Post Symmons Plains

Well, that would have to be one of the hardest, and wierdest, races i've ever been in. Great racing by, from the looks of everything it looks like everyone had an eventful race

I found a good setup around here which allowed me to do low 54s pretty comfortably, the only hairy place for me really was under brakes at the end of the back straight, that was always a deep breath moment there...

QUAL - I did a 54.3 early on in the session, and about mid-session i took a little bit more off it, i couldn;t go any quicker, and it held up until Dan put in a great lap right at the end of the session to snatch pole, with Shano right behind me as well on a very similiar time.

RACE - I got a good launch and followed Dan through the opening corner, and got alongside him into the hairpin, but he still led on the backstraight. I was right behind though and dived up the inside under brakes at the end of the backstriaight, managing to get through and immediatly get a small break.

Shano got into the second and for the next 25 or so laps i slowly eeked out the gap to Shano to about 10 secs, with the 3rd place batlle of Dan & Webber nearly 30secs behind. I put a lap on Tookey who made a mistake and spun me at the hairpin, which dropped my lead on Shano to about 2secs.. Shano started closing a little, and then he made a mistake too and hit me at the hairpin, it was all good though, these things happen and we continued on in the same order once we both got pointed in the right direction again.

A few laps later i had a spin at turn 1 (i knocked the gear lever into neutral rather than 2nd gear...) and shano got through... i pretty much then made my pitstop, hoping to put some hot laps in.

Upon exiting the pits i was astonished to see Webber ahead of me... i had noticed he had pitted early when he was half a minute behind, but i guess my 3 spins and some great driving by Webber negated the gap. I latched on behind him and held him for a few laps before i started to gain. I thought his tyres must have been going off so i tried to put the pressure on as by know we were the one's battling for the win (i think Shano had a long stop)

I made a mistake at the end of the backstraight which allowed Web to get away... until the next lap when he did the same as me and the gap we back to the same as before, nose-to-tail. It really was a good fun battle, i snuck through when Web ran wide, and we were running close again for a few laps until unfortunatly Web went off a few laps from the end, allowing me to cruise to the win.

A much harder win than i thought it was going to be after 15 laps, but am pleased to win. Well done all on the great drivers, particularly Berls in third, and a great drive from GrpC in the little bimmer.

Has been a while between wins for me on TTR, my last win was the Bathurst enduro back in season 1 at the of the 'TCL Enduro Series'

Roll on next weekend at Winton

Ill make this quick, cos well, im tired.

WD to Shaz first of all, finishing well, and being very considerate to ppl passing. Thankyou.
BL to Bob, Wally and anyone else for the DC's, must be so frustrating. Wish i could help lol. Shame to see.

I qualified 5th, with a PB of 55.3. Beat Berlsy Yessss. Lol.

Race.

Got off to a great start his time and no Shano ramming.
Basically found myself behind Berlsy and in front of GrpC.

For about 38 laps i was chasing Berlsy around and around and around, always between 1 and 2 seconds behind him. Again, very nice racing from him, just cant get that last gap down. He keeps pulling away. Around lap 40 it was time to pit, but before i did that i thought i should ram something, so i ran off on the last corner and smashed into a barrier, flipping my car. Thankfully i was only a couple metres from the pits, and didnt have any major damage.

Pitted in behind Berls and he left before me, i got out and i was 13 seconds behind him. GRRR.

From then on i was just going as fast and clean as i could, trying to save 6th spot.
A couple people must have had trouble in pits, cos i made up a place or two somewhere, without passing anyone.

By the last 5 laps i had caught up to DanGtsx who must've had some troubles cos i was catching him at 1 second a lap. With 2 laps to go, i lost it the entry to that stupid last corner again, and he got away, with 4th spot.

I spent the last lap holding off GrpC, who somehow stayed behind me for most of the race, its very unsettling having him in the rear view mirror. Even in the M3 i had to be on my best form to keep him 2 seconds behind me. Amazing. Im not sure he will be behind me at Winton, such a tight circuit, there will be no where to hide.
Would love to battle with him and Berls there again.

Very happy with 5th, again finishing in the place i qualified. If i can keep doing that ill be happy.

I know some people are missing this series, but you race who is there, so ill take the higher grid places no worries. Lol.

A great race.

Not much to say here again.
qualified as expected and got into 2nd position in class and around 8th when i discoed on lap 38. a bit frustrating as shayn says because the graphic card let me get to that amount of laps and I thought i was going to make it through last night.

This is a tough series and whoever wins this in open category and the classes will be well deserved winners.

Great fun and enjoyed every lap I did complete.
W26

qualified 6th just behind shayn in the nissan, was a pb so was pretty happy with that

got a good start and settled in behind shayn for a few laps. had a good battle with him for a couple of laps till he got crossed up at the last corner and allowed me to get up the inside. from there just tried to gap shayn and tried to keep reasonably close to the leaders. never got more than 2 secs away from shayn who was driving like a superstar for more than half of the race. after about 35mins my tyres were buggared and shayn was all over me so it was time to get some fresh rubber. after pitting caught dan in the closing stages and got passed when he had some trouble with a lapped car. from there just put some good laps together to bring the boat home in third.
looking forward to winton, hopefully ill be able to keep up with shayn and groupc there

Quali, started out real slow, hadnt had time to practise. my PB through the week was a 54.5. on my last flying lap i managed a 54 flat after a few setup adjustments and managed pole.

Race - had an ok start, had crap race pace shano and racer got through.
due to 2 hours sleep over the last 48 hours i made many mistakes and cooked my tyres.
was in 3rd for the remaining 20min, sort of taken out by tookey as i assumed hed move out of the way leaving turn 1 got light over the hill and hit his bum sideways looping me and letting bersely through. shayn woulda had me by the last few laps but he lopped it too, 4th spot.

Qual - looks like Dan is the Senna of this series, he is blindingly quick during qualy. I set a 54.5 early on, knew that was by far my best, so left it at that. Good enough for 4th behind racer69 and Shano as well.

Race - started from the back because my graphics stuffed up during warmup & i had to restart rfactor. Probably a good thing too, because this was a hard track. The first stint, I had a great battle with Dan_gtsx for many laps, but I also had multiple spins, and almost repeated my over-the-fence adventure from 2 seasons ago.

Tyres were absolutely rooted by halfway, so i pitted, then had a great 25 minutes of pounding consistent laps - not fast but no errors. Somehow I had jumped shano and racer69 in the undercut, but the tyres started to pay for the early pitstop by having Racer home in during the final 10 minutes.

After a while, the pressure was too much and I locked em up down the back straight. Into the tyres head on and broke something very important. So from then on it was a limp home, car pulling like a bucking horse under brakes, trying to stay in front of an amazing drive from Berlsy.

Winton's gonna be really interesting if GroupCAction, Wally, and the Skylines get some practice in!

I have to admit, Symmons isn't my most fav track and turning up here in an M3 was gonna result in a LONG hour haha... I did abit of practice through the week, not so much working on a Symmons setup but trying to understand the setup needed for the M3 over a race distance...

Quali: Knowing this was gonna be a HP track all day long i got out there and happen to rip my PB, parked it back in the pits and watched an EPIC quali with all your Sierra boys!!! WOW... at one stage there the top 4 were separated by less than a TENTH!!
In the end i finished quali in 8th

Race: Got a good getaway, settled in behind Bersly and Shayn... the 1st stint was all about trying to stay with those boys as they were 1/2second quicker than me in Quali, i managed to stay in sorta close contact... Around 5secs but knew that my tyres would last longer than probably anyones i knew that if i made no mistakes that i may be in the mix later in the race... To my surprise i actually led 2-3laps cause i really thought those Sierras had enough of a gap to come out in front of me.
Again i pitted just for a splash of fuel, no tyres and off i went & i came out about the same distance to Bersly, but again... his late race pace is just amazing!! He pulled away easily and from there it was trying to hold off Shayn but he nailed me down the backstraight and eased away... I caught back up after he made a mistake but i had no tyres left to attack but i settled for another 6th place!!

Really looking forward to Winton this coming weekend, the 1st track that may suit this M3... Tyre life got better at Symmons so i hope to be in the mix at Winton and annoy you Sierra boys haha

first off to racer.. who i ploughed hard at hairpin..i sorry for that.... bloody cat went under pedals and copped a kick in the face for its trouble... dont ring rspca lol....

quali 3rd my best so far.....

race... start went welll battled wit dan for a bit but he fell off after a few laps...

just settled in to a fairly good pace until first stop...
got a drive through lol... stopped and i wasnt sure if i had to pull into my pit so i did and got another set of tyres lol... and well i still had the drive through after that lol... so drove through again for the 3 rd time lol...
that stuffed my race badly.... i was really hopin to pull a top 3.... well done to all that finished was a tough track....
i startin to get the swing of these sierras bring on sandown and bathurst lol....

btw racer, sorry about sliding out in front of you on the second last lap, making you
t-bone me. Even though you had miles of space to 2nd, it coulda been a disaster.
so yeah. sorry.

i really dont like that last corner. lol.

Just watched the replay and WD Kris on managing to jump the fence! Poor luck getting taken out at the hairpin by Tookey on lap 1

lol,
thaks for the night guys
um not such a good night for me, i worked all weekend so i was a bit buggered anyway
so i didnt mind the early night, couldnt get that corner sorted after the braking markers were taken out.
is it true if you hit space bar it puts your car back on the track?? if it did do that you could cause a big pile up?

shaynskyline wrote:btw racer, sorry about sliding out in front of you on the second last lap, making you
t-bone me. Even though you had miles of space to 2nd, it coulda been a disaster.
so yeah. sorry.

No problem at all Shayn, you were racing for position, i was trying to just stay behind you to let you have a crack at Dan. No sweat


Same to you Shano, no probs at all, these things happen