VIR - 26th October - Round 14

[André Jahren]

Sorry for the issues with the live stream. An application started in the background and the sound disappeared. And when I tried to fix it the game hang.

Qual
Had an ok qualifying lap, not perfect but enough to grap pole.

Race
Had a good race pace in place so I was looking forward to this, but already on lap 2 I blew my engine at the end of the back straight.

Congratulation to Tim, and John and Tago for joining him on the podium.

See you in Snetterton

[tim]

Nice and demanding track here in Virginia!

Sorry for André, you were the absolutely favorite for the victory here, also John did a great Job. And as I had other things to do the last couple of days I went in quite unprepared. I even miscalculated fuel and pited late in lap 19.
At this moment John had his pitstop already done and I could reach my goal to overtake him like this - in the pits.. I don´t think I could overtake him on track, he was pacing strong, especially on the long straight exits. So, almost no chance for me. Gratulations John, very nice racing with you. I had alot to do!
Well done Tago, also Olaf. You both had quite a tough fight as I saw on replay.

Hopefully meet you all in Snetterton!

[Olaf Lehmann]

Yes, it was a good, exciting time with tago. I couldn't find a way past...

Code: Select all

  PITSTOP LISTING

   3:18	 27.8s	S.gore		Repair
  23:45	 44.8s	B.Finnestad	Repair/Tire change/Refuel
  30:08	 29.2s	J.Hammonds  DG	Tire change/Refuel
  32:38	 27.3s	O.Lehmann	Tire change/Refuel
  33:06	 28.0s	R.Alpen		Tire change/Refuel
  35:58	 26.5s	T.Roedl		Tire change/Refuel

Grats to Tim, John and Tago!

[tagomago]

Yesterday's race was for me a very unexpected enjoyment.

I have been suffering changes and adaptations because I had to change my running PC (now it is again an XP on a Pentium 3.0 Ghz) and I also had to repair the pedals.

My apologies to all for not participating in Boreham ... I couldn't prepare it and since my pedalboard was not in good condition ... I didn't want to run the risk of another disaster like in Salzburg (Tim ).

So as I'm not a fast rival and seeing the good times of Olaf and Seb I thought that finishing the last as in the bread line would be a good result.

Then I qualified better than expected ahead of Seb and at the start I got the inside for T1 which was the winning ticket to continue 5th behind Olaf.

At the beginning of the race I was able to follow Olaf well for a few laps although he was moving away from me with better pace

André's bad luck with his engine left John and Tim in contention for the win and Olaf and I for 3rd.

Behind Bjorn, Rainer and Seb made early mistakes that didn't allow them to prosper.

My strategy of not stopping could pay off because Olaf's lead seemed insufficient to compensate for his possible stop, though I didn't know if he would do so

However all my good pace of the first part of the race was diluted in the middle of the race with small or long excursions here and there.

So I was 3rd after his pit stop but with 12 laps to go I had him in my tail.

This is a circuit where it is very difficult to overtake in a gentleman way ... it remained to be seen if my degraded tires would let me not to make serious mistakes.

In the end I was able to hold on after a few exciting moments with Olaf's Ferrari, although a fourth place would also have been great for me.

Thanks to all for these great moments on track.

[snafu]

Very pleased with this result. Had a terrible qualifying being a second off my PB but still good enough for 4th on the grid. Got an excellent start, Olaf appeared to bog down when the flag dropped promoting me to 3rd and Tim ran wide into T1 so I then inherited 2nd. André began to gap me almost immediately while Tim was closing in behind. As a midfield runner I was disappointed to see André's engine blowup ahead early on as I know his race was never with me.

I ran with a bit of a weird setup and had a very soft rear end (The setup not me, although....). This enabled me to get a great exit off the slower corners and let me use the pace of the Brabham to gap Tim on the faster parts of the track. Sadly he was a lot faster than me everywhere else and by "Left Hook" and "Oak Tree" he was over me like a cheap suit. I miscalculated the fuel and had to pit a few laps earlier than I expected which gave Tim the lead which was a position he didn't surrender. I really need to work on my pit stops and was nearly 3 seconds slower than Tim and while it probably didn't affect the outcome of the race it certainly didn't help. I was able to keep Tim honest for the 2nd half of the race and still had dreams of being a nuisance on the final lap but I pushed the braking into T1 too far and ran wide which lost me several seconds so crossed the line just over 7 seconds behind at the end.

Watching the replay I was enthralled by the Tago and Olaf battle, great driving by both of you, Congrats to Tago for the final podium spot. Commiserations to André and Rainer, I love this track but so many places to ruin your race, I don't think I pushed past 95% or so such was the fear of losing time recovering after an off track excursion.

On to Snetterton, another track which should suit the Brabham's ability to get off the slower corners cleanly.

TTFN
John.

[Bjørn Finnestad]

Grats Tim for win, John, and Tago! Grats to finishers. Bad luck DNFs.

A hard, but nice track that seems incredibly slippery, but after some adjustments to the setup it got better.

Got off to a good start with the qualification and was able to set a time higher on the table which gradually dropped down.
From the start of the race through the first corners, I was a bit unsettled with the rhythm, (perhaps like what I experienced from the Thruxton race).

I came out onto the grass countless times (to cool the tires). I assumed the Brabham would handle the hill crest on the long straight at full throttle, but it didn't, losing engine power immediately there on lap 12 or so. Undramatic to drive to the pit, do a full service before a longer stint to the finish. Although I was alone for most of the race, high concentration was required, the car was nervous, and braking could fail somewhat unpredictably. Still, a good effort to get to the finish line. Rarely set a faster lap time in the race.

To outsiders it must look difficult, but there is something about being able to cope with the challenges that come with it, it's just a fantastic experience and hats off to see good fights as well as keeping the car on the road.


Thanks all for the race, see you all in Snetterton!