UKGPL Season 26 (2014) Historic Trophy (66) - Nürburgring - Apr 8

[Phil Thornton]

I put in a decent qually time (for me) of 8:40 which didn't register so I suspected the server had dropped me.  So I disconnected and reconnected and this time my qually time did register but it was a more pedestrian 8:50 but at least I made the grid and the server recognised me.

Race started quite well, I managed to keep out of trouble and pick up a couple of places thanks to one or two incidents.  Then I went wide at Aremberg and had to wait until the entire field had passed before I could make a safe rejoin (very frustrating but an object lesson in making a good rejoin!!!).  I managed to catch Bernie and promptly went wide again at Metzgesfeld and ended up reversing down the track staring at Bernie's approaching Brabham.  Got going in last place again but from that point on I didn't make a single mistake .  Moved up a lot of places to finish in 4th some 15 seconds or so behind Martin.  Great result considering my lap 1 antics.  Grats to the podium, 6 laps on PRO is not easy!

[Iestyn Davies]

Only just realised the race was on, as I thought it was a practice server originally. But got on and got 2 Q runs. First was good, 8:23, between Greg and Tris. Continued on S1 and gained 3 seconds on warm tyres but ran out of fuel. So I put race fuel in and went for a practice start.. then kept going, and fluffed a possible 8:22 at the exit of the last corner.

Race start was OK, and we were in position heading up behind the pits. I was close to Greg's gearbox, and knew Tristan was behind me. I didn't intend to pass Greg on cold tyres, so as we approached the corner let off the gas, to coast up to the braking zone. I was also still a bit weary on the exact braking lengths for the long braking zones so was just braking a little way past the 67 braking points on the groove I had on track. Greg braked, and I was almost caught out in looking at his gearbox get a bit of a gap then suddenly start coming closer again. I full full brakes on, threw out the anchors, and managed to stop in time and turn left onto the apex, but Greg went to the outside line as he saw my car suddenly approaching his rear. Gathering it up, he caught some grass and this slowed him, so I nipped by on the left and took the inside line into the next corner, with Tris behind me. As I left the corner, I saw Greg spin on the outside from around 3rd place, as it's tight there to try and go two wide. Later on in the lap I was pleased to see Greg had gotten back up to 3rd and hoped there wasn't too much carnage going on behind.

Managed to eek out a good few second lead until I hit the second Pflanzgarten (Stefan Bellof S), spun and let Tristan through. Took me until the end of the next lap to catch him up, and at the end of lap 3 I overtook on the long back straight. I again eeked out a lead to half way round the lap, but almost spun after S2 in the high speed bits as I checked the times on prib, so had to eek out another small gap to the back straight. I thought I was clear, but I'm weak in the S4 sector and by the end of the straight Tris had caught back up in the slipstream. Looking in the mirrors, I misjudged Tiergarten and clipped my rear tyre on the right side barrier, spinning and bending the front tyres quite badly. Tris snuck by without being caught by my spinning car and thus had the win wrapped up. I managed to run two more laps giving away almost 20 seconds on each lap and bring it home in 2nd. A shame we could not continue battling to the line.. it would have been even better with Greg involved as well!  

Grats to the finishers.. always a tough track to finish, and once again I want to apologise to Greg for braking too late into the second corner and prompting avoiding action, when I just wanted to get through the corner holding position.

PS. Phil quite a rare problem indeed, imagine running a PB then it not showing up! I think that's happened to me before, not sure if it was from a DQ, so the time was in prib and replay but not registering in the session. Not sure how you get DQ'd while setting a PB though!

[Arf Arf Arf]

Well, I've calmed down now, but I was really disappointed this evening, as I always manage to run well here, and my demise was not of my own doing...which makes a nice change.

Whatever went on between Greg and Iestyn, I was (one of) the victim(s). From my perspective (sitting comfortably in P4) Greg lost some control at the end of the straight behind the pits going into T3, and appeared to be struggling to regain control as he exited T4, where he finally span. It was a pretty slow spin, and I was able to take some avoiding action, but when he flicked round suddenly, I didn't have a chance.... I rejoined dead last, and set about recovering. It didn't take long catching the tail enders, but on a narrow track its quite another thing passing..especially when I wouldn't have expected the likes of Dean to be there (I think Is aw him enter the race right at the end of qually, so I assume he post a time.... As I tried to assess his speed and look for an opportunity to overtake him (and possibly Bernie), Jethro came up behind looking racy....and rear ended me, leaving me upside down.

At the end of the day I imagine Greg's spin will probably be classed as a racing incident, and the one with Jethro...won't 

Still, no worries gents.

See you all after the break, maybe sooner.

Arf

[GregT]

I want to apologise to Greg

Don't worry about it Iestyn. I'm weak under braking and the second turn after the straight behind the pits is likely where I'm worst on the track. I hate that turn when I have somebody behind me. I screwed up and the worst part was I spun into the middle of the track. I keep forgetting to save my replay so I don't know how many others' race I ruined. From looking at the results it's likely I contributed to the demise of 5 other racers. And worse than that I may have solely caused the demise of those 5.

My apologies once again Arf. I made a terrible mistake at the worst time. When the replay is posted, I'll look to try to get an idea of what I should have done. I'm guessing that once I started losing it I should have tried the spin the car off the right side of the track. I'm not sure now but I know that I should have done better than what I did.

It's glaringly obvious that I don't have the experience to race the 66 cars well yet. I might be able to put in a decent lap but I haven't figured out how to be competent and consistent.

I wrecked at Phlanzgarten too. I took the jump too fast and bottomed severely on landing. That spun and then flipped me.

It's a shame Andreas spun like he did. He pushed too hard when I caught him a second time. I was in position to make a run on you. I was going to try to get beside you before we got to the kink at Kesselchen. I had the idea I'd be willing to wait much longer to slow for the kink thus getting by. That was the only place I could think of to possibly make a pass before the long straight after Dottinger Hohe.

[Ronniepeterson]

PS. Phil quite a rare problem indeed, imagine running a PB then it not showing up! I think that's happened to me before, not sure if it was from a DQ, so the time was in prib and replay but not registering in the session. Not sure how you get DQ'd while setting a PB though!

Not so rare, each time I left the pits in qualifying the first lap, which was a PB on both occasions for me, simply did not register?

Grats to Tristan, yourself and the mighty Martin.

[bernie]

My race strategy went completely haywire on lap 1 , the master plan of starting at the rear of the grid , taking things nice and easy for 6 laps while the rest of you lot destroyed each other in mortal combat , leaving yours truly , being the sole survivor , to cross the finish line drenched in champagne , covered in laurel leaves and smothered in kisses from all those gorgeous pit babes 
Things started to go my way with some early action up ahead , prib telling me I was already in 8th place almost as soon as the flag dropped .
Then along came Mr Logan who wanted to take my hard earned place away by the most unsportingly and malicious tailgating and harrying ever witnessed since WW2 ( anyone would think there was a race on or something )  the result was me spinning out somewhere around 1/3 of the lap after which my Brabham developed a severe case of rear end steering , The rest of the race was spent trying  desperately to repair the damage by clouting the scenery with various parts of my car all to no avail and like a scene from Farther Ted the problem just got worse with each clout. Wrestling the car for the remaining 5 2/3  laps became a challenge of total willpower and outright determination only to find you had all let me down completely by not sticking to MY plan , what happened to sportsmanship ?

Highlights of my race were watching Phil drive backwards at great speed ( fantastic skills there mate ) , watching rabbits cavorting at the roadside and getting black flagged for some indiscretion for which incident I plead totally innocent your honour   

Grats to the podium ( you know who you are ) and all the other smart ***** who finished ( sods ) 
 

[Cookie]

PS. Phil quite a rare problem indeed, imagine running a PB then it not showing up! I think that's happened to me before, not sure if it was from a DQ, so the time was in prib and replay but not registering in the session. Not sure how you get DQ'd while setting a PB though!

Not so rare, each time I left the pits in qualifying the first lap, which was a PB on both occasions for me, simply did not register?

It's a known occurrence here as I had this in former races here too, to avoid it just don't cut some corners in sector 1 here 

To my horrible spin I have the only excuse that I have only little experience with 66s and my tyres were still not warm enough as I clipped the gras in this full throttle part...

[MagicArsouille]

  well I was not espected to win this one, but Iknow that the Nurb is a race by elimination and everybody have his chance to win  .....
lap 1:  I start 3 but Ifinish this lap leading the race after the mistakes of Greg & Iestin.....
lap 2 -3 , Ihave to resist agains the Braby who is a little faster than me ( top fun), but I can do nothing in the long straight and Iestin over pass me....
lap 4 was the most fun with a good battle for the lead....still another mistake of Iestin under big pressure ( you'r realy lucky to finish after that crash who let you your 4 wheels !!! )  ...so I sart the 2 last laps with a comfortable gap , and I can finish with out risk....exept the risk of deconcentration !! ....so I spinn in the last lap but the gap was enought .....

thx Iestin for this realy good battle and thx to all and org.

   

To my horrible spin I have the only excuse that I have only little experience with 66s and my tyres were still not warm enough as I clipped the gras in this full throttle part...

Hi Cookie, about your spinn, I think, if you break ( full break Imean ) when you see that you are  loosing the control of the car , and  break till the car is totaly stoped, then you can ( perhaps ) avoid that another pilote hit you like it's appened to Evil ........cause on the reaplay, we can see your car still rolling very slowly and come right in the middle of the track !! impossible to avoid for somebody arriving.....   .....
..........and it's allways risky to keep full trottle on the grass ....

cya in Reims .......McLaren or Westake for me 

[maddog]

Ready for action, and puise with perplexity, I donned a Ferrari and prepared to ring the best, out of it's Nurburgringen.  

Three practice laps required no lapse in Concentration.  One was looking good, until one was disconnected from the track.  Two was adequate, until I discovered only three wheels attached at the line.  So three was spent hurriedly looking for four, which I seemed to have misplaced somewhere?  Found it at the final chicane, and moved up 3 places, which is good in races.

A suitable start, with minimal debris, as the Doctor had ordered, put me as lead string maker in the second string, until I casually brushed the edge of a hedge.  It was vital not to get dragged in, as a resulting spin, would cause a cacophony of chaos.  So sensibly lost 4 places - if found please return to bender - hedge bender.

By keeping a good attitude and altitude, one managed to progress forward during the first lap.  This rule was broken, along with it's accompanying parts, by some of those around me.  Which meant by half way, the way was clear, and it was clear a good finish was waiting, if silly mistakes were not making.  So I decided to make only sensible ones.

Car and driver failed to fend off an empty track, for the race remainder, but did fend off a flying Phil, who was trying to fill the gap towards the finish.  Podiumization successfully completed. 

[Cookie]

   

To my horrible spin I have the only excuse that I have only little experience with 66s and my tyres were still not warm enough as I clipped the gras in this full throttle part...

Hi Cookie, about your spinn, I think, if you break ( full break Imean ) when you see that you are  loosing the control of the car , and  break till the car is totaly stoped, then you can ( perhaps ) avoid that another pilote hit you like it's appened to Evil ........cause on the reaplay, we can see your car still rolling very slowly and come right in the middle of the track !! impossible to avoid for somebody arriving.....   .....
..........and it's allways risky to keep full trottle on the grass ....

I clipped the gras with about 200kph and got sudden oversteer.
On the gras I have definetly lifted (84kph) as low revs are on the counter...

Seems best for me to forget 66s again and leave you unharmed!

[AnGex]

...

It's a shame Andreas spun like he did. He pushed too hard when I caught him a second time. I was in position to make a run on you. I was going to try to get beside you before we got to the kink at Kesselchen. I had the idea I'd be willing to wait much longer to slow for the kink thus getting by. That was the only place I could think of to possibly make a pass before the long straight after Dottinger Hohe.

Yeah, you gave me to much pressure to many times to stand for me.    I know you were much faster then me and was 1 moment thinking to let you by. But that ain´t racing... So I took the pressure and could not stand it, leading to a big rolling over with my Ferrari. 

[Rainier]

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