Career - 1991 onwards (whenever I feel like retiring)

WTF you totally ignored my puny version of Brno?
7 years of work for nothing

according to wiki San Jose, Edmonton and the new Houston are required for any of the latest seasons of Champcar. At least have no ovals

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 02:56PM by R_Scandura.

Forgive me, Master!!! <gets down on his knees and rips his hair off his head>
I didn't notice it!!!





Anyway, my next season is WTCC 2008 while my driver is Felix Porteiro from "BMW Italy-Spain" team. I have Alessandro Zanardi beside me. I appreciate him a lot but still hope to kick his arse.

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 04:39PM by abdelkader.

NICE! Good luck!

abdelkader schreef:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Forgive me, Master!!!
> I didn't notice it!!!
>
>
>
>
>
> Anyway, my next season is WTCC 2008 while my
> driver is Felix Porteiro from "BMW Italy-Spain"
> team. I have Alessandro Zanardi beside me. I
> appreciate him a lot but still hope to kick his
> arse.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
W300: 6 wins. Finished 2nd in the last season 3 points shy of being the champ.

GPGSL S1 championship: 12th Italian English Racing with 30 points. Team Owner of Minardi. WCC!!, WDC with Philip Oakley.
GPGSL S2 championship: IER (2 races) 0 points, Testdriver Team Shadow Best result(1st 4x). Team Owner VSM by Minardi.
GPGSL S3 Championship: 4th IED(IER) Race driver: 97 points 3 Wins. Team Owner VSM.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well, as this topic resumed, here is the situation of my current ERL career.

the new series is hosted on european tracks as an alternative to F1. The ERL Adm. got to involve several manifacturer to provide a challenging experience
Dallara provided the chassis while Renault, Ford, Judd, Honda and at last Mercedes took the challenge. Classic format of 30X km races with 60 mins. qualifying.

ERL 1990
as an opening season there was much to discover. 13 teams joined the league: 2 Honda, 2 Mercedes, 3 Ford, 2 Judd, 4 Renault.
The season shown immediately how the forces were going to be shared through the field and took very few too see how Renault engines were credited to set the pace. With a solid compromise between power and reliability they made a takeover on the first race at Rijeka with GBRacing and Onyx. On the other side teams powered by Judd shown some excessive mechanical trouble which costed them lot of time and good points in the standings. Honda and Mercedes were already relegated to the role of sparring partners lacking power and hardly gettin to complete the races. Ford cars had a debateable reliability more than everyone but when all worked fine they shown an exremely powerful car proved by the domination in Race 2 at Wunstorf with the dominance of the the two small backmakers: the spanish Team Pacheco won sharing the podium with the italian KTL. The next 4 races at Jerez, Estoril, Zolder and Imola only consolidated the dominance by GBRacing and Onyx on the others teams highligthening the brilliant season of the british driver A. Gilmore. The battle went on through Poznan, Anderstorp, Brands Hatch and Dijon when the title already took the direction of the Gilmores's shelf. Hungaroring though, shuffled the field. Being the car power not vital, some of the backmakers have been able to show some skills. One of them indeed came under the spotlight carring finally to the victory the Privateer JAS Racing powered by Mercedes. Second podium after several attempts by the young Czech J. Volf came to nothing by failures. (me ). The last part of the season was meant to be only a parade for Gilmore already with more than one hand on the title but the excessive relax ended with a failure at Dijon and 2 accindents at Hungaroring and Most. Luckily the race at Salzburgring put everything at their place with a clean win. Neverthless another distraction caused his retirement in the final race at Birmingham.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 07:55PM by R_Scandura.

ERL 1991
The big success of the opening season attracted the interest of other teams investing in the league. 3 new teams joined so it has been necessary to enter a second tyre supplier to 'help' Goddyear. Challenge accepted by Pirelli. Same calendar with Imola now representing San Marino and Monza representing Italy. The last race of the season, named as GP of Europe has been established at Donington Park. The circus of 16 teams met up at Rijeka to start the new season. After the disaster of the first season Diamonds and Ellips, both powered by Judd were called to a flaming performance. And that's what happened. T.Davis and E.Leiner finally found a consistant pace while the champion Gilmore had to suffer some unexpected failure which put him out for the contest more than once while in the top positions. On the other side Ford confirmed the trend. Lot of power mostly ending to smoke and flames. But again Wunstorf has been their land with the same team and the same driver as 1990 clinching the win.
Mercedes though did the biggest leap. The season still didn't started with the best expectations with Team Drexler always down the field and the satellite team always out of the preQ (me ) but the decision to move the talented czech driver to the main team totally flipped the situation. More developing and more commitment by both drivers gave to Team Drexler 2 wins at Zolder and at Anderstorp (this one with me ) and more podiums. At the end T.Davis took home the title followed by E.Leiner with Gilmore sadly 3rd while Diamonds-Judd got the title for the team followed by GBRacing-Renault and Ellips-Judd tied.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 08:37PM by R_Scandura.

That's good you manage to win after the problems you had. Keep it up.

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ERL 1992
The major news of the preseason were the passage of Ellips to Ford and the entrance of the not so ambitious Yamaha to push the spanish Team Pacheco. Also the calendar saw the entrance of the GP of Switzerland hosted at Dijon with the gentle agreement of France as the French GP moved to Magny Cours. The season was supposed to be the most challenging ever after the animated preseason but it will be remembered for the terrible accident happened at Wunstorf at race 2. Under an heavy rain, the not excellent maintenance of the track surface caused 2 big accidents at the final chicane in the same lap. Both accidents involved many cars including the 2 drivers of GBRacing which flyed and rolled on the grass out of control. Because of the injuries Gilmore had to lose 7 races while his teammate ended the career in that accident. This event caused the ban of the superfast german track from ERL. On the other side T. Davis wasn't living is best season ever. After 7 retirements in the first 7 races Diamonds-Judd realized how the project was completely to rework taking him off the fight for the title. In all this, Leiner had no opposition on track. Only the brazilian Moreira tried to keep the fight but had to surrender when in last four races lost the lead to the irish driver with a strip of bad results. Meantime, with the B-version sent on track at half the season, Diamonds allowed Davis to keep the 4th place in standing. Gilmore slowly returned to competition But the undeveloped car for so long didnt allowed him to get much... No glory for Team Drexler as both drivers never been able to get the best from their car ( ). All sent to 1993

ERL 1993
The calendar changed in 1993. For the first time the season opener has been hosted outside Europe, at Kyalami while the German Gp has moved to Nurburgring. Few to report. As promised, Gilmore got his revenge on the fate never leaving any chance to his opponents. His great constancy allowed him to stay on top for the whole season. Another mediocre season for Team Drexler even though some ray of light. Volf won the race at Magny Cours and got 2nd at Poznan. Big disappointmen instead at Anderstorp when the transmission failed few laps before a dominant victory under the storm and the 2 hours red flag. Leiner caught the second place in standing only at the last race when his motivations outperformed an idle Davis.


ERL 1994 in progress...

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 10:47PM by R_Scandura.

My turn now...


WTCC 2008 season

Round 1- Curitiba, Brazil

Race 1 - I didn't know what to expect from the car, from myself and from the track. i wanted to test it all during the practice sessions but they both were terribly wet and I gave up on that idea willing to make first laps in the qualifyings. Luckily, the qualifiers took place under clear sky and I soon discovered that the track wasn't as difficult as it seemed to be at the beginning when I covered one or two laps of it in heavy rain. I managed to claim the pole position in my virgin race which turned me on. 2nd place for Jordi Gene and 3rd for Augusto Farfus. Unfortunately, the race day was just like the practice days - extremely wet with constant heavy rain falling upon the tarmac. I luckily kept first position and started pulling away. The factor which made things easier to me was the accident behind me in which Gene and Priaulx retired early in the first lap. Now it was only Farfus behind me. He kept losing pace and I soon discovered that after covering the half-distance I was about 20 seconds in front of him. The first driver whom I lapped was my teammate - Zanardi. Three laps from finish I had to slow down as the tyres started wearing off which resulted in a short excursion into the runoff area. All in all I brought it all home and won my first race in WTCC

The winner - Porteiro, 2nd - Farfus, 3rd - Menu

Race 2 - This day started really well. The weather was great and I knew I was fast on this circuit. Even though I started from 8th position I managed to climb to the top where I observed the battle between Thompson and Tarquini. Thompson slightly touched Tarquini who lost traction and smashed his car marking his retirement from the race. Thompson dropped down a few positions and lost pace. Meanwhile, I took the lead and kept increasing it leaving Rob Huff in 2nd position about 15 seconds behind. The race was an easy one to me as nobody was able to fight back. I won my second race in my second start in WTCC. Worth noting is an extremely good performance of CHevrolet's drivers Huff and Larini who completed the podium. Especially the latter driver impressed me a lot as he started from 14th grid position.

The winner - Porteiro, 2nd - Huff, 3rd - Larini





Round 2 - Puebla, Mexico

Race 1 - After the first weekend I was far more confident about my performance in Mexico. Indeed, I outperformed others in the qualifying session and took the pole position from Tarquini and Larini. The race start wasn't an easy one as Tarquini was really willing to pass me. He was right next to me and we even had a side-to-side contact. Luckily, I kept the leadership while Tarquini remained second. Meanwhile, Farfus passed Larini and took third place. That was all as for this race as nothing significant happened. I won for the third time this season

The winner - Porteiro, 2nd - Tarquini, 3rd - Farfus

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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2009 06:15PM by abdelkader.

Great reading there guys! I finally found the time to pick up my own career again, too, the one I described a page earlier. Hasn't been a good season, though, since I have by now retired 7 times from 19 races by mechanical problems and once more due to a crash (in the latest round at Cairo, a very strange crash - lost the rear in that high-speed very long 180°-left-hander). Bruno Senna has already been crowned as champion and as he will then switch to F1, I'll take over his drive at Brawn next season alongside Dan Wheldon. Should be more fun because I should have a more reliable car then, but before that there's the Cairo sprint left. Hopefully I can do that one tomorrow because I'm really keen on starting the new season.

Great to see you here, too. It's amazing...the thread was dead for a long time. I wrote one new post and you guys re-joined me on the spot with your reports again. Chain reactions rule!!!

@Jackal
It surely will be better next season. Look at me - I had a hard time at Williams in 1986 and now I'm the leader of WTCC standings





Race 2 - This time Puebla was drowning in the rain. It was not extremely heavy but constant and dense which successfuly decreased grip level. I started climbing from 8th and managed to get into 3rd position. Tarquini followed me and that let him advance, too. Jordi Gene didn't even complete one lap as he crashed out in the battle for third position with Monteiro, who as a result of this incident dropped down a few places and didn't make up for it until the end of the race. I was in the lead, Tarquini second while Yvan Muller third. I kept losing grip and had a couple of excursions off the track. Luckily the rivals had the same problems. The victims of the ruthless weather were Sergio Hernandez and Kristian Poulsen who crashed out. At the same time, almost unnoticed, Andy Priaulx was making constant progress which soon let him pass Muller and two laps from finish, Tarquini as well. These were the first points for Priaulx and for BMW Team UK this season. This way I won fourth consecutive race of the campaign. Two weekends, two flawless victories So far so good.

When it comes to the Constructors' standings, I must admit that Seat has got back to the game. In the top five of the race there are Tarquini, Yvan Muller and Rydell while Tiago Monteiro, who finished 7th in his Sunred-Seat, extended his lead in the Independents' Championship.

The winner - Porteiro, 2nd - Priaulx, 3rd - Tarquini




Round 3 - Valencia Streets, Spain

Race 1 - Valencia street circuit has never been the track on which I could find the right and fast pace. It was the case in F-1, GP2 and is still the case in WTCC. I came 15th and was extremely anxious about the race start. Pole sitter was Rickard Rydell who was faster than Menu and Priaulx. 5th position was taken by Tiago Monteiro - an independent driver who is still proving his great abilities. Luckily, I managed to pass 10 drivers at the start and then I got stuck behind Yvan Muller who was just in front. Rydell kept pole position. Meanwhile I was battling two Seats - one in front (Y. Muller) and the other behind me (Monteiro). In lap 3 I managed to overtake Muller in front of the start/finish line. Now I had Farfus 3 seconds in front and Muller and Monteiro right on my back. Overtaking Farfus was out of question as he was pulling away with every turn. Something must have happened to the two Seats behind me as they drastically slowed their pace and were not as competitive as just a few laps before. I was safe in 5th when I got the first sign of Providence taking care of me here in Spain. Agusto Farfus crashed out in lap 6 and now it's me who took 4th position. My task now was to decrease the gap between me and Andy Priaulx in front. When I thought it was all safe, Yvan Muller started charging from behind. We even were head to head at some point but I withstood the pressure and defended the position. Some four laps from finish I started setting better and better lap times which let me pull away from Muller and Monteiro for almost four seconds. Unfortunately I didn't manage to catch Priaulx who was well ahead having a 19-second advantage. The penultimate lap was my fastest in the race. I consider it an unexpectedly good race for me despite blown qualifying session and lack of consistency at the beginning of the race distance.

The winner - Rydell, 2nd - Menu, 3rd - Priaulx


Race 2 - Before the start I hoped to keep the pace from the second part of the race 1. I easily passed the rivals at the start and started making a gap. D'Aste starting from 2nd place didn't withstand the pressure and dropped down leaving his place to Yvan Muller who passed Monteiro. Tarquini was really strong in second position. For the first half of the race I was the fastest lap holder but then Tarquini began his fight for the victory. He kept decreasing the gap by 0.2 - 0.3 per lap. Luckily, he was inconsistent and would lose just as much in the following laps therefore I managed somehow to keep the advantage at the reasonable level. Nonetheless, Tarquini set the fastest lap three time during the race. Three laps from finish unexpectedly Yvan Muller set the fastest time but it was too late to catch Tarquini and beating me. Monteiro was robust as usually and came 4th. This way I put another victory into the bag.

The winner - Porteiro, 2nd - Tarquini, 3rd - Y.Muller

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2009 10:43PM by abdelkader.

Thought it was time for another real life season. Yesterday I finally got the package together and had a go. Again racing as Alesi in Ferrari. Another breakable car with the challenge to carry it home the more and the safer possible. Kinda masochist...

1993 Formula 1 season - Race #1 - Kyalami, South Africa
Pre-Qualifying: Surprisingly a washing rain welcomed the circus to South Africa. Short and unconstant but enough to shuffle the grid with drivers trying to be on track at the right moment. Not a big deal for the top teams but very effective for Lotus and Footwork which didn't passed the cut. Good news otherwise for the troubling Lola with Badoer and Alboreto in by the misfortunes of others.

Qualifying: 60 intense minutes under a pale sun with Prost trying all the time to perform every possible spell to put his wheels in front of Senna's car in an epic lap to lap fight against the time and the traffic. The frenchman caught the pole with 1.15.702 with Senna at +0.101. Only at the end Hill reached the right pace to join the battle (+0.171) while Schumacher sat on 4th withouth any particular thrill (+0.631). Alternate luck at Ferrari: Alesi has been for a big part of the session the best of the rest but had to give up as it was time to push harder slowly falling down to 7th (+2.201) while Berger caught a mediocre 12th (+3.202). Special note for Blundell in 5th (+1.995) and Andretti 6th (+2.098).

Race: The race started with Prost trying to protect his leading position from Senna but after few turns the major contender shown to be Hill who meantime jumped the unsure brazilian. Schumacher did a not so good start and had his own business to find his way on front and prevent the attacks from behind. Luckily for him Alesi, Andretti and Blundell were concerning with eachother to decide the front runner of the lot losing time behind the german. Neverthless Benetton never seemed to be competitive and the suspect got its confirmation between lap 5 and 10 where Patrese first and Schumacher then had to leave the race by transmission problems.
Clearly Hill was running on a 2 stops strategy, proven by the agility with which he passed Prost probably on 1 stop, taking the lead and some good pace ahead while Prost was maybe too optimistic with his very long first stint considering the start from the pole. Alesi, running on 2 stops, pitted at lap 25 but incredibly his engine failed seconds later, while leaving the pitlane, forcing him to retire. Same fate for Berger which lasted til lap 60 before his engine blew from 9th position. Hill refueled few laps later sitting on 2nd few seconds behind Prost still compromised by the fuel load. The possibility that his strategy was too much demanding became reality as Hill caught and passed him again regaining several seconds before the frenchman had the chance to push properly and recover part of the gap. Prost pitted at lap 45, Hill made his second stop at lap 48 saving 20 seconds in the procedure. Prost tried a desperate comeback through slow cars while Hill, was trying to administrate the gap. Though he had to reconsider his purpose when losing concentration risked to take off Brundle in the overlapping manouvre. This and other concerns with backmakers reduced the gap til an interesting 7 seconds but the end was too close now for further risks. Hill surprised all with a smart win while Prost lost a chance being too confident of his car.

1 Hill 72 laps
2 Prost +9.859
3 Senna +59.966
4 Andretti +2 laps
5 Blundell +2 laps
6 Brundle +2 laps

Hill: Capitalized the aggressive strategy without any fear to attack two times his teammate.
Minardi: With Fittipaldi 8th and Barbazza 10th the team got for sure an encouraging result.
Prost: Despite the dominance by Williams he has to rethink his strategy losing the internal fight with Hill.
Senna: Never been in race after the promising qualify. At the end gave up raising his gap to a whole minute.
Benetton: Broke too early without any chance for both drivers. A lot to work on.

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Okay I think I join the fun again. Did the missing Cairo sprint meanwhile, then took a while to sort everything out for the new season. The calendar includes 10 rounds again, two of them new with Krasnodar and Istanbul, along with Spa, St. Etienne, Vila do Conde, Oschersleben, Mugello, Donington, Cairo and only one Spanish round left at Valencia. The location of the Spanish race will alternate between Valencia and Barcelona from now on, the same goes for the location of the Eastern Europe race between Krasnodar and Brno.

The season started off at Spa and for the first time I was in a potentially title-winning car. I used that to full extent taking the pole, but lost three places at the start. Hülkenberg had the lead over Wheldon, while I struggled to pass di Grassi for third. When I finally did, the top two were well away. I concentrated on driving home safely, which I did, and I even gained a position when Wheldon retired on the penultimate lap. Also, I had taken fastest lap along the way, which meant I had scored 11 points already. No more points were added to that in sprint, I was running seventh for the first three laps then had a puncture just after Eau Rouge, so no chance of carrying the car back to the pits. Bourdais took the sprint win.

Next we were off to Valencia, a track I like very much. I had been on pole there before when driving a less powerful car, so I was confident I could repeat that, and indeed I did. It was vey close hough, 0.007 seperating me from Montagny. He got the better start and lead for 11 laps, but all the time I was confident that he would stop earlier and I could beat him if only I could stay close. He gained time slowly, but not enough and I was only three seconds behind when he pitted. I had three laps to go from then, and he was unfortunate by being stuck in traffic. This way I could make up the missing seconds and rejoined from my stop with a 2-seconds lead which I maintained until the finish. Sprint race was just as quickly over as the Spa one, technical trouble hittingh again. Kobayashi won, by the way.

Anyway, abdelkader's prediction came true and this season started off extremely well - 23 points after just two out of ten events. the very same amount I had at the end of last season. Looking forward to the next two rounds at Donington and Vila do Conde.

@Jackal
I told you it'd be better next time.



@Roberto
Glad to see you commence 1993 F-1 season. One of my favourites, indeed.
Well, if I had chosen Ferrari for my 1994 season which I played last year, I would have been angry all the time. Instead, I chose Simtek just to get things started and develop my 'career'. Ferrari was amazingly unreliable then. Maybe you remember my reports about Alesi and Berger failing to finish the races. Well, I hope you're gonna be better than this. After all, you have just been shown what those cars were capable of. An engine blow at the pitlane exit....that's a good one. Be prepared for more, unfortunately.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2009 11:46AM by abdelkader.

Well, i thougth i was a bit crazy playing Gp3 at my age (38 years old). Then i discovered there were older people than me (good news) and now i discover there are guys much more crazy then me (so i can delete my date with the psychiatrist).
Now i fell really better, thanks guys!

Anyway, i want to join the fun too: so, i'm starting my second cart season (1998) as a driver of Della Penna Team. Great expectation, good project, we'll try to fight for the championship in a couple of years.
1998 season schedule (o = oval track)
1. Homestead (o)
2. Houston
3. Rio (o)
4. Long Beach
5. Cleveland
6. Nazareth (o)
7. Mid Ohio
8. Detroit
9. Michigan (o)
10. Elkhart Lake
11. Surfers Paradise
12. Motegi (o)
13. Vancouver
14. Portland
15. Fontana (o)
16. Laguna Seca

Soon i'll post a brief histoty of my first cart season in 2002 (you know, time is relative...)

Welcome to the company Claudio, hope to hear about your adventures
Here is my one i had pre-lunch.


1993 Formula 1 season - Race #2 - Interlagos, Brazil

Pre-Qualifying: Though battle with Prost, Hill and Senna packed in 0.083 s. This time Lola didn't repeated the miracle and had to feel the sword with Footwork again out of the pre-qualifying. Homerace for 3 drivers. Predictions said Senna was really gazed to race in front of his people as well as Fittipaldi while Barrichello clearly seemed to feel the preassure on him.

Qualifying: As expected Senna went on track immediately and started to give the show setting istantaneously an incredible laptime while the two Williams were slowly shaving the gap attemp after attempt. Schumacher shown lot of agility in slow turns holding on the fight but there was nothing to do everytime Senna decided to lower the visor. Again Blundell has been author of a great performance setting an excellent laptime in early phases but has not been able to improve it in next attempt while Alesi and Berger seemed to follow a well known script with the french always able to outpace the austrian. Few minutes left and torcida was in delirious for the great performance given by Senna but at the very last attempt Hill stuck together 3 perfect splits, catching the pole from the hands of the brazilian with the general disappointment. Final table seen Hill on pole at 1.15.572 followed by Senna at +0.068 and Prost at +0.096, with Schumacher still spectator of the big fight at only +0.312. 5th Blundell at +1.413 followed by Alesi at 1.805. 14th and 15th the other 2 brazilians Barrichello and Fittipaldi

Race: Like often happened at Interlagos, the race started under an heavy rain with all the chances of a thrilling race. As the lights turned off Senna outbraked Prost at the first chicane with Hill involved in a battle with Schumacher. For the entire first lap the lead changed owner several times with Senna having the final word. Meantime Alesi, which made an excellent start ran wide at the first turn losing several positions and having to regain from the middle of the field. For the next 20 laps the crowd stood astonished to something really hard to comment: three drivers in 6 seconds chasing eachother and pushing eachother stealing constantly the fastest lap. Senna, Prost and Schumacher quickly digged a hole between them and the rest with Hill only able to follow them from 15 seconds behind while Alesi recovered again to 5th position after a brief battle with Andretti. Nothing changed after the first series of stops between laps 24 and 30 but few laps later Hill had to retire folowing a suspension failure. The race went on with a very substained pace even though the bad weather conditions they were racing at and this mechanical stress caused an incredible sequence of shocks. The first one to pay the due has been directly Senna which had to retire before the second stop followed by Brundle and Andretti. The second series of pitstops just started and the men in red jumped from their seats to prepare the new tyres for Alesi, but their waiting has been in vain because when the driver pushed at the beginning of the arquibancadas his engine exploded in a huge smoke. Few more laps and another engine exploded: Berger saluted the race as well. Meantime the other brazilian on track was not having a better racing experience: half race done and Barrichello already collected 3 stops for various reasons until another mechanical failure took him out of the race. The timetable then saw Prost followed by Schumacher ready to attack but still waiting to do his 3rd stop very soon. Wisely the pitwall suggested to let him pass without major opposition to avoid the worse and so it happened. Schumacher easily took the lead just to return it few laps later. But the bad surprise was behind the corner for Prost too as his engine collapsed too. 10 laps to go and there were only 7 cars on track. Schumacher was confortably leading the race with his teammate Patrese quitely sitting in 2nd position with 1 lap of distance and the surprising Alliot 3rd praying to escape the fate with Zanardi and Wendlinger chasing him. 3 laps to go and the last thrill took Patrese out of the race rewarding the constancy of the frechman driving for Larousse. At the end Schumcher mastered the Gp of Brazil after an incredble race.

1 Schumacher 71 laps
2 Alliot +3 laps
3 Wendlinger +3 laps
4 Zanardi +3 laps
5 Herbert +4 laps
6 Patrese +5 laps
7 De Cesaris +5 laps

Alliot: Obvious mention for the driver that survived the mechanical carnage and by his own pace got the best of the race.
Benetton: A reaction was expected after the disaster of Kyalami and the team was getting a 1-2 with only 7 cars on track. Only some badluck ruined it but the effort has been visible.
Lotus: Great performance. At Kyalami they missed to reach the grid by weather freaks, this time the weather gave them almost a podium if Wendlinger with fresh tyres didn't passed Zanardi at last lap.
Brazilian drivers: Great expectations were put on them but none of them finished the race. All 3 suffered mechanical problems but only Barrichello seemed too nervous causing some troubles along the track.

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but sadly I have to admit that despite me trying harder and harder with testing and experiments, Gp3 is unable to create driver errors or collisions. in old races there were many accidents and collision, in Gp3 I barely see collisions only if there is a bad ccline. I played with md and removed the coaching-car commands to make cars more untidy but nothing. It's like a train going round and round

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2009 05:47PM by R_Scandura.

And now, as promised, a brief resume of my first Cart season, 2002.

Prologue
After many years in Formula 1 (from the early days of Gp2...), always taking the seat of some driver who had an accident or too bad results, usually with not very competitive team (Ligier and Prost), never had the chance to drive for a whole season (my bag was not full of good old dollars...), getting even very good results (2 or 3 podiums), suddenly i found myself without a seat.
What to do? A sabbatical year? Or joining a lower Series (as F3 or F3000)? A chance in A1Gp?
No. Unexpectedly i had an offer from Mo Nunn Team to drive in the Cart Series. Cart! Usa! Ovals! Hot dogs! Cold beer! And, after all, an agreement for a whole season, with an option for the second. How could i deny? So i move to the Usa, changed my life-style, my home, my friends...
After a few tests, the season started. 16 totally new and unknown tracks were waiting for me.

Race#1: Houston (Texas)
A very bumpy street circuit, full of 90° corners, and too much close concrete walls, at least for me.
I’ll start from 3rd place of the grid after a very good qualifying. The feeling with the track is very good, the walls after all stay in their place.
So it’s sunday, cloudy sky and rain expected from a moment to another; i’m in the car on the grid: red lighs on, i’m a bit nervous, well it's normal, it’s my first race, i don't want to jump the start, i do something wrong with the clutch or the gear lever, and i get a bad start. I’ve lost a couple of positions. I have a 2 pit-stop strategy, and i drive the 2 first stints very well. After the last pit stop i’m 3rd, but i’m gaining more than a second per lap to the driver i have in front. Maybe he had a different strategy, maybe a problem; anyway, with 5 laps to go, i get him easily. But then i’m not able to pass him: maybe he solved his problem, maybe he was only saving the tyres. I finished my first race on the podium. I even signed the fastest lap. It didn’t rain. A very good start.
Da Matta wins the race. He’s the first leader of the season.

Race#2: Rio (Brazil)
An incredibly bumpy D-oval, very difficoult to drive, but immediaetly one of my favourite track.
I qualified 7th. Not too bad.
The race is very hard, it’s my first time on an oval, and this is not a typical one: turn#1 and #4 are very narrow, we have to brake hardly. I don’t take a good start (again!), but i am focused and precise, i improve lap by lap. After the second and last pit stop and a very good 2nd stint, i’m 4th behind Jimmy Vasser: he’s faster, no way to catch him. But when i exit turn#4 for the last time, he’s slowing down dramatically. He has broken something of course, and he’s giving me like a present his 3rd place. Two consecutive podiums. Very good.
Junquiera wins the race. He’s the leader now. He’ll win the championship, never losing the leadership.

Race#3: Long Beach (California)
The sun (and the girls) of California. Well place to stay. But i have a race to run, no time for anything else. The hard life of a professional driver...
Well, believe it or not, i’m on the pole wiht only 0.004 of a second advantage! I immidiately liked the circuit: i begin thinking i'll like street circuits.
This time i start well, my car is perfect, i’m fast and precise: after the first pit stop i’m back on the track in 5th position, but i’m much faster then enyone else, when they have their pit stop i’ll get back the leadership, i feel i can really win the race. My first victory! No, not this time. The front right suspension failed, maybe a bump, maybe a kerb taken too hard. Who knows? Anyway, i try to bring the car into the pit, but i’m on 3 wheels, and another driver entering the pit hits me just before the pit entrance. I’ve lost a lot of time. No chace to recover. I finish 15th. No points. We come back home. Silence and sadness during the travel.
Michel Andretti wins the race. The fastest lap is mine (the 3rd consecutive).

Race#4: Nazareth (Pennsylvania)
A short oval, 1 mile long. Another D-shaped one. A lot of problems with tyre consumption, i finish every stint on the wheels, no rubber at all... 9th in qualifying, 8th in race, lapped. A very hard race: always turning on the left, about half race i start suffer pain in my right shoulder and in the neck. And still the tyre problem: impossible to do an extra pit stop to save tyres, when you pit in this short oval you lose 2 laps, and you regain them when other drivers have their stop. But if you do another stop, you don’t regain the 2 laps...
Dario Franchitti wins the race. Junquiera still leads.

To be continued (if you like it).

wow great stuff vey hard to fight with those big dogs

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Keep it coming mates! All those stories encouraged me to continue my season as well, and I just did the Donington feature. After a surprisingly poor 13th in qualy (didn't get a traffic-free lap), I had my eyes set on P8 and with it the pole for race two. I was on a good way running 10th halfway through the race but my car had different things in mind and again didn't last to the finish. Season 1 champion Pastor Maldonado took the win ahead of the team-mates Montagny and Hülkenberg, who now comfortably lead the teams' standings for DAMS. I can only hope for a lot of retirements or maybe rain in the sprint as I have to start from 18th on the grid now.

Great reading, indeed. I hope to see many more stories like these that are being posted.

Keep them coming.

R_Scandura Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> but sadly I have to admit that despite me trying
> harder and harder with testing and experiments,
> Gp3 is unable to create driver errors or
> collisions. in old races there were many accidents
> and collision, in Gp3 I barely see collisions only
> if there is a bad ccline. I played with md and
> removed the coaching-car commands to make cars
> more untidy but nothing. It's like a train going
> round and round

Hi Rob!

Indeed is a bit odd the AI is not making more mistakes and crashing more times with old timer physics. I once experimented the 1991 physics and the AI was crashing more than it used to when I use the default physics.

Anyway, last time I raced at Autopolis I saw the AI making mistakes like I've never seen before. Like running wide, losing the back end while braking, etc, all this with default physics and dry conditions. I related this to this value in the .md file: 80 ; some chance. same chance multiplied with race perc. I don't really know if this is the real cause that makes the AI making more mistakes and crash more. It could be just a place effect for me but now every time I adjust an .md file before racing on a new track I set the value to 75 and it seems to be working for me. Of course, the higher value you set, there's more change for the AI to make more mistakes and ran off the track.


Now, about making mistakes, and going off track, and crashing. Let me update my season.

After a big upgrade for my PC, I decided to experiment other so called "more recent" games, but soon I returned to my season on GP3, not long before the big update of GPG.

Since then I've completed two rounds (four races), but nothing really new happened. I kept struggling to keep my car on track, keep it off from crashing and spinning. Nevertheless, in these last four races I just had a DNF. However, the other three races I managed to get my car to the finish I never finished on the lead lap, due to all the spinning and the pit stops for wing change, on races that were not much longer than 75km.

At Matarka, South Africa, I only found speed in the warm up session. So, my main goal for the two races was to try to get the extra point for the fastest lap. On race 1, while trying to achieve my goal, I smashed my front wing three times against the armco barriers, which forced me to pit also three times for a wing change. Ironically, on race 2, the first time I made contact with the wall I was forced to retire.

At Blumbey, Australia, I never found any speed. Especially, at the very very very very fast long 6th gear first corner. I finished both races but as the last man standing. On race 1 I even managed to get to 13th after turn 1 carnage. But then, a couple of laps later I was punted from behind at turn 3 and damaged my front wing. On rainy race 2 I just had some problems keeping the car off from spinning.

In the end, I left these rounds still with no points in the standings. On the other hand, the defending champion, who went to Matarka with 0 points had a wake up call and left Blumbey leading the drivers points standings. As far the teams standings are concerned, two teams (Lola MasterCard and Pro Racing) have already scored enough points to clinch a spot on the next season's roster.

Now, the series heads back to the Northern Hemisphere, to the second, and last, European round of the series. The event will be held at Alastaro, Finland, after the test drivers of the current teams found that the track surface from Rosberg Circuit wasn't suitable and safe for the series to held a 300km race there. Alastaro, this small and tight Finnish track seems to suit my driving style. I just hope that I can prove it by scoring my first points of the season.

This is it for now. I'm looking forward to read more about your seasons

Cheers.