Archive for the ‘Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype’ Category

Pro Series Week 18 – Homestead A

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

I had a pretty decent race at Homestead. Managed to keep out of trouble and picked up places along the way. The race itself was very long (over 60 mins) and so became an attrition race, where places were gained by not making mistakes. The track is quite interesting to drive but offers next to no legitimate passing opportunities. It was the same story when the series was at Road Course B earlier in the season (blog post here).

I started 21st of 22 drivers (no qualifying time) and managed to avoid quite a few spinning cars (some very close!) en route to a decent 13th place finish. 113 points.

I made a short highlights clip – no wild overtaking to speak of, but plenty of near misses.

This sees me move to 65th in the series rankings. Should I find myself in a position to get a top 50 placing (which is unlikely but still possible) I’ll skip some racing to ensure I don’t steal a berth in the Drivers World Championship. I’m not fast enough to qualify in the top 32 for the races, so it would be a wasted place that could go to a faster driver.

Triumphant Return To Laguna Seca

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

(well, triumphant for me!)

It didn’t take long for the Pro series to return to a track already visited, so week 13 of the inaugural Pro series took place at Laguna Seca.

I had a very good result this week, having found a few tenths since we last raced here during week 4, and was able to qualify 22nd out of 31 for Sunday evenings race.

The race was very entertaining and I had some good battles throughout – a good early fight with James Andrew (who was much faster and eventually got past) and many other tussles with other, faster cars. I was able to capitalise on a few drivers’ mistakes to gain places, and spend the rest of the race managing the intervals to the finish line.

In the end I was able to finish in 15th place (incident free!) for a record points haul (for Pro series) of 142 points. The result sees me move from 79th to 74th in the standings as we cross the halfway point of the season.

Pro Week 12 – Homestead Road Course B

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Pro Series Race Results (iRacing members only!)

This weeks Pro race was quite memorable (for good and bad reasons). It was my first race on the road track at Homestead and for a roval it’s not too bad. I decided that it would be worth qualifying but in the end it wasn’t really needed as I started 16th of 18, and was the last of the drivers who set a qualifying time (so I would have started 16th even with no quali time).

The race itself was pretty eventful. There was a lap 1 pileup where I was lucky to drive away with just a 1x incident hit and a slightly wonky wheel. It did mean that I was able to pickup a few positions and so I spent the first portion of the race in 13th/14th position, somewhere in a pack of cars.

Passing is quite hard at Homestead, as you have a one lane hairpin just before the oval section (so the cars are always spread out a certain amount as they navigate the turn in single file) and even after a long period of drafting the route to turn 1 is very tricky to drive whilst also battling another driver. Most of my position gains were the product of other drivers making mistakes and gifting me positions.

After some more lucky passes I found myself in 10th position with just 9 laps to go – but I was locked into a fierce battle with another driver and we both seemed to be getting more and more wild as the laps ticked over. Unfortunately on lap 42 the inevitable happened; after a lengthy period of drafting we entered the turn 1 kink side by side and I hit a bump in the road (a bump that I hadn’t felt before as I was now off my ideal racing line) and this pitched the car into a ‘tankslapper’. I was luckily able to reign it back under control and slow the car down, but I ran out of road and the car spun out into the grass.

I rejoined the track and was able to finish 13th, for 74 points (not too bad considering).

I made a short highlights reel of the race and the memorable moments:-