RACE REPORTS

Round 2 Monza 2 x 25 min Races

Did I say these things were a challenge to drive? I did? This week I'd actually managed to turn a few laps in the Arrows to find a set-up, and things were going pretty good. As usual though, this didn't translate to any benefit come race night and it needed some final tweaking again in the warmer practice temps and I still didn't manage to get back to where it was in testing

. Qualifying was OK, and I managed to set a reasonable lap on the first run with the hope of improving it later on, but with traffic, my own f*%k-ups and having to stop to boot drivers who just entered the server thinking it was a pick-up race, I only managed to set one other time that had a couple of spins in it.

Race 1.
I got a good start, but unfortunately, Len had bogged it down big time in front and I took a massive "jink" to the right to avoid hitting him. This enabled a bunch of guys to get by on the other side, but 25misn is a long time in these things, so I was just gonna have to be patient and hope for a few driver errors ahead. A few quick guys ran into problems early and I gained a few spots and was now up into 10th with about 20 mins to go. I had a great battle with Leachy in the last 10 or so minutes as I had worked my way back up to 7th place and we went at it pretty hard. Leachy must've been running a bit more downforce than I was cause he was all over me in the Lesmos and the Ascari chicane, but on the straights, he didn't have enough poke to get by. He out braked me a few times, but ran wide on exit so I was able to get back in front. 7th place and some points so all is good.
Race 2.
This time I managed to stall it on the line while lining up in my grid box, and didn't get it started until the flag had dropped. Sorry about that Tom Unfortunately a few had dropped from race 1 and the field was only 11 strong, but it meant the chance of some good points was on offer. Again, a few guys had off track excursions and I found myself in 6th place battling with Gruff who had his Fez flying on the straights, I had trouble maintaining a place in his draft, but eventually got by. Darren and Len were now scraping with him, but I was expecting them to close in and pass me (but not if I could help it ) pretty soon. As it turned out, Darren must've had another off and retired, but Len was nipping at my heels in the Ligier. We had a good dice for about 10 mins, and with probably 5 laps to go, I passed some Lotus debris on exit of Ascari, and Leachy had smashed badly and retired gifting me 5th place which I managed to hold onto. So, a good night for me and its been great fun sticking with the Arrows all season with the challenge of pedaling extra hard to stay anywhere near the likes of the Ligier, Renaults, Ferrari's, Williams and Lotus'. Well done to Leigh and JR on their wins last night, those bloody Renaults were FAST!!!
Vail holds a slender lead over Leigh with 1 round to go and can win it if Vail has an off night. I will put a password back on the last round as I was sick of booting guys who were NFG who saw numbers in the server and wanted a crowded pickup race.
I noticed we had quite a few in with us practicing early on that left (Sook), and I ask you to hang around and have a crack at these things. Its pretty disheartening from a league organizers point of view when you come and leave. Where we can, we'll help you with going faster and being more consistent. 1 tip is to sit in the cockpit view of the guys who is leading the session and watch his braking points and gear reelection for 4-5 laps, this will help heaps.

John Baldwin

Not a bad night

Race 1 went according to plan, much better than trying to practice... Fark what a pain that was with the mismatches. Anyways, Race 2 I dozed before Curva Grande and spun so I had it all to do from that point. Vail would have been interesting if you didn't spin out of Parabolica

W/d to Leigh on the win and to those that finished and got some more points.

Jamie Rosenzweig

Ist race was ok, though I made a few mistakes. In the second race my brakes were overheating which I can't figure out since I didn't change the setup. I was braking early but still couldn't get slowed down for the corners 1/2 the time and after the 3rd time off at the Parabolica I decided to retire.

Darren Marsh

Yep sry about the start in race 1 fellas , only the 4th time I've raced these beasts. Race 1 thanks to attrition got a top 5 , had Marshy breathing down my neck for the last part of race 1. Race 2 , fixed the start prob , still a few got passed me , but not to bad, dropped in second just after the 2nd chicane , to see if I could get more acceleration , but spun , dropped back to last , managed to get going and catch the group in front. Darren had a off and I tried to do the job on JB , but I was running to much wing, good scrap though JB. Fun night.

Len Okell

Round 6 Calder Park 3 x 1 min Races

It was good to see a better attendance this week and some established members give it a try

Also, it was good to see some outsiders give it a go which added to the numbers with a reasonable spread of car types, so it looks like taking the password off will stay for the last two races, as for my own night, it went pretty well considering I had done absolutely zero practice for Calder Park in the Arrows. I spent the whole of practice fiddling with set-up changes until I ran out of time and figured I'd just make do and rely on the usual retirements to get some points. I had a very good qualifying session and bagged sixth place, but I knew that I would be under pressure from the likes of Len, Alex and Brett at some stage. Race one I managed a sixth place after battling with Len and Kaos as they battled and had a couple of spins which kept me in the hunt. Race two and I managed a 7th place after running with Alex for the last 5 laps or so making the Arrows extra wide. The team principle gave me a warm pat on the shoulder after that one for keeping Kaos behind me whilst copping a bit if heat with his faster lap speed. Race three and I slipped out of the points due to a silly spin early on but I managed to track down those ahead of me but ran out of laps and finished about 3 seconds behind Ted Hunt in 6th place.
The realfeel plugin has enhanced the experience with all the rFactor mods, but the steering really came alive with the 79 mod and you really feel like your there from a ffb point of view.
Onto Monza next round where the low down force config of the Arrows could come in handy

John Baldwin

Had a good round despite the fact I figured I'd disco at any moment. Thankfully I didn't, and now the points standing looks very interesting with two rounds to go. Yeah well done JB. That bathtub sucks arse but your doing well
Monza should be fun. It prolly has the closest to real life lap times of the tracks released thus far.

Jamie Rosenzweig

Was a good night ! Qualled in 5th spot but failed on all 3 attempts to get off the line and if it wasn't for late braking and the inside line into turn 1 I d of been outside the top 10 by turn 2. Had some good scraps along the way with the usual suspects Alex , JB , Russ and Griff. bloody good fun , I couldn't drive these things before I put the reelfeel plugin in , made a huge difference to the car feel. Thanks to Russ for the base set I used.

Len Okell

A bit of effort required to make this one, as my internet had been wound back so I had to download the track Tuesday at work then install for a run on Tuesday night. I was late leaving work so missed praccy & qual so rear of grid in all races. Race 1 I was a bit rusty

so had 3 spins to end up eighth which was ok considering. Race 2 worked my way thru to 3rd ,with a couple of close calls with JB & Kaos so happy with that then race 3 ' 1 spin & 4th so I can't complain coz I wasn't sure if my connection would hold up for any racing. Love racing these cars ,my favorite mod. As Vail mentioned to me ,closest thing to what GPL 79 would have been I reckon.

Russ Speak

Round 5 Spa GTL 1 x 50 min Races

No reports

Round 4 Brands Hatch 2 x 25 min Races

After missing Brazil, I was looking forward to strapping myself into the cockpit for the Brands Hatch round. After some testing a couple of weeks ago and comparing the times to those on rFRank, I wasn't too unhappy. I was in for a rude shock when I entered the server to find myself so far off the pace though

. The first shock was that I was about 3 seconds off the pace, and the 2nd was the poor turnout with only 9 drivers braving the bumpy (but fun) Brands hatch layout. Try as I could in the final half hour of practice, I wasn't able to find the extra time which was frustrating as the car balance was pretty good, it was just slow

. After qualifying next to last, the race was going pretty well until it became pretty obvious that I hadn't allowed enough fuel. I tottled around for as long as I could but eventually ran out with about 3 laps to go. Race two saw me top the tanks right off (probably too much actually) so the same thing wouldn't happen again. A pile up on the first lap saw me gain 3 places which was lucky, so once again I tottled around trying to not make any mistakes and finish to claim the points that were now up for grabs. Unfortunately, I had a small, pathetic spin and bent the steering pretty badly. I pitted in the hope of fixing the damage, but it didn't, so rather than risk having a big off and maybe taking someone with me I parked it and watched Vail and Rusty duke it out. Well done to Vail on the round win and Russ for keeping him honest and a return to form by Leechy. Hopefully Spa will suit the Arrows better, and we might see in increase in numbers.

John Baldwin

Given I did some practice and things all looked well I would have been on pole but if only it was that simple. Good time to Vail btw. I was driving like shit nothing like I did in my offline practice, and on the first warm-up lap I got a huge clock smash or something that nearly rendered me missing the start. Anyways I started on the grid and managed to get to second very quickly then eased up behind Russ after some laps. Unfortunately I tagged him into T1 and we spun, he restarted in second, myself in fourth. Things got worse and I ended up just coming home in sixth or seventh with minus a rear wing and god knows what other damage after the armco attacked me

Race 2 was go and I managed to get up a few places, but then crashed with Leachy and Stu in a pileup at the chicane. I'm not aware why Stu came in with us but I did exactly what Leachy did, passed offline and took too much curb and went wide. I did notice some fps issues this race perhaps the dialup was to blame, although I was running 1280 res 4xAA 8xAF full detail perhaps that was a mistake.

I do enjoy these cars much better than the v8s. They're racey to no end. Fragile however when abused.

Jamie Rosenzweig

I followed you guys in simply because I drove like @#$%!! Aside from that in race 1 I screwed up on formation lap and was not aligned in my box quite right. So I roll back just a tad to far and then moved forward, only to get a stop and go right there as we started. Well I just got on with it and was completely out of the running. I did manage to gain a spot but misjudge the amount of fuel. Saw that it was going to be touch and go and made another pit stop which cost me the place I had gained, and only to realize that it was a waste of time pitting as you can't get any more fuel! So I trundled out with a lap to go and never made it to the finish. Thinking I'll put that right in race 2 and have a another crack at it. Then major brain fade and ran off as per opening comment.
Aside from that, was a really poor turnout and is making me think more and more that I might be better off getting a playstation3 soon. Really feels like this is going downhill rapidly. (turnout wise).

Stu Coutts

Round 3 Interlagos 1 x 50 min Races

No reports

Round 2 Kyalami 3 x 15 min Races

Not a good night for me. Race 1 I lost the rear wing in T1. The pit stop was 104 seconds and I didn't have my ignition mapped, so it blew. Race 2 I ran out of fuel due to not taking into account the formation lap. Race 3 I had some weird spin on the formation lap, then when trying to start from the pits, rfactor locked up.
Oh well, race 2 was good fun until the last lap

Darren Marsh

I was happy with the night after nearly not making it altogether, joined q with 8 min to go without a practice and got 2nd on grid. Race 1 got the lead and spun turn 1 ,then worked up to 4th but spun again after seeing Alex's car car spinning like a top in front of me. Got going again after beaching it on the kerb and in a panic not to overheat and blow the motor drove straight in front of Pete

and wrecked his race ,sorry again mate. Worked my way back to 5th which I was happy with. Race 2 missed the start ( to far forward and couldn't see the lights) and had a good dice with Brett for a while ,got into second but couldn't catch Vail. Race 3 good start but Jamie got by me & Vail at T1 ,passed Vail early but couldn't match Jamie's pace. Good points so I am happy with the result

Russell Speak

A little disappointing not to win all 3 races last night as my car would best be described as being on RAILS. I did do about 20 laps practice pre-race to get a setup and did a pickup on Tues. night as well. Should have got pole in qualifying but I just didn't seem to get a clear lap. Not so bad though as pole can't see the lights which I'm sure Vail was happy about

Race 1 start wasn't too good and it got worse as I spun with Russ in T1 a few laps in to the race. Managed to win though so that was alright. Race 2 things just went wrong, like tagging JB, spinning when passing. Just didn't feel comfortable behind other cars, prolly impatience

as the car had lots of potential. Race 3 I got a good T1 break and that was it. I shall d/l the replays now to see how others faired. Nice to see a reasonable turnout again. Would like to know where Greg/Danny/Trav et al are I thought they were keen on driving 79 cars

Jamie Rosenzweig

This week had been looming for sometime and while I was pretty happy with the pace of the arrows, come race night I couldn't get it to work properly. The car balance was pretty good, but the pace was slow and cars were fairly reaming me on the main straight, although I was very competitive through sectors 1 and 2. Had good starts in each race and gained a couple of places on each start which was nice. Race 1 finished 8th but was gobbled up by a few guys who had gone off in front of me early on in the race. The best place finish of 6th in heat two was the best of the night but there were quite a few dnf's which helped the cause. Raace 3 finished 8th again which was almost a carbon copy of race 1. Looking forward to the longer race at Brazil next round where we might be able to more use my consistency a little more to my advantage.

John Baldwin

Round 1 Silverstone 2 x 25 min Races

Firstly I'd like to say that someone needs to knee-cap Vail. He's too fast. Secondly, don't rock up and race having no setup, no practice, not decided on the car your going to drive, and forget the pw. It all went pretty well though, qual'd in second then decided to see if it really did take 20 mins to blow the Renault's turbo on boost 10. It took just 15 mins

. So while I pondered I changed my setup for race two and watched the mega scrap for the third between Alex, JB, and Leigh. Awesome show guys

Race 2 was even better and I'd recommend watching the replay. Good job to Russ for winning the round and we'll see if he can keep that up at Kyalami

Jamie Rosenzweig

Yes that was an awesome nights racing for me first win in I don't know long. Race one I went in with way to much fuel & struggled a bit early on, good dices with Kaos & Leachy then broke away but couldn't match Vail & Jamie for pace until Jamie handed me second with his blow up. Finished with 30litres still in the tank. Race two was awesome with less fuel battling nose to tail with Darren' Jamie & Vail till I managed to get away and win it ,very happy

Russell Speak

I hadn't done any practice apart from a 10 lap shakedown on Tuesday night. The most laps I'd done since the end of Porsche series. I stuck with the Renault since I'd driven it the most and got reasonably comfortable by the end of practice. Race 1 and the start went well with Jamie having a slow start and almost getting by Vail in T3. 3 laps later though my engine exploded. Not sure it it was due to a little overheating I had on the grid or due to revving the tits off it, but I decided to take it much easier in the second race. Which went much better. Vail went even wider into T3 and I did manage to get past and for the next 7 laps it was a matter of seeing how long I could hold out the faster guys as Vail, Jamie and Russ all strived to get by. Eventually Russ got through, then Jamie a few laps later. I'm happy with 3rd given my lack of preparation, but even happier that I didn't make any major mistakes. Well done Russ. Great drive

Darren Marsh

Yep congrats Russ great win. Had a ball in race 1, glad we could provide some entertainment for Jamie, was some crazy stuff great fun. What can I say about race 2 but sooo sorry Leigh.

Lap 1 turn 2 I dropped a wheel onto the grass thru the fast left kink and went spearing off, fully out of control across the grass and then ended up going back across the track in the middle of turn 3, completely destroying mine and Leigh's car, and I think clipping Griff to. Really sorry guys, was looking to be such a good race again too.

Alex "Kaos" Nicholaidis

Yeah, that was good fun eh. They certainly are more demanding to drive than the V8's, but are more rewarding too I reckon, the sound and the knife edge feeling is tops

. J.R, if you had driven the Arrows, I could have helped you, but nooooo, you wanted to win didn't ya

Both races went well and I finished in the top 5, although the turnout probably helped me there

Looking forward to doing some longer races and will be sticking with the arrows for the year, its a very underestimated car, although down on top speed. Once again, balls up qual by going out in the race set-up and realizing too late to get any decent runs in.

John Baldwin