NGT Sprint: Race 7 - Anderstorp
In contrast to the longest track in the GTR series at Spa last week, Anderstorp is the shortest, presenting it's own set of problems.
Unusually in the GTR series, Anderstorp has a series of long, banked corners where entry and exit speed are very difficult to get right; deep braking into the corner followed by tight throttle control on the way out.
My problems with qualifying continued with a mixture of traffic, poor judgement and the usual qualifying jitters. A very disappointing 14th place on the grid at one of my favourite tracks.
A top 8 place was imperitive, both to continue my good run of finishes but to try to grab a few more points for the team championship, last weeks excellent team result at Spa had completely cut the gap on the Kerb Crawlers in 4th place and left us only 2 points behind.
As we started the parade lap, I was one place behind greg130, who is closing fast on me in the championship standings so my plan was to try to follow him (hopefully) through the traffic.
A near calamity struck on the parade lap, a big pile-up left me nervously waiting for a call from my pit crew to see if there was any damage, as I pulled away again, it became apparent I'd dodged a bullet, no damage and I hadn't lost any places.
A tentative start saw me handy behind greg130, as the tyres warmed I was feeling fairly good, the line of traffic in front wasn't getting away, I felt I had a bit of speed to spare so decided to push on. Putting the gas down, I grabbed a little too much kerb and felt the car getting away from me, tried to correct but it was too late as I span off. Waiting 20s to safely rejoin, depair set in, I was down to 18th!
Knowing I had some speed over the immediate drivers in front of me and nothing to lose at this point I tried to relax into the race and just see what happened. Now the presure was off, my laptimes plummeted as I made my way through the field.
It was a new experience fighting my way up the field, I felt like I handled is reasonably well, a mixture of patience and aggression saw me steadily move up to the the top 10 and eventually into 8th. I thought I'd finish there when I saw Paul968 in the pits for me to grab what felt like a completely undeserved finish in 7th place, grabbing a few more vital points in the individual and team standings.
Relieved, hitting the 'Esc' after the race had finished, I was delighted to see PaulW had improved on his Spa performance last week and finished 2nd!
The combined team points saw us move ahead of the Kerb Crawlers into 4th and saw PaulW rocket up to 5th in the individual standings! A brilliant achievement on both counts!
I remain 8th but greg130 once again finished one place higher and inexorably, the gap is closing.
In contrast to the longest track in the GTR series at Spa last week, Anderstorp is the shortest, presenting it's own set of problems.
Unusually in the GTR series, Anderstorp has a series of long, banked corners where entry and exit speed are very difficult to get right; deep braking into the corner followed by tight throttle control on the way out.
My problems with qualifying continued with a mixture of traffic, poor judgement and the usual qualifying jitters. A very disappointing 14th place on the grid at one of my favourite tracks.
A top 8 place was imperitive, both to continue my good run of finishes but to try to grab a few more points for the team championship, last weeks excellent team result at Spa had completely cut the gap on the Kerb Crawlers in 4th place and left us only 2 points behind.
As we started the parade lap, I was one place behind greg130, who is closing fast on me in the championship standings so my plan was to try to follow him (hopefully) through the traffic.
A near calamity struck on the parade lap, a big pile-up left me nervously waiting for a call from my pit crew to see if there was any damage, as I pulled away again, it became apparent I'd dodged a bullet, no damage and I hadn't lost any places.
A tentative start saw me handy behind greg130, as the tyres warmed I was feeling fairly good, the line of traffic in front wasn't getting away, I felt I had a bit of speed to spare so decided to push on. Putting the gas down, I grabbed a little too much kerb and felt the car getting away from me, tried to correct but it was too late as I span off. Waiting 20s to safely rejoin, depair set in, I was down to 18th!
Knowing I had some speed over the immediate drivers in front of me and nothing to lose at this point I tried to relax into the race and just see what happened. Now the presure was off, my laptimes plummeted as I made my way through the field.
It was a new experience fighting my way up the field, I felt like I handled is reasonably well, a mixture of patience and aggression saw me steadily move up to the the top 10 and eventually into 8th. I thought I'd finish there when I saw Paul968 in the pits for me to grab what felt like a completely undeserved finish in 7th place, grabbing a few more vital points in the individual and team standings.
Relieved, hitting the 'Esc' after the race had finished, I was delighted to see PaulW had improved on his Spa performance last week and finished 2nd!
The combined team points saw us move ahead of the Kerb Crawlers into 4th and saw PaulW rocket up to 5th in the individual standings! A brilliant achievement on both counts!
I remain 8th but greg130 once again finished one place higher and inexorably, the gap is closing.
posted by popabawa at
9:53 am
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