6th 2001 KWC race
07 Nov 2006

Ramiro Franco won again. This guy is unbeatable. It's not just the car. It's the driving, flawless during the day. The car is there to the view of everyone.

After the fourth race of the season I was very well placed in the Portuguese ranking. But the day of the 5th race I was not very motivated to attend. I need to have some force compelling me to go to the race and that day nothing happened. I skipped one race.

The 29 of April I went to the 5th race of the season and it could have been worse.

A new V One S appeared at the track in the hands of Paulo Inglês, but without the 2 speed gearbox he had some trouble in trying to be in the top 5. The chassis has some potential but the MKII that we race around here are very well tuned and they have no secrets to the drivers.

The new chassis will need some time to be explored and tuned to perfection.

1st Qualify

Andy Wharhol attended the race. And he finished 3rd. Not bad for a ghost.
It's Helder Peres with the Andy look and a ballistic car.

Nothing was changed on the car and on the first qualify it was perfect. I made a 11 lap qualify very close to the 12 lap target. My best lap was on the 26 second mark and I found no need to change the setup. My car likes to be left gaining dust and when it goes to the track it seems it has been completely overhauled.

I was using 30 tires in the front and 25 in the back and it seemed to be adequate for the track temperature. However when temperature goes up a bit the rear becomes too soft and I guess that I need to change to a slightly harder compound.

2nd and 3rd qualify rounds

The second qualifier was even better. At the end I had the 3rd best time and the 3rd best qualify. Not bad, if you take in to consideration that I'm doing a rotten job in electric racing.

The third could have been better, but excessive confidence caused two spins that made me lost time and finish 4th in the grid.

During all the rounds the car felt perfect with good acceleration adequate shifting point and a very noble chassis setting. Nothing unpredictable.

  The race

My car in the usual setup. The engine made a few races and practice sessions but it's still running very strong.

There were 10 drivers in this race and finally Luis Gonçalves was having a very good day. Well, he just lost a transponder, hit Paulo Inglês when Paulo tried to give him passage and that sort of thing that always plagues his races. But the driving was ok, and he was doing very fast laps with his car.

João Ribeiro's best lap was just .02 seconds behind me and he is always a very serious contender on these races.

The start saw me drop a couple of places (I had richen the motor a little to compensate the 30 minute race and acceleration suffered a lot with this) but after a lap I was back in 5th place. The main problem with this race was the lack of pit man. Instead of refueling like I normally do, I would have to do it my self and go to the driver stand again. On top of it I forgot to time the race and I stopped without fuel in the middle of the track.

Someone grabbed my car and refueled it and there I was again in 6th or 7th. I started to loose some grip on the back (hotter tires) and I had to drive very carefully. The time the motor took to reach max rpm was higher and I could see myself loosing time to one or two guys every lap.

Paulo Ingês and Pedro Dias - Trying to start the V One S. The single speed gearbox made it impossible to fight for a place in the front.

But I got close to Helder Peres (3rd) and finally passed him. I was in 3rd and gaining time to the second (he was a lap in front of me) but very close to the end (2.5 minutes) when I was going to pass him to be in the same lap, he spinned and I hit him. The body was deformed and touching the right front wheel. I got out of the stand I went to pick up the car. The motor stopped and when I was going to the stand again the race finished.

I was angry because the driving was overshadowed by the logistics of refueling and pit stops and I didn't notice that I finished in the 4th place. I lost 4 laps to the 3rd (Helder Peres) due to that stupid little crash that caused so much damage.

Oh well, can't be that sad, after all the main contenders to a trip to Dubai are still where they were and nothing is lost . Let's see how it goes next time.

The setup

Championship Standings

This table reflects the real ranking (the two worst results are taken out)

This table reflects the ranking before the two worst results are taken out