Archive for the ‘Pro Series’ Category

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Pro Week 5 – Being Graciously Slow…

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

This weeks Pro race was at Watkins Glen (my first official race there). I put in a ton of practice but could not get anywhere near the real pace I needed. It’s a 100 second lap, so I’d expect to be two or three seconds off the top pace, so I was pretty humbled when I found myself almost five seconds back per lap!

I qualified with the slowest time in the whole Pro series and seriously considered sitting this week out. (why risk a messy crash when you are guaranteed to score few points and lose up to 100 iRating units?) In the end I realised that the main thing is just to take part and try to feature in as many Pro events as possible.

In the end I had a pretty good race. Got in a really great race long battle with Adam Haufrect who was faster, and I finished 14th of 19 for 70 points and zero incidents (lost a little iR though, but that’s OK, my rating is inflated anyway). A pretty fantastic result. I was really pleased with my consistency – after the early laps I settled into a good even pace around 3 seconds behind Adam and reeled off this set of race laps (probably the most consistent I’ve ever been).

1 01:49.863
2 01:46.117
3 01:45.907
4 01:45.343
5 01:45.034
6 01:45.661
7 01:45.827
8 01:46.284
9 01:44.394
10 01:44.976
11 01:44.469
12 01:44.779
13 01:44.651
14 01:44.372
15 01:44.255
16 01:44.732
17 01:44.485
18 01:44.432
19 01:44.576
20 01:44.446
21 01:44.508
22 01:44.298
23 01:44.486
24 01:44.300
25 01:44.406
26 01:44.223 fastest lap
27 01:44.347
28 01:44.591
29 01:44.366
30 01:44.522

I hope I’ll be more competitive in future weeks. Currently I’m sitting 87th in the series standings.

Posted in Boot, iRacing, Pro Series, Race Report, Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype | Comments Off

Pro Series Race Report – Week 4 Laguna Seca

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

I missed last weeks Pro race at Sebring (the race clashed with the Indycar Series race at Sonoma…) so I made my next appearance during week 4, the race at Laguna Seca.

I had a great build-up to the race, as I entered the Daytona Prototype race just before the main Pro race and managed to lead all 40 laps from pole) taking my first DP race win! Unfortunately by the time that race finished I had missed qualifying for the Pro race! So I started 19th, last place.

I wasn’t too annoyed at starting last. Even with a good qualifying lap I’d probably have started 17th at best. And starting last meant I was almost guaranteed a safe first lap as I could really hang back and assess the situation, without having someone drive into the back of me.

How wrong I was! Even when you drive as cautiously as you can, you still can’t avoid every lap one collision!

After cautiously driving the first corner I quickly came into a situation where some cars collided ahead and I did not have the time or space to slow down quickly enough. Unfortunately my car was damaged in that hit (the steering was affected) but even so, I had a really good race and managed to pass quite a few cars on route to a 10th place finish. Had it not been for the unlucky 4x at the start, it would have also been incident free.

And so, on to the next one!

Posted in iRacing, Laguna Seca, Pro Series, Race Report, Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype, Video Footage | Comments Off

Pro Series – Week 2 @ VIR Full

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

As I mentioned in my previous post I was going to make my debut in week two, where the Pro series was at Virginia International Raceway.

It was quite unfortunate for me, as the Daytona Prototype is a car that I can’t seem to get a representative speed in, and the combination with the car and the track meant I was seriously off the pace. Typically I’d expect to be up to 3 seconds off the top times on a large track like VIR, but here it was probably more than that.

That said, I still wanted to race even if it was just for last place. The race had 33 entrants, so my split was 16 drivers for a strength of field of just over 4000 (my highest SOF yet).

I had a nervous start and it took quite a few laps before I could get into a rhythm but I was able to get a good, clean result, finishing 9th of 16 and taking 119 points. That’s probably representative for me, and even though I’m at the wrong end of list for raw Pro pace I still had a great time. Just being in ‘the big show’ was enough of a goal for me!

Posted in iRacing, Pro Series, Race Report, Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype, VIR Full | Comments Off

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