5th 1955 F1 Championship - 01 - Sunday Mirror Intl Trophy

[Mezcua]

Gran resultado para mi acabando 5º
Great result for me finishing 5th

Nos felicitamos todos por un buen inicio de campeonato con una parrilla muy bonita
We all congratulate ourselves for a good start of the championship with a very nice grid

En la calificación hubo gran ambiente en la salida de boxes gracias a la concurrencia
In qualifying there was a great atmosphere at the pit exit thanks to the driver turnout

Damos la bienvenida a Red que con problemas de horario se incoporo para poca calificación pero que luego supo estar en pista .. cuando llegue más centrado tendremos un buen rival más
We welcome Red who with schedule problems could only qualify for a short time but then he was able to be on track ... when he gets more focused we will have one more good rival

Sin incidentes en la cabeza de carrera nos fuimos estirando hasta empezar a coger ritmo ...
Without incident at the head of the race we were stretching to start to pick up the pace ...

con la 8ª posición y en un circuito que no tiene sitios claros donde adelantar los cambios de posición fueron debidos a fallos de pilotaje de diversa consideración ...
with the 8th position and in a circuit that has no clear places where to overtake the changes of position were due to riding errors of varying degrees ...

Yo no cometí, al menos graves, lo que me hizo ir prosperando cuando Clive perdió rueda sobre la 12
I did not commit, at least serious, which made me go prospering when Clive lost wheel on the 12th

y Sergio en la 15 se enganchó a la valla de T1 ...
and Sergio in the 15th hooked to the fence of T1

luego Regor hizo breves escursiones a la hierba que me dieron otra posición
then Regor made brief forays into the grass that gave me another position

Todo eso con Doni en la trasera con ritmo firme que esperaba con paciencia su oportunidad de cazarme ...
All this with Doni in the rear with a steady pace that waited patiently for his chance to hunt me ...

sin embargo un desliz le hizo perder posiciones
however a slip made him lose positions

Así que me encontre a un tercio del final con un 5º puesto siguiendo a un solido Jorge que me iba sacando 1 segundo por vuelta y un Regor que venia apretando pero que tras 3 vueltas de empujar debió ir a otro paseo por los lares de este precioso circuito
So I found myself a third of the way to the end with a 5th place following a solid Jorge who was taking me 1 second per lap and a Regor who was pushing but after 3 laps of pushing he must have gone for another ride in this beautiful circuit.

Eso me hizo aflojar un poco el ritmo para asegurar este 5º puesto que me sabe muy bien
That made me slow down a bit to secure this 5th place that I feel very good

Os escribo estas líneas desde el aeropuerto porque ya voy rumbo a Uruguay ... este próximo martes nos vemos en El Pinar
I'm writing these lines from the airport because I'm on my way to Uruguay ... next Tuesday we'll see each other in El Pinar

Thanks all for racing

[Mezcua]

Asi de animada estaba la cosa that's how lively things were

[Regor]

Very happy with my return although I did too much errors. I think the best position I could reach would be 5 without errors. Not more so I amb thinking If for the next race I will change the car.

On qualy I felt uncomfortable after testing Quicos setup. By the way, I think it was quicker than default's one but I rather preffer the conservative old one.. so I discard it, but I needed more laps to remember how to manage it. Finally, I got a 29.5, 3 tenths worse than my PB. P7

On the first laps I was very very cautious. I spend a lot of time in the rear of Sergio Stewart. I felt I could go quicker if I passed him, because on clean air I did a low 30's, and we were doing 31's on group but maybe, he was doing the same and just keep the car on track.

Afer 18 laps without any serious mistake, I did two and tagomago&Dioni passed me. I felt confident I will catch them and pass easily, but then Xug ,who is being lapped, did an error before the chicane, and when he returned to the track and I wanted to pass him without seeing that my brakes were red and went off loosing a lot of time.

Then, another little mistake but unluckly this time I lost a lot of time in the gravel and Cayo Camberro also passed me.

And with 4 laps remaining, same situation and actors as I told before: Xug did an error at the same section before the chicane, but this time when he returned on track, his car sliped while I was passing him, forcing me to turn the steering wheel and I went to the wall loosing my wheel.

This is not the begining I wanted, but we came here to have fun. That's it.

Congrats podium Paul&Lasse&Gaizka! I saw the last laps battle and it was amazing.

See you soon.

PD. Lo escribo solo en ingés que así practico que lo llevo muy caducao

[Cayo Cambero]

Muy contento de regresar al cabo de varios años de inactividad.
Una carrera divertida en la que llevar el Maserati a meta completando la carrera es el mejor resultado que podia esperar.
Gracias a todos.

Very happy to return after several years of inactivity.
A fun race where getting the Maserati to the finish line by completing the race is the best result I could hope for.
Thank you all.

[Doni Yourth]

Bravo to Paul for a fine performance and the win! Great jobs by both Lasse and Gaizka in the little French puddle-jumper to claim P2 and P3, respectively. Jorge deserves a mention for bringing another Gordini home to P4.

I set a new personal best in qualifying with the Maser and after a few people fell off the road in the early laps, I found myself in hot pursuit of Tago in the Lancia. Try as I might, I couldn't make much of an impression on him and had little chance to challenge. Tago was driving exceptionally well and was fully deserved of his P5 placing. On Lap15, it seems I cut the apex at Fordwater clipping the grass. I was astonished to find that this minor error sent my Maser out of control. I couldn't save the slide and ended up in the grass. Further, in trying to rejoin, the car spun around. Once the dust had settled, I was down 12 seconds and two positions. Groan...

Now rather furious with myself, I upped my pace somewhat beyond my comfort zone and tried to close in on Quico. I again set a new personal best in my pursuit til Lap18 when Q got Fordwater a little wrong and went off track slightly costing him some time. Moments later, he got Lavant1 a lot wrong and was well and truly off the road. In seeing his plight, I eased back to give him room to recover. It wasn't a golden opportunity to pass; too risky. Better to exercise some discretion and live to fight another day. Unfortunately, it seems that in coming back on track, Quico gassed it too hard, had wheelspin and this sent him cross track directly into my path. I couldn't avoid him and the contact spun him out. For my case, the contact sent me off onto the infield grass til I struck the final barrier of track limits. The right-front wheel was torn away and the Maser gently turned over. Sigh...

Competitors should realize that I drive the GP55 cars with the greatest of caution and will rarely take a risk over and above my comfort zone. Perhaps a read of this thread posted some years ago elsewhere will give you an insight into that frame of mind.

http://forums.speedgeezers.net/index.ph ... opic=39796

[quico]

A mitad de la calificación, me di cuenta de que necesitaba el “no letter box” patch para ver los retrovisores. Me salí y volví a entrar con poco tiempo para arreglar la mala calificación que estaba haciendo. Al final, la buena noticia es que el tiempo de calificación salió en dos vueltas que di al final con gasolina de carrera.

La carrera me la tomé con calma, muchas vueltas detrás de Cayo con parecido ritmo pero sin poder pegarme a el. Cuando despareció Cayo, apareció Doni en los retrovisores, recuperándose de algún problemilla. Intenté forzar un poco el ritmo durante un par de vueltas para ver si le despegaba y cometí el error que nos costó la carrera a los dos.
Me había salido un poco pero sin trompear y estaba volviendo a pista por la izquierda acelerando fuerte pensando que ya se había acabado el problema, pero el coche me dió un latigazo y entré de golpe hasta la parte derecha de la pista. Yo no veía a Doni, pero sabía que estaba ahí y que aquello significaba el desastre ya que yo había perdido velocidad.
Debo decirle a Doni que no esperaba la reacción del coche en absoluto, me sorprendió completamente, no pensaba estar forzando una situación. Entraba por la izquierda de la pista pensando que el, con más velocidad que yo me adelantaría en la bajada sin problemas.

Enhorabuena a los del podium, a los nuevos, a los regresados y a los que aguantaron el tirón.



Halfway through qualifying I realized I needed the “no letter box” patch to see the mirrors. I got out and came back in with little time to fix the bad qualifying I was doing. In the end, the good news is that the qualifying time came out in two laps that I did at the end with race fuel.

I took the race calmly, many laps behind Cayo with a similar pace but without being able to stick to him. When Cayo disappeared, Doni appeared in the mirrors, recovering from some little problem. I tried to push the pace a bit for a couple of laps to see if I can make a gap but I made the mistake that cost us both the race.
I went out a little but without spinning and was returning to the track from the left accelerating hard thinking that the problem was over, but the car whipped and I suddenly entered till the right side of the track. I didn't see Doni, but I knew he was there and that spelled disaster since I had lost speed.
I must tell Doni that I didn't expect the car's reaction at all, completely surprised me, I didn't think I was forcing a situation. I entered from the left of the track thinking that he, with more speed than me, would overtake me on the descent without problems.

Congratulations to those on the podium, to the new ones, to the returned ones and to those who endured the pull.

[Doni Yourth]

Hola, Q.

It seems you were somewhat taken by surprise with the car's reaction much as I was earlier when I got sideways and spun in Fordwater.

NP about the contact. I fully realize that it was just ill fate for each of us.

[quico]

Thanks again for being so understanding of my driving skills (and brain power).

Neither our karma seems favorable...