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Padborg Park 2012
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- Written by Jan Bronee
We went to Padborg Park on August 30 2012 in order to do some real life racing in the Lotus Elise and also to try some laps in a Formula 2000 car as well. We invited our friends to join. So all-in-all we were 8 drivers. One of these was the super fellow iRacing driver David Jensen which is a very fast Corvette C6R sim-driver.
We were 8 drivers, 3 of us was iRacing sim-drivers. These 3 drivers took the first 3 spots on the grid after the qualifying session was closed. So it seems that you in fact are able to transfer some of that sim-racing experience into real life racing. It could also be a simple coincidence of course.
So how was is to drive the Lotus Elise? Simply amassing and tons of great fun. Really something special. You could at all times feel what the car was up to and making corrections was done relatively easy. I did however make one move which I could not recover from and thus ended in a spin. Each of the 4 Lotus cars was shared between 2 drivers. That meant that each driver almost got 2 hours of seat time during this afternoon and evening. I can really only recommend to pay Padborg Park a visit
Peter Dolmeyer claimed the pole position. However, well into the race, me and my co-driver Jesper Riiber Høj managed to apply some good pressure to Peter and his teammate. We were about 6 seconds behind. Then Peter made a small mistake in the pit-lane during a driver-swap and got a 10 seconds penalty. Which lead to that Jesper and me took the checkered flag 
Suzuka
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- Written by Jacob Nielsen
Finally got around to doing another race in the Acura. Today was just another Sunday, without any plans, so at some point after I had lunch, I decided that, hey, wouldn't it be a good idea to rush through race preparation and Q for a race at one of the most difficult tracks on the schedule, and do a race?
So that's what I did. 3-4 Q laps in testing and I was ready for "qualifying", which was more like "post a time fast enough to not start in the GT field". Managed an "amazing" 44.7, which I later beat in the race by 2 tenths.
Come race start, I managed to jump the guy in 7th on the start, and by T3 I was able to get fully ahead. From here it was just a bit of lapping till lap 5 where I wanted to pit. But the guy ahead of me pitted on lap 5, so I decided to stretch it 1 lap longer to see if I could avoid hitting traffic, and jump him. Worked out! So at this point I was effectively in 5th.
A few laps later I was battling hard with a guy who hadn't pitted, but he was still slower than me. On the first lap I noticed he braked way early for Spoon, so put a lot of pressure on him till we came around to the hairpin, and he outbraked himself a little bit.
We were then side by side down the first bit of the long right hander, but he had a shorter distance to go, so by the time we got to Spoon, he was slightly ahead, but not a problem! I just outbraked him from a bit behind. Kept my line, hugged the curb, but he ran wide for some reason.
From there it was just lapping and avoiding crashing/spinning cars till I got my 4th position at the end. Much fun racing and with minimum preparation.
Not an easy start
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- Written by Jan Bronee
The start of season 3 has been quite troublesome for me. The transition from F1 to LPM2 took some time to get under the skin. I don't have that natural talent, so I need the seat time to learn the muscles how to drive the new car. That means forgetting the F1 habits and drive more like a "normal" car. So result from Silverstone was a journey into the wall going through T1 on one of the very first laps. Pitting and then repeating driving into the same wall two laps later. This time beyond repair.
Next week at Watkins was not much better. A big pile-up in T9 on lap 4.
I almost avoided the crashed car in front of me .. but missed by a hair and the race was over. As you see, the left front tire vent trough the chassis.
Not to worry, I just take the next race 2 hours later. What happens? Of course I get rear ended at lap 2
At this point I have 3 early DNF's in the last 4 races with the LMP2. My SR is toast and my IR has taking some serious beatings.
Oh well, another day and another race will come :-D
Dolmeyer is smiling again
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- Written by Peter Dolmeyer
As you all know, this season has been the worst ever season for me in iRacing. I have been wrecked in every F****** single race, so my self esteem was a little bit low, sunday night before race start at Zandvoort Race track.
The Zandvoort track is one of my favorites, and I won my first race ever in iRacing in Skib Barber here. After joining I got a low split server with start position 5 on the grid. First I was a little bit disappointed about the split, cause Jan was in "high split",but on the other hand maybe my race could turn out to be fun this time.
Sitting in the car (left side on the grid), Just before race start, I promised my self to take it easy the first 2-3 laps, and after that try to make some fun out of it, but then again....I promised my self that every single time.
Green light and off we go....got an okay start...the guy on my right side (start position 4), missed the start a little bit, so when we entered turn 1 I went on the outside of turn 1, and he went for the inside....from my pouint of view that was a pretty good decision, cause when I was going for turn 2, I could see some car wreck in my mirror....and for once this season it wasen't me who has finished the race on lap 1.
After 2 laps and still on the track I was able to make some pressure on the guy in front of me and, on lap 6 his maked a mistake and went off track. On lap 10 I coulden't belive my luck, when the guy in 3 position hit a backmarker and disconnected after worth. There was 15 sec to the guy in front, and I wasen't fast enough to catch him, so I just kept my pace.
I kept the car on track and in 5 laps I actually was leading the race (first time in the F1), because the guy in front did his pit stop 5 laps before me.
After 35 laps I got 2 place on the podium, only 11.4 sec after number 1, and I have just ended my best race this season with "0" inc.
Today it is wednesday and I'm still smiling... :o)
Racing at Indianapolis
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- Written by Jacob Nielsen
I had been struggling to fit a race into my schedule this week, but I managed to get 2 races in yesterday, despite lacking practice, having a hangover and several decent sized blisters on my right foot. The first race got off to a good start, I saw the inside was crowded heading down towards T1, so I went on the ouside, knowing it would be the inside for T2, and out of T2 I was in P3.
From here, I was just doing laps to stay on pace, I lost a position to a DWC guy, but it went okay, until I ended up cutting T1, so I lost another position, though I could take him in the pits, sadly I never got that far, into T1 with a few laps to go before my stop, we came up to a back marker driving on the middle of the straight, he braked early, so the guy ahead of me braked early, by the time we got down to me reacting, it was too late, and despite of me avoiding the collision, we got a contact and it was race over.
The second race went significantly better, I started in P2 and had Alberto Baraldi on my left front and Carlo Labati on my left right, so I had my work cut out. Into T1 I just hugged the inside and I got by Alberto, and held my position until lap 5, when I decided to let him by, because it was costing me time and felt slightly unsafe because he was a lot faster, but I could have held him up for a while, because he couldn't really get by on the straight as long as I took the inside line in T1.
After letting him by, I made a small mistake and Carlo got by too, so I was left fighting Andy Fuller for the remainder of the race, if he hadn't spun out. From here I was just lapping, maintaining my lead to the other guys and not really being able to gain on the guys in front. After the stop, I was 15s behind and with 6 laps to go I was 20s down, but came up on two guys fighting for positions, but a lap down. From here I just decided to let them battle it out and give up some of my 25s lead.
In the end I finished 3rd, 31s down, but knowing it was more like 20 if I hadn't given up a lot of time at the end, and the two guys ahead of me are in the DWC, I was pretty happy, 132 points didn't hurt either.
On the podium at Zandvoort
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- Written by Jacob Nielsen
This week we had the joy of racing at Zandvoort, this place is amazing for anything but overtaking and dealing with back markers, and the race was no different, I got away from P4 on the grid, with a bit of trouble, but managed to recover and was in P3 into T1, from here it was a long 35 lap race, where events were mainly dominated by back markers.
At one point I managed to get into P2 because the guy in P2 ran wide in the slow and tricky T8-9 combination, after he got some wheel spin out of T8. But the very next lap, a back marker decided to park just before the apex in T7 to let us by, but I didn't notice he was parking, I just thought he was doing the usual back marker stuff, so I ran too wide and off the racing line, letting the other guy by again.
Had another moment through T7 a few laps later when a car was parked perpendicular to the track, on the racing line, luckily he moved off the track when he saw I was coming, but since I had no chance of seeing him till I got past the apex, and I didn't get a yellow flag(wtf?) that could have ended my race.
Anyway, here's a short recap of this extremely "exciting" race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ggSg9v6tc
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