GTR Final Hoorah - Special HoF Race - 24th September

[Truetom]

Had a duel with Pablo in the begining - great driving, side by side through corners, changing positions. Then I was able to pull away and it was a lonesome race to the end. Had a scarry moment exiting the pits, didn't see Kit-kat and fortunately we managed to miss each other by 2 pixels.  

Grats to Ruskus and RS.  

Jon, get serious!    Oh, too late for this game.  
See ya in BF2  

TT

[Jeffrey]

I had no pracitce before the race, so no race setup at all.
Although that fact, I was happy with 3rd place, but completely outgunned by Kit-Kat and jonM.
In the first part of the race I could follow the two quite well, but I then realised I had the wrong gearing. I lowered maximum revs down by 300rpm, but I didn't change the gearing, so I was reaching max revs halfway down the straight. I saw the water temp go up to 88 degrees, which isn't extremely high, but in the long run might become hazardous.

After I lost the two infront, my race went into "dodge-the-spinning-NGT-car"-mode . I can't even remember how many NGT cars spun infront of me, but I need more than my own hands to count them on .
Sorry Alex that I spun you first time I lapped you. I saw you far infront of me, and I wanted to overtake on the inside. I was already braking while approaching you, cause I know your situation. I picked the inside and was halfway there, when you wanted to make room, but didn't realise I was there. I saw you coming so I braked, but it wasn't enough and we collided.
Another scary moment was when BigG was damaged at the straight after Eau Rouge. He was all the way to the right, and I was to the left, when I saw his car clip right due to the damage, and all of a sudden shoot straight over the track coming dangerously close to me . That cost me a boxer .

Halfway down the race, Kit Kat spun and I came close, but shortly after he drove away again. But few laps later I could overtake him and claim 2nd place. I forgot where the pitentrance was at this version of Spa, so I went through the blocks, and put the limiter on, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early , and I lost many seconds of my lead to Kit-Kat who was very close to me in the pitlane. My stop was a bit faster so I gained a few tenths in the lane.

Just 3 laps before the finish, I saw that Jon went off at the worst corner to do that, and I was very surprised to be in 1st after that. I felt like James May. Captain slow winning an event .
At the busstop a car spun and I had to approach the corner slowly to prevent making it worst, just to overtaken by a backmarker at high speed . Kit-Kat came withing 3 seconds after that, and the pressure was on again, after already 70 minutes of racing . Luckily for me, he spun, which gave me a 10 seconds lead.
Even in the last 2 laps I was afraid to blow my engine...wouldn't have been the first time

My win was undeserved, cause I was 2s slower that Jon and Kit-Kat, and I had no influence on any fights for positions. So to be honoust, Jon deserved this last race more than me. That doesn't however mean, that you can beat me in the Elise cup and win that championship

Grats Paul for the NGT win.

[D_Nichols]

Great race.

Sorry to who ever I bumped early on. I'm surprised such a small hit managed to spin us both. 

I then ran well for a bit and put my plan into action. Pit just after the first few GT cars go by on lap 13, so that while I'm in the pit the chasing pack goes past me. Then when I came out I had loads of empty track while those I had been racing where being slowed letting the GT's by and pitting themselves and I made it up to 11th! My plan worked a treat!

But I had to pit again to repair some damage on lap 20.

For the last 6/8 laps had a good scrape with Adam but managed to stay ahead.

Good fun guys, conctrats to the podium finishers in both Classses.

[will16v]

Thanks for a great race everyone, some great diving by all - i was sweating like mad after this one!!
Managed to spin the 993 on the formation lap after dropping down one gear to many, resulting in a pit in for a punture after colliding with the barrier 
Anyway, managed to pick it up after a while and finished 16th as made too many silly mistakes, then got  'tyres worn' over the radio on the last lap...and it was disney on ice all over again...

It was a good session tonight, really enjoyed it - grats to all who competed, hope GTR 2 will offer some more great memories 

[Rob Clenshaw]

Sorry I couldn't make it. Hope you all had fun 

[mo]

Great turnout out for the farwell race
Grats to Ruskus and RS on victory on the last outing of GTR
Bad luck JonM - I knew things were bad when I saw 'JonM : PO' a few times towards the end of the race.

I had a blast and a great race against RS. we were on different strategies but were right together and the start and at the end. I went almost an hour before I pitted and plan was to have a light car on new tyres for the end. Unfortunately my pit crew thought the race was another hour long and stuffed in 80kg of fuel
This seemed to end any chance of catching RS but in the end the newer tyres allowed me to catch up, but with the extra weight no chance of out-dragging out of the last bend on the last lap. One of the closest finishes for me in GTR and a great race, nice driving Paul

Long live GTR, thanks for the racing.
Thanks too to Picnic for the server and Dave and all the crew that make it possible for us to race

[Adam Parle]

Well - about all I can say is I'm more familiar with Spa after that.  I was pleased with my qualifying time, set a PB, and with 5 of us in the 2:23's I was looking forward to a good race and some cracking battles.

After a clean start I span a number of time to drop waaaaaaaaaaaay down the field, overtook Clarey, spun, overtook Clarey, spun and so on for a while.  Finally got into a reasonable rhythm for a while, until about halfway through the race, when I lost confidence and put it in the wall at the same place in successive laps.  After the second "ding" I decided enough was enough, and pitted.  Got up to speed (well sort of) and put some good laps togther, still had nobpdy infront or behind (except when I was being lapped) me, and then with 20 minutes I got overtaken by D Nichols, and finally I had an NGT car to chase.  Never got that close though, only really made up time when the leaders came through.

Still, if I can string a good few laps together now, GTR 2 promises to be a lot of fun.

Farewell GTR, hello GTR 2.

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart


Shark, the FTP is full of lapcharts

[Clarey]

Congrats to the winners.  Hope i didn't get in the way too much, spent as much time looking backwards as forwards!

Should have took a faster car, but still enjoyed it.

Roll on the 29th now. (cant make tuesday )

[RS]

Sorry if this is not coherent (hmm spelt right, I'm not sure ?) but i have a couple of problems ....

1) I just drank a bottle of wine in 3 seconds, well it's a box of wine so could be more....(No champagne available!!!) 
2) I cannot see because my cheeks are over my eyes due to the massive grin on my face......!!!

Well after initial practice I was 1 sec up on Mo and was quite optimistic about qually and race and my 2:20.xxx was with race setup and first stint of fuel (40Mins), then on to qually where I couldn't even match my race fuel time even with softs all round, it was through no fault other than seeing Mo's 2.19.1xx and drving like a madman (i.e slower) so had to settle for 2nd.

Race started and I could keep pace with Mo with a reasonable amount of persperation loss, we were both following Grinsomat who was having fun fighting with 'his' lowlife bastardo of the the GT class (GT2 Porker for those who have not tried it). After a couple of laps Mo made a small mistake and I passed him just before Blanchemont (I think he let me through just to pressurise me from behind, you know he likes that ). The race then settled down to a steady 2:21 - 2:22 pace, I say steady just to be 'cool' but really I was sweating big time. my lead was about 9 secs when I thought it would be fun to do a '360' through Eau Rouge, some how the stunt video we once did really helped with the gear changing needed to get back on track, I remained just in front of Mo.......tippy toeing round the track with my tyres on fire and he soon passed me, over a whole lap we were pretty even but I wish I had his car through Eau Rouge and not mine it was hiddeous after the spin and I lost loads of time in just a few laps.

It was then time to pit which went suprisingly with no dramas, well it took a while longer to drop the £50 note off at Mo's pit to stick too much fuel in

I pitted out and it was quiet for a few laps until I passed the S/F to see Mo just leaving his pit stall, I was like 'YYYEEEESSS'  ...... I thought this is it, my first real win all I have to do is drive sensibly for the next 12 laps, which i tried.... Well I have to say that Mo stuck in some great laps in the end, the finsihing times say it all. We started 11(MO) / 12(RS) and finished 6(RS) / 7(MO) less than .5 between us, not bad for an 80 minute race I would say.... Unlucky Mo, anothe lap who knows :'(

Thanks to all the personel here at Simracing for running and moderating the league etc but most of all I would like to thank all the guys in our team for their contribution throughout this season and especially the comentary through this last race at Spa.

BigG
Grinsomat
Pedro Grozni
Andy!!
Barred   

Congratulation to Jeff for the GT win, in the words of Yoda (With you..may the force be.. old friend) 
 
IT'S OFFICIAL I AM WELL P*SSED AND TALKIN B*LLOX!!!!




AGAIN!!!!

[greg130]

Why oh why do certain people (being very polite) insist on trying to win an 80 min race in the 1st min, outbraking themselves and taking others off, you complete muppet !
Thanks to the damage caused I was approx 1.5 secs a lap slower than normal and although I came home in 3rd my slower pace meant it was a bit of a non event for me.

Good to see such a large turnout and big thanks to the guys who pulled over when being lapped.

[Kit-Kat]

Well that was a blast!!

Qly
Set my best time on my first run & thought i did enough for pole! then Jonm got it with 10mins to go over driven the car to try & beat him but no luck!!

Race
Kept up with Jonm on the first flying lap till we came to the bus-stop got a faster line then him through it & made a run on him to La Source hairpin!! dived for the inside line & braked as late as i could!! nice clean pass & went on to keep a nice pace (low 2:13.xxx) after about 10 laps of this Jonm starting applying more pressure so i tried upping my game BUT at this sort of pace i was all ready on the limit!!

Tyers started to go off & lost it at the top of the hill for Les Combes under braking hard as Jonm had a run on me!!
spun & mange to get back on track for 2nd postion!!

Tried pushing hard again BUT tyers where well shot by this time & spun again

Slipped down to 3rd postion till pit-stops where i had taken on to much fuel!! lost another 2 postions!

plodded along in 5th gaining on Ruskus & then losing it on the following lap! till 5 laps to the end caught right up with Ruskus & pushed hard till i spun again!!

had a scary moment with TrueTom as he left the pits to rejoin  

All in all it was a hoot of a race & hard work!!! what away to end such a great game!!

Jonm great close racing for the first 13 laps or so!!
TT was that Hugo-Boss after shave you had on?

See you all in GTR 2

[Truetom]

I use Nivea Balsam    and I saw the number on your windshield doesn't match with the right window number. 
Yes, we really came that close there. 

TT
 

[Don]

It was a good idea to have one final race
In hindsight I wish had done a bit more practice may have resulted in me having a few less spins. I had a prang early on that sent me to the pits with a puncture and lost so much time that my race was effectively over from that point on. Managed to make up a few places from spinners later on in the race but all in all a fairly lonely 80 mins.
Was shocked that I managed to make a set of mediums last 70 mins even with me smoking them on nearly every turn
Grats to the winners and all that came out to play.

[Grinsomat]

Well what to say ?

for the final race I wanted to have spinn with the "pig". I think it was completely the correct decesion, as I love this car !
I knew I would end up as last GT car in Qually ( which wasn`t really that way, 1 was slower, the other guy with big balls --> Will !  )
so pleased with my starting position, behind the GT`s and right in front of the fast drivers of the NGT class, I fellt pretty good .

So everything was going like I planned it.

The start of the race was without any sort of problem to me, The GTs pulled away and I had the NGTs right in my Neck. But knowing the cars straight line speed I wasn`t nervous at all. I loved seeing Paul and Mo apearing bigger in the rearview mirror while braking for turns, and getting smaller by pulling down the hammer ! Like I said I love this car !
after the first 2 laps and everybody was in position I just ran my race with the 2 NGTs right behind me.
Somwhen in lap 4 or 5  I spunn out, droping from Pos 6 back to 11 or 12 !
I loved it, as I thought, yes lets huunt NGTs 

I pushed my 993 and it roared like I love it. I was crawling back Pos by Pos. after 36 mins of the race, I just came back to where I was, overtaking Mo and Paul. I was thinking to myself, ok now easy cruising, keep the car on track and don`t push it to far.............3 corners later the engine died !

Not the ending I was hoping for, but I had a very good last race, and after 12000 laps in GTR, I am willing to say, I will do my last Vid for GTR and wait for GTR2 finding its way on my PC !
Thank you GTR for beeing such a good game those 2 years are gone like it was yesterday I bought it !

Thx to UKGTR leauge moderators , staff and whoever is involved in this ! Cu in GTR2 !
Thx to my teammates for beeing as silly as me !
thx to everybody else I haved raced with !
thx to my wife for letting me race !
thx to.................."aaahhhh shut up Grinso "

ok

thx all