GTR 2 - GT Sprint Fun Race - UKGTR Donington National - 20th March

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Great battle with MJ behind and TinMan ahead, finally got alongside the latter on the last lap and then he vanished - I hope I didn't push him off in the Craner Curves.

[Buckie]

I seemed to struggle the whole race, making far too many mistakes with eventually resulted in a stop and go. Entered pit in 7th place with 8th place 23 secs behind, i thought if im lucky i may get out in 9th. Yeah right lol i came back out in 11th and started to push hard. Engine gave up on me few laps later.

Good race lads, well done ruskus.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Great battle with MJ behind and TinMan ahead, finally got alongside the latter on the last lap and then he vanished - I hope I didn't push him off in the Craner Curves.

Hmm, on my replay it looks like you disco'd, Tom. :'( I knew something strange was up and for a few seconds there I thought I had disco'd given how suddenly you disappeared.

[Kerr]

Great battle with MJ behind and TinMan ahead, finally got alongside the latter on the last lap and then he vanished - I hope I didn't push him off in the Craner Curves.

I was not too far behind and was so interested in the car 30ft in the air I nearly made a backside of the corner, accident will look good in replay.

Qualified 2nd but did not have the pace to hold Ruskus. Had great battles with Eccles chopping and changing positions, we seemed to have spells where we were quicker than each other.

Hopefully that will be the last race for my pedals and steering wheel. The potentiometer used for throttle is getting worse, more dead spots then suddenly full throttle. A few times lost power at full throttle too with the power coming and going.

The G25 should be here in the next day or two. Had a confirmation email it has been dispatched today

[Jeffrey]

Pretty uneventfull race for me. In qually I had problems with the old hairpin, getting c/t a few times. But during the race I was carefull with that resulting in no c/t warnings.

No No No

Grats to Frankeeeh for finishing the race 

[PaulW]

Really enjoyable, a nice mid race fight with Tom with me ahead and then him, ending with me having to bail into the first corner gravel to avoid driving into him like a schmuck during overtaking. A ncie change from NGT though and looking forward to more of the same.

One thing- I dropped my max revs by one notch with the Lambo, thinking it has a slightly delecate engine? Do they generally take punishment for a sprint but you need to nurse them more in endurance?


No No No

[Zacari]

Frustrating race, never got to grips with the cold track and had far too stiff a setup for the race.

Quali'd 4th and sat there from start to finish, the only dramas being a couple of uncooperative backmarkers that hopefully will get told the errors of their ways   The last two laps especially ruined a battle between myself and eccles, a backmarker held him up for 2 laps and I actively backed off so as not to take advantage.  Not smart driving but lessons will be learned.  That's 2 drivers other than Jeff that had issues in the same race with traffic, so I'm sure whoever it was/they were will have the incidents moderated in the usual fair way.

Great battle with MJ behind and TinMan ahead, finally got alongside the latter on the last lap and then he vanished - I hope I didn't push him off in the Craner Curves.

I was not too far behind and was so interested in the car 30ft in the air I nearly made a backside of the corner, accident will look good in replay.

I was distracted by that too!  Looked an impressive leap though obviously it's better to do those after the finish (as I did, ending up inside one of the trackside buildings at the end of the pitlane!! )

[picnic]

Replay and Provisional Results

[Mark J]

That was bloody hard work again. Hope there arnt any Donington races planned soon, tonights and sundays enduro have busted my body, got real bad neck cramps and back and knee-ache...I'm falling apart. Hopefully someone with 6million dollars will put me together again  ....alot better than the first attempt

The cold weather really fooked my setup and/or the Maseratis handling.   At start of practise i was setting low 1:03's but as it got colder the car just understeered more and more. I tried several front ARB settings but it made no odds 
Qualied a lowly 12th when all my pre race praccy had me thinking at least a top 10 was on the cards. Took a lot of effort just to get a 1:03.6.
Race start was terrible, i seemed to get off the line way quicker than Mark Mc and had to hit the anchors to avoid rear ending him, also hitting my gear shift paddle upto 3rd whilst flapping    PW got up the inside at T1 but as a team mate gent we did the 'after you , no after you...' thing This allowed the cars in front to scamper off with a few second lead for quite a few laps.
The Masserati was understeering terribly giving me flashbacks of sunday nights race  :'( and i was really struggling for the first 10 mins or so, eventually sliding off under braking at the last chicance. Re-joined down in 16th from 11th   
Chased after the guys in front, getting past Ossie and another? until i caught DG.
We then had a cracking second half as i chased his Corvette very hard for lap after lap within a second all the time, whilst he in turn closed down on Tinman
It was thrilling stuff and i was really ringing the neck out of the Massa but Daves Vette had loads more grunt or grip out of the corners like coppice and i was always playing catch up under braking at the following corners. We all moved up a couple of places as people had incidents or stop and go's and then i saw DG and Tinman side by side down through Craners  ,which normally ends in tears, and it did for poor Tinman who seemed to catapult up in the air ! I think i actually passed under it as it flew off into the scenery
I continued to chase DG but with ever more knackered tyres i just couldnt close the gap, so congrats Dave on some quality driving 
Brought it home in a very pleasing 8th place, with my team mates 6th and 9th, a good team Legends performance 

[Truetom]

Damn that Old Hairpin! Was afraid to drive there agresively, so I was driving around. No warnings, but I was losing half a sec per lap for sure.  
  
MC12 is not comparable to F550, not with current ballast pack. MarkMc? passed me on the first straight after he closed the gap. Wtf, am I in NGT or whaaaaa???!!!     Hopefuly MC12 will be competitive in S5.  
Came 6th in the end. Some good positions for the GT Legends tonight.    Too bad Adam discoed.  :'(

TT

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

It was thrilling stuff and i was really ringing the neck out of the Massa but Daves Vette had loads more grunt or grip out of the corners like coppice and i was always playing catch up under braking at the following corners.

I bumped the power side of the diff up just before the race for better traction - Tom's Lambo was hella quick on the straights but I was eeking closer to him and further from you out of the slower corners. With hindsight I could possibly have dropped the rear wing from 7 to 6.

Had to make a brake balance adjustment early on and put the limiter on for a second by accident. Then another mid-race as the fuel (I put 10l too much in) burned off. I had a strange two or three corners with about 10 or 15 to go where all the grip disappeared, as if it was suddenly wet, and then it was back to normal. GTR2PD could shed no light on the mystery.

With 5 minutes to go my tyres clicked over the 9.2 magic wear value where they go off and I was having to concentrate really, really hard not to go off and hand the place to MJ, but TinMan's tyres were obviously also well past their best so I kept pushing. Certainly made for a heart pounding end to the race in contrast to the earlier laps when it was looking like TinMan was going to run and hide and the only cars I was going to see were those recovering from offs or stop and gos.

[Eccles]

Tough race, not enough practice on cold track but happy to see a chequered flag.   Good 3 way battle with Zacari and Brian,didn't have the pace for Jeffrey ,was hard work last couple of laps tyres were shot and would have been close race to the end but for the traffic. 

[Mark J]

With hindsight I could possibly have dropped the rear wing from 7 to 6.

yikes, how did you manage with such a low wing? I was on a 10 rear, which might also explain why you kept pulling away on the straights.

Cracking chase though 

[stnasky]

Really sorry about the start Mark, i waited till i got to the line before releasing the pit limiter in second gear and i had forgot to knock it back to first as i normally do,  so that will explain why i gave you a fright.  

Chased Mo for a bit and got really close to his back end a few times,  at one point i got that close i nearly took him out at the last chicane, pulled it up just in time but not without getting a wheel on the grass and had the back end start to overtake my front,  had and arm full of opposite lock and managed to save it, very hairy.  To pass here you really need to get it done early so i waited patiently and got my reward when Mo had a bit of a slide thru macleans.  That left me behind TT and Buckie,  Buckie had a moment at the old hairpin and TT managed to drive around him on the outside, and on the next 2 or so laps Buckie ran wide at the exit of the same corner allowing me thru.  

Caught up with TT and tailed him for a few laps.  Got a good run out of the last chicane and was able to pull alongside giving me track position for T1, and after that the only action i had was passing the odd back marker, who i must say was very polite to pull over as soon as i got close.

F550 was a pleasure to drive as its been a while since i last drove it in a league race,  however i cant help but feel that it gives you a somewhat unfair advantage over some other cars.

[Truetom]

Yea, I was having a hard time following Buckie in his F550 - I was faster through the corners, but Massa doesn't have enough power even in the slipstream. It felt like the slipstream wasn't simulated at all.    Everytime I prepaired a good exit Buckie pulled away on the straight. He might as well had a    painted on his rear.    He was nervous, though.    Unnecessary Buckie - if you didn't make a mistake I could never pass, you even didn't have to drive defensively as I never closed enough to outbrake you.     Only your mistake did grant me the pass.

Then MarkMc came and passed and I felt like a schoolboy. 

TT