hachibill said:
The problems I have with this are:
1) Everyone attended the same drivers meeting, and if you don't remember, I know of 10 people who do. They specifically stated "we want to see a fast entry, 3rd gear at least" "be a man, don't be a wuss" said Alex Pfeiffer. Then they said they were looking for consistency also. The only mention they made of line was that they didn't want to see us running wide coming off the clip, so we needed to make a wide entry and then cut across the apex. Classic late apex line. Hannu had the fastest entry of the day and Harri wasn't far off that speed. Both looked super fast, both were very consistent. Harri had ONE half-spin during quali. and Hannu had 1 halfspin and 1 spin IIRC. Both had CONSISTENT lines. I guess next time we need cali plates on our cars.
2) Formula D is a national level series. I do not care if it is from Cali or Antarctica, no one owes anything extra to take part in some 'club'. IT IS NOT A CLUB, it is supposed to be a serious motorsport. Too bad the people running it are making a farce out of it, giving people from other motorsports even more reason to point and laugh.
Also I heard a rumor that the judges changed their minds and decided to judge mainly on the line and nothing else. They never called another driver's meeting to tell us this though.
Bill I guess decided to take it easy for a clean run and made a good decision. He went conservative, did a 2nd gear run tagging the clips perfect and it seems that is probably what got him invited to California.
Taka Aono also told Harri that he should come to California for the next FDQ, but it means nothing since we don't have a teleportation machine to get there.
As for me and Chelsea, we both got disqualified.
After qualifications were totally over I went back out for the open practice session and I did small manji in 1st gear down the back of the parking lot heading to the grid. A vehicle came to me and said I was done for the day. I argued with him over why since Team Lexus had been blasting down that same area all day and others too. He gave no reasonable explanation and said the judges wanted me gone also.
I'll let Chelsea explain his disqualification, but it was something even sillier.
The guy who spoke to both of us turned out to be Naoki Kobayashi.
As far as my driving goes, I basically sucked. I made a few good runs in practice but the judges decided to change the course after everyones practice session (they werent supposed to do this, but I guess they do do whatever they want as long as we all have to deal with the same crap) and we we're only allowed 1 practice run on the new course layout before our 3 qualifying runs.
I managed what would have been a good qualifying run but the clutch spun in 3rd gear when I clutch kicked( I probably should have been in second gear anyway) and that ended my slide.
Tim had some issues with his car and track conditions.
Chelsea did good and ran a few really awesome runs.
"Track" hahahaha, cough-WORSTPARKINGLOTEVER-cough conditions were miserable. Wet, about 35-40degrees and 15-20mph winds all day.
Lousisiana on sunday was great though. It really made up for the crap the day before. It was a nice roadcourse where we used the smaller front section and it was smooth and dry. Tim was totally KILLING it, some of the best runs of the day by, but the brake reservoir melted and his day was over before qualifying even started. There were some problems with the BMW (not even sure what the final diagnosis is) but Chelsea and I had a great day.
Chelsea qualified a close 2nd behind the tracks hometown driver with his turbo 350Z (Aaron Losey) and I qualified 10th. We're pretty sure I should have qualified higher but Tim took 1 run in the S12 after his car broke and I offered for him to co-drive. He had a really hard time with the car and spun a bunch on each lap.
Top 8 were set up in tandem battles and Chelsea made his way though each battle cleanly except for the Battlground S14 spinning in front of him and the S14's right front corner doing a pretty rough job on Chelsea's driver's door.
The final turned into 350Z vs Miata and It would have been a one-more-time if not for a tiny understeer from Chelsea with too much grip in back on the last set of tires we had.
So we took home 2nd place and $200 in gas money, for my super thirsty Cummins engine haha.
We all had a great time in Lousiana and are hoping the Atlanta Qualifier happens. Hopefully with a lot less political drama and better communication to the drivers of EXACTLY what the judges are looking for since Ter-Tech can deliver whatever they ask for!
-Sean
Edited for typos
Edited again to not piss off TonyMac or other people
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