my slow ass car, i'll take that.