UKGTR Season 4 Endurance Academy - Monza (GP) - Jan 28

[Joss]

Just checked the replay and couldn't see any warm up lap contact. I'm glad for that at least. Watching the NGT's struggling to keep up showed what a bad formation lap it was. Really sorry peeps 
I feel a right tit now, especially after telling Locotus to sort his pit limiter thing out at Zhuhai! Man do I have egg on my face now.

Onto more pleasant things. Start was good and managed to leap into a 3 second lead after Nug's mistake at the second chicane. Tried to get into a rythym from there but was:
a: Not getting into a rythym
b: Making silly errors

Was only by about lap 5 when I started getting it together. I run a strange setup with mediums all round at Monza, I like the neutral feeling and stability it gives when pushing but it's awful if you back off too much, as the fronts go cold and you lose all front grip. When I'm pushing they are 70-80, not pushing they drop to 60-70. Not good. Once I got in the groove it seemed OK. Short shifted for a while to be gentle to the engine and pushed in bursts once the fuel load lightened. Quite uneventful from there.

Well done to all finishers and again on polite NGT's. I made a mess of lapping Dave round the Lesmo's - I decided to wait and pass on the straight as I had a lead of over a minute at the time, and he decided to let me past on the entrance....doh!

I find short/shifting works best for reliability Kerr, that and lowering the rev limit and opening more radiator holes. And you were in a class of your own at Donington - swings and roundabouts mate 
Edam showed just how fast swiss cheese can be! 
And Nug was super fast but also quite erratic. I think the term "it's faster to be slower" applies here. If you concentrate on being smooth and less jumpy on the throttle, you'll go faster over a longer distance imho.
Sorry if I'm sounding like a big headed idiot here, just trying to help fellow racers out.

Also, well done to Luke and Ruskus on the class wins. And damn Ruskus for beating my best time @ Monza in the GT2 - not happy!   

See you in the Sprint 


edit:

Then again on the final lap, just when I was finally starting to catch Luke he came to lap me again and that took away any final slim chance to catch him - though he'd got past Munkez so probably not.

Good god, I was a tit in the race. Sorry again and again. I would have happily waited until the straight but thought I was being let through. Argh

[Adam Parle]

Very poor start for me, and then the f*****g fps problems returned.

Will be shopping for a new system this week, sod the expense.

[Blunder]

What a great race!?
Was a little off my PB in Qualie but didn't really matter as it would have made little difference to my position on the grid!?
I'm left wondering if I chose the right strategy1?
Decided to run a very long first stint using lots of fuel and hard tyres on the basis that my pit stop would be quick!?
Unfortunately! there always seems to be an unfortunately!! ??
I put too much fuel in and also didn't take into account that the GT's would be faster and the total number of laps I would run would be less!?
So lap times were a challenge the first half ! I wasn't gonna be the last of the late brakers and didn't fight too hard with Picnic!?
Then had lots of good battles particularly with Munkez! I was looking at the unofficial laptimes etc. and I'm sure we overtook each other 6+ times!?
Was very dissapointed when you span at the 2nd chicane!? That would have been the perfect finish battling with you to the line!?
Was flying after the pit stop with new tyres and little fuel but was all a little too late!?

Congrats to all!? Very clean racing, GT's went past with not the slightest problem.
I didn't want this to end! How about a 2 hour one!!??

M.

[Truetom]

Joined in G2, finished 6th, right behind (1 minute    ) Rusky. After Mo and Pops left I was all alone there in class.  Was bored so I decided to hotlap a while, got a pb in race trim 1.47.0xx, only half a sec higher then quali time. 
After pitting I started to overrev the engine (rev limiter set on max), wanted to see how long it'll last. Went to rev limiter as many times as I could and it blew up right after finish. Was smoking black for half the last lap. I guess you can easily shift at two reds through the whole race and not blow it up. Very durable engine.   
To my surprise I found GT2 Piggy easy to drive, even lowered wing to 3 for the race. But had the front wing at 2. Tried 1/3 but it wouldn't turn in so I stayed at 2/3. Nice car.

I didn't see any extreme situations where G2s were inhibiting Academy race, GTs or NGTs. Might be 'cause we (I) were extra cautious. As it should be, being guests and all.   

TT

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I didn't see any extreme situations where G2s were inhibiting Academy race, GTs or NGTs.

You were all pretty much on the pace with the GTs so letting you by was no harder than the GT cars.

The speed difference was scarey though - at one point I checked my mirror a few seconds before braking for the first chicane - nothing. Then on the exit I suddenly realised there was a GT car right there - not closing but right up my tail pipes! That was a wake up call I can tell you!

[Don]

Fairly consistant race for me. Lost my usual few spots early on, then managed to settle down a bit. Was just about able to keep up with Picnic but put a wheel on the grass at the Parabolica and never saw him again.
Pit stop went well and clawed back a couple of spots with a quick stop for tyres only.
Second half of the race I was a little nervous about having enough fuel to make it to the end, started doing a lot of short shifting just to make sure I could get there and finished with 3 litres left onboard
Great drive by all the Ngt's ahead of me had no chance of catching any of you!
Thanks also to the GT and G2 boys for being so patient and grats to ALL on the podium.

btw. Picnic and Dave I'd love to have a butchers at your TVR set for this track, pure genius.

[Truetom]

I didn't see any extreme situations where G2s were inhibiting Academy race, GTs or NGTs.

You were all pretty much on the pace with the GTs so letting you by was no harder than the GT cars.

I guess G2 is right in the middle between GT and NGT - at least when I'm in it.  
I wanted to pass NGTs so that I wouldn't have any influence on their speed. Even with 3 long straights I wasn't always able to do it and I backed off a few times - mostly 'cause of longer braking distance. I found I had the most success when accelerating from low speed - right after the first chicane. On the other hand I saw similar situations with GTs behind me, I had to ease off to avoid potentialy dangerous corner entry situations.
Its nice to drive just for the sake of it for a change, no pressure for points, etc. Too bad Pops and Mo quit, was looking forward to some close racing.    Maybe another time.  

TT  

[Nug]

It was a bad race for me, I didnt get much practice at Monza and although I had good pace, my consistancy was all over the place! (just like my Lambo). After serveral spins and down to 5th I had my work cut out. The car was still ok even after I nudged the tyre wall so I began to push to make up time. After around 10 laps I had somehow got back into second place (I DO NOT KNOW how I managed to miss Kerr when he span accross the middle of the track!) and I could keep the car on the track.

FreQ was 30 seconds infront at this point and I was managing to keep it like that. I started the race with a full tank and pitted at the very last moment. Pit stop went ok, topped up the gas and put fresh ones on. All seemed well... Until... the second chicaine of the outlap... BOOM! (I guess running with RPMs at 7800 is not a good idea!).

In short, I was happy with the pace, but disappointed with my consistancy.

Well done to all winners, and thanks to all NGTs for making life easy.

[popabawa]

Well, me and the GT2 are not a match made in heaven. I struggled with it quite a bit. The other GT2 drivers seemed to be doing a lot better, I was waaay off their pace

I span going into into the first chicane after about 10 laps leaving me in a really nasty spot, I could see the lead NGT's starting to bear down on me so I quit rather than than risk getting in anyone's way.

[Jeffrey]

Pretty lonely race for me, but still somehow enjoyable. just like TT, I had wings 1-3 at first, but as the 993 is already an understeeringpig, I thought why make it any worst  . So also changed to 2-3.

The first few laps I had Will close to me, but I didn't want to fight him too much, so after I messed up Lesmo 2, I lifted off when he was alongside me at the straight after Lesmo 2.

After that I was alone, only gaining places by people dropping out (Blown engine in T1  ).
I was also very carefull with lapping people, as I didn't want to have any influence on the outcome of the race or season. Sometimes I followed NGT's around for half a lap, before I tried to overtake. I often had to back off attempts, as the GT2 isn't that much faster than NGT's on astraight line (maybe 10 mph top speed diff). And knowing that the GT2 doesn't brake unless you throw out an anker, I had to try to overtake by drafting and being passed halfway down the straights, as I needed soem room for my earlier braking.

The sever wasn't very busy when I joined (18), so letting masters join in G2 or G3 class could be fun.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I had to try to overtake by drafting and being passed halfway down the straights, as I needed soem room for my earlier braking.

"past" - isn't English a funny language. "passed" would mean the opposite!

[Jeffrey]

  Okay, I'll speak Dutch next time 

[Kerr]

Watch replay as 1320 Nug and see how close we were! Replay looked like I thought. I was through bend and suddenly the car snapped throwing me off. Must have been millimeters from a big accident.

Thankfully, luckily no contact and no damage done.

Watching replay at times you could see how much my car was struggling for acceleration. A few 911'a and BMW's moved over between Lesmo 1 and 2 and I never had enough acceleration to pass them. Didn't think my gear ratio changes would make such a difference. Why my tyre temperatures were so low is beyond me.

[Jeffrey]

Why my tyre temperatures were so low is beyond me.

Hards are useless, unless you want to make a reeeeeeaaally long stint. But as the Lambo can only drive for around 45 minutes on a full fuel tank, hards are not the best option.
Also the long straight at Monza "cool" the tyres down a bit. Much less heavy than a twisty track like Valencia. I haven't had a single "tyre worn" message at Monza yet, which I usually get 5-10 minutes before the end of every stint .

[will16v]

The first few laps I had Will close to me, but I didn't want to fight him too much, so after I messed up Lesmo 2, I lifted off when he was alongside me at the straight after Lesmo 2.

Yes, thanks for that, just a shame i couldn't keep up!!
I made a few mistakes myself with the braking points into Lesmo 1, and eventually the engine went - running at 7800 rpm...back to the drawing board with the set-ups then!

Amazing pace in the porker btw 

Good stuff!

Also, i liked the added component of some of the Masters drivers competing, i would welcome this on a regular basis, if the server cannot be filled by registered Academy drivers.