UKAC Season 3 Blancpain - Round 7 - Spa - Jun 21

[spanner]

You need ot carry more speed through Eau Rouge Mark. That is whati realised seeing i was so slow at the end of the straight. Be more brave!

[Mark J]

You need ot carry more speed through Eau Rouge Mark. That is whati realised seeing i was so slow at the end of the straight. Be more brave!

Ha I'm going as quick as the setup will allow it!

See I told you all it would cool down for the eve , it's down to 32.5 here at gone 6pm 
Is a breeze slowly building up though 

[SRW]

just downloaded the track, by the time i have got the kids in bed I will be lucky to get 10 mins practice. what tyres are everyone using?

[Mark J]

Mediums at very least, could even take a punt on hards  upto you if you want to take 1 or 2 stops.

[Simon Gymer]

The track link doesn't work so I can't join and besides I haven't had my dinner yet either so see you next time hopefully.

[SRW]

I installed the track a few minutes ago, then when I tried to join the server I got the following error while loading:

ERROR [CONTENT/TRACKS/SPA/SPA_OSRW.KN5] COULDNT SET TEXTURE : ASPH.DDS FOR MATERIAL :ASPH FOR SLOT : TXDIFFUSE

too late to do anything about it for todays race, but has anyone got any idea what the problem is?

[spanner]

Can we please have some consistency between track conditions during the week for practise and those in the race??

Tyre pressure seemd higher, 25psi, but had less temperatur than i'd seen in anyu practise and balance had completely changed so was pretty annoyed to find that no, the car wasnt behaving as it had been through Eau Rouge, but was heading straight for the barriers on lap 4. The way the car was i didnt want to drive it for the next 80mins if it was fixed or not/

[Dottorfoggy]

my apologies to have ruined the race to the amg and z4 behind me, on my last 2 laps, the pc start to micro freeze randomly and at the impact at the copenhague was longer. i did my best to avoid you, i'm so sorry, was a good battle

[Jeffrey]

My race lasted...1  corner. In a 90 minute race, I get taken out after few hundred metres, are you absolutely kidding me? Car was a  lot more twitchy after that, but I guess it still seemed too easy to drive, as in 5 lap somebody else decided to redecorate my car. With a car that was horrible to drive at that point, and with nobody in sight I just couldn't be bothered anymore.

Same (...) at CORE last Sunday, now same dumb stuff here. Why waste my evening on this?

[Bob]

  I am certain I did not jump start, had to do a drive through after first lap, MJ could you please verify I was legal and re-emburse me the 5 minutes it cost me............please

[Baikal]

My race lasted...1   corner. In a 90 minute race, I get taken out after few hundred metres, are you absolutely kidding me? Car was a  lot more twitchy after that, but I guess it still seemed too easy to drive, as in 5 lap somebody else decided to redecorate my car. With a car that was horrible to drive at that point, and with nobody in sight I just couldn't be bothered anymore.

Same (...) at CORE last Sunday, now same dumb stuff here. Why waste my evening on this?

Stop panic, Jeff. Sorry for 1st corner BUT why are you done brake test on me when you had cleared space it sight?  
So anyway  I returned position to you and lost my game too but... not exit  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjrEF5KchNM

[Mark J]

First off, nobody changed track conditions spanner as far as i know and i doubt whatever did change would so drastically change your car handling. Seemed an easy kop out to leave the race so early.

Jeff, don't know why you quit you were still running 6th or 7th with plenty of racing to go. Its unfortunate but you still only had half a spin at La Source and lost a few places. I've been knocked to the back of the grid in the last two races whilst in the top 10, with 1st lap rear contacts yet I carry on. You couldn't have had much damage from that T1 contact?

Rest of you no shows, thanks a lot, appreciate it after the efforts we make to get a bigger grid and track that can accommodate it.   Twice i put a 27-30 man drivers list up yet still only 17 turn up. pansies  

after that negative bit over with, a big thankyou to the 17 who did show up and made it a great race  

That was a proper endurance race!    Had some great tussles, enjoyed being part of the fast train up front for first 10 laps, enjoyed keeping tyres and fuel going for a stint and seeing different strategies at work, cars looked amazing.
Didn't enjoy so much my 'Le mans Toyota' moment of getting a disco on lap 34/35? whilst running a fine 7th place that I had only just lost 6th on to Alexey and his cunning late stop/soft tyres strategy  
No idea where I finished as I had to quit and rejoin the server with a few laps remaining.  i'll have to beg to the authorities to see if my 7th place sticks or I am demoted to the back of the field  

Big congrats to all that finished and to the mighty Gavino and the podium finishers  

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of Spa endurance whatever 

[Maikel K.]

Great endurance race and finally nice to be driving a proper GT3 car 

Managed to split the Lambo's up front and get a 2nd spot in quali by driving a new pb. Start was pretty good though I had Matteo close behind from the beginning. I knew he had softs so he needed to pass as quickly as possible to bring the fight to Gavino. He managed to pass at Blanchimont and Massino got by at the busstop. Got a little bump in the rear at the first corner on the 2nd lap, didn't bother me to much but I think it might have costed me a few tenths a lap, as the 2nd stint I was alot faster overal. Saw Massino struggling the last laps and managed to get by, though 2 laps later I lose the 3rd spot again. With a 10 second gap and only a few laps I wasn't expecting much, but Massino didn't seem to have pitted for new tyres so I was gaining seconds a lap. Ended up 1 second behind him.. Just needed one more lap 

The Fezza is definitely alot better to drive. Trickier though. And I was losing quite abit of time on the straights compared to the Lambo's. But the middle sector was really where the Ferrari could shine and I could get some much needed tenths back.

My race lasted...1  corner. In a 90 minute race, I get taken out after few hundred metres, are you absolutely kidding me? Car was a  lot more twitchy after that, but I guess it still seemed too easy to drive, as in 5 lap somebody else decided to redecorate my car. With a car that was horrible to drive at that point, and with nobody in sight I just couldn't be bothered anymore.

Same (...) at CORE last Sunday, now same dumb stuff here. Why waste my evening on this?

Stop panic, Jeff. Sorry for 1st corner BUT why are you done brake test on me when you passed apex and had cleared space it sight? 
So anyway  I returned position to you and lost my game too but... not exit 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjrEF5KchNM

I noticed that people take this corner differently. Some ( like myself and by the looks of it Jeffrey aswell ) like to break hard, turn alot and aim the car straight and floor it as soon as possible. While others prefer to take more speed into the apex and running alot more wide on the exit ( which loses alot of much needed topspeed imo)

Gratz to the VDA top 3 guys again.

Next race the Hungaroring. Time to let that Fezza shine 

[Gavino Pintus]

Spa is a fantastic track. One of my favourite tracks.
Today I came home just before the qualifying session after the work.

QUALIFY
Not a good qualifying. Only one lap but I was tired after work. Matteo and Massimo make a lot of mistakes and then I gain the pole position.

RACE
Good start and I maintain the pole position. But Matteo is faster than me. By checking the lap times I see that we're the fastest on the track. So I decide to avoid any fight against Matteo in order to gain seconds against the other drivers.

The tactic seems to be correct, but after the 14th lap the Matteo's tyres  starts to have problems. In the same time my wheel starts to have problems with the wheel paddles.
In this situation unfortunately for us, Massimo recover all the time lost in the first part of the race.

In the lap in which Matteo go to the pit, Massimo hit the wall and ruins his car.
I try to push but every lap my wheel paddles makes me crazy...
Fortunately Matteo make a mistake in the last laps and I win.

In this race I was very lucky.
I hope to be there in the next race because my G27 is died just after the race....
Congratulations to all the drivers, and the crew.

[Jeffrey]

Stop panic, Jeff. Sorry for 1st corner BUT why are you done brake test on me when you had cleared space it sight?  
So anyway  I returned position to you and lost my game too but... not exit  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjrEF5KchNM

Stay off the Vodka if you actually think I brake test you there. I gently braked for turn 1, because, you know, cold tyres, long race. Car didn't steer in as you can see so I had to tap the brake again to get it to point into the corner. I wasn't even aware where you were, I was focussing on the people around me.