UKGTL Season 17 1971 RAC British Saloon Car Cham - Silverstone - Sep 25

[Erling G-P]

I know that you won't believe me Erling, but there were no tactics involved last night. I was trying the Escorts in practice simply to compare the cars I still had available. I already knew that the Boss would be the fastest option, but I needed a relative comparison for the Escorts.

I was almost stuck with the FVA, which I was trundling around in the last minutes of free practice, and it was only by chance that I glanced at the clock with about one minute left until qually started. A frantic jump back to the transporter and grabbed the last drive in the Boss.......sorry Erling it could have been fun.

Ah well, I do believe you.. 

TBH I get a little scared at the start of the season when I read on the forum that many of you have tested/worked out the cars and circuits for all of the races!!

For me, this is only the case in very select series; like the European GTC Cup, where I quickly realized that the wildly differing tyre wear necessitated using the Cobra & Ferrari on tracks with the least wear. Thus took some time to work out where each car was best utilized.

This series though, is complete chaos - yesterday I had prepared all available cars bar the Imp, as I simply didn't know what to put my money on.  Having missed one race, I will ultimately have to ditch one of the classes.  Expected it to be Class C, as that was the one with my poorest result, but now two class wins have turned that upside down!

Cheers,
Erling

[Ziu Bacubacu]

it's a pity I could not have a Boss 302 yesterday to be able to fight with Geoffers Clive Tony and maybe we could have taken under 1:37 but I had to be content to be lapped twice by Clive, indeed it was an honor to be lapped by the most fit driver of the moment (Clive, it would be nice to challenge you to Yas Marina with DIV2).

However I used this race as a test, I wanted to see if for 25 laps I could withstand a high rhythm and now I can say that I'm quite happy even if need see what happens to Yas Marina, more curves more stress and monster car .....

Yesterday the only thing that surprised me was Erling's choice, I was sure he would have driven Boss 302, Snetterton and Silverstone were the easiest track to drive Boss 302

Grats to Clive to Tony and....to Erling also if i prefered to see Geoffers on the podium and less points for Erling......(Joking  )

[Geoffers]

No tactics here either Erling, just drive what I fancy at each race.

As I had missed both the previous two races at Silverstone I couldn't resist the Mustang for this one, but could not get anywhere near the times Ziu had done in testing. As it turned out I was probably taking the corners in the wrong gear!  Also must say I hate this version of the track, it is so unrealistically narrow & the corners too tight.

After nabbing pole, I made a complete mess of the start, getting the car a bit sideways & having to back off to avoid crashing into Clive which let all the Mustangs pass me before Copse. Took it a bit easy on lap 1 to get an idea where the other Mustangs were braking & had a bit of luck at Copse on lap 2 when Bob & Rog collided & let me through. Caught up to Tony but had a devil of a job getting past, he seemed to get off the corners better than me so I was never close enough to try an out-braking manoeuvre. As I was taking all the corners in 3rd gear I guessed that I was compromising my acceleration out of the turns so tried taking them in 2nd. This seemed to work & I got past Tony a lap later.

Set off after Clive & slowly started to close without risking things too much until I gave it a little too much gas at Club & lost the rear. Didn't spin but ended up on the grass on the inside & lost 2nd to Tony again. Once again it took a few laps to find a way past Tony & I was now 16s behind Clive, no chance of catching him I thought but drove hard to see how close I could get. Surprisingly I started taking big chunks out of the gap & it looked like it would be close at the end but going down the Hanger Straight on the final lap the power started to die off & I coasted around Stowe & parked up, out of fuel! Obviously taking the corners in 2nd instead of 3rd used more go-go juice.  

Congrats to Clive, Tony & Erling  

Cya all at Yas Marina. Seems ages since I have had a race without a major mistake or something going wrong, luck must change soon!

[Erling G-P]

....Yesterday the only thing that surprised me was Erling's choice, I was sure he would have driven Boss 302, Snetterton and Silverstone were the easiest track to drive Boss 302...

I wanted to, but as mentioned earlier, I need to make the most of my last Class D drive. Couldn't match Geoffer's speed, and Clive would have been a problem too, as it turned out.  Thus saving it for later, which may turn out to be an even worse decision (but perfectly in line with all my other car choices in this series..  )   

Should have switched to the slower FVA, but realized that too late.

Good to hear that your arm is better - best of luck on Yas Marina!

Cheers,
Erling

[Ziu Bacubacu]

As I had missed both the previous two races at Silverstone I couldn't resist the Mustang for this one, but could not get anywhere near the times Ziu had done in testing. As it turned out I was probably taking the corners in the wrong gear!  Also must say I hate this version of the track, it is so unrealistically narrow & the corners too tight.

If you are talking about 1:36 i did it during the Silverstone race when i drove Boss, it not was a test.

Difference between drivers, i adore this version of Silverstone

[Geoffers]

If you are talking about 1:36 i did it during the Silverstone race when i drove Boss, it not was a test.

No, you misunderstand Ziu, I mean I could not match your time in my testing.

[Ziu Bacubacu]

If you are talking about 1:36 i did it during the Silverstone race when i drove Boss, it not was a test.

No, you misunderstand Ziu, I mean I could not match your time in my testing.

Thanks for the clarification,  Geoffers

[Wiltshire Tony]

I found that to be a most enjoyable evening if not a little frustrating. Of course i breezed into Silverstone expecting to be the only driver clever enough to choose the mighty Boss. And then discovered a gaggle of the blighters. Need to know how Clive managed those qualy times......is he turning green and developing testacles tentacles?
Start was epic, left the line perfectly and before turn 1 I was leading, after turn 1 I wasn't. Clive was going for it early and being human I let him take the place (it says here). Two Mustangs dropped off and I just had to keep Geoffers behind me for the rest of the race and wind in Clive and the win was mine for the taking, or so I thought. Clive sped away and Geoffers looked like he was about to lose his patience with me. Should I let him pass so he could catch and harry the evil one? In hindsight that probably would have been the smart play, so obviously that didn't happen. Managed to keep Geoffers up my chuff in two separate sessions but he is too good to remain behing the likes of me for too long and lo, he saw a chance a went for it. I could relax now as the gap back to the chasing cars was large so watched in awe as Geoffers took huge chunks out of Clive's lead. Maybe they would take each other out and I can still sweep past victorious? No I b****y couldn't. But how awful for Geoffers to come so far to taking the lead of Clive only to be hit with a go juice shortage. Felt for you mate. Still it did give me secong spot so I'll take that.
These remaining rounds are going to be epic, I can feel it my bones. And the final race will be very, very interesting as everyone's birds come home to roost, so to speak.

[SpecialKS]

Results



Had hoped for a class win, but Bill was at exactly the same pace and when Matt joined the Sunbeam club I knew that there would be no chance at all.
As usual without any private praccy - maybe I should have made more experiments concerning my setup.
After a real lousy start I had a nice battle with Bill before I could build up a gap. One great off due to a shifting mistake.
I had expected a pitstop but realized after about 15 laps that it could match and started to use third gear through the corners instead second.
Had the impression that I could improve my times by doing so without the fuel problem.
CU next week.

[BillThomas]

Results



Had hoped for a class win, but Bill was at exactly the same pace and when Matt joined the Sunbeam club I knew that there would be no chance at all.
As usual without any private praccy - maybe I should have made more experiments concerning my setup.
After a real lousy start I had a nice battle with Bill before I could build up a gap. One great off due to a shifting mistake.
I had expected a pitstop but realized after about 15 laps that it could match and started to use third gear through the corners instead second.
Had the impression that I could improve my times by doing so without the fuel problem.
CU next week.

Thanks Kurt for a nice race for first 10 or so laps. As you said with 0.015 seconds between our qualifying it was always going to be close race until one of us broke free. I've not had such close driving for a long time, slipstreaming and seeing who could be the latest on the brakes! A bit of paint swapping and occasionally panel rubbing but all racing incidents, I was surprised how often we didn't touch and both got around safety.

Eventually I just touched the grass and lost momentum and a few tenths  of second. I then tried to go around one of your faster corners a bit faster than I had been driving before and ran onto the grass losing enough time to allow you to get away. All good clean fun!

[Wiltshire Tony]

Thanks for the results Kurt 

[Huggy]

Interesting, the thoughts on tactical car choice.  I certainly do just that, and for good reason - as you all know, in any given car, for some reason I am always slower than anybody else! Therefore, picking the right car for each race, I at least have half a chance of scoring a few points, if not getting a podium finish overall. As Matt points out, even in a class two levels down from my FVA in this race, he was able to give me a good gee-ing up, and I enjoyed the fun. Often in single car series particularly, I am left doing boring solo laps.
       I too am left with rides that I know will be blown away in the remaining races, which include at least I will have to miss due to a trip to visit family Down Under, and a finish in the top five on any class let alone overall at the end of the series is unlikely - but it has helped at least maintain my interest (unlike in the other series' I entered) because I don't finish dead last half the time, with no-one to race against, especially in longer races.
So, tactics and all, hurrah for multi-class race series like this I say!