V8 Supercars - Event 13 - Phillip Island (10/09/13)

[neverender158]

I think I met one of my best goals last night. In race 2 I had 0 incidents and had the Best Consistency:99.37%. Whereas in race 1 had the lowest consistency. So to go from last to first in that category in back to back races is a big deal for me.
Consistency is probably my biggest issue and getting that last night in race 2 is a huge win for me. When the race was over I knew I had 0 incidents but had no idea how consistent I was until I looked at LiveRacers this morning. Feels good!

I had some decent battles with Chris, K Juliet and Mavin.  All of my battles were tight and clean. My hats off to those guys for battling it out and passing me cleanly. 
Congrats to Nick for the wins and all the podium finishers, and welcome back Pat. Way to show up and get on the podium.

[Deleted]

I'm Never one for wanting the season to end but after last night i cant wait.
after getting dive bombed in the second lap and having the steering knocked out.
i was think man I'm glad i waited 2 weeks for this.
but none the less. i had a great first race and it was a fun battle thank for hosting hawks maybe next season will be better for the motorcraft car...

[K Juliot]

Congrats to the winners and podium finishers at a very tough track.

The lack of front end grip was just killing me to find any pace in all my practices, was generally off by about 2sec. Qually proved more of the same more or less.

Race one I was very glad on the restart because I totally bogged the start and got swarmed. Start 2 was perfect and gained 3 spots looking good................and restart 3. Worse then the first one, took off, car in front didn't go, backed off and car just didn't get going again, had to pop the clutch to get it going again. Then to top it off I tapped KV Lang in turn one causing problems. Really sorry about that KV. I had now dropped from 9th to 15th. From there my race was just trying to get back as many positions as I could. Had some good battles with a few guys to get back to my starting spot of 9th.

Race two got a great start and slotted in behind Rich in 6th. We drove nose to tail like that for a bunch of laps then tire wear came into play along with pitting. I was going to try and one stop it but there was no way to make the tires last for me so came in on lap 8.Came out and charged knowing I'd be coming in shorter really couldn't gain much and it's hard to tell till it gets down tothe end where everyone is really at. Really wnated to pass Dale at the end just for the points after my poor first finish to him, but couldn't pul it off.

Great racing guys!!

[Deleted]

sorry I missed this one guys. Should be good to go for the next one.

[F1Fan07]

So, once again I'm nowhere in practice and come to race day with poor laptimes and a horseshoe in my pocket. Tire wear was not a problem for me here, I two-stopped Race 2 with ease but I was a few seconds off the pace. My positions were a combination of good luck and clean driving.

The goal for PI was to protect my 4th in the standings and I all but locked that up. I just have to take the start at Homebush and I'm safe. Armando in 3rd is out of touch for me except for the unlikely scenario of him missing the last race and me finishing on the podium. That's OK though, I'll take 4th in a season where where things are getting a lot faster at the front.

[Deleted]

Jesus christ why does it have to 6 points. I think I'm gonna pull a James Hunt before Homebush...


Heading into Phillip Island I thought for sure I'd be able to gain a few more points ahead of Hooper, as it's one of my better tracks and he mentioned not liking it.  Race 1 made me more confident because I qualified second row, and despite losing two spots on the start, I was able to competitively pass Hawks and Hooper in the opening stint and eventually gained quite well on the leaders.  Strategy worked out okay, just had a slower pit stop that prevented me from challenging for the win.  Finished just ahead of Jeff, gained like 6 points--PERFECT!

Race 2 almost looked the same way--Jeff was a bit better at the END of a tire stint, my R/F was toast by Lap 6, whereas his was clearly a bit fresher, he'd gain a bunch in Sector 1, BUT I managed to stay ahead, and also have a GREAT race with Boza at the same time, eventually passing him in Turn 1 with a bit of a door-bang (sorry again about that.)

With Jeff and I pitting at the same time, I literally just needed to stay ahead--but I blew it coming in for the second stop, as I second-guessed whether I was going to try for another lap, cut the wheel too late and ended up plowing through the infield and back onto the track at the last turn.  I was ACTUALLY worried I had GAINED by cutting and would get a penalty, but it actually added a whole bunch of time, on top of having RUINED front tires, so by the time the pit stops cycled I was in 5th and managed to crawl my way to 4th.  Meanwhile, Jeff got by Pat, who was conserving his tires to the end, giving me two lost spots--and more importantly, he was on the podium and I wasn't, so the spread was bigger!

So it all comes down to this.... And I've never driven Homebush in my life.  God dammit I'm gonna bring a war though!

And hey, how about Pat Collins getting his first-ever podium after coming back from injury---great stuff!!!

[Seahawks1Fan]

Great racing last night and once again, thanks to all that partook (I think that's a word, but I'm not sure).

I finally had a decent qualy, lining up 3rd on the grid behind aliens Nick and Boza. First race was fairly uneventful and went about as well as I hoped. The championship leaders were behind me (that felt weird), but they had a bit better race pace than I early on. Rather than fight too hard for position, I opted to try to save my tires and try to hang onto 5th. Rich was right behind me for several laps, but I think his tires fell off later. My tire conservation sorta worked, but it was too little too late to catch those in front of me. I was slowly reeling back in John and Jeff with couple laps to go. Then Boza's tires really fell off late, but I ended up finishing in 5th.

Race 2 was yet another race that "got away". This time I can't blame a disco though.
I planned for a 2 stopper as I didn't think I could make my rt front last 10 laps on softs. I planned on pitting on lap 7, but was still putting down decent lap times even though I could see my rt front tire wear was getting pretty bad. I pushed it to lap 8 and and 9. Was down to about 30% and thought if I'd come this far, let's go for it. I made my stop and came out of the pits in 8th or so. I worked through traffic pretty quickly and once the 2 stoppers made their 2nd pit, I found myself in the lead! Holy Shiite! With about 7 to go, I realized I made a boneheaded mistake and forgot to adjust my fuel when I made the last minute decision to go for 1 stop. I figured I was exactly 1 gallon short (or 1 lap). I started to try to save fuel and short shift, which saved me .1 gallons/lap, but obviously not enough. With 1 to go, I had to make a splash and dash (I was only .5 gallons short after conserving). My 2nd dumbass move of the night was I forgot to turn off repairs and my pit lasted 9 seconds. So went from a likely 2nd place finish to an 8th place finish.

I have really enjoyed the tire strategy this season. There are so many factors to consider. It can reward those who can conserve tires, or it can reward those aliens that can turn amazingly fast lap times and burn up tires, but then gain enough to make that extra pit stop. Lots of fun and frustration rolled into one.

Congrats to Nick on his sweep. Congrats to Pat Collins on his first podium right after coming off IR! That was the story of the night in my opinion (along with Jeff and John finishing the night just 6 points apart in the Championship with 1 race to go)!

[helios16v]

Surprisingly I only "just" lost 6th in points. I thought I was going to get demolished here. Netted a pair of top 10s. Had a couple good scraps throughout the night, but all in all it was about damage control. I'm only 3 points behind Hawks...and we're going to a street circuit. There is a chance. And then there is Nick.....sitting just over 100 points behind...but still very much a threat. See you in a couple weeks.

[Jeff H.]

We ran this track a couple of seasons ago I think and I absolutely hated it. I remember I could not make the two hairpins at all and I finished well out of the top 10 that race. This time though, it kinda clicked a little more for me. I enjoyed it this time around. I wasn't sure what was going to happen in race 1. I had very little practice on inters so I just loaded my soft tune and stood the rear wing up a little. I felt like I had pretty good pace and was able to get third right behind John. Dammit! Lost some points there! I felt better about race 2 and was planning a two stop race. At about lap 6, I figured most of the leaders would be stopping but I still had between 50 and 60 percent wear left and briefly thought about changing to a one stopper. I just didn't feel good about it so I pitted when the other leaders did. I continued the next several laps trying to chase down John and had got right to his bumper by the next set of stops. (By the way John, I had an absolute blast trying to chase you down! Awesome racing man!) He blew the pit road entry and when it cycled around I was several seconds in front of him. I just held on and tried to make good cleans laps to the finish. I probably would have finished third had Hawks not run out of fuel, but coming out of the last turn, I could see Nick just a little in front of me! Man I wish that race could have been just a few laps longer! But I gained enough points on John to make the last race pretty damned interesting!

[Seahawks1Fan]

Oct 11, 2013 3:37:52 GMT -8 helios16v said:

Surprisingly I only "just" lost 6th in points. I thought I was going to get demolished here. Netted a pair of top 10s. Had a couple good scraps throughout the night, but all in all it was about damage control. I'm only 3 points behind Hawks...and we're going to a street circuit. There is a chance. And then there is Nick.....sitting just over 100 points behind...but still very much a threat. See you in a couple weeks.

It's definitely going to be a tough chore to beat Mr Street Circuit. Only 3 points separate us. Should be fun.

[boza]

Oct 10, 2013 16:42:52 GMT -8 Seahawks1Fan said:

I finally had a decent qualy, lining up 3rd on the grid behind alien Nick.

Fixed . I'm no alien.....Nick is the only alien around here. lol