UKGTR Season 5 Endurance Masters - Anderstorp (GP) - Apr 8

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[Simon Gymer]

Sorry about the funny business with the server. Picnic was assigned to start it on the events page, but after waiting for a while and then not knowing how to start the server with this magic weather stuff I eventually managed to get it going on the second attempt. Not sure I got it right in the end, cause there was no rain and pretty sure the forecast said rain. Didn't know what Gizmo meant by "a little under the level for rain" on the server setting so just picked a value nearby the initial one (whatever these magic numbers are I dunno. ), obviously wrong one as we didn't get any rain.


The event was interesting. Had spent a while practising for this event, both dry and wet and was pretty happy with my speed and setups. Pretty stable setup throughout and with my easy going driving was getting "good" fuel consumption.

Had a 4 way battle with TT, PaulR and Drumstick for the mid-field of the GT1 class for the first 25 minutes. Coming up to lap Priberio in his 360 Modena and I got boxed in in the first few  right handers and had to concede the place to PaulR. Got hit in the rear in the same move by a Lambo (ah that was you Drumstick. Nevermind, was an exciting and difficult bit of racing that with lapping and 3 of us all so close) and it knocked me off the circuit. Lost me a good 15 seconds and 0.5 a second off my lap times.

Thought that was basically race over for me, but carried on anyway. Managed to catch up to EdamSpeed and then just as I was about to pull a move on, woah, big warp and we collide and I fly through the air briefly. Thankfully carried on in a straight line and without fireball. This lost me another 0.5 a lap with the extra damage.

Had to change my strategy then from my usual long first stint and decided to pit dead on half way to get damage fixed otherwise I was losing another second a lap. Usual good stop and a precise calculation on fuel for the second stint (see later comment ). Could not believe it, utterly bamboozled, when a few laps after my stop others started to stop and it put me right back in the fight I left with TT and Paul Richards. How did you guys lose 15-20 seconds in the pit stop to me, as I had damage to fix too?! Anyway, that made me feel a lot better and I carried on with the fight. PaulH joined the party and we had a different 3/4 way scrap for a slightly higher position.

Had a very hard fight with PaulR who eventually got the better of me when I made a mistake in the first set of right handers and with only a few laps to go and PaulH dropping off somewhere I cruised home for 6th. Eh?! No I didn't...last lap and I had to do one more lap than expected as CJ hadn't quite lapped me, which meant I was one of the last to finish. Was VERY tight on the fuel, finishing with 0.8 left, but clearly a perfect calculation on my part (see earlier comment ), unfortunately for others they didn't quite judge it as well and TT quite early had to stop again and then Eccles and Nev both running out on the last lap gave me 4th, which could have easily been a podium without the contacts.

Lapping GT2/GTC cars was quite hairy, but they all did an amazing job of letting me through whenever they could. Thanks guys, top stuff! 

Quite happy with the Saleen, felt very stable and I've got nice setups for it now after doing practice. Tyre wear was ok and with some clever driving fuel consumption can be reduced from qualifying consumption quite a lot. Anderstorp has a bit of a funny setup to it with the banked corners so I hope I can translate it to the other circuits.

[pribeiro]

almost forgot ,many apologies to pribeiro, you know what I mean.

No problem at all Madd.
By the way, the top fun of the race was our fair dice.
Coudnt do a decent time nor at qual nor at race (damn Modena),
or should be (damn Modena driver) 
I tried for the 1st 2 laps follow Darren, but very soon i realise, that was
an impossible mission. So i just did the all race with a chill driving.
Thanks to GT1 boys for the overtaking behavior and to all for the fair driving.

Cheers

[LEUVEN]

Had a good tough battle at the start trying to catch Enzo at the same time as trying to keep away from Luis.

After 5 laps or so, Enzo started to slowly creep away and built up approx a 10 second lead towards half way, while Luis had had an incident from just a few seconds back which then left me with around a 10 second gap both infront and behind.

As Enzo was on his in lap for his stop the gap had suddenly dropped to around 5 seconds, so I dug in a bit and tried to do some fast laps as the fuel had come down and my car was feeling a little better.

A few laps later I pitted and came out infront of Enzo and the gap stayed quite similar for a good chunk of laps untill I made a mistake going into T1 and took a detour accross the grass onto the runway so the gap was now only just over a second.

So I had my work cut out and proceeded to keep a reasonable pace to keep the gap pegged untill I think he had a moment, coupled with the Lapping GT1's the gap slowly rised to around 5 seconds where it stayed till the end.

Anderstorp seems like another of the tricky curcuits to pass/lap on and tried hard to let people past (sometimes too hard and therefore losing over 3 seconds on one lap) but as a whole they were patient which was nice to see.

Hope I didn't scare you at the end there CeeJay, as I thought youwere gonna go for it so I lifted.
 Thankfully we were both unscaved as that would have been pretty bad if the 2 class leaders were to tangle on the last lap.

Well done to both Sharks and Shark J's

[Luis Branco]

Anderstorp it's not exactly a track where I find myself particularly happy by driving on it and I tried to the my best, which happened to be my worst  
I initially planned a late stop and went with plenty of fuel (65 litres) and med-med. I was able to limit the losses initially while pursuing Leuven between 1 and 1,5 seg distance.
Then I had the unfortune to have a GT2 spinning at the middle of Opel corner and I tried to go wide as I could to miss him but that wasn't enough and the inevitable happened.
Lost some 4 positions and some 20 seconds and from then one it was a lonely race till the end. Shortly after made the first of a handful of mistakes and got a flat tire which definitely settled my thirst for a better finishing place.
Congrats to Ceejay and Leuven  

[Reign Man]

I enjoyed that!! 

I was under constant pressure for the first 20 Min's from Madd-Rip, I drove my ass off to keep him behind me. But eventually he muscled his way past just as we began to get lapped. Great racing, I hope to god I'm the one doing the chasing next time, it about destroyed me  .

By that time I was knackered, and had no grip left in my tyres, the car felt awful and I was just hoping that things would change after the pit stop, but it was only 20 Min's into the race, so I had a long wait.

We got separated by the lapping cars and we both went off road a couple of times. From then on it was a matter of trying to be consistant. I failed at that miserably  .

Car felt much better after the pit stop but I was not able to get a lap together. The pit boards told me that the next place was 25-27 seconds in front, so I made that my target (I think it was Priberio). Got the gap down to 14 seconds with around 18 Min's to go and was on course to catch him with a couple of laps to go. But I spun, and so i decided to keep my TVR on the road and just get to the end.

Had a couple of misunderstandings with lapping cars, (sorry guyz), but other than my few off road moments no major disasters.

Sad to see only two cars running GTC, but me and Madd-Rip will keep the faith 

Great race, see ya at Silverstone

RM

[mo]

What a tough race - grats to CJ and Leuven 

Qual went well for me and I set a pb to start 5th. Got into 4th in the early laps and was behind JonM for a while but we had very similar pace and I couldn't find a way past. Jon had a moment coming out of T4 and spun across the track and a bit of a panic reaction at my end meant I pushed my pedals too hard and they slid away from me. I then promptly went flying off at the next braking zone and knocked the front right corner off the car. I rejoined in 10th behind the Shark/TT/PaulR/Drumstick battle, was able to catch up as they scrapped but couldn't get past. I'd lost all the top end speed with the front damage and couldn't even keep up with the Maserati or Lambo on the straight. Then I collided with a spinning car and smashed in the front again, so it was a case of keep it on the track until the pitstop.

When I entered the pitlane it was fairly busy but I could just make out my pit arrow, but that was teamie Paul's box too so I pulled up behind to wait. Then the pit guy says 'move the car forward for your pitstop' so I think  Ahhh.... its the box in front of Paul so I drive past only to realise that Ruskus is in that one and then there's no sign of a pit arrow and only 1L of fuel in the car so race over

Sorry to JonM for the T1 side contact at about half distance, I thought that I had defended the spot and had no idea that you had managed to get around the outside that quick, nice move Good to race you again and looking forward to the next one already 

[Simon Gymer]

When warps go bad, episode 175...
 

My Saleen running very close to EdamSpeed, about to pull out to overtake.


Hmm, where did he go? Ok, so who activated the teleporter?


Hmm, why am I 10 feet in the air? Do I get extra marks for "big air"?
Who put that second Sun in the sky? 2 shadows?!


Physics engine catches up and realises, cars don't actually fly, best throw car back onto tarmac...Ouch, big landing, throws me under the track.

[Truetom]

Nice jumping, Shark.

... Could not believe it, utterly bamboozled, when a few laps after my stop others started to stop and it put me right back in the fight I left with TT and Paul Richards. How did you guys lose 15-20 seconds in the pit stop to me, as I had damage to fix too?! ...

Beats me - I was on planned strategy. Just stopped and pressed Enter. The guys just stood there and watched. Only when I started to go out of my car did they start to move.    Would have helped them with my boot otherwise. 
Seems like my strategy did not include pushing so hard. I had "tyres worn" message before I consumed all the fuel, so I had to pit earlier. Guess I should have increased wanted fuel, but wanted to go back on track asap. Bad choice...    Lesson learned. I hope. 

Still, nice battle with Shark, he closed on me on every braking, especialy at T2. Was close a few times. Had to use less obvious side of driving once or twice, let the guys behind him close the gap and let him think about them for a while.     Also I remember Pribeiro comming into the crowdy string of 4 GT1 exactly at braking for T2.    There was a cloud of smoke behind me, so I drove off asap. Later I tried the same tactics with Paul Richards, but his Ferrari was too fast and he went by after only two laps, I think.    Mo was also buzzing around. I think it was you, mo, when you overtook after T3 at braking into T4, you went wide and let me regain position. Wasn't entirely sure there was enough space. Drove with only one eye open for a time, just waiting to hear BLAM! But it didn't come. 
As you all overtook me at the end my driving didn't hurt you that bad. 

TT

[Enzo]

Good race that for me!
Qualified on pole for NGT by over half a second so was confident of winning this one! maybe over confident!
I started well pulling a lead away from leuven and im thinking this will be an easy race! then bang a thought!  he maybe heavier of fuel then me so i tried to keep the pace up to build the biggest gap i could just in case!

as leuven said i got around 10 secs or so but my in and out laps i lost concentration and came off the track twice which lost me alot of time! 

I came out of the pits ten secs behind and really started to push to get the time back! i started closing and then leuv made a mistake and i was only 1 second behind!  this was my chance!  however he must of had fresher tyres then me as he started to pull away 2 tenths per lap and my left rear was really starting to burn and i had a few tank slappers which cost me more time so i had to concede the win and take second!

still a good result but a little dissappoint with myself for losing it for a couple of laps which cost me the race!

one scarey moment to mention!  going into opel curva, one ngt trying to move out my way with a another infront of him (scraping) with a gt on my bum trying to get past me! very close, very tense but we all got past in one piece!  very well driven by all on the lapping being lapped part!   grats to winners

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Not sure I got it right in the end, cause there was no rain and pretty sure the forecast said rain. Didn't know what Gizmo meant by "a little under the level for rain" on the server setting so just picked a value nearby the initial one (whatever these magic numbers are I dunno. ), obviously wrong one as we didn't get any rain.

The conditions started at 55 which isn't far from rain but the random process chose to take conditions towards dry and away from any possible rain.

I'm suprised the text "0-61.65 dry, 61.66-99.99 rain" next to the conditions box in the weather making page didn't give you a clue! 61.65 is the closest value to rain which doesn't actually mean rain.

[Simon Gymer]

I'm suprised the text "0-61.65 dry, 61.66-99.99 rain" next to the conditions box in the weather making page didn't give you a clue! 61.65 is the closest value to rain which doesn't actually mean rain.

I was in a desperate rush and not have time to read anything properly, hence having to start the server twice when I forgot the magic drag weather file over AND select changeable.

Maybe next time, now I know what to do it'll be ok.

[JonM_uk]

Spent all my practice time in the shops with GF's mum and step dad so had little practice for this one. Was very surprised at my qually postion although another +0.5 would've put me about 5-6 places down. It sure was tight. In the race I made alot of mistakes. The main one being putting 2 wheels on the grass. In the RSR it didn't seem to upset the car too much but in the MC12 I was spinning around almost instantly. And I made this error a few times I was very surprised by the MC12 handling late on in the stints, it was excellent with almost no change in the way in handled on worn tyres...Just a shame I was behind the wheel Had some nice battles with Mo and Paul at the midway point but after the pitstops I was a fair way behind. Gonna have to drill the pit crew for this...No bank holiday for these slackers

Sorry to JonM for the T1 side contact at about half distance, I thought that I had defended the spot and had no idea that you had managed to get around the outside that quick, nice move Good to race you again and looking forward to the next one already 

No worries mate. I always thought it was gonna be tight coming out of T1
Great pics Shark but I thought you said you weren't an alien Floating around like that

Grats to CJ and Leuv on their class wins and Mad+Reign for taking on the GTC

[Paul968]

Quite an eventful race, but for me it was one of those where nothing quite goes your way. Sneaked 4th in qual after languishing in 10th for most of the session, but had a poor turn one which let Mo put me under pressure into T2, and staying wide lost me another place into t3 and again under pressure into T4. Nev nipped down the inside but then slipped a touch wide mid corner and nudged me over the edge - no problem though, just one of those things.

This left me miles back from the GTs, so after I got past the leading NGTs I was faced with a lonely chase. Jon then dropped back after some sort of incident which had us battling for a while, and we gradually caught up to the bunch ahead.

By pitstop time my tyres were gone, and I followed TT into the pits, scrabbled around to select 'no repair' and waited for the stop to complete. As I left the stall TT was still stationary, but he started just as I came past and got out in front by about 3 inches.  As I came back out I got a blue flag from a late stopping Paul R, let him by and then let Simon through thinking he was also lapping - doh! Paul then let Simon past as he was quicker on new tyres (as was I) but I had to wait another lap for the same favour (thx Paul - not sure why you didn't just hold us both up as you had to race us after your stop) by which time Simon was well up the road.

I managed to get back on terms though and got pretty close into T4 - too close as it turned out. As I gave him a gentle nudge, he wobbled, I backed off and paid the penalty by bouncing off onto the grass as Simon recovered - sorry m8. This let Paul R (now pitted) past me, and his Ferrari was always too fast on the straights to put under real pressure. It also seemed that every lap I met a GT3 class car mid corner rather than on the straight - just unlucky this time I think. Near the end I made a mistake when offline after passing an NGT and went over the bank at T5. I realised at this moment that fuel was going to be tight, so I backed right off, ending the race with less than a litre of fuel.  I passed Nev's stranded car on the way into the last corner and made up one more place to finish 6th on the road and 5th in the standings.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with that, and without the lap 1 mishap might have got a podium. Great racing throughout as well with Jon, Mo, Simon, Paul & TT. I'm going to have to work on the Saleen setup though, as it felt like I was fighting the car as the tryes went off. Sorry to Mo for nicking your pit space. We must organise our strategies to avoid this in future.

Congrats to Claus and Leuven for the class wins, and thx to all lapped cars - very polite  .

[will16v]

Then I had the unfortune to have a GT2 spinning at the middle of Opel corner and I tried to go wide as I could to miss him but that wasn't enough and the inevitable happened.

Sorry about this Luis, i think you hit me. i was taking the corner wide to let one of the leading GT1 cars through, but i took it too wide, and the nearside rear went over the edge of the banked curve - there was nothing i could do, as the car was sideways by that point. I was hoping that i would spin cleanly onto the inner verge without any incident, but the front end of the car clipped the inner curb and bounced back onto the track - i think this was when you hit me.
Sorry Luis, hope i didn't ruin things for you