Archive for December, 2009

Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 8 – NHMS – 1st Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

It definitely isn’t often that I win one. It’s even more rare that I win more than once in a week. After my success on the road side in the Skip Barber Series recently I was delighted to be able to prove myself on the ovals in a manner which frankly made me feel pretty good about myself. I’m not that fast, but I certainly made myself feel like it!

I ran two races this week. The first ended in disaster as I was unfortunately caught up in someone else’s accident. The very same thing almost happened in my second race, but after I squeezed by (close enough to get a penalty for car contact, it should be noted), I ran cleanly until the finish.

Before my first race I ran a qualifying session and came out with a 32.434. After my dropped race I qualified again and set a 32.328. In warm-up for my main race I set a 32.260 and felt very, very confident. I was fastest in the session, after all, beating the 3 cars in the race holding a higher rating than my own.

I started in 4th and passed the 3rd-place starter around the outside on the first lap. By lap 2 I was close behind the leaders and saw the 2nd-place car get sideways. When he did it again in the next turn I didn’t react immediately, but when I saw him get completely sideways knew this was going to be tight… I JUST squeezed by on the outside of the turn and got a car contact penalty – it was that close.

Because of the amount I had slowed down to get around the spinning car, the leader was now almost half a lap ahead, while the new 3rd-place car was right behind me. I first had to fight off the challenger behind, then set my sights on the leader.

I reeled off laptimes which frankly, I’m amazed I achieved. I set a laptime of 32.190 on both laps 8 and 11 during my charge. I caught the leader by lap 15 and for the next few laps tried to find a place where I could get by cleanly.

Because of the lack of vision out of the right side of the car, I was never really sure whether I could use more of the racetrack. This forced me to stay very low and give most of the race track to my opponent. While running low though attempting to make the pass for the lead I did discover just how well the car handled down there (similar things I had found at both Irwindale and Richmond), and hoped to be able to use that information later.

After a few side by side attempts, I finally took the lead on lap 19 after the leader bobbled in the middle of the turn. Once I had opened up a gap I set about just having fun with the car and trying to work on my skills. On lap 46 of 50, while holding a 7 second lead I set a 32.148, the fastest lap of the race. This was done using the low line around NHMS.


Edited highlights of race.

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Skip Barber Race Series – 2009S4 Week 8 – NHMS – 1st Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

I had a dropped race just before this one where honestly, I was pathetic. I screwed up so many times coming back onto the oval that I decided in this race I was going to go much slower. To my surprise that actually seemed to give me a better exit, so I got pretty excited about that! I hadn’t qualified before my first race, but did do before this second one. I set a time of 1:11.823 – which I thought a decent lap – and that gave me pole position for my race later on (the amount of drivers registered was large and this gave me a split where I was the 4th highest rated driver).

I got a great start and led until we exited the oval. I braked badly, locked up and went very wide, letting 1 car past and almost dropping to 4th! Luckily I regained my composure straight away and set about chasing down the leader.

I reeled off a number of really nice laps while in 2nd, including a 1:11.915, and we had a really tight battle for position.

Much to my amusement, the instant I passed the leader on lap 7 I did exactly the same thing as I had on the first lap and let him by as I slid wide exiting the oval! I typed “lol” into the chat as I couldn’t believe I’d done exactly the same thing again.

We had another series of laps were we were very close to each other and it wasn’t until lap 16 when I got by him for good. He slapped the wall coming off oval turn 2 and damaged his suspension. During my charge to pass him I set my fastest lap of the race at 1:11.274! I took the lead on lap 16 and never looked back, only now having to worry about the backmarkers ahead of me!

Really feels awesome to win races, doesn’t it? After doing it last week at Road Atlanta in this series too I’m beginning to wonder what the hell is going on!

Full battle part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXm9pEOWLQQ
Full battle part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX-L9hgT-vI


Edited highlights of race.

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 7 – Richmond – 5th Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

This race was one of those ones that makes the hobby worthwhile. Like at Irwindale I felt utterly competitive and even managed to get in a battle with other cars. It’s not often, especially in the Late Model, that I find myself side by side with anyone, ever, I just haven’t been lucky.

This time, that would all be different. Once again I did no practice whatsoever and grabbed Rusty Greer’s setup from the iRacing forum. I jumped in a qualifying session and set a very competitive time of 23.183. This laptime was fantastic for me, but only put me 7th in a starting order for the race because of the company I was in. I was rated as the 11th best driver out of 11!

Not phased by the fact that I was probably about to get my ass kicked in the race server, I started the race wanting to run to the very best of my abilities. I knew that I had set a faster qualifying time than some of those behind and in warm-up had managed to beat my qualifying time by 0.001s.

I got a good start and held my 7th place until lap 12. During those first 12 laps I had been getting closer and closer to the highest rated driver in the race, who was running 6th. It looked like his tires were not performing and I squeezed by on lap 12 and was followed through by the person who had been running behind me since the race started.

I set my fastest lap on lap 14 (23.071) and continued to push hard. I worked my way closer and closer to the car in 5th and on lap 20 he scraped the wall hard enough that it allowed me time to go by into turn 3. From this point until the end of the race I ran in 5th-place, but felt I was a teeny bit faster than the cars in 3rd and 4th. I closed in on them and after watching their ferocious battle for position managed to get side by side with each of them at different times, but ultimately had to settle for 5th.

I really, REALLY enjoyed this one. I put the full, unedited race up on Youtube.

Full race part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYcZcBGKQo
Full race part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMijYVa4n1E


Edited highlights of race.

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 6 – Stafford – 7th Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Stafford has never been one of my best tracks for the Late Model and I think it showed during the race this week. I find it terribly hard to be consistent in turns 1 and 2 because they seem to be different every time I get there. Nevertheless, I qualified with a 20.764 and would start 8th.

I was also ranked as the 8th best driver out of the 9 runners, so fully expected to find myself at the back very soon. Infact, as soon as the race started I decided to drop to the back and simply run the race out, hoping someone would drop out. Thankfully, they did, and I managed to get to 7th-place before my screen froze. Not knowing whether it would come back I simply steered the car into the infield. I heard a crunch and knew it was time to exit the car.

I decided not to rejoin the race, or run another. Stafford is that poor of a track that I was willing to take away any points that I could get.


Edited highlights of race.

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 5 – Irwindale – 5th Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Having not raced at Irwindale in a really long time and with a bad week at Lime Rock Park behind me, I again wasn’t sure what to expect at Irwindale. In the end, I had a pretty good week and scored decent points.

I qualified just before my race, as usual using Rusty Greer’s fantastic setup from the iRacing forum and doing no prior testing whatsoever. I managed to set a decent time of 18.768 which put me in a great mood for my race 15 minutes later.

This race gave me a lot of the confidence back which I’d lost at Lime Rock Park. I felt quite competitive and in a field of 16 drivers I was rated 9th, but had managed to qualify 5th! My luck continued when the 3rd-place starter failed to take the grid and I found myself in 3rd!

The race wasn’t exciting because of any on-track battles, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself because I didn’t feel out of depth with people who are usually much faster… I lapped consistently and was eventually only passed by two higher rated drivers on laps 17 and 18. I continued in my new position of 5th all the way until the end of the race. Hopefully this was a sign of things to come. I felt like I was on the edge of getting my sim racing form back again.


Edited highlights of race.

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 4 – Lime Rock Park – 7th Place

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

This week’s race at Lime Rock Park wasn’t really destined to set the world on fire. Whenever I tested this combination I had a very hard time putting together any laps which were clean and/or fast. Having done fairly well at this track in the Skip Barber Series I found this very disappointing.

I was ranked 13th in a field of 15 and would be starting 9th having set a qualifying time before the race of 56.835 – well off the pace.

I got a very good start and managed to get to 6th by the end of the first lap. This was mainly due to errors by others, but I’d take it! By lap 5 I was in 5th and ran well until lap 10. I spun the car into the wall under the bridge and had pretty serious damage on the right front. I continued driving as obviously most turns at Lime Rock Park don’t put a lot of weight on that wheel… I slowly drifted back and settled into 7th by the end of the 11th lap. I stayed there until the end.


Edited highlights of race.

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 3 – Concord – 3rd Place

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Still a week down in the points I knew I wanted to get a big point haul. I figure that if I can get in a position to challenge for the lead in my division while I still have a week in-hand, there’s nothing anybody can do to get rid of me. Besides, Concord is my favorite track in the Late Model!

I ran a qualifying session for Concord early in the week and set a 16.800 – my best ever lap around this unique 3-turn oval. I felt good, I felt confident… Perhaps too confident!

I ran two races this week, the first would end up as a drop-week but was my best opportunity to score big points. I was in a position to win and I threw it away with a silly error. My good qualifying effort (11th fastest in my division) had placed me 2nd on the grid.


Edited Highlights of this dropped race.

I got an awesome start and by lap 9 was holding firm in 2nd-place. We had just started to get into traffic when I came out of turn one a little sideways and was unable to react in time to save it… I gently slid into the inside wall and had to wait for the entire field to go by. I didn’t even get an incident point as it was such a slow, lurid slide I guess the system didn’t think it was possible! By the time I rejoined, I had just been lapped by the car in 3rd. I was in 11th-place.

I kept lapping, really just so that I could build some safety rating. What really made me feel bad during the race is that I kept up with the car in 3rd-place the entire race with ease and eventually finished in 6th-place due to my passes and other people’s crashes.

I ran a later race and expected to only pull low points as the strength of field was much higher, I was starting 7th and was in car number 12… I expected that during the race I would be ran all over by faster cars… As it turned out though, things worked miraculously in my favor.


Edited highlights of race.

I got a good start, but crossed the line in 8th-place to start the race, though I had passed for 7th by the end of lap one.

On lap 3, coming out of turn one I so very, very nearly spun in exactly the same place I had on my dropped race – felt very lucky. I still looked to be within striking distance of the leader at this point as we were all lined up and racing very tightly.

By lap 5 I had two faster cars running right behind me. I decided to let them go and ran high in the turn. They both quickly slipped by and this dropped me to 9th.

I had noticed again here at Concord that I run a lot lower than other cars, especially in the final turn. This helped a lot when on lap 10 I came around the turn to see slow cars and smoke. I stayed low and to my surprise saw cars go flying by on the high side. I guess they wanted to be involved in the crash and they definately got their wish. I crossed the line that lap in 11th-place, but when the positions shook out I was in 8th behind cars which looked damaged.

I took my time, I felt there was absolutely no rush getting by these damaged cars and knew that the way they were bouncing off the wall was eventually going to end their race. In addition to that, people kept throwing perfectly healthy cars into the wall (or each other) too and by lap 14 I was 6th, lap 16 in 5th, lap 18 in 4th and by lap 19 I had got all the way into 3rd-place. I had no chance of finishing higher because the two cars ahead had lapped me earlier in the race when I had slowed down for a crash – and they didn’t.

From laps 19 to 50 things went relatively quiet. I set my fastest lap of 16.810 on lap 25 and ran incident free all the way. Looking at the stats after the race I was delighted to see that I became the highest scoring person in my division for that week with 114 points. Things were starting to look good…

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Late Model Tour – 2009S4 Week 2 – Oxford Plains – 6th Place

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I hadn’t run any races at all during week one (moving house will do that for you), but decided that this season, for the first time since 2008, I intended to regularly run at least one series. As things stood, the Chevy Monte-Carlo SS was my favorite car in iRacing so it made sense for me to make sure that series would count! As things stood at the start of Week 2 I was already 94 points behind.


Edited video highlights of the Week 2 race.

I did not qualify prior to the event and this put me 6th in the starting lineup with the number 6 race car. Theoretically I should be finishing in 6th place if the iRating is functioning properly as those with lower numbers should be faster than I am.

I got a good start but being on the outside knew I would have to lose some positions on the inside soon. I noticed a gap behind the inside car forming so around the first turn made sure to let him by so I could drop to the inside in 7th-place.

By lap 2 I had worked my way underneath the 6th-place car and started trying to work on the car ahead. He was car #7 so I expected to be fairly evenly matched.

I was pushing hard and had noticed that I was up to half a car width closer to the inside kerbing than other cars were running. I felt this risk worth it as there’s a lot of time to be gained running a slightly shorter circle, but on lap 6 it would bite me as I clipped the kerb and quickly found myself under pressure from the car behind.

By the end of lap 7 I was back in 7th and told myself to work on not making the same mistake again. I settled in and ran in 7th-place until lap 16 when I’d closed up right behind the man in 6th. I noticed I had a lot better mid-turn speed and was working hard to capitalize on that when I tapped the car ahead and saw his back end step out… I lifted and waited, hoping he would gather it back up so I wouldn’t feel so bad – and thankfully saw him get back in the groove. I gave him a bit of room and time to get back into a rhythm before closing back in again.

By lap 20 I had settled into a really good pace, I’d also started getting perilously close to the kerbing again but the car felt so good in that groove, I decided to keep it going again.

It took another two laps before I got close enough to make a move on the car ahead. With my car running so low on the track and the car ahead running high, I was actually able to make an extremely easy pass, moving into 6th.

For the next 28 laps I was defending my position, trying to make as few mistakes as possible. The car I’d passed on lap 22 stayed with me extremely tightly until the raced ended on lap 50, but he could not pass.

I set a 15.758 laptime during the race, which looking back on it makes my 6th-place kind of disappointing. I feel that if I had qualified I could have really scored a lot more points. I scored 64 points, which compares to the 101 scored by the highest scorer in my division for the week. Still, I was happy. I had good pace, I had a clean race with no incidents and I’d put a score on the board.

I did apologise to the person I tapped during my race, he said he didn’t actually think I’d hit him, but I had seen a zero-point contact penalty notification so knew I had…

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