A brilliant display of driving skills by everyone! The racing was amazing throughout the whole event! I came into this race being less confident of being competitive than at any other race I have participated in on Radiators, but in general the event just got better and better for me.
My qualifying didn't go to well, I think most people were getting alot of
traffic, but the times were so close from about 4th to 10th it was amazing! I think if I had been able to get another couple of clean laps in I would of moved slightly up the field, but even then with everyone being so closely matched, It wouldn't of made that much of a difference, I finished up qualifying 8th! I knew that it was down to pacing myself in the race to make up any places in the race.
The race got underway and I got a brilliant start, braking early into turn one, I was aware there was a driver coming down my inside so I gave them enough room, just getting a little tap as I turned into the corner, then avoiding the accident up ahead, the racing over the first 4 laps was intense, at one point Andrea and I were side by side battling through almost every corner throughout a lap!, Vincent must of had a connection issue as he was comfortably in the lead, then all of a sudden disconnected, it moved me from 5th to 4th, I was slowly closing on 3rd with each lap but not enough to trouble them, I was able to extend the gap between me and the guys behind so I settled into a good race pace and took 4th at the chequered flag.
The second race, I was alot more confident with my race setup, I got another great start narrowly avoiding a stalled car on the grid and once again the battling with Matt was awesome, he managed to get the inside line on one of the corners so I had to brake and take a wide line and that dropped me back, but with each lap I was able to either catch or match his pace, and he was dragging me along closer and closer to Chris who was running 2nd. I decided to make a slightly earlier pitstop on lap 14 as I could feel the tyres going off, and I had started to slide about alot, a fast pitstop meant I could get back out without losing too much time, once Chris and Matt had made their stops I could see I had lost a little bit of time, but the car felt so much better than it did before pitting, I was able to pump in fast consistent times, closing the gap to them both and pulling away from 5th place. It came to about lap 26 or 27 and I had caught right up with them both, however my tyres were going completely off and on that lap I started to drop back a little bit, on that same lap I saw Matt and Chris both had gone off the track, possibly they collided I wasn't quite close enough to see how it happened, but it meant I had moved into 2nd place, but there was no way I was ever going to catch Vincent with about 3 laps to go and being 50 seconds down the road, but I could see the gap to 3rd was huge so I just nursed the car around the track being very easy on the tyres so not to slide off the track, and this allowed me to keep hold of 2nd in the race! I never would of thought that 2nd was possible when qualiying started, so I was very pleased.
It was an extremely exciting event! Everyone drove to the usual excellent standard and now I look forward to the final round at Autumn Ring!
My qualifying didn't go to well, I think most people were getting alot of
traffic, but the times were so close from about 4th to 10th it was amazing! I think if I had been able to get another couple of clean laps in I would of moved slightly up the field, but even then with everyone being so closely matched, It wouldn't of made that much of a difference, I finished up qualifying 8th! I knew that it was down to pacing myself in the race to make up any places in the race.
The race got underway and I got a brilliant start, braking early into turn one, I was aware there was a driver coming down my inside so I gave them enough room, just getting a little tap as I turned into the corner, then avoiding the accident up ahead, the racing over the first 4 laps was intense, at one point Andrea and I were side by side battling through almost every corner throughout a lap!, Vincent must of had a connection issue as he was comfortably in the lead, then all of a sudden disconnected, it moved me from 5th to 4th, I was slowly closing on 3rd with each lap but not enough to trouble them, I was able to extend the gap between me and the guys behind so I settled into a good race pace and took 4th at the chequered flag.
The second race, I was alot more confident with my race setup, I got another great start narrowly avoiding a stalled car on the grid and once again the battling with Matt was awesome, he managed to get the inside line on one of the corners so I had to brake and take a wide line and that dropped me back, but with each lap I was able to either catch or match his pace, and he was dragging me along closer and closer to Chris who was running 2nd. I decided to make a slightly earlier pitstop on lap 14 as I could feel the tyres going off, and I had started to slide about alot, a fast pitstop meant I could get back out without losing too much time, once Chris and Matt had made their stops I could see I had lost a little bit of time, but the car felt so much better than it did before pitting, I was able to pump in fast consistent times, closing the gap to them both and pulling away from 5th place. It came to about lap 26 or 27 and I had caught right up with them both, however my tyres were going completely off and on that lap I started to drop back a little bit, on that same lap I saw Matt and Chris both had gone off the track, possibly they collided I wasn't quite close enough to see how it happened, but it meant I had moved into 2nd place, but there was no way I was ever going to catch Vincent with about 3 laps to go and being 50 seconds down the road, but I could see the gap to 3rd was huge so I just nursed the car around the track being very easy on the tyres so not to slide off the track, and this allowed me to keep hold of 2nd in the race! I never would of thought that 2nd was possible when qualiying started, so I was very pleased.
It was an extremely exciting event! Everyone drove to the usual excellent standard and now I look forward to the final round at Autumn Ring!
Race 1 Results:
monza_2011-11-24-1.pdf |
Race 2 Results:
monza_2011-11-24-2.pdf |
See you on track
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