CWGP3 4/5: Spa! LIVE

[denith]

Doing something a bit different today.

Qualifying has just begun, the first cars out are Yamada, Aube, Caspar and Jeff Wagoner.

[denith]

-25m: Aube goes P1 with 1:51.265, then Roger Williams displaces him with 1:51.029

-20m: Daira comes out and does a 1:51.8 second lap, puts her 7th for the while.

-19m: Dan Belcher does a 1:51.795 and places 6thm and Chris puts it 8th.

-13m: Aube comes out again, but is down from sector one and does not improve his time, but Chris Sampang's teammate, Caspar, jumps to 2nd place with a lap at 1:51.167.

-11m: The cars come back in - it doesn't look like anyone will use all 12 of their qualifying laps in the 30 minutes: Joni still has 9 laps, and only 11 minutes to go.

[denith]

-7m: Joni goes wide at the right hander after Les Combes - wasted lap. Caspar and Scott are back, but are .4 behind at the end of their laps (and they both turned identical S1 times at 40.900.)

-4m: Sanosuke Yamada comes out and is faster than his teammate, Williams in every sector, and takes pole by .094.

-3m: R. Monroe is turning a lap better than the one she did before, and manages to improve her time, but is still dead last. Williams and others have a final go at it.

[denith]

0m: Williams can't improve. I move up from 20th to 10th, Whittington moves to 7th, Daira moves from 17th to 13th and Rosset to 9th. The race next.

[denith]

Start: Top 5:

Yamada, Williams, Caspar, Aube, Ronnie Walker.

[denith]

We're about to get going.......

[denith]

On the start, Caspar jumps from 3rd to first! Joni jumps from 21 to 15th!!! She's now sandwiched between Me and my teammate Daira.

Whittington tries a move on Aube at Les Combes, and they go side by side all the way until Malmedy, when Whittington gives up.

Daira gets Joni in the run up from Stavelot to the bus-stop and grabs 15th.

R. Williams takes the lead from Caspar in the busstop, and Yamada (who fell to 3rd) almost got him in La Source. Williams is now 1.5 ahead after only one sector, but Caspar is on 10 laps more fuel than the others.

[denith]

L3: There's a train from Lanier in 9th to Monroe in 16th. Diniz (15th) hits Daira and nearly spins her out, and causes a ton of confusion. Joni takes a look at Diniz going into Eau Rouge, but thinks MUCH better of it, and passes him at Malmedey.

L4: Diniz passes her again at La source, forcing her wide, and Belcher tries to go through, they bang wheels and Joni becomes airborne, but is able to continue. Salo and Druffel get around them both. Meanwhile, Scott Aube passes Sanosuke Yamada for 3rd, then two corners later, Yamada breaks his tranny.

L6: Daira caught up to me in 11th, then I pass Claus Raddviola for 10th, and she starts battling with him. She passes him in the Bus-stop.

L7: Joni is out with Electrical problems.

L9: Daira caught up to me again. Roger Williams' lead over Caspar is now 9.0 seconds.

L11: Daira gets the call to the pits, but still manages to pass me at Les Combes. She pits and comes out in 21st, 50 seconds behind the leader.

[denith]

13: Rosset (7th), Lanier (8th) and R. Monroe (18th) pit, they're out in 16th, 17th and 20th.

By 19, the stops were done, and Caspar assumed the lead, but Williams was too fast and got past again. Wagoner hits Whittington off the track at the bus stop, and Whittington falls to fifth, as Aube gets by as well. Aube begins turning laps 0.5 seconds faster than the field, then Williams joins the fun and turns laps that are a second faster than 50% of the runners.

24: Caspar makes his only stop, and is out in 5th. Mika Salo, who was being a moving chicane, comes in from 15th.

30: Pitstops are done, Williams leads, Caspar is second, Jeff 3rd, Aube 4th, but just 1.8 behind and closing at about 0.5 a lap, Don Whittington, Echs Elerate, Ronnie, Daira, Pedro Diniz and Randy Lanier, top 10. Chris got spun out by Mika Chicane and is now dead last of the runners, 20th.

15 to go.

[denith]

13 to go: Rebecca Monroe runs wide at Pouhon, and on re-entry is collected by Chris Sampang. She's out, Chris lost his front wing and has to pit.

[denith]

10 to go: Rosset hit the wall and is out. Positions and gaps stabilised, except that Wlliams is still rocketing away.

6 to go: Williams, Caspar, Wagoner, Aube, Ellerate. Whittington just spun himself out at ***nes while in 6th..

[TheStranger]

Me on the radio: "So who is the focking idiot who built that focking front wing! Screw this focking race!"

[denith]

POS NAME TIME/DIFFERENCE CRAPPYCAR POINTS
01 Roger Williams 1h23m42.198s NO 20
02 Caspar Kahari + 00m27.249s YES 15
03 Don Whittington + 00m12.160s YES 11
04 Jeff Wagoner + 00m16.882s YES 8
05 Scott Aube + 00m21.585s YES 6
06 Ronnie Walker + 00m28.178s YES 5
07 Daira Neonaine + 00m28.563s YES 4
08 Pedro Diniz + 00m40.235s NO 3
09 Tora Takagi + 00m46.337s NO 2
10 Randy Lanier + 01m00.707s YES 1
11 Dan Belcher
12 Denith McNicolls
13 Dan Druffel
14 Claus Raddviola
15 Darren Abrey
16 Mika Salo
17 Chris Sampang
Don Whittington
Ricardo Rosset
Rebecca Monroe
Joni Monroe
Sanosuke Yamada


Jeff Wagoner keeps up his streak of podiums with another third, to move him into the lead of the Championship standings with 42 points. With one race remaining, he has a seven point lead over Daria Neonaine on 35, which means she must finish 4th or better at Monza, and hope Jeff does not score any points. Caspar Kahari in 3rd has 31 points, Caspar must score a podium if he has to have any chance at the cup. Drivers still in with a chance are Echs Ellerate (28), and Roger Williams (23).

The Constructor’s Cup will be decided at Monza as well, as everyone is still in with a shot, except Team Mushbrain and Swissair who can’t possibly win take the cup, even with a one-two finish.

[SimRacin40]

I might actually win a championship in an offline league for once. In 6 seasons of OSCRA Cup and 3 Seasons of OSCRA Trucks (my league divisions) I've won races but no championships.

[denith]

Strange - in this one you're yet to win a race... then again, the league is only 5 races old.