SimRacing.org.uk

Endurance Championship Division 1 - Season 1, Round 5 at Donington Park

Date: Sunday 11th September

Practice 1: 8:30pm (30 mins)
Qual 2: 9:00pm (30 mins)
Warmup: 9:30pm (2 mins)
Race: 9:32pm (60 mins)

Cars allowed: Any. (Seat Toledo, Lotus Elise, BMW Z3M and Porsche GT3 Cup will not be eligable for points.)
Weather: Random (via dual-dice throw and sophisticated weather table ;))

Notes:
(1) Please try to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to qualifying, during Practice 1.
(2) Server Password has been emailed to those registered racers for each championship. Please contact a member of the admin team to get the password if you are registered and have forgotten or not received the password. It will not be given out in the GTR chatroom as that is a public place. The password wont change for the season unless there are security concerns.
(3) See  UKGTR Season 1 Info (http://www.ukgtr.org/lm2-report.php?group=1&content=series103) for general Season 1 info.
(4) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (http://www.ukgtr.org/index.php?c=rules)

Eeek!!  Must practice LOL :D

We had a race at Doninton for Sim Challenge league this week so I think I'll just do a bit of practice before the qualifying. I have a new modem but still having disconections so this should be a thriller once again.

Oh, hell ! Too many mistakes, so I quit before I took someone with me.  >:(

Great race, really competitive, had some good battles. Thanks all. Well done Mark and Matjaz.

Well my first race in the G3 class.
Qualed 16th out of 19 but 1st G3 so I guess thats a pole of sorts.
Very lonely race apart from being lapped 4 times by the leaders, wow isn't that an experience.
Its always tricky being lapped as obviously the slower car(me) is in a race aswell.  I know the slower car is not obliged to move of the racing line but I find the best practice is to use a bit of common sense in these situations and just leave that bit extra room for the overtaking car.  There were numerous occasions where I could have cut back onto the racing line when being overtaken going round corners but what would be the point, all it would have achieved is knocking both of us off.  Unfortunatly I have suffered when overtaking in the past from cars religiously sticking to the line, ending up in a visit to the gravel and some penalty points, for me normally.
Personally I think its important just to give that little bit of extra room when being lapped, especially as we are racing 3 different classes of cars.
Anyway hope I wasnt too much of a pain to the GT's and NGT's

Good result in the end, finished 13th and 1st in class, even managed to finish ahead of one of the NGT chaps.

Had a good qualli, 1.26.5 only a tenth off of my pb  ;D
Race was ok but could've been better. Started off ok with leuven behind us,those BMW's seem to be standing still sometimes, must be hell trying to drive one with GT's flying round them at all angle's  ;) Had a contact with NGT don't really know if it was my fault so i'll look at replay later  :D That spun me out and put me back behind a gaggle of 4 which was great racing for a while, looked busy in the middle of all of them.Pitstop took a while repairing car and eventually got out in 7th, a couple of people pitted and managed to get up to 3rd after rich kindly let us through after a slight error at old hairpin. Not to long after that I spun in the harpin trying to get power down to early, I was pushing far to hard at this point and the spin was probably on the cards :( Ended race in 4th and was pretty pleased with the result after all that sweating  ;)
Grats to Mrak and Matjaz on their fine wins

Nice race... not boring at all although I had no competition in NGT class. I was not stopping so I had do drive "tyre friendly". After one hour of racing tyres (soft front, medium rear) were still pretty good, back became a bit nervous in slow corners but front grip was still suficient. Laping went smoothly except for a little touch with Fozz who gave me room at the thoughest corner of the track and I was not expecting it. We both survived without a spin so no harm done.

Well done Mark for wining in GT and congrats to all who made it to the finish.

Well I managed a best of the rest in NGT, not being an alien beating Matjaz was never an option  ;)

Managed to spin on the first lap anyway and ened up dead last. Caught the BWMs and then had to real in the other NGTs. Both Fozz and Don made my life easy by spinning but Fozz kept me honest afterwards until he pitted. I did the race without a stop, but as I don't usually race this distance I wasn't brave enough to take medium, let alone soft, tyres. I think driver performance at the end was far worse than the tyre wear!

Replay is available and I've learnt (I hope) how to import the results, so provisional results posted to

Yeh, I made a bit of an arse of letting you thru Matjaz, Infact made a bit of an arse quite a few times. Sorry I held you up so long one time.

Every time I got close to you, I made a stupid mistake, I was def a semi-reasonable amount quicker, but could not unlock it, felt fragile in the race, lost all rhythm and my knee was giving me _loads_ of pain (hit a big boulder mtb'ing 3 weeks ago) which was distracting me.

I didn't pit, I got a stop/go for chicane cutting, its stupid that, if you lock up, your going to fast, you launch into air and get stop go coz you make up time for chicane cutting, any human could tell by the tire smoke and the half spin when you land that it wasn't intentional, but game says you were faster for cutting chicane >:(  At least I didn't lose a place for it.

That'll explain the funny timing of it then, about 3/4 of the way through the race I think, well after half at any rate.

One bite from my avatar lady and you can be an alien too.  ;)
Thank god UKGTR races are held after the sunset...  8)


You didn't... I know you can't give room through the corners so I always wait for the straight.

Wow!   That was super-competitive, and I had to work very hard.

Took it steady from the start as i was on a heavy 40min fuel load (gonna change that strategy :( ) was just about able to keep up with Shark and Mark H's battle and picked up spots from spinners until I ran P2, then P1 when Leuven pitted.  Just before my stop, I had a very silly spin at the hairpin that lost me a good 10 seconds  >:( so into the pits straight away, tyres, fuel, and out in 6th  :o How the hell did THAT happen!

Pressed on and picked up 2 places from spun cars, only to spin again at the hairpin and lose 3 places aaarrggghh!!!  Recovered one place when Leuven spun out again, but I was still kicking myself for those spins :(

Apologies to some backmarkers, I was getting a little aggressive with lapping towards the end, didn't hit anyone, but I was more forcefull than normal which made me nervous  ::)

Grats Mark for the win :)

Man this is really getting me down, qualified 2nd for NGT then had 1fps, rejoined and again qualified 2nd. I have never had 1fps twice in same session but.....yup, right at the end of qual 1fps again, couldt rejoin as race had gone to warm up. I'd spent all week end practicing, getting set up right and may have given Matjaz Plotajs something to worry about if he went the distance on 1 tyre as I was doing a 1 stop and running consistant 1.33 highs. Well I have Rfactor, this can go in the bin anytime! Only problem is no other sim compares to the feel of GTR.

Got Shit on from a great hight!!  Pace was mega fast, didnt see any of the GT cars until they lapped me but enjoyed it nun the less. :)

Great race.  Any one of six guys could have won it, and it was pit strategy in the end that got me the win.

Did no practice at all, in fact I hadn't driven GTR since the GT Oschersleben race, so was very rusty coming into the qualifying session.  To my relief I stuck it on P4, although a lot slower than Jon and Leuven.

Stuck with Shark for the first 3 laps, until he made an error and let me through.  I was on a full tank of fuel, hoping not to have to take any fuel at the pitstop, thereby saving me the trouble of turning off the engine.  As expected, though, the two in front waltzed away, and I tried to keep Shark behind me.

This was going very nicely until about 20 minutes into the race, I think, when Jon went off just before Goddards....I was offline, but mistook the 50m marker for the 100m marker and by the time I realized it was too late.

Managed to recover down the slip road and do a quick spin-turn, not losing me too much time....but I was very annoyed, and started pushing to make up the time.

Just as I was getting on terms with the battle in front, it was time to pit, and I had more than half a tank - so I didn't take any fuel, hoping it would hold towards the end.  I got out, then everyone else pitted - to my utter astonishment I was 4th, then 3rd - then Leuven came out right in front of me, I knew I had to attack....he was passing Jon Minton at the time as well, so I went underneath the pair of them in Redgate!  Very lucky to get away with it, but I had the position, and Leuven spun a few corners later as well, leaving me 2nd by 7 seconds.

Only Mike Wrightson ahead - and when he pitted, again to my amazement, I had a big lead.

Pushed hard to try and hold the gap to the F550 of Leuven, and just about managed it - 6 laps or so to go, he spun, leaving Shark 2nd and me with a 13 second lead.  Very relieved, I cruised to the flag.

Still can't believe I won ;D

Cheers guys :)

damn missed it,  >:(

ah well my season is crappy anyways.

I was the guy in the Porsche 996 G3 - which is interesting to drive to say the least, bit like a GT3rs with something broken lol.
Anyway I hope I didn't get in the way of lapping cars, I was amazed at how quickly the GTs came around to lap me :o

Matjas, I know we got fairly close when you lapped me.
No contact but sorry if I raised your pulse a bit as I wobbled  over the kerbs, I think the rear of my car jinked out in your direction as I let you pass.

Cant wait to get back in a real Porsche for the NGT at Monza.......

Hi I was on the limit at the start with the BMW but it was so slow I sort of just drove to finish ,then made some mistakes through lack of concentration and had to pit anyway so may as well had less fuel .kindest regards gerald

I love and hate Donington all at the same time.  I love it because of it's layout, but hate it coz I struggle to go fast there :(  That and the fact that I don't seem to be as "hooked up" with the GT's as with the NGT's.  Wierd but thats how it feels.

Now I have to find a better strategy for the Saleen, cos that long first stint doesn't seem to work that well.  Damn, the car is hard on tyre wear  :o

Was a great race..Quallifying went ok allthough half a second off my pb it was still good for 2nd.
For the first 5/10 mins I was hanging onto the back of Jon but was pushing hard and eased off very slightly which saw the gap slowly opening to a few seconds, but with a comfortable gap behind.
A bit later on Jon was on the green stuff after the Melbourne hairpin(yuk) which gave me the lead, which I kept up untill the pit stops.
I came out of my pit space only a cars length behind a blue Lister and as we exited the pits the lister who I think was being lapped kindly eased over to the side but by this time I already seen Mark in His Lister closing in Fast, so I didnt want to cause an accident and wasnt sure if he even had to pit yet(turns out he didnt...nice strategy:)) so I moved a bit out of his way( dam wish I didnt now :D)
Started to push hard to keep in touch with Mark and the time hovered around 8 seconds IIRC.well, untill about 50 mins into the race untill i didnt drop down enough gears going into Redgate and ended up running into the mud. All the while during the race Shark and the guys behind were keeping me very honest with there consistent pace.
I think after i spun coming out of a hairpin the tyres were a bit worse for wear and couldnt keep a decent pace up and had almost no grip whatsoever after another spin and a few lost places, It was difficult turning corners near the end so i just cruised home slowly.
Overall picked up 7th (and a couple of points hopefully) not bad considering I last raced there a few months ago in a Mosler :O.......:D:D

Cheers......See you all in Spa.

Haha... spot-on description there.

Was I the only Ngt driver who made a stop? I ran with enough fuel for the 60mins(and wanted to run without a stop) but it felt to me like the meds were starting to go off after about 35mins. I thought I was driving rather consevatively and was trying to look after the tyres but apparently not.
Don.

No, I got a stop/go. If you hadn't you would have beaten me, with or without stop/go, I was a mess.

1Hr on meds should be do-able, if not, hards would probably be the way to go. I could not do it at BRNO, but have done everywhere else so far, and will continue to do so except Spa (1:30 race) and maybe Estoril.

I did a no-stopper at Brno on mediums without any problem at all. I think the 360 may be kinder to its tyres than the 911, which is very hard on its rears. Not locking wheels under braking is crucial through as you'll burn through your tyres much faster.

You may also find that if the tyres feel like they're going off, it's not because they're worn, but because they're overheating. A couple of slower laps can make a big difference to how they feel.

I second that!

Good race

7th in quali.
Was full of fuel on start, short pits, minor mistakes only and finnshed 5th. OK


Hoping for Full Time status.

Your totally correct Dave, I think there's something about BRNO that my driving style or setup does not like. A lot of the corners seem to dip after the apex and I often slide there, also those hills at the end I tend to get some good (or rather bad) slide there too. Annoying thing is they don't heat up much.

When I drove the Porsche I used to regulate my speed by my tire temperature, as I realised how vitally important it was and used to often cook my tires. Now I'm a Ferrari man I don't have problem.

... and sliding in the corners as well.

I don't think hard tyres were the solution for Donington. Soft front and medium rear was the right choice. Hard would never reach the optimum temperature and you would slide a lot. Porsche is usually more demanding for the rear tyres because it is rear heavy and the back tends to become nervous when braking/entering the corner.