UKGTL Season 22 GTL Cup Challenge - Stage D - Nürburgring - Nov 22

[Geoffers]

Not a good evenings racing for me. I had good pace but ruined both races by getting an S/G for track cuts as well as spinning it into the wall at the start of the Hockenheim race. 

Congrats to DD on two comfortable victories & to Daz & Erling on the podiums. 

[Dimitar Dulichki]

I had so much fun during race 1. I thought it was going to be me vs Geoff for P2 as Daz was world class on qualy. Corner after corner though I was able to stay with Daz and I noticed that I have good advantage on the straights because of more top speed. So he was not comfortable at the chicane and now I was just behind him. I was able to use the slip stream at launch an attack that was successful.

After that I saw that Geoff with the same car don't have that top speed, because he was unable to overtake Daz, so I knew I just need to stay away from trouble to win race 1. I did that and took the victory.

Grats to Daz and Erling and sympathies to Geoffers here.

For race 2 I was surprised by Daz' car choice and I seeing Erling struggle for pace I knew it was going to be me vs Geoff for the victory. I was lucky to beat Geoff at the qualy with just 2 hundreds of the second and I was preparing for another gladiator's battle. Unfortunately Geoff lost the car on acceleration at the start and that made my race really lonely. I am not delighted with my performance here as I lost the car at turn 1 and made a slip.

Grats to Erling and Daz here and again sympathies to Geoff for the problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNRRjlzGVCk

[Erling G-P]

NurburgRing Sprint or really any version of this track containing the early section with those agonizingly slow, never ending curves, I really dislike.  Couple that with the 911's understeer, and you're heading straight for the Asylum.  Thus quickly clear that it would have to be the 906 for this, and 911 for Hockenheim.  Daz' qual time in the 911 seemed out of a parallel universe; it was almost 4 secs quicker than what I managed offline; time for a new hobby methinks.. 

Race itself was one of those all too familiar lonely ones. After a few laps, the aliens were gone. A gap of some 5 secs to the car behind over the early laps, at one point dropped a few 10ths, causing some concern, but then it suddenly jumped to 14+ secs, and all excitement was gone.  Passed the unfortunate Geoffers in the pits, without knowing it, as the only indication was from the pit board.  Grats to DD on the win and Daz for 2nd.  Commiserations to Geoffers.

Race two quite a different animal.  Qual times of DD & Geoffers seemed hardly belieable; how you guys can go this fast in that car is beyond me..   Got a good start, passing Geoffers, only to catch a glimpse of him spinning off in my mirrors.  DD soon gone, while I could just stay ahead of Daz in his slower car. Relentless chase the entire race and I frankly didn't think I could bring it home.  A joker was Geoffers of course. He was so much quicker, that I fully expected him to show up sooner or later.  He did, late in the race, but maybe hampered by damage, as I never saw him get past Daz.  The latter was a mere 1.5 secs behind me most of the race, so had to keep pushing in the accident-waiting-to-happen 911.

Grats to DD on another win, to Daz for 3rd in the lesser of the car options, and once more commiserations to Geoffers, who should have been fighting for the win.

[Daz9]

Kind of took the decision to be a bit oddball last night, I prefer to mix it up if I can, keeps me on my toes.

I've driven the 911 at Nurburgring before, maybe even the Sprint version of the track. I knew the 906 would be preferred here, as these corners really do not suit the 911 somehow, it just ends up all upset. I love the 911 though, it's still one of my very favourite cars in the game, so went that route and was looking forward to it as I have not driven it for quite some time. I'm normally worse in the 906 in all honesty....

Eventually did a proper lap in quali, and the car felt OKish, but then it just didn't work in the race for me. No idea why but I was well off the pace I had set in quali and despite trying I could not get back to that level. Was much snappier in the race, and I just could not carry any corner speed at all. The straight line pace of the 906 blew Dimitar past me on the straight after a few laps, with Geoffers following suit a few laps later. He then ran wide and got S & G, leaving me second. I did close down on DD a bit, but then the car really started to misbehave in the last couple of laps, causing one full spin and 2 half spins. Most strange indeed, I had not crashed it so why it was that much of a pig I do not know. The setup was the same for quali and race.....

On another note, I will go on record as saying this about Nurburgring in it's default game state. The chicane is a joke, and there is nearly half a second available in most cars to anyone that wants to cut it as much as the game allows by riding the right hand kerb to the fullest extent in a straight line. That does involve a full four wheels onto the kerb and off the track of course. I have always taken the approach that I will absolutely try my hardest to not do that, despite it quite clearly costing me time.

Took the 914 for Hockenheim, knew it would be left field, but was happy to mix up the grid a little. Found a bit of pace in quali, and was content to be mid pack. Tried really hard to stay with Erling in the race, no easy task given the power and pace of the 911 vs the 914. After a good number of laps, Geoffers arrived in the mirrors minus a front splitter in the 911, never a good look in all honesty, and proceeded to get another S & G shortly after going past, leaving me to try to get on the tail of Erling but not quite managing to do so before the flag was thrown. Good chase Erling, nicely driven, I very much enjoyed the challenge of being just about on the limit to put any pressure at all on you.

[SpecialKS]

Result