UKGTL Season 20 1983 European Touring Cars - Monza - Jan 22

[EvilClive]

AAAArrrgghh!! Just installed this series this afternoon and... there are so many cars to sort out!!! In my sad little mind I sort of assumed that it would be like the New Zealand series last season with just 4 cars  of similar performance:-[
More anguish and learning is ahead I feel  But it might be great fun! 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Results and replay now posted.

Regarding the Renault 5: We have made some progress in fixing the problems, that we have experienced, with this car not wanting to appear on the server. The server will continue to show this fixture, possibly until Friday, as we continue to run test's.

Thanks for you patience.

WT

[Geoffers]

Overall points table has some errors. Does not show any points for Clive (should have 20), Bob (15), Dominick (12) & Fulvio (8 ).

[fpolicardi]

Joined at the very last moment after have installed cars and tracks with no practice at all. Picked the Alfa that felt quite confortable, but at third lap forgot about Lesmo and went wide to the wall 
Too bad, rarely I'll can race on Wednesdays.
Ciao

[SpecialKS]

Regarding the Renault 5: We have made some progress in fixing the problems, that we have experienced, with this car not wanting to appear on the server. The server will continue to show this fixture, possibly until Friday, as we continue to run test's.

What is the problem. As far as I know we already used the identical car earlier this year (LeMans Bugatti) without any problems 

[phspok]

Liked the Alfa here, was tempted, but was faster in the Jag so went with that. Had good pace, I liked the SDI, but was slower
for me than the Jag. Managed to keep Erling a safe distance behind without driving like I stole it. and all was going well
up to the pits... my head just will not "do" pit stops. I usually don't enter events with pit stops as it spoils the rythm
and I always fumble something. AC pits are easiest as it just does everything, R3E is easy as you preset what you want
so, I forgot to ask for more fuel, and had to limp round and do a 2nd stop for fuel, putting me nearly a minute behind
had collected a track limits warning when I lost it a bit cutting kerbs, so was quite cautious, was looking at 4th when Geoff
did a late stop, and then found I also need a splash and dash. Front right was pretty well down to the canvas, and 3 pit stops
killed any chance of a win. Having to do 2 pit stops to finish the race seems a bit heavy to me, but then I hate pit stops anyway.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Regarding the Renault 5: We have made some progress in fixing the problems, that we have experienced, with this car not wanting to appear on the server. The server will continue to show this fixture, possibly until Friday, as we continue to run test's.

What is the problem. As far as I know we already used the identical car earlier this year (LeMans Bugatti) without any problems 

Exactly! We have used this car before but due to some malfunction the carset refuses to show up on the server. But we are looking into it.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Overall points table has some errors. Does not show any points for Clive (should have 20), Bob (15), Dominick (12) & Fulvio (8 ).

Thanks Geoffers, will look into it. First outing for this new scoring system so it's possible I have done something wrong.

[EvilClive]

Grats to podiums and finishers.

I had a few more minutes practice than Fulvio managed, but I could hardly call it preparation  . I had simply checked out the server connection and run 2 or 3 laps in the SD1 during the afternoon. I only used the SD1 because I was suckered in by Erling's reference to it on the forum and thought that he had already worked out the best car!! lol ……..I notice that later he questioned about the Jag, so maybe I should have read more before the race, especially Geoffer's comments about the brakes 

So, I joined the server for practice just before 8:00p.m. and jumped into the SD1 and set off to get up to speed. I found speed OK, but also experienced the braking issues in a dramatic way and ploughed into the scenery.....maybe not the car to dispute this race in? Maybe something a little more sedate?
The Mini Metro sounded pretty tame, so dragged one off the transporter and promptly experienced the front wheel drive Mini horrors from the past !! Maybe with time to sort a setup I could make it work? but time was something I did not have lol. Last resort was to drop to the slowest group and hope that my limited ability could drive a milk float?? 
I have to confess here that my brain suffered one of those senior moments. I randomly picked the VW Golf and as I exited the pits for a trial run, Tony zipped past in one of those Metros and I thought to myself "Aha!! I am in the same group as Tony and I can use him as a target for laptimes, as I have no idea how fast I need to be!". This thought was just dumb as I had just consciously abandoned the Metro and dropped down a group!!!!
This mistake was to cause me great anguish through qually and the race as I repeatedly tried to match Tony's pace without success. I was working the wheels off that Golf, bouncing over kerbs and maxing out the revs in each gear ( all 4 of them), but I was still about 2 secs off his Metro 
The late installation meant that I had not even considered pitstops and fuel loads etc so although I was aware that the race was 26b laps I was more than a little perturbed to discover whilst sitting on the grid that a tankful of fuel would only take me 10 laps???!! So 2 pitstops loomed and I made the decision to simply fill up at both stops and hope that I could keep Tony in sight.
Of course, this morning I have looked at the forum etc and NOW I realise that my car was in a different class to Tony's Metro( phew!! I thought I was losing what limited ability I might have had!  )

No prep, limited ability but great fun. Looking forward to this series.

[phspok]

I tried the Metro, but just could not drive it, with my setup or Geoffs. Touch the brake and the thing will
spin off on corner approach. I will only drive it if it's the only car left to me. The Jag was a bit wayward
but was ok with the bias forward a bit, still tried to kill me into chicanes, so I was hurtling off at some
points. The Alfa is just nice to drive, as, for me is the SD1. The brakes on those are fine, but the jag
needs 3 days notice in writing that you would like to slow down please, hence some of my wild kerb cuts.

[Erling G-P]

Quite like this version of Monza.  The series of course is a tactical nightmare - which class & car should you use, and what is everyone else driving ?  Quite a few potential headaches here.

With Monza being a power circuit, my money was on the fastest class; specifically the Jag.  However in praccy, Matt was posting frighteningly fast times, in both Jag, and then the Alfa he switched to. He was almost as fast in the latter as I was in the Jag, and then Geoffers showed up in a class 3 car too. Just the Rover, but I was under no illusion that he would not be able to beat me with that (I struggled to get into the 2:04s in the Jag). As the Alfa was much easier on the tyres, it seemed likely Matt would beat me too. Using the fastest car with the prospect of not being able to finish any higher than 3rd was not very appealing, so switched to the Alfa - the only car I had practiced enough with to make it an alternative.

Just before qual, Matt went back to the Jag however, but by then I was committed to the Alfa.  Getting it off the line was difficult - even at full revs and a dumped clutch, it wouldn't spin its wheels, bogging more or less down; too much grip from the pre-heated tyres (first time I've seen that in GTL!).  Still managed to jump Geoffers.  Spent the early laps trying to get in his way as efficiently as possible. Matt at first extended the gap a little, but then tossed it away again at Parabolica.  When Geoffers went off same place, I got a breather.

Pit only for fuel at L10 and again at L20.  Had grabbed the lead, as Matt went to the pits several times.  Can't remember my lead over the 2nd place car, but on my way to the 2nd pit stop, it jumped to 30+ secs.  Initially eased off, but then realized the driver behind had just done an undercut, and wouldn't be stopping again.  Thus the 30+ secs were all I had to complete my pit stop, so had to keep pushing as hard as I could.  Fortunately it was enough to keep the lead to the end.  Had Geoffers not gone off at Parabolica, he would most likely had won - I believe he lost more time there than the gap between us at the end.  Grats to Geoffers & Matt for 2nd & 3rd - and to the class winners.

[Geoffers]

Agree with Erling, this is a really nice version of Monza, first chicane is much more fun than the current tight one & the 2nd Lesmo is much faster too.

Went with the Rover because it was just such a fun drive around here, you could really attack the kerbs with it. I was however I little frustrated because the first time I tried it around Monza I got well into the 2.04s with it & have never managed to repeat it, only doing high 2.05s with it since! 

Early laps of the race were fun chasing Matt & Erling until checking the tyre wear on the approach to the Parabolica I missed my braking point & skated off into the kitty litter, noob mistake.   Decided to pit early & if need be change tyres at the second stop (wasn't required though) so was out of sequence with everyone else. After everyone had done their first stops I was around 6s behind Erling & gaining a little each lap, but then I made my second mistake, locked the brakes into the first chicane & went off again. After the second stops I was around 9s down & although I pulled a bit back, there was no way I was going to catch Erling & with 2 cuts already I eased off a little over the last 2-3 laps & brought it home.

Congrats to Erling & Matt & to Clive winning the small class. 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Overall points table has some errors. Does not show any points for Clive (should have 20), Bob (15), Dominick (12) & Fulvio (8 ).

Dave has now corrected this.

[SpecialKS]

Result

 

[roguk]

Hi i must apologize to Dominic and Tony for my terrible start, had the car in 2nd gear when i let the clutch out stalling it, 2nd pit stop forgot to turn off repair, lucky only added 10 seconds extra to my refueling.

Grats to winners

Grats to Podiums