Warning: Anyone who doesn't like Race Sims, please skip this post ;-) Hi racefans, thank you for staying :-) Zandvoort never was one of my greatest favorites. I really liked the layout of this track and it's really not that hard to remember but I was never able to go really fast there. Somehow the car always seemed slippery all over the track. Must be the sea climate or something, I don't know. However this Sunday Bas and I decided that Zandvoort was the track we needed to get some practice on. The benchmark on this track for GPL Ranking was a 1:26.848 but we were not able to get much closer to it than about 2 seconds. So off we went, driving a number of practice laps and then dived straight into the race. We did two races on intermediate long modus which meant we had to do 27 laps for each race. The first one I started 6th only I made a extremely stupid beginners mistake (the trusted we-want-to-go-too-fast-on-too-cold-tires-maneuver) and returned to the race running 11th. The good old shift-r thing is nice, but not at the start of the race when almost the entire pack of cars needs to get passed you before the 'track is clear' ... Anyway. This race I finished 6th again after running a great catch-up race. When the final results came through it showed I set the fastest lap of that race! A 1:26.738 was my lap, which meant that I also nailed the benchmark time with a whopping 0.110 seconds! I know I know, that doesn't seem like much but when you realize that this lap time was almost two seconds faster that my previous record which is a huge improvement. You can imagine I was pretty happy with it. Right. We then wanted to do another race on Zandvoort. Partly because Bas had more or less crashed out in the first one (he had very bad starting grid hick ups) and for me it was a test if I could get pole position, because my just collected fastest lap was faster than the pole for the last race, and also faster than anyone who had driven the track on my machine. (a new track record, indeedy ... :-) Well I won't keep you waiting for long: the pole was mine with a 0.6 second margin on the number two. This was the first time I had a pole position in a race where we had AI running also. A really cool feeling and a huge motivation boost, it felt good. But then the race began. One of the things I really like doing when competing with others is trying to force them into making mistakes. The ideal position for this is when you're very close behind your opponent and you're keeping your car in both of his mirrors. Every time he checks either one of his mirrors, you're there. Lots of people can't handle that kind of pressure and try to go faster then they are capable of, resulting in a mistake or crash. And that is the moment where you strike and move on a spot. When this succeeds it's great fun, believe me. Usually when this works I think something like 'this would never happen to me' Yeah, sure, right ... My pole-happiness was not for that long because when the flagger guy dropped the green on us I saw Jack Brabham shooting past me on my left. When we came to turn one I managed to keep my head and didn't try to out brake him there. Instead I quickly switched to pursuit modus and stuck behind Brabham. In the back of my head I knew I was faster than him (You're faster than this. Don't think you are, know you are - Morpheus, the Matrix) so it should only be a matter of time when I could pass him. That moment came 3 laps after the start when I out braked Brabham at the end of the start/finish straight and I was back in the lead! Yeah! Only then I was the victim of Brabhams pursuit modus and I will never grin at anyone losing their car again. Man it's though to get chased, trust me. About six or seven laps later the theory I like so much went active and I parked my brand new Lotus in the fence when coming up on the straight again. Aargh!! First time I'm leading a race, I'm capable of winning it too and I crash out! I will spare you the details of my comeback tour but in the end I came in sixth again, just like the first race. I did set the fastest lap but it was a small comfort ... I want to win this race and I will do so too! Keep pushing,