Brno 385k

What can I say or do

Qual was decent for me with 2nd on the grid behind my team mate Krue...wtg Krue.

Race started and I basically just followed Krue until late in teh stint my tires were getting pretty bad and I was losing ground to Krue but I had a nice 13 second lead over 3rd place. Then Krue pitted, like 6 laps before I was scheduled, this made me nervouse because I was struggling to lap in the 59's and with him with new tires I new he would crush me for the next 6 laps. Somehow I came out of my pit with the lead granted it was only 4 seconds.

I figured I have new tires so lets see what kinda gap I can build on Krue. I layed down 3/4 of a nice lap when my dash lit up and crew chief said I was overheating OMG. 109c and I am only 3 laps into my stint. Futhermore I don't even think you can adjust radiator in a pit stop. So I begin short shifting A LOT in a worthless attempt to cool it down. Then the crew stopped warning me and I thought it might be cooling nope now it is at 112c 2 laps later it gave up

Pretty sad, leading the race, running a nice consistant pace with my team mate behind but not threatening and the nearest guy to him is 15 seconds back and KABOOM! I never considered the temps climbing 17c during the course of the race so it is my mistake in the end.

Grats to Krueger and CJ on the wins

What a race , couldn't believe i got the pole first of all , temps were so low in qualifying that i choose soft tires all around. I was expecting them to last 1 hot-lap , maybe 2 , but did my fastest time in 3rd or 4th hot-lap while rear tires where at 130C+ :o . Still had the feeling that there could have been room for some improvement , but this time it was enough for a pole.

In the race i had chosen medium tires all around , but all my testing the night before were on hot track with med-hard compound , so the setup was kind of an lucky guess.

Everything seemed to work ok thou and by the looks of it , we pulled away from the rest of the pack with Kent and that was a bit of a surprise. I was expecting the Ferrari train to run over our Vipers , but conditions were on our side this time and both Vipers seemed to run fine in this weather.

It was good fun to race with Kent and all was looking great at that point , managed to pull a small gap in last laps before my pit-stops , but lap before i was coming in , i had a small brain fart in last turns and that resulted a fraction too late braking combined with some under-steer from the marbles , brushed the wall and while i was recovering i decided to come into pits asap. Didn't even come back to the track , but turned straight into pit-lane and did my stop 1 lap earlier than planned.

Late call cost me a few seconds more in waiting time , but i thought it's better to cool down into pits than going out for only one lap with possibly damaged car and slippery tires. Got back on track in 5th place , but after other had their pit-stops , i was in 2nd place and Kent had overtook me in the pits , but there wasn't a big gap between us.

Tried to push from the start and i was happy to see my tires were up to temp after only 2 laps , didn't think of it further before i saw Kents car starting to pouring smoke all over the place. Checked out the temps and my oil temps were running ar 102C :shock: , this heatwave must have hit suddenly , since just before pits everything was just fine.

Started to short-shift a bit and used the 6th gear more than usual and temps seem to settled down in between 98C-102C , Kents car in the other-hand was looking really bad and i figured out that he must have been on radiator setting 2.

Finally Kents engine gave up and i got the 1st place , really a sad way to get the lead , since we were doing a great race and our pace was pretty equal... so sorry for you mate... :( . Race anyway continued and with easy driving those medium rears seem to hold up just fine , even thou temps were up to 107C at worst. At some point i noticed that someone is coming fast behind , eating away the time about 1 second per lap , but suddenly the gap went up again and i could drop my pace to tire/engine saving mode. Times were still pretty ok and what was most important , times were consistent :) , i was really pleased the way my car worked this time... this Viper is a weird car , sometimes it just works like a dream , but mostly it's a pain in the a$$ :lol: .

Rest of the race was pretty much controlling the engine/tyre temps and before the 'red flag' i had build up a comfortable gap. Was a bit shorter race than expected , but a fine race anyway :) , pleased to take a win here in the 'main' league , i think it's my 1st GT class win here :D.

Very sorry to see my team mate retiring after a great solid run , also heart braking was to see another disconnect from Tim :( , unbelievable...

Congratulations to CJ for another impressive win in GT2 class , nice run from Will too to secure that 2nd position in GT2. Grats to other podium finishers too , it was a pleasure to race with you again.. thx mates.

Cya in track... ;)

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Samuel