Going to join us in the F2 Classic series apexGP?

Count me in

I should also be able to get OPAMP (JNP) to take part in that one. He was slated to be my teammate at Arrows for this race, but ultimately ran into an insurmountable bug with the '85 mod and so had to sit it out.

Many thanks to Doug for persevering in getting this event to completion and also to others who did work in the background that is hard for me to see.

Although running this mod was extremely difficult for me I found it very rewarding. Just getting a glimpse into what it must have been like to try to master those beasts was great fun. This would be something that in real life would almost certainly be suicidal for someone with my modest car control talents.

After much dithering I finally decided to go for a conservative, high downforce setup. I planned for one stop, starting on mediums and finishing the final third on softs. I had a couple of early lazy spins but was fortunate to not be anyone’s path and I didn't hit anything in the landscape so I was able to settle down and trundle on. I made my pitstop as scheduled and the softs were helping me close on Chris Johnson at about lap 39 when I made my final brainfade, locking up the fronts at the final turn and sliding straight on into the outside barrier. This was not a wreck I had encountered before in all of the previous practicing so I don't know exactly what went wrong so I'll just write it off to the proverbial brainfade. The suspension was in bad shape so I tossed in the towel at that point.

Along the way there was some excellent fun racing with Chris, as we managed to pass each other at least two times each. Good stuff, Chris, congrats on gritting it out to the end.

Congrats to the fast guys, also. I saw you guys too many times today. I must say that to a man you always were careful and courteous in passing, giving me the chance to find a place to let you by.

Doug: I would like for you to keep challenges like this on your schedule. Just not right away, OK? Thanks again for all your hard work.

Dave Bradley

Good racing with you Dave! Glad to hear I didn't cause your accident. I was on knackered tires and I had a bit of a moment coming out of the last turn when you were closing on me. I thought maybe I had spooked you a bit and caused you to run off track.

I didn't see what happened but i was totally gutted to see you retire Ahmad. That was turning out to be an epic race and i was left pretty deflated after that. Similar strategies and swapping the lead every few laps - simply amazing stuff. Such a shame we didn't get to see how it played out but i thank you for some awesome racing in the first half!


Thanks Apex, that was pretty tough today. I was watching a backmarker and hit the gas too early out of the corner. Luckuly i was going pretty slow and i hit the barrier square on. I fully expected to see the front wing flying over the horizon but i was lucky to get away with minor suspension damage. I had a slight problem turning right after that but luckily it wasn't too serious. I have the damage reduction to thank for that - if we had been running 100% it would have been curtains for sure!

Really great fun today. Thanks to everyone who attended and congratulations to all the finishers in such a tough race. Apex, i really feel for you man, that was a tough break. After Ahmad's retirement and your problems i kind of took the win by default but i still had a really great time. These cars were hard to learn but very rewarding in the end.

Thanks Doug and Christian for all your work on this event. Good job guys, i loved it

Congratulations to the winner, the podium and basically all participants who made it and also those, who didn't see the chequered flag.



I can take no credit for this, as the main work was done by Doug and Ahmad - thanks, guys

I was a bit out of my depth today and didn't manage the times I managed a few days ago. Wasn't feeling fit at all, but at least I avoided trouble as long as I could and that the engines failed more often today certainly is historically correct. Extremely bitter for apexGP nonetheless.

But F1 1985 certainly was worth a try and if there is another race with this I'll be there as well. But now I look forward to F2 1976. Far less tricky to drive than these turbo monsters, but really fun to drive and my favourite mod by now.

Wow! My apologies to Ahmad!
I was remiss in thanking him earlier for the terrific LE add-on that he created for this race.
Many thanks sir!

The first 3 starts I maintained first position, by then apexGP got the starts down and on the last start I was down to 2nd. I made a small mistake coming out of the corner onto the back straight fish-tailing the car which let Darren by easily. I was able to stay close the next couple of laps and benefit from a double slipstream which got me past Darren and into 2nd place, he was able to pass me again a lap or 2 later.

After I saw apexGP spin out it was going to be a 2 horse race with myself and Darren. It seemed I had the goods on him in the first braking zone, so I tried to maximise on that and was able to slipstream past him again to re-take the lead.

After leading for such and such laps he blew past me on the straight which I thought was strange, after checking the replay it was clear I hadn't upped the boost and was significantly slower. I stayed behind him from here as we were coming up behind a backmarker, he spun and I inherited the lead. For the race I mapped my increment boost to my clutch pedal and my decrement boost to the left button on my G25, so that I didn't have to take my hands off the wheel. The right button was for "look back".

Every lap that went past he was chipping away at my lead and I decided to stay out for as long as he did, and I pitted the lap after him to try and cut his advantage for the undercut, getting back out in front of him.

Then my race ended while leading, no comment on that.

That was my only pit stop for the race so it looked like it was going to be an epic battle during the last few laps as it seems he pitted again and was therefore using softer tyres during the 2nd half of the race.

I was looking forward to pushing on fresh rubber and a lighter car, but it wasn't to be.

Thanks guod for hosting and everyone for participating

+1 Great job Ahmad, thanks!!

+2


I along with a couple of others had my best starts reset by the restarts, and was involved in 2 of the reasons for so many so I know how it feels to lose out on a great start and get it reset when you have a shocker... In the end my start wasn't great and I lost a few positions, so I settled in and just made sure I got my tyres up to temp and locked my sights on those in front of me...

I had a great few dices along the way with the other mid pack drivers as Darren, Apex and Ahmad were clearing off in the distance... I noticed early on that I had less wing on then a lot of other people and as long as I could out brake them into the first chicane and stick with them after the next 2 corners I was a good shot at having them by the end of the Mistral.. The trouble was sticking with them on the last right and the left before the Mistral was very very hard sometimes...

I had a couple of long battels with Rob today constantly getting in his dirty air and making my life difficult as I think he had similar wing settings now that I've read he had problems with his engine boost that explains as to why the last pass was so easy, bad luck there, but at least she didn't go boom on ya like what happened to Apex... That was just cruel....

In the end I manage to have 1 spin and a couple of slight offs but the main thing was a kept the suspension straight and that shocked me, I had not done 15 laps without saying hello to the barriers... But my last mistake cost me 2nd, in 'my' corner I was watching the mirrors too much for Steve and started to run wide, I corrected with too much of the noise pedal and he was through... I was just glad I didn't spin in front of Steve yet again in that corner..

A big thanks to Doug for organising, another thanks to Ahmad for the behind the scenes work, and thanks to Rob, Steve and Christian for their set ups which all gave me a insight as to what can be done with these cars around Paul Ricard... And finally everyone who competed, as without all of you the fun element just wouldn't be as high.... I know I was a big complainer of getting these beast under control but now I Can't wait for the next F1 classic challenge!!!