UKGTL Season 20 Fun Races - Suzuka - May 4

[Dimitar Dulichki]

Later on in the race Dimitar hit me again at almost the same spot as before but this time he decided not to wait for me to recover my lost place  

I though that you turned too early Tony and that maybe caused the collision that time and that was the reason i wasnt waiting this time. As you can see on the replay i was making an attack there. But still all my fault  looking at the replay.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Later on in the race Dimitar hit me again at almost the same spot as before but this time he decided not to wait for me to recover my lost place  

I though that you turned too early Tony and that maybe caused the collision that time and that was the reason i wasnt waiting this time. As you can see on the replay i was making an attack there. But still all my fault  looking at the replay.

No probs

[salesman]

So much fun yesterday! When i passed the first corners and reached the 5th place i was excited! after the first half of the race everybody found better pace than me so i lost 4 places! It hurts to finish behind nocatu again  ! These cars are awsome, Loved the Celica!

[Erling G-P]

I don't remember the last time I was in a GTL race. There is documentary evidence of a Le Mans 24 hour race on youtube (search for GBGTL) in which I took part maybe around 2007, which also included Erling and Dan. Around that time I also did a series or two with Minis only, where we had our own personal skins and I think Geoffers was in that too.
So I installed it last week, thought I'd try online and all went well.

Hi Andy, very long time no see 

Just watched that video again; so nice to be reminded of some long forgotten names and to see all those great skins again!    And what a great video Michael Boylan put together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSJYVIpC6uk

Hope you'll continue racing with us Andy

[Wiltshire Tony]

Saw the name Pete Stenning in that video. Seems to ring a bell with me but know idea where from?

[EvilClive]

Pete Stenning ran/moderated/organised GBGPL ( and I think GBGTL too?) and that was at a time when UKGPL and perhaps UKGTL was running alongside. It would appear that both GPL and GTL were more popular back in 2007.
I recall that I started my GPL online career around that time and drove in both UK and GB options.

Andy will perhaps back me up on this...as I recall GBGPL was suffering from dwindling numbers, but there was still a die hard core of drivers who made a good effort to maintain a viable grid. Then suddenly Pete Stenning just vanished   and there was no further communication from him.

Pete promoted GPL, GTL and R-racing too, and organised races much as Tony does here at UKGTL. I hope Tony is not abducted by aliens 

[SpecialKS]

Result

[Geoffers]

Saw the name Pete Stenning in that video. Seems to ring a bell with me but no idea where from?

Pete was the man who ran GBGTL, I think he did the odd race here & possibly NoGrip in the early days of GT Legends. I seem to remember his girlfriend used to race too, but can't remember her name.

Good to see Andy join us last night, Clive had mentioned you before & your name was familiar, but could not recall where we had raced. There were 3 Mini series running in the early days of GTL, GBGTL as you mentioned, Gamers Crib & TRM also ran Mini races, that's why I became a bit of a Mini specialist.

Good race last night. Chose the Mazda because I remembered racing it many moons ago at NG & quite liking it. Managed to unearth the setup I had for it, loaded it up & gave it a run. OMG, it was awful, almost undriveable, how I drove it before I have no idea. Anyway scrapped that setup & started again & got a reasonably good handling if a little tricky car.

A close race with Hristo looked in prospect, didn't materialise though, got away in front & noticed Hristo was at the back of the field half way around the first lap. Had Erling close for a few laps until I got into the groove & eased away. Not much else to report until the final lap when I spun at Degner2 & stalled the engine, got going still with a handy lead only to go off again at the hairpin  . Just got back on track before Erling came through and held on to win by just a couple of seconds.

Grats to Erling & Hristo on the podium.  

[Wiltshire Tony]

Result

Thanks Kurt 

[Hristo Itchov]

A very disappointing race for me, after so much promise in testing and qualifying. I tried all 3 cars, but didn't really give the Mazda a chance because of its odd handling with the default setup and terrible engine sound. Turns out it was very quick around here. I managed to make the Toyota just as quick, but it took a lot of sliding around, which if you overdid it even slightly, spun the car around with no chance to catch it.

I botched my start, not realizing how short 1st actually was, and then Tony braked too late, tapped the car on my right, I went left to avoid getting collected and couldn't change direction quick enough to avoid going off the track. Lost 10 seconds in the process and from there on I had to take huge risks in each corner to somehow try to catch up to the leaders.

Managed to overtake everyone until 4th, then Dan (I think) just let me through without much fighting, and so I was now 14 seconds behind Geoffers and about 10-12 behind Erling. I was about a second quicker, but only if I drove absolutely on the limit, which not only worked against tyre preservation, but also meant a spin was inevitable sooner or later.

After the spin happened, I thought I still had a chance for 2nd, but after a string of 5-6 clean fast laps, I spun again, which ended my challenge. The last 2 laps were a torture because of the worn out tyres, but at least I had enough of a gap back to 4th to compensate for other offs I had on my way to the finish.

Congrats to Geoffers and Erling for a stellar race and to everyone who survived until the end!

[Erling G-P]

Saw the name Pete Stenning in that video. Seems to ring a bell with me but no idea where from?

Pete was the man who ran GBGTL, I think he did the odd race here & possibly NoGrip in the early days of GT Legends. I seem to remember his girlfriend used to race too, but can't remember her name.

Good to see Andy join us last night, Clive had mentioned you before & your name was familiar, but could not recall where we had raced. There were 3 Mini series running in the early days of GTL, GBGTL as you mentioned, Gamers Crib & TRM also ran Mini races, that's why I became a bit of a Mini specialist.

I believe Pete's girlfriend was the Rebecca Harrod also featured in the driver list, but could be mistaken.  It is however the only female name I can remember seeing back then.

Also just noticed that the Corvette driven by my team mate Ian Traynor (when I was in our 906), was called the Irn Bru Corvette.  Back then it didn't mean anything to me, but after visiting Scotland some years ago, I learnt what it was.  Became quite fond of the stuff 

Remember a quote by Ian at one point, when he went straight from our 906 to the '65 Corvette.  Moments later he was sitting in one of the sand pits, contemplating how he had moved from precision instrument to blunt object... 

[AndyL]

I don't remember Pete ever mentioning a partner. I think Rebecca was Michael Boylan's partner (and they shared the same car too). I took part in the first seasons of GBGPL and GBGTL and stayed with them until after Pete left some years later. He had trouble running GPL on his computer near the end and quit in frustration. Jani Posta took up the running of the league and renamed it Groundhog after a while. He still runs some GPL races and collates results from many leagues on his website GPLWeekly.
Pete continued to have an online presence away from GPL. He ran a stockcar league. I don't remember which sim that was. I see that with the current real life UK stockcar seasons suspended, the real F1 and F2 drivers are taking part in online races, livestreamed and with commentary through UKDirt on rFactor. I don't think GBGTL lasted more than 3 seasons as people were lured away by PnG and rFactor.

[Erling G-P]

I don't remember Pete ever mentioning a partner. I think Rebecca was Michael Boylan's partner (and they shared the same car too). I took part in the first seasons of GBGPL and GBGTL and stayed with them until after Pete left some years later. He had trouble running GPL on his computer near the end and quit in frustration. Jani Posta took up the running of the league and renamed it Groundhog after a while. He still runs some GPL races and collates results from many leagues on his website GPLWeekly.
Pete continued to have an online presence away from GPL. He ran a stockcar league. I don't remember which sim that was. I see that with the current real life UK stockcar seasons suspended, the real F1 and F2 drivers are taking part in online races, livestreamed and with commentary through UKDirt on rFactor. I don't think GBGTL lasted more than 3 seasons as people were lured away by PnG and rFactor.

I think you're right regarding Rebecca, come to think about it.

[SpecialKS]

Interesting stories. Didn't know that there a GBGTL existed, that was before my time.

For me all started with GTLDK back in 2010 I think  

BTW: found another small GBGTL video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PxIkiRc2z8

 

[Wiltshire Tony]

If anyone still has skins from BITD I would love to add them to my "library".