Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos) (Brazil) (16th April)
E: 19 (3 Class B | 5 Class C | 10 Class D)
P: (No Laps Completed)
Q: 13th (15 Of those completed laps)
R: 7th (3rd In Class) – HIGHEST FINISH IN A FERRARI
F: 17
S: 18
SOF: 859 (LOWEST IT’S GOT!)
The 6th round of the 2019 Ferrari GT3 Challenge didn’t get off to a great start…having college work to complete, a Driving Lesson to endure, dodgy internet to compete with and the 4.30pm race missed by accident, the 5.30pm race was the first I could do…and what a vital decision that turned out to be.
Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace is one of my least favourite tracks, it’s a difficult little track, 13th is all I could manage in qualifying…a curse for some….little did I know that this would be me.
The pace-car pulls away, all is well, order and tidy…in rows of two, 18 Ferrari 488 GT3’s drive in formation towards the start/finish line for the first time…..AND GREEN, GREEN, GREEN! Away we go!
The second row consisting of Gonzalo Cristori (Right lane) and Pablo Aviles Prieto (Left Lane) get a poor getaway and are swamped by Breger Yannik (Left) and George Bournias (Right)…George moves to the left of Gonzalo, unaware that Pablo has shuffled to the left to give room to the incoming Yannik. Pablo then bumps into George’s side…the front wheel to door contact slewing him 45 degrees to the left, pushing both him as well as Pablo to the left into the fast-starting Yannik.
With Pablo now in a Yannick-Bournias sandwich, the three of them slid down the straight, constantly slowing (from 90mph, to roughly 70mph) whilst the others around them are blasting off, trying to get a better start then their competitors….zooming past the troubled trio at 100+ mph…..The force of Breger and Pablo pushing and steering against the oddly positioned Bournais, was enough for Pablo’s splitter to get underneath the #1 of George Bournais, pitching him on his side… Robin Truswell, who was 3 cars behind this, on the left arrives on the scene very quickly…braked a little later, using the inside of the track to make a few (3 or 4) positions, but still ensured he had enough time to brake more if things went sour…
Whilst most blocked or affected by the developing accident slowed (Robin Truswell included), the #15 of Timothy Wymer….didn’t…..starting from 14th, he had a partially obstructed view of the sandwich, but could still see other cars slowing, and cars ahead sliding…..instead of using the brake, like a normal person would, Timothy jerked the steering wheel to the left, to avoid one queue of slowing cars, and then jerked it again to avoid the left lane of queuing “traffic”….let me just inform you that whilst Timothy is doing in excess of 119mph whilst those around him were doing 90….you can probably guess what happens next….
With an initial impact at 115mph, Timothy slammed hard into the back of Robin Truswell…Truswell was doing 90.
The impact was so great that it shunted Robin up 9mph… the rear of his car left the ground and the car lurched right whilst Wymer’s car was forced into the wall. (I was right beside it when overtaking and braking), before following Robin right…Truswell’s car uncontrollably slides into the trio of the original accident, George still perched on his side…my car smashing his passenger-side bonnet and windshield, before unlodging Bournias from his side, flicking him on his roof…whilst Pablo Prieto, still trying to escape the accident, ramped his front wheels off my bonnet (unsighted due to George being sideways….George slid on his roof for the remainder of the straight, only being spun by Pablo, this momentum flicking the car back on all fours. This whole ordeal left me facing sideways along the straight needing a 300 point turn to face the right direction, George out of the race, and the other two survived.
I was not the only one to be rear-ended, others got little pushes too, but my “push” definitely had the worst impact…
Whilst George was on his roof, more action happened at turn one…the two leaders collide!
Jake Potak who was originally on the inside (left) attempted to get around the outside of Kevin Goldbach Rivera… the moved was about to be clean, until Jake closed the door a little bit too early on Kevin, who was still marginally alongside Jake. Jake was spun and Kevin got away scot-free.
Lap 3 another huge pile-up occurred, originally triggered by George’s “replacement driver” (he just sat in the pits for a while, repairing his car) who emerged from the pits on lap 3 right in front of the 4-car battle for third….lead, infuriatingly, by Timothy.
When emerging from the pits, George “The Second” was carrying roughly the same speed as crashothy, so was not able to down the straight into turn 4….and as they all had each other’s slipstream, they were three wide….with George ahead of them…
As you know, 3 doesn’t go into one….Zdenek Marek, who was in 4th, braked later than Timothy, and managed to squeeze through the gap between Tim and George in the braking zone, managing to make the corner, good old Yannik however, didn’t….by the time he arrived, the gap was gone, Timmy had turned in and contact was inevitable….He ploughed into the side of Timmy (phew) and spun them both around….
Next up was Stefan Kousgaard’s turn to wreck a Ferrari. Stefan and I raced in this very series at Brands Hatch, so it was very nice to (sort of) race against him again.
Stefan’s misadventure was caused when he saw a spider on the brake pedal and stamped it to death….getting instantly rear ended by Peter Romianowski.
Obviously there was no spider, and My Boy Stefan randomly braked on a straight for no reason….
Jake Potak was the cause of the next accident, at the corner at the end of the straight where Stefan went off. Potak tried to get up the inside of both Timothy Whacker and also Breger Yannik…..whilst they were having a side by side battle…as we have learnt before, three into one doesn’t go…..
Jake was on the outside of the track and braked late. Timothy was trying to do the cutback to Breger Yannik…but unfortunately Jake was there first, spinning Timothy around, pushing him into a wheelie and making a world record of two Ferrari crashes in two corners.
Yannik also threw away this opportunity by braking on the kerb of the corner, which turned into grass….
And just like Brands Hatch, me and Stefan were all by ourselves at the back of the grid….awwww..
Not happy with the total bill of all the damage caused being an odd million (instead of an even million), Didier Moreau lost control on the grass coming out of the last corner, slamming into the inside barrier, being projectiled back on the circuit, straight into the path of Peter Romianowski….much like Alonso and Webber in 2003….
Peter then launched up the concrete barrier and landed rather safely….
Later on in the race Potak and Timothy (again) also had contact inspired spins, taking to the grass to regain control. The latter of which was spun by Jake.
It was at this point that Jake Potak gave up on life…..after Krystian Frylewicz spun after braking on the grass, Jake rammed straight into him intentionally….absolutely abhorrent for a simulator I am paying £13 a month for….
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