Supercar Challenge - Ferrari Challenge Series - 348 Challenge Season
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Event No 5 - Season Finale : June 6th, 2010 - 20:00 GMT - L'Autodromo Internationale del Mugello - RACE RECAP
I want to thank everybody who participated both in the 5th and final round of the Ferrari 348 Challenge Series from Mugello as well as all 19 of you who have taken part at some point during this season. I've had a wonderful time putting these races together and have enjoyed the organization and planning almost as much as the racing itself. I would also like to take this time to express my appreciation for the clean racing and good sportsmanship experienced throughout these events. You have all proven yourselves to be a worthy crew who have as much appreciation for fair racing as one would expect in the real world on a real track. And my hat's off to the lot of you. Well done.
QUALIFYING: 2 laps - conditions 50% dry/wet chosen at random
I flipped a coin and heads meant it was wet qualifying for the second time this season. I was able to set a relatively clean lap but unfortunately it lacked precision and could have been quicker. None-the-less, I think others took it very conservatively and I ended up 4th on the grid. The 3 Aliens in the field proved they're truly in a league of their own.
1) - Mhailwood - Steve Soper - 2:03.57
2) - new_soul - UKOG - 2:03.79
3) - mhm66 - enzo - 2:03.89
4) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 2:05.67
5) - MannyMoenjack1 - Jackrabit Racing - 2:06.74
6) - SimcoeAce - Mad Dogs - 2:06.95
7) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 2:07.32
8) - arvore - Mandolin Club R - 2:07.57
9) - kemp1010 - MX - 2:08.54
10) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 2:09.22
11) - frawe - Frawe - 2:10.62
12) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 2:11.03
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RACE 1 (Feature Race): - 20 Laps - Dry
Of all 5 events in this series, 10 races in all, I found the feature race at Mugello to be the most intense, physically grueling and hotly contested race of all. I'm embarrassed to admit, a warm and humid afternoon combined with a G27 and Force-Feedback turned up to maximum took their toll on me. I actually had to change clothes after this race, such was the mental and physical workout I endured. I had been sweating up a storm and my backside was completely soaked.
I started the feature race 4th on the grid and I think all three cars in front of me and the next two behind me all had a good, clean start. Braking into the first corner, I thought Henrik went a bit wide and I took the inside line. Although from his video, it clearly shows we had some minor contact. From mine, there was none initially. Either way we were jostling for position and from both videos it seems pretty clean. But in my 1st video at the 25 second (race timer) mark, there is some weird lag between new_soul and mhm66 where new_soul's car shoots backwards for a moment and mhm momentarily disappears. At this point, I wasn't sure who was where.
When I looked back a few seconds later, I saw two different cars right on top of me and wasn't sure what happened to Henrik but assumed at the time that the lag from new_soul had knocked him off the track.
At the end of lap 1, I found myself in 3rd with MHailwood and new_soul likely already well out of reach and Simcoeace drafting me down the straight. I knew I would be a bit vulnerable on the straight as I had decided not to go maximum low/high with my ride height in order to make the car more compliant over curbs and for better traction in the wet. But it proved a bit inconvenient when other cars seemed to be pulling me in like a vacuum. Just as I was noticing Hailwood off the road in the braking zone, I got whacked from behind by a cold Canadian wind and lost about 7~8 seconds getting back on the road. Biggles was good enough to wait for me but I was more dismayed to see Manny, my main points competitor, go sailing past me. Just a few moments later, Manny himself made a mistake and ran a bit wide exiting Borga San Lorenzo and I was able to make a somewhat risky pass before turning into Casanova.
I momentarily missed a shift exiting Palagio and it allowed Manny to close up on me and he was able to make a run down into Bucine. I stuck to the inside and much to my relief, he went a bit long and ran out of road and I went about trying to work my way forward. I was having a great 3-way battle with Kemp & FINGERSANDTHUMBS on lap 3 but once on the main straight, I began to regret my setup decision as they were pulling away from me at a frightening rate. And unfortunately, at the beginning of lap 4, I still got sucked into their draft, left my braking too late and unfortunately I knocked fingers off the road, similar to what Biggles had done to me two laps earlier.
I tried to keep moving and find a good spot on the track where I wasn't in the way. By the time Fingers had caught up at passed me, I was back down in 9th spot. Where as before my bone headed move, we, together with Kemp, had been battling over the 3rd-4th-5th, spot.
And once again, my main rival in the championship was ahead. I wanted to kick myself.
A new 3-way battle resumed between myself, Fingers and Rhino ahead. This time, I made sure to be more vigilant. And Rhino's missing rear bumper was a clear indicator to watch my distance.
(I had a lot of fun reviewing the video).
At the end of lap 4, Rhino and I were side by side all the way from the entrance of Bucine to the apex of San Donato. Great Stuff. 👍 Having the inside line, I managed to get by him and at the end of lap 5, I was closing in on Fingers and coming around Correntiao when I saw Manny off and coming back on the track. I'm ashamed to admit, I was actually...THRILLED.
And at that point, I became rather desperate to get around Fingers. He tried hard to break me from using his draft but my lack of speed down the straight made staying in his air a necessity and after some jostling, I managed to take the inside line going into the next corner and made it stick.
Next in line was Arvore and I managed to take that one when he braked a bit early for Correntiao and was relieved that I now had two cars in between my rear and Manny. Some 2.5 seconds up the road was Biggles and the 'old man' managed to make this one more difficult than I had imagined.
👍 (Well done). Although not before Arvore let me know he wasn't about to just roll over for me and he nearly piqued me at the beginning of lap 7! 👍
I was able to get by Biggles without much drama but I was then desperate to put some distance between us before I reached the main straight. And i nearly lost it coming around Arrabbiata2, which allowed him to close up on me into the next corner. And sure to be true, at the start of lap 9, he was drafting by me down the main straight and was fast enough to make it sick.
👍 Two corners later and the lucky guy even did some off road riding and managed to hold position. But two corners later, I tried the same pass I did on Manny (Part II) and again, managed to make it stick. In both cases, Manny and Biggles showed more sense than Webber.
Coming down the straight to start lap 10, I had a gap to Biggles behind of ~ 1.00 second and I wondered if it would be enough. But he had only closed up to .7 by the braking zone and I knew at that point that I was 'free' and set off after Kemp, about 10 seconds up the road.
I'm editing the next 4 laps out of video which is just me doing laps on my own in pursuit of Kemp. At the start of lap 15, Kemp was about 1.5 seconds in front of me and I had Arvore about 7.5 seconds behind. I knew new_soul and Henrik were far out of touch but I thought I could probably get around Kemp. And it was to prove much tougher than I would have imagined.
👍 Toward the end of lap 15, he got up on the curbs, briefly lost control, and I thought I would have easy work of things. But this was a mistake. He quickly regained his footing and we went through Bucine, down the main straight, around San Donato and finally into Luco, side by side, with Kemp edging me out. (Great stuff
) I remained in close pursuit through to lap 16, about .25 off going down the main straight, with Kemp driving the wheels off his 348 and trying to prevent me from drafting, which he did.
At this point, the racing was great but Arvore was slowly closing the gap and I had no way of knowing how close behind him Manny was. So I tried to put the pressure on and force Kemp into a mistake. But I was able to get by him braking into Scaperia, a bit of a surprise. But I'll take it. Not to be outdone, he passed me one more time down the main straight going into lap 18. But braking for the corner, I was having none of it and took a hard inside line and made it stick. Great battle. 👍
At that point I brought it home but on the last lap, I pushed and actually achieved my fastest lap of the race. A bit stupid there but I had a good feeling for the track and the corners finally seemed to be flowing as they should. So I'm at least satisfied that I achieved my fastest lap (1:58.65) without the benefit of a draft. And it was only a little over a second off Henrik.
Well done. Bloody FANTASTIC race!
* Additional Note. Sadly, MHailwood had to leave us for 'work' so we'll put his RTD off as a mechanical failure and unfortunately, it seems frawe was booted from the lobby.
Feature Race Results:
1) - new_soul - UKOG - 1:57.79 - 25
2) - mhm66 - enzo - 1:57.31 - 21
3) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 1:58.65 - 16
4) - kemp1010 - MX - 1:59.70 - 13
5) - arvore - Mandoline Club R - 1:59.56 - 11
6) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 1:59.80 - 10
7) - MannyMoenjack1 - Jackrabit Racing - 1:58.90 - 9
8) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 1:59.75 - 8
9) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 2:00.83 - 7
10) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 2:02.15 - 6
11) - frawe - Frawe - RTD - 5
12) - Mhailwood - Steve Soper - RTD - 4
Total Race Time: 39 minutes, 43 seconds
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* More video will be linked as soon as it's processed.
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RACE 2 (Sprint Race): 15 Laps - Wet
To put it mildly, the Sprint race didn't start off so well. Although I managed to miss much of the banging, there seemed to be some hard contact and a few unfortunate incidents at the beginning of the race. But sometimes, this is racing too and none of it was intentional. At one point, on lap one, coming out of Peggio Secco, I had Kemp coming up one side, new_soul coming up the other and mhm directly behind me.
I was actually knocked off the road but it didn't slow me down too much and I just barely missed Bullie, coming back onto the track.
Coming up the straight, approaching Casanova, I see Manny spinning and actually facing me in the middle of the road. It seems most of the field was able to avoid him and I wondered what had happened as it seemed an odd place to go off.
Only a few seconds later, it looked like Fingers got up on the curb exiting Savelli and spun, taking new_soul out with him. As I struggled to take in the chaos ensuing all around me, I was able to take stock in the fact that I was only 2/3 through the first lap and was up to 4th place. But there was still a long way to go.
However, at the end of lap 1, I see Manny leaving the game. This was a real dilema for me. He and I were neck and neck in the championship and I wondered for a moment if I should stop. But it would have completely destroyed the grid formation and it would have been unfair to everybody else. None-the-less, I had a bit of a cloud hanging over me after that incident as I didn't want to the final standings decided this way.
About 1/3 of the way through lap 2, I was closing fast on Rhino but was too far adrift to attempt a pass into Casanova. I backed off and then tried to outbrake him on the inside into Scaperia. But I was a bit too conservative, braking and turning in too early, allowing him to get around me on the outside. I'm not sure what happened but braking for Bucine, I think he put a wheel on the wet grass and was off.
From there I had Simcoeace about 2.5 seconds in front of me in the 3rd spot and I set off in pursuit. But not before a hard charging Avore put a scare into me, coming darn close down the straight at the beginning of lap 3. At the start of lap 4, I was hounding Biggles and managed to get by him, taking advantage of a bobble he had coming out of Borge. A few corners later, I saw him get a penalty and knew I was momentarily safe from pursuit.
At this point, I was in 2nd place, I knew mhm was much faster than me in front, but I also knew, somewhere behind, new_soul would be charging through the field and I was determined to stay in front. I'm going to edit my video of the wet race by skipping from lap 5, through to lap 8 (my fastest lap) and then again directly to lap 10 to show my red face. New_soul had been in pursuit and was closing the gap, but I noticed he had an off before the main straight. I was so excited by the prospect that I might actually consolidate 2nd place that I forget to brake and drove straight off the road.
By the time I had gotten back on the road (6~7 seconds later) new_soul was happily driving past into 2nd. From there, I jump ahead again to lap 13 and to the end of the race, as there wasn't much exciting happening in between, with both new_soul and I making the occasional and embarrassing mistake.
Sprint Race Results:
1) - mhm66 - enzo - 2:02.77 - 13
2) - new_soul - UKOG - 2:03.22 - 10
3) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 2:03.97 - 8
4) - arvore - Mandoline Club R - 2:05.30 - 6
5) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 2:06.47 - 5
6) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 2:06.39 - 4
7) - kemp1010 - MX - 2:06.16 - 3
8) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 2:05.89 - 2
9) - frawe - Frawe - 2:07.95 - 1
10) - GTP_bullie77 - RTD - 0
11) - MannyMoenjack1 - RTD - 0
Total Race Time: 31 minutes, 37 seconds
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Final (combined) Results from Round 5:
1) - new_soul - UKOG - 35
2) - mhm66 - enzo - 34
3) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 24
4) - arvore - Mandolin Club R - 17
5) - kemp1010 - MX - 16
6) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 13
7) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 12
8) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 11
9) - MannyMoenjack1 - Jackrabit Racing - 9
10) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 6
11) - frawe - Frawe - 5
12) - Mhailwood - Steve Soper - 4
I don't think there was ever any doubt who the top 3 in this event would be. As usual, well done to new_soul and mhm66! 👍 But MHailwood's untimely departure meant 3rd was up for grabs. And lack of practice had me worried that I would be severely outclassed and outgunned in this event. So it's with great relief that I was able to consolidate 3rd in both races, although this was undoubtedly aided by people leaving (specifically both MHailwood and Manny). Great job also from Arvore who secured a strong 4th place and well done to Kemp who was looking to secure a solid podium spot in the feature event until but 2 laps from the end. Good too on the 'old man' who managed to put in a great result with no practice at all in more than week. And a good showing from Fingers and new man, Rhino. 👍
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348 Challenge Season - Final Point Standings:
1) - mhm66 - Enzo - 136
2) - new_soul - UKOG - 131
3) - jjaisli - Forza G27 - 103
4) - MannyMoenjack1 - Jackrabit Racing - 92
5) - Mhailwood - Steve Soper - 65
5) - Simcoeace - Mad Dogs - 65
7) - vompatti - ILRT - 55
8) - arvore - Mandolin Club R - 45
9) - GTP_bullie77 - Lusitania Racing - 42
10) - kemp1010 - MX - 34
11) - frawe - Frawe - 32
12) - GTP_Hun - T & L Team - 29
13) - FINGERSANDTHUMBS - Creative - 26
14) - L449KUX - TheRacingElite - 22
15) - Rhino_WJB - Team Z - 11
15) - drivatar - team forza - 11
17) - turnupdaheat - ScudEire - 9
18) - Hairy-Dave - Time for Tea - 5
19) - GTP_Devie - Devie Team Racing - 4
Congratulations to mhm66, the quick man from Denmark, winner of the 1994 Ferrari 348 Challenge Season. 1st runner up goes to a very quick new_soul, who managed to pull in more 'fastest laps' than anybody but was done in by some unfortunate bad luck mid way through the season. My own consistency, (the benefit of showing up for every race) has me in 3rd on the podium. But clearly a long way off from the 2 guys in front.
And so, all good things must come to an end. And here we must close the 348 Challenge series. I think this event has been somewhat of a watershed event for this group. Everybody who took part really rose to the challenge and engaged in tough but fair racing, worthy of a GTP tag and certainly deserving of respect and admiration.
My thanks go out to GTPlanet, for providing a medium for making these events possible. 
And to the folks at Eutechnyx, who at least currently have by far, the best SIM racer available on the PS3--a hidden gem which provides an environment for these matches that just isn't possible with any other current title. :tup:And finally to the players themselves, who have distinguished themselves for their time, their speed and their sense of fair play! 
Tak!
Paldies!
Kiitos!
Obrigado!
Gracias!
Danke!
Merci!
& Thank You!
I hope to see you all in two weeks for the start of the Ferrari 355 Challenge season!
* more video will be posted soon!
The final race is upon us!
he spun in that corer and was right in front of me.
