UKGTR Season 5 GT1 Sprint - Dubai (GP) - May 8

[Jeffrey]

After the testrace at Donnington, I started to find the Viper awesome and with some setuptweaks I could get it driveable(basically the diff settings down alot).

I started doing some laps in the Saleen, but because I use that car for 2 hour races at S.nl, I'm already starting to know that car inside out, and I wanted something different. Hardly ever driven the Viper anywhere else than Donnington and some laps at Estoril. SO I picked my Esoril setup and tried some laps. I was slower than in the Saleen, which didn't surprise me. But at the end of qually, I got a perfect lap out and take pole position in 1:51.5. Totally unexpected as I was hoping for a top 5 startspot.

The first half of the race was good for me, as Leuv and Bara were fighting eachother, which gave me a gap of 6s. When Bara overtook Leuv, I had to focus to keep the gap at 6s, as there was no way of increasing it. Till the end the gap stayed the same, but Bara always kept me on my toes.

Great race for me, and huge fun in the Viper

[picnic]

Replay, Provisional Results and Standings

[ChOnG]

Started 17th and car was feeling great, lap2 came arround corner straight into a stationary car done a few hundred flips and landed on Dave(need to have a look in demo, i got some height lol). Dave had to pit as he had major damage, but i didnt seem to have any but after a few laps i noticed that my top speed was very low so must of had something fly off. Those where the only cars i seen the whole race, 40mins of driving alone aint fun lol.

grats to podiums.

PS: check demo at time 332 and give me marks out of 10 for my flips lol

[Adam Parle]

 

Awesome race.

Was well pleased with my qually time, a good chunk taken off my PB.  Had a solid start - defending for my life against a 550 which was all up in my mirrors on the fast bits.  I seemed to have the better of it into the big braking zones though, making up a lot of time through there.  It was like that the whole race, and as a result had some cracking battles with guys alongside at the end of the straight, only to just edge it under braking.

Made a few positions as people made errors (and then I'd give it back by running wide myself) - but on the whole pretty solid.  Was managing (just) to keep Shark and TT behind me (no doubt aided by them having a tussle) but they got by when there was contact between the two cars infront of me on the reducing radius corner - I had nowhere to go and they got by.

After the contact the car just wasn't as settles, and it took me a while to get back into gear (excuse the pun).  Tried in vain to keep FreQ behind me, but my tyres were starting to go, and with a bit of understeer after the contact, I ran wide and he got through.  Tried to make up time, but with time running out there wasn't really anything to do.

Bit dissapointed I didn't finish higher, as I was feeling really good in the car - but after a couple of fairly torrid races so far this season .... I'm well happy with where I finished.

Grats to the podium'ers and grats/hard luck to MJ with a cracking drive for 4th.

Cheers all for tonight - best race I've had in the GT1's and should make for some great viewing in the replay.

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[Adam Parle]

Unofficial Lapchart

Where!?

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

Where!?

Lol you are quick . I was uploading it which was still busy while I was ready with typing. So I just pressed "reply" while waiting for the upload to finish, as I expected nobody to notice 

[Simon Gymer]

Nice selection of cars tonight and with the prospect of learning the track again during practice and qually I wasn't expecting a lot.

The track was really quite tricky, with such wide corners and so many corners where you brake into the corners getting the lines right was interesting. Wasn't really expecting to enjoy it but the wide sweeping corners gave loads of room for sideways action and playing with the brake/throttle.

Carried on with the Lambo, god it's so much fun to drive!  Took my Estoril setup, didn't have to change wing or gearing at all, fiddled with the suspension and brake settings a fair bit and quite pleased to come up with an ok setup for qually. Was 19th of 20 till my last run when I found another second in the setup to put me 11th on the grid and in the mix.

Looked like it could be a great race and sure enough I had some fun for sure. A few over takes, a spin and lots of opposite lock!  Think I finished 8th, which is another reasonable result, but didn't really care, was great to have fun racing like that whatever position.

Well done Jeff, Baracus and Leuven on the podium.

[Adam Parle]

Lol you are quick .

Sadly only on the forum .... not on track where it counts .....  :'(

[Kerr]

I'm at work now and this is from my mobile phone.                    had a very poor race. Only started on track today and could not get car to turn in. Used a set up from team shark site and they were using soft front for a 22 lap stint and set up was good. Then i was told soft's would not last. Stuck med's on last minute and they ruined car.                                                  chasing simon hard for first few laps waiting on a gap. We then came across and accident and i slowed down. I seemed to be swamped by a few cars closed right up on me as i slowed. For the next few laps i was knocked right out my stride as i was getting far too many nudges.                                              i have to say sorry to james. He rejoined in front of me after going off. I then accidently bumped him. Having not Seen replay yet i'm not sure if you slowed too much or i was that much quicker. Either way it's my fault. Everybody else seemed to run into the back of me and before i knew it i had lost countless positions. I was waiting on you but i lost track and did not know if you had got past or not. Sorry anyway my fault. Well done to but especially winner.  

[Mark J]

Love this track !

Had a corker.  

Was top 3 in both praccy seshs but was then annoyed with myself that i couldnt match my 1:51 praccy times in qually and even more miffed when Freq knocked me out of the top 5 by about a 100th of a second !  Still was happy enough with 6th on grid.

Race start was great and i put Freq under some serious pressure from the 1st lap in his goblin green Lambo. We had a great battle for about 5 laps swapping places a couple of times. Then i closed down on P Richards in his 550 and was all over him in some of the corners until i got by up the inside at the elevated turn near lap end. Another great battle with him lasted for about another 10 laps or so until i managed to gradually eek out a 5 second lead, now running in 4th.
With about 11minutes on the clock i started to close on Leuven and the top 2 ahead, then got the 7 second gap down to about 3 secs with a few laps remaining. Unfortunately, my front left was now showing 17 wear rate and my laptimes had dropped by about 8/10ths by then.
Dont know whether Leuvens tyres were shot or he was easing off but i caught right up on the final two laps and was hoping for just a couple more laps to get real close and hope for an error from him but he kept it together and crossed the line for 3rd closely followed by me in a hard earned 4th place.

Thoroughly enjoyed that, Silverstone at the weekend must have given me extra inspiration !
Great clean racing all round and great pace by all.
Congrats to the pody boys, just wish i could have been one of them

[Zacari]

That was a pretty amazing race for me.  I've only ever done 5 or 6 laps around Dubai just to get a GTR2Rank thingy, and that was in March, not touched the track since.  In practice 2 I could barely get round the track, let alone set a fast time!  Had no idea about setup either so I took my Estoril setup and made it a little softer and lower.

In quali I was nowhere near the front, ended up somewhere around 15th.  The start was fairly calm, and after following other cars for a while I managed to get a feel for the racing line, (especially into the difficult left-hander leading onto the back straight).  Using the grunt from the fezza I made it up behind Kerr and someone else fighting it out into the last corner.  I got such a run we ended up 3-wide going into T1, and I managed to squeeze past both on the inside (sorry if that was a slightly hasty move but thanks for leaving room ).

After that I was constantly playing with different lines into corners, different braking points, etc. and slowly making my way through the field.  The fezza power was definately a help! with 5 or 6 laps to go I managed to catch Paul in 5th and I just had enough in the tyres to get a run down the s/f straight.  So 5th from 15th was great and bodes well for the Enduro next week.

Grats to Jeff, B.A. and Leuven for the podium finishes and MJ for the late-race pace

[Jeffrey]

I just noticed why my tyres were so bad....the middle of the tyre was 5-10 degrees colder than the sides  . Forgot to increase the pressure.

I think the only car that can match the F550's straightline speed is the Viper, as I was doing 178mph at the back straight, driving away from the Fezza's.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Really odd race. Once again my lack of qualifying pace let me down and I started on the back row; managed to avoid Mark McC's stationary Viper (warp ghost?) but got hit from above by a 'ChOnG bomb' and lost my bonnet and splitter. Had to pit for repairs which took nearly a lap and came out just in front of the leaders.

With nothing to lose and over a minute to make up to catch ChOnG I threw caution to the winds and set off trying to drive as close to qualifying pace as I could get on mediums. I was really surprised how close I was in pace to the top 5 - it actually made it kind of tough to let them by - and bar a few laps where I was suffering my traditional 'mysterious loss of grip' problem (seems to happen around tyre wear 5 or 6 on the PD monitor) I was popping in consistent 54s and low 55s which seemed to compare very well with my teammates on TeamSpeak.

Unfortunately the gap ahead was far to large and despite clawing in about a second a lap there was no way to make any useful impression on the cars ahead.

Still, I was very pleased to see how much pace I had compared to the top drivers (plus the odd Legend come to think of it they're all odd ) and it bodes quite well for the Endurance event  on Sunday. Assuming I can avoid any cars landing on me from great heights that is.

[LEUVEN]

After doing a few laps testing yesterday I found the front tyres on the 550 with the setup I was using was wearing almost twice as quick as the rears, so for the race I decided to chuck on some softs on the rears which worked great for the first 10 mins as I was keeping up with Ruskus and pulling away from 3rd.

Then I started to lose confidence as it started to want to drift in and out of the corners.
Which enabled Baracus to gradually catch up and eventually after a pretty big battle he made his move stick.

Then I was in some clean air for a bit with a 4 second gap infront and a 6 second gap behind and about 10 minutes left.
So as it was getting tricky I decided to try and cruise at a safe speed so I didn't lose more than a second and a half a lap thus keeping that pesky Mary Jane M Jonzo at bay.

I was expecting the race to be a formation lap and 20 race laps but it finished short for some reason,
It worked out in my favour anyway as it was one less lap I had to nurse it home.

Like Zacari I had only been here when I fist got the game for a few laps in a Saleen and then in the porka to set a GTRank, so I'm pleased to finish 3rd.

Well done Jeff and Baracus....and Sharkies