UKGTR Season 4 Endurance Academy - Barcelona (GP) - Feb 25

[linco24]

Really enjoyed that, apart from the start. I think it was chunky who went in front of me on the formation lap. Wasn't sure I should have just taken my position but in the end I looked away when I heard a noise in the room, got wheels on the grass and ended up starting at the back of the grid. Battled well and got into 11th. I think I made it up behind Picnic, maybe Dave but couldn't get past. Just didnt have those few extra lengths. A lengthy pit stop saw me fall behined on time but kept it well on the second half, made some nice laps and pushed a few people for position. And I dont mean that literally!

Congrats to everyone and the champ!

Colin

[Adam Parle]

Holy **** that was hard work.  Never EVER will I take the M3 at Barcelona again.  It felt like a totally different car the the one I've been driving for the rest of the season, understeering loads, especially after the tyres wore in a bit.

Pretty happy with my quallifying, 1:44.4 I think, started okay in the race (drove under a somersaulting MC12 I think it was), but couldn't keep up with anyone.  One by one everyone went past.  Had a very long first stint, and then with 30mins to go enough was enough.

Cocked up the pitstop - again.  Didn't put any fuel in, but being so slow (I think I only managed one sub 1:47 lap in the race  ) it nearly didn't matter.  Coasted into the pits with no fuel at the end, put 10 litres in .... and saw the chequered flag as I was on my way down the pit lane!

Congrats DG, a very consistent season .... well deserved winner .... now dissapear off to the Masters to give someone else a chance at podiuming!!! 

[Kerr]

Great race everyone.

Just noticed that Freq and edamspeed are equal on points now. Could not have been closer. I guess Freq gets the championship as he won more rounds?

Well done regardless, both great drivers!!

Some nice racing tonight Freq. Before the pit stop I just could not get closer to you at all. Car felt even better after pit stop and after you made mistake I caught right up. It was a food fight for a few laps with about 20min to go and will look good in replay.

Glad to end season on a high note and will be here for the fun races I can make, and hopefully next season I can get full time status for events other that sprint masters

[EdamSpeed]

Bloody hell that was hard work! Couldn't match Brian or Freq for pace in qualy, so settled for third. Barcelona isn't my favourite track, and I've never been able to make the Saleen go any faster than a low 1:38, so well done you guys for the qualifying times!

Was holding 3rd for the first couple of laps, then made a serious noob mistake. The setup for the Saleen I am using is a bit of a pig with a tank full of fuel, and I ended up understeering off at the last corner, and played about in the sand for a while. "That's it, game over" I thought.

Anyway, managed to battle back up the field a little. Got past cej's Saleen first, then leap-frogged lincescom in the pits. Lincescom gave me a serious challenge in the 2nd half of the race - we were running very close at some points, and I hope I didn't close the door too much on you mate 

At the end, was glad to have held 3rd after the above challenge, but I was over a minute down on Freq and not really catching up at all, so 3rd was as high as I was going to get, without Freq or Brian having a serious problem.

Must confess I have no idea of the points situation now, but I'm thinking Freq has pipped me to the championship. If this is indeed the case, I can only say the better man won in the end - well done Freq

EDIT: Forgot to say, really really really well done and thank you! to all the NGT drivers - you were superb tonight - everyone held their line perfectly or got out of the way, and I thought it was very well behaved by everyone

[Kerr]

I get 15, Freq gets 12 and you get 10. You were 2 ahead, means equal!!

[Munkez]

Race started terribly when i came flying around turn 2 to find a Ferrari 360 of Monkey? heading towards me on track after he had some kind of contact with another car. Suffered severe aero damage to the front of my car and was surprised it was able to carry on

Sorry mate, not sure what happened in front of me, was following a BMW if i remember right through the first couple of turns he took the wide line outside due to an accident which I didnt see and i had nowhere to go! got caught up in it all hitting a car that was sideways across the track! next thing i know I'm watching you approach at some speed hitting me at the front..... (doing exactly what i had just done!) limped back to the pits with aero damage and a puncture to carry on.

Now a lap down chase down and unlap myself from the G3 cars and quickly caught up with Don surprised me so much when flashing his lights to over take miss my braking point and let him back through (thanks for being so courteous)

Sorry for all the smoke 4 laps from the end, I was sure if i had pitted would have lost a place so short shifted kept the revs low and finished!

[picnic]

Replay and Provisional Results

Provisional congratulations to Freq and 28CD on the GT championships, and bad luck to Edam. Also to Dave and Team Shark in NGT, real tough Luke not a satisfactory way to settle a championship.

You might want to check the results Dave, your import program seems to have diddled you 2 points for tonights 3rd  Both you and me have been given 8 points.

[EdamSpeed]

Provisional congratulations to Freq and 28CD on the GT championships, and bad luck to Edam.

 

Well, congratulations Freq, you deserve it - great driving!

[John]

Well congrats to me for actually finishing a race.
Its been a while.
In all fairness i should have been out on the 1st turn as Luke came straight across,and i went through him.
Taking me off,and rejoining near the back.
But i stuck with it and made my way back through the pack.
Didn't notice the damage on my car until i pulled into the pits.
One hell of a dent.
Thought i was getting some understeer,but i put that down to pushing hard.
And congrates to Dave.
Also Congrates to Dave on his pitstop and Picnic.
Couldn't figger out how you both got back in front me.
You'll have to let me in on your strategy.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Shame to finish off the championship that way,car went off in front of me and I had no where to go,got hit left,right and centre,would of liked to actually get past the first few corners  :'( after getting fastest time in quallifying  :'(
Congrats to Dave,really would of had a good chance to get the championship off you......

I was both relieved and gutted to see what happened - it wasn't a fitting end to the championship, especially after you put in a great late qualifying lap to take pole. On the replay it looks like I just clipped the front of Will round the outside of Renault as I tried to avoid both hitting anyone and going off in the carnage. Beholder took a massive hit - I'm amazed he was so stunningly quick after that!

Difficult place Barcelona, with massive tyre wear I decided to start on hards and run long. It took a good 5 laps to get them up to temperature and Reign Man put me under big pressure for the first few laps. Having seen Luke leave I knew the championship was won anyway but I really wanted to see if I could go out with a win. Darren was scampering off into the distance but I hoped he would burn his tyres up or go off; Beholder was catching me pretty quick and I was powerless to keep him back, but hoped for a similar situation.

In the end I had no answer to either RSR, and in fact ended up having to push hard to stay ahead of Picnic in the other Team Shark TVR. I gambled the car change penalty against my total inability to get rid of the 350Z's understeer, which is a killer in all those long right handers. Without Luke's untimely exit I doubt it would've paid off but the Beast of Blackpool was good fun and I really enjoyed driving it off the corners with the throttle.

Congratulations to FreQ on the GT championship - bad luck Edam, so very close! Commiserations to Luke, and well done Picnic on third place in NGT and for safely securing Team Shark's rightful place at the head of the team championship.

Holy **** that was hard work.  Never EVER will I take the M3 at Barcelona again.  It felt like a totally different car the the one I've been driving for the rest of the season, understeering loads, especially after the tyres wore in a bit.

I tried it in testing and the tyre wear was a joke. I've never known a track be so hard on tyres that softs were utterly unusable in the race!

ps. How the **** did Reign Man finish ahead of me and Beholder behind?! Non comprendé!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

You might want to check the results Dave, your import program seems to have diddled you 2 points for tonights 3rd  Both you and me have been given 8 points.

I sacrificed 20% to change back to the TVR. If I'd had any sense I've have used it at Hock too.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Also Congrates to Dave on his pitstop and Picnic.
Couldn't figger out how you both got back in front me.
You'll have to let me in on your strategy.

Nothing magical. Start with a full tank and only top up at the stop. And practice, practice, practice. I did 20 minutes of pit stop drills yesterday in preparation, and also made sure I put in a couple of fast laps just before my stop.

I think I could've made it to the flag without any fuel at the stop, thought it would've been close. That would've saved me another 5 seconds or so.

[cej]

Phew. What a race. 

After spending 3 hours shoveling snow to get my car out for tomorrow, I was seriously considering giving this one a pass. My arms were completely and  hammered ,I was ready to go to bed.

But I decided to give it a go anyway, mostly because I've spend quite some time practicing this week and didn't want it to go to waste. 

Now I must admit I regret that . I've never made so many mistakes in one race. 2 times in the gravel outbraking myself and one time into the barrier because I gave it to much throttle to early. Glad I didn't hit anyone else, at times I really lost all concentration 

Anyway, I was as usual some seconds behind the front runners and qualified in 5th. Start went well and I managed to hang on a bit. Then Edamspeed went of the track and I was in 4th 

I was a second off my the pace I managed to do in practice,but with Edamspeed out all was well..Or so I thought.

At the end of the stint he was closing in fast on me . Even though I wanted to ,I didn't close the door on him. It was no use. He was clearly a lot faster then me anyway.

Did a late pitstop to try and get out in front of Edamspeed and Lincescom,but just as I drove out of the pits they both flew by me. So close  :'( 

Pretty uneventful after that apart from a couple of concentration lapses almost putting me out of the race,but managed to stay on the track .  With one lap to go I was closing in fast on 4th,I knew something must've happened. Instead of concentrating on my driving I managed to hit the wall coming out of a corner and I thought it was over. Somehow managed to get back on the track and keep going without any serious damage. Then passed Lincescom who was parked in the grass.     Oh well, honestly didn't deserve much points after this fiasco of a race,but nevertheless 

congrats to the winners.

[picnic]

Well that was one tough race. Got a bad start and let a gap out to the guys in front, managed to close down and pass Adam as his obvious tyre problems got worse. Colin then got pretty close as I tried my Tiff drift around the long right hander - I was 90 degrees to the direction I was meant to be going but the TVR had the pace in the bits of track where it mattered. After that managed to close down to sub 4 secs to Dave before my pitstop. Dave stopped the lap after and came out 11 secs in front  Practice required I think! Closed that down again to around 7 secs, although lots of untidy moments. Dave then put in a couple of quicker laps and that broke me. For the last 20 minutes I have no idea what I was doing. Never got a decent lap in again, missed braking points, missed apexes. No concentration. Happy to have kept my place.

What a great season, and that's after I just turned up in Round 1 to ensure a full server. Thanks to everyone who took part, especially those that came round after round. Roll on S5

[Truetom]

Paul968 again danced away in G3 - you really fly here, Paul. Saw I didn't stand a chance with Paul, so I decided to have some close battles with Zacari and MJ. They were close and I started to drive a bit slowlier to make a sandwich with Zacari between the Legends.  

Had a very strange race, the car was not consistent - had a pace and the next lap was a second slower. Never saw something like that. After MJ left we had some close time with Zacari. I must say I saw him struggle and he blew it a few times. Waited for him and after he passed I was chasing him. Was fun seeing how he handled it on the very limit - great driving, there Zac, especialy on the braking. Of course, being on the edge is risky and mistakes happened. But when he had the pace, it was great to watch. Too bad MJ left - this kind of close racing is best done in three.    

TT