GT Sprint Cup - Season 2, Round 8, Oschersleben - Feb 21

[whitham69]

That seem very short compared to the enduro, think i had luv closing down on me at 4 sec a lap was in two minds to race him or let him go by i opted to let him by.I only would of crashed if i tryed to keep his pace Sounds like that could of been shark then. Had a very good race with Flybri for last 20 minutes shame you lost it on turn one with 2 minutes to go which put you 3 sec back it would of been great to race for the line. good racing all

[Simon Gymer]

That's a shame you guys. There was only 15 or 16 starters today and that's really making the grid pretty thin.

Qualified 4th in my Lamborghini with a completely new setup which really sorted the lairy handling of the Italian (or is it German now?  ) beast.

Everyone up front taking it nice and easy on lap 1 and as we come to the huge curbs in the fast chicane out back the bottom of the car just catches the curbs wrong somehow and violently spits me off across the gravel and into the tyre wall. Argh! Well I think it was the games way of making my race very intersting.

So now at the back of the pack, how can I possibly get a decent finish? Thought about pitting to repair any damage, but decided to try the car for a couple of laps to see how it was with nothing to lose. The gamble pays off and my car has sustained only minor damage it appears as the car is still going well. The onslaught begins! I go all out in an attempt to get back with the field quickly gobbling up some of the back markers. On and on it goes, as others make mistakes I climb the field, culminating in getting back where I started in 4th after RichA makes a mistake near the end. Just a few laps left and I'm reeling Aagramn in hand over fist but there aren't enough laps left and I finish only 2 seconds behind my team mate who gets a very nice podium. The car was still working well at the end, could have set my race fastest laps near the end there even on old rubber. Really pleased how well my new setup worked with the Lambo as Oschersleben is a killer on rear tyres on the Lambo.

Everytime I race GTR online here I realise how much more serious the racing is. The cars just need so much more respect, you really need to know how to drive these beasts just to get them round a lap. The level of driving precision leaves no room for errors, this is where it's at for me, GTR is still king in terms of the racing. Roll on GTR2.

[Aagramn]

That was intense, I had to push for the entire race, no respite at all. Qualified 6th, and found myself in 3rd after 3 cars went off. There were 4 or 5 of us in a very tight group. Rich followed me on my bumper for most of the next 20 minutes until I eventually ran wide and lost a couple places. Found myself in 3rd again with about 10 minutes to go when a couple more went off, but found the car behind was catching me quickly. I guessed it was a recovering Shark, so I had to start pushing again while my tyres started to go off. Just about managed to hold it together, very pleased with my first ever league podium.  

Congrats to Mo for the win, and Greg for soaking up all the pressure to take 2nd.

[greg130]

WOW what an intense race, never had more than 2 secs to the cars behind me.  

Qualed in a respectable 5th and set off following the cars ahead with no real hope of overtaking them.  Couldn't believe it when 3 of the top 5 fell off and I inherited 2nd.  Then it was all down to keeping the car on the track and withstanding some very intense pressure from the guys behind, boy was I glad when it was over, don't think I could have held on for much longer.

I'm not ashamed to say I punched the air with delight when I crossed the finish line.

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results now posted

[Aagramn]

Thanks Picnic.

[stnasky]

Really enjoyed the race  , but down the start finish straight i accidently knocked the car down a gear or two and blew my engine.....  what a plonker .

[Rich_A]

Good race, few guys getting real quick now - teaching me a thing or too. 

Had a 'Lost connection', router says my line stayed up so must be lobby or 1.4. The funny thing is after that it kept sending me to backup lobby for about 20mins and in backup there was only me and occasionally one other UKGTR driver.. so bit strange that, sounds like could be 1.4. Sooner move to 1.5 the better surely?

Very good driving, like a freight train for most of it. I lost it going into Turn 5, had to let you through Jonzo fair's fair but I wouldn't let you through MarkGP. Then I gave you alot of pressure Jonzo, then you snapped it out of Turn 3 giving me fourth. Then me and MarkGP caught greg and Aagramn up, you went wide into chicane Turn 8 Aagramn giving me third. I should have held that position but had a great spin into downhill tricky Turn 5. Not sure where I finished but was disappointed with my spin, I seem to do a 360 once a race atm!! Overall, car felt good.. but impossible track for planning an overtake.

You kept good pace with me MarkGP after Aagramn went wide, then your engine blew which will look good as one of my photos.    - on F550 it's like this. With 3 radiator, 7800 does 30 min which is about where your engine blew, 7700 does 45min and 7600 1h30min+. Doesn't matter even if you shift revs, sort of a bug really cause I don't know if this happens for real - maybe fixed in GTR2.

[silver53]

Sorry I no turn up but its taking hours to load all softwear onto spare hard drive , which now seeems a very slow one so may have to do it all again.cheers gerald

[enz13_gt]

sry couldnt make race,had problems getting on server,kept getting put in back up lobby,then nothing,tried for an hour and gave up,as i exited the last time it said i had a net dll prob,when i checked the disc is shot,thx starforce  you even stopped me using my disc,now where can i get another.

[mo]

I always dread racing at Oschers for some reason but in the end its always a tough but satisfying track; one of the more physical races for sure and the 80min enduro will be tough

The race was looking like a close one based on the qual times and over the first few laps Leuven, TT myself and Shark were starting to pull away slightly.
But then over the next 2 laps everyone I could see in front and behind spun out, leaving me to take a hollow and lonely victory tbh.

Interestingly Leuven had to pit and he rejoined right in front of me.
So, in the same track position we were in before, but Leuven down a lap and I knew he was 0.5 sec per lap quicker and on fresh tyres, we had a bit of a play for a few laps.

Hey Leuven I turned off my lights to let you know not to let me lap you (coz you were quicker) and I hope you understood what I meant by this.
In the end we swapped places a couple of times and drove 2 or so close laps, before you headed off into the distance, eventually finishing 10 secs ahead of me on the track.

Looked like a fantastic battle for the ramaining podium spots too, with some really good close racing from what I saw on the replay 

Damn- engine blew with 6 mins to go and at only 82 degrees  A new one on me!

Exact same thing happened me at Enna - temp was in the 80s  but the engine just went pop after about 20mins

....... on F550 it's like this. With 3 radiator, 7800 does 30 min which is about where your engine blew, 7700 does 45min and 7600 1h30min+. Doesn't matter even if you shift revs, sort of a bug really cause I don't know if this happens for real - maybe fixed in GTR2.

Not sure about that Rich - I ran the 550 for the entire enduro season1 at max RPM and never had a failure.
It was in the sprint that it blew!   must be some elemnet of randomness to it or maybe only allowed a certain number of racy downshifts before it's had enough.

[Mark J]

I also disagree on the 550 as i ran the 40 mins last night on radiator 3 at 7800rpm with no overheating or engine detonations.

Loved that race, being up with the aliens for about 25 minutes in the top 5 was a real buzz for me. I seem to be finding some good pace in the 550 lately, whereas it used to scare the hell out of me.
Shame my snap out the turn took me off as i was really enjoying myself. The later off with 10 mins left at turn 5 was the most damaging, removing most of my front end and effectively ended any chance of good points. Would normally have retired but knowing how car-hungry Oschers is, decided to get the car re-built and picked up two places at end.

[FlyBri]

That seem very short compared to the enduro, think i had luv closing down on me at 4 sec a lap was in two minds to race him or let him go by i opted to let him by.I only would of crashed if i tryed to keep his pace Sounds like that could of been shark then. Had a very good race with Flybri for last 20 minutes shame you lost it on turn one with 2 minutes to go which put you 3 sec back it would of been great to race for the line. good racing all

Qualified ok, race started ok but went from bad to worse lap by lap lol. Grip levels decreased quickly for some reason, tyres werent too hot. What rear wing was ppl using, i was on 12 very slow along start/finish staight got ripped 4 or 5 times............

You pressed me well whitham69 m8, couldn't believe i spun (well i could cause i done it 4 times previously in race lol). Finished second last.

[LEUVEN]

I always dread racing at Oschers for some reason but in the end its always a tough but satisfying track; one of the more physical races for sure and the 80min enduro will be tough

The race was looking like a close one based on the qual times and over the first few laps Leuven, TT myself and Shark were starting to pull away slightly.
But then over the next 2 laps everyone I could see in front and behind spun out, leaving me to take a hollow and lonely victory tbh.

Interestingly Leuven had to pit and he rejoined right in front of me.
So, in the same track position we were in before, but Leuven down a lap and I knew he was 0.5 sec per lap quicker and on fresh tyres, we had a bit of a play for a few laps.

Hey Leuven I turned off my lights to let you know not to let me lap you (coz you were quicker) and I hope you understood what I meant by this.
In the end we swapped places a couple of times and drove 2 or so close laps, before you headed off into the distance, eventually finishing 10 secs ahead of me on the track.

Looked like a fantastic battle for the ramaining podium spots too, with some really good close racing from what I saw on the replay 

Damn- engine blew with 6 mins to go and at only 82 degrees  A new one on me!

Exact same thing happened me at Enna - temp was in the 80s  but the engine just went pop after about 20mins

....... on F550 it's like this. With 3 radiator, 7800 does 30 min which is about where your engine blew, 7700 does 45min and 7600 1h30min+. Doesn't matter even if you shift revs, sort of a bug really cause I don't know if this happens for real - maybe fixed in GTR2.

Not sure about that Rich - I ran the 550 for the entire enduro season1 at max RPM and never had a failure.
It was in the sprint that it blew!   must be some elemnet of randomness to it or maybe only allowed a certain number of racy downshifts before it's had enough.

As I knew I probably would'nt improve my qually time I ended up watcheing Shark on his last flying lap, and I remember him getting held up quite a bit behind a vette.

After a few laps I think Truetom dropped back/ran wide? and I was already coming up behind one of the vettes. 

I ended up having to follow it through tripple and all the way to the back straight, so I thought that I better get a good run on him as I might not get passed like Shark. (not saying it was intentional by the vette OR that it was even the same one, but it was on my mind nonetheless) 
So on the back straight I decided to get on the gas as early as possible which turned out to be too early and I spun and hit the barrier, ultimately losing the front end.

There was no way I could carry on as it would not turn in to the corners, so I had to pit coming out infront of mo like he said. then we had a big battle, I ran wide trying to pull away but kept the door open for you to get infront mo, as technically I was being lapped but didnt have blue flag for some reason .

Then we battled for quite a bit untill I managed to get by the concentrated on hunting the back of the field, and having another couple of spins along the way.

Not really getting as much time as I would like to put any practice in these days, so maybe thats why I had a lead foot