MoE Season 3, Round 5 - 6hrs of Blackwood GP

[PaulC2K]

The penultimate round of Masters of Endurance was held last weekend at Blackwood GP.
In qualifying both cars finished in 2nd place in their class, with the GT1 car putting in an identical time to the pole time, but later in the sessions. At the end of the 6 hour race the GT1 car came home in first place over a laps clear of 2nd place while the GT2 car was unfortunate to finish in 3rd place.
Congratulations to all the drivers who took part and thanks to all who helped out along the way.

Standings - GT1
1) Mercury Racing - 187pts
2) #low-racing - 180pts
3) F1rst Racing - 152pts

Standings - GT2
1) CoRe Racing - 228pts
2) Mercury Racing - 183pts
3) Triple 7 Racing - 143pts

[BREAK ARTICLE]

The penultimate round of Masters of Endurance has recently finished, and thankfully this time without too much trouble, but not quite as perfect as hoped.
Qualifying went well, after the 2 sessions Bawbag put in an identical time to that set by title rivals #low-racing in the first round, and in accordance with the series rules saw #low take pole and Mercury GT1 would occupy the 2nd spot on the front row. In GT2 Bio also brought the car home in 2nd place, so a good start for things to come.

Unfortunately when it came to starting the race, the series tracker wouldnt work and help wasnt around to fix this, things finally got underway 90min later than scheduled on a serperate tracker. As soon as the lights went green bawbag was able to start attacking and within half a lap had managed to overtake #low and would start to distance himself from the cars behind and focus on the race ahead. In GT2 things also went smoothly, Duck was at the wheel and after losing a little ground on the lead GT2 car of Cyber Racing he started to close the gap down lap by lap, eventually getting himself right behind their FXR. Unfortunately with the characteristics of the 2 cars and the improved specs of the car from the previous round, it was hard to stick with the car coming out of the slower corners due to it having 4WD and down the straight they were the same speed too, so oppertunities were very sparse and those that did appear were usually due to GT1 cars coming through and the chances were spoiled.

At the 2hr mark Bio was due to make his first pit-stop of the day having taken over for Duck, unfortunately the pit-stop settings werent correct and as the car made it pit no fuel was added to the car and only tyre and damage were done. This required a 2nd pit-stop the next lap, and yet another set of tyres were put on the car. The cost of this small mistake meant we'd lost almost a full lap of the 80sec lap track, and this would prove to be a gap too big to recover from.
At the halfway mark the GT1 car had managed to put a 1 lap lead on the rest of the class, and stints from Jonesy and Rooble had gone smoothly and unfortunately there isnt really much that can be said about that.
As the final 3hrs of the race went on, there was no change in positions and no incidents to talk about, infact the whole race seemed to be incident free with very few disconnections or crashes, and only 1 penalty was given during the event. Quite a contrasting round from last months 24hr race which was filled with controvercial incidents before the round have even begun.

The 1st place for the Mercury GT1 car saw the lead extended to 7pts over #low who finished in 2nd place just ahead of F1rst Racing. Unfortunately in GT2 the championship was inevitably decided with CoRe stretching their lead to 45pts, and with 40pts for a victory would be impossible to beat. At the same time, the title of runner-up was finalised, as a 40pt gap seperated Mercury from 3rd placed Triple 7 Racing, and would require a DNF from us and a win for them to go equal on points, however previous results would go in our favour.
So our congratulations to CoRe on winning a well earned GT2 class championship, its been a closely faught battle and one we (as a team) feel should have been much closer than it ever really was, too many silly mistakes have cost us over the season while they've proved their consistancy on the track would always keep them 1 step ahead. Eventually we'll mix tortoise and hare, hopefully the better parts of each (knowing us, we'll be going slow and take frequent naps!).

Next month see's the nailbiter of the final round of the season, with everything to play for in GT1 class as we head to Kyoto National, this should see another close battle as there are a good mixture of high and low-speed corners coupled with nearly all of the 3km oval track as a straight providing perfect overtaking opportunities if the occasion arrises.