UKAC Season 14 Lotus Evora GTC Cup Round 2 - Mugello - Jan 23

[Baikal]

Have been ill for the last week or so, havent felt like racing all week or even putting in a few laps.

Just a warning If i feel like turning wheel and joining i will have had no practise. Hopefully the ideal is still defaults around here?

Yes, just plus 1 click to main gear and adjust PSI 

[Baikal]

Race moments. Mainly, mirror view   Thanks Matteo, Mark, nfsw55 for battle! For me it was good race, i've save desired tactic and my rear end  and finished in podium  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbcLYP6TfbY&t=15s

This car has a classic Porshe rear end weight ballance ( 40\60) in very wide and supergrippy tyres. Sometimes seems that it can all, but when the rear tyres supergrip is finish in too fast entering the conner, it is like a kick to face  and you are on the grass
Love Mugello. This track is like a crack    

[Mark J]

I struggled to enjoy that one last night, mainly because the car felt completely different to 'every' session I did on the server throughout the week. I was running almost 1 second off my pace in qually and the race with the same setup  I had understeering cold tyres that would suddenly switch to oversteer rear end in some of the corners 
Was the track running a stupidly low temperature? 
Spoilt my evening really, as had been expecting to mix it with the top 5 throughout the race based on my previous pace.

Had an average race start as I panicked wondering if I had swapped my qually softs for mediums at the last moment before the lights went out. This allowed Shark a run at me and we went side by side for the first few corners until he eeked ahead. But then he had an oversteer moment at the only corner I hate at this track, the tightening apex off camber right hander that dips down slightly.
I then caught Alexey and battled him hard for about the first 15 mins of the race until when tucked right up behind him in the same corner just mentioned, he had a slight wobble, and I lifted the throttle to get an instant lift off oversteer spin 
Luckily (or not) there was nobody near us on track, even that early. (seemed a big gap between top 5 and rest of grid here)
I then had a lonely race for about 25mins which was boring as the car felt bad and nobody to race as the spin put me 17 seconds behind the top 4. 
I also had one more oversteer spin in the final corner losing another 10 secs 
But, the race was saved for me when nfsw suddenly appeared rejoining the track up ahead with a few laps remaining! So I launched an assault on his derrier which nearly resulted in a contact but avoided last second    We battled it out until the end of the race but my tyres were 50% or less at that point and he seemed to have a wing advantage down the s/f straight so I finished 5th after all.
Well done to Matteo who had great pace through the week, and the podium guys 

[Stefan aka Postal]

Congrats to the podium, very good result by Alex.

My replay didn't save. Could someone post it here perhaps?

[nfsw55]

A race to forget
Started from P2, immediately went to P1 at the start and stayed there for the first 20 minutes of the race with a decent gap to the guys behind.
In lap 11 or 12 I entered the "Materassi" corner just a tad too fast and the car went crazy. I spun into the gravel trap, frustration was high and concentration low after that. Spun two more times after that and had to defend a fast approaching Mark from behind in the last few laps.

Better luck next time I would say...

[FullMetalGasket]

To me the race server was the same as practice, so I didn't especially enjoy the car any more than after my first winge - that said it started to get more fun right at the end when the tires were getting knackered, as it finally started to move about!
I did enjoy the race though, as I had some cracking battles with Manteos and a good chase trying to stay with NFSW.

After my practice efforts I had no real high hopes here, I didn't enjoy the car and seemed well off the pace - So I decided to work on a consolidation setup instead (faster setups all struck me as too twitchy and risky for here - my Brands setup was lethal!).
This gave me a much more planted car that I could be rougher with and not slide too much or overheat the tires too easily, although it still had a few goes at trying to throw me off despite all that.

When I landed 3rd on the grid I was amazed, when I took 2nd and then held on fairly happily at the start (Thanks Baikal ) I was even more amazed - especially when manteos only slowly started to gain after clearing Alexy.

I didn't expect to hold him off forever so just drove as fast and cleanly as I could, which for the most part stopped him from being able to challenge me. I think I only bothered covering once in our first exchange.
Then Manteos was through at about 15 mins into the race.... and promptly threw himself off a few corners later
When a few minutes later I passed a rotating NFSW I suddenly found myself looking at a race I might even be able to win So started to concentrate really hard.

It almost paid off - Matteo only passed me about 5 mins before the end, and had used his tires up so much I very nearly managed a counter attack despite my safer/slower setup. But sadly not enough time left.

All in all I'm dead chuffed with a 2nd considering my thoughts going into the race.

Well done Matteo on some serious pace, Congrats Alexy on keeping enough consistency to nab 3rd - and bad luck to NFSW, you should have been fighting Matteo for the top step!
Good racing from everyone else from what I can see.

I'm uploading my replay so will link once that's done

[FullMetalGasket]

1 replay:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ee3cfenuvhkog7/Srou%20S14%20R2%20Lotus%20Evora%20GTC%20Mugello?dl=0

Enjoy 

[Manteos]

Fmg wrote a pretty picture of this race to which my words could add nothing. I just want to say thanks to him for the sportmanship demonstrated in every duel in which we are involved.

Even this time I'm pretty happy for my race. After that horrible start I had to reset my mind before beeing able to found the pace to make a slow come back. That stupid mistake after three corners from the first overtake to fmg, like that of Brands Hatch, didn't compromise my chances of a victory this time, because in turn the leader did an heavier mistake when it was too late to recover the gap.

With this car is becoming a champ in which who will be able to master the timeline of mistakes during the next races will have the upper hand 

Hope to be there for the A1 Ring. I quite like that stupid short track

See you chaps