Race Weekend - Black Sea GP ERS Season 1

Predator Racing Group Blog

                                                        By Bob Power

Thursday

Race weekend is here! Its been a crazy few weeks for us with all the changes I have put into effect. we have built a new motor but wasn't done on time for race weekend Isai Nolde was working all night trying to complete it but he found some bugs with it and opted to not test our luck.

The forecast for the weekend looks like we wont see sun but fingers crossed we do. I'm not expecting a lot from our team as every one is new together. I told the team before we left to work on setups for next time have fun and just finish the race. We have 30 laps to log and our race mechanics say our tire wear will be very high and are brakes are weak so we will need to improve them for the next race.

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Friday - Practice 

Friday morning practice was very rainy. It poured from the time we hit the track to the very last second of practice there where spots here and there of sun but its was just a tease. 

We did unexpectedly well during practice. We might of been the slowest with intermediates but we where 6th with Sofi Sevilla with a time of 1.31.744 and 8th with Ines Santa Ana with a time of 1.32.933. It was a big booster to every one on the team even tho the rest of the field had wets on...

 Isabel Bishop was reporting that Sevilla found her grove right away with a setup balance at 97%

Roger Dunbar reported in that Santa Ana was comfortable with her car at a setup balance at 96%

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Race Day

As the rules states reversed driver points position grid Santa Ana will start 12th and Sevilla will start 2nd. hoping Sevilla wont get the first lap jitters.

we are playing it safe, Where not going to push no matter how tempting it will be, We need to save both cars for next week they are our only cars.. to our surprise the suns out (thanks weather man) and its a cool 55 degrees out.

Green Flags Out  (live race report)

Sevilla held strong to about midway down the track but just got fright trained and settled to 11th

Santa Ana has settled to about 17th headed onto lap two, Watching everyone in front of her locking there tires up!

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Lap 5

first round of pit stops are happening for the drivers that had locked up on lap 2 and 3.

Sevilla fell back to 15th
Santa Ana fell to 20th 
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Lap 8 

leader Jha on pit road now for softs.

Sevilla moved to 6th
Santa Ana moved to 13th

we have not pitted yet for tires Santa Ana starting to complain.

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Lap 9

Roger Dunbar just called Santa Ana to pit for super softs. He was saying over the radio "wanted to try something different.

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Lap 10

  

Isabel Bishop called Sevilla in liking the super softs idea.

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Lap 13 

after first round of pit stops are over. Jha is 1st) Arbeloa is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Sevilla fell back to 17th one lap down.
Santa Ana fell to 20th one lap down.

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Lap 15 

2nd round of pit stops started waiting for everything to fan out.

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Lap 19

Sevilla just got slammed in the rear by Dreyfuss knocked the rear wing apart! Dreyfuss has a pass through penalty!

Sevilla just started to complain that her engine messed up going down the backstretch!

Sevilla forces to pit!

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Lap 20

last round of pit stops are starting Jha is 1st) Arbeloa is 2nd) Cavalcanti is 3rd)

Sevilla fell back to 20th one lap down.
Santa Ana fell to 19th one lap down.

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Lap 23 

both Sevilla and Santa Ana called in for final stop, They are far apart so crews can work on them ok.

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Lap 24

Santa Ana has just reported to Dunbar her brakes are just about done.

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Lap 27 

Jha is 1st) Cavalcanti is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Santa Ana still hanging on.

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Lap 28 

Sevilla was just heard over the radio 3rd gear is gone.

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Lap 29

Jha is 1st) Cavalcanti is 2nd) Gerard is 3rd)

Sergio Valdes pulled into pits says "where done" (mechanical issues) was 7th.

Merja Vaananen just blew up down the backstretch.

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White Flag Out 

Beauchamp runs out just taking the white was 5th.

Gerard runs out at the final corner was 2nd.

Tanvir Jha runs out of fuel coming to the line but taken the checkered.

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Checkered Flag

Tanvir Jha Takes the win follow by Cavalcanti 2nd) and Gerard 3rd)

 
Sevilla rounded up to 18th 2 laps down.
Santa Ana came home to 17th 2 laps down.

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Race run down

Beside getting run over with Sevilla in her first race we did accomplish our goals for the weekend.

We did not get a DNF, Everyone finished and got seat time, And we got some valuable setup notes for next time out. On the plus side we did not finish last! On to the next race at Munich GP.