UKGTR GT Sprint - Donington GP 2004 - Jan 16

[Aagramn]

That was bl**dy hard work. My display locked up during qual. Hope I didn't get in anyone's way, took me a couple seconds to find esc. Had to reboot, got back with a few minutes left and got an OK'ish lap in, but ended up 22nd. The standard was amazingly high with hordes or drivers in the 1:25s or better.

At the start of the race I had a lot of problems with warp and stationary cars, rarely seen it so bad. After a particularly bad stutter I started getting blue flag warnings all over the place, which was very distracting. Made me brake far too early on a couple occasions. I think we should reduce the player limit to 26 again, once a couple people dropped out nearly all of my problems went away.

Had some good battles through the field. Eventually worked my way up into a points position. Madd was catching me at the end, and I was coming around to lap Gerald. He let me past cleanly and I was able to hang on until the line, thx Gerald. 

[Madd-RIP]

Now that was a close mid grid!    Quali went ok was only 0.2s off my pb, I seem to have reached a plateau with times lately, had scraps with a few people all race, Kerr at the start with Shark close behind then i locked up into Hairpin and dropped a few spots (as per usual :'( )

But then had a major scrap with Aagramn, Enzo and most notably Mark Jonzo, we were separated by less than 3/4 of a second for almost 20 laps (I think?) I nearly lost it a few times but just managed to hang on.

Brilliant clean, close stuff Mark, a real pleasure! 
Must increase my bribe to Gerald next time Aagramn!  But Gerald was most courteous to Mark and myself also.

[CeeJay]

Great tight field. Had same prob as in endurance event getting grip in the tires fast enough, just when it started to work I went a bit off sideways after clipping the curb on the exit from Old Hairpin, dropped to 2nd then, and now trying to find a way past Freqs Lambo. I could really tell he was on the limit smoking on all corners
Managed to get a run outside under Starkeys Bridge and was inside then for McLean and a pass.
Then managed to slowly put some air between us, and with the battle royale going on behind I could keep it to to end.

[Mark J]

What a fantastic race  ...and such little reward    We really need more points allocation with so many top drivers now in the league...us privateers need encouragement against the works teams  

Had a good qually, getting a hard earned 15th, even with a 1:25.6  , the places were very tight down to about 20th.

Race start was okay, kept tight as i could on 2 24-7 cars ahead of me, one got out of shape up at Mcleans after a couple of laps and as i tried to sneak up the inside i think he came back across and i went off grass cutting like a hovercraft   Re-joined a few places down and got back into the mix where i got another nudge down at Melbourne? and lost more time and places, ending up about 23rd !  
Then chased like a man possessed as knew my setup was good and gradually got past a stack of cars until having an epic battle with Jan Dujis in his Saleen , t'was gripping stuff, glued to his rear wing for lap after lap without any contact, just great clean racing. His Saleen was handling amazingly but i felt he was struggling on certain corners and kept the pressure high until forcing him to brake a tad late down at the Foggarty Esses chicane, and i stroked past giving Jan as much berth as possible
I then shot off like a rocket after Madd and caught him after several laps but getting past him was going to be incredibly hard as our cars seemed identically matched on the track and its so hard to overtake here. We had a cracking fight to the finish line for something like 15 minutes (it seemed) , thoroughly enjoyed another great and clean fight. I tried all sorts of lines and braking points to get him to make an error but he drove sublimely  
Brought the shiny new Legends 550 in at 15th but felt like a top 6 fight the whole race !   might have been higher if it wasnt for the early incidents  
Awesome race Well done to the podium guys  

[Simon Gymer]

Provisional results and replay.

I'd like to congratulatate Michael, aka Aagramn on having 7 entries in the exports. I think it's a record! 
(Thanks Blimey for sorting out your exports so well! 6 duplicate drivers, with Aagramn being written with 6 erroneous entries, brilliant.) 

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

With same problems as Simon, but this is unofficial, so I can get away with it

[Simon Gymer]

I qualified with what I thought was not bad going for an online lap time in the 1:25s, but I was amazed to see nearly everyone else too doing 1:25s. There was a second covering such a large portion of the grid. Started 18th!

First GT car I've tried properly so far that I've felt pretty comfortable with and so was planning to just take it easy(ish) , stay out of trouble and bring it home hopefully with a point or two.

Dunno what the game was thinking but it was a bit chaotic for the first half of the race with stationary cars appearing at random mostly down the craner curves and the start finish straight. Got damned lucky avoiding all of them, but it was pretty ridiculous. The game obviously cannot cope with 28 cars, so either Blimey should fix it or reduce their max limit. We can't run with 28 again.

Not sure I overtook anyone in a proper overtake maneover the whole race and just kept picking up places as people threw their cars off, exploded their engines or in some way came a cropper. Tyres held up nicely and my slightly conservative race setup served me well with a no frills, solid display. Was really chuffed to finished 7th from 18th on the grid, with my first points in the GT Sprint and some team points for Team Shark Junior to boot! (Minus 20% of course - ho hum. LOL).

[Aagramn]

I'd like to congratulatate Michael, aka Aagramn on having 7 entries in the exports. I think it's a record! 

Wayhey!   Did you take the best time, or just add them all together?  

[Simon Gymer]

Wayhey!  Did you take the best time, or just add them all together? 

0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + "real entry" is not hard. 

I reckon the game loved the Team Shark Junior F550 skin so much it wanted to record it lots of times. 

[Radius]

Sry Paul that my car was frozen on track...i came across 2 cars as well in the same way....and there was lots of smoke out there, black and white! haha

So i was gonna race the Lister and from praccy i would've been 7th or 8th with it which wasn't bad, but the times and pace were that good up front i couldn't resist not joining in 

Rus jokingly called me a wimp but i guess he was scared  ..adn rightly so 

So onto the incredible battles for 40 mins with FreQ, JonM, Rus (and Jimmie for a little while  ) First few laps were tight with drivers being carefull on cold tires and brakes, then FreQ passed CJ but he was re-passed and held myself, and Jon up which felt like forever and not once could i unleash more pace from my car..Rus went off and then caught us up but theres just no place to pass and the driving was way too good.

I mean for 40mins at that speed, 4 drivers racing within 1 sec without touching ONCE is just pure skill and class!!!

So when freQ couldn't handle the pressure, made a slight mistake and Jon ceased it with both arms/wheels and as i was closing fast i thought this is my chance i saw a small gap and took it driving on the outside of freQ for two corners..that was great 

One of the best races by far and i thank you!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Surprised nobody has mentioned Radius's sneaky last minute change of team...

[Radius]

Oh there was lots of surprised faces and comments during praccy   All in good faith of course.

If nothing else, im getting faster Just a pity i slaved on making 24-7 cars adn now i drive stock standards huhuhu

[RS]

Congratulations to Radius on his 2nd place, well deserved !!!

[Paul Cowan]

Was looking forward to this and had the pace for a good top ten I thought. Was experimenting with setups tweaks in qually when I got a phone call from a relative.

Grats to the winner, sounded like a great race from the posts here. ( my first chance to race in my skin as well, ho hum)

[jan duijs]

Everyone enjoyed themselves last night so it seems and i am not the exception Great battle with MJ ,eventually he got passed and i never saw him back again .Like alot of people i changed cars ( seldom do that but the Viper engine is just not reliable enough,blew it the last couple of races whilst reved down 300!!)
Took the Saleen( soundpack ) ,quite nice to drive but no enough pace(in my hands ) to come in midfield ,will stick with it ,i think it will be fun to drive at Monza .Smartest choice would be the 550,yes i can do 1.25 low with it at Donington but the sound and the dashboard are just terrible

Jan