UKPnG Season 9 Knock Out Sports Car Cup - Paul Ricard - Apr 24

[Clive Loynes]

I had a good start and nipped around Tudor, who didn't move.

I was sat behind the leading trio and had MJ doing a sterling job of keeping Ed and Tudor off my back when the darn thing decided to keep going left as I came onto the straight!  Grrrr.

That dropped me three places and gave me a good view of MJ's bonfire a few laps later.

Tudor made good his escape but Ed dropped it towards the end of the race, which allowed me to gain another place back but he made me work for it over the closing stages.

[goldtop]

Bad start here. Missed the lights and got swamped off the line. Had to brake mid corner at the twisty bit to avoid contact at the apex which resulted in me being tapped from behind and spun round.

Had an enjoyable drive back making the most of my v8 grunt down that Mistral straight and eventually made my way up to MJ. Had a great side by side battle for a couple of laps until I made a little error and was just regaining ground when I saw MJ go off track. Didn't see flames as I drive with the effects switched off so I wondered what had happened. Had Ed keeping me keen for a while but his Porsche just didn't have the legs where it mattered.

A couple of laps from the end I saw Giuseppe off track and was able to sneak past for a pody finish.

Great car/track combo (if you were in a GT40 anyway ) and another lucky night for the goldtop. Well done John and Geoffers for their great drives 

[phspok]

Ah yes, apart from being slow and falling off several times, I forgot this PC doesn't have the clutch configured
so I stuck it in 1st with the clutch in and some revs, and err, the car moved forward... oooops
Stop and go put me well behind from lap 2, had some fun catching and passing Alex a couple of times
after my many spins. I really shouldn't drive porks of any cut. 

[frex]

Had to brake mid corner at the twisty bit to avoid contact at the apex which resulted in me being tapped from behind and spun round.

Yes, sorry about that; everyone concertina'd up and i couldn't avoid you. I would have waited but there didn't seem much point in this case as you were so much faster than me, and indeed you had caught me again before the end of the lap.

I had a lot of fun in the 911. Was closely matched with Evil and spent much the race catching him in the twisties, then waving cheerio as he disappeared down each of the straights. Much fun, until I had a spin with a lap and a bit to go. I had more unintentional cuts than i was comfortable with however at the fast left/right just after the start line, so would have given the place back even if i had somehow got ahead. Good fun though.

Congrats podium.

[EvilClive]

Grats to the fast brigade out front.

Thursday is probably the one night of the week that I should not even contemplate any sim-racing. I play a badminton for an hour ( best described as extreme badminton with the sadists that I play against! ) and have just enough time to get home/shower/grab food and fire up the PC and join final practice/qually.

As a result I sit at my wheel in a state of physical uselessness and frayed nervous system  Any times that I might have achieved in private practice on previous evenings are totally out of reach and I struggle to settle into a smooth rhythm.  It does not really matter because I still enjoy racing these cars with you guys, and last nights race was great fun. Once the initial laps had sorted out the field Frex and I enjoyed a race long battle, where I could pull a big enough gap on the straight to just prevent Frex from catching and passing me before we got to the straight again...although he came very close a couple of times  and I had to park the GT40 on the apex to prevent that nimble Porker from sneaking past.

Once again I did not exploit the tyres to their max and ended the race with enough rubber to go again. I'm still finding it difficult to guestimate tyre wear in PnG, but slowly ( very slowly) I am getting there.

[goldtop]

Had to brake mid corner at the twisty bit to avoid contact at the apex which resulted in me being tapped from behind and spun round.

Yes, sorry about that; everyone concertina'd up and i couldn't avoid you. I would have waited but there didn't seem much point in this case as you were so much faster than me, and indeed you had caught me again before the end of the lap.

Yes I realised that at the time frex, no problem here.