UKGTR Season 15 Lower Endurance (GTC) - Laguna Seca - Jan 8

[Truetom]

Not raced here Jon? Seems incredible.

[quicksilver384]

4th best track in the world.

[quicksilver384]

WOOT finally.

Last night I got 1:26.2 and thought that was it for me. Just got a 1:25.782 with my qualify setup.

Just gotta work on my race setup now to try and get that down to 1:26

[JonM_uk]

Not raced here Jon? Seems incredible.

I think I haven't raced here in GTR2 TT. But I've done a fair few laps in iRacing here, I just wanted to make sure where to go in the race

[quicksilver384]

Was a great but very hard race, started really well had a good 4 way battle with 3 others (cant remember who) but then the inevitable happened (i fell off i think) no major offs this time for me though so was a good one. Sorry Apex for lap 32 into the corkscrew, I lost my line and got stuck at the top for a second. My bad.

I started to strugle towards the end with tyres and my ankle and wrist was starting to ache like hell lol.

see ya next week hopefully.

[Truetom]

Had to wrestle with the car as I surely have no idea how to set it up for a track like this. So it was ok from the start but as soon as the tyres started to go it was getting worse. And worse. That showed in the middle of the race where I lost 20+ seconds in the lap before pitting. Came out behind nsfast and H@l. Trotted behind them comming slowly closer. Then nsfast had an off in the Cork and H@l run outta fuel after I gave up the chase. Undeserved 3rd, really.

ViperCC is a nice car for patient people. I'm not.

[spanner]

I do seem to struggle round here, had to make the car far more oversteering than i would ever do and never really was happy through the corkscrew, dont think i did the same line or approach twice! Was quite happy in the race though once i got past Quiksilver and had quite a gap behind and was slowly gaining on H@L and nsfast as they got in each others way. But was going past start/finish and was taking a tight line against the barrier on the left but on one lap got too close and caught on the gap between the concrete barrier and the armco and killed the car. Felt i'd finally got a reasonable handle on the track so was gutted it ended so soon.

[JonM_uk]

I had a pretty good race apart from an overtake I made.
Was happy with qually and I was pushing beyond my talent to get my time which left me 2nd.
The race was quite simple really. Matteo was quicker than me but I pushed to the maximum and beyond to keep up, that meant making quite a few mistakes and losing even more time than I should've. After the pitstops I came out in 4th behind H@L, nsfast and Matteo. I gained steadily on H@L and nsfast who was driving well to keep H@L behind him. I followed them for a couple of laps and it was clear that Languna was gonna be a hard place to overtake, I had a chance after turn 6, nsfast was slow through the corner and H@L had to back off slightly to avoid hitting him on corner exit, this gave me a good speed advantage going up the Rahal Straight and that was all the invitation I needed. Passing H@L and nsfast was easy with my speed advantage but I only just managed to get ahead of nsfast though, when I braked for the corkscrew he really had nowhere to go but into the back of me and span off. On reflection I think I could've given more space down the outside but tbh at the time it didn't even enter my mind, I was just going for it. This was a great shame for the championship though as nsfast was only 5 points behind H@L for the title and if I'd just overtaken H@L and not nsfast he'd of won the championship...and of course with H@L running out of fuel, nsfast would surely have won the champ.

Unlucky nsfast
Grats to H@L and to Matteo for the wins
And thankyou to the organisers

I'm sorry for the way it ended

[H@L9000]

I am having a slight issue with doing the results at the moment. I will get it sorted as soon as possible.

Epic race for me last night.

I had a tremendous fight with nsfast for most of the race. I could see form the very first corner of the race that many drivers were not going to take any prisoners.

I could also see fights breaking out up the road ahead of me and down the road behind me in the early stages as I was battling with nsfast. Great stuff. Me and nsfast were very close for most of the first half of the race and I was doing some defensive driving to try to maintain my position. The racing was intense and very much fitting of a championship finally, we even went side by side into the Corckscrew at one point. After I had pitted at about the half way point I could see that I had pitted earlier than most and I had no idea how that would play out. I passed TT when he eventually pitted but, after nsfast made his stop he was right in front of me. I applied as much pressure as I could but, nsfast was not making many mistakes. Although I was right on him for many laps, we were faster on different parts of the track and I did not have enough extra pace where it counted. Eventually Jon caught us and I was trying to keep on nsfast and keep an eye on Jon at the same time. I was very surprised to see Jon come up so quickly at the point he mentions in his post as I was just about to try to pass nsfast but, noticed Jon with a big speed advantage on both of us just before I was about to swoop to the left to make a move. There would not have been space for all 3 side by side  so I backed off a little and nsfast seemed to go a bit side ways on the brakes.

That ended the championship battle as nsfast lost a lot of time there. That was a shame but, I ran out of fuel on the last lap anyway so we both had issues in the end.

I did try very hard to keep up with Jon then with just 3 laps to go I noticed that I did not have enough fuel for the last lap and I had TT 6 seconds behind. I went as slow as I could without letting TT pass then just before the last corner the engine cut and thanks to the up hill on the S/F straight I could not coast to the line and had to pull over with just a few Tens of virtual meters to go. Sorry if I caused any confusion while going slow on the last lap.

Very eventful and fun race to end the championship on. nsfast deserved the championship win I think but, like all Ferrari fans I will take a victory any way I can get it.

Thanks for taking part all. Well done Jon and Matteo, super pace as always. This has been a very nice Lower Endurance series for me.

With RFactor2 planning on being in beta stage for the next 6 months ( ) I am now going to commit to organising another season of UKGTR. Roll on lower endurance season 16. Expect a few fun/test races before the new season starts.

[Manteos]

Frankly it was easier than I expect, but only due to a couple of mistakes by Jon during the first laps of the race. I usually suffer the pressure of a fast driver like Jon behind me, so I was pretty scared when he was so close to me during the first laps. I noticed that Jon was faster in the first part of the track, and I was slightly faster in the second half, but we were really close on our laptimes, and I wasn't able to put a gap between our cars.
Maybe Jon was surprised after some laps at the third corner, in which I used to slightly pull my brakes to have a better line. I saw his car a bit runaway to avoid the impact with me, and by that moment he wasn't able to replace the gap. I guess you were pushing a lot mate, and it's really difficult to do it with the Morgan in a circuit like Laguna.... I can't imagine hiow difficult it could be in the Viper of the brave TT .
Lap after lap, the gap was increasing, cause I could manage a very good pace with the BMW, that seemed to be on the rail here in Laguna, despite Jon was pushing as a devil, but with some mistakes from time to time.
After the pit, in which I obviously didn't change my tyres, my pace was sensibly slower, especially with the full tank. Tyre wear was really low, but I spent 3-4 laps to reach the right temperatures, with a pace of mid-low 1.27. I was following the battles behind me on the xd, and when I noticed that Jon gained the 2nd position I started to push a bit more, worried about a possible tyre change for him. I guess I was wrong, and he didn't changed it cause during the last laps I was on a mid 26 pace and I was gaining some tenths per lap on the followers.

Grats to H@l for the victory of the championship and to the podium Fortune favors the Bold!
I'm sure that nsfast will forgive you Jon... that's racing Take it easy

Hope to see you for the last round of the prototypes. Bye bye  

[H@L9000]

Results and replay in the usual places

[quicksilver384]

Congratulations to H@L, nsfast and and JonM_uk.

Im happy with my 9th place :-) will aim for 8th next season.

Chears H@L for organising it

[JonM_uk]

I guess I was wrong, and he didn't changed it cause during the last laps I was on a mid 26 pace and I was gaining some tenths per lap on the followers.

I did change tyres mate, it's just that they wore out pretty fast. The car was quite understeery, pushing hard just made things worse and by the time I was into 2nd I was never going to put in many fast consistent laps...I had no chance of catching/beating you.
Well done

[Mark J]

Cracking race last night, about the best ive had on here for ages for actual racing and adrenalin.  Decent turn out helped and enough drivers on similar pace to make it a real battle on a brilliant race track.

Qualied in 8th which wasnt great but i missed pre race praccy and had to dive straight in really.

Race was a corker from the first flying lap! Chased Spanner for first few laps with others chasing me, then got taken twice in two laps down the s/f straight as i quickly realised i must have too much wing (7) by the speed others whipped past me or left me standing, which surprised me as didnt think you would want lower wings here? So then found i had two more cars than i expected to chase. But that made for a great 4-5 car group on similar pace and it was great fun racing hard for about the first half hour. Gradually each car in front made an error under pressure and i got myself upto 6th at the stops 
When i saw the others that i had been racing make their stops i set a load of purple sectors and stayed out for a couple more laps. It seemed to work a treat as i came out about 8 secs in front of my nearest rival and then a series of my fastest laps on fresh rubber gave me a clean pair of heels to create a big gap by race end of about 20+ secs.

With NSF getting a late DNF i brought the car home in a good 5th place, which i was pleased with as i couldnt get near the top 4's amazing pace!  You boys were mighty fast last night.

Congrats to Manteos for the race win and the pody guys 

Great race.

[nsfast]

An epic finale to a very enjoyable season.

I went into this race with an outside chance of taking the title and knowing the the Z4 was going to be good car here. But with the quality of the field for this one I was always going to need a bit a luck to make up the points difference.

I was pleased with P3 in qualifying which gave me chance push H@l for title. However, in the early laps I was overtaken by TT and H@l putting my back into P5. A contact early in the race gave me some areo damage which seemed to slow my lap times from what I was expecting.   However, as the race went on I managed to keep close enough to H@l to give an opportunity when the pitsops came round. The Z4 was very kind on its tyres round here which meant only one set was going required. H@l pitted one lap early and as I made my way down the pit straight after a perfect stop I could see H@l at the point where I knew my plan had worked.  

The next few laps were an epic battle to keep H@l far enough behind to make it difficult for him to overtake on the parts of the track he was quicker.   I didn't feel as comfortable as I would like with the cars handling but at his point I was in P2 with Jon and TT dropping back due to changing tyres. To complicate things I could see Jon was closing on us at great pace probably on fresh tyres. I made a minor mistake at the left hander before the corkscrew and expected to see H@l moving accross to try the overtake but instead he moved accross suddenly to reveal Jon with a massive speed advantage alongside me.   Jon cleanly made the pass on the outside but once he was in front I misjudged when he would brake and just went into the back on him unfortunately at very unstable area of the track. The car spun quickly into the barriers and gave me a front pucture and severely damaged suspension. I made it back to the pits but once I saw my teammates go past in good positions decided to call it a day.  

Passing H@L and nsfast was easy with my speed advantage but I only just managed to get ahead of nsfast though, when I braked for the corkscrew he really had nowhere to go but into the back of me and span off.

No problem Jon. It was a fair move. I was just a bit unlucky this time.   It made up for the Mosport race where I benefited greatly from Jon and H@l's misfortune at the start.

Congrats to H@l on a fully deserved Championship and many thanks to all who have raced in this series. Fantastic result for the Team (nice racing guys!  )  Nice to be back winning again (without the aliens).