UKAC Season 17 DTM Rnd 10 - Nürburgring - Mar 10

[Jos Ogos]

Not much luck in yesterday's races after a surprising Q2 in front of Tim and behind the mighty Matteos in this series.
In Race 1 https://youtu.be/HIqeGD_o_mI, my 'bold' move to go with Mediums backfired heavily. Whilst the first part of the race went smoothly and I could follow Matteos easily opening a 4 secs gap with teammate Maxime on Hards, the second half of the race went badly. I made a couple of mistakes probably unrelated to the dying Ms. Those contributed to the expiring date of the tyres and I ended up counting the laps to avoid a fight with Tim (who was anyway heavily struggling behind me as well, probably on tyres?).
After the tyre strategy mistake, Race 2 https://youtu.be/r4ver2kNRL4vvv should play much better for me with Hs. I had the pace and thought I could challenge Matteo (with permission from Maxime) in the second round.
All went down the drain after, for the first time ever, jumping the start in AC  
I followed Matteo in P2 after the end of the first lap, drove my drive-through and rejoined the race in P8. That gave me a chance to climb up the ladder and had good battles with Kimi, Jari, and eventually, Fabri that was struggling yesterday for some reason.
The battle with Fabri was of special interest. It was on the wire and team strategy was dictating I should overtake to give Maxime the better chances to end the championship on P3... (Maxime eventually missed P3 in the champ by 3 points 426 vs 429 by Fabri! but, with two turns to go and a chicane, I got in front of Fabri for P4 behind Maxime... I did what I could, mate). Great recovery from the idiotic start and celebrations at the team headquarters
Congrats to podiums and especially to Matteos for his fantastic series and ending up in champ mode.
Forgot to say (before this edit) Thanks a lot to Tim for putting this great series together. It was a treat racing with you all!
See you at the Nords Speciale!
Jos

[Fabri Fibra]

I suffered a lot yesterday. During the previous days I was doing quite well, but yesterday I was very slow. Slower than the event race made before the championship.

I qualified badly, but in race 1 I made a great start and found myself in the top positions. Unfortunately I had an unfortunate contact with Tim. I think it's more my fault, because I thought he was staying behind for that curve, but it was better if I left the room. My evaluation error was that before entering the corner I saw Tim to the side, but behind me. It would have been better to give him 2 meters of space inside anyway.
I had some damages from that contact and it slowed my already bad pace.
In every way, we recovered a few positions during the race and I had a good fight with Syd, with his private Alfa.

Race 2: I fought with Maxime for several laps, trying to defend myself as best I could, until he finally passed me.
The last laps were terrible and I couldn't resist to Jos, in a great comeback.

An excellent championship, well organized, hard fought and with very balanced cars despite the different characteristics.

Congratulations to Matteo for dominating the championship in almost all of races and for leading the Alfa to victory. Just like Larini in '93.

Congratulations to Tim for the second place, not easy with an unconvincing Mercedes, and for having organized the championship so well.

Congratulations to Maxime and Jos, the Sierra Boys, for fighting like lions!

As for me, a mediocre season. With perhaps the only decent races in Finland, which allowed me to keep my place in the official team Alfa, but with a lowering of the contract (given the bad results).
Also I always suffer the format in two races. 

I hope the music changes with the F1 '60s 

[Jos Ogos]

As for me, a mediocre season. With perhaps the only decent races in Finland, which allowed me to keep my place in the official team Alfa, but with a lowering of the contract (given the bad results).

Great post, Fabri, and congrats on your well-deserved champ P3.

Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to sound your manager out. I've heard rumors that Alfa's team's principal is having a lot of pain in renegotiating the contract with 'big shot' Matteos after last season's results and they are looking for younger and cheaper talent for next year's squad. To a great extent just to satisfy 'big shot's demands...  
You don't need to worry about the Sierra boys though, we are well managed at team ford, but there are a few fast beemers (have you come across a kaifos Russell??) that couldn't show their full potential this past season and are eager to jump into the Alfa team.
Previous champ Tim is also unhappy with the Merc's performance but rumors are that Matteo already banned him from joining the team in last year's contract. So just the beemers...
 

[spanner]

I may have had limited enjoyment in the series but I appreciate the efforts Tim, which clearly resulted in a some good racing upfront.

My thing has never been old, low grip cars I just don't have the feel for sliding cars that others seem to do! So may not be around much on Wednesdays!

[IbnSolmyr]

I may have had limited enjoyment in the series but I appreciate the efforts Tim, which clearly resulted in a some good racing upfront.

My thing has never been old, low grip cars I just don't have the feel for sliding cars that others seem to do! So may not be around much on Wednesdays!

  It's a bit sad to read Spanner (sorry I'm not sure about your name). Might be related to your racing stuff, or its settings ? Do you have 3 pedals yet ? A H-pattern gearshift ? Then about the driving, couldn't some people here be of any kind of help ?

[Manteos]

A couple of good closing rounds by my side without any major mistake.

I had some luck in race 2 about Jos' misfortune for the jump start, because I'd have probably some busy time from 7th lap on, but we'll never know it unfortunately

I want to thanks everyone for showing up in this great series that provided great racing in some way.

Thumbs up to Tim for arranging this great champ and for your 2nd place in the champ

Many thanks to my faithful Fabri "Nannini" for helping me during the champ. Without his strenous fights my work would have been much more complicated Well done for your 3rd place mate

And well done to the Sierra boys that spiced the things up throughout the champ. Great team effort for you 2!

Unfortunately I guess I cannot join the Nordschleife special of next week, but I'll be back soon

[spanner]

I may have had limited enjoyment in the series but I appreciate the efforts Tim, which clearly resulted in a some good racing upfront.

My thing has never been old, low grip cars I just don't have the feel for sliding cars that others seem to do! So may not be around much on Wednesdays!

  It's a bit sad to read Spanner (sorry I'm not sure about your name). Might be related to your racing stuff, or its settings ? Do you have 3 pedals yet ? A H-pattern gearshift ? Then about the driving, couldn't some people here be of any kind of help ?

Thanks for caring!
I don't have a H-shifter, I've always had 3 pedals, just never used the clutch pedal. Always ran autoclutch. This does all make downshifting feel awkward. I think though it comes down to FFB; in modern high grip high downforce cars the FFB change is noticeable between driving with no slip and when the rears do start to slide. In the older cars, with more compliant tyres, no downforce the tyres have a lower grip limit and so the drop off or lightening of the FFB isn't so noticeable, especially when the fronts tend to be sliding a lot anyway again, because of the lack of noticeable loading through the steering.

[FullMetalGasket]

I'll be honest - that sounds like too much understeer to me.
In older cars you need to turn earlier and more gently than in modern stuff, this is part of why I use trail braking so such.
If you perform a traditional powerslide you should have loads of pull from the FFB as you start to slide unless in a dodgy mod.

Take the 911 RSR's (1970's version of course!) out for a spin, they may not be massively heavy on the wheel compared to some modern GT's but should be telling you everything that's going on.

If you're going in hard, the car doesn't turn for ages and there's no real FFB you've probably gone in too fast

[IbnSolmyr]

Qualif : I completely missed this one, even knowing I was in H as usual with this car. Not a single flying lap.

R1 : Thanks to the couple of incidents ahead, I was P3 in a matter of a few turns. But Matteo and Jos were quite far ahead. Their softer tyres were making them quick. I focused on my pace and eventually reached Jos as expected due to the crossing of the tyres potential curves. He didn't defend himself much.   Then was making a gap but for Matteo, there was no other hope than a mistake from him. P2 so.

R2 : I wasn't ready when the countdown started to urge me, this resulted in a very bad start, ending up in 6th position (?). I then had to battle with a couple of mates before a fight with Fab as his championship contender. That 1st attempt at the chicane wasn't an attempt by the way, I just got surprised by your quite early braking while I was back from a mouse repositioning !!   I've always been bothered by that damn mouse which triggers as soon as my deck moves a tiny bit - which happens very easily as you may have guessed. So I have to put it upside down before the race, what I easily forget to do.
I will make a true checklist in order to stop forgetting all these little things that make you well or not well in an event. (The worst thing is when I forget to get some clothes off while I know I'll be in sweat after a few laps only !)
Then Tim, again, was too far to be caught.

If I had been able to catch him though, and thanks to my teammate good work, I'd have had this 3rd rank in the championship (?) as we'd both have been @429pts but with some wins on my side. Can Tim confirm this is the way he/da system decides between 2 contenders ?

Great season of close racing, many thanks to Tim for organizing and building it for us. Sorry to have been unenthusiastic at first, that was a very nice season in spite of those quite ugly cars. 

And of course CONGRATS to the WINNER Matteo !!!   to Tim and Fabri for their good fighting spirit with their 2nd and 3rd ranks respectively.
Special congrats to my dear teammate Jos for his 5th rank, with 2 great wins ! Thank you mate for your support, and your kindness towards my beloved cats !  

And thank you all for some nice and clean racing !