UKGTR Season 9 Lower Endurance (GTC) - Castle Combe - Mar 15

[Prof]

An evening of pleasant surprises. This is my 'local' track and the Z4 worked very well for me here and I was able to produce consistent lap times for a whole stint. I qualified a surprisingly high fourth and promptly game away two places to the fast drivers on the opening laps whilst my hard front slick tyres got up to temperature. The rest of the stint went smoothly and I pitted from second, dropping back to fifth.
The second stint was equally as good and I gained a couple of places as others had problems. I too had an unexpected stop/go towards the end but it was probably well deserved considering some of the liberties I took with the chicanes in trying to keep up with the aliens.
My first podium in a single class UKGTR league race (and probably my last) was an unexpected reward given my usual finishing place and says more about the car than the driver. 
Well done to Gazza for leaving us all miles behind and Lazlow for the other podium place.

[Busi]

lol @ the amount of stop&goes I've read, glad I didn't race as I'm a master at being given penalties

Grats Gazza. And now, change your car please!

[Truetom]

Better Safe Than Sorry, Isn’t that right TT 

That's the way, my friend. 

Had one warning, said ok, need to cool down a bit. Then came stop&go, said ok, I deserved that. Then another, no warning and I don't think offence was done at all, my line was same as 3000 times before.    Ok, done that. Next lap, stop&go. Hell, no, not anymore, it's all yours, you can have it! 

Esc and done. 

TT

P.S. I pressed Esc while being 4th or 5th so that may illustrate how fed up was I. 

[Mark J]

sorry you had a bad one TT. Once i got that very annoying early S&G i just gave that first chicane a very wide berth on entry for rest of the race.
JPS was very unlucky too, dont know what happened but saw him come together with the 2nd chicane armco whilst running strong 6th. 

The track just needs that cut warning area altered at the first right hander of the first chicane. I think that seems where most of us picked up the instant S&G ? I dont even think i was far enough over to warrant a warning yet alone an instant penalty. There should have been a stewards enquiry after the race and i may have found myself on the podium 

The other thing that stood out once again is the Z4 is too damn quick for the rest of the pack. I think the top 4 or 5 qually slots were a Z4 lockout and 4 of the top 5 race finishers were Z4s !  Not for the first time this season either.  If that had been Porsches i am pretty sure the anti-Porsche lobby on here would be spitting their dummies out sharpish ! 

All the cars looked and sounded great whipping around here and loved the atmosphere enhancing of the moody light conditions with other cars headlights making beams across the track from wherever they were. 

Am i right in thinking there were no CTD's last night? Certainly didnt notice the usual mass disco/reconnects going on.

[purdie]

dam shame i cudn't make it now!!!    my 997 stayed in the garage 

sitting at work with a hangover now! lol 

[Truetom]

The other thing that stood out once again is the Z4 is too damn quick for the rest of the pack. I think the top 4 or 5 qually slots were a Z4 lockout and 4 of the top 5 race finishers were Z4s !  Not for the first time this season either.  If that had been Porsches i am pretty sure the anti-Porsche lobby on here would be spitting their dummies out sharpish ! 

Not convinced that the Z4 is THAT much faster. ...Barcelona... never ever has it been a Ferrari circuit...

No, no, MJ - it's just not a good circuit for Fezza, Porker, Vert, Viper, TVR, Exige and Aston. 

TT

[picnic]

The track just needs that cut warning area altered at the first right hander of the first chicane. I think that seems where most of us picked up the instant S&G ? I dont even think i was far enough over to warrant a warning yet alone an instant penalty. There should have been a stewards enquiry after the race and i may have found myself on the podium 

Just to balance it out a bit I think you'll find the cut warnings are more lenient than in real world. When the chicanes were first installed the little corner markers never survived a lap until a policy was put in place that if you knock one down you will be given a S&G penalty, rumour has it from the circuit commentators you have to buy Howard Strawford the owner a new marker too  You don't get 2 warnings first either 

Am i right in thinking there were no CTD's last night? Certainly didnt notice the usual mass disco/reconnects going on.

There was a mass exit during Q, 4 or 5 all went together. I got a CTD right after I finished.

Chased the guys ahead hard and ended the race a good 6th after a fantastic climactic battle with Peter A and Legzy that lasted the last 12mins or so of the race and showed how close the racing could have been without the penalties. Awesome fight gents  felt gutted for Pete when his TVR suddenly speared off the track at a chicane exit...unlucky mate. 

Was a good battle but I was out of my depth really and it showed when I ran out of talent It was actually a blessing in disguise for me really as I didn't put any fuel in at the pitstop and had been in eco mode until we all got together. I only finished with 0.2l so if I had carried on pushing for those last 3 laps I'd not have made the end!

I really enjoyed the race here, I'm always going to be biased as I only live 5 miles from the place, but the always something happening keeps you focused! However I could never enjoy that in iRacing, I got hit at least 3 times and ran off circuit at least that many times on my own. I have a mental block over the SR and it ever going down, as a result I can't race or push as it will result in lost SR. Roll on more GTR2, you guys rock 

[Legzy]

Managed to squeak fifth spot despite recording the slowest "best lap" in the whole top 10 in my super fast Z4 .

So I guess I managed that from being fairly consistent (odd for me) & from keeping my four wheels on the black stuff at the entry to chicane one  . I would imagine that now people have run that track, they would approach 'that chicane' with a little more respect in any future races here  . It's certainly an intense track that. You're never far from another car with it being so short, while blink & you might miss the next chicane/corner. I think I managed to mow the grass three/four times & each one was because I either followed the car in-front off or I was watching the car behind in my rear view  

Had some good battles through out, early on with Shark/Picnic/JPS I think. Then as MJ said, the last 15 mins fending off Picnic at first then MJ joined the party too   all while I was gaining on RR each lap till he span out with damaged/worn car(?). Was really good stuff & I figured both Peter/Mark were quicker then me on the whole track except turn one & two where I was confident I could defend/pull away. Was starting to get quite tasty as they were spotting where I was weak & suddenly my rear-view changed to being full of MJ's Red Porka instead of Pete's Blue TVR. Haven't seen the replay, so don't really know what happened there, hope I didn't do anything wrong (apologies if I did )?

For the last four/five laps, my "Team Mate" Lazlow, was happy in 2nd spot & told me on TS that he wasn't going to apply any pressure to MJ from behind so we could fight it out ourselves!!!     I could have done with the breather, but I was over the moon to hold Mark off on my own & cross the line with my bumper just in front.

Great race, Peter & Mark made it for me (sorry again Picnic If I was the reason you dropped back  )

Well done to the guys at the front, top driving.

[Legzy]

Was a good battle but I was out of my depth really and it showed when I ran out of talent It was actually a blessing in disguise for me really as I didn't put any fuel in at the pitstop and had been in eco mode until we all got together. I only finished with 0.2l so if I had carried on pushing for those last 3 laps I'd not have made the end!

Ah good, pleased to hear it wasn't me getting over excited with my driving/defending. It was I that was bluffing my talent level on the track I assure you 


p.s. Another great night for Team Oldie (except poor Martin) finishing 2nd & 5th, the forth GTR2 race in a row we've seriously racked up the points 

[Mark J]

that was a cracking finale for sure Legzy  ....you are making a habit of being my nearest combatant on track lately 

I actually thought the race was going to finish one lap earlier than it did and i was sooo close to you over the line but you still had half a car length in front. It was hard work chasing both of you as being the 3rd car in the train i was totally blindsided to the chicane entries and basically relying on watching your brake lights as to when to brake myself. It was great stuff with 3 of us going hell for leather in the final laps and gaining on roadrunner in 4th/5th.
I had my wary eye on Lazlow approaching and felt like i was going to be in a Red Bull Z4 sarnie but was glad he kept station behind rather than messing with a great close battle. Well done 

I agree on Peters comment that peeps will be more wary of T1 next time. I guess i would rather the cut warning was there than not, to prevent anyone straightlining it. But it would be nice if it actually gave a warning than an instant stop and go 

[Gazza49er]

When these GTC cars became available i tested them all only a few laps but chose the Z4 coz it just suited me better than the others, i honestly didn't know it was gunna turn out to be the "best" car. I'm not gunna kid myself the car is making me look better than i am,  but i have to say that i think its one of the slowest in a straight line. Most cars last night were going away from me on the straights, its only cuz the Z4 is so good going round corners and you can get the power on very early.

I really struggled to get on with the other cars except the Viper.

I think at the next few tracks its going to be a little closer, especially at Monza.

[Simon Gymer]

Wing settings and getting good runs out of the important corners can mask reality in terms of straight line speed. I dunno about everyone else but I was running 1-4 wing last night which meant I was pretty awesome in a straight line (or slightly bending line as it is at Combe ).

[nsfast]

I really enjoyed the race here, I'm always going to be biased as I only live 5 miles from the place, but the always something happening keeps you focused! However I could never enjoy that in iRacing, I got hit at least 3 times and ran off circuit at least that many times on my own. I have a mental block over the SR and it ever going down, as a result I can't race or push as it will result in lost SR. Roll on more GTR2, you guys rock 

I agree. Great fun racing you guys in GTR2 rather than chasing iracing stats with tracks and cars I have no interest in.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I was running 1-4 in the Aston. It was pretty awesome in the corners (the 911s in particular are dangerously slow mid-corner in comparison - almost as bad as the VCC ) but I was getting killed by everything on the straights.

[Josè Arrogantio]

The best solution to the corner cutting problem would be to not use the chicanes. They were only put in as a safety measure and that is not really a concern in sim racing. It’s not as if they really add to the driving pleasure.