33 laps in the XFG on that short and tight track with so many drivers can be dangerous, especially with the chicane at T2. Every mistake can be the end there.

Jan (Three_Jump now on P1), who changed position after the last round in the overall standings with Bernd (BBO), was hungry for another win.

Let’s see how it went for our guys from Triple 7 Racing on this Sunday evening.

This track really has some spots of particular importance.

Of course turn 1 (T1) has a key role to get a good fast 1st sector but more important is the following chicane.

Once this is mastered there comes the back straight with a small tricky right / left “chicane” and then comes the very important last turn.

If the drivers brake too early they loose time. If they brake too late and therefore can’t get the last turn perfectly right, then they loose even more time as the speed they have when coming out of the last turn will have big influence of the top speed on the Start / Finish straight.

As predicted by some drivers before the race, the qualification was again really close.

22 drivers qualified within one second. That shows how close the power density in this league really is. If you can’t reproduce a clean and quick qualification lap then you are quickly lots of places down the grid. And that happened to some of us.

Here is how our drivers qualified:

Esben, Jan and Bernd on 5, 6 and 7.

Richard on P14 on Dean on P20

Andreas couldn’t start this time

Last but not least our brand new Teammate Kristian (Pingo) did a fantastic 2^nd place with a 1.21:97 only 0.00:03 seconds behind the winner of the qualification J.Pickard from Mercury. 

So except for Pingo it was a chequered qualification for our Team but we knew it would be a tough and close one on such a short track.

The Race:

Pingo
After his fantastic qualification he tried to defend his 2^nd place but after 5 laps Jouman was so close behind on his tail that he could pass right in front of T1. He then stayed till his pit stop in Lap 20 on the back of Jouman but also couldn’t pass him again.

Then he raced on for the next laps without any big mistakes and in lap 30 when BBO came out of the pits right in front of him he had enough speed to pass him again in front of  turn one and so he finished as the third on the podium and lost only one place against the again very fast Jouman. He also did the second best racing lap time that day.

Congratulations Pingo and well done! This is how we like our new T7R drivers 

Bernd 
has really some kind of a “Heidfeld syndrome” at the moment. Always poor qualifying results but in the race he often can get with a good strategy and also assisted by fortunate circumstances position after position. And also this time. He judged the incident with Esben and Jan right and braked a little bit to not hit Jan, then Esben was also off the racing line and BBO knew it would be hard to brake at the last turn with cold tires and so he braked earlier and passed Esben on the inside of the last turn in lap 1.

The rest of the race he was hunted by Esben but two 1.22.08 laps in a row gave him some room in the middle of the race. When BBO came out of the pits after lap 29 he also had passed Pingo and thought for a moment to close the door on the inside of T1 but Pingo had so much more speed and it would have been to dangerous for both drivers and so he contented with a 4^th place.

Last but not least there was some bad lag on the server for him during the whole race and he was really really lucky that he disconnected ten seconds after he crossed the finish line.  

Esben
had a little touching with Jan and was lucky to continue the race  but was passed by BBO in the last turn of Lap 1. For the next 14 laps he was only half a second behind BBO but never really got into his slipstream. Then a little mistake here and there and in the next 10 laps the leading group with Jouman, Pingo and BBO pulled over 2 seconds away.

But clever as Esben is, he waited with his pit stop till the very last possible lap (L30) but when coming out of the pits he was passed again by the former leading cars of  Jouman, Pickard, Pingo and BBO. In the last 2 laps he had some nice fighting going on with Lasse Vad and was passed, overtook again, was passed again, … etc. In the last corner of the last lap he almost lost another place against F. Sonne but he saved his place till the end of the race.

Jan
was close behind Esben and almost next to him on the first lap, they tried to drive together through the corner after the 1^st split (which usually never works), both touched a bit. In the end Jan lost his car and touched the wall next to the green but could drive on. During that he lost many many places. Three_Jump tried to get back up but unfortunately also “killed” his engine with wrong shifting. In the end he lost 7 positions and could only finish on P13. 

Richard
had some nice fighting going on in the first couple of laps, with Franky500, Jimmy Larson and Freeliner (who unfortunately disconnected after 10 laps with his “Ringtaxi”).

He pitted early in the 7^th lap and after that he tried to catch up with Mankan and later with Mikael Larson for the rest of the race but couldn’t get them. But in the end he passed Jimmy Larson and also poor Three_Jump with his half blown engine, which made Richard finish this time on P12.

   

Dean
who had a really unlucky racing accident with Hasse and Allan in the 4^th lap. They went 3 cars wide into the first chicane. Then a little touch here and a nudge from behind there and Deano kissed the wall. That was really unlucky but I don’t think there is really someone to blame. After a long repair time in the pits he came back on the track again but in last position. The next 27 laps he tried to get back to the end of the field and in the last 3 laps his effort was paid back with taking over Martin DK, Ant and Mankan on the S/F line in the last lap. So Dean ended on position 20. 

  

Congratulations

to all the drivers who found the time to race next to the UEFA Euro 2008 and the Formula 1 GP  in Canada and a special congratz goes this time to the three guys on the podium:

1^st  Jouman from Fred Loves Pie (FLP/r)

2^nd J. Pickard from Mercury Racing Team

3^rd Pingo from Triple 7 Racing

Overall Standings:

Doesn’t look to bad for our Team in general and especially for BBO who is again back in the lead of the Gentlemen’s Cup 2008 followed by Three_Jump and Esben. Then we have Richard on the 5th, Pingo on P9, Andreas on position 15 and Dean on 25. Don't forget that in the end the two worst races and points from everyone will be removed but let's see how it looks when it's all finished. For now the standings are like this:

   

The next race
will be in the town:  We’ll have to master 32 laps in South City on the Chicane Route. Another track with another tricky chicane, let’s hope the last race before the summer break will be as much fun as this one, for all of us.

 

And again a little hint:
You can get much more information, driver comments, reports, stats and many other things in the Danish Live for Speed Forum.

Just register there. It’s for free

www.lfs-forum.dk

And you don’t even have to learn Danish as English is the written language in the Gentlemen’s Cup sub-forum.