Round 5 Pre Interlagos 3rd March 2013

Had a bit of spare time, so got some practice in. Chris helped tune the setup, but i was still 8s off the pace.

Race 1, got a great start and dodged the carnage at the first chicane to be 7th, then outbraked myself on cold tyres at Turn 4 and went straight ahead on to the grass. Rejoined second last and had a great dice with nutybolts until he dropped out at half distance, then I spent the rest of the race on my own, staying out of the way as i got lapped by car after car.

Race 2, I'm on pole! Yay reverse grid. Could barely see the lights and missed the start completely, fell back to fifth by Turn 1 and was back to tenth by the end of the first lap. Then I just put my head down and focused on being neat and tidy and did 12 laps in a row, without making a mistake. I've never done that before! Beat my PB repeatedly along the way and never saw another car, until Corty & Racer lapped me two laps from the end.

Great track, good fun. See y'all in two weeks.

See...the Rover can be competitive sometimes...(And no...I wasn't being lapped!)

First race I had a ball dicing with DV_8. By the time his tires died mine were getting greasy. I decided that was it and would just focus on maintaining the gap on him until i noticed the gap to Chris falling... quickly. So pedal down again and on the final lap i was right behind him. If only there was another lap.
I thought that was a great race but the best was yet to come.

Race 2. What a cracker. Reverse grid saw me mid pack nearly the same as i qualified but with a slight tweak to my roll bar setting between races saw the Calsonic Skyline gain some mid corner speed and less under steer. Well the first corner went well. After backing it into the corner i came out of the next two corners in second place.





After a few very fun laps dicing with Growler, Chris, Racer and Corty I coped a bump





I saw Growler get loose on the same corner on he first lap so I stayed wide and didn't turn in to avoided the rover punting me. Corty did turn in and gave me a lift


After that it was a few awesome moments battling for the lead with Corty until my tires got greasy again and I tank slapped onto the main straight giving Racer the easy pass. I struggled with very little rear traction for the next few laps until they had cooled off by that time DV_8 and Billy Bob were bearing down on me so I just hoped that they would battle each other and hang back long enough for my rears to cool off. Once they cooled I got out of there and cruised for finish and my third podium place.

Absolutely awesome racing tonight. Some crazy passes by Corty and some great battles. Very close racing at times it was a blast,
Thanks guys.

Growler wrote:See...the Rover can be competitive sometimes...(And no...I wasn't being lapped!)

Chris, Yourself and I were 3 wide a few times on those first laps

some great screenshots! might need to turn the replay file saver thingy back on. definitely some great racing. sorry i hadnt developed the cosworth setup much david before i signed with mercedes.

aus_chrisrx wrote:sorry i hadnt developed the cosworth setup much david before i signed with mercedes.

Chris, it's not the set-up holding me back, it's the driver.

Good racing again last night.... usual disconnect in R1, always happens halfway thru L2.
Race 2 was much better apart from starting at the rear. Volvo was pretty good here, not as nimble as the Merc or BMW but a little more stick up the hill and down the straight. Finally finished P5 I think from a P11 start so not so bad. Had an awsome Battle with DV finally slipping up the inside at the bottom of the hill for a close run to the flag.
Many apologies to Grunter for running you off L3 i think, i didnt mean to squeeze you that much, after watching the replay i noticed i moved into you under brakes.. didnt feel a touch but on replay it looks like there was.. sorry dude.

What an awesome nights racing, especially race 2.
I didn’t do any practise whatsoever, but know this track reasonably well.
I used my setup from Canada but used hards all round because of the long straights (Which wasn't that hard on tires).

Race 1
From memory I qualified 7th. I had a reasonable start and ended up behind the top group down the long first straight. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay with them, but I did slowly increased the gap to the group behind me. From about lap 5 the race got pretty boring as there was no one around me and all I was doing were practise laps.
I finished 6th

Race 2
Because of the reverse grid I started 4th. Again I had a good start and was up to 2nd into the first corner. Down the long first straight three of the faster cars passed me. Going into the braking zone I noticed all three were braking way too late and they all went wide, I dived underneath them all and came out in front. I spent the next 2 – 3 laps making the Rover as wide as possible. Sometimes we were 3 wide (Me, ChrisRX and FCDean) crossing the start/finish line into turn 1 (It makes a great replay!)
On lap 4? I was next to Billy Bob coming up to turn one again when he locked up and hit me in the side which made me spin off into the kitty litter.
I spent the rest of the race staying in front of Dano in the Skyline. Towards the end of the race I had ChrisRX catch me again (After he pitted). The last lap was going to be a close race but he spun before we got there.
I finished 6th

All in all it was an enjoyable night.

BillyBob wrote:
Many apologies to Grunter for running you off L3 i think, i didnt mean to squeeze you that much, after watching the replay i noticed i moved into you under brakes.. didnt feel a touch but on replay it looks like there was.. sorry dude.

Duh... soory Growler.... i meant to say Growler here

Had a decent run in the Commodore, but tyre wear got the best of me in both races. Had a 5th in race 1 after a good battle with Dean but ran out of tyres at about 2/3 distance. Made a couple of minor errors in race 2 but had decent pace until the tyres got me and I lost out in the end to Billy to finish 5th. Copped a bit of lag coming onto the straight which allowed him past, I had the speed to get him on the straight but he positioned the car well and I just fell short.

Results are up on sls

Missed this one, was at a mate's birthday party. 2 free races to Corty, well done mate, brings him from 22 points behind to 18 points in the championship lead. Gonna be tough to claw that one back.