NoGrip Legacy TC Event 5: Brno 2 hours endurance

[Dominick]

I only decided late in the day to participate. I had half a mind to skipping it because: a) Brno-my nemesis, b) 2 hours  and c) my mind was on the Targa. But when downloading the track -if only for watching replays- I noticed that it was a completely different track from the Black One. I did some reconnaisance and figured it would be easy to learn so I decided to jump in anyway. It turned out that it wasn't that easy as practice and qualy were a mess. I actually learned the track in the race itself by pushing hard to keep up with people in front to snitch the line and braking points. That worked for a few laps with Mike Harley and Nocatu as guides. However, I think they didn't opt for the longest gears available as in the first half of each lap I got ever closer to them on the long straights and eventually passed just by keeping the foot on the throttle. Nocatu got past again at the first pitstop and that history repeated itself. He might have had a spin or incident as at some point the difference had grown to 18 seconds. I though I could relax but the gap became smaller very fast when I did that. When in a few laps it was down to 7-8 seconds I was forced to squeeze out a few faster laps. I managed two which brought it up to 9 seconds again but that was really the bottom of the energy barrel. In what turned out to be the last lap I completely missed a corner and crashed into the scenery but GTL decided that part of the mountain was elastic and threw me right back on the track more or less in the right direction. Eventually I made it with 4 seconds left. If there had been another lap I would not just have lost places, but very likely have ended up with a DNF. I can't remember an instance where I've been so utterly knackered after a race. Two days later and I'm still tired.
Congrats to all participants and of course especially to those two utter Aliens miles ahead of everyone else consistently for two hours. 

[Geoffers]

Had decided to run the excellent 1300 Escort in this race but then it was changed to Div 1 only so had to opt for something else. First thought was the 850 Mini again but with the long straights I thought it would get a little boring so settled on the 1000 Abarth.

Got a pole lap early in qually only to see Markus go faster, was not too bothered about pole but with 12 minutes left in qually I gave it another go & just pipped Markus by 0.4s.

Had a great start, although that's not difficult in the Abarth, just give it lots of revs, drop the clutch & with all that weight at the rear it flies off the line. Was 2.5s in front by the end of lap 1 & gradually increased that up until the first pitstop, gained more time in the pits over Markus, guess the Escort requires more fuel. During the second stint the gap to Markus started to come down a little as he found a bit more speed so I couldn't relax & had to drive as hard as I dared without risking too much. Second stops were more even but still with a 12s lead I couldn't  afford to take it too easy over the rest of the race. Eventually won by 9s after 2 hours racing.  

Congrats to Markus & Dom on the podium & to Nappe for winning the 850s.  
Well done to all finishers & thanks to all who made room when being lapped, sorry for not thanking you at the time, I didn't have a button mapped for it!  

Unfortunately I am away for the weekend so will miss the Cadwell race next week.

[Nappe1]

While originally planned to drive Mini 970S here, I could not find setup of my liking for this track. I ended up testing the 850cc one and while I felt much more comfortable with and lap time was stil around 6:02 or so..., but I was astonished the fact that AI was 5 seconds faster than me with Suzuki and they were doing that with default setup  ! So I tested it. It was very slugish in acceleration, but darn! Once you got in speed, it was like a go kart on stereoids. Bit more gear ratio tweaking and I found myself flying thru that first village engine staying in redline on fourth gear. As having very high redline in 9700 rpm, that means staying between 170 and 183 kph all the wayy until the tight corner in second village. I realized that with very smooth driving line this could be very very good car for this endurance. Bit more practice and I had it all figured out and I knew that only sky would be limit amount of getting corners even more right each lap. As cherry on top of the cake, there was fuel consumption: 2.6 liters per lap and with 30 liter fuel tank, I was looking single stop race.

When qualifying got going and Kanadanmajava showed as only competition to my class, I was a bit disapointed. After all I thought that I had car figured out so that I could have been able to challenge Minis and Abarths. 5 minutes before Kanadanmajava showed up, I saw his last Whatsapp message saying "darn, I am missing the track" and I knew him coming back from Germany road trip just day before, so I sort of knew the name of the game. However I decided to hunt down better time on each lap in the race and see what happens.

I did all my earler testing with full tank, so for the qualifying I dropped the fuel amount to 8 liters, which was good for warm up and 2 fast laps. I however beat my own record of 5:57.something with 3 seconds on very first try so decided to use rest of the qualifying for other race prepares, like visiting the loo, drinking few glass of water, etc.

In the Race start, I got perfect start and I even went side by side with Escort next to me, until he got his revs up to 5000 - 6000 and then there was no competition. After the faster guys had vanished in the horizon I concentrated just drive as smooth as possible corner after corner. That worked pretty well and lap times started to drop. In lap 10, just before my pitstop I did my PB 5:53.494, which is IMO great from car with 10" wheels and 697cc three-in-line two stroke engine. I must admit that Front end was getting really light as the fuel tank is there and it was almost empty. In beginning of lap 12 I did my only stop, just filled the tank as tires were still excellent.  In lap 15 I quite suddenly reached SpecialKS and over took him. It all happened very quickly and when I realized that we were actually in same lap, it mixed up my concentration completely. I, overtaking 1000cc driver in same lap! That should have not been possible in any situation.  4 corners later, I crashed heavily. Not sure why I missed one critical braking point in very fast dual right handers. perhaps I was too worried if I am blocking SpecialKS behind me and used too much watch rear button. Anyhow, luckily the car ended up on it's wheels and nothing critical was broken... It seemed to turn a bit better right than left after that. Lucky me, this was counter clockwise track.  I had small spin with no contacts in lap 16, but other than that I had pretty steady driving to the end after that.

Eventually completed 21 laps in that 2 hours. With lap length of 13.9km, that means bit over 270 km coverered in two hours. That makes average speed of over 130km per hour, which is nice result with car that has only 50Kw of engine power.

Some might say that I got pretty easily those 9 points, but I did love every single lap (or maybe not that one where I had real racing going 3 corners and screwed it big time.  ) and I would have done exactly same kind of race if there would been more competition.

Congrats to overall podium and thanks everyone joining.
Next is first normal race for Division 1. After Cadwell, it will take a while before we return to race these little screamers as there's many Division 2 and Division 3 races ahead.

[nocatu]

I didn't have much time for practice around here, managed about two or three hours in total. After the Varosliget event where I had used too long final drive I thought I'd be more careful this time. Turns out I overdid it and I realised it during qually after watching Geoffers for a bit. My gears were too short and It was costing me at least two seconds per lap.

I thought of running longer ratio but then again I wasn't too confident as I would have to change my braking points and some lines a lot, so I chose to stick with what I had hoping that in the 2 hours that the race would last I would be able to keep the 3rd place I had in qually.

I managed to screw up my start completely (no Geoffers, it ain't easy in the Abarth  ) and lost a couple of places. I tried to be patient and make as few mistakes as possible. I had a great fight with Mike and Dom during the first stint, really enjoyed it. I somehow was way faster than Dom in the pits so I got back up to third after the first stops. Unfortunately I made a silly mistake in the last corner and lost a lot of time. As I was trying to catch Dom again I made two more smallish mistakes that cost me about 10 seconds. I was hoping that I would again gain some time in the pits and the gap was indeed shorter.

I gave everything I had at that point, doing three good laps even though my back was in a bad shape by that time, I really need to find a more comfortable chair, God knows how I'll survive the Nuerburgring. I got kind of close in the end but I ran out of time. All in all I had a great time, grats to all participants and all finishers. See you at the next one!

[Markus]

This was quite a funny track, even with the Div1 cars. My quali went ok, maybe I could have done a better lap, but I knew this would be useless. Geoffers is a very good starter and the Abarth with the rear engine does this well too. No chance for me in the Escort.
As expected Geoffers start was very quick and I followed him. My aim was saving tires and not to loose too much time. For the first laps it went quite well but then I messed up the first pit stop. I had to drive backwards to my crew and lost time. The tank is 10 liters bigger than the Abarth`s what made an additional loss of time. In the end it was about 8 seconds lost with the first stop.
Then I decided to push harder to fill the gap between me and Geoffers. But it was hard work and Geoffers did not make mistakes. So it was a well deserved win, grats mate.
And grats to all finishers and Nappe for the win in the small class.
Cu in Cadwell.