UKGTL Season 5 Classic Endurance Cup - Hungaroring - May 1

[Steve Holmes]

C'mon Geoffers, hope you'll at the very least come along to the sprints, I've had some fantastic races side by side with you or trying to close the gap to you, thoroughly enjoyed them all.   

As for me, disco at about lap 25 or so, that was a shame but I still had an absolute blast in the Daytona, not the easiest car for me to drive!  Can't believe I jumped into 3rd on the first lap, held onto Jeff and Mike really well for the first 2-3 laps then the tyres warmed up and I never use them as well, much prefer cold tyres.   

Started slipping back to Ade and Martin, some really excellent driving by them to avoid me, the Daytona was so much slower through the bends than the Elan, so thanks for that, I lost momentum once or twice but not the slightest tap.

After about 16 laps the tyres were really getting shot and my constant drifting got harder to hold onto and 2-3 minor offs dropped me to 7th.  After pitting I was really going for it, hoping to make a few places back before the tyres went off again, and I was closing slowly on the Elan ahead (Mr. Oily or TinMan, can't remember, sorry).

Then I discoed so I'll never know if I could have made any places back.  But brilliant race, I'm utterly exhausted, time for a drink now.   

[ginsters sponsored]

Couple of bad races/mistakes/bit of bad luck doesn't change the fact your're a pleasure to race with Geoff. Please put them behind you and join us next week

[Mr.BMW]

WHOOOOOEEEEEE

My back hurts, and my knees are killing me but it was all worth it.

The first half of my race was intense, under constant battles with PRebiero for 7th, and Syd on my tail in 9th.
Luckily for me Syd flipped his car taking the pressure off of me there, and I was in the hunt for 7th for quite a few laps. I was following PReb pretty close and had to really adjust my speed to make up for his slow turning Jag, unfortunatley this made me slide to far on the 2nd last turn going in to the kittylitter. The Elan really doesn't like to get out of it to much, and I dropped back to 9th. A lap or so later I was unfortunatley punted off track on turn 1 and dropped back to 12th I kept 12/11th pretty consistently and pitted in on lap 16 using an early lap strategy (which probably is what helped me keep up with PReb so long).

lost about 7 places in pits and rejoined in 19th, 8 seconds behind Oily who exited the pits a bit before me. The next few laps were pretty quiet, and I was worried my strategy failed as I wasn't getting close to anyone. Luckily about 8 or 9 laps down people started pitting and I jumped back up to 9th. Was holding 9th well and Will16v was right behind me, so luckily I had no pressure on losing a spot as either way we would score team points.

Me and will were trading 9th and 10th around, and then big bad Ruskus started comming up. I was able to move out of the way for Ruskus, but while checking my rear view mirror for Mike I flipped the car and dropped back to 12th I always F up when being lapped

My car was not to bad after the flip, but while chasing Will for 11th I slipped and smoked the wall flipping again, this time wrecking my suspension. Had to deal with the car steering right for the last 4 laps. Although I was involved in one incident sending me off track, I can't say it hindered me to much and I still enjoyed the race greatly.

Was never a fan of Hungaroring as I could never ever ever figure out a proper line aroudn this place. Luckily I started to find it last night during practice

I need to go shower - that race was intense!!!!

[Mike Wrightson]

 

That was  EPIC 

If JR had been in the Cobra, he'd have disappeared, but as it was I had an awesome chase of his Daytona.  I was a touch faster, but could never get close enough to try a pass.  Lost about 8 seconds to him in my pitstop, but gradually reeled him back in to be only about 1 second behind at the finish.  Very happy with that race

Will, sorry for collecting you near the end, you tried to let me through, I cocked up my brakes and we met in the middle

[psuedo]

Replay and results in the usual places.

[Jeffrey]

What a race!

Was surprised to grap pole in the end. The whole first stint (20 laps) me and Mike were never ever further away from eachother than 0.8s .
I decided to go in a bit earlier, to get fresher tyres earlier. I think it worked, as I came out 8s ahead, with 2 drivers infront.
I was gaining on the cars infront, but was unsure whether they pitted or not, so I kept pushing.

They then went in and I had Mike 7s behind me...and he was gaining fast with 10 laps to go  . I had to push me nuts off to try and stay infront .
And in the end we finished with, yes you guessed it...0,8s gap .

Great race and a good final for my enduro GTL season .

[Mike Wrightson]

It was most entertaining watching the angles your Daytona was being driven at

[psuedo]

That was horrible for me.

Started ok was holding my own around 15th and slowly gaining a little....had a bit of a tussle with two lime green elans....forgot my dark glasses though so I got blinded and ended up wagging my tail for an eterrnity before kissing the armco.

Got back on it and was again making progress...slowly but surely reeling SBG in ahead when for some strange reason I double downshifted approaching T2 and ended up with my nose stuck in the barrier.

Pitted and spent about 4 mins getting a new suspension, new wheels, new body work, new engine etc etc.

When the double shift happened fopr the 3rd time a bit later...I gave up.

Grats to winners and podium.

[Jeffrey]

It was most entertaining watching the angles your Daytona was being driven at

It was actually very stable . I normally have much more oversteer, but this car suffered more from understeer at the end, and my wear was only 20 at the rear, compared to 35 with the Vette at Nurby .

Your Cobra was also often nice and sideways .

Also well done on showing those Elanboys .

[Mike Wrightson]

I don't know how much wear I had, but it felt like a lot

Where did the Elans go anyway ?? 

[ginsters sponsored]

Bit of a quite race that. Everytime someone (Pseudo, Mark etc) caught me, something conspired to knock them back After my good start I resultantly didn't really race anyone. To be honest spent most of race getting more and more grumpy about the Elans, stupid ruddy little cars (MJ started me off in a bad mood )

Curvey tracks for enduro/Elans aren't my cup of tea but we have to aim to satisfy all our punters and sounds like many enjoyed tonight Be a boring world if we all chose Healeys (or maybe not). Congrats to JR, Mike and Blunder And I guess I won race of also rans. 1 all Mr.Healey

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I've no idea what to make of that.

Qualified a couple of places behind SbG's Healey and expect to rocket past the Elan and Alpine ahead but it just didn't happen. Ended up stuck behind a little pack of Elans and then made a tiny mistake near the end of lap 3 or 4 which put me in the barriers with bent steering and some front bits missing. Got going again almost at the back of the field only to catch the inside edge of a curb a few laps later and roll into the gravel. The marshalls got me turned over again and I set off to see what was what but I was badly off the pace and my tyres were going off too. Had a few laps enjoyably scrapping with MJ until he spun in the final turn and then pitted a couple laps early after failing to catch Pseudo's Alpine.

Had the front bumper fixed and took on fresh rubber but the length of time it would've taken to repair the suspension was over a minute so I had to live with the bent steering.

The car felt a lot better on new boots and in one piece and I was lapping a fair bit quicker but still a long way down the field, making much of the race rather tedious. I seriously considered quitting but with only two Shark cars in I had to at least try and salvage a team point or two.

Eventually I found Spanner coming out of the pits and an epic battle ensued as my tyres turned to shreds, but I somehow hung on despite intense pressure from his Alpine, which was miles faster everywhere except the front straight. Most enjoyable.

The car went through some strange phases in that race - sometimes feeling good and sometimes almost undrivable, lifting wheels off the ground and threatening to put me off in every left/right or right/left transition. No consistency at all and very frustrating, especially after the car felt so great at the Nurburgring.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

1 all Mr.Healey

How on earth did I manage to finish only one place behind you after my nightmare first stint?! Were the Elans really that much faster?!

[Jeffrey]

How on earth did I manage to finish only one place behind you after my nightmare first stint?! Were the Elans really that much faster?!

Healey is no match for the Elans. Elan has much hogher topspeed and MUCH better handline . The Elan is nearer to the Vette, Daytona, TVR and at some tracks, even the Cobra.
So it's no shame to lose from the Elans when driving a Healey.

[Mr.BMW]

RUSKUS! UNOFFICIAL LAPCHART PLZ