Leaderboard

Race 1 - 8 Laps Tsukuba Gr.4 A few of us had practised this combination over the weekend with most of us having decided on what car to use. That was until an update the day before the race rebalanced the cars. A quick check of the leaderboard soon told us the new fastest car but it was going to be a rush trying to get used to it. Qualifying; This week saw qualifying start off in some rather unusual circumstances - Rather than Mike apologising, Mike was being apologised to! This didn't distract Lurch though who crossed the line first and setting what would be provisional pole until Kiwi crossed the line around half a lap later. I followed Kiwi across the line slotting myself in to second place and bumping Lurch down to third. Over qualifying Phil managed to get a good lap together to finally take third on the grid leaving Lurch to take fourth. All the time Lee was getting more and more angry at himself as he was failing to get near his optimal lap time or the time he managed in practise meaning he had to settle for fifth. I improved my lap time but was still second though, with my optimal fast enough for pole, on the pnultimate lap of qualifying I got my lap together to take pole by less than 0.1 seconds from Kiwi. Race: A rolling start saw us all reasonably separated and so turn 1 was clean but with everyone trying hard it didn't take long for mistakes to happen. The first victim was @Stretch616 , running wide through the middle chicane but through skill (or luck?) managed to hold it. By lap 2 the pack had closed up allowing Lee @GazzaGarratt to make a nice pass on @phil bottle at the final hairpin to move up to a podium position. This was shortly followed by @slamminbones trying a similar move but failing to pull it off and running wide and costing himself a few places. Sadly this followed by Stretch running wide through the final corner causing himself to fall down the order. Out front, I was slowly pulling away from Kiwi in second until a mistake at the start of lap 4 saw my lead halved and down to just 0.2 seconds by the end of lap 4. A few more unforced errors with Matt running ride through the middle chicane before hitting the wall and Bones copying Stretch and running wide through the last corner saw further changes to the order. I had been eeking out a gap to @JBR-Kiwi but an unforced error of my own at the final hairpin meant I had to go defensive against Kiwi through the final corner and turn 1 of lap 7. Kiwi took the lead in to turn 1 but being on the outside he couldn't hold on to it. Through all the action and mistakes, Bones had caught up with Stretch and tried a repeat of his lap 2 dive at the final hairpin. Bones keeps it on track this time but Stretch gets the switch back causing them to run side by side down the back straight, the final turn and the start finish straight. Sadly for Bones a misjudged braking zone for turn 1 saw him off in to the gravel leaving Stretch to easily keep his place. And so began the final lap with the win up for grabs, I was in the lead but bumper to bumper with Kiwi in second. Kiwi took some unusual lines in trying to find a way passed with me taking defensive lines through the final hairpin and corner to take the win by a little over 1 tenth of a second. Final Result: Race 2 - 9 Laps Mount Panorama Going in to this race, it was always going to be tricky. Gr3 cars are fast and give plenty of oppurtunites to make mistakes going over the mountain where there's no run off areas and lots of walls to get penalties from. Qualifying; From practise it was looking likely that I would take pole with Kiwi lining up second on the grid. However qualifying didn't start well for Kiwi who managed to spin on the final corner of his out lap but a quick reverse up the track saw him start his first qualifying lap at normal racing speed. I cross the line first but with a lap overtaking Phil and a mistake saw Lee initially setting the pace with a 2:03.7 lap, almost 3 seconds faster than his PB in practise. Kiwi manages to get a good lap in though and takes provisional pole following half a lap later by me taking provisional pole. In the middle of qualifying, Mike has time to play deceit when Matt asks him what his time is and Mike gives his optimal lap time rather than his actual - sneaky! Phil who has been down the order gets a clean lap in to take provisional fourth but is promptly beaten to by Mike dropping him to fifth place. At this point, I nail an almost perfect (for me) lap and scrape a 2 minute dead lap time causing Lee much disguist. Lurch closes out qualifying by jumping himself from seventh to fifth on the grid and further demoting Phil. Race: Due to the extremely short start/finish straight at Mount Panorama, the rolling start didn't work out for some as it started them on the last corner and causing Matt @Misneach_ to fall back from the pack much to his annoyance at not being able to get a tow up the hill after turn 1. Lee made a great start though and with the tow from Kiwi makes a move in to turn 2 which after some battling Kiwi holds his place as Lee falls back a little. Sadly Lee's race soon takes a turn for the worse as he runs wide at the final corner of the mountain and the game reset him costing him valuable places and his sudden re-appearance causing Stretch to also hit the wall. This saw Stretch fall backwards with Matt right on his tail which starts a fight that gets picked up a few times through the race. Lee making a recovery chases down Phil until Phil runs wide on the last corner of the mountain allowing Lee to take fifth place. Phil doesn't give up though but following Lee over the mountain on lap 4, dips a tyre on the grass and spins. As Phil recovers he holds up Matt a little who is then caught by Stretch to continue their battle. Sadly for Matt, he gets a little loose out of one of the corners and with a little tap from Stretch spins right round (baby, right round) but ever the gentleman, Stretch waits for Matt to recover and retake his position. While all this has been going on down the field, Lee still recovering from lap 1 catches Lurch in fifth and following a side by side battle over several corners, Lee emerges victorious. This is short lived though as the following lap, Matt recounts his excessive penalties and distracts Lee which allows Lurch to retake his place with 1 lap to go. Lee now mostly on his own starts the final lap only to begin the celebrations a little early with several doughnuts at turn 2 letting Bones and Phil to gain an easy position. To give credit where credit is due though, Lee follows up the doughnuts with some nice drifting going up the mountain Final Result:

Myself, @tronic44and maybe George are going to try Valheim out today around 1pm if anyone fancies giving it a bash with us🙂