UKGTR Endurance Masters - Donington GP - Jan 7

[LEUVEN]

Dunno what to say, don't think i ever caused so much trouble in a race before, I'm really sorry, especially for Paul, who lost his 1st in class through my fault. :-(

Should've quited in Lap 1 already after touching Ruskus. Had some nice fights as a result and so did Ruskus i presume, but it was a bad omen for the rest of the race.

Don't think I'll bother you again in the next races, have a nice season guys. :-)

Martin, I felt the same way after the first few minutes mate, this track is more difficult than normal as it's extremely hard to pass here, even in different classes.
So as you're a good clean driver I hope you get your chin up and stay :'(, or maybe just quit the NGT's and I'll be happy.  

[Simon Gymer]

That was one tough race. I was not feeling hugely well all day with a sore throat and what feels like the start of a stupid cold and I think this race has just wiped me out now.

Had some good close battles with people but it seemed like everytime you were close with another NGT, a GT would come up to lap you and break it up, was very hard to actually have a proper race with having to let people through nearly every lap from 20 minutes onwards. Not much you can do, Donington is a hard place to let people through and it seemed very busy on track the whole time.

Started off on full fuel again with soft front and medium rear and pitted a bit after half way taking my usual strategy of putting on soft-softs at the stop and only a small amount of fuel. I left my pit box at exactly the same time Paul came by and we drove side-by-side down the pit lane with Paul in his 911. I had to back off though as I had the damned safety car on my side and Paul was clear. He then seemed very hesitant coming out of the pits and maybe some confusion with his pit limiter and I managed to get the run on him down the craner curves to take the place.

Soon caught Pops in his Vertigo and Bernie whilst Paul and I dice liked hell. There were a few moments where I lost sight of Paul and must say sorry for cutting across after the slow chicane at one point after another GT had lapped, quick driving by Paul avoided me. So many things to concentrate on and wasn't thinking straight and cut back with Paul very close. Then tried it into the last corner and locked the brakes and nudged into Paul a couple of laps after he'd done the same with Bernie. Whoops. Was that sort of race.

I was keeping pace with Paul just about 0.6 in front of me and then lapping GTs would lose me more ground and it was a constant battle with trying not to lose too much time as GTs came and lapped me. That's just the way it goes in multi class racing but then near the end Martin got it wrong into the last turn and knocked Paul straight off giving me the lead. Then had to push hard on overheating, worn rubber and more worryingly brakes that just didn't want to stop, but managed to hold off Radius (just) to come over the line somehow 1st in class.

Cheers for the racing, I'm off to collapse.

[Jeffrey]

Qually went better than expected. I kept messing up the last sector, losing around half a second everytime, while being 0.2 up at the first two sectors . But as I said, 2nd was better than expected.

After T1 I was in 8th place, and after that the race was awesome! I had to fight really hard to win back the places I lost. Great battles with Jimmie and James, but especially Mark MC who did an outstanding job in the Viper.

After my pitstop (which was awefully slow ) I had to push hard again, battling with the same drivers. With 20 minutes to go I had Martin behind me, and I was pushing like madd, because he was faster.

I was glad with finishing 2nd.

Grats to Claus for winning the race and almost lapping the whole field, and Simon for taking the NGT win.

Don't quit Martin, sh*t happens. I know you as one of the most fair drivers out there, so no need to feel bad after an unlucky race.

[purdie]

really good racing lads..........(i assume you all are??!!)

...sorry for a mediocre performance in the saleen there! I just started using it, parked up the lambo! for some reason, I lowered my pressure with front mediums and read hards. Fronts never got above 75 degrees!

Lost a lot of time at the start and lost touch with midfield GT's, then coming to lap the NGTs i had no confidence in my car and passed very very badly....sorry guys, six of you all racing and I was being overly polite! especially to poor old Bernie Lomax, I was on the inside to Coppice and I tapped him into gravel...my fault totally...sorry!!!!

my first enduro and i really enjoyed it! and had a great last minute fight at the end with a lambo!!

grats to claus, amazing pace!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Replay and results.

[Paul Richards]

It was me in the pit lane that was in the way. I think I was a handful of seconds up the track to Kerr and I also put in a pit request. I have heard of this problem but the first time I have been one of the cars. Probably a game bug as like it was said there weren't that many cars in the pit.

Good race for me had a steady if not spectacular race pace so quite pleased. Had a great race with my team mate Bri for quite a few laps and luckily was able to take advantage when coming up against the NGT's. Good job all on this hard to overtake track. Was coming up on MAD in the final few minutes but went by as his fuel problems started.

Please stick around Martin these things happen. Besides we need you at 28CDM and I would like to steal some of your setups too!!    

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

It was me in the pit lane that was in the way. I think I was a handful of seconds up the track to Kerr and I also put in a pit request. I have heard of this problem but the first time I have been one of the cars. Probably a game bug as like it was said there weren't that many cars in the pit.

Did you hear the "pit at the end of this lap" message? Or just make the request? Not that I'm sure it makes any difference and of course if Kerr was out of fuel and couldn't go another lap he might have had to queue anyway. (The moral is: never pit with less than a lap of fuel remaining - easier said than done in some of the GTs!)

It's a pity it doesn't allocate a bay as you make the request rather than at the start of the event but that would be harder to code and wouldn't allow for the "proper" pit bays (reflecting the relevant FIA season) to be used.

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[Paul Richards]

Got the fuel warning about half way round the lap and as we were on 45 minutes gone I though ok will pit now. Like you said not sure if the Lambo would make it round a lap and a half!! Pressed the pit request and it got the pit at the end of this lap message.

Like you said Dave I expect that there aren't enough for us all to have one allocated each and the problems occur as it attempts to divide them up between us. Thanks to Kerr for not knocking me out of the pit box although I not sure that would work anyway though as his car had no bonnet at all after hittng me in the pit box but mine didn't have a scratch!!! I guess as soon as the fuel starts to go in it magically turns into a tank.

Cheers again for the organising of this league to all of those involved.

[PaulW]

Engine blew.. I'm just opening the vent right up from now on

Some 'optimistic' GT overtaking on fast corners I thought. Several times I needed to sacrifice my lap in order to make enough room for someone to get by without a problem. Nothing terribly blatant I'd want to report on the replay but important to me nonetheless in my chase of the guy in front.

[FlyBri]

A good race for me had some good battles with kerr, paul richards and jimmie along the way. Very hard to overtake the ngt's let alone the gt's, tight track. Got caught napping by jimmie at the end, had an exciting last few laps as jimmie was pushing me a lot harder than i wanted to go at that point in the race! Pleased with my 6th place.

[Kerr]

Sorry for bumping into you at pit stop Paul. The computer automatically turned into you and i had no idea that was going to happen. I was expecting to drive past you to a free pit space. My pit stop was over 3 minutes in total which obviously would have improved my finish time and position. Lost time waiting and the damage from the bump that should never have had happened

[purdie]

My pit stop was over 3 minutes in total which obviously would have improved my finish time and position. Lost time waiting and the damage from the bump that should never have had happened

wondered why you were so far back kerr.... after a stop/go and a bad first stint i was not ever expecting to see a GT to battle with! Good 3 lap sprint at the end!

[Kerr]

Looking at the lap times, the lap my episode in the pits happened was 4.29 whereas other people's pit stops plus lap, look to have been around 2.40 give or take 10secs. It is fair to say I lost nearly 2 mins. Curious how many positions that would have gained me in the race.

[Paul Richards]

No worries mate it wasn't your fault. It was quite strange watching the front of your car disintegrate against the back of mine which was suddenly made of solid concrete! I guess you were just really unlucky in that we qualified next to each other and then ended up pitting on the same lap, presuming thats how it divides up the pit lanes.