UKGTL Season 5 Classic Endurance - Le Mans (Sarthe) - Jun 19

[Alex vV]

I guess everybody in the second half of the grid noticed the start was a huge mess  :'(
but running with 4,5 cars side by side on the Mulsanne straight was fabulous 

Had some major offs and thought it was the Le Mans red mist but during the pitstop became clear that the suspension was kaputt 
After unwillingly refitting all damaged parts on my car (could get me a glass of champagne during the pitstop) the car felt a lot better.

Big thanks to Ginsters and Pseudo for organising the Endurance series. Really love it and I want to applaud the constraint reactions after the start mayhem. I think in a lot of other places it would resulted in lots of swearing and disconnections.

Hope to see you all next season.

[TinMan]

In front of me at the start, a Legends 906 got into the side of Phil Gilliland and then all hell was let loose. I had nowhere to go and no time to do anything and was catapulted high into the sky.
Car was well busted so I limped around and spent about 4 years in the pits. Filled the car to the brim with juice and just drove.
Was plumb last and knew that I was a lap short of fuel to finish the race. The leader Sooty overtook me and I was overjoyed.
Got worried when I got the lap back when he pitted but relieved when he put me a lap down again 'cos then I knew I could finish the race on the fuel I had left.
All in all I was very happy with 11th place onsidering the carnage at the start and the time I spent in the pits.

TC

[psuedo]

Results and Replay above

[Truetom]

Martin, you were invisible for me, I can't even see you on my replay.    I hit you (too   ) and got hit by several cars, lost some front parts, but the car felt ok. After half I came into the pit, where I stayed a looong time. Good that I had Adam there so we could exchange some papers and read all about Britney leaving Hollywood.  
6th into the pit, 12th out.    Gained some places to the end, finished 9th, I think. Could be better.    I think a formation lap would be better - obviously not at Le Mans, but otherwise it would be safer.

Must apologize to Sandor - it looked like enough space was there, then the car swerved a bit and there was a contact. I'm still learning, don't know for sure how far the car will slide, it looked like yours would slide to the right a bit more. Sorry.  

TT

[Mark J]

Aaaargh !!, stupid sodding hopeless BT bastich ADSL line let me down again  Two Le Mans races in 5 days and two crappy Discos.   Only lasted about 5 laps this time and again, no warning just an instant dropped connection. Checked my isp speed after and it showed a measly 596kbps ! complete garbage.

Race start was hazardous to say the least !..started a dull 16th on grid despite a healthy 4:39 time, gave it a little too welly off the line but still controllable, but saw TT and another come together as i was accelerating and veered whilst still spinning my wheels over to the left and got a clip off someone coming through, so apologies for changing direction so quickly. Then it was carnage ahead of me as cars careened into each other and across the track but i managed to swerve my way through un-scathed and soon found myself in 8th by the end of the first lap  ...i'm guessing a lot of boys in their very powerful cars hadnt practised any starts 
Then had a good little dice with SPanner in his 906 and Adam in his vette? for a lap and a half until spanner got out of shape in the first Mulsanne chicane and unfortunately clipped my rear as i cruised through into a decent 7th place. Alas the spin dropped me back to 12th and all my early good pace was un-done  :'(
It then looked like i might have been in for a lonely race as seemed marooned in the midfield with no one near me in front or behind even after 3 laps 
But it didnt matter as the internet gods decided to revoke my evenings pleasure 

[psuedo]

In front of me at the start, a Legends 906 got into the side of Phil Gilliland and then all hell was let loose. I had nowhere to go and no time to do anything and was catapulted high into the sky.

You most definately were not alone....the start was total mayhem ....one day, maybe, we will have a gtl race where we dont suffer any damage before turn 1. Don't think it's worth holding your breath for though.

As you can probably tell...i was caught up in the carnage off the line....saw a few cars littering the track and tried avoiding but there was just nowhere left to go so ended up hitting one whilst braking and then a couple of others whilst trying ti thread my way through slowly.
Picked up some form of damage, my steering was all over the place and I had to keep a fair bit of right lock on all the way down the staights.....was Tempted to pit and try get it fixed but decided in the end not to bother and stayed out for a few laps....wasn't getting anywhere and my enthusiasm was at a low ebb so i quit out.

Don't think there was much anybody could do about the start tonight...it just looked like one of those things...but I am very quickly starting to dislike standing starts.

[Blunder]

Just looked at the replay.
I caused some issues for the last 6 or so drivers, my fault sorry.
There was also another incident at the front of the pack.
Not my place to comment!
M.

[Wiltshire Tony]

In front of me at the start, a Legends 906 got into the side of Phil Gilliland and then all hell was let loose. I had nowhere to go and no time to do anything and was catapulted high into the sky.

You most definately were not alone....the start was total mayhem ....one day, maybe, we will have a gtl race where we dont suffer any damage before turn 1. Don't think it's worth holding your breath for though.

As you can probably tell...i was caught up in the carnage off the line....saw a few cars littering the track and tried avoiding but there was just nowhere left to go so ended up hitting one whilst braking and then a couple of others whilst trying ti thread my way through slowly.
Picked up some form of damage, my steering was all over the place and I had to keep a fair bit of right lock on all the way down the staights.....was Tempted to pit and try get it fixed but decided in the end not to bother and stayed out for a few laps....wasn't getting anywhere and my enthusiasm was at a low ebb so i quit out.

Don't think there was much anybody could do about the start tonight...it just looked like one of those things...but I am very quickly starting to dislike standing starts.

Like Brands Hatch GP last week.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Firstly congratulations to the backroom boys for putting together a top rate first Enduro season. Thoroughly enjoyable and well worth repeating please. Have I mentioned 10x daylight setting at all? 
Secondly congrats to the Prodigy new boys for a superb first race in your new colours. Heres hoping that form will continue.
Thirdly commiserations to Jeb (Mr BMW) who came out of the 1st lap carnage a little the worst for wear. You didn't deserve that luck mate  :'(.
And finally my apologies to Alex for the thump up the bum bits at that right hander. I hadn't anticipated your braking. No excuse and you looked like you had a big hit into that wall. I took a voluntary drive thru for that. Sorry pal.

[psuedo]

Quote
In front of me at the start, a Legends 906 got into the side of Phil Gilliland and then all hell was let loose. I had nowhere to go and no time to do anything and was catapulted high into the sky.

You most definately were not alone....the start was total mayhem ....one day, maybe, we will have a gtl race where we dont suffer any damage before turn 1. Don't think it's worth holding your breath for though.

As you can probably tell...i was caught up in the carnage off the line....saw a few cars littering the track and tried avoiding but there was just nowhere left to go so ended up hitting one whilst braking and then a couple of others whilst trying ti thread my way through slowly.
Picked up some form of damage, my steering was all over the place and I had to keep a fair bit of right lock on all the way down the staights.....was Tempted to pit and try get it fixed but decided in the end not to bother and stayed out for a few laps....wasn't getting anywhere and my enthusiasm was at a low ebb so i quit out.

Don't think there was much anybody could do about the start tonight...it just looked like one of those things...but I am very quickly starting to dislike standing starts.

Like Brands Hatch GP last week.

Have you got the same replay as me Tony.....Martins lagging is plain to see and a fair few cars got caught up in it and took damage. .....(ok, ok, maybe just after T1 but but I reckon every one knows where I'm coming from.  )

[sooty1977]

That race was insane !
Grabbed pole with a 26.1 which was surprisingly 4.5 seconds faster than 2nd,then got the normal start of the line and went back to 2nd alltho thx to MrOily as it looked like he kinda
backed of a touch not to make it difficult for me into t1. So now had pibeiro a second or so down the road in his ever fast moving bmw which i finally outdragged him to take the lead,just
before the porsche curves which i managed to keep it together to keep p1.Then looks like the totally rapid snasky in the vette grabbed 2nd from priebiro as he clipped the grass at the porsche curves totally smashing the wall which was a real shame as it could have paned out for the bmw as the tyre were was going to be a problem with the panty.
So now with a round a 4 second gap which was consitant for lap after lap with me being faster in the 1st and last sector and snasky being extremely quick in the middle,but that 4 seconds went as soon as i caught the 2nd car to be lapped which i wasn't sure if he new i was in the lead or not so ended up clipping him round the ultra fast right hander at mulsane which sent me of in the kitty litter while the vette grabbed the lead. And on the same lap i hit another backmarker which was having a moment with the vette breathing down his neck,so now around 2 seconds back i was a touch angry at myself because i guess it realy was my fault not giving the 2 said backmarkers time to think,so i set about hunting down the stnasky which i quickly did finally overtaking at the very place i fell of the lap earlyer.From then it was just a matter of the pit stops and we both went in at the same time a second a part.
I new exactly what juice i needed but i messed up on the tyres as i wasn't going to change them even tho they were a touch goosed but i forgot to change it to not change tyres so had to sit and prey that the vette was changing all his which looked like he did.
And my crew did a superb job getting me a very health 14 second lead which i just tryed to nurse the car round knowing that i kinda had it in the bag now and was not going to let anything slip.

So would like to say to organizers many thx for putting this on and well done to all that finished,just a shame it looked like a pub server at the start with all that carnage.

See you all nxt season and go Team Prodigy 3rd in the constructors that will do nicley ! 
   

[Sandor M]

Must apologize to Sandor - it looked like enough space was there, then the car swerved a bit and there was a contact. I'm still learning, don't know for sure how far the car will slide, it looked like yours would slide to the right a bit more. Sorry. 

Well, my car was also not doing what I told him to do so i'm glad I didn't ruin your race also 

Strange race where I could never get the real pace and the 'feeling' with the track .
This caused a stop-and-go and some ruined suspensions..... 
After a long pitstop where I repaired the complete car I had a 70 secs gap to the front and 70 secs to the back .
2 laps later i had another stop-and-go. This got me a bit frustrated and ended in the barriers again where I ruined my suspension total.
This ended my race one lap too early.

Better luck next year.

[Blunder]

A couple of points.

1. Thanks to all for an excellent series of Endurance. Organisers and racers!
2. Standards of driving are generally excellent, IMO.
3. Standing starts are part of racing. There will always be someone who makes an error at a start. It will 99% of the time be a genuine error, IMO. We all will / have done it!
Over the last 18months I have only failed to finish twice! A testiment to the excellent standard of driving and general fair play attitude of all on this forum.

Thanks all.

When does the next season start!? What am I gonna do until then!?

M.

P.S Please lets not confuse my technical problem that caused my lag at Brands with any Standing start discussion.

[Alex vV]

And finally my apologies to Alex for the thump up the bum bits at that right hander. I hadn't anticipated your braking. No excuse and you looked like you had a big hit into that wall. I took a voluntary drive thru for that. Sorry pal.

Thanks for the apologies. Very gentleman-like action. 

Looking foreward to the battles with the Green Machines next season 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Quote
In front of me at the start, a Legends 906 got into the side of Phil Gilliland and then all hell was let loose. I had nowhere to go and no time to do anything and was catapulted high into the sky.

You most definately were not alone....the start was total mayhem ....one day, maybe, we will have a gtl race where we dont suffer any damage before turn 1. Don't think it's worth holding your breath for though.

As you can probably tell...i was caught up in the carnage off the line....saw a few cars littering the track and tried avoiding but there was just nowhere left to go so ended up hitting one whilst braking and then a couple of others whilst trying ti thread my way through slowly.
Picked up some form of damage, my steering was all over the place and I had to keep a fair bit of right lock on all the way down the staights.....was Tempted to pit and try get it fixed but decided in the end not to bother and stayed out for a few laps....wasn't getting anywhere and my enthusiasm was at a low ebb so i quit out.

Don't think there was much anybody could do about the start tonight...it just looked like one of those things...but I am very quickly starting to dislike standing starts.

Like Brands Hatch GP last week.

Have you got the same replay as me Tony.....Martins lagging is plain to see and a fair few cars got caught up in it and took damage. .....(ok, ok, maybe just after T1 but but I reckon every one knows where I'm coming from.  )

Yeah agreed but I was talking about the start and up to Turn 1.

Before the standing start/rolling start debate kicks off which I'm sure it will, can we not discuss having some fairly heavy penalties for the drivers who do lose control of the cars from the startline i.e  1 race bans? It must be obvious to most people that anyone who doesn't practise standing starts will lose it from the go and the consequence of that will most likely be damage to others which is unfortunate and completely avoidable. Rolling starts will just sterilize one of the major race event components and I for one will not welcome them. Even though last night I took heavy damage from the startline carnage I wouldn't change a thing. It's racing and stuff happens. Lets not try to "bubble wrap" it.