FORMULA NIPPON RACE 5 BRASILIA 4th Jan

WELCOME TO THE FINAL ROUND



TRACK: Brasilia FULL = DEFAULT TRACK

We will be running a series of 4 rounds over December on Sunday evenings with the Formula Nippon cars. They are a bit slower than the F1 we are used to but drive very well and should be great fun for the holidays.
This is the final round for the cup. Good luck to all drivers

It will be a cup event to keep things interesting.

Format:

Racing starts at 8pm

20 minute unlimited lap Qualify
Race 1:........? LAPS WITH pit stop

10 minute unlimited lap Qualify
Race2:........? LAPS With pit stop. At least 4 tires must be changed.


POINTS:

1 point for pole position in both races.

1st.....17
2nd.....14
3rd.....11
4th.....8
5th.....6
6th.....4
7th.....2
8th.....1

The race will have a standing start

The usual league rules apply.
Keep it clean and have fun guys. Don't forget to welcome any new drivers.

Well it is not Spielburg or Watkins.  Should make for a nice race.

Nice track with some overtaking places and fast too.
The guys in the front are going to have to DRIVE this one to win.

Server is up for practice.

Hey guys im back, happy new year all!

Any idea on number of laps per race yet? Going to start practicing today and need to work out fuel and pit stops!

Well 1:30 so far, so I would say 19 laps.
Some of the guys are F.A.S.T (Me for example)
See you on track

Hahaha ok cool thanks Kevin!
I'll be on track later, within 2 hours or so to start figuring this all out. Looking forward to a new track.

One of the drivers was online at 6:30 this morning. That's called dedication!
Don't complain if you arrive 10 minutes before the race and come nowhere.
Practice guys.

Sorry not going to make this one

Uli has clocked many many laps for this race.

Well yeah, had to get some experience, but I always do a lot of practice before a race, hardly less than 500 km except I know car and track very very well, then maybe a bit less Hope I'm able to do the race without incidents.

What a race meeting.

Uli, epic pace you had bad luck but race 2 could of been epic but never happened! Hope we have some really close races again, you sure pushed me hard!

Well done to all the guys tonight.

Race 2 was a hell of a close race. At the start there was slight contact with Uli, think i had some wing damage or something but i pushed like mad to keep Uli behind. Then the pit stops i pitted a lap earlier than Uli, as i passed the pits Uli comes out right in front of me as well as Francois. In the confusion and possibly aided by a lap hotter tyres i got a sneaky move to get passed Uli. Uli you would of had the pace to hold me off if not for that im sure.

Excellent race pace though, really enjoyed the challenge! A shame Christo was not up with the front pace tonight, i was expecting a tough dice up front with you! Backmarkers were great too, thanks for being so alert guys i really appreciate it.

These cars were great fun, thanks very much for this series and thanks to SH Racing for making this possible for me!

Yeah, it would've been indeed an epic finish between us. For the second race I just lowered the rear tire pressure by 5 units, which helped a lot on traction. In the first race I was just driving careful because it's been some time I had a race where I was that quick - didn't drive for about 3 months. So I was nervous as well, but much less in Race 2.

So what happened? Coming into the pits the lap after you, I saw 2 cars standing there and I saw my red pit stall marking and thought: Oh dear, this is going to be tight. I couldn't park the car properly so I had to stand a bit different. Just in that moment I stopped, Francois right behind me started to leave his pit stall, driving right into my back. A few seconds later he did it again, obviously having trouble to get the reverse gear (I guess he was on automatic transmission). Then he drove around, short after that I could leave and had to pass another one very close to the garages on the side as I had a bad parking position. I noticed in the pits the damaged rear suspension already, but I tried to keep running. Finally I had no grip for left hand turns anymore, hit the curbs before Turn 6 and spun off - finally I saw no more sense in continuing as I lost my right rear wheel as well.

I was really on fire in that race and if the pit stop would've gone well, I'm sure I could've kept you behind me. But shit happens

Yeah, I'll be there for more races, depending on how the leagues are going on at EEC

I really hope you make more races Uli, it was really great having you there. You got excellent pace too, and its always good to have fast guys pushing each other...that way we just all get better!

Im sure you going to have many wins here, just enter the races lol!
Christo, Gert and Eugene have all pushed me really hard before...and i love the challenge and competition, trying to figure out how to improve!

I don't know what it is with these cars, I could not get that sweet spot with them. Besides the mistakes I made in both races It was fun.

Well done to Denis. Worthy champ in the Nippons.

@Denis: Yeah, I got the same experience at EEC. For quite some time I was hardly being beaten until some very quick guys joined us. Suddenly I had to find new ways of getting quicker and finally I found some ways. It's quite often in terms of setup by taking an unusual one, adjustments you normally would never do.
This setup I've taken, compared to Sochi (which was a very bad one from me), had 3 units more front wing than rear wing and it worked well. Of course it was slippy at the back, but when following someone like in Race 1 right behind Christo, I still had very good grip to follow him and finally I could pass him.
So as said, I'll be there for more races if I got the time. I'm just not going to take the SGT500 one, because I never got happy at all with these cars. Drove them at Nogrip with Reinhard and I can tell you: If you think you can beat Reinhard, then you're still off the pace He is impossibly quick with them and hardly does any mistakes. For me it was like this: Do no mistakes, drive as fast as you can, but do it all 1 second faster, then you might have a chance He is one of the best drivers I've ever seen, so there you got your challenge in that series

@Gert: I've been watching you yesterday to see where you're losing the pace. You were looking very unsure with these cars, working a lot on the steering wheel and being very late on the gas. Looks like you couldn't get confident with them.

Finally I got to say that I'm really impressed of how much practice everyone does for these races. I'm really not used to see people giving that much effort. Great job everyone!

@Uli

Yeah I could never really get comfortable with these cars. Like you said, always unsure. It's like I can't trust the car. But watching you yesterday & seeing your setup I can now see where I went wrong with these cars a bit. Was fun.

A great Holiday Cup finishes!
I must say, I was impressed with the commitment and skill from all of you. Some super close racing and lots of fun.

After getting some advice before the race last night, I found I had extra pace and managed 5th place in race 1. Could have made 4th I think, but for a mistake or two. Thank you Uli for your help. I think you have now seen how much I have improved since the racing at EEC. Your advice really paid off.
Race 2 I made a stupid mistake by taking my eyes off the road for a second. Off track, sand, grass, wall, wheel off and end of race.

Thank you all for taking part and we must do this again sometime.
To Denis, great driving my friend and you deserve to be Champion.
See you all at Okayama!!!!