UKPnG Season 10 World Series - Barber - Jan 22

[phspok]

I like the grass here...

[fzcfede]

Hello everyone ,
tomorrow night there are still needs to get me the pc .

Hello to the next.

[phspok]

So, no Fede  

What is it with Italians and hardware    Has Manteos got a new wheel yet?  

[Clive Loynes]

So no Fede 

What is it with Italians and hardware    Has Manteos got a new wheel yet? 

I think that they go too fast and wear everything out!   

Hope you get it fixed soon Fed.

[frex]

Probably won't be able to make this one. Hopefully back next week.

[Mark J]

Dang, was actually really enjoying that race until lap 8. Despite my normal dislike for cars that handle like barges, I have to say they were great fun here when in battle. They looked and sounded great too and this is a fantastic track for racing.
Was in a brilliant ding dong with Postal and Legsy up to lap 8 and with Simon in the mix for a while. But Legz gave my wayward end a thump and I was punted onto the greasy grass that I struggled to rejoin from. Alas that put me 13 secs behind the pack  :'( don't know if it gave me suspension damage but I then fell off about 3 times almost straight after. Legz then quit and I had a rubbish 25 sec deficit to the front 6 or 7 so I parked up with no one to race 
Don't know why Dan and Stig quit so early? They could have rejoined our melee and boosted the fun.

[phspok]

Results and Replay Posted

Good fun, had a good battle with Simon and Postal at times.
You car choice seemed a tad odd MJ? the CASC or Falcon were the obvious choices
I think the Vette would have been good in the right hands. The Vette and the AAtc
have more power, but don't tend to handle so well. I am expecting therm to be more
popular at faster tracks perhaps.

[Mark J]

To be honest I didn't have a clue about that set of cars Matt. I hadn't done any praccy before tonight and just chose a car I liked the look of 

[Clive Loynes]

Click HERE for Analyser Report

Congrats to Geoffers and Evil.

I really must investigate the Falcon that Geoffers was using because I couldn't keep any tyres on it when I tried it out.

And the way that he passed me it bust have been on nitrous!

One other thing that baffles me is how PnG reckons that you can suffer aero damage on one of these sheds!!

I was doing ok, waiting for Geoffers tyres to go off, which they didn't, when I realised that I was getting cramp in the toes of my right foot.  This was bad news.  I was ok if I could plant my foot firmly on the pedal and press like hell but these tanks don't corner too well like that.

On about lap 17, after a couple of near misses, I had Evil all over me and the next time that I ran wide, whilst trying to find some part of my foot that I could use without pain, I had to let him have 2nd.

Mind you, he did his best to give it back on the last lap!   

[Legzy]

Was in a brilliant ding dong with Postal and Legsy up to lap 8 and with Simon in the mix for a while. But Legz gave my wayward end a thump and I was punted onto the greasy grass that I struggled to rejoin from.

In fairness, when we made contact, you'd already lost control of your car & were at 90 degrees across the track just in front of me. I didn't have a great deal of say in the matter
It was a shame though, because it also turfed me off track & it aloud Postal to get 8 seconds up the road by the time I recovered, with you 5+ secs behind... the fun of the race was over really. Nobodies fault, just one of those things. I carried on a lap or three, but half lost control once as I was trying to rag it to rejoin Postal (had the gap down to about 5sec) & called it a night as the fight was gone.

[Legzy]

You car choice seemed a tad odd MJ? the CASC or Falcon were the obvious choices
I think the Vette would have been good in the right hands. The Vette and the AAtc
have more power, but don't tend to handle so well.

Like MJ I went with the SCCA. It was the only car I could drive in "full control"
It's lack of grunt was a real problem/joy though. Like last week (@Monaco), I was quicker over a lap then Postal, but just had no way past. All the places I was quicker, all I could do was just prod & poke in spaces, but the next mini-straight he was able to secure any doubt over the position with the CASC power. Through MJ in that mix too, we were having a good partyfor a while.
I did enjoy seeing your Vette launch/blast past though Matt

[Mark J]

Hence why I said my 'wayward' end  . Cor everyone is so touchy on here lately, all got the January blues us big girls 

Think 90 degrees is a bit of an exaggeration! But Yeah was a shame as it was great fun up to then. Good job those with loads of spare time on their hands questioned our choice of slow cars so that we could be competitive 'during' the event eh legs?   

[Stefan aka Postal]

In qually i could not get the CASC Mustang to behave enough to get some decent laptimes, however i made an ok start with Mark poking left and right for the first few corners.
Maybe i should have started this series with one of the SCCA versions too, as the brute power of the CASC was a real handfull. I was at least hoping to give the guys behind a run for their money! I could see MJ and Legzy having a proper battle and where tripping over eachother trying to find a way past me. Also had my fun with the Vette of Matt. It looked like he had the beast tamed nicely and was on my tail for quite some laps. Unfortunately i got it a bit wrong entering the hairpin, too much brake for to long while downshifting, got me into a spin and he was through. I was hoping for a even longer battle, but it was fun while it lasted.
The last laps where a bit lonely, however the state of my tires made sure i had to keep concentrated untill the checkered flag.

I reckon this is one of the best tracks from the US of A for some proper close racing. Good fun!

[Geoffers]

I really must investigate the Falcon that Geoffers was using because I couldn't keep any tyres on it when I tried it out.

And the way that he passed me it bust have been on nitrous!

I think you worry a bit too much about the tyres Clive, I find you can have quite a high wear rate & still have good grip. I used the 184s on the front & the 970s on the rear & the wear was about the same front & rear (nearly 30 by the end). The car felt pretty much the same all race but was about 1.5s a lap slower by the finish.

Yeh I was surprised how easily I got past, I was set for a long battle as you normally don't make many mistakes & are good under pressure. It was probably the soft tyres on the rear which gave good drive out of the previous corner & up over the rise which made the difference, I don't think the Falcon was that much faster.

Anyway, congrats to the Clives on the podium  , cya all at Kyalami.

[EvilClive]

Slowly, oh so slowly I am getting the feel of cars in PnG and especially how one has to tippy toe the gas pedal on these yank brutes, when all you really want to do is stomp on the go juice and and unleash the monsters!!

Mr Loynes met me on the practice server, where I was beginning to enjoy the SCCA as a car that appeared to behave itself and promptly informed me that I should be using the CASC. Just a few laps in that car highlighted the flaws in my driving style.
 So I transposed the setup from the SCCA, with a few tweaks, and put on a pair of my best gossamer socks and tried again..................1:39 lap on race fuel and soft tyres 2nd lap around!! Hmmmmmm  

Just 3 or 4 laps proved that the softs would not last the race if I even dared to breathe on the brake or accelerator, so I switched to the mediums and sacrificed a couple of seconds per lap.

My Thursday night badminton session ran late, so I arrived only just in time for qually and did a 1:40.8? on softs and low fuel on my first run. Geoffers and Clive were intent on fighting for pole and the front row and I had no desire to get in their way with my poor starts, so I switched to race setup and some "dialling in".  Imagine my surprise when I bettered my qually time by a few tenths on full race fuel and the harder tyres to post a low 1:40!!   I'm still unsure of how to read the fuel consumption so I stuck another 15 litres in to feed the beast, just in case.
3rd on the grid  with the 2 fast guys in front and a bunch of quick cars behind. My start was not good as I expected ( must practice more with that weird clutch pedal thingy) and at least 2 cars swept past. I knew that I had to tread carefully on cold, hard tyres for the first few laps, but one or two of the cars in front pushed a little too hard and ran wide.
 
So after about 3 laps I was back up to 3rd with Geoff and Clive disputing the lead. Slowly the three of us pulled away from the pack and I was happy to sit and watch as Falcon and Mustang exchanged paint samples and body parts whilst i tried to drive smoothly and preserve my rubber.
Then Geoffers had to go and spoil it all by passing Clive and easing away. I gradually upped my pace and slowly closed the 2 second gap to the back of Clive's car. As I got closer I gained the distinct impression that the tyres on his car were not as good as they once were and his cornering was not exactly smooth( but it seems that was probably the result of cramp??) .

I did not want to risk taking out a team mate so I had to back out of a couple of 50/50 passing attempts, even though I was eager to try and get after Geoffers who was tantalisingly in view about 5 secs ahead.

Eventually Clive did the decent thing and went farming, and I did not need a second invitation. By now Geoff was about 10 seconds ahead and I could not close the gap without risking my 2nd place. Clive had dropped 3 seconds behind and I was happy to keep him at a safe distance  

As we started the last lap I glanced at the fuel level, still paranoid about running out on the last lap and I cannot train my brain to understand what the display is telling me. So just to be sure I decided to use the 3 second cushion back to Clive and cruise the last lap.
Well, maybe that was a bad move! because the car was set up for power oversteer and trying to stay in a higher gear and just roll through the corners did nothing for the handling!! I was running wide at almost every apex and Clive was taking chunks out of my lead.
By the time I had ploughed some deep ( and long) furrows, done the haymaking in a few locations Clive was smelling the chance to snatch his 2nd place back.
Exiting the last corner I risked leaving it in 3rd ( still scared of running dry!) and Clive must have stuffed his cramped right foot hard down in 2nd gear and aimed it for the line. I think that I was lucky to get away with that and I crossed the line 0.1 secs ahead to hold 2nd spot.  


Grats to Geoffers who seems to have controlled the whole race very comfortably.

Can someone explain in words of no more than 2 syllables what the figures for fuel consumption mean?? I have something like this showing on my screen.....2.75 ( 2.78) and that reduces every lap. I am guessing that one is actual fuel used and the other is what I should aim to use per lap to reach the finish??  But which is which? or do I have it entirely wrong!!??