Hooversoft Racing Race Report
Brazilian Grand Prix, Jan 16th, 1999
36 Laps, Amateur Opponents, Career Mode Monaco Grand Prix (RS2)
The second race of the season began very promising for both the
Stewart Team and Rookie driver H. Hoover who managed to qualify in
front of his team mate R. Barrichello, ending up on the 13th place on
the grid with a best lap of 1:25.411 (yeah, I know ;-), while
polesitter David Coulthardt put a 1:23.1 on the track.
Interviewed shortly before the 36 Lap race, H. Hoover said "I hope to
achieve a better result after the disappointing season opener in
Melbourne in which I came 18th, and with four cars not finising the
race this wasn't exactly a brilliant result, you know."
The track at Interlagos is usually a very demanding circuit on both
driver and equipment, and this years' session proved to be no
exception. The sun beat down mercilessly on the track from a
cloudless sky, and when the starting lights went off track
temperatures had already reached a whopping 40 C.
"For me, the start was the biggest surprise of the whole race",
H. Hoover says. "I chose a very long first gear in order to avoid
oversteer coming out of the many tight corners on this twisty track,
and strangely this proved to be a very good choice for the start of
the race, too." After the first left hander Hoover had come up to
third place, overtaking nearly ten opponents in the first six seconds
of the race.
As the next laps unfolded the leading group quickly managed to pull
away from the field, consisting of Coulthardt, Villeneuve and
Hoover. "Per lap, we gained maybe to or three seconds on the rest",
Hoover claims, "and I managed to set fastest lap three times in row".
Overtaking being naturally *** this track, Hoover mistook the
haipin on top of the hill for an overtaking chance and spun, having
dropped down to sixth place as he regained the field. "I chose a
two-stop strategy because hard tyres refused to show up in the pit and
setup menu (maybe something went wrong with the Goodyear truck ;-), so
I had to stop for fuel and soft tyres on laps 12 and 24. Leaving the
pits after his second stop Hoover was in a respectable 11th position,
separated by a mere ten seconds from Irvine's Ferrari in tenth.
"I really wanted to get a top ten finish in this second race in my F1
career (mode ;-)" so I pushed the Stewart Ford really hard and managed
to get into a good rythm". At lap 31, with only five laps to go,
Hoover first made visual contact with Irvine, going op the hill to
said hairpin. "It's a very exciting feeling when you finally get to
see the guy in front of you, and it made me push even harder."
Weather taking its toll on the newbies in F1 as well, on lap 32 the
Stewart which had run great throughout all sessions in this Grand Prix
developed a water leak. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked in
the mirrors, the back of the car looked like a Sidewinder rocket on
high altitude. The message from the pits was devastating."
Struggling to keep the car going to at least make a finish resulted in
a capital engine explosion and the stewart rolling off into the grass
just off the grandstand on the s/f straight. "I'm very disappointed,
looks like we'll have to work on reliability a bit", Hoover says.
"The good result of this Grand Prix really lets me habour hopes for
next week's grand prix in Argentina. Although I don't know the track,
I hope to be able to finish among the top ten this time."
Later inquiries into the engine failure showed that a mechanic had
overlooked to reduce maximum RPM on the ford engine from the
qualifying value before the start of the race, resulting in a failure
risk of 30% in the extended race session.
Other dropouts weere Hakkinnen, Villeneuve and Tuero. The race was
won by A. Wurz who lead the field by four seconds crossing s/f.
See you in Argentina!
hoover
BTW, can someone please point out some new pit messages on the net?
The german guy sounds like he's half asleep, even when radioing in
to inform me of a damn water leak!!!! ;-)
--
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http://www.telemedia.de/~hoover ////// Phone: +49-5241-80-10-66
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