Things don’t always go according to plan, do they? That goes double when other people are involved and double again when there’s a wall in the way.
Robert Graf‘s continued efforts in the DOM-GNL (German NASCAR League) of iRacing ended with a bit of a bang this time. Thankfully, only a few pixels were seriously hurt, in spite of the fairly spectacular disaster that almost any accident on an oval track becomes. For his full race report on the season’s second outing, click “Read More”.
“It could have been the perfect evening. Could have, cause this time there was no checkered flag for me. But one thing after the other.
Allthough i am a bad qualifier, i took my chance this time and came 28th on the grid instead of 38th. Right on the start the first caution flew and i was involved. Thank god no major damage and after the second caution in lap 23 my car was as good as new. Then we got racing for 50 laps till the next yellow in lap 78. And this car was doing great. It may not have been the fastest, but it was very consistent. I teamed up with training collegue Andreas Kroeger (he is the team owner of DIHL) and together we drove into the TOP20.
The next caution was on lap 130 and i was in bitter need for that one, as my tires were toast. Further cautions in lap 137, 142, 147 and 153 and then Andreas and I had this genius idea. While we were on positions 15 and 16, we pitted for new tires, knowing we could not fall further back then 20th, because no more cars were on the lead lap. So we would be running on new tires for the last 25 laps, all the others were on old rubber. Our first charge at the TOP10 got hindered by the 9th caution of the evening and then it got worse. A car gets into the wall somewhere in front of my and my frontman dives to the inside, but there is already another car there. They collide and spin across the track. Evasive action is hopeless and I hit hard. After a few rolls my car wa,s of course, trash.
This happened with 13 laps to go. What a start into the season this could have been, two TOP15 finishes in a row. Better luck next time!”
We have to agree, Robert – best of luck once again for Race 3 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
