Round 5 - Anderstorp (September 8) POST RACE

Another Great Night of TCL Racing. Post Up your reports!!

Did a total of 9 laps practice, then qualified at the back, as usual.

Race 1: I got a good start, every time, but a few people in front of me were dozing. Then I just drove carefully while carnage was going on all around me. Ended up having a really good race, people around me all the way until the second last lap, when i backed off to save fuel. Not enough, i ran out at the second last corner, while running last and Nuty pushed me home, thanks mate.

Race 2: I started on a full tank with medium tyres on the front and softs on the back. A couple of times there were cars near me to race with, but most of the time i was on my own. Two cars were a long way behind me, I'm not used to that.

With just 11 minutes to go. i was very low on fuel, the front tyres were rooted and the rears were in very good shape, so I came in for softs all around and 40 litres of fuel and then I finished the race with just two litres in the tank.

I was a bit disappointed with my efforts last night, just totally distracted and out of sorts.

I did a few laps of practice earlier in the week and was happy enough with my setup, threw some more rear spring and rear bar at it than I normally would and it seemed to respond. I did mainly Race 1 Length Runs to check tyre longevity and decided on a Very Hard/Hard combo. I thought a low 40 was a reasonable result in that trim.

FCDean piped up when following me in Qualifying suggesting "hey CD, there is something wrong with your car......" (big pause).... then "I can actually see it!!". Very happy to have the decent connection now, so I can race you guys without disappearing. I got an OK lap in qualifying with a 39.9, saved my best for that session for 5th on the grid.

Race 1 - Line up 5th - can't see the start lights on my 19 inch monitor..... WTF... So I went when everyone else went on the first three starts and got blown away on two of them, the last one I was up in 4th and looking strong before a restart was called. Then on the 4th go at a race start, I jumped by a gnats hair and got pinged with a drive-thru. "Really???" Grrr.

Anyway, drove through, then had some fun coming through the field, I was actually making some headway and then drove off the road at the second last corner and bounced off the guardrail, losing a few spots. No reason for it other than lack of concentration. I had a good battle with CM PUNK, TTRVP, Roadrat,DV8, caught Ryan Lee on the last lap (he made life difficult, but it was a good battle and I slipped by). Good fun, but disappointed with myself again, pretty average result from where I started. Finished 11th.

Race 2 - I took BillyBob's advice and watched the Race Clock, got a good jump and beat Grunter67 to T1, I think there was a bit of chaos down into T2, then I ended up at the tail of a CortyGT, Growler, Racer69, Shayn, FCDean battle. I had Sleek in his annoyingly fast Alfa up my clacker also! This was heaps of fun, eventually Growler and CortyGT fell off with minor errors, I managed to sneak by FCDean after a mega battle and was gifted two spots when Shayn and Racer69 came together into the first banked right-hander. I pulled a small gap on Dean and Sleek who had the Alfa hooked up, so was up to 3rd at that stage about 10 seconds behind Fez. I then made a dumb error by driving into the first banking too deep and slipping off. I lost a heap of spots.

Got going again, then pitted, good in lap and out lap (Pit Stop practice pays off). I then cut some great consistent laps (my best of the night) and then had my usual mega battle with Shayn who was pretty strong, I finally slipped by, then he repassed me after I outbraked myself at the end of the straight. Very clean, tight racing, no paint exchanged at all. Good stuff!

Then we had another Red Volvo (local Swedish guy at his home track) come out of the pits (he was a lap down) trying to RACE Shayn and myself and he must have been pretty much ignoring the blue flags. I rolled out of it and let Shayn fight with the Swede, they bounced off each other a few times and I wanted no part of it! This went on for a few laps, anyway, I think Swede yielded and let me go but then started fighting Shayn again! Maybe he didn't like the fact you had the same paintjob Shayn!! I suspect he eventually carted you off unfortunately which was a shame...

I pulled away a bit, then deja vu - realised I wouldn't have enough fuel - I was a lap short! Two weeks in a row I've done this! I think I was in the top 6 at the time too. So I pitted with a lap to go, lost a bunch of spots in doing so, splashed some fuel in it and rejoined for one last lap, chased DV8 home but made no impression as he was hooked up also. Finished 11th again.

I'm just not doing a good enough job at the moment, not happy with my form and probably need to give myself an uppercut. I'm hoping for a better run in Brno next weekend!

Congratulations Fez for a good run mate, you did a really good job last night! A shame also that Aus-ChrisRX was having PC dramas because he would have been quick as always no doubt.
Good job to all, top racing!!!

dean called me with 3mins to go in warmup for 2nd race as i was trying to get in to server to try and get some points on my laptop but couldnt get on as it must have ticked over to race. stupid fucked computer, gives me a reason to save and get a better machine though. will try and race on the laptop this weekend but unsure how it'll perform, have graphics turned way down.