UKGTR Season 5 GT2/GTC Sprint - Dubai (GP) - May 22

[ginsters sponsored]

Shame that. Having a real blast Picnic, such a little touch and I'm wrecked. That plywood isn't as strong as you think. Until next time .

Edit-sorry Picnic you were nowhere near me . It was Bernie, but the same applies and no worries mate. Just a shame I couldn't carry on and continue our fight

[psuedo]

my apologies too to any one I interfered with out there....suffering bad graphic probs.

(Mental note:   TURN OFF AUTO UPDATES WHEN RACING  )

[Paul Richards]

An eventful debut with my new team! Qualifying wasn't great over a second off my PB but started 7th. Congrats to Mo for his pole!

Race went ok opted for Soft fronts and was continuously locking them up at the start battling with Baracus and MJ. Baracus got passed then had a spin Mark then had an off which put me in 6th. Chasing Backo but then with about 15 mins left tyres went off badly and I fell back from him. Towards the end Brian had a spin and I got passed. I then had 3 laps I think to try and hold him off. Front was all over the place so apologies Brian if it was a bit erractic! Had a good dice but he got me on the last lap. Happy with 6th overall and my first ever race in the RSR.

Congrat to the Podium and thanks to mo for making me feel so welcome.

[Jeffrey]

Kinda od mixed feelings for me.

In the first lap I was trying to learn Mo's lines, and braking zones.

But in the 2nd lap I miscalulated something I couldn't see in lap 1. In the twisty bits in sector 1, Mo lifted just at the moment I was back on throttle again and we swapped paint. Luckily nothing major happened, but we were so close to eachother that there was no room for surprises.

Then we had some great battles. There was nowhere I could pass him, untill he got a less exit after the tiwsty sector 1 and I was on his inside just before the back straight. There was contact and for soem weird reason Mo's car flew away like he was hit by a truck  .
I didn't know what happened at that time so I just pulled over to wait for him, giving away a place to a M3.

Was hard trying to overtake that Beamer, had to have a good exit or else it was impossible. In the end he got a bad start going on the back straight and I was alongside on the straight. We both braked hard but he overshot a bit, so I turned in hard and took the inside and frontside .

Then I was behind Mo again, as he was hunting Bryan Kerr. There was a 3 Porka train for a long time untill the god close racing took his toll, and I could benefit from it.

Leuven was too far infront to catch him again, as he had no reason to push hard anymore I could decrease the gap a bit, but nothing more. Grats m8, and also grats to Simon for the GTC win.

[Nevski]

Bit of a messy race for me. 

Didn't really hook it together well in qually, and Simon duly punished me by stealing GTC pole in his TVR. I then spent the whole race trying to get past him, but Simon drove a very white shark wide car, well. Early on, Anthony's M3 managed to get in a sandwich between Simon's TVR and my Mosler, and I gave him a nudge in one of the hairpins. Sorry Anthony - I didn't wait because we weren't racing in the same class.

I eventually clawed my way back to Simon, only to have an RSR which fell off the track early on come up and repass me, then get sandwiched again between me and Simon.    Late in the race I eventually got close to the TVR's rear bumper again, but I just didn't have quite enough speed on the straights to pick up a proper draft, and ended up going for a dive down the inside in the end of lap complex, which Simon parried well with the side of his car 

Good racing Simon - not sure if the TVR is actually quicker over a single lap here than the Mosler, but track position was all you needed. 

Congrats to Leuven on a good win in GT2, and thanks to the Morgan and Vertigo brigade for coming along to fill the GTC ranks.

[picnic]

Shame that. Having a real blast Picnic, such a little touch and I'm wrecked. That plywood isn't as strong as you think. Until next time .

Not me this time SbG, I spun out a lap or 2 before that. I saw the tail end of your rolling though

[Kerr]

To say that was tough and exciting is an under statement. After my first serious race at Estoril the other week in GT2 I fancied another go tonight.

First time I tried the Porsche here was about 30 minutes before race. Car felt very secure and solid except turn (I think) 6 where the back came around which actually helped take the corner quicker.

Was amazed at qualifying 4th and was expecting to get trounced in the race. I could hold onto the leaders not too bad actually and was gifted 2nd place. Held it for a while and tried to make sure Leuven was not going to have an easy day of it. Pushed as hard as I could and was holding him none too badly. Mo and Ruskus were a consistent 3 seconds behind and not making much if any ground.(Just thought I would add that because I doubt I will get the chance again).

 As usual the tyres began to loose grip and Leuven eased away and I had Mo and Ruskus superglued to my bumper. I was struggling with car but no chance was I giving the place up.

 Unfortunately 3 cars into one bend does not fit and a small racing accident took place, but sportingly I was offered position ahead. Stayed to the inside of main straight and corner 1, wallop, around again, how frustrating.

 Found myself attempting to over drive out of frustration and lost it myself.

Ended up in another great scrap with Paul Richards only to pip him for 5th place on the last lap.

Probably the most exciting incident packed race for me so far.

On a separate note I went with mediums all round and they were actually under temperature tonight. Only 75-79 front and only 193KPA.

I'm confident my setup has plenty of time in it once I spend more than 20-30 minutes on it

[Mark J]

Flipping heck that was a cracking race again. This track is superb for great fights with room to manouvre without contact.  

Was quite pleased with my evenings efforts:-
Practise 1...pole position
Practise 2...2nd until last sec when baracus nipped me by 4/100ths  (ya swine )
Qual...6th - i did a 1:59.2...the 5 aliens in front of me 1:58's !!!  
Race finish..7th?

Was upto 5th at one point, but i made one bloody error the whole race and lost two positions to it   I just hit the brake pedal a tad too hard at the end of that monster straight and the car swapped ends :'(
Got back upto 6th again after a fantastic race long battle with Baracus  :cheers:

Race was one long fight from start to finish with no let ups whatsoever. Was enjoying a cracking battle with Baracus and P. Richards for about 15 minutes until i lost the back end under braking, allowing P Richards through. The rest of the race was the classic Ferrari v Porsche duel between me and Baracus, swapping places and jinking around each other in the corners...superb!
Unfortunately he lost it at the spoon entry onto the long straight with 10 mins to go and his spinning car came back across track and clumped me as i was at the apex.    I lost about 8 seconds and the car lost about 0.5-1 sec a lap in pace after, probably front right suspension damage, and i had a nervous look in my mirrors a few times to see a fast catching Colin in the shark RSR. But i kept it together and steady to bring it home about 3 secs in front.

Absolutely amazing pace up front, especially by Mo    In all my practise i thought a 1:59.1 was a star time and had stopped trying to beat it when i could do it...then these alien buggers do 1:57's

[Simon Gymer]

Yeah shame about your warp Pribeiro. Your car on warm-up lap was warping 300 yards at a time , unfortunately collecting me down the back straight. Didn't seem to do much damage, car felt normal enough. Tried to type to warn, but typing and driving hard so my spelling was a bit laughable, glad you could work out it was yourself I was talking about.

Race was interesting. Managed to get my first class pole position in a while with a really nice lap that was even on par with my TimeTrial time off-line without ballast, just pipping Nev in his Mosler. Had practised a reasonable amount so it certainly paid off. Race was basically an entire 40 minutes chased by Nev very close behind with the occasional RSR making it's way back up the pack. Didn't really want to fend off the RSRs so when they made moves just let them by as they were running a different race. With a couple of laps to go Nev caught me right up again with some stunning work on the brakes and on the 15 apex tight left hander near the end we just touched as Nev broke very late, which knocked me off, but he was kind enough to let me back through again (thanks very sporting!). Wasn't sure about what damage that might cause but in the end I just eeeked enough out to keep ahead and then Nev unfortunately span on the last lap with a few corners to go to give me a much bigger margin than it should have been.

The TVR I knew was slippery down the straights so I didn't bother taking much wing off at all as it just had the edge and that was basically what saved me from the clutches of Nevs Mosler. After some recent engine blow ups in other cars I decided to not rev the car into the red at all and only near the end with a couple to go and Nev right up with me did I thrash the engine to keep ahead. Really enjoyed driving the TVR again, it's such a great handling car and it's did me proud with my first class win in quite a while.

[ginsters sponsored]

Sorry Piccers my dear old thing, see edit above  . Gotta say I'm glad I chose the wooden tub even though its a bit delicate. Hope to see the same number next time

[Splintheter]

Yup what happened to you picnic? Was enjoying our scrap!!!

Great last 10 laps darren, the gap stayed between 1.8 and 2 seconds the whole time. I was ripping the crap out of that BMW and at the end I kept getting a silly liitle man telling me my tyres were overheating  

Bernie, i think I shunted you up the rear end, I am going to watch the replay before apologising too much, but none the less because it was a rear end shunt sorry.

No worries Nevski, thanks for the apology.

All in all one of my best races.

THANKS!!

[picnic]

Replay plus provisional Results and Standings

[picnic]

Pretty poor race for me, no practice before hand and the Morgan one I used, basically my Estoril one, was not too grand. I found understeer city in the fast corners and often a bit too much oversteer out of the slow ones. Mix that in with at least one change down too far and I span 3 times more than in the endurance race on Sunday

Only good thing was Leuven didn't lap me 

There were spells of good racing brought too quickly to an end by my spins. I hope to be there for the next one though in the wooden crate again 

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[mo]

Tough race indeed, grats to Leuven on a fine drive.

I think driving round here in the cup car on Sunday for 80mins paid off and I found a nice flow in the Porsche. Chuffed with pole in the dying seconds, but it was one of those one in a thousand laps and I knew I'd be under pressure once the lights went green.
Definitely some of the closest racing for a long time in the GT3s

......and for soem weird reason Mo's car flew away like he was hit by a truck  .

Well at least I landed on all 4 wheels, but yes the damage did seem alot more severe than the contact suggested.

So sorry to Brian for tapping you - I hadn't left enough room for manouver and couldn't react in time when you slowed