UKGTR Season 16 Lower Endurance - Nürburgring (GP) - Apr 29

[JonM_uk]

That was lots of fun
I had a great fight with Berger in the race. I was a little quicker but when I was on his rear I never really had any chance to get past due to the speed difference between the cars so I had to wait for a little error. I managed to get past and pull out a few seconds before the pits, after the pits I came out 8 seconds behind. I filled to 100 Litres which only just lasted to the end of the race and new tyres. I tried a little too hard and made mistakes here and there but then got into a nice rhythm at the end of the race and really pushed hard, even after all those laps of 'maximum attack' I only just got to Berger's tail for the last few corners which was never enough time to get past. To be honest I don't think I'd have got past with quite a few laps left because getting past down a straight was never going to happen. The BMW looked a struggle to drive with the Lambo being so much faster in the corners and also killing the tyres alot quicker, could be just setup though. A quick apology to JPV who I nearly ran off the track on the last bend, he gave me space to go past but I ran in a bit deep chasing Berger.

Grats to Berger and H@L
Nice race all
Cya next time

[Mark J]

That was another cracking race, this new GT2 series is panning out to be a real corker with intense close racing throughout. 

I qualied well sitting just behind the aliens in 5th? i think, really pulling out some faster new pb's for me just to get that place, and was quite chuffed as the times were getting damned fast by everyone.
First 25 minutes of the race were banzai bananas as i fought tooth and nail to stay in a 3-4 car fight with API, Manteos, ApexUSA and one or two others who kept closing. It was frantic fast paced stuff and all clean 
Then Spanner caught up with me and chased extremely hard upto the pitstops. Spanner pitted before me and i quickly decided that if i stayed out until my planned stop, my hard pressed tyres would cost me too much time and allow him past. So i did one more lap and pitted, all smoothly!, and emerged from my stop 'just' in front of Spanner without dropping any places 
Spanner then pushed me extremely hard for the next 15-20minutes and i couldnt relax for a moment, it was hard work!
But with about 7 mins remaining he must have had a spin or off as he disapeared from my view and for the first time in 53 mins i didnt have a car attacking my rear view! I was 5th and also had a 13 second lead over TT so thought i could relatively coast to the finish line for a fine finish behind 4 aliens.
But....no, i got the dreaded low fuel warning with 2.5laps to go!  I was dumbstruck after such a hard drive and now had to shortshift for one lap, then coast at half throttle for another lap. I had no defence to stop TT closing and passing and nicking my hard earned 5th place  :'( I also 'just' had enough juice to squirt down the s/f straight in front of spanner, crossing the line with 1.4L left  for 6th.
What a race! 

[SRW]

an exciting race, even though i was at the back! my only problem was during the pitstop when i had to queue up behind some one and lost a few seconds

Is there a maximum number of cars allowed before you have to share pits? is there a way of knowing whether you have to share a pit and who you have to share with? (so you can avoid going in on the same lap)

[spanner]

Rather than turning up unannounced at your pit, you need to request it, there is a pit request kiy in the controls you need to bind. I normally press that in the first half of the lap, and you will get a 'pit in this lap' message back from your pits. This also means they will be there waiting for you, rather than waiting for them to run out of the garage. If you get any other kind of message when pressing the pit request button it normally means there is someone pitting near yours.

[H@L9000]

Results and replay now uploaded.

Sorry for the delay.

[H@L9000]

If you get any other kind of message when pressing the pit request button it normally means there is someone pitting near yours.

I find that you have to make the request, wait for a bit and then the pit crew say "come in end of this lap" in which case you are good to pit or "please repeat" in which case you have to press the request button again. However, sometimes nothing seems to happen and the pit in indicator does not light up blue. This is the indication that someone is in your pit box or someone has requested a pit stop and is about to pit in your pit box. If nothing seems to happen after a few trys then go round for another lap and try again. If you cant because you are low on fuel or what ever then you have no choice but, to park and wait of course.

Very hard race.

I had a good fight in the first few laps with API behind and Matteo in front. It was not too long before Matteo made a mistake that allowed me to pass and I managed to build up a bit of a gap. I guess due to the fight going on behind me on the track.

The race then got a bit lonely as Jon and Berger started to leave me behind and I built up more of a gap behind me as well. I knew that Mateo could still pass me in the pits so I had to stay on the limit which can be difficult when by your self, I find.

I seemed to make an earlier stop than most other drivers and I was beginning to wonder when Matteo and API would stop as the race started to draw to a close. Finally with 10 mins left on the clock, Matteo and API pitted but, Matteo was very close behind me as he exited. I made a few small mistakes as I tried to build a gap again and he stayed on me for a few laps but, then I did managed to increase the gap.

I was surprised at the pace that I managed to achieve in the Panoz on that track. All 4 of my medium tyres were shredded by the pit stop and by the end of the race however.

Grats Berger and Jon.

Well done all and thanks for taking part. Good turn out.

[Manteos]

In the first 10 laps, I probably did 1 mistake per lap, and my race was mostly a position swap every corner. I felt disoriented, cause the markers on the tarmac simply disappeared in the passage from qualif. to race, and I had no other references.
After I re-gained the 5th position behind API, we started a good duel for some laps, and we went ahead in this situation up to the pit stop, in which I entered before him, due to an error of Api a couple of laps before our pit.
Unfortunately I lost too much seconds on H@l during the first laps, so even with a perfect pit without tyre change, I came back on track just behind him. H@l seemed to be on fresh tires, and I had no chance to try an attack during the first 2 laps, in which he did a couple of small mistakes. Then he totally escaped by my sight during the last 3 laps, cause I was really in crisis with the tyre wear.
However it was a funny race, and that's the most important thing. Next time I will be more careful with this car, admitting that I will stay with it. This Porka is really difficult to drive without a proper setup, and mine was surely not a good one... but i realized it too late.
Grats to the podium for the amazing pace during all the race

Hope to see you even with the prototypes on Sunday. Bye

[spanner]

Well that was one amazing race. This is why i still love GTR2!

Couldnt believe the turn out, good to see a few old faces back. Only did one early run in qually so ended up just watching a few people end up ahead. Couldnt really judge where the start line was so misjudged when to go and had Apex come steaming into the first corner. Also realised quickly i was losing out massively in the braking for the chicane, suddenly looking back and they are right there!

Dont really remember too much accept chasing TT early on and slowly managing to catch up as it looked like the group ahead were stuck behind someone. Managed to get past though TT falling off in that things wis more liekly as it looked a handful at times! Then seemed to be chasing Jonzo for most of the race which was fun. But i was just getting more and more ragged as i pushed too hard round here, seems to be one of those tracks. I didnt have enough to pass as i seemed slower down the straights but could always slwoly get back behind after making a mistake.

Using XD to set your stops up is a god send and saves loads of time, barely looked at the pit stop details hoping it would counteract the rather gentle entry i had. But the next lap out had MJ come right out next to me and tried to force it over that lap as i would have had slightly better tyres but couldnt so had to sit behind and just try to force the issue for the rest of the race. However i was just pushing too hard and not sure what happened but spun it out of the hairpin with TT and nsfast managing to get ahead as i rejoined. Was sereiously considering ragequitting then but carried on and slowly managed to catch nsfast who seemed a bit slow in places but lightning fast in others! and then spend the last few laps trying to get past but just couldnt. Was completly knackered at the end of it from the concentration, no really chance to relax at all through the race. 

Hope the next one is just as good

[picnic]

Using XD to set your stops up is a god send and saves loads of time

Oh, I had better investigate this. Not sure if my stop was slow or not but I had the pit crew moaning as I was trying to reduce the fuel and stop the tyre change. After losing out so massively in the Spa race changing tyres I decided not to bother. Wear was a little excessive in the end, almost 30 on the front left and the rears on over 25. Had med/hards on.

[Mark J]

what worries me, is i felt like i drove the absolute nuts off my car throughout the entire race and qually, with no let up, and yet still could make no impression on the front 4 !  :'(  Definitely felt the fastest and longest ive had to drive on the edge for a long while, more like driving a GT1 car. The front guys here now have a ridiculous amount of pace! 
Great to see a good turnout too, dont think we've had that many GT2 runners in about 2 years  and the close action throughout the grid proves the racing is as intense and exciting as ever. 

Two races on the trot i've lost top 5 finishes in the dying laps to fuel consumption in the 997, was there some tweaking done in the car pack for this season? Though i expect its more my dodgy fuel calculations from tactically forced earlier stops.

[spanner]

XD gives you the usage per lap, its not hard to calculate likely pace, total laps then total fuel needed. Starting with a full tank i know i needed to put in an additional 35L. Its the maths while driving to work out what i need to set it to based on what i think the fuel level will be when i stop is the hardest.

[quicksilver384]

That's too hard for me to figure out. All I do is go into the garage and put 5 more laps worth of fuel than what it says I need based on what I decide to do stop wise lol. So much easier but probably get slower lap times but that's fine with me.

[quicksilver384]

I am noticing a trend here though. I reckon the top 4 or 5 drivers should use GTC cars to give the rest of us a chance 

[Truetom]

A bit late, but... BiT is more than a handful for me but I'm stubborn and this car is really no worse than Marcos. So I will stick with it but then we're quits, really a hard car to drive on the edge, I admire what ginsters or JonM could do with it.

Yea, was a fast pace in the second pack and one mistake forced me to go over it all again. Well satisfied with the end result, I think it was a max what could be achieved with me behind the wheel. Good race with Spanner, nsfast and MJ - might be some others but I don't remember, too much action going on, mostly car made me busy the whole time.

Nice to see some more cars / people on track.