Please discuss the race here

That was a good event tonight. The format with 2 sprint races worked well.

I had a good first race, tracking Dan for a very long time. When at last he made a mistake and was whale boning just before the bridge, I put myself in a position to make a pass if I could get ahead before that right hander onto the bridge. Unfortunately I got side-swiped as Dan was still trying to control the car (at least I assume that was it ), and ended up losing a few positions and having a badly steering car to nurse through the last 4 or 5 laps. Finished about 13th.

Race 2 was better, and I enjoyed some close racing with a few drivers. On about lap 2, Mr E.Pond slowed suddenly on the bend just before the underpass, himself trying to avoid running into the car ahead. I hit him, pushing him onto the grass. I held back though to let him recover in front of me, losing 2 positions as the following cars went through. Sorry for the contact Mr E.Pond; I was just not expecting you to slow down at that time. The rest of the race went well, I overtook a couple of cars, and a couple were passed as they recovered from an off. Finished 9th in the end. Not a bad result for me.

With the Christmas break upon us, is it an opportune time to discuss the weight penalties? If Hannu's achievement tonight is a general reflection, I think an increase in the weight penalty would be beneficial. Might be worth somebody looking at the stats for the races to date.

Had my first laps on the combo on the previous night. Horrible results. I joined the session 10 mins before quali so I had cold feet. And itchy balls from shaving them earlier. Anywhoooo...

Quali went bad and the car felt like I was trying to clean a toilet with an anaconda that had eaten a hippo. However the race went ok and gained a few places. Went on to do minor setup changes and I was ready for the second sprint.

The car felt more stable and I had some great racing going with Danowat. Funny thing was, the moment I passed him was also the moment when he got away from my reach by plowing through some grass.

On the last laps DaweWS was involved in a crash and resumed between me and Danowat. I did overtake him after he made an error but we ended up bumping and spinning each other.

Overall a nice night and congratulations to the podiumers.

Ok qualifying: Unfortunately I had dinner a bit late, so I had to rush then jump in to get in a few laps. I ended up 0.0x seconds from being directly behind the RAC's which was a shame, but it was all very tight.

Race 1: My first 6 laps were dreadful, after that I pulled it together but it was too late by then.

Race 2: This turned out to be an extremely tight race. Sorry for any minor taps with anyone, its difficult to follow other cars as closely as I was doing. Anyway I moved up to 4th for most of the race behind wimpie, which was turning out to be an epic battle between me, wimpie, lococost, and pilot. Around lap 9 / 10 things got very tight, I made a small error and lococost squeezed past. Then wimpie made an error, lococost then slipped past him, and I moved alongside. Unfortunately it then looked as though wimpie swerved infront of me to defend, but he may have just lost the back of the car getting the power down... anyway, it resulted in the usual lag collision, with me facing the wrong way and the car suffering lots of damage, and down in 7th with Mr Spankmeyer on my tail, the horn sounding was my frustration venting. I then made ANOTHER tiny error, but felt I had it under control, however spanky went down my inside, while I still had lots of speed to try and get rid of. This meant no room for me to slow down, a bit of lag again, and contact again. So after all that an 8th position. Some epic battles however.

I'll say Merry Xmas to everyone here, and congrats to Hannu for the win.

Edit: Dan, sorry for always forgetting to change my name to D. Williams..

I had practiced for this event so was more confident, and happy with qualifying 2nd.

However the start of the first race was terrible for me, my PC was jerky until the field spread out and I was way too nervous. A mistake let eraser past during the shocking early laps. I then settled down and caught eraser up again, was some good racing but followed him home into 3rd.

Second race and it was my turn to apply some pressure to eraser for the early laps, but he held it together. I then made an unforced error in touching the grass which relegated me to 6th right behind the three FZ50's of lococost, DaveWS and wimpie. These were fighting amongst themselves and I couldn't find a way past. I was thinking I would just have to wait for one of them to make a mistake... like what I do! Near the end wimpie and DaveWS collided during a fish tailing exercise so I got a lucky 4th place finish. Was enjoyable racing though

I would like to apologise to dan for not showing up.
Around 18:00 GMT after a little session on LFS I went to stretch my back in bed and fell asleep, just woke up :\.

On a bright note, I wasn't a hazard on T1 this race.

very, VERY enjoyable race for me this one, really enjoyed every minute of it.

Went into these rounds with totally no practice, my first lap was about 15 minutes before the race, however, it went pretty well.

Qualifying was fairly uneventfull, although I must apologise to Bean0 for the contact.

Races were VERY exciting, had some nice battles with Kojak (Spanky), at one point we were side by side into T1, and I had no choice but to take a HUGGGEE cut to avoid taking him out.
Also had some good racing with E.Pond, Nial and a few others, must also apologise to bozo, who I pole-axed whilst completely out of control, sorry mate.

Overall, it was a TOP round, hannu is mentally fast, I am going to review the ballast over the break, because it clearly makes little - no difference.

See you all in 2008, and have a top notch Christmas.

So it was you who hit me...No harm done as I'd already ruined my lap

Some great fighting was had at the wrong end of the field as well, there must have been times when there was only a Rizlas width between the ORB drivers and myself. Great racing lads

Quote from danowat :

... must also apologise to bozo, who I pole-axed whilst completely out of control, sorry mate.

No worries at all. I saw you in difficulties, and tried to position myself to take advantage. I misjudged the situation, hey ho!

That was a very enjoyable race - it was good to get a lots of close battles. Bozo, it was no problem at all. I'm not good at overtaking and taking evasive action and need to work at braking more smoothly.

I had a good quali setting two PB's once I had got into FZ mode.

Race 1 didn't start well I made a mistake early in lap 1 & Dave went past, then later in the lap he slid off the track twice so I nipped past only for dave to lose control of his car again & push me wide at the hairpin, Wimpie also nipped past while we sorted ourselves out.

I assumed dave would let me have my place back as he had crashed into me (loosing me 2 places) but no, he wasn't gona be a gentleman on this occasion . Anyway the rest of the race went well & caught wimpie up towards the end but there was just no way past on the narrow fern bay track. I finished right on his bumper.

Race 2 was going well, some good pack racing mixed in with Mr Burton recovering right in the middle of us. It was nose to tail for many laps as the pack fought it out. Gav almost took us both out one lap when rejoining the racing line, luckily I took evasive action.
Then my connection dropped . Was a shame as I was looking at a a decent points haul up untill that point.

Was fun, could have been better.
Midfield Magic are on the board, well done Spankmeyer .

Quote from anttt69 :

Gav almost took us both out one lap when rejoining the racing line, luckily I took evasive action.

Oh, I'm sorry you thought that
Approaching T1? I decided you hadn't enough overlap and must admit squeezing you a little

overlap for what? I wasn't in a position to overtake nor was I attempting to. I was just caught by surprise when you decided to rejoin the racing line so suddenly, forcing me to brake to avoid contact. np you were quicker anyway