Brazil - Interlagos

Interlagos news and FINAL STANDINGS summerleague After a short week, all drivers showed up at the China GP. Shanghai circuit is a real challenging for the teams and drivers. Amateur: For the last race PabloTassano got pole position with RicardoFerreira on second. Spiros completed top three. For the race RicardoFerreira gave up racing alone, giving Spiros an easy win. Don_Huio takes the lead. (click image to enlarge) Expert: Glen again got pole position, with his rival veldt00 only on P9. There were 9 drivers within 1s. For the race Glen suffered some problems, but he still managed to win. A very good result by Don_Huio: 2nd. Veldt finished third. A strange exit from Taurus (click image to enlarge) Don_huio leads after stop one (heat 2) (click image to enlarge) Race report by A_C_Muller: Brazil, the fastest race track for this Panda! Perhaps it was the fact that I got my custom car skin completed intime for the last race of the F1C calendar or that I realy like Interlagos. I got a set-up from a fellow team mate that was rocketing fast! He could of captured the pole for a second time, but he was busy. My race alone was ideal to have no traffic with and for once I made no errors (as in crashes or lost car parts). I had no spins at all, just the odd late braking situation. I opted for a one-stop pit strategy with soft compound tires that seems to of paid off for me! For my first full Rookie year as both a Driver + Team Owner, this was an excellent season for me finishing in 7th place of 33 Drivers & nearly 6th had I not made an error at Spa. I eagerly look forward to the start of the 2009 F1C Season! Race report by TKR_Kiwi: Pre Race check my antivirus wasn't due to kick in. lol Did a lot of practing, pretesting a setup, lap after lap till was happy with a setup. checked fuel loads,tyres as had to as knew my race alone had me at 30+ secs. Race loaded setup,fuel,checked tyres, did a few warm up laps,to check my game pad. all good,yip cats outside,yip and scratching the door and not my leg. sat at start line in my race alone,time to think,but not much,as count down began,then the five red lights ...go,go,go off I raced,a good steady pace was found at the 10th lap,line and rhythm are coming back cool,I thought to my self got passed first corner after the finish line,not sure what happened,but I spun,(scratches back of head) anyways got back on track settled in again till I hit the 20 min mark,guess what...yep a black screen lol stopped the car,best I could,played around with cords for at least 15 sec,the screen come back on,there I'm sitting at start/finish line bemused with the screen ,continued to race with a rye smile upon my face,car was handling well,my pace grew faster, each lap getting back into the line and rhythm again about the 40 min mark and yes,you guessed it,screen went black AGAIN!? omg ,quick thinking again,and share luck,I was in the back straight,stopped the car best I could,played around with cords,turning screen off/on finally it come back on,wasting at least 30-45sec there I was at the start/finish line again (deju ve , lol) off I went to finish the rest of the race out with approx 10 liters,a few minor scrapes on the car,no mechanical,structural repairs for my Team Panda mechanics. Summary End of season race for F1C RH mod,at Brazil enjoyable,fun,I hope more from this side of world will join,so I don't get 30+ sec race alone penalty lol To all those behind the the f1rst racing league A very big Thank you,to those that raced in the league,well done and see you again next season/soon (psst watch out,hopefully,I'll have my momo up and running) To those I practiced with,gave tips/helped Thank you{You know who you all are....smiles},especially Team Panda,who now I'm a proud team member. TYVM .Form, your roving reporter from down under, Kiwi ;) Big thanks to TKR_Kiwi and A_C_Muller for the race report. The summary of our winners in both classes, team championship and country championship: Drivers (expert): 1. veldt000 2. GLEN147 3. Bryan Drivers (amateur): 1. PabloTassano 2. KLGreene 3. danicristian Teams: 1. Lowland Racing Team 2. EU Racers 3. KitenLentejosRacing Country: 1. Germany 2. Netherlands 3. Romania Big congrats to all!! I would like to thank all of you who raced here and for the great season we had. I made some small graphics of the development in the driver-championships: And some facts about this years league. Did you know that... - George_Prix and Jeeves always qualified on pole? - Eight drivers raced all events? - PabloTassano, viking_89 and veldt000 also finished all races? Now some things for next season(s)! We won't run a F1C league this winter We will poll next year if we do another F1C summer league (if an admin with enough spare time is available) For this winterleague we will run a Porsche league again (keep your eyes on your mailbox, our forum and the TYKA website And lost but not least: a big thanks to Tygernoot for his great efforts in developing Tyka and CasH for his support. Your reporter, Veldt000

1. Glen147   1. Spiros   2. Don_Huio   2. Hmelo   3. veldt000   3. danicristian

China - Shanghai

Only EXP championship to be decided... After a short week, all drivers showed up at the China GP. Shanghai circuit is a real challenging for the teams and drivers. Amateur: Cheytac got pole position by only 0.005 in front of Danicristian, the closest pole this year. Champion PabloTassano managed to snatch third position. For the race, polesitter, Cheytac didn't show up, for whatever reason. Danicristian drove a very solid race and took the victory! With cAsTeL following him closely: 10s margin. cAsTeL had some trouble in qualify (1.2 behind), so he did a great job in the race. OKHYLA moved up from 7th in qualify to last podium place, another stunning race. Veldt had a great start, but chickens in first corner (click image to enlarge) Expert: Ofcourse Glen got pole position again. Other front row starter was veldt000. Good old Hell-Lo parked his car at third place on the starting grid. New comer, Schumi91, took 5th place. Glen also crossed the finish line first, with a big gap to schumi91, more than one minute behind. Bryan had some trouble during the race and finished closely behind KostasCB1. Championships: Expert: Glen again closed the gap to veldt000. Veldt000 only needs to finish the race at Brazil or do a great qualify and not loose more than three points to Glen. Bryan is certain of the third place: great effort!! After a good qualify and race Gastel can still move up one place. Amateur: Danicristian, cAsTeL and viking_89 are still "fighting" for third place. It will be a nice season finish :) Teams: Congrats to Lowland Racing Team for their victory in the team-championship. On behalf of their non-racing team captain, CasH, many many thanks. Especially to Neela and Gastel for their consistent races! EU Racers got their new driver in too late (Glen147) else they would have fought for first position too. KitenlentejosRacing ended up third, it is impossible for Dacia 1310 Racing to close the gap in the last race. Country: It seems that Canada backed off a little for third position in the country championship. Romania are third after the China GP, but the gap to Scotland is very very small. So can Scotland overtake the Romanian drivers?? Race report by A_C_Muller: The 2008 Chinese F1 GP taking place online at The Home of The PANDA! I Qualified my usual place in a short field of racers - near the end. I was super happy to see my team mate Cheytac had captured the pole position for his first time and for the team. With the odd mistake here and there, I again finished third on a heat race of 3 cars. I was hoping for a fellow driver to pit and overtake him, but as the laps clicked away I saw that this was not to be. My car managed to stick to the track except for the four times when I stepped on the gas a little too early or got on the brakes a tad too late. The fifth last turn is the one that gave me hard times. I ran wide into the kitty litter twice and onto the bumpy grass on it's exit. Other then that my race was pretty much eventless. Being at home for this Panda, I managed to repeat my best result with a seventh place finish. Now...onto Interlagos, one of my top five favourite tracks and this PANDA's fastest! Race report by TKR_Kiwi: Prerace: To meet myself in f1rst and race lol but alone,loaded fuel,stock setup,just tweaked the wings,soften the suspension,throw on hards. Race: Catching the end of the session, blowing out cobwebs, dust from his sauber. Sitting at the start, fueled for a no stopper on hard tyres, but twitchy fingers,sweaty palm and cat attacking my leg,,jumped the pre countdown, thinking I would be ok,reversed,back to start spot,sat and waited ....off the lights go race,race.... bugger a stop/go penalty, annoyed with cat and self lol, he went to pit, but missed the entrance (I was on the grass, last turn, looking right at it,why I didn't pit,then and there, meant, backing up, doing a 3 point turn almost.rofl) Decided to race on a few more laps,then pitted...wasting time. A slow steady pace was had throughout this race,still yet to find his rhythm and line,ho rah,ho rah the finish line.Phew only 2litres left and yes made it....My First Points After race/Summary: Just glad to get my first race,under my belt and finish without crashing or damaging the car and gain valuable points Party was found @ Panda headquarters, Race Team private events building, lucky for Kiwi his race suit> black and white looks very similar to the fancy dance party @ Pandas headquarters,he fitted in,without looking out of place, bumping into A_C_Muller,Team Captain at the bar,a few chats and goodies were offered *reporter heard free Bamboo,jet,Beach's, gym,training race track* and sore Kiwi without hesitation signing on the dotted line.... Big thanks to TKR_Kiwi and A_C_Muller for the race report. Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Glen147   1. danicristian   2. schumi91   2. cAsTeL   3. veldt000   3. OKHYLA

Japan - Fuji

First champion is there We raced around mount Fuji. There were some battles around the track, but it was a quite boring event (like real F1-season). Amateur: Hmelo did a great result in qualify and race. He got the triple: pole, fastest lap and of course the win! Well done! But more important this race, PabloTassano could get the championship. Maybe he raced with this in his head, losing 16 seconds to Hmelo. JVesga moved up from 7th in qualify to the last podium place. What a great effort!! JVesga starting his race to the podium (click image to enlarge) Expert: Glen and veldt000 had a good fight for pole position, Glen again ended up on top, this time only by 0.14s. They were closely followed by Taurus and minchia. For the race, nobody could keep up with the pace of Glen. He was about 0.5s faster a lap, until he got brake failure for the last three laps. Veldt000 could decrease the gap from 25s to 6s, until he suffered an engine-failure on the last straight: how much luck can you have! It looked like EU Racers didn't test their race setup, Taurus also had trouble with the brakes. As for LRT drivers Neela and gastel, it was more of the usual: playing the sand traps :P :D, but also finishing the race! PabloTassano finishes and is the champion!! (click image to enlarge) Championships: Expert: After the race veldt000 has a lead of 100 points over Glen, with 2 more races to go, neither driver can have a DNF. Bryan only has to finish one race to keep third position, because Taurus and Jeeves missed qualify for the China race. Amateur: Last report I told you PabloTassano could win the championship at Fuji. After a great performance he managed to finish FIRST in the championship, none of the drivers can overtake him with two races to go. WELL DONE AND CONGRATS TO YOU! The battle for third position is still going on: danicristian, cAsTeL and viking_89 are still in the race. KLGreene managed to hold on to 2nd place, even though he couldn't race last couple of tracks, also my congratulations to you. Results of PabloTassano: wins: 3 second: 6 third: 5 fourth: 1 pole: 1 Not one DNF, so if you are consitent and pretty fast you have a good change of winning the championship! Race report by A_C_Muller: Shades of real life F1 for this Panda. I used a previous set-up and altered it for the near 1.6Km long front stretch with a top speed of 360Km/hr. My start was lousy, for some reson I thought there was one more light to come up - but no! I fell back from second on the start to third. I was lucky to hold off the fourth place racer until - like real life F1 - I was spun going into the chicane. Wow, was I mad! This was the second time this Panda spun out with help from another in 2008. My screen then slowed down three or four times on my second lap and luckily always on a straightaway. I made up with my Panda Power and was able to keep behind me the leader. The distance i lost during the lap I made back on the front and I had to constantly change my position on the track as he tried to draft off of me. By the third lap I went too hot into the first turn, drove through the kitty litter, let two cars by and lost plenty of time. I had a few other minor errors but saved my mechanics hours of work by keeping all my original car parts intact. This Panda has learned to put extra fuel onboard for the Chinese/Panda Loving Grand Prix! TZA H1 ama on their way (click image to enlarge) Teams: Now that EU Racers miss top drivers Taurus, Jeeves and Crazyhorse, Lowland Racing Team only need a good finish from one of the drivers in two races, probably a good qualify result for Interlagos will do. Put the champagne in the cooler/refrigirator! minchia overlooking T1 (click image to enlarge) Country: The German drivers can alread arrange a party, the dutch need a miracle to gain 320 points in two races. On the other hand we still have the battle for 3rd position: Scotland, Romania and Canada are in for some stress for the Chinese and Brasilian grand prix! the fall of ING??? (driven byBryan) (click image to enlarge) Big thanks to Black Panda Racing teamcaptain A_C_Muller for the race report. lucky sod, veldt000, crossing the finishline (click image to enlarge) Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Glen147   1. Hmelo   2. veldt000   2. PabloTassano   3. Bryan   3. JVesga

Austria - A1-Ring

The replacement Because there was no time to properly test a Singapore circuit and also make a dat-file, we had to choose for another circuit. The poll decided that Singapore was to be replaced by A1-Ring. Amateur: Danicristian managed to get (his first?) pole position, a very good effort. PabloTassano followed closely (0.394s), while all other drivers were biting their dust, more than 1.5s behind. Danicristian couldn't make a win out of his front row start: DNF. PabloTassano drove a great race and took highest position on the podium. I hope for him he isn't afraid of heights :). Hmelo did a good performance after being way behind in qualify: 2nd position. OKHYLA moved from 6th to last position on the podium... let the champagne taste guys :) Expert: The two usual suspects took front row: Jeeves & Glen. Like in ama-division the gap to the other drivers was big: 1.2s to third qualifier minchia. From three to eleven the margin was 1.1s. A close battle for a good starting position. In the race bad luck stroke to minchia, again his internet connection suffered from lag, because of this veldt000 "hit" him. KostasCB1 did a remarkably good first race, moved up from 10th to 5th position. Jeeves didn't have his race, dropping to 7th place. Again Glen147 walked to the podium as the fastest driver, followed by Taurus and Bryan on a respectfull distance, but they had a great battle whole race, on the finish line only 0.3 seconds separates them with veldt000 a bit more than 2 seconds behind Bryan. Championships: Expert: Glen had a good weekend, closing down on veldt000 by more than 30 points. Because of his consitent season Bryan got third place. Jeeves and EU Racers team captain Taurus will have a nice fight for fourth position. Amateur: With a good performance on the Fuji circuti PabloTassano can win the championship! He already is leading by 63 points. The battle for third position is one where anything can happen. Viking_89, danicristian and cAsTeL are divided by only 4 points! KLGreene must sort out his technical problems (ISP) soon, else he will loose second position. JVesga and A_C_Muller can still switch positions in last three races. Race report by A_C_Muller: Due to this Panda spending holidays in Osterreich, the A-1 Ring is one of my top three favourite European Race Tracks. My bad luck struck once again for the Qual session as I braked a little early for the turns and worried I may cut corners. For the race the pole sitter went off into the kitty litter at the fourth last turn for two laps in a row. This gave me a chance to catch-up and pass him but soon found myself in his rear view mirror. The second time I was pasted, I was given a nudge in my left side pushing me to the left. It's ok, as some people drive like this - I just wish they would in real life. After overshooting the first turn, I went all the way to the wall and had to reverse two times as I could not steer out. I was losing time on laps I made errors on, but caught up on the ones the other racer had troubles on. Then by the end I could see him but was a little too far back to be in his exhaust heat plume. Then...he went off at the same corner and I never looked back. I was lucky as for the last few laps he told me he was short shifting due to putting in one lap less worth of fuel. Allthough only 10 racers had Qual, it was this Pandas Highest Ever result with a 6th place finish!!! I look forward to Fuji as it's a fast track like Monza, I think the Japanese like Pandas too?! Teams: With a theoretical maximum of 415 points to gain each race, EU Racers still have a change of winning the Team championship, but this very unlikely. KitenLentejosRacing now has a gap of 168 points to Dacia 1310 Racing, with their current form and amount of drivers, they will keep third position. For Black Panda Racing the Team Championship is over, they are very steady on 5th position, well done! Country: Germany will certainly win the Country Championship. They have three dedicated drivers (Bryan, Taurus and Neela) always scoring points. While the Dutchies have veldt000 and good old Gastel. They are a guarantee for points, but it will not be enough. Only "battle" here is between Romania and Scotland. Lonely runner Glen must gain 18 points in last three races. Big thanks to Black Panda Racing teamcaptain A_C_Muller for the race report. Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Glen147   1. PabloTassano   2. Taurus   2. Hmelo   3. Bryan   3. OKHYLA

Spa & Monza

The two greatest tracks For known reasons, the race-/news reports for the Belgium and Italian GrandPrix are late and combined. I also would like to thank all for their support. Amateur: Cheytac from Black Panda Racing did a great job in qualify for Spa: 2nd place. The top three was completed by KLGreene and PabloTassano, who else. For the race there were only four finishers. KLGreene had a big gap to PabloTassano and danicristian. While viking_89 is the fourth driver who finished, scoring important points. For the Monza GP two "old" drivers returned to the stage: George_Prix and Spiros, welcome back guys. They directly snatched the complete front row. PabloTassano, again, put his car in top three. It also lookes like A_C_Muller is getting closer and closer to the other drivers in qualify. Even beating viking_89. For the race there wore some difficulties in organising heat 1 (tzb), but lucky all went well in the end. George_Prix took the triple: pole, fastest lap and winning the race. Danicristian already is a familiar driver on the podium now, accompanied by Hmelo. PabloTassano did a good race, while KLGreene scored no points due to ISP trouble. Expert: Jeeves took pole again for the Spa GP, with Glen almost a second behind. Biggetje managed to end up third, with veldt000 only 0.007s behind. Jeeves couldn't race this one: virus at his computer (did CasH visit you??? :D) Glen had to race alone. Even with 60s handicap, he managed to win this one: wel done! Glen took poleposition for at the high speed Monza track, with veldt000 and home-driver minchia within a second. In heat1 we had a great race, only Glen had a lonely race. Veldt000 had a great fight with minchia, bryan and hell-lo. Too bad Hell-Lo suffered connection problems and Minchia lost his brakes. Veldt000 also had some problems: not enough fuel. After short-shifting last two laps by veldt000, Bryan managed to cross the finish-line with 0.6s ahead. Championships: Expert: After trouble for Jeeves and two good results, Bryan managed to pass Jeeves in the championship. Moving up to third position. Glen also had two, almost, perfect races, closing the gap a little to veldt000. Glen is hoping for a DNF for veldt000, else this championship is over. Amateur: Also in the ama-league, one of the championship-candidates suffered trouble. PabloTassano took over the lead from KLGreene. He now has an advantage of only 16 points. We are waiting for an exciting season finish! With his current form, it is almost sure that danicristian will take third position, but viking_89 still has him in sight. Race report by A_C_Muller (Spa): This Panda was hopeful for Spa, but I'd of needed a crystal ball! I started 3rd on the grid of three cars in our heat race. I rocketed past the other two cars, while just missing the back end of one and hoping I didn't jam one hard off the track to the left. After the old over-and-under into the first turn again I rocketed away from the others. Then the troubles began...at the top of EuRouge my car spun around two times to my knowledge, with a hard Bang! Luckily it was a car and not a barrier with no damage to my car whatsoever, wow! It took me until the end of the first lap to regain the lead. Though this was due to a McLaren going wide into the bus stop chicane and a Red Bull slamming into his side-pod due to lag. After two spins at Pouhon with one-two full rotations I again lost the lead and had to work hard to make-up for the lost time. After a few laps I again was in the lead and pulled away by a whopping 25-26 seconds! Other then a heat race win in Turkey, my custom Panda Powered BMW is last. On the exit of my one pit stop (start of lap 12) I again spun in Pouhon and was expecting a safe return to the track when i barely came in contact with a padded wall when, BANG! Both my front wing and front right wheel were ripped off my car. I went around for a few more laps when I ran wide, through the kitty litter and had my front left wheel ripped off! Using gear modulation, luck and spins in reverse I got across the finishing line. Next time I will do what "I" thought I should of done...stop on the front stretch a meter from the finishing line, wait for the race to end then drive arcoss it and save myself a DNF. I had this heat race "in the bag" & would of gotten 4th overall and a massive 25 points. I just hope (fingers crossed) that consuming Pasta for my Panda Powered BMW won't cause me to crash! Teams: EU Racers still have a change of winning the team-championship, but they will need some more luck. Dacia 1310 Racing is feeling the absence of KLGreene last race and the drivers of KitenLentejosRacing did a remarkable good job in the woods of Spa and Monza, they increased the gap to almost 60 points. Black Panda Racing hired a new driver (Frentzen127), they have a very good change to keep fifth place now. Country: I heard the German drivers already celebrated their victory at the Oktober-Fest in Munich :). I don't expect many changes for the country championship the coming races. Big thanks to Black Panda Racing teamcaptain A_C_Muller for the race report. And now off to the A1-Ring race in Austria... Ladies and Gentleman start your engines! :) Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Glen147 / Glen147   1. KLGreene/GeorgePrix   2. veldt000 / Bryan   2. PabloTassano/danic   3. Bryan / veldt000   3. danicristian/Hmelo

Albert Park - Australia

What a wet race :) For this wet race I expected a lot more contesters, but only the die-hards showed up. fastest LRT-driver: Bryan in action (click image to enlarge) Amateur: After his first victory Danicristian, now ended up empty handed. KLGreene and PabloTassano had another great fight for victory. Under difficult circumstances, only 11 seconds separates them. With a very good performance Hmelo celebrated his return with a podium finish. I want to point out the sportmanship showed by Viking_89. After accidently hitting A_C_Muller, he disputed him self. On his behalf: sorry again. This means A_C_Muller, of Black Panda Racing, did a great job in finishing this race. GLEN "pushing" veldt000 (click image to enlarge) Expert: After a very good qualify session by Bryan, he started third and also finished in this position. In qualify Jeeves and Glen did an one-two again, what else. For Glen the race ended too soon, after an engine failure. Jeeves had nothing to fear from the other drivers, what a pace he had! Almost 2s a lap faster than runner-up veldt000, who was on a 3 stop strategy. Bryan and veldt had a great fight during this race. The gap was less than 1 second at the finish line!       Jeeves heads for another victory (click image to enlarge) Championships: Expert: Jeeves moved up one spot again, but only has a three point advantage over Glen. Taurus and Bryan are in a good battle for 4th position, only 7 points separates them. Amateur: The old story. KLGreene and PabloTassano are still in for first position in the championship. For third place we have about 5 contesters: cAsTeL (246), viking_89 (242), danicristian (240), JVesga (228) and A_C_Muller (213) Teams: It seems that LowlandRacingTeam got their pace back, or at least know better how to race in the wet than EU Racers. For the "ama" Teams KitenLentejosRacing and Dacia 1310 Racing must do everything they can to keep or get third place. Black Panda Racing took hold of fifth position! Country: It looks like Germany are in for some celebrations, with drivers like Taurus, Bryan and Neela, it is almost impossible to close the gap for the Netherlands. Romania and Canada are almost equal in the standings, with Jeeves for Finland and Glen for Scotland closing down on them. Big thanks to Jeeves for the screenshots. ... again badluck for Glen: engine failure (click image to enlarge)     For the coming period, I will be less dedicated to my work as league administrator, due to private reasons. I have nothing to add about the circumstances, sorry for that. Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Jeeves   1. KLGreene   2. veldt000   2. PabloTassano   3. Bryan   3. Hmelo

Hungaroring - Hungary

A lot of DNF... When drivers agree upon a time for the race you must wait 30min for everybody to arrive. If somebody fails to write in the forum within 48hrs after qualify deadline, you don't have to wait! Having this said, ama heat1 should have waited for KLGreene and exp heat1 could have raced earlier, minchia didn't reply at all! Two articles from the championship-guide: 9.5 The participants have 7 full days to organize and run the race with other participants that are in your time zone region. Given the time zone factor, it should not be difficult to organize a time that suits all parties. We suggest you actively pursue the participants and compromise on the start time if you wish to avoid a DNS for lack of appropriate scheduling. We also suggest that you ensure a proper and frequently checked email addresses in your profile to allow other users to contact you. Contesters should react in the Heat Organisation Forum as soon as possible, but at the most within 48 hours of the deadline. If reacting later, they will have to accept the date and time others already agreed on. 9.8 Failure to reply to a heat organization thread within 48hrs of Qualification ending could, at the League Administrators discretion, result in you being completely removed from the Heat and given a DNS. Failure to respond should be reported to the League's Admin/Marshals as soon as possible after 48hrs has expired. Unless otherwise told by the League Admin, the race will take place, when those who have replied to the thread, agree upon. exp-Heat1 on its way (click image to enlarge) Amateur: After I told that danicristian could play a role in the championship he managed to get his victory! well done! KLGreene and PabloTassano had a very close race, only 0.5 difference at the finish line! The pack towards turn1 (click image to enlarge) Expert: Veldt managed to keep Glen147 behind him first 17laps, but after a lot of pressure and chasing by Glen he managed to do a great manouvre to pass veldt000. Only 6 drivers made it to the finish line. Veldt out braked Glen in turn1 (click image to enlarge) Race report from A_C_Muller: As this was my second race at the Hungaroring in a week...this Panda expected as good a turn-out as on my first outing. Nope! The set-up I had felt loose and it seemed like I was all over the track. The start for me was a sign of things to come. I took off well with the Mercedes Benz infront of me hardly moving. I tried to steer to the right but as I was busy looking down to make sure I was shifting at the correct time. Bang! Right into the back-end, with a ninety degree turn counter-clockwise for my car. Oddly enough my custom Panda Powered BMW suffered no damage at all. For the duration of the race my hard compound tires didn't seem to want to grip while my brakes seemed to come on strong late in the braking process. I had a few sight-seeing trips through the kitty litter but this was due to the syncronization problem. Also two spins were experienced after exiting the high speed left hand ninety degree turn, running a little wide, clipping the grass and overcorrecting. Perhaps third times the charm in Hungary with rF, who knows? This Panda is now looking forward to visiting the Southern Hemisphere. Biggetje on an alternative route (click image to enlarge) Championships: Expert: Taurus saw Jeeves pass him, due to a DNF. Bryan is on Taurus his tail now. Veldt000 still keeps his first place, but for how long? Amateur: The same story as last race. KLGreene increased the gap to PabloTassano, while danicristian is in a great form. Teams: Due to alot of DNF there isn't much changed at the top of the rankings. The "ama"-teams are in a great battle. We had 10 races now, and only 17 points devide Dacia 1310 Racing and KitenLentejosRacing. Country: Again Germany did a great race, widening to gap to almost 100points. Will there (finally) be another winner than The Netherlands? It sure looks like it! Romania, Canada and Scotland are in for great battle for third position. Big thanks to A_C_Muller for the reports. Glen passes veldt000 for second place (click image to enlarge) Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Jeeves   1. danicristian   2. Glen147   2. KLGreene   3. veldt000   3. PabloTassano

Hockenheim - Germany

not so close racing... Again no disputes, well done guys :) This makes me glad, less work for admins/marshals. After I posted news for GB race I received a good news report from Glen. You can read all about it NOW :). Amateur: It seems danicristian is going to take a role in the championship, finishing 2nd this time, after a bad qualify. KLGreene, again, moved to the highest podium position. With his main rival, PabloTassano, taking another walk to the podium ceremony. First three finishers were close, but than a pretty big gap to the other drivers. Some artwork by kf12006 (click image to enlarge) Expert: Jeeves, again, took poleposition with 0.5s advantage over GLEN147. Don_Huio managed to get a great lap in for qualify: less than a second behind "alien" Jeeves. Biggetje returned to stage and showed his pace in qualify, only qualify. For the race only three drivers from heat 1 managed to cross the finish line: Jeeves first, followed closely by Glen147. Minchia finished third in heat 1, but after a good race by veldt000, minchia had to do with fourth overall, a good effort. In heat 2, there wasn't much excitement after first round of pitstops. Neela controlling the pressure from behind (click image to enlarge) Race report from gastel: TzB heat 3 EXP: the fuel heat Poor Ambadar hit the wall early race and kf12006 in a latter stage, but he managed to bring his car home on three wheels (picture 1). For the rest I only saw myself chasing down Neela with distances varying from less than a second  to about 10 seconds depending on mistakes made by one or the other. But all race long I was only permitted to have a closer view on Neela’s rear  now and then but I never could pass (picture 2). So I was already enjoying this view and settling for second when suddenly in the last few laps Neela was losing speed and drove into the pit. Fuel shortage. So I took over the lead with only two laps to go. Then, in the next lap driving in stadion with only a few turns to make I was shocked to hear that my teammate crashed in the final lap. I lost concentration, got off track, managed to keep away from the wall, but had to work hard to get my car out of  the gravel. I suspect Taurus to have added some extra glue to it there because it seemed to take ages to get out. When I finally got back on again and drove towards the finish-line my engine started to stutter. I was out of fuel as well and the engine stalled just behind the finish line. I was happy not to have looked  at my fuel state in the laps before, because that knowledge would have surely made me crash. GB: Jeeves losing a wheel chasing Glen (click image to enlarge) Championships: Expert: Jeeves is now pressuring EUR teammate Taurus for third place, while both Jeeves and Glen moved a bit closer to veldt000. Both LRT drivers Bryan and gastel are in a fight for 5th place. GB: Jeeves watches Glen pass after a spin (click image to enlarge) Amateur: After two good results danicristian is now on third place, but there are many drivers in for that position. The battle for first place continues: the season isn't over yet! Teams: EU Racers are getting all drivers in! GLen left his own team to join EU Racers as their fifth driver. Now LRT must do something to keep the lead until the end of the season. Maybe they can dust of some old drivers: CasH, ricardoferreira or Tygernoot. Country: Germany drivers had some good finishes last couple of races. They now have a good lead over teh Netherlands. It also looks like Romania is on a good form to keep third position against Canada. While lonely drivers Glen (Scotland) and Jeeves (Finland) might add them selves to this battle for third. Big thanks to Glen and Gastel for their reports. GB: Taurus passing veldt into Abbey (click image to enlarge)   Race report from GLEN147 (GB race): It’s my first race report and it’s come at a good time, a win at Silverstone my home Grand Prix!  But how did the race pan out ???  Read on and find out. The race started late as usual, this time due to Bob's none-show, plus we had connection problems so we switched to heat 4 and I hosted the race.  Once again on pole was Jeeves, I was 2nd, Taurus 3rd, Veldt 4th and Minchia brought up the rear.  The lights went out and I made a decent start along with Jeeves with Veldt making the best start of all but he couldn’t quite pass Taurus into T1.  Still on lap 1 and Taurus had a little twitch in the middle of Stow after hangar straight and that allowed Veldt to nip past down into Vale but Minchia wasn’t quite close enough to take advantage and spun under hard braking trying to avoid the Germans rear wing.  Meanwhile at the front Jeeves started pulling away by doing consistently fast laps and Taurus was having a great fight with Veldt and on lap 7 passed him in Stow but again he twitched in the middle of the corner and Veldt took the position back. GB: Minchia getting it sideways after avoiding Taurus (click image to enlarge) Lap 15 Jeeves comes into the pits leading by 10 or 11 seconds but I wasn’t sure if he had a little moment or was on a 3 stopper I would have to wait and see so I just carried on doing my consistent laps and was 10 seconds in front by the time Jeeves rejoined the track.  I couldn’t pull away in the next 5 laps before my 1st stop it was pretty static.  Taurus was on a 3 stopper and came in on lap 15 and was close to Veldt at pit entry but Veldt was on a 2 stopper and by the time the Dutchman made his pit stop he was about 4 seconds in front of the German who wasn’t giving up the chase and clearly had a straight line speed advantage.  That put Minchia who was 2 stopping into P3 by about 8 seconds and was putting the hammer down for the next 4 laps before he would have to come in for new boots and fuel and after he pitted he was about 10 seconds behind the Taurus and Veldt battle and was closing in. On lap 29 Taurus got a nice tow from Veldt out of club and passed him into abbey and made it stick - nice pass!  Lap 30 and Jeeves confirms he is on a 3 stopper and comes into the pit for his second stop, emerging about 4 seconds in front of me and I think I managed to get it down to about 3 before my 2nd stop.  Taurus made his 2nd stop shortly after that pass on Veldt which dropped him back down to 5th place but far from out of it.  On lap 37 Veldt had a spin at Stow that cost him about 9 seconds and Minchia was able to pass him before Vale and started to pull away slowly but surely.  GB: Some tyre smoke as Jeeves spins at Brooklands (click image to enlarge) Lap 40 Veldt made his final stop which dropped him back into last place.  Now back up front on lap 40 and I was about to pit 3 seconds or so behind the flying Finn, now I’m 24 seconds off Jeeves with no more pit stops left, the gap was about to get wider and its now 30 seconds on lap 45 when Jeeves pits.  He comes out 10 seconds in front but I kept up the pressure living in hope. J. Just 3 laps before that on lap 42 Minchia had some very bad luck and told us after the race that he lost connection but managed to stay in the room, maybe he hit escape by accident ????  He was leading the battle for 3rd at the time by at least 12 seconds from Taurus with both having to stop again giving Minchia a clear advantage I would say - very unlucky Minchia..  Lap 45 and Taurus made his final pit stop hoping to get out in front of Veldt but couldn’t quite do it and was only a few seconds behind with all to play for. GB: Taurus powering passed veldt entering Stow (click image to enlarge) Lap 51 and Jeeves spun at Brooklands which cost him 7 seconds bringing the gap down to 5 seconds.  The gap didn’t change much until lap 55 when the Finn spun again coming out of Bridge, narrowly missing the wall at Priory and ending up backwards in the gravel, that’s when I took a lead of about 4 seconds.  Jeeves brushed himself off and started pushing hard and was bringing that gap down pretty fast, 2 laps later the gap was 2 seconds with 3 laps to go, and then he made another mistake running wide at the last part of Beckets and spun left into the wall losing his left front wheel.  He was able to carry on at a very slow pace and if there was 1 extra lap he would have lost his second place to Taurus who was about to put a move on Veldt for 3rd place with 2 laps remaining making it stick into the cursed Stow corner. I slowed the pace right down for the last 2 laps to win the race with Jeeves finishing second Taurus 3rd and Veldt 4th.....Great race guys :) .......hope that was accurate enough....Over and out!   Your reporter, Veldt000 Have news and race reviews for me to include in the news ? Please e-mail me them on veldt000@f1rst3.com, thanks kindly.

1. Glen147   1. KLGreene   2. Jeeves   2. danicristian   3. Taurus   3. PabloTassano

Silverstone - Great Britain

The British GP: an exiting event!! This time there were no disputes at all. So I presume all drove in a fair way. Amateur: There are some big big differences between the ama drivers. KLGreene was one second infront of PabloTassano. Who also has an advantage of a second over JVesga. This all if for qualifying of course. In the race all ama drivers finished! well done! It looks like A_C_Muller is getting used to setting up the car and driving. Every race she gets closer to the other drivers. KLGreene again finished first, while his biggest competitor crossed the finish line in third. Danicristian "stole" some points from PabloTassano. Expert: Jeeves, again, took poleposition with 0.5s advantage over GLEN147. Hell-Lo got back on track and managed to get third. Taurus made a movie (see below) of heat one. Jeeves and Taurus were on a three stop strategy. While all others went for a two stop. Jeeves had some bad luck, resulting in a three wheel finish. GLEN147 took the, well deserved, victory. Taurus and veldt000 had a great fight (whole race) for the last bottle of champagne on the podium. Taurus got his podium finish, after a whole race pushing, well done! Again there are drivers with great sportmanship! First, Neela pushed Bryan over the finish, after his engine got a failure at 2/3 of the race. So Bryan ended up in the rankings..... But not for long, Bryan send me an e-mail: remove my points. He didn't covered 75% of the race distance. Race report from A_C_Muller: This Panda never liked Silverstone all that much...this was due to my first trying it when RH05 came out. I only ever did a 1/2 lap and ran for my teams cyber jet to get out of England. I got three different set-ups and each was better then the previous one. But, I had to further tweak them to suit my driving style with much less understeer. I knew viking_89 would be faster but didn't think so on the very first lap when all items were cold. At one time during the game, oddly enough only when he lapped me, my computer screen locked up temporarily for one second a total of five different times. The worst being when I would of been taking the first turn maxed out in 5th gear with full right hand lock. Luckily I took it in 3rd gear as ahead of me was a giant white cloud of smoke infront of me. Apparently viking_89 got two wheels onto the grass and spun, had I been in 5th gear I'd of speared him right in the side or spun off to the right. The rest of my race was uneventful until the late going with the odd wide turn, mowing some grass, a close call with a wall & clipping an anti-cut strip. This Panda is looking forward to Germany the home of BMW!   Race report from Jeeves: I opted for a 3 stop strategy as I had quite a bit of trouble making the tyres last through a full 20 lap stint, despite using the harder compound. Took a reasonably good start and pulled away from Glen, who appeared to rely on a more conventional 2 stops for the race - as did Pascal and Minchia. Folkhart on the other hand was on a 3 stopper, making the strategy game all the more interesting throughout the 60 laps that were ahead of us.   After the first 15 lap stint, I had a healthy 12 second lead over Glen and when I got out of the pitlane, I was around 10 seconds behind him. Did my best to keep up with him, until it was his turn to dive into the pits for some fresh tyres and another 60 some litres of fuel.   The second stint was quite a bit like the first one - just pulling away slightly, trying to stretch out the gap up to around 20 seconds, which would offer me the chance to make that extra pit stop I had to make compared to him and still maintain p1.   I got out of the pits for the 3rd time, 10 seconds clear of Glen so basically what I had to do was just to keep focused and bring it home. And that's exactly what I failed to do. A few laps into the stint, I had a bit of a spin at Brooklands. Nothing too serious, just lost a few seconds of the lead I had. As Glen got quite close, though, I decided to pick up the pace a bit. And then some three laps later, I had a spin at Bridge. Glen got past while I was busy making my way out of the sand trap and held the lead until the finish, as I had one more off track excursion; this time at Chapel (cost me a wheel and a front wing). Could've been worse though. Managed to finish and got some points. Championships: Expert: Glen, Taurus and Jeeves decreased the gap to championship leader veldt000. Who is feeling the pressure all over him. Three drivers hunting him down.... Amateur: KLGreene managed to extend his lead from 2 points to 7 points. The battle is too close to say anything. The season is still long and all can happen. There is also a battle for third place. Castel, danicristian and viking can still take third. And who know what can happen for A_C_Muller and JVesga, only 40 points to third place. Teams: Again EU Racers had a good race. Taurus, Jeeves and Don_Huio scored some good points. While only two drivers brought some points for LRT: veldt000 and neela Country: Germany is moving away from the Netherlands. Gastel scored some important points in qualify. Too bad he couldn't make it to the race. Big thanks to Taurus for the movie and A_C_Muller + Jeeves for their reports. Launch in external player