Grand Prix of Spain

Not my cup of tea F1 but I survived. Everything happens too fast for my reactions. Front left tyre turned yellow on lap 20. Couldn't change it when pitting so I couldn't risk another useless stop. Last two laps was like skating on ice.

Grats winner, runnerups as well as rest of us common people.

Woo! Another F1 race, another blast. 100% concentration required for the whole race. Spent the bulk of the race battling with Mitch. Led Mitch around until the stop. He stopped one lap after me, beat me out by a hair. So I followed him around for a long time, never more than 2 secs apart. Got a mean cramp in the bottom of my foot around lap 45, and lost 3 seconds. Then the tyres started to melt. Down to 1 red block with about 10 laps left, locked it up two corners in a row, and Finn got by.

Now I'm gonna go lie down.

Anybody else see the lights "malfunction" at the start? I figure that's why so many got a poor start. They just didn't appear to turn on. Took me half a sec to realize the race was underway from the sound effects.

The only other thing I remember from the race, is a tremendous battle with Steve, pretty much the whole race! I could just about keep him within 1-2 seconds before the pit stops. I managed to stay out 1 lap longer than him, but I think I misjudged the pit exit location a little bit, and he gained a second on me when I pitted. After that I was able to reel him in and get right on his gearbox. But it didn't do me a lot of good, because I was getting a crappy exit off the last couple slow corners. So I couldn't get close enough for a draft. Finally got one about 10 laps from the end and pulled about even with Steve, but then I missed my braking point a little bit, and ran Steve off the road, so I let him by in the next corner. I managed to stay close until my tires started to go off in a big way about 2 laps from the end. Congrats to the podium!

Wow. That was fantastic! These friggin' cars are awesome. Lights seemed ok to me. I saw all red lights in succession, but just didn't see the green? At least I heard the horn! Haha.
Settled in to 4th spot right off, and just stuck with the leaders for most of the first stint. Figured I probably had more fuel than them so I only needed to not let them get away and wait for the inevitable mistake. :) Then Jeff slipped up, giving me 3rd. Right on cue too! Shortly after that, both Tim and Allen pitted. Holy smokes I have the lead again! Way earlier than I expected. But I'll take it. Turned up the boost, and tried to get as much a gap as I could before my stop.

Came back out in 3rd after another blindingly fast pit by my rockin' team! I think they need a raise. Then pretty much just spent the whole stint trying to knock seconds off the car ahead. Was slowly making some ground, when all of a sudden...I'm in the lead again! Wow. This early? hehe. My strategy is working almost TOO good!

By the time I needed to make my last stop, I had pulled a 26 secs gap on 2nd. Things were shaping up quite nicely. Dove in to pits, and emerged with still a 6 sec gap left to Steve in 2nd. Perfect. Or so I thought! Was able to actually increase the gap slowly for a while too.....But then the name of the car behind changed. Oh no. Yup. Now it said Tim McArthur! hehe.

Took him about 10-12 laps to get close enough to start harrassing me, all the while I had the boost up and was pushing like crazy. My tires were a little too worn I guess. They still felt like they had enough grip, I just wasn't pulling the lap-times I needed. Looks like it just wasn't in the cards again. On the second last lap, he went to outbrake me into that nasty tight left-hander, and I spun myself. Damn it! What did I have to go and do that for?

Gathered 'er back up and chased him to the checker. Finished only 1.5 secs back and led for a great deal of the race, so all in all, a pretty good day! I must say that I'm happy to finish, nevermind well!

Great win Tim. You came from a long way back. :)

One of those days ...

In testing my qualifying strategy was good for automatic 1:19s, but come race day I was unable to get in a clean lap and had to settle for a 1:22, 10th on the grid.

By Lap 4 I had worked my way up to sixth and was tailing Steve Smith into the final corner, preparing to use the draft against him on the straight like I had the two guys before ... when I get shunted from behind into the gravel by one.

So there I am: One minute anticipating fifth place with the four leaders still visible ahead, and the next minute back in 11th place with a damaged car and the rest of the field long gone.

Worked back up to sixth place by the end. Yay.

Congrats to Tim on the win.

As the story goes, its not what you do during practice its what you do on race day.
I turned by best lap in this mod and good enough for P1 in practice, Whoopie do da!
Qualy stars and its not good, I loop it coming onto the front stretch, tag the wall, limp around for another car, At this time i really should have altered my set-up but didn't, So the best i could do is 8th...sheez!@
I made many mistakes this race but I nailed the tree, I.E. the start, Man this was a top fuel dragster launch, I went from P8 to P3 by T1, I waved and laughed at everybody i passed :) But little did i know who would have the last laugh. Since i am still learning rF if figure i would chase tim for a couple of laps, then with a very good exit off of T8 i catch him @ 9 and pass inside, After a tango or two, dean gets by me, we run nose to tail for many laps until 3 laps from my pit, i get a run on him but couldn't make it stick, so i tuck in behind him for T1, he broke a tad early and i touched his gearbox resulting in left front suspension damage, from there on out it was damage control, keep the car togather and bring it home respectibly. Grats to Tim, man is this mod a head rush!

Cya next time

No, Jeff, you will not. The days of showing up at a R2P race unprepared are over. No more peer pressure. Lol.

Well, a fantastic race for me obviously. Pole, fast lap, and the win! Couldnt ask for much more except not making the couple errors I made.

Pole was a bit of a surprise actually. I really goofed my fast lap but I guess everyone else goofed more? I'll take it as they probably wont come often in this series.

At the race start the lights did not show for me either. I thought of a solution quickly and went when I heard the horn. I kept the pace mellow for a few laps and next thing I know Allen goes blowing past me on the front straight. I was surely carrying more wing then he was so I applied pressure where I could. He drove great even though I nearly punted him a few times. I was passed by a few more cars and in my attempt to re-pass Jeff I went down one additional gear and spun across his nose. No damage, but lost vital time. I was carrying a light fuel load as well, only 10-12 laps of race fuel on board so I pit in fairly early to take on 20 gallons for my 2nd stint.

Ran my 2nd stint alone for the most part, which was the plan. Just clicked off laps as best I could and by the time Aubrey and Steve did their stops I was in 2nd behind Dean. The lap I caught up to Dean was perfect timing as I just entered my pit-in lap. So, no battle with him which would have slowed us both down. I went in and came back out 6 seconds behind the ongoing battle between Steve and Aubrey. Caught them quickly and took my time to overtake on the front straight only.

Finally, Dean completed his final stop (had me concerned there Dean!) and he was 6 seconds ahead of me. I was confident I could make up that amount of time so I raised my boost to 10 and went balls-out. I ran worse lap times with my boost max'd out so after a few laps of trying I settled it back to a 5 and raised it only on the long straights.

Once I caught Dean there were only a few laps remaining and I was doing everything I could just to keep the car on the road, let alone trying to pass anyone. Dean was on worn tires as well and got a couple bad corners. I attempted some passes but could not make them stick. Finally at the kink in the back straight dean ran wide and I went for it. Pulled to his left to out-brake him but he was having nothing to do of it. We both braked uber-late... maybe too late as Dean lost the rear and had a quick spin giving me the final lap to cool it down and take the win.

This was a really fun race for me guys. I had a blast racing numerous people and was in complete stressed out mode all race long. These cars and the competition do not allow ANY mistakes. A small mistake can end your race very quickly... and THAT is what I enjoy about the F1 cars so much. It takes massive concentration to pull off one fast lap, but 50+ takes something much greater. It's a nice feeling pulling it off from time to time.

Wow! Ridiculously intense race - AGAIN!! Had managed to put together a stable and comfortable setup, which turned out to be agood thing. During official practice practice, it became clear to me that I did not have the speed to keep up with the aliens, so at the last moment before qualifying started I opted to go with a one stop strategy. I quickly recalculated my fuel loads and hoped for the best. I was extremely surprised to slot into the 5th starting position, given the amount of fuel I had onboard and the relative speed of everyone else. Things were looking good!

Race started and I got a horrible start. But fortunately, everyone managed to keep it clean the first lap. I was tking it easy trying to save brakes and tires on heavy fuel loads. A few guys were getting racey behind me and I tried to just drive a clean, yet defensive line. All was going well. Aubrey was never more than 2 seconds behind me. After the front runners pitted, I slotted into the lead as I was able to keep up with them during the first 10-12 laps. After they pitted, I realized Aubrey was one stopping as well. The race was on! My stop came and went back out, now it was just how fast I could go on full tanks and worn tires. As it turns out, not nearly fast enough for the win. Again, Aubrey hounded me never more than 2.5 seconds behind me and at times right on my tail, the entire race. IT WAS FANTASTIC. Neither one of us made any big mistakes for 54 straight laps, and each was right on the edge. Brought it home in third. Quite happy with that given the strength and speed of the field. These cars wear me out!!!