UKGTR Season 5 Endurance Clubmen - Estoril (GP) - Apr 29

[TinMan]

 my ADSL connection has cycled to a slower speed -

This seems to be what's happening. Is there a solution?

TC

[Adam Parle]

Small damage is repaired while the tyres are changed, so if there is only a few sec of damage, it's a good thing to repair it, as it will be done beofre the tyres are done and aero damage can cost you alot in the long run.

At Silverstone I had some sort of aero damage after hitting a stranded Porker (net issues), and that was repaired when I pitted (I forgot to change the option to not repair).  Thankfully it didn't take much time to repair as I wasn't taking on tyres or fuel, and I had Pops 4 seconds behind me (or rather that was the gap when I pitted).

Same last night, not taking on tyres or fuel.  The car felt really good even after Ginsters tap, so rather than potentially losing a bunch of time getting a repair done when the car felt great, I decided to change to "don't repair" and get back out on track asap.

[tarec]

Hi all,

Thx all for the great evening race,

me and lincescom , we are from Portugal and we take 1th and 2th place in GT2 in Estoril, so we win at home

[Paul968]

That was a cracking first half of the race, with the cup cars in a close 4 way dice for lap after lap. Made a mistake defending against PRibiero early on and ended up last in the gravel (sorry to teamies Mo and Ginsters for threading the needle between you!), but got back on terms fairly quickly and joined in the cup train. Managed to get past Nev in the end, and TT pitted just ahead of Mo and me, but the next lap was not KerbCrawler's finest hour as we lost time trying to be too nice. Mo pitted next but again lost out with a car in his stall and I stopped the lap after. By the time I came out TT was 5 secs up the road, with me chasing Ginsters. After a while the gap was starting to close though and I was looking forward to another close fight, but it wasn't to be as TT went off after contact with a lapper Ian retired soon after and I was then left with an easy cruise to the finish.

I have to echo a few of the comments about some of the GTs. They often seemed to want to pass down the inside from some way back when they had no right to this, and I know of at least 2 cases where this ended up in contact. On more than one occasion I had to be alert and stay wide or risk contact, even when I really needed (and had every right) to turn in, and it shouldn't be like this.

Congrats to Backo and Linescom for the class wins.

[Simon Gymer]

Sorry I didn't make the race. It was last minute decision to join in a GT3 in the Viper CC, did some laps in qualifying and then had to leave (real life). Maybe next Clubman race I'll stay for the race. Viper CC was quite good fun to drive once I'd dialled out most of the understeer, but it sort of hmm what's the word MELTED the softs within 2 laps, which made driving it sideways easy, but not very quick.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

my ADSL connection has cycled to a slower speed -

This seems to be what's happening. Is there a solution?

I've been trying without success to persuade Nildram to fix my line at 1MB/s. What you can do is reboot the router just before a race - that reduces the chances of the exchange deciding to lower the speed for a few hours - provided of course that it's starting speed (usually 2MB/s) works well enough to race over (which it most likely will).

[popabawa]

On more than one occasion I had to be alert and stay wide or risk contact, even when I really needed (and had every right) to turn in, and it shouldn't be like this.

Absolutely, that was my experience on a couple of occasions as well.

[Adam Parle]

On more than one occasion I had to be alert and stay wide or risk contact, even when I really needed (and had every right) to turn in, and it shouldn't be like this.

Yep, I recognize that too.

[picnic]

If I was one of those I apologise, on several occasions the slower car seemed to stay wide as if to say, please take the corner. There is obviously a knack to getting passed the slower cars I'm still learning, on several occasions I'd lose a second or more to the car in front while getting through the back markers only to close the gap but to lose it again.

Having done last season as NGT and this as GT I think the harder job is the GT one (just) but if both parties aren't aware and cooporate lapping would be a nightmare.

[Paul968]

No Pete, you weren't one of those I had in mind.

[Mark J]

If certain GT1 drivers have bull-dozed their way through then they should be penalised in some way, especially if contact was made, otherwise someone like myself who was a little more patient and even had to have extreme self restraint at some points in the race are losing out in track time to those who are not.

And i dont want to start a mud flinging contest but Paul, you were unfortunately the worst driver i tried to lap last night for making absolutely no attempt to feather off or move aside enough to let a GT1 car through, which considering you were in a non-champ GT3 car wasn't really fair play. Perhaps when i got to you, you had just been bullied by another GT car but it seemed to me that you deliberately refused to budge from Gancho? right upto the senna parabolica costing me about 4+ seconds. Every other guy managed to ease off and adjust line enough to allow me to get through.
 I dont have a problem with it but just want to point out it works both ways.

[Simon Gymer]

Having gone back to the "other" boat this season, by becoming a GT1 car that has to lap GT2/GT3 cars I can once again remind myself that it's actually difficult from both point of views. Judging what the slower car is going to do is difficult. You get some people who force you to overtake on a corner (slowing mid-corner and pulling to a different line) and others that let you go by on the straight (my preferred option). It's extremely difficult to judge it either way.

From a GT2/GT3 car you're constantly watching your mirrors and still trying to drive forward, the speed at which GT1 cars come up nowadays is incredible and you only have split seconds to work out what to do.

I think the best guideline to follow for GT1 cars is that if you're in any doubt then don't try it. Just wait for a better time. All the other cars are in the same boat, you rarely get held up much more than any other car over the course of an 80 minute race. Whatever you're going to do try and make it obvious and try not to change lines whilst being closely followed. Confusion is our enemy.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

As someone who is also running his first season in the faster class, I noticed last night more than my previous race at Anderstorp that it's unfortunate that the 'better' drivers suffer more in terms of being overtaken under braking. I was under pressure to pass quickly for pretty much the whole race and those drivers I trusted (most notably Paul, TT, SbG, and Pops) I was much more likely to trust to make a pass under the brakes, which probably meany I held them up more than others, who I trusted less.

[mo]

Dont worry Dave, you can trust me too!!

Firstly I want to echo the thoughts of those who posted above - the behaviousr of lapping GT cars was appalling. I was almost run off the road twice, crashed into once when someone tried to go inside me into Gancho of all places, and saw some other crazy stuff up ahead too
Some of the worst I've ever seen......... and that was only what I saw personally.

Anyway the race in the GT3 car was great fun. There's such a close grid in the cup cars that it leads to excellent racing and I wont be missing the next one. Unfortunately I ended up lapping alone after my pit crew decided to give me no box when I stopped followed by refusing to give me any fuel later when I re-stopped. I've sacked them and sent them over to Legends Racing instead

Cheers for the great racing TT, PRibeiro, Nevski and Paul, see you next time

[Paul968]

LOL Mark! I feel pretty splattered with mud now, and you do rather give the impression that you have a problem.  

The situation that you mention is the one that stands out in my memory. You caught me in the middle of Gaucho so there was no way to let you past beforehand. The only real place was on the exit, but as you know this doesn't lead to a straight and there is very little room. I waited to see if you could get alongside on the right, in which case I would have let you go, but you stayed behind me so I took the racing line as I needed it for the next corner. Lifting there with you right behind would have been a big mistake. I then expected you to go round the outside on the parabolica but you waited for me to move over.  I filtered left when I saw that and let you through.

That section of track is very tricky to let a lapper by. Going offline risks throwing the car off the road (how many times have you gone wide at the left before para even when taking the racing line?) so I felt this was not wise. I'm sorry you got held up and it wasn't what I wanted, but you didn't really give me an easy chance to let you by without losing big time - sitting right on my bumper prevented a lift as you suggest I'm afraid.

The rules are pretty clear on this. The lappee stays on line and the lapper finds a way past. In equal cars there may be a need to blend off the throttle, but in this case you had about 50% more power as well as more grip. To me it was just an unfortunate case where you lost out by catching a slower car at the wrong time.

As for the fact that I was not scoring, when someone tells me that I have to jump out of the way of scoring cars then I'll do it (although to be honest I probably wouldn't bother racing if this was the case). What is the point of bigger grids if the extra cars in the race don't affect the scoring ones? I certainly looked to let faster cars by as easily as possible, more so when I wasn't fighting directly with another car, but there are limits.

To me it doesn't work both ways. The issue I complained about is clearly against the rules. The issue you mention is nothing like that, and suggesting that I can't complain about poor driving unless I leap out of your way is a bit strong.

PS 4+ seconds? By my reckoning you were only 0.9 slower than the next 2 laps