NGT Sprint Cup - Season 2, Round 9, Estoril- Feb 28

[Simon Gymer]

Really really chuffed with 3rd position. I think I really deserved it as well, paced myself and made no mistakes. Really chuffed.

Qualified 5th just behind Popabawa, 0.1 off my Morgan PB, although I think there is probably a few tenths in that setup still. Was ready for a really hard race as I knew the Porsches would be able to easily pass my Morgan down the main straight.

Onto the race and I couldn't believe my luck on lap one when MarkJ harpooned his team mate Popabawa into T1 and made my life much easier. You must be gutted, but at least you made one person happy.  Sorry (yeah right). After that it was a case of just driving my own race, not really racing anybody at all tbh. Mo quickly made some errors and dropped back giving me 3rd and then Leuven decided the gravel traps werent raked enough and put his BiTurbo in them a couple of times to even the sand out. When he came up to pass me he just flew by on the straight and I knew I couldn't match his car or driver pace so put up no fight what-so-ever. Of course just to rub in the straight line speed difference he had he went off again just so he could whoosh past me on the straight again 

Felt such a short race compared to Sunday's endurance race, but I whooped for joy as crossed the line for an unlikely podium in the Morgan which was again severly outclassed by the Porsches.

Well done to RichA for a fine win.

[Simon Gymer]

Had to wait for the entire field to pass me, then drove one of my best races ever to claw all the way back up to 5th!

Nice one Pops, those come back drives are always great fun. 5th is excellent from there.

[Don]

OMG, think I managed a top 10 finish
Feel sorry for SBG, he was in front of me when Aagramn's car was left ghosting on the track and I saw him going flying off
Had a few good battles along the way, no huge overtaking moves but trying to keeping people honest.
Great race, more like that for me please

[Mark J]

Sh*t, b*gger and damnnation   :'(

Needed to get that off my chest !

After a fantastic qualifying battle with times being swapped all through the session, ended up 6th with a PB of 1:41.56.

Unfortunately i made the cardinal error of changing a spring setting to the front of the Porker just before race and it totally ferked the balance of the front of the car.
The race started immediately badly when i took my team mate out at turn 1 under braking, i dont know whether pops and shark braked that bit harder as they were side by side but i just slid into the back of Pops and spun him around allowing that slippery shark through....note to self...take out opponents, not team mates
Needless to say i was mortified.  Lost a few places myself, then had a great 10 minute battle with SBG until the first of my slow speed spins
It just wouldnt grip through the slower turns and i had about 8 really annoying slow speed spins and gradually slipped down the order each time from a high 5th down to about 11th.
The car was like bambi on ice with the tyres feeling shagged with 15 minutes still remaining on the clock. I caught back up to 6th, 7th and 8th only for the car to slide off again on the penultimate turn (3 times off there..grrrr).

Finished 9th and totally cheesed off as i normally run well here and know i (usually) had a good race setup...pants.

Thank god you got a 5th Pops...i'll un-tie this belt from around my neck now and get off this wobbly chair 

[popabawa]

Had to wait for the entire field to pass me, then drove one of my best races ever to claw all the way back up to 5th!

Nice one Pops, those come back drives are always great fun. 5th is excellent from there.

Cheers Shark. After all my disconnects earlier in the season it felt really good to drive well and get back in the points!

And I would have kicked your ass, you know that right?

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results are posted

Edit - fixed URL.

[mo]

Cheers Picnic.

Congrats to Rich on a fine win on a tough track.
That qualifying session was one of the best yet with some really close times, 0.04 between me and Rich with Pops only a tenth behind us.

The race was a disaster for me - first the bumps caught me out under braking at turn 7 and I went fying off down the escape road.
I then pushed too hard to close the gap to Shark down to 4 secs and then spun again. Proceeded to repeat the catching up and spinning twice more and ended up smashing the car and having to pit and finally finishing in 13th.

Great to see such a competitive field and grats to Pops too for fighting all the way back up there.

[Aagramn]

Thanks Picnic.

Sorry to hear that SBG.   I'll give my computer a slap for you.

Took me a while to get the hang of Estoril again, had a 30 min practise before the race and was all over the place. Managed a new PB in qualifying to net 9th, but my race pace was much slower. Had one spin trying to get the power down after the chicane, and ran wide which let a recovering Popa past. Would have been tough for me to hang on to 9th, there were a couple quicker cars behind me.

Good win by Rich, and good to see a Morgan on the podium.

[Simon Gymer]

Barring any penalties, Mo has wrapped up the Drivers championship. Although Truetom could go level on points with him at Monza with a non finish from Mo and a win from TrueTom, Mo would win on the count of having more victories. So congratulations Mo, well deserved! The fight for 2nd and 3rd spots are not over, but they are again pretty certain, bar any major problems for the top 3 that is how the positions will remain after the last round at Monza.

The Team championship is still open between 3 teams now (Zip, CBFR and Kerb Krawlers), with Team Shark and NGT Legends not able to make up the points to Ze Insane Penguins after Estoril's race. Team Shark look to have 4th in the team championship but we need to be careful those pesky NGT Legends don't overtake.

I'm really not looking forward to Monza, it's one of my worst tracks and the Morgan is going to get trounced by everything under the sun down the long straights so if I make top 3 again it will be a miracle.

[ginsters sponsored]

Slap it hard Aagram as that was simply the best race I've had  .

Can I ask (beg) for another season of sprints? With everyone so close, and knowing each other, there is still plenty to be had from GTR.

[popabawa]

Can I ask (beg) for another season of sprints? With everyone so close, and knowing each other, there is still plenty to be had from GTR.

Well said SBG!

The racing has been simply awesome for the last few months in GTR as everyone has got closer and closer in terms of abilty.

[whitham69]

It would be great to have another season of sprints the last few races I've done have been some of my best on line experiences playing games. Well done to Mo on the championship from what Ive seen you deserved it, great pace at all tracks.

[Simon Gymer]

Can I ask (beg) for another season of sprints? With everyone so close, and knowing each other, there is still plenty to be had from GTR.

Here here.

[Rich_A]

Fairly good race, would have been great to follow your bi-turbo Leuv.. it's good practice to race close and at speed. A thing worth getting used to imo.

Had some pace here cause I did a fair bit of practice and reading this week. Been trying some new things on 996, felt ok but not what i'm used to!

Thought you might have kept pace with me Mo until the end and maybe I would have had to go defensive - but you disappeared from my view and so I got down to learning 996 some more.

Saw a F360 speed on pitlane but don't know who it was.

[LEUVEN]

My first ever race in the BiTurbo ever, so even though I had quite a few "offs" I'm pretty pleased to have finished 2nd, (pretty pleased to have finished at-all TBH)
 
I've never really liked Estoril that much (unless Im watching motoGP there;D ) as Im pretty crap there, so I thaught I'd take a dodgy car to a dodgy track.

It probably would have worked if i had used Medium rears instead of Hards(urgh )
but it think it would still have been tricky nenetheless.

Even though the BiTurbo has more power I did notice that I still had to try very hard to get close to you Shark through the last few turns/hairpins as I'd not be close enough to out drag you, which happened on one occasion.

A few more races at Estoril and I might start to like it.

Good win Rich, you was consistent all the way through and after my first spin I knew that Id have to push hard to catch you which is probably part of the reaon I went off to plough the gravel traps again as Shark said