rF2 NEW! Japanese F3 Mini Championship @ Okayama - Wednesday 3rd December 2008

[Danny Pattiwael]

Great races!

Race 1 qualified 6th, but 10 laps before finish, my car was too loose to handle. Or maybe I was too tired. Congrats Gary for the win, felt sorry for Toni though.

I was not too sure to do 2nd race, but did it anyway.

Race 2 qualified 7th I think, though moved up to 5th due to disconnects of I think Ben and Nils. Did a reasonable start, but messed halfway. Btw BIG sorry to Theo, cause I recovered thinking everybody had passed me, so there was some touching which is my fault. I went on to fight to 4th due to a few overtakings and some disconnects.
Tried to close in on Herwin, but he was just too fast. Great race, and again grats to my mate Gary. Fantastic job!

Cheers

 

[Gary Lennon]

Qual: 2nd Finish: 1st

Big battle with Toni in qually which kicked off the fun,i thought i got a bad start,but got clear away past Toni for the lead into T1,all my efforts to pull a comfort gap failed basically so i constantly had Toni in striking distance of me until late in the race at the 3rd from final turn i spun,Toni breezed past getting a 4.5 comfortable lead,i was left wondering what might have been and settling in for a respectable 2nd place,when Toni went off in a big way at T2,the lead was gifted back to me there for sure with a lazy cruise home in 1st.
Excellent racing and great fun.

Race Two -
Qual: Pole Finish: 1st

Now this time i thought i got a good start,looked back to see i was indeed going to arrive clear ahead of Toni in 2nd this time,what i didnt notice was James Yates blasting up my inside and easily taking the lead for T1 !!??!! (blimey....),i done a settling in tyre warmup lap then put an attack together,but it took a lap or two of study then finally got a good run out of a turn and alongside for the tight left near the end of the lap,i tried to get going and pull some kind of lead,but James could hang on very well until his sudden disappearance,terrible luck there m8,you were pedalling very well there,with a little bit of comfort gap now i really strung together a series of laps im quite proud of,only about 2 very very minor mistakes so built a lovely 5secs gap then a back off to the finish for a happy double win .

Many thanks to all the gent racers tonight making it a good fun night of racing.
Commiserations to connex droppers and a shame Andrew couldnt join us in his superb event

Cheers All and Thanks RD

 

[Patrick van Driel]

Great races guys ! , I was not so happy on the track with this car I think i was 8th or 9th at the start and couldnt get faster then a 1:28 but ok
Race 1 i had a great start and with some fun moving between ppl who went of or spun made me go up to 6th . I could keep that spot ( it was last )
And finished. Race 2 was even better i was having Jamie in my neck till i couldnt hold it and he passed me,after that we had some great laps together overtaking eachother twice a lap ! Great racing m8
I braked to late and had to step out of that battle Then trying to get back made me do stupid moves and i was in the wall. I was doing 3 pitstops after echother but my car wasn't repaired After 10 laps i could't go on anymore and stayed in the pit .
Then i was spectating Gary for a while and man!! what a laps you pulled there Respect dude ,nice driving !
Grats for the double win Gary ,and the others who made it the whole evening thx for the fun again

 

[Jamie Wilson]

Race 1

Reacted slightly slowly to the lights but generally held pace for the first few laps until I lost the back end under braking (and found out that I didn't have my brake bias buttons bound, doh!). Spent most of the race alone, but was joined by Theo late on for a thoroughly enjoyable battle; one that he won by barely 0.005 seconds or so. Well judged driving there, Theo!

Race 2

Largely the same again really; held on to the car for about twice as long but had a silly spin mid-pack; recovered quickly enough to still be in the hunt for a battle - which I found, with Patrick - but after his accident I was alone again. Towards the end I started playing with the car a bit, just seeing what I could get away with when really pushing; caught some absolutely gargantuan slides in the process until one caught me out, costing me my front wing - pitted and rejoined the track to find I also had dodgy suspension, and after that caused a spin, I limped home in 8th or 9th or so.

I think this series is worthy of a 'proper' league without doubt - a full (noting that rF supports a lot of drivers ) field of dedicated racers would make it awesome, combined with some of the Japanese tracks. Sugo particularly is up there on the mentalness scale with Knutstorp.

I'd love to see some more of our R07 stalwarts tackling these

 

[Theo de Bruin]

Btw BIG sorry to Theo, cause I recovered thinking everybody had passed me, so there was some touching which is my fault.

Don't worry mate, it was nothing serious!

Spent most of the race alone, but was joined by Theo late on for a thoroughly enjoyable battle; one that he won by barely 0.005 seconds or so.

That was definately a great fight! Watched the replay and it was very exciting going side by side through some of those faster corners! This fight just shows why Race Department Racing Club is such a great place! I was fighting very close but I was also minding Jamie and being sure to give him some room, not just running into him. And I knew that Jamie was doing the same thing!! Yet it was still a fight on the edge!!! Awesome!!! :dance2:

The second race was not a big success. Lost my wing early on, went in for a pitstop but also my suspension was damaged and I just couldn't control the car anymore, was sliding off all of the time, halfway through I gave up and parked the car in the pits.

Still these cars need some getting used to but are very fun and challenging to drive. Looking forward to the next one!! :clap:

 

[Nils Wijk]

Hmm do I read Sugo...

 

[Herwin Ploeg]

Tried to close in on Herwin, but he was just too fast. Great race, and again grats to my mate Gary. Fantastic job!

You almost had me because at the end I became tired and made some stupid spins..!
Totally agree with Danny! Nice event Gary.!
Unfortunally the starting grid wasn't very full also because of the points/no points issue.. and many people crashed because the F3 cars are difficult to drive. But had two nice races a littlebit lonely but hopefully next time the starting grid is full!.

See you next time on track!