NAGP GT2 at Austria's A1 Ring

Longshot Racing's GTR2 faction has been quite busy as of late as Glenn Petersen and Jarrod Keen compete in North American Grand Prix's GT1 and GT2 leagues.  Week 2 was a mix bag of success and disappointment for the duo at Austria's recently reopened A1 Ring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Ring .

The Longshot boys felt as if they could be competitive at this track as there was plenty of time to practice for this one since Jarrod skipped the first week due to vacation! 

Beginning with a wet track for the qualifying session, Jarrod had pace to qualify in the top 12 (according to practice laps that evening and throughout the week) but never made the connection with the tire combo and the wet track.  He ended up losing around 10-12 spots from where he expected to qualify.  Jarrod's response when asked later: "This one kinda got away from me. I felt IF ANYWHERE, that this may be my chance at a top ten. Qualifying was a disaster. I went out early in intermediates and that was the right choice. However as the track dried, I couldn't get the softs to stick. I qualified 20th which was about 10 places worse than I had hoped for. AND It really cost me for the race."   Petersen on the other hand didn't quite have Jarrod's pace on the dry track but the wet track worked out for his medium slick tire choice and Glenn put in a nice lap to qualify 3 positions ahead of Jarrod. 

The start of the race was eventful, fantastic and disastrous all at the same time.  Glenn rockets through a bit of chaos to settle in at 10th place after the first few turns.  He had negotiated a very busy and treacherous grid very well and is now the benefactor of the mess behind him.  He seems set up really well to make a solid run here.  Jarrod on the other hand had a bit slower start as the car in front of him didn't quite get the jump that Jarrod did.  Keeping away from contact, Jarrod passed several cars and gave up one or 2 spots to overly aggressive drivers diving into the first turn.  Jarrod later commented that he just wanted to keep the beautiful Ferrari 458 undamaged.  Jarrod's comments in the drivers lounge at Longshot Headquarters in Colorado after the long flight home: "The start was just okay for me. I nailed it on the light but the car in front of me didn't so I had to slow a bit which always kills your momentum and costs you a position or two. I made it through the madness unscathed and emerged to battle Kevin and Brian in the Aston Martins and the Porsche driven by Tony. We had some great laps together for 5-8 laps but the battling was really costing me as I felt that I had the car to compete in the top 10 but the first several laps were really costing me time because the Aston's and the Porsche's were all strong in different parts of the track. It was slowing us all down as I was turning 1.34 and high 1.33s and knew I could consistently turn 1.32s."

Meanwhile Glenn comes over the radio and said he got a stop and go, later to find out that he rolled forward on the start.  He somehow got DQed when he came in as I believe the pit crew tried to refill the keg in Glenn's 458 during the stop and go, which is forbidden.  This was a huge blow to Longshot's efforts.  Getting knocked out while running in the top 10 in this league is a tough pill to swallow.

Glenn - "It was very frustrating as race control wouldn't tell me the reason for the penalty. It looked like a number of drivers received the same penalty as pit road was busy with stop and go's. My pit was one of the first so I slowed way down early. The corvette behind me didn't get slowed enough and rear ended me. This pushed me enough that I wasn't going to hit my pit stall, so I had to make another lap. This was already going to put me way down in laps. As I came in on my second try to serve the stop and go, race control told me to shut her down, that I was disqualified."

Meanwhile, back on track, Jarrod's moving up through the field as the track was now dry for the race and he has some decent pace to get back near the top 10 if he can find some open track. His first stint was actually pretty strong and the pit stop was perfect, car fueled to the perfect amount, windshield cleaned, keg replaced and tires changed. Jarrod on his pit: "I replaced my soft fronts/med rears with the same mix and off I went. I pitted lap 18 and was around 16th when pitting started. I fell to 24th but picked up all the way to 17th after the pits, which isn't bad considering there were quite a few guys that double stinted (their tires).  We really discussed racing the entire race on the same rubber but decided that it would significantly lessen our risk in the last 10 minutes of the race and making a big mistake somewhere."

Jarrod was about 2 seconds behind Lou Mascerelli before the pit and after his pit, had a 4 second lead on him. The 2nd stint was basically all Jarrod and Lou as they stayed anywhere from 1.5 to 7 seconds from each other the whole stint. Jarrod made 3 mistakes over 2 laps and Lou closed to 1.5 and definitely had the power to pass him in the Vette if given the opportunity.  Lou never got the chance as Jarrod put together a nice finish and ended up picking up a position late to finish in the points at 16th. Jarrod was quite pleased saying "It was my first race of the season and would've been a bit better with a better qualifying effort and some better early laps but all in all a decent first race for me.  I just really hate it for my teammate to get some bad luck early.

TONIGHT

Tonight, Longshot has been whisked away to Sepang to strap into their Lamborghini's and battle the GT1 group.  Early testing indicates that the team has a real shot at scoring some points here, so stay tuned.

Dateline: Indianapolis

Longshot driver Eric Estes has captured his first-ever iRacing win in no less a race than the Indy 500 itself.  Outlasting, outracing and outstrategizing a field of 30 other racers over 200 laps, Eric took the checkers with a full lap on the field. 

Having run second place most way since the halfway point; at the 3/4 mark Mark Mosler and Eric Estes were running one-two in lockstep, with the nearest competitor over 10 seconds back.  At lap 160, an incident involving Roger Homann and Dan Gradinaru brought out what was to be the last caution.  All of the lead lap cars except for Estes pitted, hoping to make the distance on fuel.  Upon the advice of his crew chief, Estes stayed out in a car that was clearly fast on older tires.  On the restart, Moser re-took the top position in turn one, but within 5 laps, Moser and Estes were again gapping the field. 

On lap 182, Estes took to the pits, diving off of turn 4 in a bid to minimize the time lost during the stop.  Unfortunately, he was unable to get the car slowed before the pit entrance line, and was black flagged with a 21 second penalty to be served on his stop.  On rejoining the track, he had fallen to fourth behind Moser, Ed Benson and Paul Langford.  At lap 190, the top 3 cars went to full fuel conservation mode, allowing Estes to unlap himself from Langford and Benson.  On lap 196, Langdon ran out of fuel entering turn 3.  Benson found the same fate a lap later, and Moser ran out between 3 and 4 on the penultimate lap, allowing Estes his first win. 

NAGP GT2 - Round 1 Qualifying at Suzuka

Longshot Racings' second season in the NAGP GT2 category kicked off last night at Suzuka in Japan. The format for the first (Suzuka) and last races (Spa) are different than the remaining 8 races that make up the season. A separate Superpole followed by a 30 min qualifying race set the grid for next weeks 2 hr. event at Suzuka.
This season we drew third for our lottery pick which gave us high hopes for getting to choose a car of our liking. We were hoping for the Ferrari F458 Italia GT in the black and green patron colors. Luck was with us and we got our choice. This Ferrari is fast and stable, easy to drive, and gives us hope for a successful season.

Glenn at speed during Suzuka qualifying race

Jarrod has plans on being out of town for the 2 hour race, so Eric was called up to fill his seat. During the Superpole, I put in a decent time, but became dangerously close to blowing my engine 1/2 way through the lap. I tried changing my gearing selection going through the esses in hopes of keeping the engine revs at their sweet spot. It didn't work as well as hoped and almost ruined the engine. It cost me almost a second of my practice pace and set me back into the 24th spot. Eric fared much worse as he went off course coming out of turn 1 on his hot lap, bouncing off the wall.
I hoped to have a clean race and possibly move myself up to a better starting spot in the qualifying race, but the typical turn 1, lap 1 incident changed that in an instant. A couple cars got sideways causing those following to take evasive maneuvers. I was able to slow down in time, but the driver behind wasn't as quick on the binders and rear ended me. This put me into the grass and tweaked my suspension a bit. It got me a little miffed and I gunned it to get back on the track. Once my tires hit pavement I pitched left and hit one of the yellow corvettes making their way around the carnage. That was a dumb mistake on my part. I should have waited until all the traffic passes before entering the track again. It may cause a penalty on me, we shall see.
It took a couple of laps for me to make my way back to 28th. The car was tight, from the bumping and banging earlier, but still pretty fast. Had a Ford GT get sideways in front of me and knock me into the gravel a few laps later and that put me back down again. I guess I could have parked it then as I was way down in position. Couldn't get much worse. But I kept going because... I don't like to quit. Every lap is good practice.
I drove the car pretty hard to see how it would handle under stressful driving conditions. Despite being beat up it still had good pace. What I didn't notice was the engine gauge drop to 0% and on the last lap, it gave up before the finish.
So, I will be starting from the back of the pack near Eric, who didn't fare well either. And, for the 2 hour race, I'll take it easy and let others drop out and try to pick my way carefully up the field and look for a finish in the points. I'll be sure to watch the engine health gauge closely also. Hopefully, that's not a weakness in the car. Most likely it's because of my out of control driving and off road excursions.
Glenn

RD iRacing Star Mazda Series - Brands Hatch

Round 5 of the RDSMS series traveled to the legendary Brands Hatch race circuit. I had very little preparation for this event and was hoping to get lucky with a posted setup by a generous competitor. Sure enough, Lars and David both had theirs up for sharing. I jumped onto the server with about 5 minutes before qualifying and grabbed Lar's setup. I managed to shake out a few Brands Hatch cobwebs before going to quali.

Glenn at Brands Hatch

Qualification didn't go very well and I ended up not posting a time. Really, I was ok with that. I figured I'd go easy the first few laps to get used to the car and get my rhythm. I gridded 14th of 17 entrants. Team mate Eric was in the 10th spot and John Sydenstriker gridded 12th.

Eric at Brands Hatch

On the start I spun the car going into T2 braking hard to not rear end the driver in front of me. I drop to the last spot, but soldier on. Brands Hatch turned out to be a brutal course as many top drivers dropped out from accidents or fell back because of troubles. I had a few offs and twisted the nose a bit when I spun in T5. After that the car pushed a bit on the tight turns. With a few laps left in the race I found myself in the 5th spot. I had found my rhythm and was just turning laps. Go figure. So, I finished 5th, one lap down, and Eric was behind me in 6th. John finished in 13th, 16 laps down.



 Eric's RD report:
"Worked last week on a setup based on one found in the forums - got it down to the low 24's. Got on today and couldn't run a 25 with it. Luckily found Lar's setup in shared and it worked much better - right back in the 24's after stabilizing with an easy lap.

Blew my second lap qualifying, but the first was worth 10th on the grid.

Had car in gear and clutch in on the grid - apparently not enough of right foot on brake - as soon as the lights came on screen, i started rolling - instant black flag. The stop took a while because a) it changed all 4 tires and b) i was set to add to 19 gallons. Managed to get to the fuel menu and stop it at about 10 gal.

After that, it was avoiding mistakes for the rest of the race (only 4 inc in race). Paid off, making up 8 grid positions to 6th in the end. Kept an eye on the gap to Glenn for that one-more spot, but made up time far too slowly to have a chance.

Did anyone look at tires after the race? Mine certainly didn't feel very good after 20 laps..."


After 5 rounds, Eric is tied for 5th in points and John tied for 9th. I missed round 4 at Laguna Seca so I'm sitting in 13 place. Everyone gets two drops and I'm ok with dropping Laguna as it's not a track I like. In two weeks we go to Road Atlanta for round 6.