TORAus StockHatch Series 1 - Video and Photos

I been lazy on the paint front, having just drawn the Jagermeister logo for a Ferrari F40 Series im involved in, i thought i'd get a bit of value for money and pop on the Scirocco as there both German. I guess the big question is, how many Jagermeister's would you need to find the Scirocco attractive and willing to jump into her? Still the advantage being the US version of the car, the bumpers make fantastic picnic tables, remember kids size matters!!

The opening round of the Stock Hatch and a nice party filled dozen ready for the action. A very even split of cars and a lobby full of banter and patience as Xbox Live tried its best to ruin any chance of a race, thankfully though, we got there in the end.

Forty laps of Brands Hatch Indy Circuit for round one, which sounds like hell in my eyes, but in the C Class trio of cars, it meant a very tight qualifying, especially mid pack and a challenging race. For me personally, a dreadful qualifying performance left me 11th on the grid of 12and afterr lap one, i was lying at the back of the pack.

DTech was gone out front, taking the win in his Sunoco Golf, but the battles raged to the very end for the rest of the drivers, at this point i shall apologize to Mako who ended up in the tyre wall after Turn One due to the close racing and a small amount of lag which put me into the #163 Clio, after looking at the replay i felt bad for the incident so can only apologize, although i never felt any contact in the car which stayed straight in my cockpit view, but barged through on the replay.















On to round two then and the Lime Rock Park is awaiting, which again should make for a very interesting race.

Its a lot of fun around here, i was meant to be practicing for the American Iron series tonight but thought that i would just see what its like around Lime Rock, its amazing how quickly 90 minutes can go!!

Round Two saw the Stock Hatches visiting the fantastic wee circuit of Lime Rock Park. The layout was the full circuit with none of the chicanes in place, which saw the tin top terrors of the C-Class ideal for a race around here.

Coming into the event, i was practiced to the maximum and felt confident in breaking into the 59 second bracket, unfortunately i ended up with four dirty laps out of the allocation of six flying plays and so of the nine drivers in the lobby, it was no surprise to see me finishing ninth.

With Lime Rock Park being quite a precision circuit, the slightest mistakes can be very costly and after a great start and an early pitstop to avoid some of the traffic, i ended up in a great battle with EZT MAKO, with mistakes creeping in, he grabbed the sixth spot off me for a few laps as i fell of the track at turn one again, but managed to stay on and pressure Mako, as i had about given up hope and settling down for a seventh place finish, when the green Clio of the EZT man going straight on and into the tyre wall hard on the penultimate lap, which ruined the ending of the race somewhat and now has myself thinking that green cars have an attraction to tyre walls after the VTCC Friday Night Spec at Watkins Glen had the same issue with green cars.

Next up is COTA East Circuit, so plenty of foul and abusive language being shouted by myself at this one, thankfully i run on muted mic mainly.

The third round of the Stock Hatches saw a bumper field of thirteen for the Circuit Of The Americas East Course, a venue which i will admit, i havent mastered by any means since its introduction to Forza Motorsports, but it kind of grew on me in the #16 VW Scirocco as the practice laps went in before the round, although there was a hell of a lot of practice laps to get where i felt comfortable.

The race itself was a touch lonely for the majority of the 38 laps, an early battle with Spanky and Mikey turned into protecting the lead over Spanky, while chasing the carrot of Mikey and Neo who at times were just out of reach, but the race seemed to tick away very quickly and a sixth place finish, a personal best lap time and the satisfaction of an entertaining race with a field in good spirits.

As an added bonus, i also learnt that my avatar was much quicker than myself after the race ended, at one stage grabbing a podium position.























Another win for DTech keeping his unbeaten run going ahead of Sonoma next Monday.

The fourth round of the Stock Hatches hit wine country and the magnificent Sonoma Raceway for 25 laps around the NASCAR circuit. Overtaking was always going to be at a premium here and so it turned out, well unless your called Jack Coffey who went from the back to the front, taking the win and ruining the 100% record of DTech in the process.

For myself, a poor qualifying time, an eventful race, trying to catch JBBTHEFOX, while Spanky was closing the gap, but a 7th place finish at the end was a good result.





















On to Yas Marina then next week, when its going to be dark, so being the nocturnal one, i should do well!!

Yas Marina South Circuit, a venue thats not visited enough in my eyes, especially at night, mainly down to the whinging track limit perfectionists who are usually parascending twenty foot above their car for that extra touch of realism. But the Stock Hatches visited the venue this evening, under the floodlights and an entertaining evening was had by most.

Things we learnt this evening, EZT Ratach and JBBTHEFOX had a finish like the Kevin Harvick & Carl Edwards finish at Phoenix a week or two back, i learnt that looking out of the windscreen is advisable when approaching a corner with a concrete bollard on the inside of it and DTech is actually human and makes mistakes like the rest of us, just not as often!!





















and congratulations to Spanky on the maiden Lobby One win on TORA, he was flying this evening in the Royal Purple Scirocco.

Next up Prague and the Short Circuit of which im perhaps the only fan of, a slight mistake and a trip to the pits will be the order of the day.