Got distracted by someone flashing up a "pass left" message on the screen when I was running in 8th and just about to brake for turn one about 34 laps in and lost my front wing on the barrier. Then missed the pit entrance so crew wouldnt repair till I had gone round again so that cost me any chance of a good finish. All in all a hard but fun race. Grats to Darren col Kurtz and Pumbaa for their podiums.

Absolutely loved the racing today, it was tough but very enjoyable.

I managed to get myself on pole, but only just. At the start I got a clean getaway into the lead, but Darren and Puumbaa were all over me. After 2 or 3 laps it was just Darren under my gearbox, and that is how it remained for the next 40 laps or so.

It seemed as though Darren wasn't interested in overtaking me, he had the opportunities to do so, but held back. I imagined that he was saving it for the final laps, or was just waiting for me to make an error.

At about mid distance I noticed that his yellow car had disappeared from my mirrors. Initially I thought that he must have gone off the track somewhere, but I soon realised that he had infact pitted, and he was now 28 secs behind me on fresh tyres. Straight away I thought about copying his strategy to keep myself covered, but i had not practiced the pitlane entry, and I didn't even know what the pit lane speed limit was, so decided against that idea. I was just going to have to drive fast! I'd assumed everybody was going to be doing the race on a single set of tyres.

While trying to work out if I was at an advantage or disadvantage, I lost concentration and missed the braking point for T1, costing me around 10 seconds. Darren was now 19 secs behind me, with about 0.5 to 1 sec per lap speed advantage, with about 25 laps remaining. Every lap now had to be driven as if it was a qualifying lap in order for me to stay ahead.

Throughout the second half of the race I'd been driving the car by the scruff of its neck in attempting to stay as far ahead of Darren as possible. The tyres were losing grip, the car was sliding alot. With about 5 laps remaining, and with just 5 secs over Darren, I finally made an error going into the downhill hairpin. Darren drove by me, and the race was lost.

Congrats to Darren on his race pace and strategy, and for an excellent win. It was a very tough race.

The racing was clean, when comming up to lap other cars there were no problems whatsoever. Good driving all round.

Big thanks to Doug for hosting the event.

I wish that was the case Col but If there was a clear cut chance i would have taken it . I was driving right on the limit keeping up with you, so even if you went offline or made a small error I had no leeway to make a move without taking a huge risk. If it was the final few laps i would have taken a bite but with over half the race to go it simply wasn't worth doing anything hasty. Initially i had planned to do the whole race on one set of tyres but you were simply too quick for me and i was starting to get hypnotized by your gearbox so i decided to switch strategy and hoped i could take a speed advantage in the second part of the race..

I was gutted to see you make that mistake in the final couple of laps. I was closing as fast as i could but you were still flying on those worn tyres. I have a feeling you would have won but it would have been an exciting finish for sure.

Really bad luck but thanks for some awesome (and very tough!) racing. I had the usual couple of scary moments and two minor off track excursions but thankfully nothing too serious.

Well done to everyone who took part. That was a tiring but enjoyable event. Kudos to Pumbaa for a great 3rd place and also Birdski for a giving me a frantic first few laps. Alex was also closing us down very quickly in the opening stint but then I saw him leave so i'm not sure what happened there. I was also really happy to see Purolator back on track and more importantly getting to the end with connection intact!!

Once again the popularity and fun factor of the classic races delighted me. Many thanks to Doug for hosting and Steve for a totally amazing setup. Shame he couldn't make it and enjoy the fruits of his talent.

DB, quick (probably dumb) question ... you planned to do the whole race on Hard or Soft tyres?

My Soft tyres wore pretty thin at about lap 46 when I had to pit but I have no idea how you hot shots operate

Nice one guys and its painful for me to see how good this event was!


I did try some quick runs couple days ago and was good


Congratulations to Darren for taking it, must have been tough! And good stuff Doug :-) Another successful event!

I used softs the whole way they only wore about 40%

Well that was a blast... Surprised myself with P3 in qualy, then set about having my traditionally crap standing start... and had to make up a few positions on the opening laps... I made a mistake and had to do it all again though... After that I settled into a rythym and set about chasing down the 6 guys in front of me... Unfortunately for Alex, Frank and Birdski they had problems, and with Birdski pitting for tyres it was looking like it was going to be a similar situation to DB and Col only with a smaller gap between us... Unfortunately Birdski missed the pit entrance and had to lose more time by ptting a second time... Before that though we had a epic battle for a number of laps with us both making mistakes costing us time from the leading pair, we had some great passes and attempts into T1 until I got caught out by a car returning to the track in T1 which had me in the dirty air of another lapped car for 3 laps and saw Birdski pull out a gap on me which I was just starting to pull back when he pitted.... That botched stop made the second half of my race a concentration test as I wasn't planning on stopping in this race, I was just trying to maintain the gap back to 4th and not fall off the track...

Then with about 15 laps to go I noticed Col was almost a minute in front of me and would be on me in 10 laps at the current speed I was running... So I thought to myself... I've got thrid I can cruise home easily and jump out of the way of the leaders... Or I can let my pride take over and make a challenge out of it... I managed to up my pace so that a clean lap would be faster by a tenth over DB but then the next lap I'd make a mistake that cost me half a second... So with around 5 laps to go Col was no more then 3 seconds behind me and I was really sweating it... Then he made a mistake that cost him 6 seconds and I could breathe once more... That didn't stop the pair of them from closing down on me once more as another mistake from me saw DB within 2 seconds of me with 2 laps to go... Luckily I held my nerve and managed to put in the final lap to be the last runner on the circuit... I'm quite proud of that as I've never finished on the lead lap in these Classic F1 races here without the aid of the streets of Adelaide that is...

DD I used softs, they only started going yellow on lap 46, but these softs aren't like the ILMS mediums were there's a big drop off in the yellow area... You can run almost into the red without having a real cliff so to speak... So I was happy in the knowledge that I'll be not much slower then a guy on hards at the end and with the pace both Col and I were able to pull out at the end, there was no more then 0.5s between DBs and Birdskis fresher sets and Col and mine worn sets...

Congrats to DB for the win, hard luck Col the win was so close, and it was great to see Puro back and make it to the end without any gremlins attacking his real world machinery

And of course thanks to Doug and SimHQ for providing all the fun again

mostly me, thanks

Initially I was planning to use one set of softs. They were definitely good for it (as others proved) but racing CK like that for 80 laps would have got me nowhere except in the litter or up his exhaust pipe. Typically tyres in most mods will go a little further than you think and it's usually beneficial to be aggressive.


LMAO, that explains a lot!! You had me scratching my head for sure.