SimRacing.org.uk

Practice 1:	20:00	(25 mins)
Qual 2:	20:25	(30 mins)
Race:	20:55	(80 mins)	note: no warmup!

Cars allowed: any GT2 or GT3 from the UKGTR Skin Pack v2.7.5.0 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3356.msg54519#msg54519) (download from here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3356.msg54519#msg54519)).
Weather: changeable, based on real-world conditions at the start of the event.
Track: Anderstorp GP
Race Start Time 14:00
Pit Stops: You must make a minimum of one pit stop during which you must take on at least 1 litre of fuel or change your tyres. You cannot take your mandatory stop at the end of the pace lap, or with less than 1 lap to go.

Server: UKGTR Lower Endurance
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3349.0) - especially the speed limiter starting procedure and the rules about in-game chat messages.
(2) Championship standings can be found on the series page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=71&theme=3).
(3) You will not be able to join the server without the skin and ballast pack (see link above).
(4) Drivers may only change car once in the season without penalty.
(5) Drivers are reminded that they must select ISDN as their bandwidth, otherwise the stability of everyone's connection will be reduced.

Prolly bucking the trend here, but I always enjoy this track :-*. The 811 feels ace around the banked stuff and really looking forward to this.

Trust the tyres fall off the Viper in no time. You have my sympathies :no:

not as quick as the flimsy bodywork will fall off the 811 as we zoom past you on that straight. 8)

Think I'll move to Sweeden...Glorious weather at 37 deg temps  ::)

Me thinks it's time to re-do the weather file  ;D

Not looking forward to that. :(

I have noticed that the server is not always available in lobby yesterday and today (Friday 11th and Saturday 12th). Any problems or is there some kind of maintenance?

Looking forward to the race :)

No mod cons but this track has character ;D

Thanks

I did a little to the server earlier tonight but not sure why it might have been missing from the lobby last night.

Return of an "original" Soggy Bottom Racer . . .  :o

Dave & Co., I've done the necessaries to register myself and new 'privateer' team for spot at the back of the GT3 pack for tonight's event.  Will run a 'default' Porsche GT3 Cup skin from the UKGTR pack until my paint job is converted for this league.  I am assuming I am a 'reserve' driver, and will be told in Chat 'when' I'm permitted to drive (e.g., Practice 1, or Qual 2, etc.).

Provided I'm not too many laps down at the end of this or a couple of subsequent races, perhaps one of the younger generation of the Soggies will see fit to extend an invitation to an old boy, recently returned to sim-racing.   ;)

Cheers,

Hi Bryce
    Welcome back  :)  There are no reserves in the endurance series, so just join ther server when it starts.

A few things you might want to look at before the race:

- Check your connection is set to 'ISDN' in the game.
- Have a really good look at the rules, especially the bit about the pace lap and rolling start.
- Practice a pitstop a few times to make sure you know how it works and where the pitlane entry and exit are.
- Make sure you know how long your tyres will last - if you take the wrong ones you will be in big trouble!

Good luck tonight

Paul

I hope I'm going to make this one - last night's storm blew my modem/router's PSU up and it's now running off a universal one, which seems to be okay for the WiFi/ethernet bit but not quite enough to keep the ADSL link up, so I'm running that bit off my old Speedtouch 510 modem. Seems to be working-ish but I'm not sure how it will stand up to gaming...

Can't make this one, will be DJ-ing at a party ;D

I'll be giving this a miss too, probably will only make GT1 races until the end of the season.

Can i get a REEEEwind!!!!

Hi guys, just registerd today and thought Id say high. Got told about this league be the other sharkies and have decided Im gonan try tonights GTR2 race if Dave lets me lol

And dont worry, I aint slow hehe  ;)

Sounds like we might have a full server tonight. ;D

thought i would join you gents tonight for a rare G3 foray but alas everything conspired against me this evening.  :'(

Turned up with what i thought was a good 911 cup setup only to find that what i used for the Porsche super cup mod gets scrambled when trying to use for a normal Srouk cup car. Cobbled a setup together after joining late in qually.
Had great race pace from the off moving quickly upto 3rd G3 class car and catching pseudo and Paul968 ahead only to drop it off the edge of that banked carousel turn and get stuck in the gravel long enough to drop me to the bottom.  >:(
Started all over again, getting past a load of cars until i caught Ade, but when i got close to his rear bumper in the last carousel before the s/f straight his car started warping like a lightning flash and i got a 'game synchronising' message  ???, with him reappearing just in time for me to avoid him by throwing myself in the gravel again  :taz:
Drop a load of places again...now i was starting to get annoyed ! Once again chased down a load of cars until i got on the rear of a pack and gaining and then everyone disapeared...dropped connection  :'(
2nd time in two races in a row now...poxy BT lines  :gun_bandana: ...wish i still had my bullet proof NTL cable line.

Had good race pace tonight with the car feeling good and think i would have been on for a good finish if not for the connection/warping issues. Shame, hope you all had more luck than me.

 >:( Well wtf, got a complete pc shutdown whilst in 3rd, not a most auspicious start to a return to racing.
Many apologies to Dan who hit me when I span, I was across the middle of the track and he had nowhere to go, we may have been in with a shout of a 1-2 as well.

See you all next time, and grats to the podium, whoever you are!  ;)

Nightmare!

Went to the toilet at the end of qualifying only to find Mike had pipped me for pole.

Race started with Mike getting off to a flyer and had a little gap from the off.

For the first 9-10 laps I was usually within a second off his bumper.

Then made two stupid mistakes. Ran over the kerb and had a spin. Then completely misjudged my speed and went into a corner too hot and ran off.

Had a good blast with TT for a few laps after than before making a pass.

I was watching the time Mike was ahead I was catching.

I made my stop and Mike made his a couple of laps later.

He was still 10 seconds ahead. 10 became 9, then 9 became 8 as I set the fastest lap of the race so far.

The car felt so much better lighter and I was confident of closing the gap.

Suddenly all went quiet. Nobody was near me at that point but I knew something was wrong.

"Connection lost" soon appeared. How frustrating?

I was having fun pushing hard

Oh man....I need a new wheel  :(

Had reasonable race pace and was just about holding my own for the first 10 laps or so....a couple of GT2 cars went passed me..(a couple of times :))....and knowing they had the legs on me, decided to flash them passed so I could continue chasing the GT3 ahead...with my hasty repairs to my wheel though, I have had to re-map what used to be my headlight button as my downshift button instead.....bet nobody can guess what happens next  ::)

yep, I 'flashed' them passed by downshifting, usually into reverse before realising what was going on....

then went and did exactly the same stupid thing every time another car appeared in my mirrors :blink: :blink: :death:

Spent the rest of the race trying to look after a rather unhealthy engine.....worked to...till the second last lap.

need more praccy with this wheel (or a better soldering iron)....

grats winners and podiums.

Well that was fun :)

turned up late but there was still spaces; wahey! In qualifying the car felt almost like it did offline and on the first lap was faster than i've been before and it was a bit of a scrappy lap. I find its just a bit too tight and twisty and the last sequence is horrible, you have to really slow right down i struggle with.

Wasnt expecting the temperatures to rise during the race which meant the tires where getting very hot which made those bends difficult. But after coming out of a busy pitlane the car was running better but as i was being lapped i messed up in the last corner, spun and hit the pit wall. I panic'ed thinking they had hit me, and i couldn't see who was coming round the corner to know when i could carry on so had to quit.

I finally mamaged to get a setup that doesnt get in my way but maybe this track isnt really a good one for me to improve on.

Well that was a much better race than last time out. Had my terrible Mugello setup which was awful and super-quick Gizmo kindly gave me his which immediately felt vaguely like the boat/tank which is the Viper CC was a car again (verdict's still out!). Just managed to get one lap in in qually after a CTD from alt-tabbing out which put me just behind Paul968 on the grid, about mid-pack. Race setup was nice and stable and I was soon making minced meat out of the Cups on the straight. After some of the other GT3s had spins and offs I was somehow in the lead before the pit stops.

Usual problems with the car though. Tyres worn message just as I was entering the pits on my medium-hard combo and with the Viper's not so frugal fuel consumption I knew I was going to lose out quite a lot with a much longer stop. I was in the lead going into the pits, but coming out I'd lost 2 places I think and 20 seconds to Paul who was 10 behind before but was 10 ahead after. I never managed to make an impression on Paul, this time trying to take it slightly easier on my tyres to try and make them lasts better which they barely did. With SBGs unfortunate retirement that put me back up to 2nd in class and just had to hope Paul had an off or ran out of fuel. He stayed the course and held onto the win with a final 8 or 9 second lead I think.

Very mixed race for me. I like Anderstorp but I'm not usually terribly quick here, so having done absolutely zero practice it was a surprise to qualify 3rd and ahead of all the other VCCs.

I was a bit worried about the GT2s mixed in with the GT3s and sure enough, the one near me had an off, then ran into the back of me under braking at the end of the runway despite me keeping tight to the left so he could sail by. >:( That knocked me off behind the tyres and I had to wait for almost everyone to pass, but worse was that the damage gave me an evil handling car, with excessive rear tyre wear and a tendency to understeer off under braking. Worked my way back up the field until I went off again as the rears passed wear 10 before the fronts.

After that I had to back off a bit until half distance and my stop. Took on 80 litres, fresh rubber and had them fix the damage, which luckily didn't take long. What a transformation! :) Suddenly I had the super quick car again and set about running flat out to see just how far up the pack I could get. Even as the tyres wore the balance stayed true and Pseudo's VCC, which was still very quick down the runway, was dog slow off the corners and fell victim to me almost as soon as I caught him.

Spent the last few laps pushing really hard in the hope that I could catch Hal9000 again but this time it wasn't to be. Thought maybe I could at least claim fastest lap in GT3 but Dan beat me to it by 0.001 seconds! >:( :laugh: EDIT: tell a lie, Madd was two tenths quicker than the both of us.

Really enjoyed the track and car combination but frustrated that I should've been challenging for at least 2nd in class.

Whoa, can it really be? My first win! Wooot   :balloon:


Well, best wait for the mod report before celebrating.

I hope I didn't lag at the beginning? I think I heard a glitch in the sound, and when I looked back someone was skidding off track. I sure hope I didn't "lag bomb" anyone.

I was a bit frustrated in qually, being more then half a second behind Kerr, and also having gotten mid 28's in offline TT, and now being unable to get the low 29 that was needed. 2 minutes to go, soft tires all around, minimal fuel, and out for a last ditch attempt. And it worked, boy was I pleased.

I wanted to take it easy the first lap and a half with cold tires and brakes, and I always get so excited when I'm chasing someone, so getting pole was essential to keep safe.

Kerr forced a really good pace though. As soon as I got the rolling gap number up to 1.4s, I relaxed a little bit, only to have it crash down to sub 1 sec in half a lap. There was no room for slacking, had to stay sharp and expend my "focus reservoir". I guess it was when tire wear started to have a real effect on the driving, Kerr spun at the corner I had deemed as the most likely place I would mess up my own race, the 90 degree lefthander after the return straight.

Sorry to see you go, but....Phew, finally I could relax a bit.  :D


After that I was just maintaining a decent pace without any risks, keeping an eye on the gap to 2nd.

And that was it really. Kerr disappeared, and towards the end I had 30+ secs to 2nd, so just cruised to the finish line.


My apologies to Ted (I think?) whom I hit in T1 towards the end of the race. Dunno what happened really, were you attempting to let me through on the inside midcorner or? When I saw you were braking I was already committed to a wide entry line to pass on the inside at the exit. I stomped on the brakes but no luck. Hope your car didn't get damaged, at least.

Besides that mishap, a pretty uneventful race after Kerr spun. Still.....my first win!!!  ;D

Wow - that was intense. Had a race long battle with Mark (stnasky) who over a lap was quicker than me but sadly only in the corners. We raced hard for the first 30 mins until I had my one excursion on to some green stuff and let him and the white beamers of Backo and ?? through. They then got tangled with a back marker and it was Mark and me again, although with Mark in front. I couldn't quite keep up. We both pitted on the same lap but somehow the 5 or 6 sec deficit I had changed to a 1.5 sec lead. And it stayed that way for the whole second have of the race except for one superb move. Mark did me in to T1 but I was quicker down the runway and got the place back, thanks Freq for the setup tips ;) I was worried for awhile during that second stint. I pitted a couple of laps earlier than intended but was condifent I would have enough fuel. I soon realised it was tighter than I thought. I did a few laps short shifting to try and get in to credit and ended the race with under 3ltr in the tank. Comfortable :)

Sadly a few of the really quick boys had issues, disco's or uncharacteristic offs. But I'm not complaining. Podiums are rare so I'll treasure this especially as I kept it on the island with all that pressure from behind. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did Mark, even if it was a bit more frustrating for you ;)

Gotta apoligise to you Dave for taking you out - totally underestimated the braking point, and worse still, should have realised that the Viper needs to brake much earlier into the turn. Totally unintentional - sorry for messing up your race Dave  :death:

Interesting start to the evening with connection problems dumping me out of the server during practice and then qually.

Still, managed to post a time and thankfully no more connection problems.

Drove consistently in the race as long as there were no other cars around, but *really* struggled letting the lappers past tonight for some reason, often going off the track in my attempts to get out of the way. Mike - sorry if the coming together was my fault - I was thinking you would get through on the following straight. It didn't damage my car  :) Grats on the win, and to all the podiums.

Not an auspicious start, with "Connection Lost" appearing just before my first scheduled stop, about lap 38.  >:(  (Yes, I had followed the 'drill', as was on 'ISDN' connection, despite having 8Mb broadband.  ::) .)Tried to let all the quick lads by, throughout the race, and rejoin safely after the inevitable 'off-track-excursions'--let me know if I stuffed up, and need to 'correct'.

The only thing I don't understand was, after the first round of pitstops, I got some 'mystery' Blue Flag calls, when there was no car visible, audible, or showing on my GTR-XD 'hud'--what's up with that, anyone?

Pity there isn't an "Old Farts" league for us slow dogs (despite doing a new PB in Quali).

Cheers,

Bad race for me and not one of my fav tracks,

Havnt been able to do any practice for this one, no setup and it SHOWED! First few laps were pretty hectic as the few in front  went off but they quickly got me back. Had some interesting laps with Backo again lol, sorry for the tap as you ran wide, couldnt avoid and it must of looked like i did it intentional for you tapping me off the corner before but i swear it wasnt. I obviously had way to much wing coz i even had trouble lapping the quicker GT3 guys lol.  Sorry to Dan for spinning infront of you, you flashed me to pass i think but there was a car right on the apex of the corner and i went wide to avoid and spun.

Really not happy for being off the pace but i guess thats what happens when mortals  dont practice.

Grats to both podiums, and Mike for first win.

Having just watched the replay, I'm feeling guilty.

I caught in my rear view mirror early on that Freq ran off the track with Backo right behind and assumed it was an accident.

Having watched replay my car dissapears and Freq runs into my invisible car and flies off,  Backo too.

I can only apologise but obviously nothing I can do, I was unaware.

It was the worst place to run off as you got stuck on the slope for ages. Sorry guys.

I'm a bit worried about this connection now. Not only did i disco this happened too.

Did anyone else have any problems with my car warping or disappearing tonight?

Unfortunately for those stuck with ADSL, it's quality that's important rather than quantity and most ADSL providers service is down right awful for online gaming.


That's an game bug I'm afraid, happens nearly every race to most people at some point. ;D

Whew, what a mess of a race! >_<

Kerr and Mike were both very fast in qually, and a combination of me screwing up on my best lap and not leaving myself enough time, I was really pleased with 3rd. Top pace lads ;D

Race started and was following Kerr just ahead of Backo.


I'll wait until the replay to see what happened, but I *think* it was Kerr's car that warped and unfortunately I was right behind and went headfirst into his bumper. That spat me and Backo (who was right behind me) off into the outside gravel trap. A real bugger for me though, is I run 1st gear long so I can use it out of hairpins....but it has the unfortunate side effect of making it really tough to get out of gravel traps......combined with the super-high banking meant I was dead last and about 45 seconds behind P1 at the end of lap 1, with 26 cars in front of me! o_O

Really had to drive hard to try and catch up, and I think it was 15 minutes in until I even got to the front of the GT3 field. Cue second warp moment:


Right behind Mark at one point waiting for a place to pass, until he lagged into me as well! Arghhhh!  :-X  Oh well, better to get it all out of the way in one race I suppose!  :laugh:
Edit: Just found it - 2172secs. Think you lost your connection right in front of me. Interesting as the collision detection clearly works and I hit "something", but no damage! Phew!

Pitted early to repair some surprisingly minor damage, then came out in 11th or something, then Backo had his problems and Kerr disco'd. Suddenly I was 6th! Then Pedro made a couple of mistakes in 2 laps and I snuck though. We made contact while he was spinning which made it a little worse for him, which sucked. I had nowhere to go though  :-\

Got my head down again to catch Mark up ahead and realised Picnic was right in front of him. That's 3rd place!?! Gogogogo!  :laugh:
Pushed as hard as I could and got the gap down slowly, but alas I wasn't fast enough and by the time I caught you guys, my tyres were completely shot from the long stint. Well done on 3rd Pete! ;D

Finally, nice one Mike on the win. Would have been fun to see if I could have hung with you, but I somehow doubt it. Congrats!  8)  Gd second for TT as well  :o

And look forward to seeing 968 take 60kg of ballast - once again, a sublime performance  :angel:
I reckon with speedy Mike around and Kerr back at full pelt, my 20kg of ballast is no longer required ;D

Not a great start for a new league. Having not raced for over a month now and mostly on American circuits, I had no setup/practice for this and just hope that I didn't cause anyone any hassle.

Made a bad tyre choice at the start ( a common mistake I make) had a good first few laps until the front left delaminated, pitted got new tyres and rejoined made my way back upto 9th I think then looped it on the last turn and hit the wall, puncturing my front right, so thats a whole lap with a flat to get back and change it, then I get mechanical problems in the pit making it over a minute stopped watching everyone passing.
Finally rejoin and just push for the rest of the race hoping for non-finishers and mistakes to get some more places back.

Looks like a fantastic league with lots of racing going on. Its nice to actually be in a situation where there are people to race, rather than circulating on my own as was very common in my last league. (small grids)

Hope for more of the same (although without the silly mistakes form this race) next time.

Great race.  I was late joining the server but still had some stuff to do before i could settle down.  When i eventually got to sit down there was only 2 minutes left of qualifying and managed to get in a lap before the switch to the race, which put me a the back off my class :).

Had a race long battle with Peter as he already said, but im amazed at my pitstop which gifted Peter my place.  Did everything i normally do , cut engine while stopping and hit return, i know that the pitcrew always takes maybe 2 to 3 secs before they start refueling because its the same every race i do, always end up wiggling the steering wheel to get them to hurry up but it never works ;D.  Anyway i took 43 Litres and new rubber allround and watched in horror as Peter left the pits before me ??? maybe Peter started with a full tank of fuel and only had to top his tank up.

Near the end Freq had closed right up on us both and that had me right on the edge of my seat for the rest of the race, but luckily everything stayed the way it was and held on for 4th :sweatdrop:.

Congrats to Mike on your first Win, and Paul.

Yea, I just checked it out too. Was a little warp for only a second or too, but oh well. What cost me the real time was my stupid first gear - I couldn't spin the wheels! >_< Backo was much, much faster getting out of the gravel, and only lost about 10 seconds as a result!  :P

I also noticed that at 711secs, my car also warped very briefly at the same corner. A little less than yours and thankfully Dave was far enough behind not to notice...but sheesh - much warpage in that one!  :-\

Don't worry about it though. As long as you kill all your unneeded programs and reset routers beforehand, theres not much else you can do! I've had a couple of warp problems recently too (I took Jeff out of Race 07 last week with pretty much the same problem) even though I checked everything beforehand. Sometimes sh*t just happens.

Great to see Pete get third though! And I can't complain because I got very close to 3rd even after that horror first lap, so I'm pleased with that. :)

Awesome race for me  :D

Qualified well, and started off well. Simon overtook me on the first lap, he was pulling along side on a straight and was probably saying to him self something like:

'Watch this Hal, this is how you take a corner in the Viper'  ;D

He pulled a very nice overtake, very clean and in control even though to me it looked like he really threw it  round there. I am one humbled Viper driver. I then had Paul968 on my case but I guess that the extra weight prevented him from being in the right place at the right time because I managed to hold him off for about 20 mins :) but I eventually folded under the pressure. Very intense driving with my mirrors for so long  :) Paul almost had me at the last turn at one point but he put it sideways and I gave him the slightest tap, sorry bud. MAD RIP also pulled a very nice overtake on me at the final corner again excellent driving.

I almost caught Dan Minton after my pit stop and we got side by side going into turn 2, I gave him a slight tap due to a miss judgement of the length of the front end of my Viper but no damage done I think.

I managed to get my best result in a championship race, 4th. Nice.  8)

Well done podiums and Mike H for first win.

Couldn't get the "just right" lap in quali, lots of traffic and minor mistakes. I saw the crash in L1 and I thought of warping right away. It would be unusual for such experienced players to have cars flying into the air in the opening turns of the 80 minutes race. Was feeling a bit sad for them, though it catapulted me 2 or 3 places up.  :-\  Had a scrap with Pedro who could drive the right hander after big straight much quicker than me and after some laps of besting echother we had a contact there. I managed to keep the car on track and in front and could pull away then.  :)
After Brian went off I was 2nd and had a 10 sec margin. Didn't want to really push as this track is killing tyres. I was sure I could keep Picnic behind and had low chances of that with Brian. So I let the gap diminish over time, keeping my tempo even. There was another thing: only Brian could catch Mike for me to close the gap to the top, so I was thinking of letting him by without a fight.  :shifty:  But when he caught up Adrenaline took over.  ;D  After some laps of succesful defensive driving I floored it 1 milisecond too quick in the turn1 and ran wide. I must say I wasn't too upset as I know he's an alien and would go by eventualy anyway.  :)  And I was still hoping he could slow Mike down.  ;)
After he discoed I settled in my 2nd place and cruising. It was quite boring actualy, I think only GT3s kept me awake.  :sleep1:
Too bad MJ had a bad race and other Legends were collecting brownie points.  :wetfish:
Grats to Mike for a solid win. And to both podiums, of course.  ;)  I never score in Anderstorp!  ::)

TT

That was a truly painfull diso after battling my way to front of GT3. Nothing to do with server as I simply lost my internet connection last night.

Nice fight Simon and it would have continued no doubt. At least the championship has closed up now ::)

Think you've got that the wrong way round Joss. You should keep 20kg and the other guys could be nice and take the same or more as well. :laugh:

Hmm. One puny win and already I should take ballast   :D

Heh, I'm not set against taking a ballast, but I doubt whether I can keep pace with the front here in U7LE/GT2 if I do. Or in U7UE/GTC for that matter. Two races to go, the first of which is a completely new track for me. At this point I think this race result is more of an exception then a precedent.

Is the ballast per class?
I sure don't want any for U7SE, where I'm trailing quite a bit and have problems keeping the GT1 car on track. The results don't show ballast for anyone in that class, so I guess it's per class.

I'm unsure about U7UE as well. The fair pace I got at Mugello in the GTC car was a result of a *lot* of practice laps, and help from teammates, and still I finished 12 secs down in LE/GT2 and 3 secs down in UE/GTC. I won't be able to put in as much time for practice on a regular basis so performance will vary.

Have to think about this.

EDIT: This post is just me thinking out loud. I have a habit of doing that.

It's recorded per-driver, but you can change your ballast up until a few minutes before the server is launched. If you change it after each event ready for the next that's a pretty safe bet.

so hang on, was it just a bad night for broadband connections last night or is it something the server end? Seems a bit odd that so many of us suffered discos and warping cars last night, and on a standard track so we cant point the finger of suspicion at that?

It was my second in two consec races so i naturally assumed its my connection gone t*ts up. Same both times, the whole grid/all cars just disapeared and i am racing around on my own, oddly not dropping me from race but i have to manually quit cos fearful of crashing into someone i cant see.

Connection from my NTL cable line was 100% solid, so probably just the usual ADSL problems I think.

After Mike H said my TT was slow on the straight, I decided to try manual clutch in the race. I fully expected to make a hash of it, but in fact it wasn't too bad. Qual could have been a bit better but was still around the best I'd had online, but this meant lining up ahead of Simon, who breezed past down to T2 on lap 1. He managed to put a good move on H@l9000 shortly after which left me bottled up behind his Viper. Lap after lap I had no real chance as even with a run the viper was too fast. I worked out that the only real place to try was into the last corner, and sure enough I finally got right on his gearbox round the long right and got alongside down the inside. Unfortunately I was so concerned that I would run wide into him I lifted off too sharply and half spun it, letting him back in front (any contact wasn't your fault btw). I had a couple of other small chances, but in the end I had to wait till lap 18 when he spun it at the last corner and let me past. By this time Simon and SBG were 10 secs up the road. SBG pitted early and with a clear track I started to eat into the gap to Simon. The pitstop wasn't the best, as Dave was just clearing the slot as I entered and then I got held for around 5 secs at the end because another car was coming down the pitlane, so when I left the gap had grown to SBG to 15 secs. I'd hopped ahead of Simon though and had a 10 second gap. I was working out whether I had any chance to catch ginsters when he discoed  :( After this I went into cruise mode to help the engine (which was dropping in health because of the manual clutch). Simon wasn't closing so there was no need to push, but I had a bit in hand if necessary and could afford to be nice to the GT2s and take it easy to the end.

Congrats to Mike for his first win  :clap: (the first of many I'm sure) and thanks for pointing out my speed issue - I just need to fine tune my throttle blip technique now. Its a shame to see SBG disco as it not only robbed us of a battle in the second half, it also messes up his chances in the championship. Its times like this that I think it might be better to allow everyone to drop 1 race to allow for event like this. Last night does appear to have been a bad one for connections, which suggests something more that just individual problems - perhaps it is a combination of the two?.

One other thing - in practice there were several times where I was on a quick lap and someone came out of the pits and sat on the racing line into T2 spoiling the lap. I know its not a big problem but its not that hard to stay out of the way when you are on an out-lap or you have already made a mistake and you have nothing to lose by doing so.

Unofficial Race Report (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.harrington/Anderstorp%20S7%20LE/)

Hee hee. The qualifying report shows that Gymers only need 2 qualifying laps, the rest of the time we have our feet up relaxing before the race. ;) :angel:

What can say? ::) Again someone connection problem  ::),last time  Stewprovo  had some conection problem,I had big crash on straight in Mugello (game over that time for me),but in Anderstorp I could continue  :o :o :o ,but my car was looking like from destruction derby.My grip wasn't good after ,I pushed very hard how I could. I had some close racing with Pedro Silva and Gazza49er with who I had small contact,sorry mate.Then in the pit I changed only front tyres,but big mistake,so I had to go again  ::) .I finished 8'th  not happy.Congratulation to podiums!!!!