3 races yesterday and some great, close Z8 action.
I think by now we can start calling
Wayne Gratiot "Mr. Consistency", three starts and three straight 5th place finishes. 👍
cgg comes in as the new phenomenon and takes home 1st, 1st and 2nd (leading 15 of 16 laps). 👍
Race #10, however, saw the most amazing finish yet in the short history of the Z8 Club.
Pitorsk arrived for the final race of the night as an unknown dark horse, and stole the win in a most epic manner. That has just become one my favorite laps ever. And
Pitorsk drove very honest and fair, always being mindful of his opponents.
Not since Michael Schumacher won from the pits at the 1998 British Grand Prix have I seen anything like this.
But that is just what
Pitorsk did, he entered the pits from the lead while
cgg kept going on the start/finish straight.
While Schumacher won comfortably by +22.465 seconds back in 1998,
Pitorsk's winning margin
ended up as a mere
0.295 of a second!. Watch below for the photo finish.
First off,
Pitorsk had a brilliant start off the line going from 6th to 4th by the entry to turn 1;
Then he might have braked a bit too early for he was tagged from behind by an unsuspecting
WheelerTurner;
Pitorsk went off the track and let everyone through (checking for damage?), rejoining in last place;
Four corners later
Pitorsk took advantage of
Maximus mistake in the Ford Curve and also overtook
gurizzi in the process, for
gurizzi had to take avoiding actions and slow down considerably;
Up now then to his original starting position of 6th once again.
Pitorsk then proceeded to overtake
myself by passing cleanly and perfectly on the inside of the Hatzenbach-Bogen straight;
Into the Nordschleife section now and
Pitorsk quickly reeled
WheelerTurner in and passed him when
Turner lost grip and position on the track;
Up into 4th now.
Here is
Pitorsk perfectly lining up
qken for a move up into 3rd;
So, only
Goofy and
cgg ahead now, and
Pitorsk continued to soldier on forwards.
He steadily gained on the pair for the next 2-3 minutes until seeing them both
from within 50m of himself;
When the trio approached the Karussell only
Pitorsk managed to hold the most ideal line,
cgg went far wide into the right (may have even gone off the tarmac) while
Goofy spun towards the left hand side.
Pitorsk subsequently passed
Goofy exiting the Karussell, but
cgg held onto the lead (for a while);
A few moments later
cgg went wide again between Hohe Acht and Wipperman, and
Pitorsk
stealthed his way into the lead!
Three corners later still, and
cgg fought back barging his way into the lead once more;
Pitorsk decided to bide his time for a while behind
cgg, stalking him brilliantly (without being
over-aggressive).
Finally on the long straight between Döttinger Höhe and Tiergarten,
Pitorsk retook the lead with
Goofy observing the events unfolding in front of him;
When exiting the Nordschleife and rejoining the Grand Prix circuit
Pitorsk made the crazy decision to dive into the pitlane, with the chequered flag waiting for him just 250m ahead!
cgg gunned it down the straight but it wasn't enough (you can see
Pitorsk in the pits);
Chequered flag being waved for
Pitorsk, with
cgg and
Goofy crossing the proper finish line. How very fitting that this amazing event played out right underneath the BMW logos, this being the BMW Z8 Club. You couldn't make this up if you tried;
Pitorsk had won the race from the pits! With a car wearing some battle scars in the rear. It can't have been at 100% performance. I have never seen anything like it.
From dead last to winning the race from the pits. I take my hat off to you,
Pitorsk.
You drove responsibly and with a very cool head. People around you made mistakes but you kept it together and you raced smart, but also showed a lot of respect out there by not performing crazy maneuvers and/or kamikaze overtakes.
Many lesser racers would have exited the race when they found themselves in last place and things looking hopeless. But you went fast and never gave up. 👍
I'm proud to have participated in such a race. I hope to see you in the Z8 again.
*Standings will be updated soon..
8
!
because of changing schedule or no upfront schedule..... 
