3 in a row!
November 21, 2011In a race that promised some strategic battles, Atze Kerkhof came out on top for the 3rd time in a row on the Indianapolis Road Course.
Qualy
In the qualification it was tighter than ever. With 4 drivers within 0.05 seconds Atze came out on p3 on the grid, right behind Samuel Libeert and Sebastian Schmalenbach. As seen in the DWC race last season, the track offers two choices in strategy. A 1 stopper and a 2 stopper. Team Redline was successful earlier with the 1 stop strategy but in Pro it was yet to be the question if it was the right choice.
Race
At green Atze spurted away to a first position, but due to his 1 stop strategy he was much heavier on fuel than his competitors. Out of carefulness he had to give back p1 and cruised around on p2 for a while. While others around him were on a 2 stop strategy it was a matter of staying out of trouble and setting a decent pace. During the stint he had to let the two My3ID drivers behind him go to avoid losing time in battling.
After his pitstop the Fanatec sponsored Team Redline car was clear of traffic and pressure from 2 stoppers behind him, so Atze was able to find a proper rhythm and push the last 35 laps to the finish. At that moment he was driving around on 4th position, but with the others yet to pit for their 2nd time it was already clear that nothing could keep him from winning his 3rd consecutive win in the Pro Series. Finishing with a 12 second lead over Schmalenbach gives Atze a 64 points lead over Roland Ehnström in the overall classification.
Next race will be driven at Silverstone!
Drivers Quote
Atze Kerkhof:
Woowwoowwiwaa..
What a week again. I was expecting this track to be easier since it's a low df track, but that wasn't really the case. The Fanatec sponsored Team Redline had a great baseline set, but learning the track and pushing the laptimes was a big struggle..
I had to go into a different direction with the setup and that worked out quite well.. The Q set was a hell to drive, but when handled properly I was quick.. In the quali session I noobed my first attempt, overshot the corner a tiny bit and my scare reaction caused some huge cramp into my toe That was awesome because i completely messed up that lap to a 1.06.7'ish.. Second attempt was full pressure again and did a proper lap good for p3. With my strategy this wasnt a big issue..
The start was a bit tricky, I had a slight better launch than Sebastian but didn't want to take any risks having contact. Since he was on lower fuel and I had a small slide I let him go and tried to get some rhythm behind him. With Andre behind me I had to keep pushing because battling for positions would ultimately lose me more time, but I couldn't keep Andre behind me and decided to go off the throttle on the start finish straight to let him go and safe us both some useless battling. After that Kronke came up and as I was further in my stint and getting some proper laptimes done, I decided to keep pushing and not giving away a position. I wasnt sure if he was much quicker than me, but in the end this was a wrong call... I tried to let him pass properly, but we were both very careful losing 2 seconds side to side racing.. But no worries there, the first stint didn't go as much as planned but no major mistakes got me in front of them all after they pitted for the 2nd time.
Before they pitted I wasnt sure about my position in the field so I had to keep pushing and find my way through traffic. The Fanatec car felt awesome throughout the stint. Even tho I practiced way too much on saturday last minute, the Obutto cockpit offered me a super comfortable ride back to p1 and I was some sort of celebrating my victory with 20 laps to go. The strategy turned out to be successful and I'm happy I won this race with some good battles. There were some typical scary moments. Macjon went off track and re-entered the track dangerously almost banana'ing me.
Next race Silverstone, love that track so hopefully I'll get through turn 1 there this time. Thanks to everybody for the support and wishes. Many thanks to Team Redline, Fanatec and Obutto!! Cya next week
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