JBR-Kiwi

Race 1 & Round 2 of the Spring League
Interlagos
Gr3
13 Laps
Fuel usage x5
Tyre Wear x6
 
Qualifying;
In the short testing leading up to qualifying a few of us had been trying different cars to get a feel of which one to us.  Lee @GazzaGarratthad primarily been using the Corvette but decided to switch to the Peugeot RCZ right before qualifying which was going to be either an inspired or disastrous choice.  We all exit the pits at the beginning of quali which cause everyone to bunch up towards the end of the lap while trying to make some space.  Tom @LordBaguette is the first to cross the line and setting new personal best on his first try though his lap is quickly beaten by Kiwi @JBR-Kiwi then I set a new PB to take provisional pole.  Lee manages to nail his second flying lap to move himself up to 2nd until Kiwi crosses the line with a lap 4 hundredths faster than Lee.  @Mikepjbell who had been having a not so great qualifying decided he wanted some of this action and on his third flying lap to move up to 3rd before getting 2nd on his next lap, beating Kiwi's time by 6 hundredths of a second.  Both Kiwi and Lee go faster on their final lap with Kiwi managing to retake his second place on the grid and Lee missing out on beating Mike to 3rd by 5 hundredths of a second.
 
Race;
With these league races having a standard start, some cars a tricky to get off the line but everyone got of well which meant we were all bunched together for turn 1 which didn't go all the cleanly.  @crispymorgan runs a little deep and tapping the rear of Lee who then runs in to me and pushing me wide.  In this pinball, Lee got a bit sideways giving Tom nowhere to go except to hit Lee further and pushing him in to a full spin and dropping him to the back meaning another recovery race for Lee.  In all the chaos of T1, Phil had managed to sneak through unscathed and move himself up to third place behind Kiwi and myself however a difference in braking for T4 sees me having to take avoiding action to not ram Kiwi giving Phil an easy pass in to the second.  Running over the kerb had cost me a lot of my momentum but luckily for me, Mike rear ends me and bumps back up to racing speed to the cost of his speed as Tom sails passed him.  This puts Tom right on my tail as we go through the infield section but a misjudged braking point at turn 10 has Tom running in to me right as Phil spins off in front of me.  The contact between myself and Tom gives Mike an easy pass up to 2nd place though I managed to hold on to 3rd as Tom and Phil drop to 6th and 7th respectively.  I get a good run out of the final corner and get the tow from Mike up the hill, I try a pass in to T1 but Mike defends and keeps me in third.  I get a second chance at T4 as Mike runs wide but a snap of oversteer has him swerve across the track and, in a reverse of the first lap, I hit Mike's rear bumping him back up to racing speed.  Though my chance came thanks to Lee channelling the commentators curse by saying at least Mike has spun who then spins right afterwards.  Behind this battle, Tom trying to recover again manages to spin on the exit of T10 and then when getting going again, runs wide at T12 and spins again.  Paul @slamminbones seemed to be having a quiet race in 5th but loses a place to a recovering Phil on lap 3.  Lee, also on a recovery drive, decides to take an alternate strategy and takes his pit stop at the end of lap 3 changing his racing super softs for racing softs which hopefully are enough to get to the end of the race.  The infield section was proving tricky as tyres started to wear as T10 of lap 5 sees Phil spin, shortly followed by Tom and then immediately by Lee.  I had managed to catch up to Kiwi in the lead and getting a good run out of the final corner, I again use the tow to try a move in to T1 of lap 6 but unlike against Mike, this one works thanks to Kiwi being quiet compliant - which worried me as playing catch up I had used more fuel than I'd have liked and Kiwi not defending too hard suggested a different strategy but more on that later.  As the race was 13 laps, I decided to split it as evenly as possible and pit at the end of lap 7 for a new set of racing super softs and fuel to the end dropping me to 3rd.  On fresh tyres, I began catching Mike who had taken over 2nd due to my stop but Mike pits the end of lap 8 also for a new set of super softs.  This leaves me chasing Kiwi for the lead and I had taken over 6 seconds out of his lead as he pits at the end of lap 9 which was enough for me to have extended my lead with only a few laps to go.  Tom who had gotten fed up of all his spins and pitted on lap 5 but didn't take on any fuel has to do a second stop to take on some fuel.  Lee who had managed to recover to 4th but suffering on his worn softs, runs wide at T12 on lap 10 and gets reset as Phil moves up a place.  After 10 laps the field had become quite spread out meaning a quiet final few laps until the end of the race with me taking the win, Kiwi 2nd and Mike 3rd.
 
 
Results

 
League Table after round 2
 
Position Driver Race 1 Race 2 Total Pts 1 Greboth 25 25 50 2 JBR-Kiwi 20 20 40 3 Mikepjbell 12 15 27 4 phil_oi 15 12 27 5 GazzaGarratt 9 11 20 6 slamminbones 8 10 18 7 Crispy 7 8 15 8 JTLurch 11 n/a 11 9 TEENWOLF25 10 n/a 10 10 Lord Baguette n/a 9 9 11 Misneach DNF n/a 0  
Race 2
Suzuka East
N200
7 laps
 
As with recent weeks, the league race has qualifying but the following races grid is set as a reverse of the finishing position of the previous race.
 
Race
Due to some technical issues with takeaway delivery, Crispy was AFK for the start of the race and as he finished last in the league meant the pole sitter was not going to start.  This caught Lee out who hit the non moving Crispy dropping him to the back again.  I try an ambitious move around the outside of T1 but run a little too wide and get very sideways dropping myself to last with a few seconds to gain to the pack.  The pack stays close together on the run up through the esses with some small contact between Tom and Mike that ends with Mike in to the gravel at the top as Lee also follows in to the gravel.  With all the contact, it had allowed me to recover and following Phil in to T1 of lap 2 as Phil gets it a little wrong allowing me to get passed  with the aim of catching up to Tom.  Tom runs wide through the essess and rejoins abruptly catching both Phil and I out as we both hit him.  Tom recovers well but makes a further mistake as Phil and I get passed to continue our battle.  Again I follow Phil in to T1 as Phil runs wide and giving me the place with only Kiwi now in front.  Though Kiwi had started on the back row with myself, he had a relatively clean race and had opened a lead so was unlikely to be caught without him making an unforced error, which he did not but there was more action down the grid.  Tom, Mike and Lee had managed to all end up on the same section of race track and battle up through the esses of lap 3 and on to lap 4 where at T1 Lee and Tom run wide, Lee manages to recover to the track quite quickly but it catches Mike out.  In taking some avoiding action, Mike gets a bit lose and side swipes Lee harder than a nymphomaniac on Tinder but they both carry on without too much time lost.  This is short lived though as on the following lap, lap 5, Mike touches the grass up through the esses and while he tries valiantly to hold on to it, lots of fish tailing later sees Mike in to the gravel and easily giving the place back to Tom and Lee.  This time though it was Lee's turn to as at T1 of lap 6 Lee runs wide and spins out and although he gets reset quite quickly it is enough for Mike to retake the place which he holds on to until the end.  At the chequered flag, Kiwi crosses the line for the win, myself in 2nd with Phil taking the final podium position.
 
 
Results

 
Race 3
BroadBean Raceway
Gr4
12 laps
 
Race
Going in to the race, most of us had done no practise and were trying to decide which cars to use.  It was quickly established the Audi TT was fast but Kiwi was setting the pace in the WRX so I switched to try the WRX too.  This caused some comedy at the start of the race as the lights went green and both Kiwi and I took off thanks to a 4WD Subaru against everyone else in front wheel drive Audi's.  Kiwi was clearly the fastest though and at no point did I ever look like getting close enough to try a move.  Down the grid, Crispy was suffering due to having harder tyres than the rest of us so was quickly passed by Lee and then Phil.  Lee runs wide out of T4 and clips the wall giving Mike the momentum to make the pass and on the following lap a repeat situation on lap 3 but this time giving Phil the overtake.  Phil catches up to Mike and on lap 8 overtakes Mike round T1, Mike tries to fight back but clips the inside wall of T2 costing too much speed so can't fight to retake his position.  Everyone was spread out by this point and so the positions remained the same until the finish where Kiwi took his second win of the night, as myself and Phil took 2nd and 3rd respectively again.
 
Due to the lack of highlights for this race, I haven't made a video for this race.
 
Results

 
 
Final words
Another night of good racing from everyone.  It was a shame to see Lee have another difficult race in the league race but keeping it together and carrying on to push saw him recover a reasonable position.  Race 2 was a fun race and raced like touring cars should be; as was once said rubbing is racing.  GG all, here's to many more weeks of close and fun racing.

Race 1 - 4 laps Fuji Gr4
 
Fuji is quite a technical track with some tricky tightening radius and off cambers corners with the first half being faster with flowing corners and the last sector being all slow and tight corners.
 
Qualifying
Due to some technical issues this week - the pit out bug - qualifying had to be stopped and restarted.  After the re-start the real qualifying began unfortunately Lee was still unable to leave the pits but we bravely carried on regardless.  @JBR-Kiwi was considerable faster in practise and carried this to qualifying with his first lap being over 1 second faster than Mike who took provisional second spot with myself in third followed by Shucker, Tom, Bones, Phil and Lurch.  Everyone was up to their pace quickly so there was little change over the rest of qualifying with the exception of Pete who improved his lap to move up to provisional third then further improved to take second on the grid.
 
Race
  
 
 
Following on from last week, we continued using a grid start rather than a rolling start which caused Pete some problems as he got too much wheel spin off the line and started to drop back. Paul @slamminbones and @phil bottle both ran deep in to turn 1 causing a knock on effect of pushing some cars wide.  One of which was myself and I rejoined at the back of the pack with the aim of recovering as many positions as possible which was helped by Matt @Misneach_ kindly pushing Paul wide at turn 4 making it easy for me to gain 2 places.  Though this was soon undone due to Gary @techno   who used my car as a brake a couple of times through the final  sector putting me almost to the back again.  At the lead end of the start finish straight, @Shucker firmly in Phil's tow misjudges his braking zone and pinballs in to Phil causing him to run wide but due to the tarmac on the outside of turn 1, Phil gets a good run and manages to stay ahead in to turn 2.  The pack had become reasonably spread out by this point however Mike @Mikepjbell and Kiwi continued to have a brilliant battle for the lead over the remaining laps with Mike taking the lead in to turn 1 of lap 2 but Kiwi soon re-took his position at turn 4 of the same lap and Mike sticking one up the inside of the final corner to again retake the lead.  Though due to the length of the straight, Kiwi manages to draft up to Mike and take his lead at turn 1 of lap 3.  Over lap 3 Kiwi and Mike swap places several times which allows Tom @LordBaguette to catch up and join in the battle with Tom managing to briefly get passed Mike around turn 3 of the final lap though Mike soon retakes this as they go through turn 4.  This fighting slows them down meaning Shucker also is in the fight for the final half a lap but sadly this is ended as Tom runs wide at the hairpin at the start of the final sector and in cutting the grass infield gets reset costing him a podium.    Pete had also managed to catch up to Shucker and with the finish line being a considerable distance down the straight, manages to draft up to Shucker with them finishing just 0.05 seconds apart.
 
Results

 
 
Race 2 10 laps Monza no chicane Gr3
 
Monza is a world famous track for it's heritage and speed with it's long straights separated by chicanes.  In the layout raced this week though we skipped the first chicane meaning Curva Grande became turn 1.
 
Similar to last week, the grid for the second race was a reverse order of the finishing positions of the first race so there is no qualifying report.  Both the Medium and Hard racing compound tyres were available to use though the rule was that at least 1 lap had to be done on the hard compound tyre. 
 
Race
 
 
 
Again we used a grid start rather than a rolling start which has the benefit of keeping the pack far closer together than using a rolling start.  Without the first chicane it opened up the possibility of managing to sort ourselves out ready for, what is normally, the second chicane.  This didn't happen!  Due to the various speeds of people getting off the line and the run down to Curva Grande being so long the tow became important with the cars lining up 4 wide on the run to turn 1.  This didn't end well going a few small nudges through turn 1 saw Gary , Paul and Tom run wide in to the gravel but manage to recover and carry on.  @Lurch wasn't so lucky though as his trip through the gravel ended up with a spin and being parked sideways in front of Lee @GazzaGarratt.  @crispymorgan kept it clean and managed to hold on the lead though running wide in the first chicane and then coming out of the first Lesmo left me with an easy pass for the lead.  As it turns out the Lesmo's were a problem for a few people during the race with Lee, still struggling to get used to his wheel, becoming the second victim as he got out of shape through Lesmo 1 and spun hitting the inside barrier.  Kiwi had close the gap to me in the lead and using the tow down the start finish straight took the lead which I didn't fight too hard as I had picked up a time penalty and I knew I could use the tow from Kiwi to serve my penalty without losing any actual time.  Matt also manages to get a slight tow on Paul going down the start finish straight and has an attempt for a pass in to the first chicane but a massive misjudgement of his braking point saw him run clean over the chicane with the game resetting him giving Lee and easy pass though Matt closely follows Lee up to the Ascari chicane but failing to retake his position.  Lee on the charge at this point puts in a couple of fast lap to catch up to Paul on the following lap and manages to draft passed him going through turn 1 to take fifth place.  Unfortunately for Lee he becomes a victim to Lesmo 1 again costing him a couple of places as Pete and Paul move up the order.  I briefly take the lead from Kiwi down the straight though this is soon reversed at the chicane - at this point I'm reasonably confident Kiwi is on medium tyres and will need to pit whereas I decided to the whole race on the hard compound so won't need to pit so I decide to just follow Kiwi rather risk a pass or lose too much time fighting.  This is undone through as going through the Ascari chicane I get a snap of oversteer running the kerbs costing me time and allowing Mike @Mikepjbell to have the run on me down to Parabolica to take second though this reversed as I get a small tow on to the straight and re-pass Mike through turn 1.  Mike then becomes the next victim of the Lesmo's as he runs wide costing him time and allowing me to have some breathing room to catch back up to the leader, Kiwi.  I get a good run on Kiwi out of Ascari though he only leaves me with outside line for Parabolica which is a difficult pass.  A bit of door to door rubbing ends as Kiwi, as well as Mike in third, peal off to do their pitstops (much to Mikes disguist that I would use such a tactic).  Kiwi exits the pits with a few seconds lead over Mike though due to a mistake through Lesmo 1 and running wide through the gravel and grass, Mike has a run up to Ascari.  Mike takes the inside line and takes second from Kiwi but unfortunately runs a bit deep as Kiwi pulls a switch back and retakes his second place which manages to hold on to until the end of the race.  The final victim of the Lesmo's is Paul who on the final lap, with a chance to catch Matt, runs wide and spins at Lesmo 1 then rejoins and runs wide on the exit of Lesmo 2 also.
 
Results

 
 
Race 3 6 laps Blue Moon Bay Infield N200
 
We've done the oval of this track before but decided to try the infield version that has a few more corners than turning left all the time.  The track has a small number of corners with an especially tricky turn 1 due to the bump in the braking zone as you come off the banked oval section.
 
Again, the grid for this race was decided as a reverse of the finishing positions of the Monza race.
 
Race
 
 
Lee decided to really push the boat out for this race and try manual gears on top of also using his wheel.  This cost him slightly at the start as he forgot to change gear off the line though for the most part Lee, and everyone else, got off clean meaning we were all bunched up through turn 1.  Phil got nudged slightly which Mike was quick to defend that it wasn't him this time though Mike made up for it by then hitting Phil at turn 3.  Lee runs wide at the hairpin giving Kiwi an easy pass up the inside as Gary also follows Lee wide though in Gary's case this was helped by Tom.   Lee follows Kiwi out of the final corner and on to the oval section and with the help of the tow, makes a move down the inside for turn 1 but brakes late and runs wide in to the barriers of the outside of the corner.  This fighting leaves Paul with a small lead much to his own and Mike's surprise but with Kiwi in second and myself in third it was going to be fun to find out how long he could hold the lead as the gap gets smaller over lap 2.  At the end of lap 2, Phil gets in a 3 way fight with Pete and Gary and unfortunately gets switched back on through the final corner and run in to the wall on the outside of the oval.  By this point Kiwi and I had managed to close in on Paul in the lead with Kiwi making his move through turn 3 causing Paul to lose some speed.  I try to take advantage though I get caught out and have to take to the grass to avoid crashing in to Paul as I misjudged the overspeed I had.  The fight continues down to the hairpin where sadly Paul gets a bit to eager and a snap over oversteer sees him get a slow exit allowing me to take second.  While this is going on, Crispy, Matt and Gary are all very close and soon they're joined by Phil, Macca and Lurch for all 6 of them to run nose to tail through turn 1.  It's all kept clean though Crispy forgets which corner he was at and brakes unnecessarily costing him some places.   As they get to the hairpin, Lurch runs wide on the grass dropping him out of contention.  Matt also runs a little wide but managed to keep it on the black stuff until Crispy, who is also running wide due to Macca on his inside, has some contact with Matt and spins him out.  This leads on the final lap as Kiwi and myself start the final lap side by side on the oval as Kiwi takes a wider line through turn 1 to get ahead but I keep my car alongside to have a move in to turn 2 but fail to make the pass until Kiwi runs wide in turn 3.  Though Kiwi makes quick work of recouping the place at the first hairpin which I attempt to make the pass at the second hairpin.  Due to some dodgy ghosting, we pass through each other with Kiwi in the lead but on the outside for the final corner with me on the inside but with only my nose along side.  We try to make it through the final corner but Kiwi, in a repeat of Phil's earlier accident, gets run out wide in to the wall.  As I had so little alongside I should have backed out of the final corner so I lift off to give Kiwi the place back and for him to take the win.  Paul managed to keep in front of Mike also to hold on to third which I believe is his first podium so congratulations!
 
Results

 

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: