Johno3

Well done to Dan on running the meeting superbly. I always hated running the meeting when I was in the World Final and I was fortunate enough to have Kev149. Congratulations to Tom on winning the World Final (3-time F1 Champion now). It was also great to catch up with you on Saturday. I went into the race with very little practice due to struggling a lot with enthusiasm. But I was reasonably on the pace so wasn't too worried, so I wanted to win the race. I nearly got a couple of breaks and lead the race on two separate occasions, but it wasn't to be! Didn't particularly enjoy the rest of the meeting as I got sick of battling for positions outside of the points. Got some good breaks in the Grand National though and took advantage to win my last race. It was my last race because I have decided it is time to call it a day. I was chatting to MoR in May and I said I was going to do it at the end of the year, but my motivation has totally gone (I was initially going to do the two qualifying rounds at the end of this season and try to sneak onto a semi final grid for next year so that if I decided to come back, I had something to race for). But I changed my mind. I will be honest, it is because I no longer consider myself a good driver (I was never superb but I was at least good) and I don't have the time to rededicate myself or the enthusiasm. I am finding myself having more work to do as I try to get further up the ladder and I play pool 2 nights a week on top of racing. I can't do everything any more and I am far more competitive at pool and enjoy it more. I must say, I always say to everyone 'never say never' and I want to leave it that way, but it is very unlikely. I actually think that the racing has been pretty good this year for the most part (the World Final was a superb race to rewatch) but I am just no longer enthused by it. I have made some superb friends through racing online and I will continue to see those people around the raceways. I might have to occasionally pop on here to say hello to LeeK though! Anyway, good luck to everyone for the rest of the season. I hope the silver roof chase and shootout goes down to the wire too. Cheers Johno

Johno3 Booked in

Thanks a lot guys

Hello Dave, I don't suppose you have access to any of my old F2 skins? I dont know if I ask for them to be in the packs last year or not. The tarmac was a black rce and the other was blue (but I cant remember the chassis). Not sure if they will work, but I might have a play on Monday's as I have them free at the minute. Might sharpen up my race craft a bit! If the skins aren't there, I will wait until the next skinpack to race. Cheers johno

Thanks to Dan for running the meeting and congratulations to all the winners. I have really enjoyed F1's this year, even last week when I scored 0 points, but this week I really didnt enjoy myself. I find it so frustrating that people want to race for 12th place. Heat 2, the reds were knocking ten shades of you know what out of each other and I bet the whites and yellows were about to lap us. We got no where near them. I am afraid in the final, I then got wound up and di exactly what I am complaining about beforehand, so sorry to anyone who I was involved with. Not my favourite track next week, but it is a qualifier so hopefully score a few more points. Cheers Johno

Very nice Johno I wish I could take the credit. It was a very kind offer as I left it late to sort out and I wanted to go back to my old chassis. I just said paint it the same colours as my slotstox! Cheers Craig. You have done a great job as you do with all your cars

Thanks to Dan for running the meeting and to the stewards who watch over us. Really enjoyed the racing tonight and felt really good despite the fact I hardly have any points to show for it. Tried a couple of different things in the first two heats that really didnt pay off and I didn't score anything. Thought I better make some tweaks back in heat 3 and it came good. Really enjoyed the final, even though I didnt win it. Made a clumsy clumsy mistake on theexit of the corner, but I wasn't helped by the sound issues returning! I am actually looking forward to next season, after spending much of the season well out in the wilderness. I feel I am a little more competitive and ready to hold down at least a red roof once again. Making the change to the pedals has been slow and painful but I appear to be getting something like. I practice here and there over the winter and hopefully I can hit the ground running. Thanks for what has generally been a very good positive season. Cheers Johno

Agree with Grasser's sentiments above. It has been a truely dominant season by Dan though to take 3 of the 4 major titles. I maybe wrong as I have lost touch with statistics but I dont think that has been done since Michael in 2007 (he won the European instead of the British Championship). Johno

Very good video Jack. You really have captured some good shots. My only one query and I feel bad bringing it up, but doesn't the race actually run one more lap from where you stopped it? I seem to remember a half hearted dive on the last bend which allowed Samwit through. I maybe totally wrong though. I must say though, good choices of camera angles and action. I do like the videos that make the racing look like it 'flows'. Cheers Johno

Thanks to FT, Dan and the stewards for the meeting. I really enjoyed the racing last night. You have to focus all of the time and if you push too hard or have a lapse in concentration then you are totally punished for it. I do think every other track in the league is far too forgiving where as here, you really cant get away with it. I enjoyed the tarmac masters race. I yoyoed up and down the results. I wasn't too far behind Green when I tried to squeeze into a tight gap and ended up on the tyres. I think I was in second place at that point with the car really starting to come good. I then damaged the car and took my time to get used to it. I didnt realise I had lost so much time on the infield as when I saw Green in front of me later in the race, I was desperate for him to be held up a little which might give me a chance. As it turns out, I must have been a lap down, so it is a good job I didnt catch up with him as I would have battled with him thinking I was in with a chance of the title. I must say, I think Green drove a very good race. You have to keep your head in a race like that with everything going on and he did that on top of his usual good tarmac pace. So well done Green. I picked up some decent heat results and had some good races, particualrly with Martin. Nothing over the top and the accidental clip of the fence post when a driver was in front of me, but that is part and parcel of racing on a wire and post fence track. It tests your ability to read a race but you also need a bit of luck too. And it is that bit of luck that DanSkin didnt get in the final. I had found my way into third and could feel the car was turning really nicely at just after the halfway point. I am not sure I would have caught either Sije or Corny but I think I would have maintained 3rd place. However, I had a momentary lapse of consentration and bang, I hit a post, costing Dan some big place in the process. I am very sorry Dan! You can punch me at Kings Lynn on Saturday..... if you can find me! I must say I have enjoyed the tarmac racing recently (and I haven't been winning lots or picking up big points) and I am happier with the new wheel so I am going to try a couple of shale meetings before the end of the season. I actually wanted to try Kings Lynn, but I just couldnt get the time to race that night. One thing I would say though is that I am finding practice very frustrating. I don't get the point in some of the things people do in practice. If you are facing the wrong way around in practice then why sit on the racing line? I get why you would in a race, but you are wasting your time in practice. The followins are creeping back in from some people again but perhaps the most irritating thing is the people who just drive around slowly on the racing line. I actually thought that Sije was one of the worst drivers I had ever seen based on practice, and as you can see that isnt the case at all by his results. If you want to be a prat and wipe everyone out or slow down on your lines, then why don't you do it in your own server, rather than the one people want to practice in. Then again, perhaps I am old and the only time I practice is in the server before a meeting, so perhaps I aint happy at being fenced and meeting tools at every turn. Anyway, hopefully cya all next week. Cheers Johno

Sorry guys for my disappearance in the grand national. The server went down and the phone rang. I have just finished dealing with the ssues now at this hour. Cheers Johno

johno 3 bookimg in please. Cheers.

Top stuff as always Kev. Can you chuck mine across.... I am dying to prove statisitcally that I am getting worse!

Thanks for the meetinf FT and Admin. Despite not racing, I generally feel that the racing ha sbeen very good this season, and I believe I did say that in the post where I said I was cutting back. I thought last night's racing was very good, especially when you consider it was very easy to destroy someone's race. Personally, I didn't have a fantastic meeting, but I did enjoy it more than I had been. I also tried to use a new wheel in the hope that it would make a difference. It is going to take some getting used to I think. I may race next week if time allows, but if it doesn't, then I will be back for the World Final and a couple of other tarmac meetings. Cheers Johno

First of all, thanks to Dan for running the meeting. I think he does an unbelievable job when you consider the amount of races he has to get through. Congratulations to Grasser on taking the meeting final, and TomD on winning the all important World Championship Semi Final. Congratulations to all the others that qualified. Well the meeting for me was a disaster. Although I had actually done a fair amount of practice before the meeting for a change, once we got into a race situation, the car didn't seem to be doing what I wanted it to do. The car was just far too loose all the way around and nothing I did appeared to change this. Despite this, once the pack strung themselves out, I was fine, but in a pack I found it hard. Onto the Semi Final we went, and Tom just disappeared. I had a dive at him into turn 1 and very faintly clipped the tyre. He was away and gone, which is not my ideal as I personally think he is not the person you would want on the front row come a World Final at Skegness. So anyway, as always, the pack piles in corner after corner, and as mentioned above, I was forever fighting my car. I then half spun trying to take a different line and got spun by Spike. I then had a nightmare trying to get myself straight. When I got back in the race, I was 19th with a badly damaged car (well 3 corners anyway) but I battled on. I wish I hadn't, because I only finished 11th. Now I know Mav mentions it on a weekly basis, but it really is the worse place to finish in a semi final, and I have finished there for the second time in as many years! As for the rest of the meeting, well I was very badly behaved by my standards. I never did anything wrong (in terms of follow ins or anything like that) but every corner I piled in no matter what the situation was, as this is how I felt the Semi Final had gone as well as some heats. I normally sit behind people and race fairly, especially when we are outside of the top 10, but I didn't last night in the last 2 races. If there is one thing that I do think drivers can improve on, it is racecraft when your in 13th / 14th position. Work together, let the faster driver go and get to the back of the top 10. Then do your battling from there, where at least your battling for points. Anyway, when Thursday night concluded, I confirmed in my mind what I had said to a few people over the course of the season: I am not enjoying racing anymore. I must admit, this really annoys me that I ain't, because I do feel that this year has seen some of the best racing that rfactor F1 has ever seen. The racing has in the main been really fair, hits have generally been really sensible and it is superb to see numbers increase (and I am sure it is because of the improved driving). But I am not enjoying it at all. Now I could go down the lines of blaming work and lack of time, but the simple fact of the matter is, I am no longer a competitive driver. I used to be able to hold a red top place easily and at least be there or thereabouts come championship time, even picking up a couple of minor titles. But I can't do those things anymore. I don't have the time or the hear to get better so therefore I have decided to wind down my online racing. So for this year, I will only race on tarmac for meetings that appeal to me (Lelystad - new venue, Yarmouth - something totally different and Skegness as I feel I should take up my place on the cons semi final grid because I have qualified). I may well do a couple more tarmac meetings, but at the end of the season, I will see how I feel towards racing, and see if I can get myself motivated enough to try to improve again! If not, I will knock it on the head altogether. I sometimes forget that whilst I have only been doing this since 2005, I will be knocking on the door of nearly 400 F1 meetings - that's a hell of a lot of time and I admire those people that have stuck it out for longer and done more meetings. Not really sure why you all wanted to know that, but it saves saying it to different people at meetings when they ask why I haven't been racing. Anyway, now I have that off my chest, it is time to go out to the driving range and see if I can improve my golf! Cheers Johno