UKGTL Season 16 Mini's -v- Skoda's - Karlskoga - Jul 18

[Wiltshire Tony]

You know your having a good evening's racing when you get so engrossed in the action that you find yourself actually leaning hard in your chair to get the car to go around the turns a bit quicker. Really enjoyed both races and the track matched these cars very well (IMO). Had many many laps either chasing someone and never able to make the pass or keeping someone else just far enough behind. Please to see that the Skoda finally made a goodish match with the other cars but I was not to suprised to see a full Mini grid for the 2nd race.

[Bob M.]

The planets and stars must have been in perfect alignment for me to get 2 podiums in one day. Unbelievable!!  Had a lot of fun racing Matt both times.  In R1 my setup in the Abarth was great for the first 9-10 laps and then it started understeering on exit as the tires wore and the fuel went away  like Geoff states also.  Maybe too much differential power??, or maybe just the track. Anyway Matt took 2nd away from me with the growling Skoda on one of the later laps.  In R2 I was sandwiched between Geoff and Matt.  Geoff was pulling away and I was able to keep Matt at bay.  Had a little advantage as I have raced this track several times.  Over at G-Cribbs we had several Scandinavian drivers so was a favorite home track in both the old Mini series and the GTC series.
Next up is the Trans Am series at Donnybrooke raceway, which I believe is a new mod of this old Drag/Roadcourse  track.  Kind of like Greenvalley we raced earlier but has a more open feeling to it.  See you all there.

Bob M.

[Erling G-P]

  No matter what I try, I always bog down when shifting from 1st to 2nd, and cars stream past left & right.  How do you guys do it ? Is there a secret 1½ gear I don't know about ?

I know what you mean Erling, done that many times. You are probably giving it too much throttle in 1st & spinning the wheels too much, then thinking you are on the limiter in 1st you change to 2nd, the wheels grip & you bog down because you are going too slow. You need to rev it to about 1000rpm below max on the line, as you let the clutch out give it a little more throttle but don't floor it! If you get it right it will grip straight away then you can floor it & you will shoot off the line. Its easier said than done, just needs some practice.

Thanks Geoffers; I must practice some more and see if I can make it work.

Cheers,
Erling

[SpecialKS]

Results_Race1

Results_Race2

 

Two races a bit disappointing for me with two last places on the other hand two finishes and some laps of nice racing but too many own mistakes.

CU next week.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Thanks as always Kurt 

[Jeep]

I had a mental block leading up to this one and thought I was outside the top 11 and got a free car choice for race 1 so had done all my practising in the Mini. 15 minutes before joining the server I noticed I was limited to the Fiat or the Skoda so went for the Fiat.

Qualy reveals more understeer than I would like so went for a random set up change just before the race. (It was me lurching around like a demented bluebottle on lap 1). I over did the adjustment and had great difficulty not swapping ends into the corners for the 1st lap until I recalibrated my brain. Went from a qualifying position of 6th to 4th, then got shunted off by Bill (2) down to 10th before recovering to my original starting position by the end of the 1st lap. Slowly came to terms with my new handling package but lost ground in those in front and had Erling up my a$$ in his Skoda. I should have been quicker through the corners but was considerably slower than him and he sat patently on my rear bumper for several laps. He tried the undercut exiting the final corner once but I held him off down the straight but at the end of lap 5 I went wide and had no choice but to take the long way around onto the main straight and allow him through. I tried to haul him in down the straight and just might have gone for it under braking had my set up not been so awful but sanity prevailed and I conceded the place with a whimper. I thought I was in a safe 7th but over the next 8 laps Maipor reeled me in and got past with 4 laps to go dropping me back to 8th overall.

Race 2 I was back in the Mini (As was everyone else I think). Qualified in 6th again. Got a good start and benefited from Erling and Ziu coming together exiting turn 1 and inherited 4th. Had a great race with Tony who was never far behind, I could eek out a small gap only to over cook it somewhere and he was again filling my mirrors. I could see Maipor closing in on the pair of us and at around 2/3 distance he replaced Tony as my main rival. All was going well, I felt he was probably faster than me overall but could not see where he was going to make a pass so was looking forwards to holding onto 4th place until I made a complete pig's ear of the hairpin and outbraked myself allowing him through. For the final few laps the gap remained at about 1 second until we crossed the line.

Thanks for the race guys, it was a blast as usual.

TTFN
John.