UKGTL Season 17 Ford Asia Endurance Cup - Dubai - Apr 24

[misnoimis]

Unable to join. I get message “car not present on server”. Then connection is lost?

[misnoimis]

Well that was a pity. I managed to get what I thought were some quite good practice laps in. (The best in the 2m03’s in the 81 Grp1 car). When I tried to join the track loaded OK, but although I could see that other Drivers had the same cars loaded I got the  message “car not present on server” then “saving hot lap” and then ”Connection lost”.  I tried most of the cars. Will have to see if I get the same problem next week. 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Results and replay now posted

[Erling G-P]

Thought I had been to Dubai with UKGTL before, but not the case, so a new track for me.  Won't be a favorite though.

Knocked 0.4 sec off my pb in qual, but couldn't even beat a demotivated Geoffers; looking ominous for the Championship 

Surprised to see Ziu speed up and head for the pits on the rolling start lap - assumed he had forgotten to add race fuel, but he mentioned a S/G after the race.  Thus promoted to 2nd, as Geoffers took over the responsibility of the start.  This was the beginning of an intense chase over the first 10 laps, where I roughly kept pace with him. After this, I started struggling with tyre wear. Geoffers seemed unperturbed and just kept stretching the gap.  Started to make mistakes as I tried to stay with him. First I damn near lost it when the rear kicked out in the lefthand, 3rd gear kink after T1.  Only a cobra quick reflex prevented a spin, but I still lost more time.

Next lap; lap 14, when exiting the slow righthander a little further on, I added a little too much power a little too early, lost the rear and hit the barrier with front right corner. Of course had to reverse to get free, losing more time.  Wasn't a very hard hit, but steering was bent, as the car wouldn't track straight and steering wheel was at an angle.

Pit that same lap and opted for repairs. Wasted nearly 2 additional minutes on this, only to return to the track and find the car now undriveable.  ALL rear grip was gone; it felt like I had oil on the tyres - and this was on fresh ones!  With all the sliding, the rears were now wearing twice as fast as the fronts, making it even more impossible to control as the (slow) laps piled on.  Was gaining on the #7 car towards the end, but way too far behind to catch it.

Congrats to Geoffers on the win - sorry I couldn't keep you on your toes a little longer     Grats and commiseration to Ziu, who had his share of bad luck, but still managed a respectable 2nd.  Grats to John for completing the podium.

Cheers,
Erling

[Wiltshire Tony]

Well that was a pity. I managed to get what I thought were some quite good practice laps in. (The best in the 2m03’s in the 81 Grp1 car). When I tried to join the track loaded OK, but although I could see that other Drivers had the same cars loaded I got the  message “car not present on server” then “saving hot lap” and then ”Connection lost”.  I tried most of the cars. Will have to see if I get the same problem next week. 

Very strange. Can only guess that your internet connection was dropping out. I saw you try to join several times and keep getting the car not present message. I assumed that you were trying to use a car that was not included in this championship.
Hope you have better luck next time.

[Erling G-P]

Ack, just realised that the non-working repair issue was discussed after our Bahrain race - I even contributed to it, but managed to completely forget before last night's race 

Cheers,
Erling

[Wiltshire Tony]

Lot's of practice at this circuit told me that I would not enjoy this outing and I wasn't disappointed. Far to much effort involved in getting the car accelerated then slowed for each tight turn which IMO broke up any flow this circuit might of offered. Chose one of the lower power cars as I knew the really fast kit would be too hard to control here. Even so by half distance I just wanted this to be over. Glad it's done and I can move on to something more pleasureable.

Hmm what's next on the calendar.....Thermalito, oh carp.

[Geoffers]

but couldn't even beat a demotivated Geoffers;

Not demotivated with racing, just practicing.

Well, really surprised to win this one, although I think I was a bit lucky.

Although I had not done a lap in the Capri here, I did know the track well having raced it (mainly in P&G) several times & I actually quite like the GP layout of Dubai. Loaded up the setup I used at Yas Marina & it seemed to work straight away. Did one or two tweeks during practice & qually, not sure they made much difference though, & qualified 2nd but no where near Ziu.

Bemused by Ziu peeling off to the pits at the start, jump start as it turned out, so was left to do starting duties. As Erling said the first 10 laps were quite intense with the gap between us rarely more than 1s. I struggled with stopping the car at the end of the long straight for the first 2-3 laps, guess the extra fuel made a difference. Also was keeping an eye on Ziu's progress & as he was gaining over a second a lap I was pretty sure he would catch up before the race ended.

After 10 laps the gap to Erling gradually started to increase & then suddenly it jumped to 16s so I assumed Erling had gone off. Both Erling & Ziu pitted earlier than me so I had a comfortable lead when I pitted. Stop went well with new tyres & fuel & I rejoined with a 23s lead over Ziu, would it be enough with 13 laps left? I managed a few laps in the 1.58s but Ziu was still taking chunks out of the gap & with around 6 laps left he was 10s behind, it was going to be close!

However the close finish never materialised, the gap suddenly jumped to 15s & continued to grow rapidly, Ziu had made a mistake & damaged his car & I was able to cruise to a comfortable win. So as I said a bit lucky to win with Ziu & Erling both making rare & costly mistakes.

Congrats to Ziu & John   & to Matt winning Div2.  

And many thanks to the Div2 drivers for making room when being lapped. 

[phspok]

Enjoyed that one  Not sure why I seem to be so much faster than Clive or Bob with these?
perhaps I am just more comfortable with the setup I have
though it's not a huge leap from the default.

Saw Div 1 people pitting, and was wondering if I could stretch out the tyres for the full race 
Went faster than I wanted to for the first 10 laps or so, as I saw Jeep slowly gaining 
I thought he was running Div2 so was panicking a bit until He came close with Ziu hanging off
his tail both in the same Div1 car.... phew, ok, just keep out of their way, Trouble was I had
abused the tyres more than I wanted to, and the last lap of the race I had the thinnest of
red bar for the front left, and not much more for the front right.

[Erling G-P]

Not demotivated with racing, just practicing.

Ah, I see - lucky then that you obviously don't need any practice.. 

Cheers,
Erling

[Ziu Bacubacu]

It has been a nightmare yesterday ! After qualy i tried to join on the grid with 100% of health but nothing after several attempts so i got 77% and i entry at only 2 seconds from the start. I was so nervous and pissed that i thought to leave the clutch pedal between 1....GO ! so i take a S&G. So i lead all you untill T15 slowly and i could take a pitlane for repair my penalty.
Honestly not has been the S&G to change my race but the healty 77% because i could do 56 low and lose 3% every lap and finish the race with 13 % but so not was possible so i decided to in 57 - 58 on the first stint and not was so bad my recovery the adavntage of Geoffers and Erling was going down untill i attacked John for 3th place and i rammed him on T1 (sorry John again) my second attempt to pass John was better so i restart my recover and......on lap 14 i saw Erling at only 8 seconds from and i meet hem on the pitstop. I passed him here in the replay i saw what happened to him on T7 (sorry Erling) at 7 lap to go it happened also to me on the same corner in the same way, i think because tires was melt but the first motive it was the setup wronged on rear antirollbar, after i will talk about it.
After pitstop i tried to take Geoffers but he sometime shot 1:58 and my earn was only 1-1,5 second rare was 2 seconds untill i lost my rear on T7 my car was badly damaged so i closed 2° and slowly.

Honestly also without my accident Geoffers would won the race, because Geoffers is an ace while Ziu  is a big donkey and without wings also....... HI HO HI HO HI HO !!!!!!

I used the Sakhir setup modified that because my PC had a serius problem i lost many time to repair it, i have replaced the HDD so i reinstalled all just i could recover from the old HDD my folder GTL. I changed my antirollbar for the qualy lap it was good but i did a bad mistake on T9 i lost 0,5 second so the pole was 05.4 but for the race i put a antirollbar more soft and i m sure that it ruined my balancement with consumption tires. Ziu need learn many things even or maybe Ziu is so stupid that he cannot learn. Who can know ?

Grats to Geoffers and to John
Grats Matt

I have a question for Tony. If happen again that one take S&G on rolling start what should he do? Was my behavior corrected? You need put a rule for this case ?

[Wiltshire Tony]

I have a question for Tony. If happen again that one take S&G on rolling start what should he do? Was my behavior corrected? You need put a rule for this case ?

I think you did exactly the right thing. The software doesn't know the difference between a racing lap and a rolling lap so you must behave like it was a racing lap, which you did. Therefore there is no need for a rule IMO.

[EvilClive]

It was re assuring to hear that Tony does not enjoy these cars, and that I am not alone  .

 But, there are others like Geoffers, Erling and Ziu...and Matt who clearly understand these beasts, so I have no problem at least trying to drive them and making up the numbers on the grid. TBH about the only thing I do well ( I think), is getting out of the way of the cars that are lapping me!!

There was just no way that I would have kept a Group 1 car on the track, so I opted for the Group 2 monster which I had marginally more chance of controlling.
Matt's time was in dreamland as far as I was concerned and I spent qualifying just trying to find my way around the track and hoping to find the shortcut. The rolling start was probably my smoothest lap and somehow I managed to jump about 3 places as we crossed the start line ......not sure why other cars were slow to get going? or did I miss something???

At T1 I discovered that my FF had vanished??!! Amazing how much that feedback is missed when its not there and I was see sawing on the wheel for the next few laps until I got used to it.................sort of.

The rest of the race was an exercise in survival and a determination to avoid any pitstops. Tony was keeping the pressure on, but at least he was at a safe distance until he suddenly dropped back. But, the pressure from Tony had forced me to abuse my tyres. The spectre of a pitstop for tyres looked particularly large and frightening around half distance when Steve suddenly started taking huge chunks out of my comfort gap !!!! I was on the limit of my ability for many laps and still he was closing?? where the heck did you suddenly find that pace Steve???

Then mercifully he dropped back and I was able to ease off just slightly. But with about 8 laps to go I had no tyres and barely enough fuel. Geoffers did me a huge favour by lapping me and reducing my fuel needs by 1 lap  , but he failed to replenish my rubber as he passed!!!
The last few laps were like roller skating on ice and that flag could not come soon enough!!

I'm still in awe of Geoffers, Ziu and Erling and anyone else who can actually drive the Group 1 projectiles. Also, Matt appears to have mastered the Group 2 animals too...my future is not looking too bright in this series lol.

[Bob M.]

This race was about average for me this series.  Had a incident with John on lap 1 when I clipped his rear quarter panel and spun him.  We were both on cold tires and I cut inside and braked but still tapped him.  Waited for him to pass and ended up in last place.  Also as with these cars I suffered steering problems after that small tap,  cars are way too fragile and had learned before that it does no good to make a pit stop for repairs cause it "ain't gonna happen" for some reason.  Oh well we are all in the same boat!!  Just continued on and finished OK by my past finishes in these cars.  John went on to a podium, so slept OK last night.....Gotta say, most impressed with Matt and his times with that Div 2 car, great Job!  Good fun anyway.

Bob M.

[phspok]

I can't count on points in any series on here.  I am around for the next couple of weeks, then I start another tour of the "USA"
(uther side of accrington) so points will be infequent.