The Racing Kat

Bumps and bangs at Bahrain

2011-03-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

Unlike the real F1 field, the F179 field visited Bahrain this year and the second race of the season produced another thriller. While tyre wear was still a factor, the big talking point this week was just how bumpy the track was. At places it felt like the car was running over a washboard and as such finding the limit of the car was made tougher.

This was also the first time the weight penalties came into play and the effect was instantly noticeable. Rouke and Grant both struggled to get onto front row pace while John Wallace seemed slightly less effected qualifying better than the previous race. On pole was series returnee Pablo Flores from Ronny Nunez and Jos Swarthoff.

Best off the line when the the lights went green was Larry, getting an absolute blinder he was up several places as the field streaked towards T1. Unfortunately Larry failed to brake early enough for the corner, gave Robert Jones' T4 Ferrari and hefty thump sending him spearing across the track into the similar Ferrari of Ray Riddall and then on into Fulvio. By some miracle Katier Scott, despite actually nudging Ray at the time, escaped without a scratch and was up to 18th.

Meanwhile Pablo had made a great start from Ronny and was already building a solid lead while Jos held onto third. Championship leader Grant Riddall, meanwhile, was in 10th with Rouke in 12th both facing a race long battle for valuable championship points.

Rookie, Peter Ptuniqu, provided further lap 1 drama, spinning in a tricky right hander and getting collected by two Ferrari's who were unable to avoid him. Interestingly one of those Ferrari's, driven by Salvatore Tallini, was running the 'long beach' high downforce configuration while the other, Katier's car, was running what appeared to by much less wing.

Big climbers at the end of the first lap included Katier, Eric and Rick Stratton, while John Wallace also made great Lap 1 progress leaping to 5th from 9th on the grid.

The next two laps were incident packed, while positions changing all down the field. Grant Riddall surged 5 places in just two laps to 6th, getting embroiled in a battle with Ralph and Nigel while Bret slipped several places the other way. Major changes were further down the field as two bat laps put Costa nearly last and a collision between Rick and Katier put the latter in the wall and into the pits for repairs.

The field started to settle now, Pablo was leading comfortably ahead of Ronny and Jaka, who had past Ronny on Lap one. Ronny retook the place on lap seven while further down the field the most dramatic progress was being made by David Pym.

Pym had had a seperate off at the same place as Ptuniqu, dropped well down the field and was now making rapid progress through the back of the field. Rassif Tayan, another rookie, was making good progress too and as the pitstops aproached was up to 10th in another T4 Ferrari.

Strangely, for a track which probably wasn't the best suited to the Ferrari, there was a huge number of T4's in evidence. Rassif Tayan, Salvatore Tallini, Stephen Jones and Ray Riddall all drove the brutal Italian car alongisde T4 regular Katier Scott.

First to pit was Grant, clearly on a 2 stopper, he pitted on lap 12, a good 4 laps before most people were expected to pit. By the time the stops had finished, on lap 18, he found himself down in 8th with a stop to go and a struggle ahead of him for a good finish.

Defending champion, Rouke, had got as high as 7th before his stop and now ran in 11th as the pitstops mixed things up.

Two drivers stopped on lap 22, Grant Riddall dropping down the order to 15th and would soon but in the unfamiliar position of being lapped, while Ronny dropped to 5th with his stop, losing the chance of a podium finish.

The main battle now was around the 10th place as Rouke, Bret, Tallini and Ralph Maiph suddenly found themselves all wanting the same places and produced some excellent racing swapping places several times as the laps wound down.

Pablo realed off the remaining laps for an impressive win while Jos and Jaka joined him on the podium after impressive drives but driver of the day, probably Corrado Toxiri, who was forced to do a pitlane start after technical problems and gained an effective 13 places to 16th overall.

New KaRo Cars Spotted

2011-02-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

Spy photographers were out in force in Northamptonshire recently as an eclectic mix of race cars sporting the now well known KaRo racing colours was spotted on the Southern Circuit at the Silverstone race circuit.

The cars were kept under wraps for much of the session until they were wheeled out for what was believe to be promotional work. Our spy photographers, however, were able to get shots of 4 of the cars, before security prevented further images. First out on track was a real stranger to 'road circuits' as the Oval based Silver Crown ( above ) was scene out on circuit doing donuts and clearly having a bit of trouble with right hand bends.

Next up was another car more commonly seen on Oval tracks as a Streetstock took to the track.

Then the road cars started to appear, firstly a locally produced Radical SR8 sliding it's way through Chapel corner as Katier was clearly enjoying herself.

Finally a Ford powered SRF was out on circuit bouncing through the first few turns Katier was clearly enjoying herself in these cars looking resplendant in purple and black with a splash of pink.

Security sadly interviened before what was believe to be a F1 style car and also a touring car, perhaps a VW Jetta, took to the tracks.

TWF1: Teflon Tyres produce a thriller!!

2011-02-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

"They're shocking, they fall apart" mumbled one driver, while Grant Riddall was heard to explain "I can only get 12 laps out of the hards."

"They're like driving on Teflon", muttered another, and indeed KaRo driver, Katier Scott, sported 'Teflon Tyres' sponsorship on her newly painted T4 Ferrari.

As with the modern Formula 1 teams, TWF1 drivers are faced with what amounts to a new tyre supplier this year. With much heavier wear rates, the overall grip levels are reduced, and drivers will have to balance tyre wear against race pace adding a tactical edge to the racing.

On Pole for the first race of the season round the challenging Portimato track was the impressive, hard tyred, Grant Riddall, .4s up on returnee Pablo Flores and 1s up of defending champion Rouke vd Hoek. The gap was perhaps a bit of a surprise, but with a variety of strategies at play, and Parc Ferme rules fixing fuel levels the strategies of different drivers was far from known.

In all 27 drivers lined up for the first race and off the start Grant got too much wheelspin (right), allowing Pablo to get a jump on him and Rouke to challenge for second place.

Further back, Kat Scott, as seems to be her tradition, probably got the best start of everyone. Threading the needle (below) she lept from 21st on the grid to 14th by the exit of T1. At the end of the lap she was up to 13th, while Tallini, Jaka, Nigel and Jef also all made good progress on lap 1.

Sliding down the order, the other way, several drivers made less than stellar starts, Paul Langford dropping 6 places on lap 1, and a further 6 two laps later to find himself with a mountain to climb from 21st place.

Paul's first lap, however, was remarkable in the way he avoided problems. His start wasn't great and he soon found himself battling with Salvatore Tallini.Into T3 the two were broadly alongside, Tallini took the racing line and Paul was forced to brake very hard, only the triple screen setup on Langfords 'car' giving him enough warning to save himself. T4, and again he was having to rely on his situational awareness as Ray Riddall cut the curbing and almost took out the dark green Lotus which at this point was in a Ferrari Sandwich.

Then finally a few turns later Paul has to lift as Kat failed to give him enough room through a fast left hander. All this left the GP Racing driver well down the order.

On Lap 2, Grant lost his nearest challenger, as Pablo spun into the kitty litter and rejoined several places down the order in 8th place and started something of a recovery drive.

On the same Lap, Ray Riddall also spun out losing out when Paul's nightmare race continued and he made a mistake into T3. The collision punted Ray round and down to last but one place, while Paul continued in 15th place, before spinning down to 21st a lap later.

Up towards the sharp end of the field Jaka and Nigel were making steady progress while John Wallace was getting Pressurised by the recovering Pablo.

Pablo certainly had some pace and was soon past the sluggish looking Bous car, and scampering after the Lotus 80 of Costa, which he is initially unable to pass.

Pablo's charge does continue, however, as he passes Nigel on lap 5, Simon Baggett on Lap 7 and finally Costa on Lap 8. Nigel had been holding a solid 4th place but spun, avoiding the McLaren of Baggett as they approached T3, the Lotus pitching right under hard braking and pushing Metcalf down to 8th.

The front 8 seemed to be starting to pull away by now, leaving the battle for 9th behind as the race progressed. That battle was as fierce as any in the race with Ralph Maiph, Tallini, Bret Metcalf and Jan Premuzic all swapping places several times over the first 6 laps before a half hearted attempted at a pass by Jan caused him to collide with the bronze coloured Lotus of Bret, and spin. Ralph had no-where to go and spun into the stationary Premuzic knocking the wing of his car and forcing Jan to pit at the end of the lap. The collision would have a telling effect on the teams results as Ralph would never fully recover from the collision while his team mate, John Wallace, continued.

Bret continued unhindered and soon started to put the latter as they chased down the other Metcalf in as the first pitstops approached.

First to pit, of the scheduled stoppers, was race leader, Grant. He has been serenely pulling away from the second placed, and longer fueled, Rouke but still rejoined in 7th place and was back up to the lead by lap 21 ahead of Wallace and Rouke, who had pitted on lap 16 dropping to 3rd once the stops had played out. Last to stop were the cars of Baggett and Scott who both waited towards lap 20 before stopping for fuel and tyres.

Or so we thought because, suddenly, on lap 24 the leader was back in the pits for his second scheduled stop. This caught Rouke out and he failed to capitalise on the chance to challenge for the lead as the leader exited the pits.

Rouke took a look inside into T3 but it was too little, too later, the 2010 double champion would have to settle for a chase down of Wallace instead.

Meanwhile other drivers were starting their season on a high. Eric Fulghum, who early on had been embroiled with a battle with Rouke's Team mate, Katier Scott, now found himself lapping the RoKa car who was in her own battle with Bous Team driver Ralph Maiph.

Initially Eric got past cleanly but a last corner slide by Fulghum caused confusion as Scott, Nigel, Fulghum and Maiph all careered towards T1 at different speeds. Fulghum's slide causing him to be substantially slower than the slipstream aided cars behind him. Kat Scott summed up the next few seconds by saying "I was caught between a rock and a hard place, I thought Eric and Simon had crashed, didn't know what the condition of Eric was and was concious we had two battles - a lap apart, approaching the turn. I did make a bit of a pigs ear of it, not the way I wanted to start the last lap."

Initially all drivers maintained their places but ultimately the fresher tyres on Nigel and Ralph's cars gave them enough to make up the places.

Grant cruised the last few laps for a superb win ahead of Rouke and the non-stopping John Wallace. 3 different strategies for the podium. Eric Fulghum also ultimately drove an excellent race also non-stopping while Ralph showed how marginal the non-stop strategy can be as he punctured a few laps from home setting up the thrilling last lap.

Newcomer Frank Oreskov, and Tallini, also drove excellent races - battling for 12th down to the last lap when a technical glitch let the newcomer through.

For me drive of the day must go to John Wallace for a superb tactical drive to second place by a team who, last season, also often tended to nail the strategy. Jef Vannijlen also deserves a mention thanks to a great run from 26th to 16th after resetting his qualifying time.

Monza Mayhem with the TW Classics!!

2010-09-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Grant Riddall once again thrust his car onto pole by an impressive margin at Monza, however with the slipstreaming nature of the track, another pair of wins was far from definite.

Riddall led from the green but by lap 2 was down to fifth as his slipstream allowed 4 drivers to get past him, but almost as quickly he was into second. Jef and Rouke got together and last a lot of time allowing the champioship leader to retake second.

Other collisions early on had caused other drivers to be delayed as the tight, close, racing caused frayed nerves and requires intense concentration. Ralph and Mitch were the big losers as they fell towards the tail of the field after incidents while Mark Abbott failed to so much as take the start.

While Grant was battling his way towards the lead again, Jos Swarthoff was sything through the field. By Lap 3 he had made up 10 places to fifth and found himself in close company with John Wallace.

Kenyon and Fulvio were two more drivers who faded after a good start while by Lap 4 Grant was back in the lead.

He held on for a solid win just over a second ahead of Fernando and Bret Metcalf.

The Sprint had proved to be short and sharp, but the feature was likely to be an epic race with 22 laps of drafting on the menu.

Grant soon found himself in a battle with Fernando from the start while Ronny made a demon start. Elsewhere Bret and John Wallace seemed to be playing musical cars as a hugely eratic driver by Benoit seemed to make both drivers go out of their way to be close to him.

Benoit made their life hard for 3 laps before he crashed out while John would retire with technical failure a few laps later.

That left the consistant Bret with a battle on his hands with Paul Langford and... a recovering Grant Riddall. Riddall had been forced to pit on lap 4 after an incident, dropping him to 14th but a solid display of drafting soon brought him up to Bret.

Several cars had other incidents but by half distance only 4 drivers had retired, with two more pulling out a couple of laps later. That left 14 drivers battling their way round at speeds in excess of 200mph.

Up Front Jef was looking secure until he lost a couple of places on lap 13 as 4 cars battled hard to dominate the race in a pack that steadily pulled away from the Bret/Riddall battle.

Jef retook the lead but Ralph wouldn't let him rest, the pair frequently swapping places as they pulled away into an intense battle. Jef eventually pulled up an impressive win narrowly from Ralph with Fernando pulling out a solid 3rd place.

Overall Monza proved to be a very different challenge which saw drivers having to co-operate to get the best out of it. Some drivers proved better at this than others and this contributed to the excitement.

TWF1 - Jerez Report

2010-09-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

The inaugural TWF1, 1971, event kicked off at the twisting spanish Jerez track last weekend with a huge field of 30 cars. On pole, as with the TWFC last week, was the impressive Grant Riddall who stormed to a mighty pole position almost a second ahead of the lime green car of Mario Wojahn. Mike Perray proved he didn't need a turbo to be face in third ahead of Ronny Nunez and Rouke.

With such a large field the odds of a clean first lap were, probably, remote and cars were brushing wheels from the off with Nigel and Leo lucky not to combine into a huge accident.

Turn's one and two saw more incidents, shuffling up the pack, but the first major off didn't occur tilltowards the end of the lap when Leo got into Aymeric and spun falling to the back of the pack.

By the end of Lap 2, however, there was a huge mixup of cars at the back of the field with Mario, spun by Rouke, Paul Langford, Fernando - who didn't qualify - and Leo all having to mix it with the backmarkers.

The first of those to cause a noticeable holdup was Kat Scott, who while not entirely happy with her car was managing to be reasonably smooth, precise and consistant early on. She ultimately lost out to the three cars behind (below) but not before she'd gained some respect from them.

Both Mario and Fernando citing her in their reports, Mario said, "Honourable mention to Kat, who did an outstanding job defending her position! Well done mate excellent racing."

Mario, despite the delay, would soon be passing other drivers as he charged through the field. He would reach 11th by lap 11 when he pitted and was up to 8th 10 laps later. Paul Langford, the third driver in the train, was moving up the field equaly impressively. On a different fuel load to the lime green car he pitted on lap 18 when running 9th.

These three drivers were certainly showing some driving and racing skills and Deutsch was no exception as he nursed tyres, deciding to run non-stop, he would finish an impressive 11th losing 10th to Langford on the final lap with his tyres dead.

Meanwhile Perray had jumped into second place and held it impressively but was unable to hold onto the Flying Riddall. Once again the formed streaked into the lead with a mighty impressive pace. It's clear that these low grip monsters suit his driving style and it'll be interesting to see how he gets on with the grippier Ground effect 79's later in this two car season.

Retirements didn't start for a few laps but by lap 18, five drivers had failed to score points as their wrecked cars littered the race track.

The pitstops, which are optional this season but reccomended, soon proved to be scattered as drivers balanced their loads vs qualifying pace. As with F1 in 2009 parc Ferme is preventing drivers refueling. Although due to technical issues this was waived for this race, the stops seemed to imply most drivers went with what they had.

The first Scheduled stops seemed to be around lap 11 with the last being Kat and Bret on lap 25.

Drama didnt' stop throughout an action packed race as drivers charged through the field, collided, spun or made mistakes. The final driver who failed to see the checkered was the unfortunate Mark Abbott who, running 3 laps behind the Matra, caught Katier as she struggled on low fuel two laps from the end. Rouke accidently made contact with Abbott who was unfortunately forced to retire, but didn't lose points as a result.

Overall an entertaining and challenging opening race with a mighty impressive win by Riddall. He doesn't win driver of the day and I think it HAS to be split three ways. Deutsch and Langford for impressive 21 place climbs through the field and Mario for an equally impressive driver when recovering from his spin.

The field now moves to Imola, for a much faster and more flowing race track.

TWFC Round 1 - Sandy Madness

2010-09-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

The much anticipated Autumn season of Legends League rFactor racing kicked off last weekend with a crash a bang and a wallop as a substantial field arrived at the Jarama race circuit.

Prior to the event the stewards issued stark warnings to drivers for using too much of the sandy extremes of the circuit, whether they are adhered to we will see but it's almost certain that some drivers will ultimately leave with less points than they believed.

The pole battle went down to the wire with Ronny Nunez narrowly shading Grant Riddall by a little over a tenth, the pair being over half a second quicker than Rouke and Jef Vannijlen.

With no pace lap employed in the rFactor series' this year, the field headed down to T1 for the first time with slightly colder tyres and much colder brakes than normal.

Ronny and Grant both got through T1 cleanly, with Grant taking the lead. Further back, however, Paul mistook his clutch for the brake and cannoned into Angelo, the pair losing several places in the ensuing moment through the gravel.

Over the course of the first lap the field spread out nicely with some minor bumping as drivers jossled for position. A minor off near the end of the lap cost Ronny two places and removed the most likely pressure from Grant.

The final action of the first lap took place on the exit of the last turn as the delayed Paul Langford, suffering with a damaged car, lost control - spun across the track and smashed into John Wallace. Wallace's car bounced into the pitlane so the damage done was comparatively light, he did a quick pitstop to repair and rejoined near the back of the field

Langford continued and in doing so his race turned into a near disaster. His car was ill handling and as a result he had several collisions, spins and incidents on his way to a struggling 15th place.

24 cars started the race and, as is often the case some benefitted at the start, Salvatore Tallini was one such driver, leaping 11 places on the first lap to finish it in sixth. Sadly for him a poor race saw him fade to a disapointing 15th over all.

Mitch Simon also made up a good number of early laps, finding himself in 7th by lap five from 16th on the grid. He battle hard, had minimal problems to bring his car home solidly in 8th after Deutsch passed him a few laps from home during a recovery drive which dropped him to 12th on lap 2.

Riddall, aided by Ronny's first lap off, cruised to a comparatively easy win ahead of Ronny who recovered well to second. Jed and Rouke took the next two places ahead of Jos Swarthoff and defending champion Ralph Maiph.

Race two and Riddall made a similarly good start and once again Nunez was not given the chance to pressure him as again he had an incident on lap 1. This time, however, he wasn't at fault as Jef rear ended the Ferrari turning it around and causing Nunez to drop to 16th place.

Dale Ballwag made the best start, jumping to 10th from 16th on the grid but by lap 7 he was out as the field started to thin out. In a replica of the lap 1 accident, one of those drivers to retire was the frustrated Ronny who was collected when Deutsch lost it in the same way as Langford. Both retired on the spot on lap 10 signalling the end of a disapointing race for someone who obviously has the pace to challenge for the championship.

Further up Rouke soon worked his way into second but there was no way he could hold onto the race leader as Riddall streaked away for an impressive second win. Behind Jef and Jos were embroiled in one of several battles through the field, Vannijlen finally coming out on top with an impressive third place.

The biggest battle, however, centered around the race for 10th place. At times 5 or 6 cars were battling nose to tail, with some slightly desperate lines being taken as drivers including Angelo, David Pym, Ralph Maiph and John Wallace fought hard for places.

The final pass in this monumental battle fell to Wallace as he passed the fading Mitch Simon for 13th with just 5 laps to go.

Overall two intensely entertaining races kicked off what is likely to be an exciting season of racing.

Drive of the day must go to Grant Riddall for two immaculate drives, although in race one, Mitch Simon undoubtedly put in a better drive. Simon's race two wasn't quite so good so Riddall takes driver of the day by a whisker.

TWF1: OldRing Report

2010-06-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

Sitting at the end of pitlane, mechanics fussing over the car, as 24 other cars blast away down the long straight at OldRing, Champion elect Rouke vd Hoek looked lonely and faced an uphill battle to the title...

Then a wheel bounced past as his engine fired up for the start, the sounds to his left weren't of roaring engines, they were of carnage and tearing metal. Screeching tyres and overheating engines.

In all 27 drivers made the grid for the final round of the championship. If there was ever a signifier of a successful championship this was it. Seven drivers were guaranteed to leave without points as only the top 20 score points.

Bret Metcalf on pole got away solidly but spin a wheel up and suddenly veered off to the right, Simon Baggett bounced off him and he was collected by Bento. Further carnage was avoided as behind them Benoit's Renault overheated. This was caused by a formation lap mishap involving Robert Jones.

He spun on approach to the grid and caused it to be very slow forming up, the end result was a smokey Renault. Corrado spotted his problem, slowed by Jones behind was unsighted and cannoned into him. With tyre smoke from the start still in the air all hell broke loose.

In all around a dozen cars were damaged by the startline collisions with both Metcalfs, Benoit and Corrado all retiring.

Kat, Miguel, Simon, Costa all pitted at the end of lap one along with Luis Lima. Lima was the last person involved in the fallout from the start, a fact that was slightly surprising as he was one of 3 to start from the pitlane. He tripped over Corrado, in a slightly strange accident, who was creeping back to the pits. The collision ending Corrado's race.

The big benefiter's from the first lap carnage were Ralph Maiph who jumped straight into the lead, Rick Stratton who gained 12 places to sixth, Kat Scott who despite a pit at the end of lap 1 was 19th from 26th and Rouke, 16th after a pitlane start.

By Lap 5 the leaders were having to contend with lapped traffic. The leaders caught Kat towards the end of the lap and this caused Leo to make a mistake. Overcooking the corner he slide wide, almost making contact with the Ferrari and losing a place to Ronny (left).

Ronny had briefly held second on lap two, lost it to Leo on lap 3 but once back ahead he set about chasing the small gap to the leader.

Behind a small battle was developing for fifth with Shazy and Rick battling a few seconds ahead of Paul Langford. Rouke was making great progress and already closing the one Alfa and was into the top 10.

Jef was fourth and unable to keep up with the lead three, but comfortably ahead of Rick behind who by lap 11 was starting to drop Shazy. The latter had fallen into the clutches of Paul Langford who was having a bit of a mixed race. On at least two occasions he made a mistake at Adelaide losing a place to Shazy and on one occasion Rouke who was having a dream race.

Meanwhile Kat was making steady progress moving through the field and by lap 17 was battling with Martin. Martin managed to slip back after she went wide in turn 4, but she was soon back ahead and right with Phillipe. Marot made it very hard for the Ferrari and almost made contact in T4. She finally got past on the exit of Aque Minerale and by lap 22 was into the top 10.

Eric Fulghum, was also making quiet progress. He'd pitted on lap three after colliding with the pitwall following a very light rear nudge from Fulvio who also spun and lost time but didn't pit. By lap 16 Eric had been caught by the leaders and initially it looked like a normal lapping manoveur.

Ralph passing the HMR car easily on approach to T1 but for some reason the two drivers then managed to confuse each other with braking points and Eric had the scary prospect of nearly taking out the leader.

Post race Eric apologised to Ralph. He said, "Yea, sorry about that Ralph. Although, I remember being suprised that you were suddenly slowing. I have to watch the replay, I'm sure I got something wrong there.

"I just dive bombed the corner as much as possible and hoped you were not there. Thankfully, you went over the curbs at the second apex of the T1 chicane to give me room. Luckily rFactor gave it to us and didn't give us any damage as we brushed and interlocked wheels. Whew! Taking out the leader is the lamest thing ever, and the last thing I wanted to do."

Ralph continued but was being steadily caught by Ronny who by lap 24 was right with him. Under intense pressure Ralph held him off until finally, on lap 26, he finally made a pass for the lead. Drafting Ralph down start/finish he took the lead before turn 1 but was unable to escape. On Lap 31 Ralph made his move squeezing through a gap barely wide enough for a Brabham he retook the leader on approach to Adelaide.

By now 12 cars had retired, in addition to the five retiring from first lap incidents. Miguel, Robert Jones, DK and Simon Baggett amongst those who failed to make half distance. Others having troubled races included Tallini and Luis Lima. Tallini, who failed to make the end of the formation lap and thus started from the pitlane, pitted again on laps 9, 10, 15, 26 and 28. Lima pitted three times and several drivers pitted twice.

By now the field was settled, but battles still raged. Ronny was trying everything to get past the leader while Leo was having to fend off the advances of Rouke. Meanwhile Eric's fine recovery was about to fall apart.

On Lap 29 Tallini was recovering to the pits but, suffering from a missing rear wing, lost it approaching Blanchimont he lost it. Eric was an unfortunate, accidental, and unavoidable victim and after heavy contact with the wall continued..

Only to collect Cooper ( inset) in Adelaide, as Eric found that the brakes on a car with heavy suspension damage don't work in the same way as on a fixed car. Fulghum was forced to pit and would lose a place to Kat.

Ultimately a highly entertaining exciting race. Several drivers putting in very good drives, others struggling on a track that seemed to suit the 1979 Formula 1 cars very well. An excellent end to a very good season, congratulations to Rouke for a well deserved championship victory. But as always it's fun to recognise a driver of the day.

I think it would be unfair for me to choose it as anyone who makes up 19 places in a race must be in with a shout, so over to Rick Stratton for his thoughts on the most deserving driver.

TWF1: The Fast and the slow.. of Fuji

2010-06-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Engine screaming, surging up towards the limiter, the bright yellow Renault looks completely at home down the main straight. Topping out at insane speeds it then squirms and struggles as the driver puts the anchors on for the hairpin. Fuji, with it's long straight saw the cars, most noteably Phil Carroll's Renault and Kat Scott's Ferrari, with powerfull engines stripping downforce for maximum speeds of well over 180mph by the braking point.

The Cosworth cars were lucky to hit 180 without effects of a tow but those cars would look so much more comfortable around the tight twists of the back end of this circuit that is full of contrast.

Pole went to one of those Cosworth's in the hands of Rouke, with Simon Baggett lining up second ahead of Timo and Leo Menegucci. Rouke made the best of the start with Timo jumping Baggett into second with Leo and Corrado keeping grid order.

Slightly further back, however, with a massive field of 26 cars the inevitable happened and someone touched. Bret had made an horrendous starting, skewing across the track then into T1 he locked up and slid into Costa. Langford and Marot were also involved although non of the car seemed to pick up much damage.

The field, however, was getting very congested now and into T1 Ivor made the same mistake and slid into the back of Fulvio, who was punted into the paths of Scott and Jones. Several other cars were lucky not to get involved the Jones ended up having to take a slightly scenic route as a result.

Two further incidents brightened up the first lap. Phil Carroll threw his car off the road avoiding Costa approaching the hairpin and Tallini managed to remodel his Ferrari towards the end of the lap. Tallini's car, minus a wheel, would retire at the end of the lap while the remaining cars streamed round to complete the lap.

John Wallace was the biggest improver in that lap running 8th from 18th on the grid between Bret and Miguel who were battling hard over 6th spot.

Up front the order looked fairly stable with Timo tracking Rouke. Leo, Simon and Corrado all holding station but on lap three Bret moved up to fifth. He worked his way past Bento when the latter spun under braking for the hairpin.

On Lap 6 Rouke lost the lead to Timo but that was far from the end of the battle and as the field approached lap 13 the action ramped up a level. The cause of the action was the removal, on the previous lap, of the 200m board causing drivers to brake too later for the corner.

Timo, Leo, Simon, Kat, John, Miguel, Corrado and others all missing their braking points to a greater or lesser extent.

Big losers caused by the missing board included John and Corrado, while Ivor probably took the biggest journey off road. At the end of Lap 16 therefore, Rouke was back in front from Timo, Leo , Simon and Bret. Fulvio was next up and starting to make good progress through the field while John Wallace was about to Retire.

He became the 5th retirement, before half distance, with Nigel, Kat, Shazy also joining Tallini in the Nill points column.

Up front it was clear Timo had the edge on pace, driving impressively quickly but Rouke had the lead and a battle Royale was developing. The lead swapped, and swapped again.. Rouke refusing to give up then on lap 23 Timo got it all right, drafting Rouke down the main straight Rouke went defensive. Off line he braked a touch early, Timo braver on the brakes swept round the outside the the race was his for the taking.

Take it he did, pulling steadily away to register an impressive win. Leo held onto third from Timo with Fulvio finishing an impressive fifth.

Overall an interesting race with a huge field that produced incident, excitement and resulted in the majority of the field taking at least one trip off the track.

Driver of the day? Well some good performances, Patrick Dobner started from the back and finished 11th so scores highly, Larry Thomas had a quiet race but one of his best to date. Fulvio also had a solid race while Timo was might impressive with Rouke being Tenacious throughout.

I think ultimately Timo deserves it, he lost the lead several times, never gave up and had a mighty impressive pace.

TWF1: Surfers Nightmare

2010-05-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

For the next round of the TWF1 championship the field took a trip down under to the challenging 'Surfers Paradise' circuit in Australia. Very soon it would be obvious that this circuit was probably the hardest one on the entire schedule. A plethora of dangerous, chicanes and few simple corners meant that is was fairly guaranteed that accidents would be plentiful.

This proved to be the case as drivers struggled even in qualifying to get a legal, and clean, lap in. Several drivers being forced to record 'zero' times and start at the back of the field. This brought up some intruiging questions, not least of which was, "How would these quicker drivers cope forcing their way through the slower cars on a circuit with few chances to pass?".

More importantly, was just how many drivers would finish, and would we get through the first chicane without incident. Amazingly the field did get through the chicane with minimal problems, there was some touching and newcomer Lima almost crashed after damaging Costa's McLaren.

The field also got through the second chicane with minimal problems but approaching T3 Hocq had a huge moment all on his own. Unfortunately Langford spun in sympathy and with a badly timed technical hitch there was chaos approaching the corner. Langford, Hocq, Scott, Marot and Blackmore all ended up with contact and damage to a lesser or greater extent.

By the end of the lap two of those drivers were in the pits for new rear wings, Scott having removed hers near the end in a mistake on her own. All drivers, however, managed to finish that first lap with some drivers making up noticeable places. John Wallace making rapid progress heading from the back of the grid towards top 10, Tallini, Leo Menegucci and Shazy Ahmed all picked their way through the early incidents to make good progress.

The first retirement happened on lap 3 when Eric after an incident with Tallini into T1. The latter losing a spot to Corrado who promptly retired on the next lap. Meanwhile up front Rouke was having to fend off.. of all things a Renault RS01. Mike Perray driving out of his skin was hanging on and pressurising he leader while Bret Metcalf looked secure in third ahead of Neto.

Of the next few laps the number of drivers walking back to the pits steadily increased. Bret and Neto dropping out while running third, Katier Dropping out just after followed by Costa. In fact Costa retired before Katier but after three pitstops she was well behind the McLaren driver.

The pitlane was almost as busy as the track Hocq pitting 4 times before 10 laps had been completed and by lap 17, there had been an incredible 25 pitstops. Considering a TWF1 car doesn't need to stop this shows the level of damage this tricky track was causing.

By this point, Perray, despite tweaking his steering was into the lead and steadily pulling away from Rouke. Rouke was under no pressure, however, 4 drivers dropped out of third place leaving Patrick Dobner to inherit the place. Dobner in turn was under no pressure as Corrado appeared to be struggling. Timo was catching him quickly but after a few laps running close with him Peltola became another retirement.

Up front Perray continued on his serene way but retirements continued behind him. The last car to retire was Leo Menegucci with 7 laps to go and he was classified 13. That meant that over half the field retired from this race where the challenge was presented very much by the track.

Perray, Rouke and Dobner were the best examples of 'To finish first, first you have to finish' as they rounded out an impressive podium

Driver of the day much go to the former, Perray dragging the reluctant RS01 teapot to a fantastic and well deserved win.

TWF1: Dust, Heat and Sun!!

2010-04-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Miller Motorsports Park was the next round in the TWF1 circus and for once is a modern circuit devoid of chicanes that blight Tilke designed monstrosities. Unfortunately that doesn't make it overly popular with several drivers vocal in their dislike of the flat circuit.

The dislike didn't stop one of the most action packed events in the season so far as drivers consistently struggled to be consistent with most of them having several incidents during the race.

In addition 10 drivers had to start from the pitlane following penalties at previous events, this effectively meant there was, at least initially, two races.

Simon Baggett proved most adept in qualifying trim, putting in a stupendous lap half a second better than anyone else. In fact it was noticeable that this track, with a 1m45s lap, seemed to be creating a very wide grid with a full 2 seconds covering the first 10 spots.

From the start Simon lept into the lead while Rouke, alongside on the grid, didn't make such a good start. Rouke said, "My start was err.......i did two races this week, all went fine but aparently from 3rd place you cannot see the lights. at least i didnt and i panicked, geared up two, shoulnd't have done that, slow off the line like a turtle on prozack. 6 or 7 cars passed me and i just made sure it remained safe appart from diving inbetween 2 cars in turn-whathisname, that was rather exiting."

That left Timo Peltola in second while Rouke finished the lap in fourth behind Patrick Dobner. Fairly swiftly gaps grew in the field, Simon pulling away from Timo after the latter briefly challenged into T1, with Rouke and Dobner also breaking clear of the cars behind.

Further back leader of the pitlane starters, Eric Fulghum, was rapidly closing in on the tail of the main pack. As he did so he dragged his team mate and Costa Gozadinos along with him.

He caught Mark Abbott very quickly and by Lap seven was also past the struggling Ferrari of Kat Scott.

Meanwhile Ivor had become the first retirement as his car got bogged down in gravel near the end of lap 4. Tallini also succumbed to similar problems on lap 5, both incidents probably as a result of not updating the track correctly.

The Eric/David/Costa train continue to make inroads and by lap 10 they are fast catching up with the McLaren of Shazy Ahmed.

Up front Bagget's progress looked serene, steadily leaving Peltola behind while Rouke showed no ability to close in on Second. The Main battle at this stage was a little further down the field as Rick Stratton found himself embroiled in a battle with Ralph Maiph and Dobner, the latter dropping back after a spin.

At the back of the field several cars were already lapped, both Renaults appeared to be a handful around the track and only one of the Ferrari drivers seemed to be at home with their car. The Ligiers, Mark Abbott, Larry Thomas and Phillipe Marot, also appeared to be struggling and getting lapped frequently.

On lap 16 Corrado and Shazy both succumbed to the charging Heavy Metal Racing lead train and by lap 27 they had reached Rick Stratton. The latter had dropped back and after a spin was behind Eric, then on lap 31 the final twist in this eventful race took place.

David Kadlcak, Rick and Costa hand an incident that left Costa in ninth while DK let Rick back into 10th as he was the instigator.

Simon Baggett came home for an excellent flag to flag win ahead of Timo and Rouke. All three had impressive consistancy of well under half a second.

What was slightly surprising, and perhaps an indicator of the incident packed race, was that Kat Scott, who admitted to a terrible race, was 12th most consistant.

The field now moves onto a completely different challenge in South America.

TWFC: Silverstone

2010-03-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Given a 1967 F1 cars love of sweeping fast corners, it's perhaps no surprise that the TWFC circus follows the blasts of Snetterton with the challenges of the Silverstone circuit.

In Qualifying Ronny Nunez put in an impressive time, narrowly failing to get into the 1m39's to get pole ahead of Deutsch and Nigel Metcalf. Several drivers found the going tough amongst them Ralph Maiph and Mark Abbot both found themselves somewhat further down the pack than they expected.

The pack was nice and clean round most of that first lap with just minor bumping off the start, until the leaders streamed through the challenging bridge corner.

Simon Baggett had been pressing the 3rd placed car of Metcalf but lost a little momentum through bridge corner. Snow following a little behind got the corner right and misjuding the car infronts speed clipped Baggetts rear tyre. The end result was a flip for the red eagle and first retirement of the race. (left).

Another loser on that opening lap was Mario who with a combination of a bad start and mistake on lap 1 was soon down to ninth from 5th on the Grid. By contrast Juan made a startling start and gained 10 places during that first lap.

The field now settled down, the top 19 all staying in position for the next two laps while returnee Steve Shelley started to move through the field.

Jos was the next driver to lose places, battling hard he couldn't keep three cars, including the lime green Wojahn pairing (right), behind him as he dropped to 10th.

Meanwhile Steve Shelley was continuing to gain places, reaching 18th. Up Front Nunez was was serene building a solid gap to those behind and when Deutsch had an incident on lap 5 Metcalf had a comfortable drive to finish second.

Snow recovered from the first lap bumps to finish 3rd ahead of Bret and Ralph. An impressive win for Nunez, but the question is, could he repeat that in the feature.

Within seconds of the start that was a resounding no as he jumped the start, but at least he didn't have the nightmare that Mario did. Rounding turn one the lime green car started to slide, Mario caught it but the car slapped the other way into the path of Paul Langford and Mitch Simon.

Baz, following just behind breifly found himself with a wall of spinning metal, but like a parting of the waves he was able to slip between the Ferrari and Lotus. (left)

Mario's spin, took him off track and Don Fleming, following Baz, just avoided the Ferrari but slid into the Lotus.

From that cars flew left right and center with nearly half the field actually spinning or being involved with a collision the field got very randomized. Below Don Fleming collides with Mitch while Palfreyman takes avoiding action in front of Baggett.

At the end of the first lap, after Nunez pitted for a drive through, Deutsch led from Snow and Jef Vannijlen. Antonio had also benefitted from his team mates spin and gained a lot of places, as did Steve Shelley.

All this jumbling of positions meant that early on there was a lot of battling. Simon Baggett being one who soon was making progress through the field. Up front, however, the lead 3 were embroiled in a frantic battle. Lap 2 Deutsch slid wide in T1 and although Snow almost followed him over the curbs (right) both Jos and Snow slipped through.

A Lap later Deutsch had made it back in front but he wasn't allowed to rest by Snow who put him under pressure for the next few laps.

Antonio looked secure in fourth but Nigel made a mistake on lap 11 and looked like he'd lost his shot at a good finish. A stunning recovery, including several laps of battling with Baggett, and a last lap pass on the Lime Green car saw him finish an impressive fourth.

At the end of 22 laps of intense battling Snow recorded an impressive win after passing the Cooper for the lead on lap 15, with Jef in 3rd.

Despite the first lap carnage, amazingly 23 cars finished on the lead lap and both of the retirements were not due to accidents or incidents.

TWF1 Green Hell (Attempt 2)

2010-03-24T08:58:00.001-07:00

Seems it's not just the track that's Hell after my first report got comprehensively eaten by blogger.. so here we go..

Green Hell report, attempt 2!!

The TWF1 moved on to the twisting turning and highly challenging circuit known by the appropriate nickname of 'The Green Hell", but more accurately the Nordschliefe. This legendary circuit hosted the 4th round of the championship, but the question is, who would come out on top and who would succumb to the challenge.

Out on top, thanks in part to a tow, in qualifying was the McLaren of championship leader, Rouke, but within in a minute of the start he was down to third behind the impressive Mike Perray and rapid Timo.

A minute later, however, Rouke was out and Timo delayed after the latter made a small mistake and unfortunately clipped Rouke. Rouke lost control as a result, hit two barriers hard and retired on the spot, Timo was damaged and had to pit at the end of the lap.

Rouke wasn't the only one in for an early bath as both Ivor and Paul retired following a collision also involving Eric who dragged his damaged car round most of the lap to the pits. Eric had spun early in the lap and Paul was unable to avoid the car that finished broadside on across the track.

That left Perray pulling out a comfortable lead in the gripless RS01 ahead of Simon Baggett and Patrick Dobner. Meanwhile Shazy and John Wallace were battling hard with the former taking 3 laps before he broke from from Ahmed as he faded down the order towards the end of the race.

Wallace wouldn't see the checkers, however, as a technical hitch made him retirement number 10 and the first retirement to actually score points.

So Perray led from Baggett who swapped places a couple of times with Dobner, the fading Shazy and charging Timo.

Peltola was driving absolutely on the limit, and frequently beyond the limit, as he strived to gain a fastest lap. His determination was rewarded with fourth place but at the cost of a car that probably won't race again such was the damage to it.

Further back Corrado was having a steady race, putting in consistant laps and benefitting from others mistakes he was soon in a lonely fifth place.

Suddenly, however, the race came alive. Perray went off, damaging the suspension and immediately the two behind started hacking into his lead. Lap after lap the pair behind strived to close down the leader who was driving with courage and determination.

He would finally cross the line after 8 intense lap, of which 4 were spent with an ill handling car, for a might impressive win. Simon Baggett was unable to quite take the place after might impressive run to second ahead of Dobner.

Peltola finished a solid 4th ahead of Corrado and Ralph Maiph who had a quiet race to sixth place. Further back several cars finished but had to make pitstops, most notable was Mark Abbott who pitted a total of three times to fix damage.

Overall the Green Hell lived up to it's reputation as half the field retired but Mike certainly deserved a highly impressive win.

TWF1: Brno Report

2010-03-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

A healthy field of 29 cars lined up for the second round of the season and McLarens proved to be the car to have with two M29's locking out the front row. Costa just pipping race one winner, Rouke, to pole with the impressive Eric lining up third.

Rouke made the better start and soon took the lead with Costa lining up behind and the pair soon building up a little cushion ahead of John Wallace and Fulghum who was soon under pressure from Patrick Dobner.

Further back Nigel Metcalf was holding 6th after leaping 4 places off the grid, while returning driver, Rob Swindells, Kat Scott, Paul Langford and Sal Tallini all also made up a good number of places off the start, the result of this was battles all the way down the field.

Initially Kuhl put pressure on Scott, the two going through several corners side by side, before the yellow Ferrari prevailed. Kuhl would soon drop back from what soon became a pair of Ferrari's running a few seconds apart as Scott started to chase Tallini while Corrado put pressure on the former.

This wasn't the only intense battle, however, early on pressure was being put on drivers throughout the field. On Lap 5 Nigel succummed to Fulvio, then Leo worked his way past a few laps later. Just behind that pair Swindells and Rick Stratton were swapping places lap after lap then what might have been the inevitable happened, first Katier, trying to outbrake Corrado, ran into the back of Tallini.

In doing so Corrado and Mike Perray, power sliding his way round the track in his RS01, both got past; however only a few corners later the former lost it in a big way. Scott avoided the spinning car but Perray, who was looking for a way back past the Ferrari, had no-where to go and thumped the green car putting him out of the race.

Retirements were coming thick and fast. Mark Abbot crashed out, Sal Tallini lost it after apparantly pushing too hard just over a lap after his collsion with Katier, Kat herself also retired and by lap 21 9 drivers were out.

Up front, however, the battle was intensifying as Costa got back ahead on lap 11, he lead till Lap 17 before Rouke got back in front. Costa also lost out to John who was unable to truly challenge the new leader but was close enough to exploit any problems.

By Lap 19 the field was settling down with position changes being rare. Dobner and Fulghum were running close together with Leo in close attendance until the latter slipped back behind Fulvio who was steadily moved up the order.

Fulvio eventually moved into fourth after first Costa, on lap 24, then Eric on Lap 26 both dropped back. Fulghum only lost a couple of places but Costa's good drive ended with him losing an entire lap and limping home in 18th.

Rouke completed an impressive second win, just over 5s ahead of Wallace who did well holding off Dobner behind. Eric came in 5th ahead of Leo and Nigel.

Overall an exciting and excellent race with lots of close battling and some impressive drives, but I think driver of the event must be Rouke after a near faultless drive.

TWFC Spa Report

2010-03-02T16:06:00.001-08:00

31 cars lined up for what promised to be an action packed pair of races at the slip streaming paradise of the 1967 Spa Franchorchamps circuit. Christopher Snow lined up a superb pole ahead of the equally impressive Ralph Maiph who had got his Cooper perfectly suited to this high speed circuit.

Due to the length of the circuit and risk of collisions off the start it was decided to do a rolling start with the race starting at Les Combes on lap one. Unfortunately several drivers misunderstood the instructions, others got away erratically and in seconds there was a huge pileup in exactly the same spot that David Coultard caused one in torrential rain.

Fulvio was the big loser, ending up having to start the sprint from the back of the field while Frenchman, Benoit Hocq seemed to completely ignore the instructions and by Les Combes was already up to 10th from 23rd. His race wouldn't last much longer as a spin at Masta Kink ended his race. By that time Larry Thomas, Jos Swarthoff were both out and Baz West also retired after contacting Hocq's stranded car.

That wasn't the end of the carnage, before the end of lap 2 10 cars were lying scattered around the track missing parts or stranded in the undergrowth.

Up front the carnage helped Snow build up a lead but behind Simon Baggett and Jef Vannijlen were both embroiled in a battle that saw them swap places on nearly every lap. Just behind them Ralph was trying to recover from a poor start but found himself embroiled in a ferocious battle with Deutsch and Mario.

Those who had managed to keep on the track in contact with other drivers seemingly enjoyed huge battles for position with drafting possible around much of the circuit.

Ultimately Snow won from Baggett and Jef. 13 drivers failed to finish of whom onto 2 completed enough laps to score points.

The feature race got away much more cleanly, although not totally clean, with four drivers failing to make two laps. By half distance a further 7 drivers had retired with no points but out front Ralph was making up for his race one disapointment.

Ralph, Mario and Snow were enjoying a huge battle with the three of them swapping positions on every single lap before Snow retired on lap three. His retirement didnt' effect the lead two as the cars behind failed to put any pressure on the intense lead battle.

Deutsch held third but retired after only a couple of laps letting Nigel through but he was unable to close in on the lead battle. Behind Swarthoff moved into fourth, but retired letting Baggett into the position ahead of Martin Cooper.

For many of the drivers now it seemed survival was the important element but not for the lead two, the continued to swap places until on lap 11 of 13 Ralph finally got a bit of breathing room. He lead for the last two laps to register a well deserved win ahead of an excellent drive from Mario.

Nigel Metcalf, Simon Baggett and Fulvio all managed solid drives to fill out the positions behind have a race meeting that many drivers would rather forget.

TWF1 Paul Ricard

2010-02-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

The final championship kicked off last weekend with a visit to the classic French, Paul Ricard, circuit. Several drivers were forced to miss the event but a healthy field of.. turned up with Rouke putting his McLaren on an impressive pole position ahead of Division 2 champion Eric Fulghum.

Unfortunately the start lights at this track were far from normal and caught several drivers out, including Fulghum, causing a few minor impacts and a shuffling of the grid.

Fulgum finished the lap way down in 14th and third place driver, who also got a poor start, Rick Stratton finished it in 7th. Meanwhile Nigel Metcalf has made the best start launching from 8th into first by Turn 1.

Unfortunately Metcalf spun in Turn 1 and a very long and carefull rejoin dropped him to 13th but his Lap 2 didn't start as badly as Ivor and Eric.

Ivor seemed to outbrake himself spun and collided with the unfortunate Fulghum and narrowly missed Corrado.

Eric would drive his relicant car back to the pits for a long repair and rejoin a lap down. Ivor also drove back to the pits bit in a comedy moment ended up in parc ferme dropped into a hole and retired.

Meanwhile Rouke looked serene out front a comfortable distance ahead of the very impressive Timo.

Behind the lead pair was the Arrows of Shazy under pressure from newcomer Leo Menegucci. On Lap 5 Leo was into the podium places when Ahmed strangely spun in turn 1 and dropped down to 10th.

Meanwhile the three Renaults, seemed to become a bit of a magnet for the action. First on lap 3 Benoit had collided with Costa damaging the latters car. The damage was increased on lap 9 when Hocq tried to squeeze his powerful Renault between two cars battling down the back straight.

The collision put Costa into the barriers while Hocq continued. Costa was able to continue but was faced with a ill handling car for the remainder of the race.

Aymeric unfortunately also managed to get into a couple of scrapes as the two RS12's started to struggle on home turf. Mike Perray in an older RS01 had been unable to start due to a technical issue rounding off a disaster.

Up front Leo was right with the second places car and on lap 11 he made his move taking second from Timo while Patrick Dobner had worked his way into fourth through the early laps carnage.

Further back John Wallace was embroiled in a battle with David Kadlcak while Jef Vannijlen and Corrado were embroiled in a huge battle. The latter pair swapped places on several occasions before Corrado spun first, then Jef followed suit a few laps later.

The race was proving to be extremely action packed with drivers making mistakes around the track, Ahmed dropped from 8th to 14th over 4 laps, DK spun away 5th and Aymeric dropped to 18th before retiring.

As the laps ticked down, something unusual was happening, Salvatore Tallini in his new Ferrari had been running reasonably well apart from an early spin and now sat a comfortable 6th, just ahead on the track of a monumental battle between Shazy Ahmed and Eric.

The latter two, however, were a lap down on the Ferrari but probably on average 1s/lap quicker as they struggled to fight each other without making contact with Tall's car.

Tallini had the additional problem that Corrado was closing him down at around 1s per lap and perhaps the inevitable happened in the last turn of the last lap when both Ahmed and Fulghum made accidental contact with the Ferrari who appeared to be struggling a little.

Rouke meanwhile cruised to an awsome maiden win after a faultless driver ahead of an excellent drive from Leo. Timo was perhaps the most impressive driver of the day dragging the relicant Ensign into the final podium position.

TWFC Kyalami

2010-02-17T07:07:00.000-08:00

The TWFC season opened with a near full grids at the classic old Kyalami Circuit. A favorite back in the GPL days that this mod mimic's it promised a challenging and exciting pair of races.

While both mods that the rFactor side of the Legends League runs are Formula 1 mods, the formats are very different. TWF1 runs a single race format with a handicapping system. TWFC has no handicapping system and runs a twin race format.

27 cars took the start for this, the opening round of the championship. On Pole was Jef Vannijlen only 0.1s ahead of Christopher Snow and Simon Baggett. The entire grid was covered by 3.5s with Gary Taylor and Larry Thomas filling the last row of the grid.

Interestingly whereas in GPL Lotus is usually the most common make, the fact the cars in this mod are balanced with similar weight and handling and the same engines means the balance has shifted. Eleven of the cars on the grid were the gorgeus AAR Eagles with Coopers being the next most popular with seven on the grid.

From the start Jef lept into the lead while behind Snow was under pressure from Simons Baggett.. so close were they into Turn one that they touched but no damage was apparant.

Behind however chaos reigned as Huarte got into the back of West. Baz was forced off the track while the knock on effect caused several drivers, including Costa, Scott and Shazy to lose places.

Kat had made another startling start slicing through the field and despite the places lost in T1 still finished the lap 3 places to the good. Three more were gained on the next lap as drivers struggled to stay on track.

Both Leaders were amongst those have an off leaving Baggett and Mario to battle in the lead while newcomer Deutsch settled into third ahead of Nigel.

Other drivers to lose places on lap two were the trio of Huarte, who had somehow come out of Turn 1 without losing a place, Antionio Wojahn who retired and Shazy Ahmed.

Up front as the field approached half distance Jef was starting to recover from his off while the lead pair continued to battle with Deutsch just behind.

Then on the stroke of half Distance Bagget spun, a second spin a few laps later dropped the erstwhile leader to a disapointing 11th.

By now the field was starting to thin, with Eric Fulgum, Larry Thomas, Benoit Hocq all parked up, the latter two after a huge startline accident after Hocq clipped the verge on the exit of the last turn.

Jef continued his recovery up front and on lap 11 retook the leader after a superb recovery. A lap later Deutsch was delayed allowing the consistent runs from Nigel Metcalf and Christopher Snow to benefit and round out the podium.

Jef made a better fist of the start of the feature race taking the lead cleanly before snow slipped past on lap 2. Baggett didn't match his first race start and dropped back to fourth behind a hard charging Nigel Metcalf.

Overall the start was more orderly than the first race but, after another startling start, Kat Scott did fall to last after two opening lap spins. Hocq also made a poor start and ultimately retired on lap 4 after dropping to the tail of the field.

Unlike his first race, Jef's second race went down hill from about half distance. Early on he had enjoyed a spirited battle with Snow and Metcalf but a mistake on lap 13 dropped him to 7th and he was unable to recover.

The leaders had settled at this stage and Snow was able to lead to the finish ahead of Nigel and Simon for a superb win. Mario also settled into a good finish, coming home 4th after a comfortable run, while John Wallace had a disapointing finish to his weekend after an off dropped him from fifth to 15th.

Wallace benefit from late race spins by Tallinig and Fulvio to pick up two places but must have been disapointed.

In the first race, Jef undoubtadly put in the race of the event, but in the second it wasn't so clear. Shazy Ahmed probably deserves it though after a super first lap put him up to 18th from last on the grid. I dropped a few places on lap four but recovered well and finished an excellent 15th overall.

TWFS Laguna Seca

2010-02-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

This year the Legends League are running three leagues. Two rFactor series using the Classic F1 1967 mod and the 79 F1 cars. They alternate weeks while earlier in the night they run a iRacing Skip Barber 2000 series.

Fifteen cars lined up for the first race of the 2010 spring TWFS season with Petteri Kotovaara lining up on pole ahead of Simon Baggett and Richard Walker.

Off the start Petteri made a brake with Baz jumping Baggett into second with Rik Walker settling into fourth. At the end of that first lap the latter three crossed the line side by side before Rik braved it out round the outside to take second with Baggett slipping into third ahead of West.

Meanwhile at the back of the grid Georg and Dave Hawt both had offs to drop to the rear of the field.

Up front the field had settled down by Lap 3 while back half of the grid start to get down to some serious action. Unfortunately for Georg Naujoks the action was a bit close with a collision with Katier putting him out of the race and forcing Scott to get a new car. She would spend the rest of the race at the rear of the field.

Hawnt was soon into the top 10 as Ales Simunek and Keith Lawrie both lost places.

Up front on Lap 4 David Kadlcak was now on a charge, passing Tony Rickard on that lap, Baz the next lap, gaining a place on the next lap when Petteri retired, then finally Simon on the next lap.

The final pass was a trifle lucky after he tweaked his front wing on Simons car approaching T1 before passing him out of T2. Richard was now on a charge, making progress on lap 6 with a pass on Baz West before sneaking past Baggett into the podium positions on lap 16.

Baggett seemed to be having trouble with his car and was in the pits a lap later, dropping down the order after a promising start.

Up front the order was now settled down and most of the field now cruised to the finish. The last two passes going to Ales who finishing 9th, an impressive finish after being 15th at one point.

Rik walker took an impressive win narrowly ahead of an excellent run by David Kadlcak. Tony Rickard rounded out an impressive podium with an excellent drive.

Overall an exciting and enjoyable start to the new season.

G1:GP Indycars - Indianapolis

2010-02-07T09:26:00.001-08:00

Eight cars turned up at the famous brickyard for an 80 lap sprint race version of the famous Indycar race.

Drafting was expected to feature heavily and yellow flags were not-unexpected, even so the 5 attempts it took to go clean for 5 laps was rather surprising.

At the 6th time of asking the field got away with Sulla soon leading from Jafo and Katier. Reitveld had made a superb start and settled into third ahead of Rattra and Crippy who had been struggling to get going.

Suzy was soon making progress, however, and on lap 8 moved into the lead with the lead 4 soon pulling a bit of a gap back to 5th. Then carnage.. Sulla spun in T1.. approaching at 200+mph Kat chose the wrong choice between high and low. She piled into Looming then Jafo joined the fray bringing out the yellow. Unfortunately for Katier she had two flat tyres and lost a lap dragging her wreck back to the pits.

Suzy led from the restart but soon dropped to fifth but the next few laps were essentially uneventful as most of the field settled down.

Yuriko now lead through a couple of yellows, one of which saw Rattra dropping down to a lap down behind Jafo; by which time Sulla had retired.

As the field approached half distance Yuriko led from a battle between Suzy and the green car of PJ Sorbet. Crippy was in 4th and struggling a bit with her car.

As the field moved into the 3rd quarter a sequence of yellows shuffled the field up. Suzy retook the lead while most of the field was now at least one lap down. By Lap 60 Crippy had moved into second from PJ who at one point was 6th and Rattra.

This more or less settled the field. Suzy's lead was safe and soon a lap up on everyone. The last incident, however, cost Crippy a podium as she crashed out dropping to 6th behind Katier.

G1:GP Indycar Pheonix

2010-01-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

The surprises continued into Round 2 of the new G1:GP season as a regular backmarker led for over 20 laps and the back row qualifier won.

Pole position wasn't a surprise as Sulla Looming lined up alongside Yuriko while Nella Boccara put her best performance in todate as she lined up 3rd.

Yuriko made the best start but by lap 3 Boccora was leading her first race; and doing it in style. She soon dropped into 19s laps as Sulla worked her way up into second.

At this stage the front group were fairly close with Sulla, Yuriko and Crippy all taking turns in second before Sulla made a pass stick on lap 10. Rattra and Jafo were a few seconds back while Katier, running in low boost, was leading PJ and Suzy who was aiming to run one stop.

As the field approached Lap 20 things seemed to be settling as drivers worked out what lap they would need to stop. Most seemed comfortable to run to lap 28 or 29, at 1/3 distance, but suddenly Nella made a 'slowing to pit' call on Lap 23. This proved disastrous for the reynard driver as she slowed perhaps a touch early while still on the racing line approaching the kink.

Sulla was caught out and unfortunately ran into the leader putting her out of the race. A disapointing end for a run that promised a decent finish. With her early stop a win was unlikely but she had the pace to get a top 3 finish.

Most of the field pitted under the subsequent yellow but did as a result face some care with fuel if the race went green to the end. After the stops Crippy became leader number four and she was soon embroiled in a battle with Sulla.

Behind them Jafo looked strong in third ahead of Rattra and PJ who had jumped several places with the stops. Then the yellow flew again, Yuriko went into Turn 3 too deep and lost a wheel on the outside wall.

Katier and Sulla both pitted although some drivers elected to stay out. Both the pitters did so with one thing in mind, trying to maximum time at boost 1 so it was no surprise to see them both being racey when the race went green again.

Katier was being a little more cautious than Looming but they soon started working up through the field. Crippy continued to lead but was under pressure from Rattra and Jafo and on lap 40 she lost it on the apron in T4, she spun up, down and over.. rolling violently down the track and amazingly landing on all four wheels with nothing missing.

Suzy spun in sympathy and was lucky not to lose a radiator as Katier hit the blue and white car leading a huge dent in her sidepod. Katier lost her nose but all three had to pit for repairs. Suzy decided to try to run from there to the end non-stop while Katier elected to run one stop. Some other cars pitted and off the re-start, leader number 5, Rattra, lead from Katier and Sulla. These two, boost on full, now proceeded to work their way into the first two places with Jafo not far behind.

The question now appeared to be, would one more stop as seemingly the plan for Kat, Sulla and Jafo, outdo non-stop from Rattra and Suzy. The decision was made on lap 63 when Jafo made a hash of entering the pits under green. He spun, without hitting anything, was promptly lapped by Sulla and Katier but brought out the yellow.

Jafo thus did another lap, pitted under the yellow and lost minimal time. Unfortunately Sulla did a Yuriko while slowing for the yellow and became the last retirement with a car that was lacking a wheel.

That was pretty much the end of the action, Rattra got a penalty for passing (just) Suzy off the restart but only lost a single place as a result, ironically to Suzy. Katier was a lap or more up on the entire field so just brought it home although Jafo did unlap himself.. as Katier crossed to take the Checkers.

Jafo unlaps himself with 0.071s of Katiers race left to run.

He would finish a solid second with Suzy finishing the podium
and retaining the lead in the championship.

G1:GP Indycar Surfers Paradise..

2010-01-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

The G1GP's new season opened at a circuit that must be the worst named circuit around.. why?

Because it is rarely paradise for the drivers with many corners having room for zero errors and thus a high incident rate.

The returning Remon seemed to have the circuit sorted, however, as he raced to an early lead from Sulla.

Crippy, Yuriko, Jafo and Suzy were left to battle over third place while Rattra, Katier and PJ brought up the rear. PJ had been the unfortunate victim in T1 of contact with Katier as she was distracted by the strange disappearance of her FFB.

Up front Remon soon stretched his lead from Sulla but Crippy soon hit trouble. She suddenly realise she'd omitted to change to her race setup and as a consquence found herself hampered. She pitted early then collided with Katier before retiring.

Her retirement was not the first as both PJ and Remon retired fairly early. Remon must have been very disapointed as he looked set for a comfortable win. He wasn't the first to make a mistake, however.

Katier retired next losing it in the first chicane and deciding enough was enough. The Sulla retired from the lead, like Remon she had time in hand and her accident was made under minimal pressure. That left a startled Suzy leading from Jafo, Rattra and Yuriko. She was showing everyone how to run in a race around this chicane strewn track as she finished the race without a single mistake for a well deserved first win.

Yuriko dragged a battered car to the finish minus a front wing and certainly not steering properly while Rattra gained a podium finish after a fairly clean run.

All in all a crazy start to the season that now moves on to the ovals for round 2.

Legends: TWF1 Adelaide Report

2009-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

With both championships essentially tied up the main battles in the final round were for the minor places and this was especially true of the tight Division 2 contest.

Ales made the best start from second on the grid and comfortably took the lead from champion elect Timo. On Lap 2, however, Ales put the car in the tyres in the tricky left hander just after Adelaide and dropped to 3rd behind Paul Langford.

Ales wasn't the only visitor of the tyres as Rick Stratton removed his T4's nose and Nigel Metcalf somehow avoided damage as they both visited the tyres. Stratton retired on the spot with terminal damage but he was the second retirement.

On Lap 1 Rouke had made a very uncharacteristic error bouncing off Jef, the Barriers and Timo into Adelaide before retiring with terminal damage.

So already the field was down to 10 cars, Langford finding himself under pressure from the recovering Ales with a gap back to Baz West who was under a lot of pressure from Ralph and Bret Metcalf.

Bringing up the rear was Jef, how had had to pit for repairs but he was soon on the moving catching a struggling Nigel Metcalf as he drove a superb recovery drive.

On lap 5 Baz became the latest victim of 'Ales Corner' as he spun and lost his rear wing. Pitting for repairs moving the charging Jef up the order.

Up front Langford seemed to outbrake himself a touch allowing Ales through into second on Lap 7 and able to chase down the champion. Behind the lead three Fulvio, Ralph and Bret continued to battle, the three running close changed places frequently and were soon joined around lap 15 by Jef.

He was in no mood to 'take any prisoners' as he neatly dealt with the battling trio over the course of the next three laps and by lap 18 past Ralph, just as the battle became for third as Timo made a very rare mistakes and crashed out at the end of the lap.

The impact with the pit entry removed a wheel and forced him to retire. The retirement didn't matter, however, as despite scoring zero points he still had the title 'in the bag'.

That left Ales in the lead and he cruised to the finish. With only seven cars left in the race, one final pass for position by Fulvio on Ralph on lap 23, was the only pass for position as the race drew to a gentle close.

The top 5 is believed to be :-

Timo - 224
Ales - 220
Roberto - 195
Bret - 189
Fulvio - 165

Division two also had a champion but there was a ferocious battle for second place. Kat Scott held the place but, hindered by a poor Donnington result, this was far from secure. In fact Martin Cooper was 'in the box seat' for the position especially as Scott would not be able to race.

One driver with an outside chance at the position was Simon Baggett and he duly put his car on pole of the 11 car grid. Too much wheelspin left Fulghum in fourth off the grid after Marot made a superb start but by the laps end he was up to third.

Martin Cooper took second from third on the grid while Pym had a disaster. Battling hard with Tallini the pair approached 'Schumacher corner' - the pair touched, Pym spun and was collected by Hocq who had no chance of avoiding the McLaren.

He was soon on a charge passing cars on every lap until he had moved from 11th to 7th at which point he met a wall in the form of Marot.

Marot, driving well, took a few laps to pass by which time there was a gap to Tallini that would take him till about half distance to catch and pass.

Up front Bagget was fairly untroubled although Cooper was doing his best to keep the MaLaren under pressure. Cooper steadily fell back into the clutches of John Wallace, however, and on lap 17 the Bous car passed him for second.

Two laps later Eric was through too but then a battle Royale commences which saw the pair swap places two more times before the champion finally kept the final podium position. Pym rounded out the top five.

The final ( believed) championship top 5 positions are :-

Eric - 222
Martin - 193
Simon - 186
Kat - 186 (4th due to Simon winning more races)
Dave K - 181

Overall too keenly contested championships with some intense battles to the wire and highly memorable drives.

Legends: TWFA Adelaide Report

2009-12-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

The Legends admin team threw up a huge challenge for the closing race of the TWFA season in the form of the challenging Adelaide circuit. Famous for the incident that deprived Damon Hill of a world championship, this circuit has numerous 'speed hump' curbs that threaten to send cars into wild spins at the slightest touch.

As such a high attrition rate was predicted as Paul Langford and Rouke vd Hoek fought tooth and nail for, what for now at at least, the first and final Legends TWFA Championship.

As always the meeting started with the sprint race and the field of 12 cars was lead away from Pole by Langford. Rouke lined up alongside him on the front row with, newcomer to this series, Simon Baggett lining up 3rd.

From the start Langford led with Rouke right behind as the field streamed through the tricky chicane that forms Turn 1 of this circuit.

Behind, Simon was slow away baulking the right side of the field slightly. The front of the field still got through the corner cleanly but Baz West locked a brake and collided with Graham Palferyman.

Kat Scott (pink car right) was forced to lift both for the yellow and the slow moving West.

Ted Ball (green car) thus was able to pass Scott on the run to T2.

Scott would become the first victim of the curbs spinning down to last. She wouldn't be the last.

The Championship battle wasn't the points battle on with Bret Metcalf and Ralph Maiph also in a tight battle for a good championship finish. They both, ironically, had suffered qualifying penalties so start this race at the back.

By lap 4, with several drivers having spun, Maiph was making good progress and was up to 8th. Bret was just ahead as the pair ran nose to tail.

Marcus Adams became the only retirement a lap later, crashing out, as the field largely settled down. That was until towards the end of lap 8.

Rouke had finally got within range of Paul and attempted to pass him into the hairpin. The pair touched and Paul was able to retain the position.

Then at the end of the lap Paul seemed to make a small mistake, the pair touched, Paul half spun. Rouke in a sporting gesture, having briefly passed the yellow car, returned the place as their head for the S/F line.

Roukes challenge in the sprint ended there and then so the championship came down to the final race of the season.

This wasn't the only battle going on, however, as Scott had caught Ball. Her first pass on lap 7 had failed after a mistake two corners after she passed him. One lap later Ball repeated Scott's mistake and with Bret Also hitting late trouble she finished 8th.

Overall an intense fight was brewing, a superb drive by Ralph had put him in the 'box seat' in the battle with Bret while Langford led the battle for the championship.

In the feature a bit of scrabbling off the start left Langford taking to the escape route but the two championship leaders succesfully negotiated the corner in the lead.

Behind some things got a little close but there was no major problems as the field streamed through T1.

A couple of minor incidents happened down the field as it approached the long straight before the hairpin.

As a result Kat Scott was able to make good use of her lower downforce allowed her to move up to 7th.

Into Lap 2 Rouke worked his way past Langford and the championship was fully alive.

Behind newcomer Baggett was all over the back of a fierce battle between Tallini and Palferyman. The Latter became a curb victim onto the main straight spinning into the concrete. Bagget was able to also get past moving up to a strong 3rd pursued by Marcus Adams.

Adams' season has been mixed and another promising run, sadly, would fall by the wayside a few laps later as he spun out of fourth and into retirement.

The next victim of the curbs, on lap 8, was Salvatore Tallini, his stop dropped him down to eighth behind a battle Royale.

Kat Scott was driving smoothly, she'd put in a great start and had genuinely passed Baz West on lap for and was now running fourth.

She didn't have the outright pace of Baz West or Juan Carlos Huate (seen attempting to pass West Right) but her sheer straight line speed and decent lines made it impossible for them to pass her.

Tallini soon caught the battle, as did the hard charging Ralph Maiph. Thinking on his feet, and with a stop needed, the latter dived into the pits as he caught the battle. This gave him clear air and no delay and would pay him well later in the race.

By Lap 15 Tallini had worked his way onto the back of Scott and passed her with another great pass, the Second he'd done on her in two weeks.

Then going into the fast kink Scott made a small error in line, slid into the barrier and lost her nose.

Unfortunately, in what could well have been the incident that settled the championship, her slower return to the pits meant Rouke caught up with her as she entered the pits. No Blue flags were shown as he caught up so quickly and unfortunately was forced to avoid the rear of the pink car and went off. (above).

Shortly after the Ralph/Bret battle was essentially settled as Bret went off losing his nose and forcing a pit for repairs. Despite the problems, the championship battle wasn't over as after their stops Rouke was in sight of his challenger.

Meanwhile Baz and Huarte were still fighting together, now for 6th and 7th but that ended on lap 22 when West spun over a curb and had to pit.

Had Scott not been worried about fuel, he would have dropped to 9th. Scott however had fuel on her mind, West was able to retake the place.

Overall the battles went right down to the wire, passing didn't stop till almost the very end and two entertaining races provided a fitting end to the championship.

Well done to Paul and Rouke for an excellent, fair and clean battle and congratulations to Paul for taking the crown.

Legends - TWF1 Donington Report

2009-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

(sorry this is late, University work first, racing second ;) ).

Technical issues struck during two entertaining races at the challenging Donington Park racing circuit.

In the Div 1 Rik Walker had his best qualifying after a slight handicap adjustment allowed him to use the improved M29 car. He was one the lead of 3 such cars lining up behind pole sitter Timo Peltola.

Timo had almost got the championship sowed up and led from his pole with Rik Walker making a poorer start and losing a place to Ronny on the run to Turn 1.

Rik made minor contact mid corner with the 'Players' M29, however, and retook the position. Feeling he gained it unfairly he returned the place as the field streamed down towards Old Hairpin.

Further back on the edge of the top 10 Berti had become the meat in a Brabham Sandwich. He got squashed by Bret and Allar and, as his BT49 became briefly airborne, he was forced off the track.

He rejoining narrowly behind Ralph and forcing Rick Stratton behind to slow early. This delay allowed Paul Langford to get alongside the bright yellow T4 Ferrari. Langford turned in a touch early, collided with him and the M29 was spinning onto the infield.

Stratton was unfortunately the first victim of technical issues and went off at the next corner as he struggled with lack of force feedback. Losing his nose, he would retire on lap 7 after struggling for a few laps.

Into the hairpin Bret and Ales had a slight collision as Bret tried to pass the dark grey Brabham. Bret lost several places as he fought to regain the track then also suffered a technical issue as he lost connection.

So at the end of lap one Peltola led from Rouke, Denis and Allar Foht. Allar had made the best start, leaping from 9th to 4th ahead of Ales.

Timo was already looking secure, but the rest of the podium was soon embroiled in an intense battle. Denis made a probably over-optermistic pass attempt on Rouke on lap 3 into Turn 1, he collided with Rouke, ran wide, and was fortunate not to lose a place straight away.

Shortly after, however, Allar was through and chasing after the Orange and Black car ahead. He tried.. and tried.. but Rouke was driving well and it took until lap 6 before he was able to pass.

By then Timo was clear and the pair would run uncontested to the flag. Rouke and Denis would have races to forget, however, as both retired by before half distance leaving Ales in Third.

Behind the drivers who were delayed early on were now making their way through the field. Rik Walker had been passing drivers at close to a rate of every other lap and was up to 7th by lap 12. Behind Paul Langford had made similar progress but as he had dropped further back with his spin, he was up to 12th and chasing Ralph hard.

Retirements then started to come thick and fast, by lap 19, 5 drivers were out and wouldn't score any points. This dropped to 10 when the battling Ronny and Roberto retired. Both crashed heavily on lap 29 after battling hard together for several laps.

Most drivers were running seconds apart on the track by now, but Fulvio and Ralph were embroiled in an intense battle. Twice they swapped places before finally on lap 34 Fulvio took the place.

Up front Peltola took a deserved win and it's believed a provisional championship. ( Last season, from memory, any penalties incurred in last race took points penalties as the licence is cleaned at the end of the season. So it's feasible to lose points ).

In Division two Simon Baggett and champion elect Eric Fulghum lined up on a M29 front row, matched by a similar pair of M29's behind. Two Renaults appeared on the grid for the first time with two new Frenchman joining the field. They lined up 5th and 8th out of a field of 11.

When the light went Green, L'il Miss superstarter was at it again, however. Yet again Kat got it all right at the start and as the field streamed towards T1 she was rapidly closing on the second and third rows on the grid from 9th.

Into T1 she was alongside Cooper's 'pig', she backed out on entry but mid corner David Pym slid wide slightly, causing Cooper and Kat to back up a little and minor contact made.

Eric had made the best start and was now leading ahead of Baggett, Pym and Cooper. Into the chicane Kat made an attempt to outbrake David. The maneuver was largely successful but unfortunately light contact was made with both cars ahead. Pym had turned in, seemingly not aware of Kat's attempt, he unfortunately spun.

Cooper was nudged slightly by the Ferrari but retained the spot without bother while Kat easily kept her car on track.

Now started a ferocious battle between V12 power and better handling cars. the FW07 of the hugely improving Sal Tallini was all over the back of the Screaming yellow car and for the next 3 laps he was unable to overcome the power deficite.

On lap 4, however, he pulled off the move of the day outbraking Scott round the outside of the chicane. She gave him the minimum of room but he calming slid his car through the gap and into fourth.

The Recovering Pym and John Wallace now had to contend with the bright yellow car. Once again Scott kept them at bay but a spin in T1 let the two recovering cars through.

Further back new driver Aymeric and Philipe were having a fun battle while up front Eric had, championship in mind, let Baggett back ahead and the two would comparitevly cruise to the finish.

John, Tallini, Martin and David were soon in their own battle. The 4 not swapping places much but running tightly together lap after lap even after Cooper had a brief off on lap 24.

Tallini unfortunatly retired, probably with technical problems on Lap 33 shortly before Scott also retired. She suffered a disconnect for unknown reasons robbing her of a secure 6th place and giving Cooper an excellent chance at second in the championship.

Eric's second place handed him the championship with the same proviso's as for Div 1.

Behind Scott got 22 points for being placed 9th after her retirement.

In Division 1, the top three are likely settled although a bat race for Ales will hand the place to Roberto.

Bret can, however, take the place after his zero points at Don he can still overhaul Berti.Third for Bret gives him equal points with Berti if the latter fails to finish better than 12th. A win for Bret gives him 205 points, 3rd for Berti gives him 206.

In Division 2, however, three drivers are battling hard for the position with Simon Baggett and Pym having outside chances.

Before dropped scores the position is :-

2 Kat Scott 186
4 Martin Cooper 165
3 David Kadlcak 157
5 David Pym 154
6 Simon Baggett 146

as such if everyone DNF's that is the finishing positions.

Both Pym and Baggett rely totally on bad results from all three ahead, and a win ( or second in Pym's case) to take second. While 8th for Kat would prevent Baggett taking second, she needs 3rd if Pym wins ( or 7th if second)

Cooper needs to finish 9th or better with Scott behind and David K less than 8 points behind. So if DK won, second would get him the place.

Scott will drop points ( the only one of the top 6 to do so ) so is effectively on 164 and thus faces the same maths as Cooper with the difference of needing to finish ahead of Cooper, if both are 9th or better.

For DK to take second he needs to get 29 points with Scott finishing 9th or worse and Cooper the same. Thus 3rd is his minimum.

TWFA: Donnington Park Report

2009-12-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

The seventh round of the TWFA season saw the drivers take on the strangely challenging Donnington Park circuit. Why strangely challenging? Well it seems to be a circuit that some people just simply 'get' while others struggle like crazy. It's layout, however, looks deceptively simple with many corners being flat out.

Title contenders Paul Langford and Rouke vd Hoek locked out the front row with improving driver, Sal Tallini, lining up in 3rd.

Tallini was the first victim of a number of incidents as, going into Redgate, West appears to accidently 'get into' him and the pink TWFA spun onto the infield.

Several newcomers entered this race and exiting Redgate one of those drivers, Pierre was strangely slow and dropped two places.

Into Melbourne hairpin there was a bit too much pushing and barging. First Dominic made contact with Tomas pushing him wide and taking the place. Then Neill got into Huarte spinning him round as Tallini then made contact with the back of Johnson.

Into the final corner Dominic outbraked Maiph and ran wide while Tomas tried to slip inside the red car and the two made contact. They both spun.

Up front Rouke made his way past Langford and cruised away with Baz in a stable but lonely 3rd.

Behind Graham, Martin, Patrick Dobner and Bret were embroiled in a monumental battle. Over the 8 laps there were getting on for a dozen different position changes. Eventually Bret won the battle which became for 3rd when Baz West proved the adage "To finish third.. first one much have enough fuel in the car!!!" as he ran out on the last lap.

In the feature race Tallini made the best start but there was some rubbing between all three not helped by Tallini's technical problems that cause his car to warp.

Paul took second from Rouke as the field streamed down to the Old Hairpin.

The opening lap was rather cleaner although Ted did manage to get into the back of Katier. She spun, losing a place and suffering some damage. Ted's weekend had been a nightmare and in all he only managed 2 racing laps.

Up front Paul Langford was taking the lead with Rouke looking for a way past the bright yellow car. Sal Tallini was 3rd with West 4th ahead of another large battle.

For the second time in the day Martin Cooper found himself battling tooth and nail this time Chasing Patrick Dobner hard.

Then on lap 7 Rouke went off, forcing a pit for repairs, then to compound matters he had a stop go. That dropped him way down the order but on the plus side would not need to stop again having topped his tank during the stop.

As the stops approached, therefore, Langford was secure out in front ahead of Tallini but the latter had a crash and retired at half distance. The handed Graham second and for a while he lead as Langfords stop dropped him to second.

Meanwhile Rouke was steadily climbing up the order. He past a struggling Kat on 10 and by the end had recovered to a handy 9th place. Metcalf took a smooth second ahead of Palfreyman and Rookie Dobner.

Of the other rookies, Pierre missed the sprint and Dominic's race was incident filled. He gad a number of off's between showings of pace. He would finish 11th.

With Berti missing this round the championship is essentially a two horse race.

After dropping their worst scores :-
(NOTE I believe that one of Roukes scores is missing on the official table)

Langford - 606
Rouke - 602
Berti - 568

Berti can still win it, if he takes both races that is 120 points. Putting him on 688 and requiring Langford to take no more than 61 points. Assuming he completes > 50% of the racing that is the equivelent of about 2 12th places. Rouke would need to do worse than something around 2 10th to give Berti a shot at the crown.

Legends TWF1 Jarama Report

2009-11-22T21:58:00.002-08:00

An impressive 19 drivers turned up for the sixth round of the Div 1 championship. On Pole was the impressive Ales Simunek buy a substantial 0.457s. A guide of just how impressive that is was shown by the fact that Rick Stratton, in 16th, was 1.8s off from second place.

Ronny was impressive from the go, hounding Ales throughout the lap and taking the lead as the lead pair dragged towards the S/F line. Rouke, however, was the start of the first lap. Seventh on the grid he made the best start and squeezing inside Berti into the second part of T1 he came out 4th.

Bento also made a good start finishing the first lap 14th from the back of the grid. Biggest losers were Dave Hawt, who spun, and Rick Stratton who was unable to avoid the stranded Brabham. Hawt would lose his rear wing in the incident, pit, run last and ultimately be the first retirement on lap 9.

On Lap 2 Costa had an incident approaching the downhill hairpin, clunking the barrier and being forced to pit, dropping to last. A second stop a lap later relegated him to a lonely race at the back of the field.

Up front the front four were running in order, close together, but at this early stage not close enough to really attempt to pass. Further back Jef and Roberto were losing touch already with Bret and Mike Perray just behind.

With such a large field there were battles throughout the field. Paul Langford and Mike Perray were embroiled in the hardest battle, swapping placed regularly during the first 10 laps.

Up front, however, Ronny's race was about to fall apart, but not before Nigel Metcalf had made heavy impact with the T1 barriers. It appears he jinked to avoid the car ahead, spun and lost his rear wing on impact. He would lose two laps as a result of the impact spending the rest of the race on the same lap as Costa.

Further back Rik and Rick were now nose to tail and closing in on a big battle between Denis and Miguel. Miguel had tried to sneak inside Ralph as Denis put a neat pass on him but backed out and spin.

By Lap 10 the lead three were starting to spread a bit although Timo would keep Ales alert throughout the rest of the race. Behind Rouke looked secure but this soon changed as the recovering Ronny started to put intense pressure on the Black and Orange car.

On Lap 16, however, Ronny went missing to be replaced by Jef. For the rest of the race Jef would put intense pressure on the third place car. Going into the last lap he put a demon move on Rouke into Turn one. Sliding inside him between the two segments of the corner he took a deserved third place.

Drive of the day, though, probably should go to Miguel Bento who, despite a spin kept a pretty clean race and from 19th on the grid came home 8th.

The Div 2 race would also be a race in which the driver at the back of the grid, probably, drove the best race overall.

That driver was Ferrari Driver, Kat Scott, and from last on the grid where she was after cancelling her lap time she made a startling start. By the Start finish line she was already past two cars and on the drag to the first corner she was fourth.

This was 3rd by the exit after poleman John Wallace, who had been surprised by Baggett's excellent start from second on the grid then made a mistake into Turn one and ran wide.

In fact early on the grid got very mixed up. Martin Cooper, despite a nudge off Tallini who had made a very optomistic attempt into T1, was fourth with Dave Pym 5th.

Tallini seemed to really enjoy this track and had qualified very well in the FW07. His start, however, was shocking and almost caused an accident when Eric had looked to go round him just as Kat arrived alongside.

The first few laps were incident packed, Tallini spinning and Mark Abbot giving David K a love tap. The Latter, just like Rik Walker in Div 1, was really struggling with the BT48 and although he kept Mark back John Wallace was through.

Simon was looking clear out in front while Kat was holding station just behind Corrado. Then on Lap 3 he spun in T3, dropping down to fourth just ahead of David Pym.

It didn't take long for Simon to retake third and on Lap 5 that became the battle for the lead when Corrado, struggling with his brakes, spun in the downhill hairpin.

Kat now led, for the first time in her GP79 career, and despite unsurprising nervousness she looked fairly secure then. Simon was soon with the yellow Ferrari, but catching was one thing, passing another.

On Lap 9 he tried a pass into Turn 1 but just couldn't make it stick, then on lap 11 he was through. Kat's Ferrari was oversteering slightly, in a manner that she liked, but this possibly caused the rears to warm quicker than the fronts.

A bit of wheel spin and she lost traction, slide sideways into the barrier and he was through. A Second traction issue out of T1 on the next lap would drop her to 3rd.

So at the end of lap 12 Simon was leading by a couple of seconds from John Wallace. Kat first, under no real pressure from a battle between the recovering Tallini and Eric Fulghum.

Cooper had dropped back after Wallace had made a clean pass on him on lap then he spun after contact with Tallini. Tallini does warp a bit due to his ISP connection but seemed to cut back into Coopers line a bit early, he appears to tag the Brabham, lockup a front causing him to run wide.

Cooper tucked neatly back inside but Sal came back at him running into the back of the Brabham before taking the pass on the exit of T1. Cooper was bounced onto the curb and spun no damage was apparant but he was now 7th.

There were now three battles on track. Martin caught and would battle hard with Corrado over the next few laps, Eric and Sal were battling and while David K and Mark Abbot also had a battle going.

John Wallace was catching Simon but a mistake on lap 16, followed by a spin on lap 27, relegated him to having to settle for second place.

Eric and Sal were continuing to battle hard, closing down on the third placed Ferrari at the same time. They, however, weren't mistake free and everytime they got within about 4s one or both would make a mistake.

Katier finally made a mistake, herself, on lap 34 giving Eric hope. He was now clear of Sal, but Kat put her head down and ran 4 of her quickest laps of the race to put 3rd secure as Eric backed off on worn tyres.

Excellent drives from the top three with Simon's crew filling his car properly this time to allow him to take the win after Montreal's disapointment.

A superbly consistant run by Kat netting her probably Driver of the day and second ever Podium.

On the consistant front, the Average Deviation makes interesting reading. Both Simon and Katier registered 0.951 as their Av.Deviation (and unsurprisingly the top two spots. Five drivers were more consistant in Div 1 reflecting the higher standard at that level.

Simon's time would, incidentally, have placed him 9th overall in Div1 1m12 or so off the lead.

With just two rounds left the positions ( UNNOFFICIAL - RICK FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ) are :-

Div 1

1 Timo Peltola 184 (161 after dropping a score)
2 Roberto Berti 175 (155 after dropping a score)
3 Bret Metcalf 165 (147 after dropping a score)

Timo's second place gives him an excellent chance at the championship.

Div 2

1 Eric Fulghum 180 (156 after dropped score)
2 Kat Scott 162 (140 after dropped score)
3 David Kadlcak 156 (135 after dropped score)

Despite losing a few points to Kat in the last couple of races Eric is likely to win the championship. Behind DK will be hoping his BT48 can be made to work around the remaining rounds better than Kat's roaring Ferrari.

G1:GP Trucks update

2009-11-22T21:58:00.001-08:00

Legends TWFA Jarama Report

2009-11-19T15:56:00.000-08:00

12 cars took the trip to the Spanish racing circuit of Jarama for the normal two race event around the tight and twisting corners.

In Qualifying Rouke took pole ahead from Roberto and Bret Metcalf while at the back both Katier and Gary elected to cancel their times for safety to avoid a pitlane start.

For the sprint race Berti out dragged Rouke while further down Kat was making great strides. From 11th she was 10th by the exit of T1 and then slipped inside a tentative Ralph Maiph in T4 to move up to 9th.

Up ahead was Ted Ball who had put in a lot of practice and was looking might competitive. Meanwhile Tallini, who had won one of the club races, was also looking racey having jumped to 4th from 6th.

Paul Langford had also made a good start with Bret dropping two places to 5th. Langford was able to maintain position behind the lead pair, putting some pressure on them as they approached half way.

Starting lap 5 Berti made a mistake, slid wide in T1, Rouke and Langford both took advantage. Rouke was now able to pull away slightly while Langford was able to maintain position ahead of Berti.

Further back two battles were developing. First Kat was pressuring Ted Ball. The two swapped places twice before a mistake by the latter gave Scott a cruise to the flag.

Just ahead Gary was battling hard with Baz, on lap 7 he managed to work his way past to take 6th place.

Overall some exciting battles took place over the quick 9 lap race.

The second race was rather more controversial with some intense scraps causing tempers to flare.

Rouke again got beaten off the start and had to battle his way through past Berti in a close and fraught contest which unfortunately resulted in Berti spinning down the field on about lap 5.

Further back Katier again made a good start and with a mix of more bravery, controlled aggression and luck she was soon up to 5th with Baz West breathing down her neck.

Graham by contrast made a terrible start and was down in 11th and would have to start a battle up through the field.

Tallini had also made an awsome start and was soon in with the chance of a Podium. Just behind was an intense battle with Bret and Tallini. While Katier held Baz back with impecible lines Bret and Tallini were swapping places.

On Lap 7 Tallini made a mistake, though and dropped behind Langord who had been holding station in 5th place.

As the pitstops approached Katier, who had lost two places with a spun after accidental contact with Baz, had an off after a technical hitch. That put her down in 10th ahead of Gary and Ivor. The latter putting in one of his better runs having avoided trouble and kept in touch with the back of the field.

By the time the stops had finished on lap 21 Langford, with a cute strategy, was now leading while Rouke had worked his way past Tallini. Furthe down Graham had lost out in the stops while Ralph had worked his way up to about 5th with Baz just behind.

Further back Kat's race fell apart further when she tripped over Gary as she tried to lap him. He chose to go the wrong way after Kat had committed to a passing line and the collision damaged her car sufficiently for her to head straight for the pits.

That put her 11th with only Taylor behind her. She put in a charging recovery though and, aided by mistakes by Ball and Blackmore, finished in 8th.

Overall some exciting wheel to wheel action over both races produced some stirling drives.

While Kat made the most progress during the races. For me drives of the day would either be Tallini or, despite a couple of mistakes that hampered others races, Baz West.

Legends League - Mid Season.. How things Stack up.

2009-11-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Five races down, three to go.. but with dropped scores we're sort of at half distance and about the right level to see how the three championships are going.

In TWFA on points Rouke leads Paul comfortably but Roberto has missed a race so is likely still in the hunt. After dropping their worst scores the scores on the doors ( prior to Jarama ) are :-

1 Roberto Berti 434 (loses no points as he missed Round 2)
2 Rouke vd Hoek 398 ( after dropping 70 points from Round 4)
3 Paul Langford 384 ( losing 76 from Round 4)
4 Martin Cooper 283 (61 From Round 1)
5 Ralph Maiph 279 ( 65 from Round 1)
6 Graham Palfreyman 276 (missed round 3)
7 Bret Metcalf 274 (54 From round 4)
8 Kat Scott 264 (Missed Round 1)
9 Ted Ball 229 (From Round 3)
10 Neill Johnson 235 (Missed Round 5)
11 Baz West 232 (Missed two Rounds)
12 Juan Carlos Huarte 220 (Missed Round 5)

All the maths was done in my head so might be slightly off (plus I might have missed a 50% where someone dropped out early) but it looks like right now Berti has a healthy lead in the championship over Rouke and Paul. Rouke is in good form, however, so the championship is far from dead. The battle for fourth is intense. Martin, Ralph, Graham, Bret and myself have had intense battles over the races and as such any of them can be expect to take that place.

I have left of drivers with more than one race missed apart from Baz as they aren't in any real fights plus their scores won't drop.

1 Roberto Berti 130 (Round 2)
2 Timo Peltola 126 (Round 3)
3 Bret Metcalf 119 (Round 4)
4 Ales Simunek 110 (Round 4 - failed 50%)
5 Denis Pampagnin 99 (Round 2 DNS)
6 Rik Walker 98 (Round 1)
7 Fulvio Policardi 91 (Round 4)
8 Ralph Maiph 89 (missed Round 4)
9 Paul Langford 87 (Round 1)
10 Nigel Metcalf 84 (DNF Round 5)
11 Baz West 82 (Missed round 4)
12 Rick Stratton 76 (DNF Round 3)
13 Dave Hawnt 71 (Missed Round 2)
14 Costa Gozadinos 64

As can be seen it looks like a three way battle for the championship and with the recent handicap changes things could change. Ales is certainly in the mix too with Rik and Denis having outside chances. Fulcio, Ralph and co. seem to be battling over 7th.

1 Eric Fulghum 129 (Round 2)
2 David Pym 126 (Round 4 DNF)
3 Martin Cooper 112 (DNS, Round 2)
4 Kat Scott 111 (Round 4)
5 David Kadlcak 110 (Round 3)
6 Corrado Toxiri 89 (DNF, Round 2)
7 John Wallace 74 (DNF/DNS)

As can be seen the championship seems to be split into two. David Pym and Eric are likely to be the two to fight over the championship. Behind a ferocious battle for third place exists with it impossible to call between Myself, Martin and David.

Overall plenty to fight for and interesting to see how points change with dropped scores.

TWF1 - Montreal Report

2009-11-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

It was a weekend that Gilles Villeneuve would have been proud of, coming just two weeks before the venue of one of his greatest drives, two of his beloved T4 Ferrari's put in seasons best drives around the circuit that bears his name.

While the recent handicap changes had aided the drivers of the bright yellow, Scuderia Giallo Ferrari's, both drives were top draw but they were not the only story of the weekend.

With many of the Lotus drivers in Division 1 finding themselves with improved handicaps the new chassis of choice was a Brabham. Two BT49's lined up on the front row of the grid ahead of Jef Vannijlen's McLaren and the T4 Ferrari of Rick Stratton.

Four more Brabhams, a mix of 48's and 49's filled the next segment of the grid with Timo and Rik lining up in 5th and 6th. Bret and Mike Perray, now running without his beloved Turbo, next up.

The field made a good start and although a few cars locked up or overshot chicanes no noticeable contact was made. At the end of lap one Jef and Roberto were battling over second with Ales already a few cars lengths clear. Rick was in fourth with Rik Walker in close attendance.

Further back Tim Peltota had lost a few spots and was now behind Mike Perray, the two BT48's ahead would prove to be a headache over the next 35 laps. Paul Langford was the only eone with any trouble on the opening lap, locking up and spinning just beside the wall of champions.

Paul was soon all over the back of Fulvio, in 15th while up ahead Bret Metcalf made a mistake in T1 chicane and was lucky to only lose 3 places overall. Bret was aided by a minor off for Rouke just after passing him.

Over the next few laps Bret dropped back, partly due to the damage, and partly down to losing his Rythmn. Paul Langford was now making progress, aided by Marcus' retiring on lap 4, while Rik Walker was about to hit trouble. First on lap 5 a trip over the curbs cost him a few places, then in T1 on lap 8 he did a Bret. Unfortunately his impact was higher and he turned his no-Front wing BT48, into a no-Wing one.

On his way back to the pits a mixup delayed him further when the rapidly recovering Langford collided with the crippled Brabham and lost his wing. About the incident Paul said "It looks like your instinct to get off the racing line took over mate, just one of those things, a racing incident and with a puncture and a missing rear wing they can kick to one side unexpectedly, I should have lifted a bit."

Meanwhile up front Timo was starting to get very familiar with the design of the rear wing of the Brabham. First Rik had proved impassable, and now he had the same problem with Mike Perray. In a problem that would be familiar to those following Villeneuve in the 1981 Jarama race, Perray was able to use the Alfa's power to pull away on the straights only to have the BT49 all over him in the twisty stuff.

On lap 17 Denis, who had caught the battling pair up earlier, got inside Timo with what was possibly a slightly optimistic attempt. Fortunately Timo gave him room, and deliberatly drove off the track, or a collision would probably have been unavoidable.

Rattled, Tim would drop back from the battle and even damage his car, but finished 7th. Denis caught Mike and on lap 27 he was through. Mike made the smallest of mistakes in a chicane, lost a bit of grip and momentum and Denis was through.

By now Rick had really got into a Rhythm and, aided by Jef spinning in the last corner he was rapidly closing Berti and Jef down.

By Lap 32 he was all over the back of the Brabham, taking a look inside him when he could and generally putting pressure all over the 3rd placed car. By Lap 34 he pulled it off, outbraking Berti under the bridge and taking the place despite a small wobble.

Overall an smooth drive from Ales for a well deserved win, a strong drive from Jef netting him second and excellent consistency and racecraft giving Rick an excellent third.

In Div 2 once again the best start was made by a T4 Ferrari. They seem to be able to get their power down better than the Cosworth cars and Kat is regularly making up places off the start.

Like Rick, however, she had to back out but still gained a place as Eric to her right was baulked by Toxiri's Brabham. Cooper then outbraked himself into the CoW chicane and dropped two places before David Pym also dropped back after a chicane mistake.

So at the end of Lap 1, Simon Bagget, up from second was leading ahead of John Wallace and Corrado. Pym was 10th out of 12th after qualifying on pole and would have a race to forget.

Cooper was now to have plenty of time to become familiar with a Ferrari rear end as he started to pressure the yellow example ahead. At the back of the field there was a certain amount of banging and boring. Tallini seemed to make an optomistic pass attempt on Marot into the last turn. He spun and was lucky to rejoin with all wheels on his wagon.

Ivor Blackmore also went off and for a moment Frank would have been tearing his hair out as both of the FW07's were recovering in Tandem at the tail of the field. David Pym therefore started a recovery drive which for a while looked to be promising.

Eric tried to pass Marot on Lap 2 under the bridge but spun and had to return the place denting his challenge for a decent finish. Fulghum recovered but lost a place to his HMR teammate and almost lost a place to Pym who was also passing Ivor.

Marot became the first driver to crash heavily into the WoC, doing so on lap 3 and losing both wings and suffering a puncture in the process. He made his smokey way to the pits as another battle developed on the track.

We already had the lead pair, pulling away with Simon a touch quicker and thus building a gap. Kat was holding off Martin using her Ferrari power to good effect. These two were about 6 to 8s ahead of David Kadlcak who was the front running in a HMR sandwhich with David Pym, 7th, in the middle and Eric to the rear.

The two Davids were having a Battle Royale. Lap after Lap the McLaren, a car that seemed to suit this track, was putting pressure all over the back of the Brabham ahead. Like in the Div1 race, however, the Alfa seemed to make passing hard as it would pull away on the straights preventing Pym from passing under braking.

He finally got a better run on the BT48 through the WoC chicane and was able to slip through in the next one moving up to 6th but some way back from Cooper ahead.

Coopers Brabham seemed to lose out on the straights, the big Ferrari V12 pulling out quite a gap under acceleration only for him to close up in the twisty stuff, especially the corners that make the start of the current circuit.

Meanwhile Pym had a technical problem and dropped back before ultimately retiring after a promising and disappointing run.

The bit race now was for fourth, and this became third when two spins caused John Wallace to retire from the race.

For the next few laps the gap between Cooper and Scott fluctuated and by Lap 15 the battle was a trio. Fulghum now pressurizing Cooper as much as the Brabham was pressurizing Scott. On Lap 16 Scott's slightly cautious line through the first two chicanes caught the Pink Pig out and Cooper nudged the back of the Ferrari. Cooper spun, lost the place while Kat carried on apparently unaffected.

Fulghum now put Scott under intense pressure, time and again he tried to pass the Ferrari but never managed to get into a position to make a pass stick.

Meanwhile up from things were happening. Carrado suddenly realised Baggett seemed to be in trouble. The gap, that had been steadily climbing, suddenly stabilised. Corrado, who at the time was lapping slightly inside himself safe, as he was, in second, therefore started to push. By Lap 30 he was into the 1m36's and the gap was collapsing like a pack of cards.

By Lap 34 the gap was down to nothing and on the last lap, as Baggett's McLaren struggled to pick up the last dregs of fuel the Brabham was through.

Katier thus took second, as the fuel ran out two corners from home ahead of Cooper who had inherited third from Eric who had beached himself two laps from home.

Overall two excellent races with a lot of close racing.

G1:GP LMP Spa Report

2009-11-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Trailing sparks from his under tray with a deep growl from his normally asperated engine Championship leader blasts through Eua-Rouge with a slight lift as the car bounces off the tarmac. Behind, Katier, up from 4th on the grid is looking more secure, foot flat to the floor as she gains on the leader through this awsome test of commitment.

Behind Yuriko is also less commited than the second placed R8, already losing ground to the lead pair. Katier's commitment gives a noticeable speed advantage onto the long straight and she's already taking chunks of distance out of the lead car.

Alongside now, sparks flying from their undertrays as speeds approach 190 mph Katier calmly brakes for the approaching chicane.. Jafo a touch later.. too late and Yuriko also misses her point and the R8 is through into the lead.

Behind Suzy closes in on Yuriko's 3rd placed R8 with Crippy and Sulla not far behind. Nella is already some way back as the field heads for the twists and turns of the challenging 'infield' section of the track.

Katier quickly settles into a smooth line, opening up a few car lengths back to Jafo. Behind them Suzy is really harassing Yuriko, and into the bus stop she cuts the corner and slips into 3rd.

At the start of Lap 2 Yuriko outbraked herself badly into the hairpin and shunted Suzy into Jafo. Yuriko came out of the mess just in second place with Suzy in third ahead of Crippy and Sulla.

Jafo, however, was now last having lost his rear wing. Suzy repassed Yuriko with a smooth pass in the same spot as Katier on the previous lap. Suzy was on a real charge at this stage and soon caught up with the Leader, the pair having already dropped Yuriko to the tune of a few seconds with Crippy and Sulla further back.

Sulla seemed curiously a little slow at this stage, making no inroads into Crippy ahead and maybe even seeming content in her place.

On Lap 4 Yuriko once again braked way too late, but this time just sailed past the lead two cars and onto the grass. She rejoined behind the pair who were now not far behind the delayed Jafo, almost a lap down.

Start of Lap 5 and Suzy was through, slipping neatly inside Katier into T1. Katier wasn't about to give her lead up so easy though and with the part of the track ahead that she excelled at, it was no surprised to see her coming right back at the Black and Red car.

In a near copy of the Lap 1 pass she retook the lead from Suzy who unsurprisingly continued to harass the R8. She tried to slide inside through the challenging pouhon corner, got up on the curb, spun and lost her wing.. challenge over.

At this stage Katier now looked settled, holding her lead back to Yuriko at about 3s with Crippy and Sulla further back. Then on Lap 10 Katier approached the 80-90mph chicane just as Nella was going through. Nella seemed to go left, so Katier lifting slightly in response to the slow car, went right. Nella then changed line and Katier couldn't avoid the back of the tail ender.

The Half spin was fortunately light as Katier had scrubbed her speed down to 63mph, about 30mph slower than normal.. but it still delayed her to the tune of several seconds and Yuriko was through into the lead.

Katier and Crippy then pitted and unfortunatly for Katier she made a hash of the exit, crossing the white line two fast and getting a stop-go..

She then repeated the crime a lap later forcing a 3rd stop on the next lap.. but not before - fuming and confused at how her race had fallen apart she missed the turn-in near the end of the lap and crashed heavilly.

Little damage was done but she was sufficiently delayed to be left out of the battle for the lead.. and what a lead battle it became.

The reason for Sulla's early lack of pace was soon obvious, she wasn't stopping. Yuriko came out just ahead of Crippy and the two set to work battling hard.

Over the next few laps Crippy and Yuriko swapped place before on lap 19 she made it stick. By now it was obvious the race would run to 21 laps. One less than predicted by Katier, and it was also obvious Sulla was in severe trouble. She was losing time hand over fist to the chasing pack, doing 2m09 and 2m10s laps against Yuriko's 2m04's and 5's...

RACE ON!!! One lap to go and Yuriko was right with her and on the very last lap she slipped through to gain her first ever win. Overall an action packed race with mixed fortunes for three drivers who'd got their cars dialed in very well for this circuit. Yuriko winning, Katier fourth and Suzy fifth. Sulla's one stop strategy was aided by the latter's two's misfortune or perhaps she would have struggled to finish in the top 5. Crippy's smooth run netted the final podium position.

Grats to Jafo for winning the championship with an impressive five wins.

Legends TWFA : Montreal Report

2009-11-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

A disappointing field of only 10 cars turned up to the chicane central layout of Montreal. Racing at the layout that was used back in 1979 showed that, in the reverse of current trends, Montreal has actually see a reduction in chicanes.

Despite that the layout was still fun with some challenging high speed chicanes and the general feel of the place wasn't much different to the modern layout.

During Qualifying Berti lined up on pole just ahead of Paul Langford and a hugely impressive Sal Tallini. At the back of the grid Katier lined up last with a qualifying penalty meaning a back of grid start for the sprint and pitlane for the feature.

Paul made the best start and was soon pulling away from Roberto with a series of impressive laps. Behind him, with Tallini missing due to technical issues, Bret slotted into third but not without contact with Marcus Adams.

Adams was forced to retire when contact sent him into the famed 'Wall of Champions'. A lap laters Rouke made his way past after a mistake.

At the back of the field Ralph Maiph had a bad first lap but a series of competitive laps allowed him to close in and pass Ted Ball. Over the first couple of laps Ted had looked like he might challenge Katier who had dropped back a bit from Graham. She was, however, just easing herself in with one 'eye' on her licence points.

She soon increased her pace and soon her chase became the main interest of the race. She closed the gap to 6th with a series of good laps culminating with a personal best lap before a slide on lap 6 ended her charge and forced her to settle for 7th.

An impressive win for Paul ahead of Roberto and Rouke. Rouke had become under pressure from Bret in the last couple of laps but held on for the final podium spot.

The feature race started shortly after with Tallini back in the field, all be it at the back, and Marcus Adams now absent. Rouke made the best start and was soon pulling slightly away from Berti.

First race winner, Langford, however was soon in trouble though and had to limp round and pit for repairs. Katier, heavy on fuel, was thus not running last, but was also not running fast. For some reason, possibly the fuel load, she was struggling to make inroads into Ted Ball ahead.

This was strange after the way she had pulled clear of him in the sprint. The main battle, therefore, was for third place. Martin Cooper, Tallini, Palfreyman, Maiph and Bret all running close together.

By Lap 6 the battles separated slightly with Graham and Bret dropping back slightly. Then on Lap 8 the battlers lost two drivers. Both Bret and Ralph crashing and ultimately retiring, Bret just making half distance before he was forced to pull out with an ill handling car.

Katier and Ted both pitted around lap 14 with Scott's strategy ending up with her crew unable to fill any fuel. Therefore her stop was lightning quick and she was able to leapfrog a surprised, and confused, Ted Ball up to 7th.

Up Front the pitstops caused Rouke to lose the lead, he would chase hard but be unable to record the win. Berti holding on well especially over the last few laps.

Cooper and Tallini had continued their battle and on lap 23 Tallini got into third place. A mistake on the following lap, however, forced him to settle for fourth ahead of Graham who had had a lonely end to the race after an impressive start.

So Berti took the win ahead fo Rouke and Cooper. Tallini finished with a consolation 4th after missing the sprint while Graham made it into 5th. Langford recovered to sixth but in doing so his championship suffered a slight dent.

Overall two good races despite the field sizes.

G1:GP LMP - Donington

2009-11-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Tendaze took firm grasp of this seasons title with another faultless drive around the Donington Park race track. Elsewhere, however, some drivers were struggling. The Audi's seemed to have issues here as all 4 qualified in the bottom half of a depleted grid.

Katier in particular was vocal about her problems as she found herself unable to attack corners as hard as she wanted with the car insisted on understeering. This got worse as the RF heated up ultimately overheating.

Jafo made a good start from pole with Sulla slotting in behind benefiting from Launch Control again. Katier made a cracking start and was challenging Crippy but a mistake, spin, and she was last.

So at the end of lap one Jafo lead easilly from Sulla with Suzy taking third from Crippy a lap later. The R8's were still struggling, being dropped by the leaders straight away.

It was expected that the cars would likely to be stopping twice so it was no surprise when the stops started on lap 13 of 30. The race leader, however, made it through to lap 15 and with that the race was, effectively, won.

Further back Sulla spun, lost her rear wing, and a lap. She soon recaught Reitveld, struggling as she was, passing her wasn't hard. Sulla, however, spun again and had to recatch and pass the R8.

Rattra had a quiet race but late race problems caused him to drop back behind Reitveld. Up front Jafo was clear but Suzy and Crippy continued to battle behind.

Crippy dropped back after her second stop, and briefly was behind Yuriko but she soon retook fourth place.

An impressive and dominating win for Jafo pretty much guarantee's his victory in the seasons championship. The other places are up for grabs, however, so there is everything to race for in the final race of the season.

Legends: TWF1 Zandvoort Report

2009-10-26T11:06:00.001-07:00

For the first time this year the F1 field was split into it's divisions as the field numbers continue to grow.

In Division one 17 drivers lined up for their race with Lotus's continuing to prove to be the best cars in the field as the front 3 rows of the grid were locked out by the Chapman creations.

Turn 1 saw a bit of jossling as Bento squeezed Berti as the lead pair headed into the famous Tarzan turn. Jef and Dave Hawt also rubbed wheels a bit but all 17 cars made it through the first few corners in one piece.

Further round the lap Ronny Nunez was the first, of many drivers to clip the chicanes curbs and lost his rear wing against the armco barriers. Towards the end of the lap a little more jossling, including some contact between Rouke and Rick Stratton finished off an action packed start to the race.

Stratton was struggling a little in the T4 Ferrari and down the main straight Rouke was able to pass him. Into Tarzan Dave Hawt had a small spin but up front the three Lotus 80's were battling hard.

Lap 2 and Timo made a lovely move on Berti to move into second and the lead 3 already looked to be clear of the battle for 4th. Mike Perray, having recently taken delivery of a BT48, had made an excellent start and was running fourth ahead of two more Lotus's.

Perray's race fell apart two laps later, however, with a hefty off that removed his rear wing. He would run near the tail of the field for the next 10 or so laps before retiring. Langford was the next driver to lose his wing, having taken fourth from Perray he spun in Tarzan.

Fourth place would appear to be a 'bogey' position in this race, Ronny had been running fourth when he went off, Ales was next in the position and he retired on lap 14.

Ales was very vocal about his retirement. He had been fully alongside Berti approaching Tarzan but for some reason decided to back out of the pass. Roberto turned in early, catching Ales unawares, who spun. Contact wasn't made by Ales made it clear he felt the crash was Berti's fault.

Meanwhile up front Timo had caught Bento and on lap 9 he went past after the latter lost it in the chicane.

The front 8 drivers were fairly stable by now but behind drivers were in all sorts of trouble. the pits becoming a busy place with several drivers making multiple pit visits. Lap 33 and things started to hot up with the leaders again. Peltola was clear but increasing pressure on Miguel caused him to go off.

Berti tried to take advantage but unfortunately contact was made and her dropped to the dreaded fourth position. Bret Metcalf had been running there and benefited moving up to 3rd. At the end of the next race Miguel spun in Tarzan and in doing so upset Rik Walker with what was probably a poorly judged recovery.

Nigel took the place but once again was another 4th placed 'victim' binning it at the chicane.

The rest of the event was fairly uneventfull and Timo came home winner by an impressive 25.4s.

Zandvoort was clearly proving a challenge and thirteen Division 2 drivers faced the same challenges. How would they cope?

Ligier's locked out the front row and a 3rd lined up in 4th on the grid with the Brabham of Corrado adding a splash of red to the front two rows.

Simon Baggett made a terrible start dropping several places and allowing Don to take the lead ahead of the Brabham. Baggett clung onto third. Behind the places were a little strange as a pre-race restart caused by technical issue had muddled the grid.

Phillipe Marot, who had qualified last, was thus 6th with the Pink Pig of Martin Cooper just behind. Don made it '2 from 2' as both front grid drivers had a bad start by spinning in Turn 3 and thus Corrado led as the field headed into the countryside.

Cooper was all over the back of Marot as the three drivers, starting from the pitlane serving a qualifying penalty, joined the race. Marot made a small mistake approaching the chicane and Cooper went for the pass. The two made contact and Cooper was forced to pit for repairs to his car due to damage caused when he hit the armco.

The opening lap was less dramatic than for the Div 1 drivers, although one last bit of drama saw David Pym having to take avoiding action as a driver rejoined.

At the start of Lap 2, Sal Tallini went for a pass on Kat into T1. From a long way back he went for a gap which Kat fortunately let open as she saw him coming. Tallini spun narrowly avoiding hitting the Ferrari.

Baggett went for a pass to take the lead in the same position at the start of lap 2, ran wide and rejoined in fourth after a light kiss off the barriers. Corrado thus continued to lead ahead of Eric and Gigi. David K in 6th was ahead of David Pym.

Eric became the next victim of the chicane, sliding along the barriers and dropping to 4th. Corrado continued to lead while the Ligiers battled hard behind. Their battle became one for the lead on lap five when the leader became the latest chicane victim. He was a bit robust in his defence after squeezing Don very hard two corners later and continuing in sixth.

Eric was looking mighty impressive keeping more or less out of trouble and holding third ahead of Don who was putting a lot of pressure on the Tyrell.

Simon took the lead on Lap seven into Tarzan and wouldn't look back but behind Gigi was under pressure from Eric. He would absorb the pressure lap after lap as 2nd thru 4th battled hard. DK was holding well onto 6th with David Pym unable to keep up at this stage.

Two drivers had retired by now with Ivor and Tallini retiring well before half distance. Cooper was starting to close on Scott as she closed in on Marot in 8th. Marot was lapping mainly in the 1m22's while Scott was in the 1m19's and on lap 15 the two were nose to tail.

Marot was very slow in the chicane and thus the Ferrari was all over him, into the penultimate term Scott went for the pass, the two touched, spun and Cooper was through.

On Lap 19 Don became the next victim of the chicane, this strange corner seeming to serve little purpose. Normally chicanes are there to slow drivers but this one is a flat in 4th corner and as such cars approach it at around 150mph. Get it wrong and the accident WILL be big.

David K, Corrago, Scott and Gigi all got caught out by this tricky corner and most of the pitstops were caused by this one section of the circuit.

Don provided the last of the drama losing a wheel.. yep you've guessed it in the chicane.. on the last lap and limping round to finish 7th.

Simon Bagget won impressively by over 30s from Eric and David Pym. His Time would have been enough to finish on the lead lap of the Div 1 race in around 6th place.

Racer of the day would probably be Martin Cooper who showed how to drive with minimal mistakes and a great recovery drive.

G1:GP Trucks - When tyres go wrong..

2009-10-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Those little black round things, often forgotten, but vital to any racing car were a bigger factor this week than ever influencing the outcome of both races.

Mansfield was the first of the two events and when Yuriko squeezed Katier exiting Turn 2 it was clear that this was going to be a long night. Katier spun 90 degree's, slid down the track and was back racing within seconds.

So quick was her recovery that the tail of the field was still in sight entering Turn 3 and she made no contact with the wall. The first yellow of the night flew so for 4 laps the field circulated behind the pace car. On the restart and just 2 laps later, on lap 7, Katier nudged Crippy.

Again the spinning car recovered promptly.. and again the yellow flew. Katier decided to pit for a Right side tyre change as a precaution as she was so far down the field. The theory being that it would allow her to run to about lap 32 of 50 before needing to stop. Thus allowing flexibility without compromising position on the road.

The precaution probably wasn't required as time after time the field failed to go racing for more than 2 laps. By around half distance the field then started complaining about tyres. Some reporting extreme wear on their rear tyres and hot brake temps. Other drivers, perhaps not using their brakes under caution, reported no problems.

The tyre issues therefore forced others to pit and, with 7 laps to go Katier found herself leading from Jafo. One final yellow and the field was released with three to go, Reitveld unfortunatly over-accelerating for one last twist to the race.

Turned out in order to maintain position with respect to the Pace Car one has to accelerate.. accelerate too much, however, and a drive through penalty is the result. Reitveld beat Jafo to the line, in the best racing all night, but dropped to 6th with the penalty.

The field once again had tyre tactics to contend with as they moved to Rockingham. This race was a 50 lapper run without yellows and two drivers put the effort in to do race length runs.

Crippy Oh, however, advised that a stop would be required but clarified it was optional when asked. This was going to be crucial as Sulla led the field from green ahead of Suku and Suzy who were embroiled in a battle.

Behind them with a few seconds gap between each, Crippy and Jafo battled, with Yuriko and Katier also fighting just behind them.

Kiboe was looking strong just behind them in 7th with the biggest loser being Zaria who unfortunatly spun on lap one. Zaria recovered well from her initial problems and by lap 10 was the only driver improving their position.

By Lap 18, shortly after Kiboe had retired after a crash, Zaria was up to 7th but unfortunatly a mistake put her out of the race a few laps later.

The pitstops started on lap 25 and cost around 2 laps on average in time. By Lap 31 everyone had pitted.. except Jafo and Katier who now were running at the head of the field.

Sulla was a lap down comfortably ahead of Suzy and Suku. 2 laps down were Crippy and Yuriko was three. Being on new tyres, all the drivers were quicker than the lead duo, but only by 1s at best.

Sulla unlapped herself and for a while looked like she might even catch Reitveld. Her tyres soon 'went off' as her uncompromising setup and driving style wore them down. With 5 laps to go it was clear she wouldn't manage it as her times were down to 24.6 while Reitveld and Jafo were able to maintain 25.0's.

Jafo won, comfortably by 13s from Reitveld with Sulla the only unlapped runner 6s further back.

Post race some drivers said they didn't realise stops were not compulsory although most, especially Sulla, admitted they had no choice but to stop. Overall an interesting and fun race where, as Crippy put it, those who prepared for the race did best.

Legends: Oschersleben Report

2009-10-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

The TWFA field, for the second time this season, arrived at a different layout to the GP 1979 drivers. In this case, however, they arrived in a completely different country. This round of the championship would be run at the go-kart like surroundings of the little known Oschersleben circuit in Germany.

A poor start by Rouke, on pole, caused the start of the race to have several position changes. He Dropped to fourth while Berti took second ahead of Huarte and Marco. Behind Paul Langford, Graham Palfreyman and myself, now running under my new name, all made similarly bad starts.

Huarte soon found himself under pressure and on lap 2 had dropped two places as the slow starters recovered. Behind Maiph was in 5th ahead of Baz and Langford and already the race seemed to have 3 sections. The lead four followed by a group of three then the battle for 8th.

Tallini was an early holder of that position but was under pressure from Metcalf with a furious scrabble behind. Palfreyman crashed out on lap 2 while Cooper spun away a bad start to drop to 14th just ahead of me.

Ted Ball was driving superbly and making his way up the field. By lap 5 he was 8th, aided by the retirement of Marco from the lead but then pushed to hard and retired on the next lap.

Lap 6 marked the last of most of the passing. In 10th place, however, Scott and Johnson were engaged in a monumental battle. The swapped places on laps 9, 10, 11 and 12, the final being an unfortunate accidental nudge where Kat's car was on the power when Johnson was still sorting his car out mid corner. He was unable to control the slide despite her backing off and she took 10th from Johnson but was quick to apologise.

Revenge would have to wait, however, as a late incident would cost him several places near the end of the feature race. But before that Rouke would improve his start as he only dropped one place at the start.

Some barging and boring occured in the lower reaches of the grids as cars had minor incidents and it therefore took a few laps for the field to settle down.

Not, however, before Rouke having retaken the lead had a big off at the end of lap 4 forcing an early piststop just before the pit window opened for him. The result was a long pit stop, a heavy car, and an extra stop.

Marco thus led at lap 4 from Berti and Huarte. Behind Tallini and Baz West were embroiled in a ferocious battle for 4th with Maiph holding start just behind.

David Kadlcak, who had gained the most places after a smooth drive in the first race, was already looking to do it again and was running an impressive 8th just behind the recovering Metcalf.

Tallini and West continued to battle until the former had a big accident halfway around lap 10 cost him nine places, dropping him to 13th. West continued unimpeded but was soon battling hard with David and Maiph.

Casedi pitted on lap 16, one of the first to make a regular stop, at the same time as Metcalf's recovery came to an end after crashing on his out lap.

The Pitstops were coming thick and fast by now but Kat stayed out. She was now running 7th but on lap 20 came accross the spinning Maiph.

Ralph had touched the grass approaching the T5 kink and spun. Kat had to junk right to avoid and ended up in the gravel, she lost about 12s in the gravel and with it any chance of coming out ahead of Graham after her stop.

With most of the field having stopped Marco continued to lead ahead of Berti, Juan and Baz. The latter was on huge charge, however, and he took the final podium spot on lap 26 with nine to go.

Kat dropped to 9th after her stop, the last scheduled, on lap 30 while Rouke was forced to pit again after an off a few laps earlier. Neill Johnson provided the last drama having incidents that dropped him to an eventual 12th.

Despite a circuit with few hard braking areas this was a race with plenty of action and good passing. Driver of the day was undoubtedly David Kadlcak after two superb drives from 14th on the grid.

Overall an excellent event at a unique circuit.

G1:GP LMP Monza Report

2009-10-18T05:09:00.000-07:00

Excellent tactics and a fast clean race earned Sulla Looming a deserved win ahead of champion elect Jafo.

Despite the ending of his 3 race winning streak, Tendaze, is still odds on favourite to win the title. Looming looks likely to take second but is still far from secure in a series that has had as many twists and turns as the current Formula 1 season.

Looming, starting from Pole, elected to run with hard tyres in a circuit where grip levels are low the extra loss of grip probably wasn't very noticeable.

Both drivers, Looming in a new, LC equipped, Dome made good starts. Behind Oh mad a good start. She jumped from 5th to take 3rd into turn 1 while Suzy's start was terrible as she dropped to almost last on the opening lap.

On Lap 2 Crippy had to take avoiding action in T1 and dropped down the order then further round, exiting the penultimate corner, Katier made the first a several mistakes.

She spun and lost her front splitter as well as dropping down the order to finish the lap in 8th place. Her car was now hampered by understeer but she would stay out figuring the long stop to fix would be a lot worse than the time lost.

These problems had placed the two leader well out front with Yuriko now in third but slightly back ahead of a battle between Ming and Suzy.

This was partly down to another collision involving Reitveld. She was innocently involved after a T1 collision between Crippy and Rattra. Crippy had just nudged the back of the R8 but he spun as he got the power down. Unsighted, Reitveld struck the back of the stationary Oh and removed her wing.

The pitstops started on lap 11 with Reitveld pitting to change tyres, top up her tanks and trim out the rear wing. Her laptimes improved as a result by around 1s/lap and she continued to chase and catch Suku.

Suzy and Yuriko continued to battle for 3rd and 4th while Jafo just couldn't find a way to close down Sulla effectively. After the sheduled stops, therefore, Looming led from Jafo and the Suzy/Yuriko battle. Fifth was ming ahead of Reitveld, Oh, Rattra and Nella.

Then came the next big collision. At the time to the drivers it felt like a big crash, looking back, however it wasn't quite so bad. On the run to T1 Ming had started left, drifted mid track to probably protect her line as Reitveld closed in. She then appeared to open the door so Reitveld went to outbrake her.. at about the same time as again Ming drifted right. The collision initially removed Mings rear wing but it also put Reitveld into a spin which turned into a roll.

Both cars pitted, although afterwards Reitveld remarked that she shouldn't have, and ultimatly ended well down the field. A last lap spin costing Reitveld a further place.

Looming won well from Jafo with Suzy winning the battle for third.

The field moves onto Donnington Park, a challenging racetrack very different to the fast straights of Monza.

Legends - TWF1 Suzuka Report

2009-10-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

For the first time this season two drivers dropped out of the race due to a full field. This believe it or not is good news as it probably means Round 4 of the championship will have two races, one per Division.

So 31 cars qualified for the race of which 29 started the race. With so many in the field the start was likely to be a few laps of survival for many drivers before settling down and racing.

Starts were very mixed, up front wheelspin cost Rik time and at one point four cars where spread accross the track but into T1 they sorted themselves out. Ales leading from Berti and Rik Walker through the turn with the next 10 cars getting through without any incident. At the back of the field chaos reigned, however.

Monticelli, 19th and Dave Pym were fairly slow away with Eric Fulghum making a better start behind sliding between them and creating a 3 car wall accross the track. I made a lightning start from 24th on the grid to sit behind Eric as we approached T1. The effect of all this was seven cars in little over 3 car lengths (above) that condensed as the field ran towards the pit exit.

Div 2 championship leader, John Wallace ( red car to right of above ) had got a run on the Ligier so as the track widened the field fanned out with four abreast and myself just behind. Then the inevitable happened, funnelled by pit exit Wallace moved left intoMonticelli.

He pushed him across my bows so I moved left in response then suddenly found the effect was for me to run out of room. Despite hitting the brakes I bounced off Pampagnin half spun and bounced off Wallace. In a flash Wallace was out of the race while Corrado ran wide into the litter but rejoined.

A bit more jostling as the effect was the concertina the field and as others lifted in response to Mike also having a minor off sorted the field as it approached T2. The final excitement on the opening lap happened at the infamous Degner. Eric had gone off in Dunlop and thus rejoined off the pace and thus when Myself and Marcus arrived her was 20mph down on our pace. In braking to avoid Eric's overly slow car approaching Degner I spun and Marcus was fortunate to avoid me.

At the end of Lap one therefore Ales led from Berti and Rik Walker. Nigel Metcalf and Paul Langford rounded out the Div 1 top 5. Martin Cooper was the early Div 2 leader from two Dave's, Eric and Corrado.

Up front the lead three settled down but behind there were several intense battles already developing in a race that was expected to see plenty more incident. Four cars had retired already and the next to see trouble would be fifth placed Rouke.

He was involved in one of the intense battles with the two Metcalfs until, at the end of lap 5, he lost it under braking for the chicane. Nigel couldn't avoid him and hit the Brabham firmly in the sidepod and rear suspension, after a slow lap he retired.

The Main battle at this stage were for fifth between Baz, Nigel and Paul; with a second battle being led by Pampgnin just a few cars back. Also noticeable at this stage was the progress of Marcus Adams who was steadily passing cars after starting at the back of the grid.

By half distance a further three cars had retired and a fourth retired a lap later. First Costa scattered his car comprehensively against the Turn 1 armco. Then Ivor retired with an ill handling car, possibly as a result of some robust defence a few laps earlier.

Rick Stratton had been looking strong for a good finish, running 9th, he did a Costa when he missed his braking point. Finally Bento, who had spun initially a few laps earlier, collided with Raiph when trying to pass him into T1 and added his Lotus 80 to the T1 carnage.

Nigel Metcalf had also dropped well down the field as several incidents left him with an ill handling car. He would have to learn how to drive around it and threatened drivers such as Martin Cooper and myself before retiring on lap 23.

Ales was well out in front by now, leading by several seconds from Berti who was able to maintain a cushion of a couple of seconds back to Rik Walker.

Eric was leading Div 2 with Marcus Adams breathing down his neck. Gigi and David Pym rounded out the top 3.

Behind them a battle was brewing between Martin and I. His car, damaged earlier, was handling in a manner appropriate to his paintscheme. Like a pig, especially in right hand corners. I closed in and by lap 16 was right with him. Passing him for 17th in Spoon.

Lap 23 had the races 'comedy moment'. Paul Langford spun approaching the chicane. Lost his bearings and rejoined via the cut through to Dunlop. In Reality due to then re-doing half a lap he would probably not have been penalised, however because sims are 'black and white' he got a drive through costing him probably close to a minute or more and dropping him behind Martin Cooper. Corrado had a hefty off in Denger doing a 'weber' and retiring two corners later at about the same time.

As the race wound down most of the field was concentrating on the finish but Paul Langford was on a charge. With two to go he caught the struggling 'pig' and took the place between the Degners.

Excellent win for Ales although Div 1 Driver of the day I think must go to Marcus. He finished over a minute behind the winner but had to fight through from last on the grid and do so with style and consistancy to finish just 7s behind 6th place.

Div 2 driver of the day.. I'd like to give it to myself. Not sure if that's allowed so I'll let Rick Edit this bit and give his Div 2 driver of the day here when he does the official report :).

Overall an awsome race, challenging and hard work but exciting and action packed.

G1:GP LMP Brands Hatch

2009-10-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Gambles, Driving Styles and a dose of luck, bad or good, were the hallmarks of the 40 minute race around Brands Hatch.

Prior to the event several drivers commented that they felt they would need to stop twice as fuel didn't seem to be quite lasting 20 minutes. This quandry soon turned out to be influential as drivers went into the event in different mindsets.

When the Lights went green, at the 3rd time of asking due to various issues, the lead trio got away well but behind Katier made a lightning start.

Into Druids she was alongside Crippy but felt she pushed her wide so relinquished the place. (right)

So at the end of the first Lap Yuriko led from Jafo, Crippy and Katier. Over the first few laps the lead three quickly built up a lead over Katier who was off the pace but under little pressure from Looming behind.

Rattra was dropping back a bit behind Looming with Suzy a bit further back.

Up front the lead three became two when Yuriko had an off but she rejoined and as half distance approached was up to 3rd. By then Looming, who initially looked content to hold station behind Reitveld, had surged past on lap 11.

Two bad laps for the R8 driver dropped her further down the field but she knew she could make the distance on one stop. The stops started just short of half distance with Yuriko, Jafo and Crippy all apparantly commiting to a 2 stop strategy.

Sulla's early running had saved her fuel and she pitted bang on half distance while Katier went another lap. Rattra had pitted on a 2 stopper too so Katier now knew another top 5 was on the cards.

Up front Jafo and Crippy continued to drive smoothly with Jafo looking unflustered out front. At this stage it seemed like they would definatly get the top two.. but the podium was less clear.

After the stops Reitveld was 6th but with Rattra likely to pit another top 5 was likely. Sulla looked like a potential winner. She was in touch with the leaders while Yuriko's recovery seemed to give her a chance at a top 3.. if she could make her fuel last.

The race turned just after half distance, however, when Suku and Sulla both 'went the same way' shortly after both had crashed on their own. Both ultimately were forced to retire with accident damage although Looming did attempt to return to the race.

The race now went through a period of stability. The front five were spread out enough for there to be no battles but some drivers were now staring to stare at their fuel gauges. Who would blink? Who would gamble?

The first to blink was Rattra, he had decided he would not last so pitted quite early, presumably to benefit from the fresh tyres in an effort to beat Katier. Jafo and Crippy both did splash and dashes with Yuriko taking second at this stage.

Yuriko, however, was the gambler she did two slow laps, gambling on Jafo being slow enough to finish the race after 30 laps. Unfortunatly for Yuriko he didn't and crossed the line with seconds to go.

Yuriko ran out of fuel and Katier, who's slower laps had been enough to save a stop, gratefully took the place. Interestingly Katier's mistakes probably cost her 22-23s.. and she finished about that behind Crippy.

So Jafo appears to be out and out favorite for the championship. Three straight wins and the super fast Monza to come. Monza will be interesting. The R8's are very quick in a straight line but the Panoz have a hugely powerful engine.

Legends: TWFA Suzuka Report

2009-10-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

Drivers tempers were heated after the two action packed races that made up the Suzuka round of the TWFA championship. This challenging track proved to be as tricky in an Atlantic car as in a 2009 F1 car with several drivers doing a 'Heiki' or 'Weber' as Degner 1 claimed it's fair share of victims.

Rouke took a mighty impressive pole from Thomas and Roberto. Rouke drove into the lead after a perfect stop while Thomas slotted in behind. Berti took third without trouble while Paul Langford got the jump on Juan Carlos Huarte to take fourth. Behind the lead five, however, there was chaos.

Tallini got into the back of Martin Cooper who span out onto the gravel. Tallini bounced left and cannoned into Maiph who lost his front wing. Dom Scott slowed for the Yellows while Ivor took the chance to 'pass under yellow' and went round the outside of the Pink Car.

Then Degner claimed it's first victims. Both Marcus Adams and Tallini spun, the latter losing his wing. Then to Cap it all, Scott tried to pass Ivor into Degner 2. Ivor took a line that would probably have cut Degner 2 and collided with the car alongside.

So at the end of the first lap, with the top 5 settled, 6th was Johnson up from 10th, Baz West, Steve Shelley who had passed Metcalf on the run up to the Degner 1.Ivor Blackmore in 10th ahead of myself with the recovering Marcus Adams behind.

Steve Shelley, who was briefly 6th, was on a charge having lost two places on lap 1 on the run from Spoon, he retook 7th with a lovely pass approaching Spoon turn.

Behind them I finally got past Ivor in spoon only to lose two placs with a quick spin in degner 1 as the curb claimed another victim and I dropped to 12th.

By now Two things where happening. Steve Shelley was continuing his charge while the battle for 11th was heating up dramatically.

On lap 3 Steve reached 6th with a pass on Neill who started to fall back down the field. While behind Marcus was crawling all over my back. He tried a pass on Lap 3, then again on Lap 4 - during which time we'd both passed Ivor. The second, successful, pass attempt resulted in several bangs and bumps as well as Marcus taking to the grass.

Lap 5 Juan spun in T2 and Steve gratefully took the place. At the same time Bret was passing the struggling Johnson on the run to T1. A couple more spins rounded out an action packed race.

After such an action packed sprint race, would the Feature be just as hard fought? The answer was an unequivocal yes.

The first lap was a lot less frantic than the first race although Neill Johnson did run wide in 130R after minor contact with Steve Shelley. Johnson was forced to pit for a new nose. Rouke led but soon Thomas was in trouble. He ran wide exiting spoon corner and dropped to seventh as Steve Shelley started another charge through the field.

The front 7 continued to circulate closely with Bret Metcalf and Baz West embroiled in their own battle just behind. Martin Cooper was in 10th with Ralph Maiph recovering from a slow start passing him on lap three.

Lap four saw the leader spin, Rouke losing six places as he rotated in 130R and was extremely fortunate to be able to rejoin in seventh with minimal damage. How Huarte didn't end up with a wrecked car is beyond me as lag seemed to save both. (see above)

Marcus Adams was the first driver to stop for his scheduled stop pulling into the pits on lap 10 and rejoining in 11th, which became 10th a lap later when Cooper Stopped. Most of the leaders stopped on laps 13 and 14 but Bret Metcalf and Stever Shelley both ran quite long to lap 18.

They weren't the last to pit, however, as I had run with a full tank from the start, this probably cost me a few seconds with a heavy tank earlier on but by half distance I had the edge on pace over Martin behind me. I had been unable to really close in on Ted consistantly but after his stop, on lap 12, I got into a groove and felt confident of passing him with my ultra short stop.

Meanwhile Thomas was the next driver to hit trouble. He pitted on lap 13 then again on 16. The reason for the two stops isn't clear unless he had a stop go for speeding. That brought him out 20s behind me and some awsomely quick times meant he jumped to 11th when I stopped.

The dying laps still had time for two piece of drama. On lap 24 I spun in dunlop and infortunatly Ivor, a lap down on me, just snagged my car. Ivor retired while my car was fairly undamaged and I was able to cruise to the end. I apologised to him after the race as it was a silly mistake on my part that caused the spin. Then to cap a crazy race Marcus ran out of fuel on the last lap retiring in 130R.

Excellent recovery race by Rouke and two excellent climbs through the field by Steve Shelley provided the highlights of two highly exciting races.

Legends: Giuseppe Memorial Race

2009-10-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

I can only add that Giuseppe was a person that never gave up on any challenge despite he was often towards the back of the pack, and this paid off cause he rarely had to retire in the races. He loved very long races as me and we teamed up in many endurance. On track I was his "harsh friend" and we raced a lot of races nose to cone with many simulator, always in a gentlemanly way. We were used to speak often in chat voice about our real life and family. He was one of the first person with which I have shared the joy for the birth of my grandson. I'll never forget him.

Ciao
Fulvio

Giuseppe was a popular driver in the sim community who sadly recently passed away. The words above are from one of his closest friends. To celebrate his life, and remember him, the legends team organised a race at the Monza Race track. This event, held in the heart of Giuseppe's home country of Italy, was a single car/fixed setup event featuring his beloved Ferrari's.

Prior to the event a 2 minutes silence was held and other drivers then said a few words.

Ray Walton: RIP Giuseppe you are always a winner in Legends

Mario Wojahn: Rest in peace Giuseppe, goodbye

Martin Cooper: sadly a legend takes the chequered flag rip Giuseppe

Antonio Wojahn: Racing with Giuseppe was always fun

Rik Walker: so long Giuseppe, we'll meet again

Rick Stratton: A good man and a great competitor. He will be missed by all.

Rouke vd Hoek: lets have a good one for the man

Baz West: A great turn out to remember a good man, this ones for you Giuseppe

With that the drivers took their places on the grid, 26 Ferrari flat 12 engines roared into life, and the race began.

Three drivers started from the pitlane and sadly, one of them, Giuseppe's great friend Fulvio Policardi was let down by his engine and was unable to start the race.

Just on the other side of the pitlane the 26 T4's roared away and unfortunately there was some damage caused as Costa briefly spun to the right causing Baz to lift and Tallini to cannon into the back of him. Tallini, David Pym, Ray Walton all pitted early on to fix damage with Tallini and Pym unable to continue.

Meanwhile up front a battle Royale was developing. Showing spirit that would make any Italian proud Mario, Richard Walker and Mike Perray were embroiled in a tremendous battle for the Lead. By Lap three the field had settled a little and Perray led from Mario and Rik with a gap developing back to Langford and Bret. Costa was next up ahead of Bento and Antonio.

Tallini had retired after his spot when he 'did a Hamilton' as the leaders were lapping him with Rik using all the track and more as he chased the leaders hard.

The lead battle soon built up a gap but the midfield were embroiled in their own battle for fourth that was every bit as spirited as the lead one.

The event was a timed race but halfway round lap 7 proved to be the halfway point. At this stage the leaders had pulled clear of Langford who was under pressure from Bento with Antoniio, Marting, Nigel and Costa in close attendance. Rick Stratton was rounding out the top 10 in his bright yellow Ferrari.

As lap 8 started an almighty battle had started behind Rick. Dave Hawt finding himself under intense pressure from Marco Bret with Petra and Steve Shelley holding station a few seconds back.

Up front Rik was trying everything to get back into the lead and eventually managed it on Lap 9 while Perray continued to close the gap up to the lead pair. On Lap 11 he got past Mario with a bold move into the first chicane and passed Rik into the second chicane.

Mario started to drop back now but up front Rik quickly put pressure on Perray. This Spirited battle looked to be going down to the wire. The pair were passing, repassing and jousting like a pair of Italian Knights on thoroughbred horses. They passed, or half passed, probably half a dozen times over the closing laps.. a fitting tribute to the spirit of Guiseppe.

Probably the most notable thing about the race was the huge number of passes and battles throughout the field. The lead battle was the highlight, of course, but the spirit shown in the battles throughout the field was excellent.

Finally however, I feel it's appropriate to close with a couple of post Race Tributes from

Ray Walton

Congratulations to Rik as the first to cross the line, an excellent victory. However, Rik you really came second as the real winner of this event has to be Guiseppe himself and I only hope that somehow he was able to look down on this occasion with a big wide Italian smile. I am personally deeply saddened by his death, but we must now stop the mourning and instead look back to the many, many good times we had racing with him, and although we will all miss him, we should now celebrate Guiseppe's life with long remembered smiles. I am honoured to have known him albeit only here on-line with Legends League.

and Petra

It was a wonderful event, although hampered myself, properly doped with Aspirin before the race still had pain, was dead tired as well I thought for me it was sort of duty to be there. I did not much practice either I had only 2 practice sessions before the race, but who cares about speed in such a race?

Thanks to Mario and Petra for the images. Thanks to Rick Stratton for organising the tribute and Thanks to everyone for making the event so successful.

G1:GP - When Trucks go Bang.

2009-10-02T00:47:00.000-07:00

Week 3, rounds 4 and 5 of the Truck Championship proved to be highly eventfull events. The first of the two races was held at the Joesville racetrack. Pole went to Sulla Looming from Crippy, Yuriko and Suku.

This event proved to be eventfull from the start to the end. Initially the front four got away well with Suku getting the jump on Yuriko. Near the tail of the field, however, I got a good start but going two abreast into T2 with Suzy we touched and I spun. Contact wasn't hard but was enough to unsettle my truck. As I caught the slide I lost time as newcomer Gage and Kiboe came past. Kiboe got into Gage and the first yellow was flown.

On Lap 6 Suzy pitted dropping to the tail of the field while the main battles were between Crippy and Suku for second and Kiboe and I at the tail. Kiboe proved to be hard to pass until he ran wide in T3 on lap 12 and I took the place. Around the same time Suku also took the place from Crippy.

Suku pitted on lap 13, surprisingly early, and at the same time Jafo worked his way past Yuriko.

The next few laps were quiet until Kiboe brought out the second Yellow flag after losing it in T3. Half of the field diving into the pits at the earliest chance. Unfortunatly the field hadn't completely closed up on the pace car and the short lap, combined with the fairly fast pace car, dropped several drivers a lap down.

Normally yellow flag stops are 'free' but in this case they cost several drivers dear. Two more yellows, both caused unfortunatly by myself, were features of the race as Sulla Cruised to a fairly easy win. She had Dropped to 3rd when pitting under the second yellow but regained the lead after the third.

The 5th round, unfortunatly, was a contreversial event at the Scotia Raceway. This tight 0.300 mile oval was expected to produce a lot of incident and as a result Crippy decided to run it without yellows. This turned out to be fairly unnecessary as only one incident would have flown them.. but boy was it a biggy.

Off the Start Sulla got a good one straight into the lead but behind Suzy got involved in the first of several collisions during the first laps. She got into Crippy exiting T2 giving me the chance for a run up the inside into T3. Suzy didn't give me any room causing us to collide, she bounced wide into Crippy and letting Suku through.

Suzy then bumped Suku almost into me exiting T2 on Lap 2 before completely ignoring me into T2 a lap later and driving me round. The spin caused Chaos. Suku was completely unable to avoid me despite braking hard and we hit head on. Gage glanced off Suku while my truck slide broadside on down the track. Crippy collected my tail as I slid past and finally Yuriko hit my pinball.

All that left us with a truck stranded mid track and with no real chance of a safe recovery. I had to turn round on the racing line with other cars at full pace. Further collisions caused by the totally unsafe location of my truck with every other truck in the field left me with two left side flat tyres and not a straight panel on the bodywork.

Being honest due to the position I was left in post spin Crippy should have restarted the race. When she implimented the no-yellows she was expecting a lot of spins but I don't believe ever expected a car stranded mid track facing the wrong way with no easy way to get the vehicle turned.. and certainly no safe way. To put it simply it's a lesson learnt and certainly no critism of Crippy as it's one of those mistakes I think most people would make if running their own league. It must be remembered she does this on her own and does a stirling job. Sadly however it put two drivers out of contention straight away.

Yuriko having retired with damage after her collision with my stranded car. I pitted for repairs and finished the race 8 laps down. Why Yuriko decided to instantly retire isn't clear as she could have gone straight into the pits for repairs.

The rest of the race was amazingly uneventfull apart from a late race collision between Suku and Crippy. The collision was caused by Suku's spotted calling 'clear' just as Crippy's nose was about to come alongside Suku. Suku went low in response to the clear call to protect her place just as Crippy's nose came alongside. Suku was forced into a spin and lost the place to Crippy.

As far as can be assertained pure racing incident caused by a poor spotter call.

Sulla won the race easilly despite a heavy collision with My damaged truck during the early accident.

Legends TWF1 - Oulton Park, Gold Cup - Report

2009-09-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Unlike the Formula Atlantics practice for the 1979 F1 cars had raised the fact that these cars were especially tricky here. The very bumpy nature made for a hard time and a high attrition rate was expected.

The field all made a clean start with minor contact between David Pym and Mike Peray being the only apparent incident as the field streamed through the tricky avenue to the right hander T2. Fair few cars locked up there but no dramas as the field headed on the run to the hairpin.

The hairpin, however, was not incident free as Baz moved onto the racing line and made contact with Rouke who was pulling alongside. The incident damaging both cars. In Knickerbrook I ran wide and dropped almost to last then the last corner was carnage.

First Berti completely outbraked himself and somehow avoided hitting anyone as he ran through the litter into the barrier. Behind Eric Fulghum spun and was collected by Fulvio's Ligier. The Heavy Metal Tyrell was spun round; right into the path of Corrado who cannoned into him heavilly.

The Brabham rolled and I spun in sympathy ( see above ) distracted by the sight of the upside down car. Amazingly only Corrado retired despite several cars being involved.

At the end of the Lap, the impressive Allar Foht led from Timo Peltola, Marcus Adams, Miguel Bento and Bret Metcalf.

Rookies Foht and Bento were proving to be extremely impressive with both leading their respective Divisions impressively. Baz West slotted into 6th but the action was further down the field.

Midfield was a big mix of drivers from both divisions with David, John Wallace and David Pym all battling with Div1 runners such as Rik Walker, Fulvio and Berti. Every lap had drivers passing others as drivers battled hard and people made mistakes around the tricky circuit.

Drivers of note included Rick Stratton who had finished lap 1 in twelfth place. By lap 10 he was up to ninth just being Ralph Maiph. Rik Walker and John Wallace also seemed to be making progress while David Kadlcak was slipping down the order.

Then on Lap 10 Marcus lost two places and retired a few laps later with accident damage. As he retired Bret finally got past Bento and settled down to chase Peltola.

Very soon it was clear, without mistakes, the front three would remain as they were while behind Paul Langford had worked his way up to fifth.

Stratton was continuing to make progress with John Wallace and Fulvio following just behind as they worked their way up with impressive, consistant runs.

At the back of the field I was struggling with the last turn and spinning a lot but allways in touch with Mark Abbott who I had the edge on for pace but lacked his consistancy.

By Lap 23, the expected attrition rate was showing as Rouke had retired on Lap 11 after contact with myself. I had spun with him just behind and he couldn't avoid me ( sorry Rouke :( ).

Mike Peray crashed on lap 16, Marco Casadei lap 23 and Costa also on the same lap.

Much of the field had settled down but now but John Wallace and Fulvio were embroiled in a ferocious battle for 9th overall, swapping places several times. Wallace eventually broke free on lap 32 and shortly after worked past Baz West for 8th.

Fulvio followed past the struggling Lotus 80 a few laps later while Wallace passed a delayed Paul Langford on the penultimate lap. Langford regained the spot a lap later but had last seveal spots near the end of the race.

Overall a hard, tough race with plenty of action. Excellent wins by Allar and Miguel in their respective divisions. Drivers of the race for me, however, would be John Wallace and Rick Stratton. They both qualified well down, kept their noses clean and gained a large number of places. Well done to all of you.

post race discussions by the drivers highlighted Bento might be Div1 speed

G1:GP LMP900 Series.. Standings and Drivers

2009-09-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Leguna Seca marked the 6th round in the 10 round championship. There have been four leaders in those six rounds and the championship is still hard to call.

Laguna Seca, however, did see a big of a gap open up with three likely groups battling. The group challenging for the championship seems to be down to 3 now. Three more seem to be likely to be going for 4th then 7th is the next group.

Plenty to race for and with so many leaders all it would take is a couple of good results from someone to tip the whole table on it's head.

As for the drivers.. I thought a bit of a profile might be fun.

Crippy Oh - Race organiser of this merry band of drivers. Does a stirling job off track and is pretty handy on track. Currently drives a Cadillac in the LMP900's and is sitting in 4th overall. Normally qualifies fairly well, and races well, definatly challenger for podiums and a consistant driver. Bad luck in Canada (Brake Failure) and Laguna ( poor start causing accidental loss of rear wing) has hampered her a little. Season 1 champion.

Jafo Tendaze - One of two drivers of the front engined Panoz cars. Took him a few races to get going but by round three had got onto the pace. Three wins in the last four races has rocketted him to the head of the championship. Quick and consistent he is probably current championship favourite.

Suku Ming - The oval meister. Ming also driver the Panoz but is generally midfield. Very consistant driver Suku will allways keep going and usually manages to avoid incedent that means good results and podiums are often the result. Season 2 champion.

Sulla Looming - Little Miss quick.. Looming is over a single lap probably the leagues quickest driver. Especially given she drives the underpowers but docile Reynard. Very aggressive driver who has become more consistant over time. She allways challenges for a podium and, as long as she avoids incident early on, usually on for the win.

Katier Reitveld - (written by Crippy Oh) Long time SL racing vet , has emerged as a threat in qualifying and races as the G1-Gp seasons have played out. Currently 5th overall in LMP season and 4th in the NSS truck series. Kat has been consistent this season with her best finish being 2nd on podium at Watkins Glen. One of the more unorthodox drivers as far as setups and strategy , sometimes this pays off , other times not as well (as witnessed by her 2 stop strategy at Laguna that may well have cost her a podium).

Suzy Cuddihy - Bit of a revelation in the little pilbeamesque Lola B2K10. Usually qualifies around 6th on the grid but keeps out of the trouble. Straight forward, ultra consistent, and fairly quick driving took her to the head of the championship after the halfway point. A poor result at Laguna cost her the lead and third is likely to be her most likely finish at the end of the season.

Yuriko - The wild one of the bunch at the moment. She is quick, very quick, but has had an incident packed season so far causing a lot of bad results. If she can find some consistency she has the pace to challenge for wins.

Remon - A stunning start to the season with two wins shows he has some serious pace. Two lesser races; a DNF's at Watkins and Mosport hurt his season before a 2 race break has seen him tumble down the season. Hopefully when he returns he will do so with pace and still has enough events to finish well up the standings.

Rattra - Too many incedents have robbed Rattra of decent results including brake failure at Laguna. Definatly has the potential for better results than he has had so far as witnessed by the 5 podiums he has registered in previous seasons.

Kiboe - If he can get his temper in check he should do better than he is at the moment. Tends to get frustrated, driver half heartedly and give up. Blames problems on setups when what he needs is mileage. Watching how others take corners ought to help him.

Nella - It's a shame nella has seemed to given up on the championship as she has potential and the right attitude. Just needs to stick at it to have improving results.

G1:GP LeMans - Laguna Seca Report

2009-09-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

This seasons race around the twists of the Laguna Seca track with it's famous 'corkscrew' turn would have the additional challenge of some of the race being run at night. In fact such was the time sped up, during the 26 lap event we would have around 9 laps in the middle in the night with daylight at the start and end of the race.

Crippy also tried a new start procedure aimed at making things quicker and instead of a 'recce lap' the drivers went straight to grid. Unfortunatly this caused a red flag and restart with one driver not being quick enough to get to grid then leaving the pitlane too early and getting DQ'd.

The second start wasn't much better when a feline interruption caused a second restart. At the third time of asking, however, the field got away well and streamed towards turn 1. Jafo, second on the grid, made the best start as the uphill start made Sulla's, non-LC start awkward.

The first lap, however, was action packed. Into T1 Sulla recovered from her poor start and took advantage of Reitveld and Yuriko running wide to run second. Suzi made a good start to slot into 5th ahead.

Crippy, unfortunately, was running last after being slightly slow away a collision, that I didn't even register had happened, took off her rear wing. Very bad luck for Oh and a classic case of the modelling being very wrong. The collision was very slight and between the lowest RF corner part of my nose and Crippy's LR - in RL I doubt anything would have happened but at worse a puncture might have occured.

The next incident occured at the corkscrew. Yuri locked up her RF tyre and cannoned into the back of Looming. Looming ended up in the kitty litter while, for some reason, Yuri's car stopped on the apex of the corkscrew. The corkscrew is a corner where the drivers approach it blind and the incident occured out of sight of myself and Suzy.

Thus we braked normally as we crested the rise and I couldn't avoid the read of the stranded R8. Suzy took the place only to run wide two corners late and hand the place back to me.

For some reason I was struggling at this stage to find pace and Suku was soon all over the back of me with Sulla recovering just behind. Jafo was way down the road and at this stage looked to have the race 'in the bag'.

Rattra was up to 4th briefly before being passed by the charging Reynard. Suku took second shortly after with a NASCAR style ( as Suku put it when apologising after the race) nudge. I don't believe the incedent was deliberate, just a case of me being slightly slow in the corner.

Kiboe retired on lap 8 and a lap later the intended pitstops started. I had elected to gamble on a two stop race as front tyre wear was a concern. On my outlap I almost took Jafo out of the race. He had spun in the corkscrew while lapping Kiboe shortly before the latter retired. I arrived over the crest of the corner ( above ) faced with him and just squeaked past.

The stop dropped me briefly to 6th as night fell but I repassed Looming when she stopped a lap later. I also worked my way past Suku on the drag up to the corkscrew.

So approaching half way the field had settled down, Rattra, who had run second for a time, was now 5th behind Looming, Suku, myself and Jafo.

Jafo still looked fairly secure but when he pitted I found myself beating him out of the pits. While he had spun once, he didn't lose that much time so the reason for the loss of the lead wasn't immediatly obvious.

I knew it was only a temporary thing, however, so pushed as hard as I could and pitted a second time on lap 19.

Sulla had been pushing hard also, trying to pass me believing the race to be for position and burnt her front tyres out. This would ultimately pay into Jafo's hands as he had also been past by the Reynard after his stop. By lap 20 Jafo was back in front and able to cruise to victory ahead of Looming.

My second stop had dropped me nearly 30s behind Suku and also behind Rattra. I was 1.5 to 2s quicker than the latter so most likely would have past him, however we'll never know as 6 laps from the end he became the 5th person to suffer brake failure in a race.

So Jafo won from Sulla, Suku, Myself and Suzy. Suzy losing the championship lead after only her second comparatively poor performance so far this season.

Afte the race Suku had this to say about an eventful event. "Going into the race, before we went racing and practiced and all that, I thought I had a shot at the win. Practice started up, and well.. suddenly I'm sitting 8th, and I thought that maybe that's where I'd finish... I got a little bit faster in practice on race day itself and then when they race came up, through those restarts, I realize I had a shot at a podium. So all in all it was a rollercoaster, it was a blast, I had fun

"I don't think I've ever seen that many wrecks like... ever. It was like a tornado hit the first two starts XD Totally insane!"

G1:GP LeMans - Nurburgring Report

2009-09-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

The LeMans LMP900 series is proving to be incredibly tight. Coming to the GP circuit in Germany it was impossible to predict who would win. I was confident, however, I wouldn't as lack of time to practice and new wheel meant I expected to be damage limitation mode.

Jafo Tendaze put his car on pole ahead of Sulla Looming and led off the start. Unfortunatly I lost it big time when my car spun under breaking due to a break balance error and the red flags came out to clear up the kitty litter.

At the second time of asking Rattra, 6th on the grid, jumped the start and Suzy was slow away. Looming made her best, non-LC, getaway so far but still lost ground as Crippy skirted past her and tucked in behind Yuriko and Jafo up front.

I managed to outdrag Sulla to T1 but, having caused a crash at start one, took it easy into the corner rather than trying to outbrake Crippy. Into T1 Suku made a mistake and punted Sulla into a spin.

The result was also a spin for Rattra as the AI GT cars arrived at the corner. These were added to add something different to the racing and this was their first impact in the race.

The front three settled down but behind, on lap 2, I made a mistake at the bottom of the hill and ran wide through the kitty litter and came out behind Sulla. Meanwhile Rattra was struggling serving his jumped start penalty and was forced to retired.

Sulla got past Suku on the next lap only for Suku to use the speed of the Panoz to regain the place. Sulla regained the place through the 'twiddly bits' but into T1 on the next lap Suku made her second mistake at that point and again punted Sulla.

This cost sulla a rear wing and she had to pit for repairs. Meanwhile I tried to chase Suku down but she had the edge on speed so I just had to hope the pitstops would allow me to pass her.

Up front Yuriko and Crippy were engaged in a furious battle for position. They past each other on several occasions as the pitstops approached. Jafo and Suku pitted first at the end of lap 9 with many others pitting on lap 11.

These second pitstops were chaos. First Crippy ran out of fuel in the pitlane. As her pitcrew pushed her down the lane I arrived, just as an AI car was alongside her. This delayed me slightly so when I arrived at my pitbox Yuriko was just leaving. I had to adjust my line to avoid her and overshot.

The end result was a long pitstop for me and Crippy, with me just beating her out. We then battled hard for the rest of the race, both making mistakes around AI traffic causing us to swap places a couple of times. Crippy spun again into T1 on the last lap and I crossed the line with just 0.1l in my tank.

Jafo won comfortably from Suzy after another consistant troublefree run that took her to the head of the championship. Suku was next ahead of me, Crippy and Sulla.

Sadly the field was a bit depleted but still a very good race and a tight championship.

The Kat get's a new wheel!!!

2009-09-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Since coming back to sim racing I've been using an old, non-FF, Microsoft Sidewinder wheel. This wheel is actually still very serviceable which shows how well it's built.

However, thanks to MS's shortsightedness it is hampered by the lack of official drivers for XP. This meant no split axis pedals negating the ability to easily have throttle and brake on in corners. It also made starts on slopes hard.

The LM prototypes I race are equipped with launch control. On a sloping grid the brake needs to be on to stop the roll but throttle needs to be on to engage the LC. Needless to say split axis is essential to that.

So it was time to get a new wheel and the first choice, as allways, is to get a Logitech. They simply are the best choice unless going for the 'Rolls Royce' options.

The shortlist came down to the G27, G25 and, perhaps surprisingly, the Driving Force GT. Why is the DFGT a surprise? It's marketted as a PS3 wheel and as such comes with things you'd expect on a console. It has the 4 direction buttons on the right, a 'hat' and two 'trigger' buttons on the top. Also included are a button marked PS ( never having a PS3 I don't know but assume normally this has some specific function) and the select/start buttons.

Due to cost it was the DFGT I went for and getting it hope I was impressed with the quality. It is a very well built wheel and the pedals feel solid and have a nice feel. Alongside the afformentioned buttons it also has two more large buttons above the 'boss', a +- button on the lower left, the normal 'paddle' buttons for gear change and a sequencial gear lever.

Perhaps most intersting is the red 'collar' and button on the lower right on the wheel. This is in effect three buttons. The collar rotates left and right, and then there is a button in the middle. The collar thus is ideal for functions such as brake balance, turbo boost levels and wing settings ( say on a modern 2009 F1 car). I use the central button as the Launch control but equally could be say a KERS button.

Overall plenty of buttons and most are easy to reach. The 'trigger' buttons above the 'spokes' are a little awkward but I find I can use an index finger.

Having never used Forcefeedback at all before this was the next challenge. Setting it all up. I downloaded the latest driver from the Logitech website and set to work.

Initially it felt all wrong but having done some research I tried the settings people used for the G25. These seem to work quite well and perhaps the most crucial setting was to have RF's 'strength' setting to negative and FF effects to low.

In the driver I had everything except Overall effects strength set to 0% with the latter currently at 99%. I'm using 306 degrees of rotation, although the wheel is a 900 degree wheel this setting seems to work well for me ( it's a slider and I was looking at 300 degree's and ended up with 306).

With these settings the car starts to make sense. It's too early to really be confident the FF is setup right but so far she feels ok. I entered my first race last night driving around the modern N'Ring on the F1 layout. This is an interesting test as there are a good variety of corners and overall it felt pretty right.

This is definatly a wheel worth looking at, The buttons can be slightly awkward but it's not hard to get used to them and the important functions can allways be placed in easy to reach parts of the wheel.

Legends FA - Oulton - Feature Race Report

2009-09-13T15:44:00.001-07:00

The feature race was up next and with the pitstops added strategy is involved. But before the drivers arrived at their stops the start needed to be negotiated and two drivers in particular made startling starts.

Martin Cooper and Ivor Blackmore, in his first start, both making up places from the start. Into T1 Baz West went three abreast, ran out of room, and span over the nasty curbs that would later claim other drivers. There was also contact between myself and Neill as he squeezed inside me into the corner although neither car was effected by it.

As in the first race the top 3 settled into position while Juan Carlos made a poor get away. He dropped to 5th then into the hairpin was punted by Ralph putting Juan out of the race with a damaged car.

The end of the lap therefore had Rouke leading from Bret, Paul, Nigel and Ralph.

These 5 quickly looked settled but behind there was a monumental battle going on. Cooper's race pace was slightly slower than most of the cars behind and they were soon battling to get past the blue and white car.

Graham made it past into the hairpin on Lap 2, Cooper ran wide on the exit to give him room and promptly lost a place to Neill too. On Lap 4 Ralph lost it in the double apex right hander and dropped to 8th just ahead of the recovering Baz West.

I'd caught Martin by this time and with my tyres warm went on the attack. As in Race one I got past him into the hairpin and got the same traction as him out of the corner. This meant a drag race down to Knickerbrook. Martin lifted a touch to get a better run through and took me on the inside of the corner. Two abreast through the corner!!!

I tracked him through the next lap was unable to pass into the hairpin but used my better cornering through there to sit under his wing on the exit.. Yep you've guessed it another drag race to knickerbrook. This time I got a better run through the corner. There seemed to be a little contact on my side as we AGAIN took this corner two abreast. We both made it through with me now ahead. Martin tracked me through the rest of the lap and I got the line wrong into T1, spun and lost a place to Martin.

Ralph also went through but amazingly I only lost one place as Neill has also spun and took longer to get going than I. Baz West was really on a charge now and on Lap 8 Neill was slow through Knickerbrook and he lost a place to the blue and white car. Neill fought back, repassing him but ultimately losing the place into the last corner.

Next lap Baz made an amazing save in Knickerbrook.. but lost the place back to Neill. The two were going at it hammer and tongues at this stage. By lap 11 though Baz had got past for good after Neill spun in the same place as Ralph.

Up front Rouke looked in total control as the pitstops approached although occasionally Bret put pressure on the leader he never looked to have a chance to pass. End of lap 21 Rouke pitted and changed tyres and fuel, two laps later Bret and Paul also pitted just for fuel and took the lead.

This was despite Bret and Paul both coming out of the pits right behind me. Shame we don't have lollipops because in this situation letting them past before releasing me would have been sensible. As it was I didn't initially realise there were there until the blue flag popped up and I let them past on the run to the hairpin.

The battle for the lead was intense now. Paul, leading, was probably a touch slower than both Bret, 2nd, and Rouke behind. Knifing through traffic they ran nose to tail. Paul almost lost the lead when he bumped into Raiph who appeared to have run wide to let him through. Paul also went wide, but regained the place on the exit.

Paul caught Baz West at just the wrong point, had to lift in the double right hander and Bret Seized the chance taking the lead. Meanwhile Rouke had dropped back behind Raiph and was unable to recatch the lead two before the end. Nigel was the last of the pitters, on lap 33, dropping a lap down in the process.

After 35 laps of intense fighting Bret deservedly won from Paul and Rouke. Graham and Nigel in 4th and 5th ahead of Baz West, Ralph and Martin Cooper. I finished just 3.5s behind Cooper in 9th ruing two spins and, more importantly, the 10s I lost bogged down in the gravel after outbraking myself at the end of the lap before my pitstop.

Overall though a most enjoyable pair of races around an excellent circuit.

Legends FA - Oulton - Sprint Race Report

2009-09-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

The first race of the Formula Atlantic Race meeting was the 12 lap sprint race. This counts for 1/3 of the points available and is followed by a 35 lap event which includes a pit stop.

At the start Rouke made a clean get away and the top three finished the lap as they started. Behind Juane Carlos Huarte, however, had an incedent in the hairpin and retired at the end of the lap. Nigel Metcalf inhereted the place.

David Pym made a lightning start, slotting into 5th ahead of Ralph Maiph and Neill Johnson who also made a lightning start. I made a poor start dropping to 12th but while the top 6 settled down quickly places changed behind.

Neill Johnson and Ray both making mistakes in Lap 2 to drop several places. On Lap 4 Gary and David both made mistakes into the hairpin, David overshot and harshly got a stop and go penalty. Gary destroyed the marker cones and continued in sixth place.

Neill was on a charge, however, and was back up to 8th by lap four. During the same lap Thomas spun in the double apex corner hitting the tyres fairly firmly. He retired two laps later with suspension damage.

On Lap 8 Nigel Metcalf binned it at the same corner and dropped to 10th. Up front the other Metcalf was continuing to pressure Rouke with Paul not far behind in third and Ralph and few seconds further back.

By now I was up to pace and chasing 8th placed, Martin Cooper, down. The gap narrowing lap by lap as he struggled, especially in the hairpin, to keep up my improving pace.

By Lap 11 my pink car was breathing right down his neck. Into the hairpin I took my chance and we went round side by side. Cooper got the better run out of the corner and through Knickerbrook he managed to pull a bit of a gap. (picture above for the hairpin)

I tracked him through the first part of the last lap and took the hairpin better than him. I was right with him up towards knickerbrook. I spotted the yellows as Gary had spun there so didn't look to pass but stick with the blue and white car ahead. Entering the corner Cooper seemed to turn a touch too sharply.. his car slid a bit then as it took the jump slid, he caught the slide but it snapped the other way across my path. I spun after contact with him and was fortunate to be able to continue after contact with the tyres up the hill.

Cooper rejoined minus his front wing and with a skewed rear wing while I wasn't sure what damage I had. In the event I think I'd got away with no appreciable damage but still took the last few corners easilly.

A good win for Rouke under pressure from Bret and Paul Langford. I was pleased with eighth in my first FA outing and Neill did very well to recover from poor qualifying to take 5th.

Oulton Park Musings

2009-09-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Built in the undulating parkland of Oulton Park this race track is fast and challenging. With several sharp changes of elevation traction can be an issue and it has one of the most deadly and challenging corners on any circuit.

Knickerbrook is a fast, off camber, undulating right hander at the end of the longest full throttle run on the circuit.

But let's backpedal. T1 is a fast right hander, it's just short of flat in 4th/5th on entry then flat mid corner with a tricky curb on exit it's easy to get wrong and quite crucial for the short, but fast, run through T2 into T3. T3 is another important corner leading onto the first true straight, it is a fast left hander probably running in 4th gear with the run down to the next corner being one of the two overtaking spots that are truly on the circuit. For our Formula one circuit we run down to T4 as a tricky fast 5th gear left then T5 is a hairpin before running back flat through T6. The Formula Atlantics do a hairpin T4 just before the F1 circuits T4 and rejoin just after T6.

Both circuits run the rest of the lap the same and the next corner is Knickerbrook. This is where Derek Warwicks brother, Paul Warwick, was tragically killed and caused a chicane to be implemented there. However we are running the pre-Warwick accident layout so this corner is approached at max speed and in the Atlantics is flat out.

Get the line wrong and the off camber nature can put you in a spin. After Knickerbrook we have a flat left and approach the next right hander at max speed. This corner is almost as challenging as Knickerbrook due to it's blind nature. It is a double apex corner and get it right can give you the speed you need to take a place into the penultimate corner. This is a 2nd gear 'humped' turn with the car going light just as you want to accelerate through Deer leap and over the S/F line.

Where the Atlantic and F1 circuits re-combine is one of several bumps that are upsetting for the F1 cars more than the Atlantics.

Overall a very fast, challenging circuit that should provide a lot of enjoyment and produces some classic racing in the Atlantic event today.

G1:GP Trucks - Phoenix Raceway

2009-09-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

The third round of the Stock Trucks series took place last Wednesday at the D shaped oval of Phoenix Raceway. This track is a bit quicker than other circuits we've raced in and the field was amazingly tight. Most drivers managed to get their trucks into the sub 29s bracket at least some of the time.

Katier put in a 20 lap stint in practice that prompted race organiser, Crippy Oh, to extend the race to 45 laps in an effort to force a two stop strategy.

This wasn't as successfull as she'd hoped as afterwards Katier admitted had she been really coy she might have managed a 1 stop race, but only aided by yellows. This was because she drove the entire first stint in 'fuel economy' mode. This started from the go and resulted in her having more fuel from the start.

Up front the top 5 drivers, Suku Ming, Sulla Looming, Crippy Oh, Yuriko and Suzy Cuddihy all started the race with the intention of running flat out throughout and stopping twice. Suku took the early lead from a battle between Sulla and Crippy. Suzy and Yuriko settled into the next two positions with Katier, despite running less than full throttle, still able to just cling to the back of the lead pack.

Jafo, who was suffering badly with an illness started but had to pull out while Nella, lacking in practice, struggled and both had retired by lap 15.

Suku led easilly and pitted on lap 15 a lap later than Crippy and Kiboe. By lap 20 all but one of the drivers had pitted. Katier led and was a lap up on some of the field with Suku on the same lap in second and Sulla having just unlapped herself in third.

Then the yellow flew and Katier's fuel saving seemed to be paying off. She dived into the pits at the earliest chance while, strangely, so did Sulla. Loomings stop was strange because it meant she wouldn't unlap herself from Katier and in fact dropped a lap down on Suku.

So with the first stops finished and the field under yellow Suku led with Crippy Sulla and Suzy sandwhiched between her and second placed Katier. The field, at half distance, still under yellow was Suku, Katier - both on lead lap. then Crippy, Sulla and Yuriko a lap down followed by Suzy being 2 laps down and then Kiboe about 3 laps off the pace.

Yuriko pitted again on lap 23 deciding that she could stretch fuel to 45 but lost time due to not catching up the field before it went yellow.

Suku Pitted a second time on Lap 30 and dropped to 4th briefly then 3rd when Crippy pitted a second time. Sulla's third stop bumped her up to 2nd but she was a lap down on the race leader.

Given her early tactics had worked so well Reitveld decided not to stretch her second stint so, having driven this segment flat out ( equating to about 0.5s/lap better than first stint) she decided to pit as soon as her tyres started to go off.

Unfortunatly a completely amerturish pitstop, bad timing, a Rfactor screwup and general bad driving cost her three places. In short she spun and in flick spinning her car snagged the back of it. Rfactor thus decided to repair her damage ( which she'd told it not to ) and overall she lost probably nearly 25s with a stop.

A second yellow two laps later, which Reitveld could have got to without trouble, meant that had she stuck to the first segment tactic she'd have won by dint of pitting with the field all settled and thus Suku would have been unable to regain the lap she'd lost.

A Final mistake by Reitveld, jumping the re-start, brought out a third yellow when a minor contact between Reitveld and Sulla spun the former and she was collected and suffered a LR puncture. (picture of spin above)

Unfortunatly a messy end to an excellent and entertaining race.

Suku won deservadly from Yuriko who had benefitted from the second yellow as she ran out of fuel. Crippy was third for a season's best result from Sulla and Katier. Katier was left to rue her serious errors as it cost her 3 places. Suzy spun on entry to pits twice and finished 6th ahead of Kiboe.

Legends - TWF1:Mugello Report

2009-09-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

24 cars lined up for the opening round of the 2009 Autumn TWF1 season opener. The smooth circuit seemed to suit the Lotus 80 with it's huge amount of downforce no doubt helping the general lack of grip Mugello provided.

As a result three of the advanced Lotus' lined up on the front 4 spot's on the grid joined by the previous years Lotus 79 of Bret Metcalf in third. Behind the Lotus lockout Brabham seemed to be providing the best option with no sign of makes such as Tyrell, McLaren, Ferrari or Ligier featuring in the top 10 of the grid.

Roberto Berti led from pole with Ales Simunek and Bret Metcalf arguing over the rest of the podium. Timo Peltola joined in that battle on lap four the all four Lotus cars keeping position ahead of a tight battle between Rouke and Rik with Tony Cederholm just behind.

Division two formed a 'B' division in this race and the pace setters were David Kadlcak, Eric Fulgrum and John Wallace. Unlike the Div 1 start this was an incedent packed event with several drivers spinning early on. Amongst them were Wallace, Kadlcak and as a result Marting Cooper in his pink painted 'pig' took the early lead.

By Lap 10 Berti continued to lead the main race with Ales in second from Metcalf and Timo. In Div 2 Cooper had spun and dropped down the order and Wallace had recovered from his early off.

The Div 2 race now settled down with the main interest being the prescence of the Div1 back markers in the fray. Nigel Metcalf working his way back through the field after early troubles and Rick Stratton dragging his relunctant Ferrari around a few places behind.

On Lap 16 the complexion of the race changed, an incedent involing Timo and the Race leader handed Metcalf the Lead with Ales also benefitting to take second. Timo dropped back and a lap later would be past by Rik Walker's Brabham who seemed to have broken free of the attentions of Rouke behind.

Metcalf let to lap 24 before a Ales made it past only for him to spin twice and finish in 3rd behind the recovering Berti.

In Div2 John was untroubled with only Div 1 driver Nigel Metcalf passing him before the end of the race. Eric Fulghum and David Pym, however, were embroiled in a battle to the flag that finally went Pym's way on lap 24 possibly after the Heavy Metal Racing driver spun and lost two places.

Div 1 top three thus was Bret Metcalf in his Lotus 79 ahead of Roberti Berti and Simunek. Div 2 honors went to John Wallace from David Pym and Eric Fulghum.

Overall a very good race on a very tricky race track.

Legends - TWF1:Gallio Racing - Mugello

2009-09-07T04:15:00.000-07:00

Gallio Racing's T4 Ferrari's proved to be a real handfull around this twisting Italian Circuit. Within a few laps, as the two bright yellow cars circled at the back of the field, the stands emptied themselves.

Without the sweeping bends and long straights found at Imola and Monza the two heavy cars struggled throughout. Seemingly unable to get grip out of their tyres they frequently left the track.

Dom retired with terminal suspension damage 12 laps from home while Rick managed a more respectible 16th. The biggest issue for the Ferraris seemed to stem from the fact they are not very nimble and the frequent quick direction changes hampered them.

Both drivers are hoping the more flowing nature of Oulton Park will provide a venue much more suited to their cars.

Legends: F179 Mugello

2009-09-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

Mugello is the host of the first round of the TWF1 championship and makes for an interesting choice. Think Italy and no doubt Monza and Imola spring to mind first, but Mugello is our Italian foray this season.

Unlike Monza and Imola, both of which,are generally considered fairly high speed circuits, Mugello is much slower with several left/right sequences.

In 1979 cars these are essentially chicanes although nothing like a classic left/right flick normally associated with these types of corners.

So what do I think of the circuit?

I think the afformentioned chicanes are a bit much, it would be nice if one of them was a flowing S, maybe the first one as that would add to the challenge of the loser second chicane.

With downforce a compromise T1, while it looks fairly quick, is deceptively slow and thus after such a long ( I'd guess over 20s at full throttle ) main straight a genuine overtaking point.

T2 comes up on the driver almost before they're ready for it and it's easy to run wide and compromise T3 which after a short straight feeds into the T4/5 'chicane'. T2/3 is slower than the second one and the exit from T5 is important.

This is my favourite part of the track. From the exit of T5, in my case in second gear I never drop below 3rd gear for about the next 20s as the track flicks right then left down a fairly steep slope then through two fast right hand sweepers before hard breaking for the final 'chicane' which in speed is similar to T2/3. The second hairpin is next up and as with the first ( and last ) hairpins is tricky.

Next is a fast chicane taking without lifting in 4th gear before the run down to the last turn which is another hairpin.

Over all a circuit which is good because of it's challenges however it's a bit 'fidly' in places for me. Feels a bit samey at times with two styles of corner dominating. But the mix between high and low speeds is marked so downforce levels are tricky.

G1:GP Mosport Report

2009-09-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well what a topsy Turvy race that was. Full of action, problems and incedent from the start to the finish line.

The whole circuit here is very cramped and this was highlighted when we lined up for the start.

On pole was Sulla and unfortunatly her lack of Launch Control (LC) had a trigger effect. Yuriko, 3rd on the grid, seemed to pause while Katier behind made the best start of anyone.

Katier nudged the back of Yuriko causing her to lift off the throttle. This disengaged theLC so when she floored the throttle she spun. Meanwhile Nella (9th on grid) had nudged Remon (7th) who had stopped as a result of a gentle nudge in the back of Katier.

Katier's spun put her into the side of Suku who spun, unfortunatly for whom a nudge with the pitwall removed her rear wing, requiring a pitstop and causing a couple of spins on the first lap.

So early on Crippy Led, having got the jump from second on the grid, from Sulla who had benefitted from the tight grid preventing any of the LC cars behind from jumping her.

Jafo, winner last race, was 3rd from Yuriko, Suzy, Katier and Remon. The initial battle was between the latter three with Rattra, Nella, Kiboe and the delayed Suku filling out the field.

The trio swapped places on several occasions. Lap 4, Suzy lost two places with in the double first gear corners on the far end of the track when Remon pulled a demon move on her, causing her to be slow in the corner catching Reitveld out who nudged her into a spin.

From 7th, Suzy's recovery would be incredible. But behind them the first retirements had registered themselves. Nella crashed on the main straight and pulled out with damaged suspension on lap 6 while Kiboe retired on lap 11.

Suzy had another spin shortly after but a spin exiting the double right handers caused Reitveld to lose 20s as she struggled to regain the track. That was the start of Suzy's recovery and a good pace kept the R8 driver behind her as Suzy got into her Rythmn.

Behind Rattra was struggling and Suku was finding some pace as she tried to salvage something from her race. While up front Crippy was struggling, her tyres went off by lap 10 when Jafo took the lead. Sulla was still in touch and Yuriko made a front four covered by a matter of seconds.

Remon pitted on about lap 10 and retired a couple of laps later for unknown reasons while the battle continued up front. Crippys dead tyres cost her another place on lap 11 at which point Sulla was second, Yuriko despite a small off fourth, Suzy up to fifth ahead of Katier, Rattra and Suku.

Crippy and Katier both pitted on lap 15. Crippy due to dead tyres and Katier in an effort to leapfrog Suzy with a couple of lightning laps on fresh tyres. Unfortunatly a fuel rig problem ( aka Rfactor losing a setting) caused the R8 driver to be filled for 18 laps of fuel not the intended additional 18 laps.

Katier pushed hard but then when her tactic clearly failed she had to back off in order to attempt to stretch her fuel, a late race splash and dash (which failed due to the afformentioned RF problem) put her a lap down so she started to push harder.

Up front the battle for the win clearly appeared to be between Jafo and Sulla. Crippy looked fairly secure in 3rd from Yuriko, Suzy and Katier.

Things changed late on however. First Crippy pitted again, her tyres just not working she did a quick tyre only stop dropping her to 5th. Then on lap 27 Jafo ran wide in T3, spinning he got hit by Sulla who's impact removed his rear wing. Katier then took to the grass to try to avoid the carnage only to hit Jafo as he tried to rejoin.

Jafo would retired two corners later while Sulla and Katier continued to run. The final incedent occured on the next lap when Yuriko when off, lost her rear wing and a lap.

So Sulla took the win from an excellent recovery drive by Suzy. Katier came home 4th ahead of Yuriko, Suku and Rattra.

Drive of the day must go to Suzy for her recovery while mention must go to Suku for showing perserverence is worthwhile as her finish of 6th earned vital points.

1 31 Sulla Looming 38:59:536
2 377 Suzy Cuddihy +29.56s
3 8 Crippy Oh +48.18s
4 38 Katier Reitveld +1L
5 301 Yuriko +1L
6 251 Tsukuba Ming +5L
7 338 Rattra +5L
8 310 JAFO2RHh +7L DNF(Severe Accident Damage)
9 202 Remon Franizzi +20L DNF(Suspension)
10 327 Kiboe +24L DNF(Suspension)
11 201 Nella Boccara +29L DNF(Accident)

Mosport Musings

2009-09-01T01:47:00.000-07:00

I allways quite enjoyed visiting Mosport on the GPL circuit so pleasently surprised that it is completely unchanged from that layout.

I don't know of any other racing circuit in the world that has so little changes over a 40 year history. However this does cause problems which make it a less good circuit now than in the past. The first of these is lack of breaking zones.

A Quick trip around the circuit and the corners arrive as follows. T1 your in 4th on approach, lift, turn in, floor it. Up to 5th for T2, lift, turn in, floor it. Some cars will touch 6th on the run to T3. This is the first braking zone and it's a corner than I suspect some take in 2nd while the front runners probably take in 3rd. Either way the exit is in 3rd which shows how fast the corner is.

Three corners in and the brakes have been used ONCE and even that wasn't a long zone. T4 is a flat out left before the one and only serious braking for the uphill right handers of T5 and T6. These are first gear corners but the approach makes outbraking VERY hard. T7 and T8 are sweepers down Andretti straight ( not sure if they're normally counted but I will for completeness).

T9 is over a blind but whereas the GPL cars would probably break as they went light over the crest.. yep you've guessed it the Sportscars lift, maybe drop a gear and floor it. T10 is a quick, down to 3rd slither through corner before T11 which is a 2nd gear right.

Eleven corners, 3 braking zones and only 5 corners taken in less than 4th gear. All these medium to high speed corners mean the setup requires some downforce to maximize exit speed.. However I'm considering looking at a low downforce race setup. Due to the track layout I feel the best overtaking chance is keeping close through T6 then slipstreaming past on the long run to T9.

A Look at the LMP Cars...

2009-08-31T05:23:00.000-07:00

In the G1:GP we are using the 2001 to 2003 LMP cars for our sportcar series. That gives quite a range of cars to choose from.

The years featured where mainly dominated by the famous Audi R8 so it's no surprise that that is a popular car. However are there options that are competitive. The Panoz won several LMP races and has been competitive in our series. The Cadilac proved to be pretty competitive too and the Riley and Scott wasn't far behind (interestingly the early Caddy was an evolution of the R&S IIIC ).

I am considering requesting a chassis change to add variety to the series so have been taking a look at the different cars. I'm using the same setup for all cars with the exception of gearing. Fuel loads were quite heavy so pole is likely 2-3s quicker.

Gearing seems to be in two flavours which probably reflects the maximum RPM of the given engine. There are also two styles of engine. a 6l normally aspirated typically V8 (could be V10) or a 3.6-4l V8-V10 Twin Turbo.

I'm going to look at some of the cars around the mosport park race track and achieved a 1m06.987 in an R8. This is therefore one of the benchmarks I'll be using. The other is 'feel'.

The Doran Lista, Dallara with a Judd engine was first up. This car I struggled to get a competitive time in with the setup I was using. The car feels inherently loose althuogh it is pretty quick in a straight line.

Courages C60 was also a struggle. The car feels low on grip and a bit unstable under braking. I wasn't able to attack T2 in the same was as the R8.

The Lola also has the Judd engine and is a pretty fast option. I got a 1m07.467 out of her and she's probably really just lacking a little downforce. Nicely balanced car though.

The RS has the same engine as the faster Panoz in an Elite 6l all be it slightly less power. This is a car I feel at home in. I quickly got a 1m07.097 and very impressed. May well be the car I change to.

The Caddy probably unsurprisingly feels similar to the RS and has a similar pace. I got a 1m07.1 fairly easilly so comparible.

Most people have been using the Elite powered Panoz LMP01 so I took the LMP07 out for a spin next. It doesn't feel bad but the lower power of the 600bhp/387ftlb mugen is noticeable. 1m07.5 seemed to be about the best I could get in a quick test.

The next car surprised the hell out of me. The Dome is powered by the powerfull Judd engine (the most powerfull engine available) but is a little known car.. well I did a 1m06.7 (and was 0.4s down on pb at second split.) so a 1m06.3 was doable. Definatly something to look at.

The LMP02 Caddy was next up. Apparantly this is a Caddy chassis rather than the LMP01's RS derived one. I quickly did a 1m06.5 so another interesting choice. Having got two stunning times I decided I'd finish up going back to the R8 as I felt I might be learning the track better too.

Before that I went to two more cars. Firstly the banned ( due to a pitstop bug) Bentley. The Bentley is interesting as it's the only closed cockpit car in the series. This car had a heavier feel than the others and didn't feel quite so 'glued' as the open cockpit models.

The Reynard is the most underpowered car. In fact I've seen it flagged as a 675 model on some websites so I wonder if the sim is depicting it as a 675 chassis with a 900 engine. It feels very nimble and easy to drive on the limit but the lack of power does show. Sulla has been fairly successful with the car but she most likely is having to push very hard throughout racing and has been hampered by lack of LC.

Finally I went back to the R8. The previous 'mark' time had been set in a 2003 model. so what could I do in my usual mount. The answer was a 1m06.343.

So alongside the R8 and Panoz LMP01Evo I'd say the Caddy's and Riley and Scott look most competitive. The Dome is also in the mix while the Reynard is a car that relies on drivers being able to be work well in all kinds of corners.

So if anyone is looking at a R8/LMP01Evo alternative take a look at the R&S or the Dome.

G1:GP Watkins Glen LMP Race

2009-08-28T11:34:00.001-07:00

Curiously this was my second WG race in 3 days having (sort of) participated in the final pre-season event in the Legends League on the Sunday. I had struggled a lot in the 79's but the 75 laps of practice meant when I jumped in the R8 I was up to speed on the layout.

Pole position, however, went to Yuriko with a demon lap from Jafo fractions ahead of Reitveld, Crippy, Suzy and championship leader Remon. Remon had two wins from pole under his belt but was curiously off the pace here while Looming was unable to start so claimed last place.

Into T1 Reitveld had a look inside Yuri who forcefully shut the door while Jafo took the lead. Behind them Remon got airborne (above) and damaged his car. Further round the lap, exiting T6 (I think - the 2nd corner after Carousel) Crippy's car got away from her and she rotated.

Two corners later Jafo ran wide giving Yuri a chance, unfortunatly her first spin occured and she lost a place to Katier. Yuri would get back past the R8 driver shortly after but her race fell apart with a huge spin on lap 7 costing her a lap for a new rear wing.

By that Lap 7 the field had settled down. Jafo looked comfortable a few seconds ahead of Katier who was keeping a 1-2s gap ahead of Suzy. Suku was next up ahead of the recovering Crippy, Rattra and Kiboe. Remon had retired giving him his worst result of the year and pleasing Sulla as her absence meant he gained only a point on her.

The pitstops proper started on lap 12 when Suzy pitted. Afterwards she confessed this stop was earlier than she had intended but it was bang on half distance and she took on exactly the fuel required. Exiting in clear air and suddenly she had a shot at victory.

Aware that Suzy might be quick on fresh tyre's Katier started to push hard and pitting on lap 14 she just scraped out ahead of the Lola B2K10. Katier drove her outlap absolutely flat out, 5s quicker than anyone else and 7s quicker than Jafo.

That meant that after the stops Katier lead from Suzy, Jafo, Crippy and Rattra. Suku was last unlapped runner with Kiboe one lap down and, after a second rear wing removing spin, Yuriko was two.

Katier was now clearly driving as hard as she could pulling away from Suzy with a series of 1m30 and 1m29s laps. Suzy was eventually past by Jafo on lap 19 at which point a minor off also damaged her car.

Katiers hard pressed tyres were now starting to go off and Jafo was closing in fast, by lap 22, with one to go, he was right with her. Out of the last corner he got a better exit and crossing the line was in the lead. Over the last lap Reitveld put as much pressure on the leading Panoz has she could.. almost too much pressure as a half spin near the end of the 'loop' lost her a couple of seconds.

Jafo then crashed exiting the next corner but was able to just, with the aid of a bit of robust driving in the last corner, to hold on to the win by a fraction of a second. (Katier's half spin is depicted as the background to this blog)

Pos/Driver/Laps/Time/Gap/Aids/Car

1 JAFO2RHh - 23 - 35:58:780 - ABS=2 AutoBlip Clutch Stability=2 TC=3 - Panoz
2 Katier Reitveld - 23 - 35:59:030 +.25s - ABS=1 AutoBlip Clutch TC=1 - Audi
3 Suzy Cuddihy - 23 - 36:02:786 - +4.01s - ABS=2 AutoBlip AutoLift AutoShift=3 Clutch Opposite Stability=1 TC=1 - Lola
4 Crippy Oh 23 36:24:203 +25.42s - Cadillac
5 Rattra 23 36:50:409 +51.63s - ABS=2 Stability=2 TC=2 - Audi
6 Tsukuba Ming 23 36:53:268 +54.49s - ABS=2 AutoBlip Clutch Stability=1 TC=1 - Panoz
7 Kiboe 22 +1L - ABS=2 AutoBlip Clutch Opposite Stability=2 TC=3 - Dallara
8 Yuriko 21 +2L - ABS=2 AutoBlip Clutch Stability=2 TC=3 - Audi
9 Remon Franizzi 7 +16L DNF(DNF) - ABS=2 Clutch Stability=2 TC=3 - Audi

(This series allows a number of driver aids reflecting it's casual friendly nature. It makes an interesting comparison however seeing which aids are used)

G1:GP - Trucks - Stockton and Myrtle

2009-08-28T06:25:00.001-07:00

The Stock trucks season kicked off in the familiar surroundings of the Stockton Oval race track. A track we had run in test races and also in the legends in season 2.

Despite the familiarity two collisions, one the fault of yours truly (right) caused the field behind the leaders to scramble up somewhat.

At the end of lap one Looming led from oval specialist, Suku, and Crippy, in the blue twinkies car, who had narrowly avoided the spinning Jafo.

Yuriko had gained most from the start running 4th ahead of Nella and Suzy. The early battles were centered around these two as they run nose to tail for some time while other drivers had incidents. Mango, Katier, Yuriko and Sulla all spinning before half of the race was run.

By the finish Suku had won by a lap from Jafo and Suzy. A further lap back was Kiboe who had put in a personal best performance ahead of the recovering Katier.

Suku
Jafo
Suzy
Kiboe
Katier
Rattra
Crippy
Yuriko
Nella
Sulla
Mango

Myrtle beach was run two days later and this time pitstops and yellow flags would be a feature. This time the start was cleaner but Kiboe lost it on lap 1 and brought out the yellow flag early on.

Best restarter was Katier who nipped inside Crippy to take 4th while up front Ming past Jafo for second. Crippy fought back though and retook the place only for an soft touch to put Crippy to the back of the field. No yellow though so the field continued to lap 22 when the yellow was brought out by Rattra.

As soon as the pitlane opened Suku and Katier took to the pitlane and in doing so were able to jump to the lead positions. Unfortunatly off the restart Kiboe didn't listen to the instructions given and squeezed Suku. This delayed both leaders and they lost places quickly to Sulla.

Jafo would then hound Katier for lap after lap but never quite manage to pull the pass off ultimatly half spinning on the last lap and losing a place to Yuriko.

Sulla
Suku
Katier
Yuriko
Jafo
Suzy
Kiboe
Crippy
Rattra
Mango

Coming up

2009-08-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Reports on the first two G1GP Truck races, the Watkins Glen LMP races and the First round of the Legends League F1 season.

G1:GP Silverstone LMP Race

2009-08-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

From Canada the LMP's were transported across the 'pond' to the classic surroundings of the Silverstone circuit.

Once again Remon claimed pole but off the start Katier made a lightning start. With Looming, second, hampered by lacking traction control the R8 screamed through the gap between them into the lead. Behind Crippy also took advantage while Rattra settled into 6th ahead of Suzy, Suku and Kiboe.

Jafo was 5th with Nella making a slow start and finding herself surrounded in the GT class runners added to ad some 'spice' to the field.

Reitveld lead into T1 but Remon, with the fast starting Crippy alongside, collided prejumably due to no spotter to warn him of her presence causing a huge spin. Rattra in the second Champion R8 JUST squeezed through past her but Looming was not so fortunate and cannoned off the stranded car.

The action didn't finish there as, in avoiding the crash, Jafo took to the pitlane. As he exited he surprised Suzy who, caught by surprise, braked and quick reactions from Suku avoided a second crash.

Amazingly all that left no serious damage and at the end of the lap Looming was up to 5th and Crippy 7th.

The next incedent happened on lap four when Rattra and Reitveld collided. It appeared that Rattra got caught out by her slightly earlier than him approaching Vale. Unfortunatly it also appears lag had an effect as she lost a wing to a collision a lot lighter than the T1 incident.

Yet again Reitveld found herself losing a lap and having to fight back. While Remon cruised away up front. Looming car seemed little effected by the Lap one incedent and now chased the leader hard with initally Jafo, then Rattra chasing.

While the front two looked untroubled things weren't so clear behind and frequent place changes occured through up to the stops on about lap 13. At this stage Yuriko had dropped out shortly after a spin. After the stops Looming led from Remon, Jafo, Crippy and Rattra.

The big chase, however, was Reitveld and Cuddihy. Reitveld had stopped on lap 13 and swiftly dealth with the backmarkers and closed in on Cuddihy. Exiting Vale on the last lap she spun and Reitveld gratefully gained the place.

Remon Franizzi - Audi R8
Crippy Oh - Cadillac LMP01
Sulla Looming - Reynard 01Q-01
Rattra - Audi R8
Jafo - Panoz LMP01Evo
Suku Ming - Panoz LMP01Evo
Katier Reitveld - Audi R8
Suzy Cuddihy - Lola B2K10
Nella Boccara - Audi R8
Yuriko - Audi R8
Kiboe - Dallara LMP

G1:GP Canadian LMP Race

2009-08-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

The first race of the LMP season took place at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal. This circuit blends tricky corners with long fast sections and as such is a challenging circuit especially on machine and it's brakes.

Remon Franizzi lined up on pole ahead of Sulla Looming, Jafo Tendaze, Katier Reitveld, Tsukuba Ming, Rattra, Crippy Oh, Yuriko, Suzy Cuddihy, Nella Boccara and Kiboe.

Looming was concerned about the lack of Launch Control on her Reynard 01Q-01 race car and this proved to be the case as Tendaze and Reitveld both jumper her and challenged Franizzi into T1. Exiting T1 they were next to each other and contact was inevitable.

Reitveld was knocked into a spin and broadside on most of the field scraped past her. Unfortunatly Boccora and Kiboe both struck the stranded car with some force and damaged all three vehicles. Boccora was out on the spot while Reitveld lost a lap in the pits. Kiboe continued but was last and retired on lap 11 with an ill handling car.

Franizzi was in control very quickly and Tendaze, driving hard, was unable to close the gap with Ming holding station behind.

Oh was soon up to 4th after Ming lost time with a lap three spin but dropped behind Rattra sortly after. Her car appeared to be in trouble and on lap 8 she was in for a long stop dropping her behind Retiveld.

Rattra had retired on lap 7 so with the stops approaching Franizzi lead from Tendaze with Looming in third but strangely not quite on the pace. Cuddihy was consistant in 4th ahead of the recovering Ming.

The stops showed why Looming was off the pace.. she'd chosen medium tyres and a lightning stop left her second while Tendaze came out in third. Drama wasnt' finished in the race, however, as approaching the end first Oh, then Tendaze, both suffered brake failure and Ming had a last lap incedent.

1 Remon Franizzi
2 Sulla Looming
3 Suzy Cuddihy
4 Tsukuba Ming
5 JAFO2RHh
6 Katier Reitveld
7 Crippy Oh
8 Kiboe
9 Rattra
10 Yuriko
11 Nella Boccara

Current Seasons

2009-08-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Currently I am racing in two seasons with G1-GP and will shortly be starting in Division Two of the Legends League F179 series.

In G1-GP I drive a Chevy Stock Truck in the mainly oval series and a 2001 Audi R8 in the LMP series.

In LL I drive for Gallia Racing driving a Ferrari T4.

Legends League opens with Mugello park on 6th of September while the G1-GP has just completed race 3 of the LMP's and is two races in on the trucks.

Previous Seasons

2009-08-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last Legends League season had me running a Williams FW07 for Landiaspeed racing. I struggled somewhat with a car I found a bit edgy and getting the hang of racing again.

For G1GP I have run two seasons. The first I joined part way through the LMP675 season finishing 9th overall with a best of 5th.

The second season was one of the most interesting I have every participated in. Instead of a single class this was a 10 race, 3 class season. RF3s running on street/city tracks, Legends cars on ovals ( or Fig 8's ) and the Rayzors at the various Lienz layouts.

Initially I struggled especially with people hitting the rear of me rather a lot ( a trend that get's rather annoying) but by mid season I was 6th and putting in podiums. The highlight was winning at Lienz, a feat I managed without leading a lap. The Lienz events being run as twin races and two seconds was enough for an overall win. I finished 4th that season.