UKGTL Season 16 1979 Procar - Monaco - Feb 15

[Wiltshire Tony]

Replay and results now posted.

Last visit to Monaco this season (honest).

[SpecialKS]

Still not in shape for racing, guys.  Have to miss this one too
See you next week - have fun !

Sorry to hear that Kurt, maybe your allergic to Monaco? 

Monaco is a real challenge, where you have to be top fit (my best on sunday was a 1:48  ).

Will check out the "Feels Real to me" FFB with my GTL install ( http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=20958 )

[senyorlobo]

Well, not a bad race for me but could be better.

From the first lap I had a problem with the pedals and moved to each braking. Cause of this I was making mistakes every few laps and I could not be aggressive on the brakes. I have to solve the placement of the pedals.  

The first laps I had a nice fight with Clive. I think I was a bit faster but not where to find room to overtake.
Finally I saw Clive in the middle of the track and I could pass him.
I tried to cut gap with Erling but again my pedals moved and bumped into the wall.  
The last laps tried to catch Matt but I can't got it. Good job mate.

4th place for me. Not bad.

Grats to Ale, Erling and Matt for the pod and grats all finishers. Monaco is a challenge.

Thanks all

Cheers!


Results

[Wiltshire Tony]

Thanks for the results Jose 

[phspok]

I could see you were having some hardware issues while I was following you in the early laps Jose.
I was tempted to force a pass a couple of times, but decided to be polite and let you off 
The last few laps were very difficult on worn tyres, I managed to only spin once, and had a good gap
back, so got away with it.

[senyorlobo]

I could see you were having some hardware issues while I was following you in the early laps Jose.
I was tempted to force a pass a couple of times, but decided to be polite and let you off 
The last few laps were very difficult on worn tyres, I managed to only spin once, and had a good gap
back, so got away with it.

Sorry for that  Really was very difficult for me to keep the car in the track.

[BillThomas]

Again bad luck 

I hope one of my many incidents didn't cause your retirement. I know I did get surprised by you at the tunnel and hope my forcing you to go to the left did not result in your car getting damaged on the Armco. Apologies to a number of drivers for scaring them but it's difficult to drive here with one eye constantly on the mirror - remember Erling, matt and senyorlobo and I'm sure there were others that I didn't see their ident.

New PB in qualifying, then had a big crash into Armo so had a pitstop (good practice  ) just made repairs.  After that went OK for a while but damaged car eventually by nudging the Armco to allow easier overtaking so quit once the car was not obeying me.

[EvilClive]

 I think my pre race assessment of how this would go for me was about right   Grats to Ziu, erling and Matt for doing it right and getting it to the finish.

I did not get a chance to test Ati's or Geoffers' setups before I joined the server so I was stuck with my cobbled together adjustments. I might go back and try those "expert" setups and see where I was going wrong!!  

Just could not hook up a clear, clean lap in qually and was more than happy to get a mid grid slot. My PB off line was in the low 1:38's, nowhere near you fast guys at the front!!

However, the start was an absolute gift, especially at Monaco. The cars in front bogged down and a clear track opened up to the apex of St Devote. I was holding my breath waiting for someone to chop across my nose, but nothing happened and I emerged on the run up to Casino Square in 3rd!!! behind Ziu and Erling......quite how that happened I am still not sure, but I could not believe my luck.  

All I had to do now was keep Erling busy and not make any mistakes. This was a good plan, but poorly executed   and Jose was soon regaining ground lost at T1 and threatening to make my life difficult. I was just considering letting him pass so that he could go on and hassle Erling on my behalf, when he had an "incident" and dropped back. So I tried to push Erling myself and almost got alongside through the tunnel at one point but had to back off in the interests of survival for both of us.
Then the limitations of my setup began to show. I'm not sure why but I found that I was taking right hand corners too close to the apex and just clipping the armco, Not enough to cause any damage , but the resultant unsettling of the car was throwing me wide and bouncing off the outside barriers, or worse still on a couple of occasions breaking the grip on the rear tyres, and causing the car to spin 180 degrees!!

Monaco is not a good place to be facing the wrong way around blind corners!! and I was relieved when Matt, Jose and others managed to slip past my stranded car without major damage.
I think Jose and myself exchanged places a couple of times before I made one mistake too many and he got well clear.  the second half of the race involved a couple of heavy contacts with the armco and I had not really checked the "Damage meter" since the grid ( where I had been pleased to see 100%!). With 5 laps to go it now read 1%!!!!  

By now Maipor had got past me during on of my spins and was some 10 secs up the road, so I did not think I had any chance of catching him before the flag, and besides I could not afford to push or risk any contact with the armco if I wanted to reach the end. The car must have had severe damage to suspension/brakes/chassis and the tyres were totally shot as each corner was an adventure.
But then I realised that even though I was backed right off, I was catching Maipor very quickly.

Geeez! but it was hard not to push after such a temptation and gain another place!! and I decided to just keep what I had and not risk a DNF.  But sadly for Maipor he was running out of gas and moved over to let me pass on the last lap in a very gentlemanly manner.
As I crossed the line my Car Health dropped to 0%, so I think another lap was out of the question.
I had abused that poor car to the max and tested just about every mm of the armco around this track....and had great fun doing it.

[roguk]

First apologies to Ati7 i spun at Bus Stop and was facing wrong way when you came around for a head on crash, rest of race was great fun dicing with Oldgeezer and chasing Chmichel.

Grats to Ziu on win

Grats to Podium

[senyorlobo]

Great report race Clive. Very inmersive read 

[Erling G-P]

I am probably in the minority, but I actually love this track!  Few other places do you get such an exhilarating sense of speed, right on the ragged edge of disaster..   

Tried Ati's setup and found it to be quicker than my own. Mixed it with a couple of elements from my own and knocked almost 2 secs of my earlier pb, in offline practice.  Another ½ sec off in qual, so well chuffed with this, although still lightyears off Ziu's otherworldly time.. 

4th on grid with unpleasant deja-vus of last week's disastrous race, where I was also 4th.  Knew my setup would be very hard on engine health, so prepared to jump in and out under the countdown, until I got a good start level. Unnecessarily though, as first attempt gave me 100%.  Start and T1 went without a hitch thankfully - I even stole 3rd pos from Jose.

Ziu & Ati were already showing the signs of a fast disappearing act, when Ati spun in the final turn of L1, and I was suddenly in a most unexpected 2nd!

Had an intent Clive close behind, while ahead Ziu puzzled me by not taking off in earnest - maybe he held back to see if some of his regular playmates would make it through.  Built a 5-6 sec gap to Clive over some laps, while Ziu finally moved away. Mistake when lapping a slower car lost me some secs (entirely my own fault).  Brought Clive back in my mirrors, so decided to ramp it up a bit. A couple of fast laps restored the situation, helped in no small part by Clive apparently having a couple of slow ones at the same time.

Race then fairly lonely, except for a lapped car here or there. Had a gap of around 18 secs to 3rd place, which dwindled to 15 over some laps.  Decided I needed to ramp it up again, but just after, I cut T1 too tight and clipped the inside armco. Spun halfways and bogged down in 2nd gear.  Lost some 5 secs and cursed myself for the remainder of the lap. Expected to see a gap of 10 secs at the most, when I crossed the start/finish, but lo and behold: It was 16 secs, so obviously the driver chasing me had been delayed too.

Late in the race, I came upon Bob, Roger & Michel having a chase and duel. Felt bad for interfering with it, but after a few laps behind Bob, I was losing time to 3rd place. He let me past, and so did Roger & Michel too, shortly after.  Focused hard on not making mistakes that would delay them, as each let me past.  Looked in my mirrors like they carried on as before I interrupted, so hopefully I didn't spoil too much of the fight.

Grats to Ziu on the win, to Matt for the other podium place - and to everyone who survived really.  Commiserations to those that became armco victims.

Thanks to those I lapped for helping me past, and to Tony for the organising.

Cheers,
Erling

[Ziu Bacubacu]

Also if i won has been difficult. I ran with the scared that my engine not resist until race end, as Zolder. I controlled each my time lap and i not pushed, my best 1.38.2 on the race, practice with race fuel 1.36.0. But it was too risky for engine and for some mistake also. So i finished race with my  car at 56%. About qualy i had the advantage to drive M1 GTO ( a great advantage) my car was enough balanced but many important has been the gear setup and the coast setup. But i think also that the most important advantage for me has been to run one week ago at Monaco with F1 67, i learned many  things about setup and track, for example as the different tyres pressure betwen front and rear.
Thanks so much to drivers lapped, i never got difficult with them, thanks again.
Sorry my team mate and friend Ati for your bad luck, to me also in practice happened to touch last corner guard rail in the same way. It s very difficult to see it .
Last thing, very nice for me to run in the same race with Dario after many time. Sorry for my bad english and thanks to all.

[De Martini]

First of all, congrats to podium and survivors

It wasn't planned, but Jose and Marc encorauged me to join the grid, so i had my first contact with the M1 in the early evening, that means just a few clean laps before race. I used Ati's setup with just some minor tweaks to adapt it to my personal taste (thanks for sharing mate!), but i'm afraid that i wasn't very competitive yesterday, inconsistent laptimes and lots of collisions with the armco, so more practice needed for next event. Moreover, i noticed that something was wrong when i saw the engine health in red numbers, i knew at that moment that i couldn't make it til the checkered flag, but anyway, despite all those things it was an enjoyable race, Monaco is always a challenging track.

Finally, i want to apologize for the incidents i caused during race, i spun too many times blocking other drivers trajectory, big sorry!.

Cheers,
Darío

[Wiltshire Tony]

Always a pleasure when you join us Dario. Perhaps we may see more of you in the future.

[Geoffers]

As usual Monaco was not a good race for me, never do well there. 

For the second week running St Devote was my undoing. I thought that again someone had hit me from behind & spun me around, but having watched the replay it was more my fault this time. I hadn't realised that De Martini was alongside me into the corner & I turned in across his nose which turned my car around. No damage done but I had to wait until everyone had passed before turning round & carrying on. Had fun chasing the field & made up a few places, thanks to those that waved me past & also thanks to the others who impaled themselves on the barriers to make way  , much appreciated. Had a few barrier moments myself late in the race & when Ziu appeared in my mirror I eased up to let him past to save me doing another lap.

On a side note, I'm driving down to Monaco in May for the Historic GP, so will be able to inspect the barriers for real rather than virtually!