rF2 Endurance Series @ Watkins Glen - Sat March 12th 2011

[Erick Davis]

Man...out before it even started. I thought that the leader was to lead us to the start at 100kmh not the 58 we were doing before the last corner. We could have easily driven around he corner at 100k but no we were crawling. This caused several of us to get in a chain reaction crash.

This could have been easily avoided had the leader maintained a constant pace.

STARTING PROCEDURE:

This race will be a manual formation lap with a rolling start. This means that once the light goes green the leader gradually speeds up to around 100 km/h (60mph) and drives in this pace towards the last corner.
All other cars follow in one line with the same speed. No brake test, no swaying. When you spin your car you drop back to last position and start from there.
When exiting the last corner the leader can go full throttle and the rest of the pack follows. No overtaking before start/finish.

 

[Ross McGregor]

Poor end to the formation lap by the leader led to all manner of incidents behind...

Started out ok for me as both Adam and Kelvin lost it on lap 1, but 15 minutes as i came to lap Phil i got too wide in turn 1 and lost it on the kerb. tried to get to the pits but went off again while an LMP2 faffed around with a GT nearby and i had could only hit the grass. Amateurish mistake from me really!

Cheers for setting this up, always enjoy this mod.

 

[John Sydenstricker]

Disappointing! Practiced all morning, trying to get comfortable with my new wheel and pedals. Got PB on qually. Made it through the formation lap disasters. On the first lap, the GT2 cars I was bunched up with were doing great, we got to turn 8 and a LMP car got into our mix. It slid out on turn 9 causing the car in front of me to brake hard to avoid a collision, which I did too. Unfortunately the car behind me didn't have time to stop and sandwiched me, damaging my rear and my front suspension. On turn 10 i found out my car no longer turns left and I slid into the wall and lost my front right wheel. Not the way I wanted to end my day of practicing.
On the plus side! I did get my new Thrustmaster wheel feeling really good with rF, so I am looking forward to some more racing with you guys!

Thanks for setting this up Ivo!

 

[Philip Grimm]

Only one word can describe that race, a mess.

 

[Garry Stoner]

Went in for first pit, left and immediately got a stop/go penalty... Had the limiter on the whole time, so don't know what that's about.

Engine overheated and cooked right after pit exit anyway. Why is that?

 

[Christian da Freites]

In the last corner of the formation lap I dont understand why everybody slow down someone crashed me, nothing serious for me.. but in the first corner someone spun off and I crashed into him, my mistake
Cheers.

 

[Matt Harvey]

First race on RD and was fun, missed few crashes at start was comfortable in postion2 in my class went in for my only stop and engine blew on way out oh well was shame hope to do it again soon, thanks

 

[Tom Barratt]

Sounds like the race was a bit of a shambles, maybe next time it would probably be better having less people on the grid or even having 2 separate races with lmp cars in 1 and gt in the other? just a suggestion.

 

[Erik Tveit]

I lost it through the 2nd last corner, lost the back wing and punctured back wheels, tried too spin to the pits but the engine got over heated..

 

[Erick Davis]

Sounds like the race was a bit of a shambles, maybe next time it would probably be better having less people on the grid or even having 2 separate races with lmp cars in 1 and gt in the other? just a suggestion.

I think that this mixed class racing is great. Keep the classes together makes for a fun night if you can make it through the first corner. During practice I did not have any problems with the GT class cars.

 

[Magnus Dahlgren]

Engine overheated and cooked right after pit exit anyway. Why is that?

Probably because the engine built up heat while stationary as it didnt have any cooling(blowing wind)..

Somewhat strange race, the formation started of with an exhilarated Wayne Morgan trying to take my place in the lap and then I just missed the crash at the end of the formation lap. Why the leader almost slowed down to walkingpace I have no idea...

Anyways got away cleanly now in 5th, up to 3rd after the first corner then to 2nd behind Ross McGregor after Kelvin van der Linde flew into the wild at T5! Pushed hard in the beginning as I drove a petrol car and I knew that I had some recovering diesels behind me, then at lap 8 Ross spun and I inherited the lead. Kept the lead with a rather comfortable gap down to Omer Bas, then on lap 14 the engine blew up! Oil-pressure was too high, I had forgotten to increase my radiator! :frown:

 

[Ross McGregor]

I agree with Erick, we've done these races before without too much drama. I think tonight it started badly with bad formation start, (despite numerous warnings that there was to be no dramatic slowing down) people following each other too closely and then the turn 1 spinner, but normally the starts are quite well behaved. A lot of people should perhaps realise that you won't win a race at the beginning, but you can certainly lose it!

 

[Neil Tasker]

Sounds like the race was a bit of a shambles, maybe next time it would probably be better having less people on the grid or even having 2 separate races with lmp cars in 1 and gt in the other? just a suggestion.

no shouldnt need to seprate them just some people just need to learn to have more awareness and respect for others, and that applies to all classes, lucky i had no probs in this race saw a few aggressive moves by people but nothing you dont normally get in these races,

all in all happy to take 2nd in class and make it to the end, wd gabreil you were super fast tonight, shame there was a lack of gt2 cars on grid though, still

wd all finishers and thanks ivo for putting it on, and wd adam for seeing eveny sheduled correctly and stuff

 

[Nikola Ilivanov]

A huge sorry to John Sydenstricker I was the car behind you that couldn't brake. I was being pressured myself, so I tried not to leave too much gap between me and the cars infront, but it's all my fault - I should've foresee this since that P1 or P2 car was just bound to make a mess of our GT2 battle. Again - apologize.
Aside from that ... Well, I think some of the P1 and P2 guys went way over their heads when overtaking GT2s. Firstly, around my 7th lap, O. Bas came up behind me in the fast S turns, flashing his lights like I was some insignificant thing on the road. I knew well before the race that I'd be within the slowest cars on the road, so I made sure I was well aware of my track surroundings, but no - he flew pass, flashing his lights as I had to get out of his way. Where in those fast S turns am I supposed to get out at ?! Anyways, I handled that situation somehow. Then 15 minutes before the race finished, I had two of these {1s or P2s fighting for position well in my rear view mirror at the longest straight. I thought I could make the fast right hander and then give them room, but both of them went for as late braking as possible and as I saw them flying in towards my rear (I think if I had kept my line in that case, I could've ended the race for them for certain), I just jumped on the accelerator and headed straight for the grass. Couldn't stop there in time, so I damaged and had to pit. Few laps later almost the same thing repeated, but this time in the slowest turn of the track. Had to run wide there, stepped on the grass, spun out, almost took out one of them and ended up hitting the wall. Pits again ! Then came my dumbest mistake and that one was proudly MY OWN - on the way out of the pit, I just floored it, loose the back end and hit the inner pit exit wall. Crawled back to the pits again.
Should've been a nice, slow, pitless race for me, but I ended up pitting 3 times.

Was pretty good thou. I like the endurance format for sure. I just hope more respect gets shown on the track.

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

Nice event after all. Im start in 13th place but after turn1 Im in 7th and finished in 4th not bad result, I ran with medium tires and 75 Litr fuel finished race with a bit of wheels and 2 Litr of fuel


Well Done all finishers:good:

Thanks Ivo Adam and RD for event

 

[Garry Stoner]

How about a two race rerun at the same track next Saturday? Maybe two 20 or 30 minute races, still mixed class. Be nice to have a second chance to use all that practice!

 

[Neil Tasker]

A huge sorry to John Sydenstricker I was the car behind you that couldn't brake. I was being pressured myself, so I tried not to leave too much gap between me and the cars infront, but it's all my fault - I should've foresee this since that P1 or P2 car was just bound to make a mess of our GT2 battle. Again - apologize.
Aside from that ... Well, I think some of the P1 and P2 guys went way over their heads when overtaking GT2s. Firstly, around my 7th lap, O. Bas came up behind me in the fast S turns, flashing his lights like I was some insignificant thing on the road. I knew well before the race that I'd be within the slowest cars on the road, so I made sure I was well aware of my track surroundings, but no - he flew pass, flashing his lights as I had to get out of his way. Where in those fast S turns am I supposed to get out at ?! Anyways, I handled that situation somehow. Then 15 minutes before the race finished, I had two of these {1s or P2s fighting for position well in my rear view mirror at the longest straight. I thought I could make the fast right hander and then give them room, but both of them went for as late braking as possible and as I saw them flying in towards my rear (I think if I had kept my line in that case, I could've ended the race for them for certain), I just jumped on the accelerator and headed straight for the grass. Couldn't stop there in time, so I damaged and had to pit. Few laps later almost the same thing repeated, but this time in the slowest turn of the track. Had to run wide there, stepped on the grass, spun out, almost took out one of them and ended up hitting the wall. Pits again ! Then came my dumbest mistake and that one was proudly MY OWN - on the way out of the pit, I just floored it, loose the back end and hit the inner pit exit wall. Crawled back to the pits again.
Should've been a nice, slow, pitless race for me, but I ended up pitting 3 times.

Was pretty good thou. I like the endurance format for sure. I just hope more respect gets shown on the track.

unlucky mate but you finished thats the main thing

 

[Gabriel Savu]

I had a great race tonight, without getting any incidents with other cars.
I spun once towards the end of the race hitting the wall, because of my left front tire being worn out and managed to finish the race without bonnet and with just 0.2 L of fuel (phew).

In the formation lap I kept distance to the classes in front just to avoid a possible mess (I hope the LP at the back of GT2 didn't mind ) and turned out a wise decision.

Thanks all for the race and I'm looking forward to the next race.

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

Quali: Did a 24.9 on my final lap which could of been quicker if I didn't make a mess of the last corner on the lap before. At the time I was 1st but Kelvin put in a very good lap to take pole away from me, so P2.

Race: Got a slowish start over the line trying not to overtake Kelvin. I kept it to the right but someone tried to go around the outside of me at turn 1, forcing me to have to keep it tight around the inside to make sure I didn't hit them. With the curbing and the funny banking at that corner, the rear just slid out and I spun, unfortunately collecting Christian in the process (sorry). Got going again and was 5th but the damage I sustained meant I ran wide at turn 8 and lost the front end of the car. Pitted at the end of lap 2 (first racing lap).

Came out of the pits and I was 23rd, 15 seconds behind 22nd and nearly a lap down. I knuckled down and just drove consistantly. I picked off the guys ahead one-by-one making sure they knew I was there and there was a safe place to get past before attempting a move. With a few cars going off, it helped my progression through the field. After about 12 laps, I found myself in P2 almost 30 seconds off Omer. I caught up to him quite quickly and at the start of lap 19 I could blast past him on the long straight.

I made a pitstop with about 20 minutes to go as the car had drunk a whole tank in 35 minutes. Came back out still in front and just kept it all together for the overall win.

I found the drivers out there today were excellent when I came up to the back of them. I made sure there was a gap and they had seen me before attempting anything and that sort of mutual respect meant that we did not have any problems. There were times when things got close or I met them at the wrong point of the track but thats how things go with multiple classes, and I just needed to be patient.

It was also funny how I met a few drivers in the same spots each time. Neil I always seemed to meet at turn 9, Juha I met at turn 11 a few times, and there were a few more.

Thanks to Ivo, RD, and all those who raced

 

[Wayne Morgan]

Somewhat strange race, the formation started of with an exhilarated Wayne Morgan trying to take my place in the lap and then I just missed the crash at the end of the formation lap. :frown:

sorry Magnus i thought you were trying to overtake me on the formation lap lol
sorry for the misunderstanding.