Dom
7th-November-2011, 23:03
The drivers world championship wasn't too fortunate for Atze, however, he showed his intentions at Pro Road- Spa Francorchamps by dominating the Grand Prix from start to finish, winning with a 27 seconds lead over p2 Roland Ehnstrom.
New Qual system
Pro Season offered a new qualification system this year. Where the old system brought many problems on the smaller tracks, the new system has changed to a private hotlap session. Every driver has now 3 laps to set a competitive laptime. There are two ways to approach this: either doing 3 consecutive timed laps on higher fuel, or 2 hotlaps with separate outlaps on lower fuel.
Atze went for 2 separate hotlaps. His first lap 'banker' lap was 1.45.0, seeing as this was a good marker he could push harder to a 1.44.9. Actually both laptimes turned out to be enough for pole position in front of My3ID competitor Andre Boettcher.
Race
Where in the past couple of races, the start didn’t go too well for Atze, this time he had a great start creating a comfortable gap before T1, giving him plenty of time to take it easy through the tricky first time through Eau Rouge and prevent any drivers to get into his slipstream at Kemmel straight. At Les Combes main rivals Samuel Libeert and Andre Boettcher had an unlucky contact causing both drivers to end their races. Simon Crochart and Roland Ehnstrom took advantage out of that accident and moved up to 2nd and 3rd place.
Atze’s gap kept increasing basically every lap and very soon in the race the biggest threat turned out to be the backmarkers. With a packed field with different skill levels, there was a lot of traffic throughout the race. With some professional driving from both sides, Atze made it through safely for the first pitstops in lap 18. There he lost for the only lap of the race the lead to Simon Crochart, who pitted a lap later. After Crochart pitted, Atze was comfortably back in the lead and continued growing the gap to p2 Roland Ehnstrom. With a blistering fastest lap of 1.45.8 at the end of the second stint he made very clear that he wasn’t planning on giving this away.
After the last pitstops the gap was more than 20 seconds and it became a matter of finishing the race finding his way through the ongoing traffic. In the end a very satisfying result for Team Redline’s Atze Kerkhof by winning with a 27 second lead over p2 Roland Ehnstrom and p3 Simon Crochart.
Okayama
Next week the field moves to the new iRacing Okayama track. This short, high downforce track will be again a big spectacle and hopefully broadcasted live on PSRTV.com!
Driver quote
Atze Kerkhof :
This track is the most fantastic track out of all. So it’s a great one to start this competition with. The competitors were extremely quick so I prepared well for this race. With the new quali system things get a bit different and anything can happen, so I had to focus hard and driving stable to make it to pole. Luckily I had two reasonable laptimes, dispite a very bad feeling during the laps, so the most important pole!
The race start is always a struggle, I was lucky to have such a good launch and staying out of lap 1 troubles. After Eau Rouge in lap 1 a big smile arised when I found out I was clear of any slipstream behind me. I do feel really bad for Andre and Samuel to have some unfortunate netcode contact. All I can say to them.. I know how it feels mates.. Keep pushing and all together we need to find a way in our driving to avoid such unpredictable netcode contacts.
At that moment I didn’t know what happened to Samuel and Andre, so I was happy to see a big gap in my mirrors. From that moment it was just a matter of doing save laps and avoiding off-tracks and contacts with backmarkers. Some scary moments and it never goes smooth somehow, but I made it through and finished the race as a very happy man, 1st on my favorite Spa Francorschamps.
Next week round 2 at Okayama, cya all there, let’s hope they broadcast!
New Qual system
Pro Season offered a new qualification system this year. Where the old system brought many problems on the smaller tracks, the new system has changed to a private hotlap session. Every driver has now 3 laps to set a competitive laptime. There are two ways to approach this: either doing 3 consecutive timed laps on higher fuel, or 2 hotlaps with separate outlaps on lower fuel.
Atze went for 2 separate hotlaps. His first lap 'banker' lap was 1.45.0, seeing as this was a good marker he could push harder to a 1.44.9. Actually both laptimes turned out to be enough for pole position in front of My3ID competitor Andre Boettcher.
Race
Where in the past couple of races, the start didn’t go too well for Atze, this time he had a great start creating a comfortable gap before T1, giving him plenty of time to take it easy through the tricky first time through Eau Rouge and prevent any drivers to get into his slipstream at Kemmel straight. At Les Combes main rivals Samuel Libeert and Andre Boettcher had an unlucky contact causing both drivers to end their races. Simon Crochart and Roland Ehnstrom took advantage out of that accident and moved up to 2nd and 3rd place.
Atze’s gap kept increasing basically every lap and very soon in the race the biggest threat turned out to be the backmarkers. With a packed field with different skill levels, there was a lot of traffic throughout the race. With some professional driving from both sides, Atze made it through safely for the first pitstops in lap 18. There he lost for the only lap of the race the lead to Simon Crochart, who pitted a lap later. After Crochart pitted, Atze was comfortably back in the lead and continued growing the gap to p2 Roland Ehnstrom. With a blistering fastest lap of 1.45.8 at the end of the second stint he made very clear that he wasn’t planning on giving this away.
After the last pitstops the gap was more than 20 seconds and it became a matter of finishing the race finding his way through the ongoing traffic. In the end a very satisfying result for Team Redline’s Atze Kerkhof by winning with a 27 second lead over p2 Roland Ehnstrom and p3 Simon Crochart.
Okayama
Next week the field moves to the new iRacing Okayama track. This short, high downforce track will be again a big spectacle and hopefully broadcasted live on PSRTV.com!
Driver quote
Atze Kerkhof :
This track is the most fantastic track out of all. So it’s a great one to start this competition with. The competitors were extremely quick so I prepared well for this race. With the new quali system things get a bit different and anything can happen, so I had to focus hard and driving stable to make it to pole. Luckily I had two reasonable laptimes, dispite a very bad feeling during the laps, so the most important pole!
The race start is always a struggle, I was lucky to have such a good launch and staying out of lap 1 troubles. After Eau Rouge in lap 1 a big smile arised when I found out I was clear of any slipstream behind me. I do feel really bad for Andre and Samuel to have some unfortunate netcode contact. All I can say to them.. I know how it feels mates.. Keep pushing and all together we need to find a way in our driving to avoid such unpredictable netcode contacts.
At that moment I didn’t know what happened to Samuel and Andre, so I was happy to see a big gap in my mirrors. From that moment it was just a matter of doing save laps and avoiding off-tracks and contacts with backmarkers. Some scary moments and it never goes smooth somehow, but I made it through and finished the race as a very happy man, 1st on my favorite Spa Francorschamps.
Next week round 2 at Okayama, cya all there, let’s hope they broadcast!