WD 3class Brianza "The lonely victory"

[baristabrian]

Team Barista's Brian Farmer takes a long and lonely victory at Brianza GP! (no relation)
Due to the holiday weekend, and I suspect the running of the Indy 500, the World division had an extremely small grid today, 4 to be exact. But those 4"hard core" simmers came to battle this slippery track and battle they did. Brian Farmer was the sole P1 runner with the rest of the field all driving P2. In the post race interview Brian stated he thought he had the race in the bag, but it turned out to be a much tougher task than he could have imagined. Starting from the pole you see, Brian did not make a particularly good start. However Steen Franta made an excellant start and had P1 by the 1st corner.


Brian followed Steen for 1 lap waiting for his tires and brakes to heat up and then made his move into the braking zone at the 1st chicane on lap 2.


This was a short lived gain however as he lost it in the 2nd chicane and crashed hard into the outside wall.



This is where it gets interesting. By the time he made it to the pits, he was so flusterd he forgot to tell the crew no fuel and no tires. So, he sits and sits and sits...after new tires, full fuel, and massive damage repair he finally hits the pit exit a full 1:25.00 behind the leeder who was right on his tail about to put him a lap down. Just to instill more confidence in his driver, his crew chief reminds him to "be carefull, we couldnt fix everything"... SO, can a P1 car a min and a half behind with an ill handling car catch up to a very fast P2 by the end of a 90 min race? The answer is...Just barely.

Elsewhere, now running 3rd Hein Howeling has this huge crash on lap 8, and just a few min later had another one. The 2nd one ending his race permanently.





A little furhter back in the field Joe Owens is caught out under braking for the very tight and slippery 1st chicane. This would catch many of us out repeatedly all thru the race. In fact it would ultimately have a bearing on the final outcome...When pushed on the matter one of Joes crew members revealed that Joe had been complaining of brake bias issued all weekend.



And...as luck would have it (mine that is) after pushing and pushing for 48 gut wrenching laps, and getting within 1 sec of Steen Franta he makes a tiny little error on the exit of that dreaded 1st chicane, gets a little loose and I was able to pounce.



Then just 2 corners later out of what I can only assume was frustration Steen makes a bonzai move into the 2nd chicane taking it what looked nearly flat, and missing me by a mere layer of paint splatters himself all over the outside guardrail.



A few sec later my engineer came over the radio and said "youve got it, your the only one left. Park it and save the motor". I belive there would have been about 5 laps remaining.

Very sorry for the poor turn out, but a HUGE thanks to all who turned out and braved this torturous track.

Server Replay

No web based report possible as the checkered was not reached to generate the report.
But the text based results are below:

1 Brian Farmer;;Team Barista EX264 P1;Lola Judd EX264 #26;LM-P1;48 laps
2 Steen Franta;;Franta Gruppe ARX-01B P2;Acura ARX-01B #61;LM-P2;48 laps
3 Hein Houweling;;ILMS PC60 Judd P2;Pescarolo Judd P2 #632;LM-P2;7 laps
4 Joe Owens;TeamUK PC60 Judd P2;Pescarolo Judd P2 #04;LM-P2;7 laps

Standings