SimRacing.org.uk

Practice 1:	20:15	(10 mins)	full time drivers only
Practice 2:	20:25	(10 mins)	reserves may join too
Qual 2:	20:35	(20 mins)
Race:	21:00	(40 minutes)	note: no warmup!

Cars allowed: any GT1 or G2 from the UKGTR Skin Pack v2.3 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=27) (G2 cars will not score points).
Weather: Dry
Track: Estoril GP
Race Start Time 14:00 (rolling start)

Server: UKGTR GT1 Sprint
Password: available from the event page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&event=300) (see the Show Password link under the announcement text)

Notes:
(1) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=7) - especially the speed limiter starting procedure and the rules about in-game chat messages.
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&group=50)
(2b) Reserves should not join until the stated session, regardless of the time.
(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 selecte ISDN as their bandwidth, otherwise the stability of everyones' connections will be reduced.

gents, my knee's acting up again, no race for me tonight...  ::) :(

have a good one ;)

Not sure I've got the Corvette's back end properly stuck down in Estoril but I'll be there...

I'm going to miss this one too. Working backshift I'm afraid.

Will be back for the race on sunday, glad that was added, then Estoril next again Sunday.

Must admit I'm finding one of the chicane's especially hard Can't remember the name off the top of my head. It's near the end of the lap. Car feels really nice all the way around but just can't get grip due to the camber of the road.

What's the technique?

Go slow.  :D

TT

Less right foot for sure. You just have to be patient before opening up the throttle.

I need to get some practice in before the race!

It's a shame there's not an old version of Estoril before that mad chicane was put in! :blink:

I'll be there but I'm a little off the pace at the minute :) good track though, despite the chicane! ;D

sorry bad race for me this evenin!

i was havin a real good scrap with gymer and picnic in the 2 teamshark cars! was real close for many many laps but i did not have good speed thro last bend and so was way to far back for any pass moves into turn one so was just hopin the guys infront would make a mistake!  someone made a mistake, it was me went on the grass last turn tryin to get to much speed! 

this let thro jonzo and his team m8, again real close racing!
but again i could not find a way past!
down the back straight jonzo had spun his rears and that gave me a sniff, i made a bit of a lung i call it lung as i was a few car lenghts back and jonzo closed the door quite late and i tagged him!
sorry for this jonzo, my fault m8!

jonzo managed to catch the slide and carry on where i waited and followed!
i managed to get past jonzo 3 or 4 laps later and hunted down his team m8
i think we all know it is quite tight around the chicane section but i managed to keep real close all the way to the last bend, i floored it for the straight but the guy in ferrari (sry didnt get ur name) let off the gas and i tagged him to :(
again completely my fault and my apologies!   i spun off the track and i didnt see if u caught your tank slapper or not! i hope you did!

at this point i decieded to retire

id also just like to apologise to all for my exit at the endurance masters

Reduced my PB by .5s in qually but still not enough for a proper grid slot. Good start to the race and got myself into a big queue; made up a place when Baracus slid off (sorry about not seeing you in qually when I came out of the garage - I don't seem to be able to see anyone until they're right on me ???), then stupidly gave it back with interest, letting Aagramn past.

Gradually started reeling in Colin towards the end but didn't have enough left in the tyres to mount a serious attack.

I really shouldn't have raced tonight - feeling absolutely lousy.

That said, I took half a second off my PB in qualifying to get 11th!  I was always going to go backwards through the field, just I didn't expect it to be that quick. Got a touch of understeer and ran wide in "Curva VIP", watching my mirrors too much to see where Jonzo was and promptly drove off the circuit.  Lost 8 places from that.

After a brief tussle with Dave Gymer, I was losing concentration and not comfortable ..... I've still got a temperature and sweat was dripping into my eyes!  More spins etc eventually left me as the last finisher.  I was hoping for early to mid teens as a result, but given how I'm feeling I'm not surprised at the result.

Grats to the rest of you Legends, good drives all.

In qually both Jon and Zacari were 0.5s faster than me, which I knew I couldn't improve so I just stayed in pits watching telly  ;D.

The first 2 laps they also left me for dead and drove off quickly. Then Zacari went wide and I got into 2nd. I couldn't keep up with Jon in the first few laps, but when my front tyres got into a respectable templevel, I gained some time, but very slowly.
Half way down the race we had a nice side by side moment in the last 3 corners. The long straight gave me the edge and I got into first.

The few laps after that I drove off a bit, but then the gap stayed the same, and even got smaller. But then something happened and the gap was all of a sudden 3s.

Good Team Shark effort  8)

Pity, we had a good scrap there for those few laps. I totally lost the plot after my off for a few laps. After Silverstone I really thought I had a good race car but between the tyres and me there was just no consistency at all. :-\

Yep, we seemed to be side by side for half a lap - good stuff.  Shame I couldn't keep it together and put you under pressure (for old times sake).

Enjoyable race. I couldn't get into the server for Anderstorp and I didn't get enough practice to join in at Silverstone, so it was my first time online for a while. Was lacking a bit of pace, but was pretty consistant and finished 13th, only a few seconds behind a top-ten spot. Good clean racing.  :thumbup1:

Replay (http://ukgtr.simracing.org.uk/Estoril%20-%20GT1%20Sprint%20070424.zip) and Provisional Results (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&event=300)

Best race for me in GT Sprints. I had literally done less than 10 laps in GTR2 round here in a GT car, and they were all while installing and testing the new server last night  :-\ I had downloaded a setup from the online files and the guy claimed a 1:36 for the qually setup. I couldn't get close to that and then got really worried when I heard people talking 1:33's.

Plan B go back to my Anderstorp setup and try that. 1:34 thank-you, will do nicely ;)

In the race made a few places really because of others slight offs and caught up Shark. I was comfortable-ish following. When I made a mistake or two I had the pace to catch up but I knew if I got passed I would then try and overdrive the car so was more than happy to follow. The early tustle with Enzo following me was a bit intense but my setup seems to work well out of the last corner so it was a question of no big mistakes. Bad luck there at the last corner.

Good racing all, I had better do a bit more practice for the endurance on Sunday  ;)

What a battle that was! :D

Took 0.2 off my PB to grab 2nd on the grid, great pole time from Jon!  I modified my race setup after quali but I trimmed too much off the front AR-bar, which made for a very lively car ;D

Second lap I threw the car into the tight left-hand turn 4, the front gripped rather than slid and I had to correct it- sliding off on the outside.  Jeff and FreQ slipped by, I managed to hang on infront of TT for 4th.  After that I caught FreQ fairly quickly, but despite being very fast at the end of the straight I couldn't find any way past, I lost too much time out of the slow chicane!

That battle went on for about 18 laps, sometimes being very close under braking but no contact.  It was great stuff!  Around lap 20 my tyres, especially the rears, (which were always around 120C out of the final corner despite being meds), started to really suffer and I was getting some really vicious snapping oversteer which should look great on the replay :D and I came under increasing pressure from TT in the final 4-5 laps, especially under braking for turn 1 despite braking as late as I dared!  Despite some massive slidey moments I managed to hang on for 4th.

Grats to Jeff and Jon for a Shark 1-2, hopefully next time I can join you on the podium! :)

Another exciting race. Really happy with my qualy lap of 1.35.1 even though it was way off the very fast pace. The 550 feels very stable for me and suits my drving style but i'm not sure its the fastest when things get twisty. Had some great battles tonight, the racing was very close and very clean. MJ spun into the chicane and I had nowhere to go. Sorry for hitting you mate. A lister then collided with both of us which forced me to pop it into reverse and re-join in 16th. Tyres started to become an issue in the last 10 minutes and I had to endure the pressure of Gizmo for a few laps.

Good race all round and I look forward to watching the replay. Well done to TS and TSJ.

Colin 8)

I think that was my best qualifying spot all season and was quite pleased, but not happy about the setup. Didn't quite know what would happen in the race, but it turned out that not a lot. I once again never over took anyone and had Picnic biting at my heels the whole race and I'm quite happy to pick up the nice 8th. Bernie powered past me at the start in his F550, but other than that I just had to control my spiking wheel that was spiking on the two straights, sometimes bigger spikes than other times and the whole time I had to point my wheel slightly right to get the car to go straight. Not sure what's going on there, but I suspect a reboot will fix it.

What I'm not happy about is the way my car handled in the race. It was dire. Terrible understeer meant the last corner in particular was terrible. Could not get heat into the front tyres and had hardly any wear at all. Throwing the car around didn't heat my tyres up it just made me slower. So I just gave into doing the pace the car was capable of on that setup.

So, after the race I went off for some practice off-line and sort out the setup properly. Boy oh boy am I now kicking myself. Fixing my problems that I learnt about in the race I've just done a 1:33.0 with a big change in setup. Damn! That would have put me top 3 in qualifying and should have translated to top 5 in the race. Oh well, I'll use that as my base next time I think, you live and learn.

Well done podium and nice points Team Shark! We can beat those Junior boys I'm sure of it. :-*

P.S. I like Estoril, always a fun circuit and quite challenging with a variety of corners, bumps and undulations.

P.P.S. No stutters at all tonight, which does make me wonder more about this changeable weather in the endurance having adverse affects. :-\

You bet!  ;D  It was so funny looking from behind, you were throwing your a$$ around like a fat bitch!  :-*


Qualified 5th, finished also 5th.  :)  I was between the two pairs the whole race - Freq&Zacari in front and Eccles&Backo behind. For the first 35 minutes we were all within 10 seconds. One mistake would mix it, but nobody made a mistake. In the last 10 minutes Eccles and Backo were going a bit slower, obviously their duel was slowing both of them down. That gap increased to 7 seconds. In front it was evident Zacaris tyres were runing worn and I closed the gap. No probs through the corners, always close. On the straight: even with better exit speed his F550 pulled away and I couldn't even get into slipstream. Caught him again on breaking and that was the pattern to the end. A few more laps would make it more interesting, though my tyres were also feeling a bit tired.  ;D  So: good performance of my car, only needs a few more kgs off.  ;)

TT

That race was quite tense, but a shame with the lack of action. Hardly any overtaking at all  :-X

Saying that, I'm pleased with 3rd, slower than Jon and Ruskus (in fact I had quite a slow ultimate pace....Picnic who finished 9th had a faster best lap!!), but extremely consistant. In the first dozen laps my first 2 sectors hardly changed by more than + or - 1 tenth. Without the consistency I'd have struggled a bit ;D
Once I got into a rhythm it was nice and easy to drive the car, and even though I tend to lock my wheels under braking (I seem to do it everywhere), the smoothness everywhere else helped the tyres stay cool and meant I didn't suffer much wear. That helped at the end :)

Good close dicing with Zacari, we were glued together for the entire race and only towards the end did a small gap develop. Funny as we were fast in totally different parts of the track, he'd pull closer from the straight and most of the first half of the lap, then I'd pull out all of it again in the twisty bit at the end and then it would start again!

Now a long break till the enduro, so I'll kick back for a bit  8)

What a fantastic but ultimately frustrating race i had.

Had a top 6 qually in me as was twice on a 1:33 lap only for someone up ahead to spin in front of me costing the lap  :( Qualied a respectable 8th.

Even in race setup, car felt very quick and knew i could challenge almost anyone on track to a good battle.
Then what did i do...stupid git, i outbraked myself up at Parabolica interior on about lap 3-4 and dropped from 8th to 14th  :'( I was so annoyed with myself, especially as i had already pulled out a 2-3 second gap over the chasing cars

Then fought my way back up thru the traffic until i caught Bernie, who i then had a fantastic close battle with for about 10 minutes which left me on the edge of my seat and drenched in sweat. Apologies for one apparent wild lunge down at T1 Bernie, on about the 5th time we came down that straight together you braked earlier than the other times and it so caught me out i had no choice but to jink hard right and hit the anchors for all they were worth  :o, fortunately you had the grace to merely cut back inside and stay in front ! That 550 has so much more power down the straights i couldnt even stay in your toe despite being right up your jacksy out the final turn each time.
Anyway eventually got tapped up at parabolica and half span but the other guy was cool and allowed me to stay ahead as i kept it together, so thanks to him, but unfortunately allowing bernie to get away.
Then several laps later had a crap low speed spin at Gancho and dropped about 3-4 cars again, i was livid and gutted.
Fought my way back again dicing with the 550's of aagramn and Colin HInes getting past one and assaulting the second only to get another bastard slow spin at gancho again on worn tyres  >:( ... i lost the position to 3 bloody sharks including Dave G with literally about 3-5 mins remaining. >:(
 Just trudged around in absolute disgust for the remainder finishing a shite and un-deserved 16th  :'( 
Felt completely done in at the end, though must say it was a cracking race.  8)

Strangley I had the opposite experience - where at Silverstone the 550s had been waltzing away, the few I raced against in Estoril were clearly faster, but not so much that I couldn't stay with them in the tow.

I had same experience in both - F550 driving away like a Ferrari.  ;D  I must say I prepaired MC12 for this, especialy in Estoril. I had a good exit speed from the last corner, but it didn't help. Strange was that Eccles behind me never managed to catch me on the s/f straight with his F550 but that might be due to Backo molesting  :angel:  him from behind, or a different setting up the car, as I was clearly faster through the last corner.  :)   How much wing did you have, Dave?

TT

Same as Anders and Silverstone - 8.

I was running an 8 rear wing but to be honest I wasn't pulling that far ahead as you say Dave. You proved that in the closing laps.

MJ, you were very fast in the Maser and I was hoping for a repaet performance from Silverstone. Real shame you spun at the chicane. Looking forward to the GT2/C sprint!

Colin 8)

Perhaps time to get the inflatable bouncy castle that is the SEAT out on track?  :P :angel:

Blimey 8 rear wing ?! :o I was running 10 in the Massa and even that meant a fair bit of oversteer in places. It would explain why i was all over any 550 in the final sweeping corner only to be then left for dead even if i was glued to their rear bumper at the start of the s/f straight. I noticed i could then brake much later than the Fezzas at the end of the straight, which enabled me to take Colins 550 and close right up on Aagramns too on the following lap.
With the amount and variety of corners at Estoril i thought more wing was the way to go, though obviously at cost on the 2 straights.

I think it is Mark. I've always found at Estoril that taking off the wing for the one big straight just isn't worth the extra time you can make up in the corners. I was running 10 in the Lambo. In GTR1 I ran 11. I would think the optimum is between 9 and 10, but I guess it depends on how you drive the car and the cars characteristics. Massa with it's funny wing is slightly different from the other cars anyway.

Unless the wings are RADICALLY different the F550 will still power away from any other car down the straight. I now think you're better off just setting up the car to get the fastest lap time than for trying to keep with Ferraris down the straights as it ain't gonna happen.

I was running9, which is the highest amount of rear wing I've ever driven with. But still at elevation changes the Saleen was slippery, but giving it more wing to prevent that will just cause massive understeer and very low top speed.

Unofficial Lapchart (http://www.lapcharts.teamshark.org.uk/Lapcharts/Estoril GT1 Sprint 24-04-2007/index.html)

Well that was the first race where i have had to retire myself. After chasing the team scotland lads for 80% of the race and changing places a few times, dived too deep into Curva 1 and ran suprisingly wide, i dont know why but this caused all sorts of problems afterwards with brakes and trye grip, brake temps where all over the place causing me to over drive corners or lock due to the panic and stamping on them to hard  :-\
For 2/3 laps i struggled to keep the car under control losing consistancy and once the front runners caught up decided it would risky to be in amongst them so pulled over and retired.

Munk

(think i will try picnic's tip for the Anders set-up in the enduro, as was well off the pace. My jaw dropped as picnic over took through the parabolica in quali)

That's exactly why I set my wing to 12. Was experimenting with settings from 8 to 12 and 12 had the fastest laptime and the most stability. Also, it enabled me to get back on F550 tail at the braking and the higher exit speed meant the F550 at the back couldn't close enough to try late braking on my car. Also, tyres were in better shape. I remember Zacari dancing, hilarious!  ;D

TT

I'm glad you enjoyed my sawing at the wheel, I had a look at the replay last night from the nose of your car- it was great! ;D looking from the front wheel camera was amusing too, lots of opposite lock towards the end.

I was running with 10 wing, which was making me suffer a little out of the last corner.  It also didn't give me any benifit until right at the end of the main straight, so I'd' have been better off running 11 or 12 probably.  I also messed up the balance by changing my front AR-bar from 90 to 70, so I had oversteer which snapped in quite harshly :(  It'll be better by the time the enduro comes around though ;)

I really don't believe the 550 still has an advantage over the other cars.  It's not the easiest car do get the hang of, it gives higher tyre wear now which really hurts late in the race and it doesn't cope with exiting slow corners very well atall.  Its main advantage is its top-end speed, but around somewhere like Estoril that's not much of a help.  And tbh I can be just as fast in the ballasted C5R at Monza as I am in the ballasted 550, and that's traditionally a ferrari-stong track :P

The Lambo has good rear grip normally, as lots of its weight is over the rear axel due to the MR layout. I was running 9 rear wing - was running 8 for a while but was having a few fishtail moments after a few laps and had trouble getting the power on out of the uphill right-hander. Softening to suspension and raising the rear wing a bit seemed to help overall grip everywhere, I seem to run quite soft suspension everywhere now.

Agree on Simon's point, I made the same one a few weeks back. The 550's a rocketship on the straights but with the slightly higher weight penalty combined with that power, it's pushing it's rears hard now. Then again the Lambo's getting it's fair share of ballast too.

I was using 9 wing in my F550, which I think was too low. I was losing a lot of time at the last corner, and only started to gain on other cars towards the end of the straight.

I had a nice race finishing behind Jeff. Towards the end of the race my rears just started to lose a bit of grip and I started to get a bit of oversteer putting the power down coming out of bends which is why I lost a bit of time Jeff ;D Not alot happened in the race for me except Jeff overtaking me with a nice pass. I was hoping that the Saleen was gonna eat his tyres up but he's too good for that and kept the gap 'till the end of the race :) Was nice to back in the Lambo. It's so much more predictable. Maybe the MC12 will get sacked off :-\

This was a nice race... i'm glad I stuck with it becuasue at 8 o'clock I was about ready to give this one a miss. Just fished late at work and wasn't in the right mood for driving. Couldnt get any sort of rhythm in practice and was thinking I was just going to get in the way.

Eventually managed to smooth out my driving enough to get a decent enough lap or two and at least not kep throwing the car off but I could not go any quicker.

There was some great action going on with some very consistent driving interspersed with the odd moment creating some pretty fun overtaking and re-overtaking!

Not sure what happened at the pace lap just before the line - seems that cars in front of me were going slower than the limiter, as I kept having to back off (scary!) and it was creating a concertina effect... not being funny, but is that usual down this half of the grid? ;P

Managed to knock a second off my PB by cranking on a couple more wing. Oh well, that'll teach me to do my testing before the race next time.  :D

Likewise Aagramn, i knocked 0.5 sec off  my PB to get a 1:33.4 last night and was on course for a 1:32 until i blew a corner later on.
I had gone up one on the wing setting. Strange, as the car 'feels' quicker to me without the extra wing but the lap times prove otherwise.