UKGPL Season 30 (2016) Specials Series Trophy - Indianapolis - Jun 24

[Doni Yourth]

Precious little time for a general report but Dean, kinda sounds like you didn't have the box ticked off in GEM.  I noted my replay cap of your stop and it looked proper and spot on the money.

Murphy's Law...

[Mark Jones]

Congrats to Greg, had terrific pace. 

It was a strange race, I think I basically chose the wrong tactics.  My start was ok, buzzed my engine accidentally off the line which made me wince but no damage done.  Greg pitted on lap 2 from the lead to do his stop and go, and I thought briefly about following him in but decided to stick to my game plan.  I figured two stops back to back in the middle of the race would lose less time than two stops spread out.  Plus I was concerned if catching up from behind you could get caught up in battles instead of catching the lead pack.  But from my perspective tucked in behind Axel I could watch Greg through Prib and I could see he was making time handily.  I think about then I figured it was his race to win.

For me this was a tense race with right side tyre temperatures, I was watching them as much as the track.  A few laps before my stop when I was lapping Jani I accidentally burned my right front taking too much speed on the wrong line into the turn.  The tyre wouldn't cool down and I started battling understeer.  I'd made a note to myself to not spin the wheels after my pitstop because it would cook the rears but now I ignored that note when I finally came in, and spun them up on exit to try and regain the balance.  Thankfully it worked and the car returned back to a good neutral feel.  But by then it was all over, Greg had swept past to lead to the end.  I dunno about this speedway business...

[GregT]

This race was a no brainer for car choice. With Lotus's wins in 65 and 66, I couldn't go with anything else. If I was a little faster, better, calmer, and cooler, I might have thought I was Jim Clark.

I think these tracks require more luck than skill. I was lucky I had a good setup and a decent plan. I was also lucky I happened to start qualifying not far behind Dean. His tow gave me my Q time on lap 2. Best I had done without a tow was 51.6. Anything under 51.7 was good enough for me. I wasn't sure the time would stand but I wasn't going try for any better. I relaxed through the rest of qualifying, practiced a few pit stops, and ran a few laps on race fuel with Axel and Andreas.

I figured I'd get my stop and go out of the way as soon as possible. I also thought moving back through the field would decrease my lap times. Whereas in the lead, I might be decreasing Axel and Mark's lap times. Even stints are my preference so I went with 30 laps of fuel.

Doni confused me. He must have been pitting on lap 2. If he wasn't looking for his pit stall, he was trying to block me and handicap me. Next time I'll stop much further down pit road.

I got a little aggressive with Jani, Dean, and Carlos. I didn't want waste any time behind them and knew they'd be faster with me in front. Carlos did a nice job keeping his cool when I passed him and Dean. Just as I pulled out to pass Carlos, Carlos pulled out to pass Dean. I reacted fast enough to move all the way left. Unfortunately to make sure I left both of them room into T1 I lifted too late and ran wide on the exit. Luckily the car took a little bump without trouble. I let Andreas use my tow for at least two laps. Soon after that I started moving left on the straight so he wasn't getting a tow exiting the turns. I thought it was wise to open a gap in case I ran into any trouble.

After that it was smooth sailing. After pitting at the midpoint, I wondered if Mark is going to stop. I can't pass him if he doesn't. And I didn't want to see him DQed either.

It's a shame I forgot about using my slipstreaming 5th gear until lap 50 when I no longer had any cars to slipstream. 4th gear limited my top speed to 191 mph in the tow. 5th should have been good for another 2 mph or more.

It's funny I can run somewhat fast at ovals. There's few I don't loath.

Thanks guys.

[Doni Yourth]

Apologies for the tardy reply on this, chaps...

Grats to Greg on a fine victory!  You had us comprehensively covered.

Great job by Mark to nail down P2!

Bad luck for Axel on a couple of offs. 

I'm reasonably satisfied with a P3 finish but considered that I'd be in the running for the win prior to the race.

Coming up to finish the 1st lap, I saw Greg peel off into the pits and thought, 'Hey, wait a minute!  This might be a great chance for me
to scupper his chances and secure my victory.'  I dashed in behind him, pulled alongside after he stopped then tried to block him by pulling
partially in front of his Lotus.  Job done!  But no...  GT dropped the clutch at revs and pushed me aside!  SWINE!  I raised my fist in anger
and after a period of time fishing for 1st gear, pulled away.  Sigh...  At this point, I began to think that my chances for the win were significantly
hampered.

Finally getting back up to speed, I had the leaders...Mark, Axel and Andreas...catch me up and I decided to hang onto their slipstream and click
off the laps.  Axel gave me quite a fright with a looping spin at one point and I held my breath as I skipped by.  Made it!

At one point, Mark caught me rather easily and I tucked onto him for many laps til he dove into the pits for service.

After everyone had done their re-fuel and stop-n-go stops, I was trailing Mark by some 8-9s.  I couldn't close and that's how it ended up.

I really enjoy running IMS as it's such a challenge.

(Ummm...  Does anyone seriously believe that description above re the Lap01 business with Greg?  LOL!  I just wanted to seize upon his mention of
being blocked and run with it a bit.  Just for fun, you understand.  Anyway....  Here's what really happend.)

From the get-go, it was my intention to run with 60 laps worth of fuel and stop at the end of Lap01 for a re-fuel.  In doing so, my stop duration
would be at an absolute minimum.  OK, so my pace would be off those intending a half-distance refuel but not by much.  Further, I decided to do my
compulsary stop-n-go on the very next pass, Lap02.  In pre-race trials, I determined that the time consumed by these two stops would bring me out just
in front of the leaders coming up to put me a lap down but where I would then tack onto them and use their slipstream to keep up.  This would nulify
my speed disadvantage of carrying upwards of 20usg more then they at that period.

As I came off T4 at the end of Lap01, I caught sight of a car peeling off into the pits.  This was Greg.  Was he using the strat as I?  I followed
him in and to my utter horror, he pulled up directly in front of...or, at least, as near as dammit...to my pit stall board.  WTF!?!?  In a near-panic,
I pulled alongside and tried to get to my board.  I think I was slightly out of position and was certainly not aligned with it.  I raised my arm
hoping that the patch would kick in and waited.  And waited and waited.  No indication that I was getting my refuel.  MERDE!  Then GT sped off bumping
me out of the way.  For sure, I was now not going to get my refuel.  Sigh...  I took off down pit lane and at least remained calm enough to realize
that I could now use my aborted refuel as my compulsary stop-n-go and that I'd go for the refuel at the end of Lap02 instead.  Strat reversed, in affect.
Had I realized what was going on with Greg, I would have carried on a little further down pit lane and got my stop-n-go over and done with on Lap01 and
not lost a buch of time.  20-20 hindsight.

I lost a good 7-9s overall from my intended stop durations and that difference cost me the chance of a shot at Mark.  C'est la vie...