Endurance Championship - Season 3, Round 4, Anderstorp - 16th July

[Simon Gymer]

Congratulations Nick on the GT win. An excellent night for Team Shark with me taking the NGT win too.

Fantastic qualifying, the top 4 in NGT seperate by a whisker. First half of the race was tight as expected with us all similarly paced. Mark managed to eek out a 3.5 second lead in the first few laps and then held that till near the pit stops. I made a very bold move on Luis into T2 when I'd got such a good run on him out of T1 that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I think that basically set my win up. If I'd stayed behind Luis I think things could have been different. I managed to take a tiny bit out of Mark coming up to the pit stops, but his lead was still about 3 seconds. Then he had an off and I had the NGT lead. Pops by then about 6 seconds behind I think.

Having taken on a full load of fuel for the start to save time in the pits I was hopeful of making a bit of time in the pits and I knew how to get in and out of the pits fast too so was hoping for an extension to my lead when i came out of the pits. Indeed to my suprise I was 16 seconds in the lead. I guess others made some mistakes during my in/out lap, I can't believe I made that much in the stop itself, especially considering how much fuel I had to put in given the Moslers thirsty nature?

Didn't know who was behind till I managed to glimspe about 10 laps later Luis Brance (P4) out of the side window. Luis was not really making ground on me only taking about 1 - 2 seconds off me with about 9 minutes to go. I was comfortable keeping the tyres looked after. As usual though nearing the end of these 80 minute races the track surface starts to get real slippy and the marbles are scarey.

Heart in my mouth as I slide on marbles into the braking for T2 and went backwards into the gravel. Managed to scrub off some speed on the tarmac but then just had to floor it in the gravel (pointing backwards and heading for the tyre wall) to try and slow the momentum. Thank god it worked and I scrabbled as fast as I could back towards the track. I rejoined the track with Luis absolutely glued to my bumper. What a moment. Was really exciting. Thanked my lucky stars and hoped my tyres weren't too shagged as I had kept them nice and trim in the most part of the stint. Luckily for me Luis was struggling for grip and I managed to pull away from him in the remaining few minutes as he made a few mistakes and as the clock ticked down Luis made some big mistake at the end to give me a much healthier lead than I deserved.

Great racing as usual, fair play to everyone. Cheers guys.

Well done to all the finishers. Anderstorp is incredibly difficult to not outbrake yourself at least once in 80 minutes.

[Simon Gymer]

I almost stayed in front but with the excitement I threw my Track IR to the floor without intention.  :'(

Ah, that explains it. Unlucky Luis. Not sure what the outcome would have been if that hadn't happened. Was really tricky driving at the end.

[will16v]

Gotta apologise to Jamera for hitting you on turn 2  - really sorry, utterly bad driving on my behalf - braked too late off the racing line. I tried to avoid you but hit the grass and had already locked up. So sorry mate, hope i didn't mess up your race too much.

A real stinker for me - thought i could breeze this in the Lister - had the set-up all wrong - had 1fps bug in last min. of qualifying so had to exit and re-join - nightmare...!

Anyway, congrats to the winners, and everyone who managed to keep it going to the finish - you did a whole lot better than i did!

[Rich_A]

[Content removed - Rich, you should know better by now! ]

[enz13_gt]

well my luck just continues,in a comfotable 3rd with car going well,then i had fps probs car slowly went of line and when fps went i was balanced on kerb ,and couldnt get off  how lucky was that 

[picnic]

Replay and Provisional Results are available

[popabawa]

That’s was a great race with Shark, Mark and (I still don't know who's behind in the Porsche). 

Awwww, I'm so insignificant that Luis still can't remember me even after spending 40 mins in his rear view mirror! You were looking in your mirrors Luis? 

Well done to Mark on his NGT pole, brilliant performance mate showing those aliens who's boss

Absolutely brilliant race, the first 40 mins were awesome with the NGT's locked together, it's a great feeling to be on the same pace at the front of the pack 

I was really pleased to be just a couple of seconds in 2nd place behind Shark after mark and Luis had gone off but the stupid game decided to wreck my race by putting me into the same pit box as Nick, who was already in for his stop :'( Nick was the only other car in the pits at the time too! I had to decide whether to go back out onto the track but as it's such a long way out at Anderstorp I decided to wait. I probably lost about 30s in the end

I thought we'd seen the last of those pit problems. Still, I'd been lucky so far so I guess them's the breaks... Pity it had to happen here though as it was my only real chance of possibly taking points from Truetom, Luis and Shark.

I was too far behind Mark in 3rd to realisistically have a chance of catching him but I charged pretty hard and took a chunk of time out but still wasn't anywhere near at the end of the race. I did, however, put in the fastest NGT lap which has never happened before (and probably won't ever again!)  

[Don]

Well done to all the finishers, thats one tough track and well done to my teamies on a great team effort.

I made a stupid mistake by putting soft fronts on the car at the start, it felt great for 10 laps or so, then started to refuse to turn in. Had to pit early (after about 15 laps) and was alarmed to see 17 ware on the fronts. Another mistake then as I just hit return and didn't change my wheel choice! Came back out and was in two minds if I should take it easy and see if the tyres would last without another stop and try to hold position (I was over a min up at that point) or try and drive as normal and maybe pit in again. Thats when I started to make mistakes a few spins and with 16mins to go was forced to pit and from then on I just wanted to finish the race

Np TT, your car was ghosting and I actually lost it after I passed you

[Luis Branco]

Awwww, I'm so insignificant that Luis still can't remember me even after spending 40 mins in his rear view mirror! You were looking in your mirrors Luis? 

Ah, that was you

I was unable to check out who was behind. I still went to the gravel just to try to check it, but neither then could I see you.  You passed blazing on purpose just to let me stay in the dark

I was really pleased to be just a couple of seconds in 2nd place behind Shark after mark and Luis had gone off but the stupid game decided to wreck my race by putting me into the same pit box as Nick, who was already in for his stop :'( Nick was the only other car in the pits at the time too! I had to decide whether to go back out onto the track but as it's such a long way out at Anderstorp I decided to wait. I probably lost about 30s in the end

That explains it then. I wondered what the hell was going in pits as when I pitted in you were already there, I changed tyres, put gas and got back to track and you remained in pit. Truly sorry, as for sure I would probably ended 3rd if not for your pit problems, as you were very very strong in Anders

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[Simon Gymer]

Thanks Jeff.

[tarec]

hi there,

Congratulations to all, at this moment i dont have ADSL at home, but i´m back ate 20/07/2006 , so i can race again in the next race, see you all there.

[Mark J]

Got to admit that despite me hating this track i have had two great races in a row here. ...albeit both times i've lost a great result through one error

Was well chuffed with getting NGT pole considering i still felt none too clever from the afternoon sun and drinking, and the competition present.  

Drove a faultless race for the first 40 minutes actually pulling out a 3-5 second lead over Luis. Then about 2 laps before i was due to make my pit stop i came across Enza's stranded GT car on that first cambered 180 degree turn..he was smoking his tyres trying to get off the kerbs and the split second that i looked at him to see whether he was rejoining the track was enough for me to leave my braking a bit late and the car went straight off with the tyres just skidding across the surface :'(
Luckily i didnt seem to do too much damage as i managed to yank the car sideways just as it hit the tyre wall. Was very p*ssed off with myself though.
Watched the next 5 cars steam past...gutted. :'(
Delayed my pit-stop for lap or two trying to get some time back by quick laps with low fuel but when i pitted, i had the displeasure of watching Shark just finishing his stop so knew i was a minimum 20 seconds down.
Then chased down Luis for the remaining half of the race but not making any impression on him until he span near the end....i smelt blood and steamed after him like a man possessed, but he finished about 2 secs in front of me.

Should be happy with 3rd NGT but still a bit gutted after leading half the race, though Shark would have got me with his sneaky pit-stops no doubt, and both him and Luis seemed to find good pace right to the end, whereas i couldnt seem to get any quicker than 1:33's for the last 10 minutes of the race (prob due to aero damage from tyre wall?...or could have been the sun tan lotion/vino sweat stinging my eyes by that time. .

Great racing chaps !  

[popabawa]

Hey, I've just noticed the NGT team championship is looking pretty close... as if we needed any more motivation to badmouth the opposition 

[Simon Gymer]

Hmm, interestingly looking at the lap chart, my pitstop was no faster than anyone else's really.

Pit stop lap time...
Shark - 2:22.
Pops - 2:59 (although he had extra 30 seconds-ish for waiting for it to become free).
Mark - 2:24
Luis - 2:18
TrueTom - 2:10

It just shows you how much extra fuel that Mosler uses that I didn't actually make any time in the pits. I think it's about 25% extra over the other cars. Despite putting in 100L to start I had to fuel it to 66L to get to the end, so an extra 30L approx put in at the stop.
(Assuming everyone else either started with 100L and didn't need to fill up at all (or hardly to put any in) or started with 40 minutes of fuel and put another 40 mins of fuel.)

Still it makes up for it in the great drive off the corners and it's race setup stability over the twitchy F360 and the oversteery 911.