Its has been very quiet in the tracks of MSR. Regardless of which one is loaded up. The excitement of acuiring the new dedicated server are not enough to attract runners for practice. Only occasional sound of a flat-12 engine and a turbocharger passing thru and empty paddock. Regardless, Choe (L-Plate Driver) found enough excitement to write his take of the race. It was the 2nd test race of the season (theres 3 of them). Number of racers on the starting grid - 5.

Regardless, Promo vids by EvoHahn, Ryugan n Azrink!

First of all, the turnout was really disappointing (5 guys). I had hoped for a larger grid. I remembered the test races from last yr had a packed grid of at least 15 drivers. Most disapointing was my teammate IHM who stood up the whole event despite having hassled me all week long to install the GP79 mod so that he can participate. "I'm too tired after playing afternoon badminton session" lar ...."I have to fetch my daughter from bus station at 5am" lar......all 101 damn blardy excuses.

On the original session before first restart, a little scrap between Kelvin (Renault), myself (Wlliams) and Bonn (Renault). A few times we were side to side braking into the corner. I remember at least one occasion when I got ahead of Bonn but his Renault turbo retook me on the straights. This went on a little while with the three of us nose to tail, side to side. Good company. We were settling into some sort of a rhythm until we negotiated the final hi-speed kink that leads to the longest straight whereupon we came upon a spinning Arnaud in his Ligier. He lost it on the dirt, spun 360, and promptly got spat back out right into the middle of the track as the three of us was screaming towards the same spot.

As I was leading Kelvin and Bonn at the time, I was the first to react by ducking left. I only managed to miss the Ligier by a hair. Wet my pants. I didn't see how the Renaults managed to avoid him, but it must have been similarly close.

It would have been ironic if a French driver in a French Ligier managed to take out the other two French Renaults. The French probably invented the phrase 'Menage a Trois' for something like this.

In the full race, with the exception of Mara and Kelvin, the rest of us made too many errors and had too many offs. Bonn had a dnf early on, which we were unaware....a pity....would have been really to have at least 3 guys with similar pace fighting the whole race. It ended up into a hilarious seesaw fight between arnaud and myself where he had an off, I caught up, and then I had an off, and he caught up...this went on for several times. For a time, it stalemated with arnaud keeping me in sight 4 to 6 secs behind. He was faster in some sectors, I was faster in others and so we were holding our positions relative to each other for some time. Then Arnaud had a series of offs and I consolidated.....at one point with over 50 secs in front.

Just before my schedules pit stop, I went off and hit the wall. It did not seem like a major hit....more like a bump...and the car seem to respond well....so I elected not to repair the damage, just change to fresh rubber.

That's went everything went downhill. The car was really different after the pitstop. Very oversteery. Had a few offs. Lost a ton of time. Losing time braking for that first corner after the longest straight because very tail-happy mid corner. I could not attack the corners aggresively, especially those in Sector 2 where I was losing a ton of time to arnaud. He eventually caught up and went past. I knuckle down to at least just keep him in sight...hoping he make a mistake but still losing .1 to .2 secs to him in Sector 2...the gap 1.5, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.3, 2.5....then I got settled in Sector 1 and reduce this over a few laps to 1.5 or 1.4. I was catching him but made a slight mistake....he got it back up to 2.3....I have to do it all over again, but the handling was getting more oversteery every lap and I couldn't stop him from opeining the the gap anymore.

Then he had a spin in Sector 3. I went past and consolidated opening a buffer of over 30 secs. But the car was becoming a real handful to drive. I crashed hard close to the end of the race (with about 4 minutes left on the clock). Got stuck on the gravel and took a long time to extricate myself. This time the suspension and steering were screwed and I was having trouble making left turns. Arnaud got within 10 secs by the time I got going and I'm losing a lot time to him every lap. The car was a 'walking wounded' and I was just limping it as fast as i can go to put as much distance between me and arnaud. For sure he will catch up but he was also running out of time.

It looked very much like I have successfully held him off, but I took too long to complete the lap because of the damage. Staying out too long, I ran out of fuel on the last lap a few corners from the finishing line.

Hilarious.