UKGTL Season 12 The Fifties - Solitude - Dec 28

[goldtop]

These enduros can be a bit dull at times, but last night's event was far from that. The various strategies demanded by the different cars meant that part of my brain was occupied trying to compute pace of those around me, while the other was busy keeping the merc on track.

A fantastic early race duel with Mark saw us swapping places several times before I made a mess of T1....twice  . Then around 50 minutes in I realised that I might still be in with a shout when I saw Mark and John in the pits. By this time Ross was well up the road and looked like he was also on a 1 stopper so 2nd was the best I could hope for. As the race played out it seemed that Mark had hit problems and I was left with John 30 seconds behind and chasing me down at the rate of a couple of seconds per lap. with 3 or 4 laps to go I had a small excursion on the back straight losing 10 seconds and adding to the excitement   Had to push very hard after that until I was left with a more comfortable 5 seconds cushion for the last lap  

Congrats to Ross on a dominant drive   and well done to all that raced. Got to mention Jules here who stuck at it after having a big off on lap one. We'd practised a lot together for this, so it was great to see him finish....he really enjoyed it too.

Thanks for all your efforts this year Tony, it is much appreciated. Me and Jules hope to be doing a lot more GTL and PnG in 2013.

HNY to all.

[BillThomas]

Didn't last long, think I managed to hit the straw bales on the pit exit area at the start - apologies to anyone affected.  Had a pit stop for repairs but spent too much time behind the scenery.  Came off had a  long reverse  through a tree lined area, managed to rejoin  but didn't get warning of wrong direction this time, even though didn't recognise where  I was.  Quit so as not to risk driving in wrong direction with blind brows and corners.

Nice to see you back Bill

Thanks Tony.    Wife's cataract op successful, treatment complete, sight fantastic.  Hopefully, I'll be back to normal now - fighting hard for last finisher. 

[Jules™]

Great Endurance, thank you Tony for putting the race on, and congrats to Ross Hawkey.

Thought I was out on the first lap, but managed to get up the hill back onto the track. From then on I enjoyed trying to catch up with main feild.

[M Cinderby]

  I have only one thing to say..........I must practise more and check out all the cars before committing to the insane Ferrari 250. I spent to much time on that bloody "World Of Tanks".

 

  Anyways Qualified a good P2 on 3.58 but 3 seconds off Ross whom was mega fast in the correct car for the job.........One that corners!!!  I had to crank the diff up to 30 - 100 to make the Ferrari turn in and this worked great in the early laps but as soon as the tyres get a bit worn you start having trips into the woods, lake and worst of all hay bails with bollards hidding in them!! 

I had a really great time racing Goldtop up to lap 13 when I hit the hay-bollard and ripped my front wheel off.  Ground the car back to the pits for a strip & rebuild but on returning to the track found the set up had changed. The thing had no top end down the straights and I was lapping around 7 seconds slower per lap.....Soul destroying..........Still if I start a race I generally like to finish it, so started playing at power slidding. As expected the rear tyres were not happy about this but it was entertaining and kept me awake. 

Had to make a splash and dash before the finish and still nearly ran out of fuel...........THE END. 

Thanks for organising a great event Tony I really like this track much better than that nasty Norbert Ring........Happy New Year everyone. 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Great Endurance, thank you Tony for putting the race on, and congrats to Ross Hawkey.

Thought I was out on the first lap, but managed to get up the hill back onto the track. From then on I enjoyed trying to catch up with main feild.

Congrats to you Jules for successfully finishing your 1st Enduro event.

[Wiltshire Tony]

During qually I had flashing screens showing mcgr and Johnw loading. So I re-downloaded the entire car set and re-installed them. This fixed Johnw for me but I couldn't stop mcgr from giving me the loading screen. Also his car showed to me as a Merc? Didn't ruin my short race tho.

[Ross Hawkey]

2.4 hours went by pretty quickly, and though I was up front, with the 'unknown' element of the pit stop strategy, I wasn't really sure how it'd pan out.

The Maserati did seem to have a big advantage in sector 1 (as long as I could carry the momentum through the fast kinks), but the last 3rd of the lap (which involved slowing down, and turning corners  ) the pace was much more balanced.

When I saw others pit after 12 laps, I really didn't know if I'd last to the 18 laps needed, as tyre grip was really falling away. Luckily it did last, and once I'd got to 1/2 way and filled up, I figured all would be ok.

Then with 2 or 3 laps to go, I made a mistake in sector 2 at the bottom of the hill, and went well off track.  Was worried I may not get back up the embankment, but luckily I did, and made the flag ok.

I've won in the Maserati at Spa and now Solitude, but think if I had to drive it against the Testarossa at a track that involved corners etc, then it'd be a very different story.

I did read that a new GTL'55 Ferrari is coming to the mod soon http://www.virtualr.net/lm55-mod-for-gt-legends-new-ferrari-previews .  Maybe it'll have a bit more grunt for the straights?


Either way, this mod is fantastic, and whilst the mod developer is still adding cars, it's only going to get better :-).  Well done all, and see you soon,

[Wiltshire Tony]

Nice pictures chaps

[Alex vV]

Unofficial LapChart

The car-track-2,5 hour racing combo was a bit too much for me I guess. After several major offs (partly due to the fact that I miscalculated fuel usage) the race ended in the woods for me which I couldn't get out of. DNF should read 'Stuck in shrubbery'.
Fitting end for a race where I made all the rookie endurance mistakes 
Had a lovely battle at the beginning with Tony tho.

Congrats to all who finished!


 

[johnw]

Grats to Ross for the dominant win and Goldtop for second place This was a bit of a frustrating one for me, even though it didn't feel anywhere as long as the enduro last year. Got off to a bad start by trying to go round the outside of Goldtop at one of the fast corners and put a wheel on the grass. That put me out of contention for the podium for most of the race, and the two other mistakes where I ended up on my roof didn't help either

The D-type was capable of some good pace but the tyres were awful after a few laps, don't know if it was the same for any of the other cars. I was planning on doing a one-stop but after 10 laps decided to change to two stops for fuel & tyres. I think it would still have been quicker on balance to stick with one stop, but wouldn't have been fun babying it round for half the race.

The last stint was fun trying to chase Goldtop down, but the closer I got the more the tyres were going off and in the end GT drove well and I didn't quite make it in time.

Well done all finishers and apologies to Alex for spinning him

[Alex vV]

Well done all finishers and apologies to Alex for spinning him

It was not your fault. I was trying to give you some room to pass on the bridge section but the back got out of shape. Caused me to swerve all over the road. Rear tyres were indeed a challenge after 5-7 laps. Mine were down to 27 wear when you tried to lap me.

[goldtop]

Tyres were good for me, but then I'm always good on tyres. I had planned to change them mid race, but when I pitted I was surprised to see them only showing approx 7 wear on xd so decided to keep them. I think I managed to get my fastest time 2 or 3 laps from the end when I had to push hard.

The brakes were a different matter entirely and I was never sure where I'd slow down enough to get turned in. On the whole the merc was a nice drive, except for being snail-like out of the slow bends because of the gearing.....2nd too long and 1st too short 

I only briefly tried the other cars so had no idea of their longevity.

Looking forward to the series in the new year 

[Wiltshire Tony]

For me it's the tyre wear physics that make this mod a bit special. They will wear quicker than the more modern compounds of the 60's and 70's that I suppose we are all more used to. If you look at 50's races on DVD they were always pitting for fuel and tyres.