RD MINI Challenge 2019

[Jivesauce]

A very fun weekend for me! I didn't expect to have great pace at this track because I had to limit my practice time. All the practice for these races has aggravated an old shoulder injury and I suspect a surgery is in my near future Nonetheless, we had some crazy close and clean mid-pack racing in the first race between myself and many others. I know I saw the names David Mann, Dave Stephenson, Craig Dunkley, and Mike McGeer; I'm sure there were others I missed. It was great fun. Sadly I received a drive through for cutting, it was a bummer because three of the cuts were going wide to give someone on my inside room to make the corner, but I would rather serve the penalty than take someone out and ruin their race. It didn't matter in the end because I ran out of fuel! I still don't understand how this happened, I had run multiple test distances to check my fuel load with no issues. I believe the same happened to Mike McGeer.

The second race I started in 1st and was quickly overtaken by Daniel Monteiro and Rob Moore. Rob and I spent the next 10 minutes running very close together and swapping positions a couple times before a couple other fast guys caught us. Luka Berk and Rob got into a battle that was great fun to watch. Unfortunately on the last lap they went side by side into the hairpin and braked earlier than I expected and I had to dive past them off the corner to avoid running into one of them and it allowed a couple others through. No matter though, I was just glad I didn't ruin their fight. I believe Luka came out on top. Bad luck for someone receiving a penalty on the last lap so I got one of those positions back for a 5th place finish.

I just want to thank all of you that put in the hard work to make this happen, and all my fellow competitors for being patient when I made rookie mistakes. I had 0 hours played in AMS when this was announced, and 40 hours in AC was the total of my sim racing time. This was a huge learning experience for me and I hope my racecraft improved noticeably over the course of the 3 weekends I took part in. I'll put in some practice and come back stronger next year. Thanks again for a great series everyone!

One last thing, and I can take this to a different thread if necessary, but I worked really hard to improve my braking over the last two weeks of practice. Despite that, I noticed at several places, especially the hairpin on this track, that people are absolutely killing me under braking. There were times the person in front of me was braking a full 25 feet later than me and I was still nearly running into them because they were stopping so much harder. What should I work on? I've really tried to smooth my initial braking input and be right at the max threshold, but clearly I have a lot of improvement to do there. Anyway, cheers again for a great couple weeks of racing!

Edit: Of course, I should also said congrats to Ross, absolutely mega driving in these Minis. That lap time in the first race today is insane.

 

[juluka]

Good Racing Gents...it was fun to follow and watch!

 

[Chris Shepherd]

Would like to start off by saying that when I purchased Automobilista at the start of season for £5.00 , I was laughing my head off. Little did I realise I had to then purchase the tracks. Wasn't laughing so much.

Worth every penny though.

Just want to say how gutted I am for my good old pal, @Chris Butcher . A s**t way to end the season. It would have been tough to claw it back anyway with the current points structure.

Secondly, congratulations to @Ross McGregor who, in my opinion, was very impressive in these Mini's, excellent race craft and a pleasure to battle with.

I lost the fight for the championship at Redbull Ring when I blew my engine, in a race where my nearest two competitors flawed. Had I seen the flag that day, after flying from the back of grid up into 7th, with the potential to finish 2nd place, I would have had a healthy lead in the standings. This is motor racing and its why we love it.

I had already decided to take a slight step back from simracing this year due to working commitments but if this league were to continue on the same day or a Sunday, I think it would be very hard for me to not join the fun.

Thanks to @alexSchmurtz for making my livery at very short notice.

Big thanks to all of you involved for making it happen.

 

[CMGARAGE]

I’d like to do a season summary when I’ve got more time so will do a quick race recap for now.



Before I do, a massive thanks and congratulations to everyone that put on the championship; including organisers, drivers and broadcasters. With one or two exceptions I’ve had a series of incredibly enjoyable races with great, respectful driving throughout the field. Although not going down to wire, the competition at the front has been incredible to watch.



Congratulations on that front to @Ross McGregor for being the series’ first double champion. Incredible hard luck to those chasing him down. Ross did enough to win this on merit in my opinion but it’s always unfortunate to see worthy rivals fall at the final hurdle. Hope you gents enjoyed racing as much as we enjoyed watching it.



Congrats to @Pappa_G_27 on grabbing that win (great result for Reid, too). I can’t think of anyone that had worse luck this season come race day (Bram close second?) so a win was well earned. Not sure where you were stashing that extra pace as I was keeping up with you at Imola!



Excellent showing from the lads taking the step up from Div 2, too.



Now for my race summary.



Talk about Jekyll and Hyde! I’ve been struggling to get the most out of the Mini here at Hockenheim, with the biggest culprit being consistency. Thankfully things started to click today and despite a modest impact on the time sheets I was happy with my pace.



I was happy with my qualie but there was probably a few tenths left there. No chance of threatening the 2:03’s anyhow! My first set of laps yielding the best time.



Race 1 was great. I can’t recall the very start but once things had settled in I had a great battle with Sergio. He defended well throughout and it was a great game of cat and mouse with us both having different racing lines and strengths and different parts of the track. I was concerned if I battled too hard we’d both lose out to the pack battling ahead. That wasn’t the case and I was able to maintain a good pace.



I took my chance on lap 8, getting ahead under braking for the hairpin. I was able to close on the battle for top 10 but simply couldn’t get close enough to mount any sort of challenge. Great racing Sergio.



On to Race 2, well half of it at least. I’m disappointed by the lack of respect shown by the faster lads coming through. There was a decent gap going into the chicane and a pack of cars absolutely leaned on the pack in front to get round it, of which people where already trying to make room for each other. I just about scraped through and lasted all of two corners before Davy tapped me (3 times!) around (slightly) damaging the rear of my car and all but ending my race. You can’t just push through another car. Not sure what the gap was to the back of the pack but it was an uphill struggle.



It paid to stick with it as I did manage to catch to the pack up with a couple of laps to go, but my tyres were worse for wear. Anyone could of grabbed a handful of positions right up to the death, there. Still, excellent racing with the guys battling for our dignity and a nice way to end the championship.

Thanks for the great races, everyone.

 

[Ross McGregor]

Unfortunate end to the season with Chris B's issues, and a real shame neither of the Chris' could start race 2. It was always going to be tough to claw the points back, but with the way race 2 went literally anything could've happened.

Race 1: Chris B made a break after myself & Chris S got involved in a tight battle, before i realised something odd in the timing. I've never seen that issue before, so very unfortunate for Chris there. But the race continued, and Chris and myself were never separated by more than 0.5s throughout. On the final lap i got a run on him and we had a quality side-by-side battle for the last third of the lap, which was pretty intense considering how close i was to the grass at the hairpin. (poo definitely came out) But somehow i crossed the line ahead. Congrats to Craig on the podium too.

Race 2: With both Chris' out, i pretty much just had to finish, and this turned out to be an achievement in itself considering the driving standards we witnessed. I hung back a lot in this race and tried to weave between the carnage, but my car was pretty battered by the end. I was just very fortunate to avoid the bigger incidents. Unfortunately though, i had a hand in Manuel Alves hitting the barriers and exiting the race. He came off the kerb across the front of my car exiting the Mercedes-Benz corner while i had Craig Patteson alongside me, meaning i had no way to avoid him. I noticed later he had just been involved in an 'interesting' manoeuvre the turn previous, so it was certainly an action-packed couple of corners and i'm sorry if i was at fault at all.

Gradually made my forward and benefited from some ridiculous driving from a couple of individuals- possibly the worst I've ever seen in a league race in my 11 years of sim-racing. It's a slightly unfortunate way to end the season, but the other races were full of clean battling. It seems like all the dodgy stuff came out in one race!!

Well done to Simon, Tobias & fellow Scot Alister on 1st, 3rd & 2nd, and thanks again to Joseph & Paul for a great broadcast. (and for showing my reverse donuts at the end!)

I'll write a little sum-up of my season later and do a few more thank yous

 

[Fatalist88]

What was going on with Davy in race 2?

 

[Craig Patteson]

wow what an event to end the season

firstly would like to say a big thank you to the organisers @Bram Hengeveld @Dave Stephenson @Davy Vandevenne and our commentators @Joseph Wright and @Paul Glover

Qualy: that was my best qualy of the season and with a time I didn't think I could do so was happy with a P5 start

Race one: had a good start manage to keep my position soon 5th became 4th after Chris butcher DNF and managed to overtake Simon Pierotti for 3rd. with no chance of catching Chris Shepard or Ross McGregor I fought to hold onto 3rd place but Matt le Gallez wasn't going to make it easy thankfully managed to hang on for my first podium of the season

Race two: decent start lots of battles happening gained loads of places was running P7 at the end before a coming together with Tamas Pazsy on the last corner of the last lap made me fall back to P9 still happy with a top 10 finish

Big congrats to @Ross McGregor for another championship in the mini’s fantastic job.

Really bad luck for @Chris Butcher

I’m over the moon to have finished potentially P3 in the championship I haven’t had the pace over the season to stick with the fast drivers but I think I’ve been very consistent

Hope to race against you all again soon

 

[Ross McGregor]

So this season was pretty hectic for me. I didn't even know if i'd be taking part, as 3 days before pre-qualie started i was lying in hospital recovering from surgery! I've had Crohn's disease for a long time so sometimes i really struggle to do the things i love, but this gave me something to focus on. Other than health issues, i had just sold my fancy-schmancy 'Derek Speare Designs' Wilwood load-cell pedals (see pic of my state-of-the-art rig) that i'd used to win the last Mini championship. The reason for this was i hadn't really done any serious sim-racing for a couple of years and felt like i wouldn't be doing any again due to my advancing years and numerous commitments...
Untitled by Ross McGregor, on Flickr

Somehow i came top of prequalie, although my fastest lap wasn't 100% clean, and muddled through Imola with a couple of 3rds. Brands GP went really well. Spielberg less so! Oulton was another good one for me, but i was very lucky to make it through Hockenheim alive!

I had a pretty consistent run this season, and my only genuine bad race was as a result of being punted off, so i have to be pleased with how it went. My qualifying speed was also much better than i thought it would be, and i didn't make many mistakes. Had some great battles along the way too- especially with Chris Shepherd, and hopefully we provided a bit of entertainment for the broadcasts! (Glad i also got my sponsor - Marloe Watch Company - some air time! If anyone is interested in classy, functional hand wound timepieces, get in touch with me, as my friend is the co-owner & chief designer! www.marloewatchcompany.com)

Big thanks to Davy for sorting the skins, Alex for providing the awesome spotter guides, Joseph, Paul & Mr. C for their tremendous broadcasting work, and Bram & Dave for their admin masterclass!

Finally, well done to Matt Le Gallez & Craig Patteson for 2nd & 3rd in the championship, and to Simon on breaking his pole & win duck in league racing. I'm sure there'll be more to come.

I'll hopefully be back for the next edition of the Mini series at RD, but who knows, maybe i'll be back a little sooner?!

Thanks again,
Ross

 

[Pappa_G_27]

Congratulations to Ross on a great victory. And thanks to everyone involved in putting on the league. It was my first ever, since only starting sim racing just over a year ago. I learnt a lot, and still have a lot more to learn it seems

Well that was another interesting round for me. Haven't managed to keep out of trouble much this season and it looked like today that was going to change. A decent quali in 4th (I actually had a couple more tenths in me but couldn't nail a lap) race 1 started better than the last few. I was unable to break the slipstream to Craig in the early laps which meant I got a bit swamped in a battle. A couple of mistakes, a couple of light touches and found myself down to around 6th battling the Bannzzaiii boys. Frustratingly Balazs and I touched ever so slightly on the exit of a corner which meant his car went onto the sausage kerb and straight into my side causing me to spin. Sorry to Fernando Flannagan for being in your way as I was spinning and ruining your race. I'm surprised my car still was running, so decided to pit and just finish the race.

Race 2, well that was a bit of a hollow victory. Put in some fast laps early then just settled. The only thing I had to worry about was fuel, and that damn extra lap nearly got me. Had 1.8 litres left starting the last lap. Short shifted and took it very easy to finish with 0.3 litres left. Lucky I had a big lead. Haha

Anyway it was a great first league experience and I know what I need to work on to get better in the race. A bit of luck would also be great as I seemed to get tangled up a bit. Probably due to some race pace inconsistencies. Fun times anyway

 

[David Mann]

Great races today in Div. 2, and great season overall. Big thanks and kudos to the RD crew! Thanks for the mention Colin, it was some good clean racing with you, Paul, and others (except when I punted Paul, sorry again). I'm really glad I was able to participate in this season.

 

[Paul Joseph]

Thanks to all the organisers for another fantastic championship, and many congratulations to Ross for coming top of the pile!

I have to admit that I struggled a lot yesterday with the pace of the field, especially in Race 2, when I saw about 10 cars bearing down on me very quickly and I ended up panicking and missing braking points and running wide. Coming from Division 2 it was a real eye opener! I really hope I didn't get in the way too much.

I was extremely satisfied with my results throughout the season, with a 3rd place finish at Brands Hatch (Div 2), and a 2nd place finish at Oulton Park (Div 2). Division 1 was a bit much, but I somehow finished 10th in race 2, mostly due to a few guys needing fuel at the end.

 

[Daniel Monteiro]

Another intense weekend this time around, and happy to have eventually managed to just break into the 2:03 territory for quali - but wait, all the fast Division 2 guys moved to Division 1 for this race... Nevermind then

Well, there were still some very fast guys to battle with, kudos to @Luka Berk for having taken two second places and thus being the biggest point winner of the weekend. We had our shoves and our door scraps, but managed to keep all cars on the road, until I had a brain fart and went way too wide on the last left-hander, losing some places Managed to climb/shove/push my way up to third again but just could not get further - amazing battles the whole time with @Franklin Stegink and @King_of_sertao but that meant going wide sometimes at the beginning of the stadium section. That resulted in getting too many warnings and finally the penalty that was "served ( )" on the last lap, not really counting, thus the game giving a hefty but well deserved penalty, which meant a good starting position for race 2

Sorry @M I for the tap; after you ran wide and came back on track I thought we were clear but we just slightly touched our corners, but with dramatic consequences A pity as it could have been a great race with you in it.

Congratulations to @Jopamir which made it a portuguese double-win on Division 2, a nice way to end the season

For race 2 I found myself at the head of the starting pack again, but this time with some other fast guys that had suffered the same game penalty as me. Knowing @Trebormoore84 is fast I tried to get ahead as soon as possible, and luckily for me he got in a scrap with @Jivesauce so I could open a confortable gap til the end.

It was a blast to participate in this season - I would like to thank first of all the drivers that showed up so that we could all race together, I hope you also enjoyed it despite everybody's highs and lows! Not only on track but also off, where I learned quite a few things when sharing tips and techniques with other drivers; I felt I was improving race after race!

Also a great appreciation goes to all the RaceDepartment staff for having organized these races, for having compiled a huge skin-pack, for having supplied us with great spotter guides and for having broadcast all the races with enjoyable and entertaining commentary

And last but not least, congratulations to @Ross McGregor, not only for winning a second championship with the Minis ( ), but for having delivered a great show with @Chris Shepherd @Chris Butcher @Matt Le Gallez @Craig Patteson @TobiasR and, well, most of the Division 1 drivers really; nobody just playing the points game but instead fighting every race, making it a delight for us to (re-)watch

 

[Ernie]

First of all i'd like to thank the staff for organizing the Mini Challenge. Thanks for all the effort and the hard work. It was my first season here, racing with you guys, and i had a lot of fun.

In this final round at Hockenheimring i was finally in Div1. First race was already a very tough one, but i was really happy to reach the Top10.
Well ..... and then ....... race 2 happened.
With reversed grid it was expected that i get literally overrun in first lap by the fast guys. I had absolutely no problem with that. But the longer the race takes, the more of bad driving behavior came to light. It starts with lack of situational awareness, continues with disrespecting opponent lines, and ends with pushing opponents off the track. I don't call names, but i have no clue what was going on. In the end it casts a little bit of a shadow on this overall exciting season.

However, congratulations to @Ross McGregor for winning this Mini Challenge. (...again)

Also congrats to JP for gaining a victory in Div2. Well done, mate @Jopamir

So here's my video from Round 5.

See you all next time.

 

[Matt Le Gallez]

What a season!

First of all, well done to @Ross McGregor on a great championship. Awesome driving from start to finish, great job mate.

The two Chris's @Chris Butcher and @Chris Shepherd drove brilliantly all season and without the issues they both came across, they would have both been fighting Ross for the championship win.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole season, thanks go to @Bram Hengeveld and @Dave Stephenson for organising, @Davy Vandevenne for the skinpack and @Joseph Wright, @Paul Glover and @Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan for the awesome broadcasts.

It really is a shame that our viewers had to see what went on during Race 2 at Hockenheim, as I believe this is the complete opposite to how the rest of the league went and how we are expected to behave on track.

See you at the next one guys, and I hope it's as great as this one has been!

 

[Jivesauce]

So here's my video from Round 5.

See you all next time.

First off Ernie, I want to say congrats on moving up and it was fun to get to race with you a couple times before you moved on. You, and the others that went with you, showed that the difference between Div. 1 and Div. 2 overall wasn't as large as might be expected. I don't know if anyone else paid any attention to lap time differences between the two divisions, but there was significant overlap by the last few races. The Div. 2 guys really stepped it up over the course of the event. With all that being said...

Ooooof this video you've posted of race 2, my god. Many people had alluded to something but I hadn't watched the official broadcast yet, and I notice that portion has been cut out of the official version posted on Youtube though not the Twitch VOD. I see only 11 people have watched your video, but starting at 43:20 is some absolutely shameful driving by that person and I'm sorry it ruined your race. I also feel terrible for Matt Le Gallez who, I believe, had his chance of 3rd place overall badly damaged by this same incident. What an unfortunate thing to happen at the very end of a great series.

Edit: Or did Le Gallez finish 2nd overall despite all that? That's good at least.

 

[Hailstorm BLX]

Thank you all for making the series such a fun experience My only goal was to enjoy some fair racing and have fun; results and points and stuff was secondary. Considering I didn't practise one bit I think I did quite well in the end

Congratulations to @Ross McGregor and thanks to the RD staff for running the show and giving me the opportunity to take part

 

[Fatalist88]

First off Ernie, I want to say congrats on moving up and it was fun to get to race with you a couple times before you moved on. You, and the others that went with you, showed that the difference between Div. 1 and Div. 2 overall wasn't as large as might be expected. I don't know if anyone else paid any attention to lap time differences between the two divisions, but there was significant overlap by the last few races. The Div. 2 guys really stepped it up over the course of the event. With all that being said...

Ooooof this video you've posted of race 2, my god. Many people had alluded to something but I hadn't watched the official broadcast yet, and I notice that portion has been cut out of the official version posted on Youtube though not the Twitch VOD. I see only 11 people have watched your video, but starting at 43:20 is some absolutely shameful driving by that person and I'm sorry it ruined your race. I also feel terrible for Matt Le Gallez who, I believe, had his chance of 3rd place overall badly damaged by this same incident. What an unfortunate thing to happen at the very end of a great series.

Indeed absolutely bizarre behaviour from a staff member.

 

[Jopamir]

Also congrats to JP for gaining a victory in Div2. Well done, mate @Jopamir

Thanks Ernie
Congrats on your good performance with the big guys too. We trained you well, here at humble Div.2 ehehe

Congrats @Ross McGregor for the outstanding driving and well deserved victory. Also your Amazing battles companions too, @Chris Butcher (most unlucky), @Chris Shepherd and @Matt Le Gallez. Awsome to watch those racing fights guys! Thanks

 

[Craig Patteson]

Any idea when the results will be confirmed

 

[Joseph Wright]

Any idea when the results will be confirmed

After any incident reports have been closed by the stewards.