UKGTR Season 5 Endurance Masters - Dubai (GP) - May 27

[Splintheter]

Is there a reason why I cant change the gear ratio on the Viper I want to drive the Z3 but cant get a setup to work  :'(

[psuedo]

The gear ratios are set and unchangeable in the Viper cc.   

[Splintheter]

damn americans 

[Zacari]

Horribly annoying race for me

Firstly huge apologies to Simon for side-swiping him going onto the back straight I snatched the front-right under braking and that was that, I should've been much more careful.

Secondly, apologies for anyone who was affected by my lagging fezza on the 2 occasions it happened.

It started so promisingly, narrowly missed pole and I was able to stick within a second of JR fairly happily, and I started with 100L on-board.  Then my frame rate slammed into the floor for about 10 seconds just as I was coming onto the back straight.  I tried in vein to guess where the car really was, and I managed not to spin but I did shoot across the track in rather ungentlemanly manner.  When my frame rate returned to the normal 60-80fps I was in 4th behind TT, so I hope those that got past didn't get any damage.

After that I almost quit, but my fps was fine again and I wasn't so far out of touch to make the rest of the race pointless, so I continued on- on the condition I had no more lag.  I kept behind TT for a few laps just incase the bad fps returned, which it did as I was lapping LEUVEN going into T1.  After that I quit, really really disappointed as I think it'd have been close for 1st.

After I quit I had an exception error and now my gaming PC wont even boot, so it looks like it's going to be a long night

Grats to the winners, whoever you may be, and apologies again for those whose races I adversely affected

[Jeffrey]

Good result for me, but not very thrilling for most part.

Started with 100L of fuel and med/hards. The rest of the strategy is for myself . I had Zacari behind me for most of the first stint, keeping me on my toes. Gap increased and decreased alot, but never became bigger than 1,5s.

After Zac's problems I had Backo behind and he was gaining a bit per lap. I knew my pitstrategy, so I tried to just keep it consistent. When lapping Dave I lost alot and Backo was right op me  .... rearbumper. But soon after he lost it somehow and the gap became 2,5s.

With 35 minutes to go I pitted in which dropped me to 3rd. Truetom was 56s infront of me and when he pitted in I had quite a bog lead on him. Backo stayed out for a few more laps, and while he was on old tyres, I was doing a few low 52'ers and winning 2s a lap. When he pitted in he had a 50s lead, so I knew it looked good for me. And indeed, when he came out he was 25s behind me and I had to drive to the finish and not mess up inbetween.

Grats to Leuven, Madd and Dave for winning in their class.

[Adam Parle]

Great race!

Fistly, apologies to the leaders the first time they lapped me - had a bit of a panic and ended up slap bang in the middle of the road not really daring to go left or right in case I contacted someone....thankfully all made it past without contact.

Started the race slowly, following DG and Pseudo.  Got past Pseudo after he made a bit of an error (please no paint rubbing when I've got no more tarmac left!!!!), and after that it was another massive fight between Dave and me - reminiscent of season 4.  The gap was 5.1 sec at it's biggest (after some GT's came through) but mostly it was 2 seconds-ish.  Pitting on the same lap meant we could keep a handle on each other.  3.2 sec gap before pitting ..... 3.2 sec gap after pitting.  I guess we were running similar strategies!

Ultimately the pit-stop was my undoing, with a woefully light amount of fuel my car coasted to a halt on lap 35/6 .... and the battle with DG was done.

Really enjoyed the racing though - wasn't overly familiar with the car, but after tonight I'll be running more laps in it I think.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Tough break, Zacari. Sounds more than a little like overheating...

Great race for me, missed out on GT3 pole by about a tenth, with Adam even closer behind. Got the lead soon after the race started when the class leader ran wide, then did the same and let Adam past. Caught him up again and we had a great scrap as I wrestled the class lead back off him. Then we stopped on the same lap and came out pretty much exactly as we went in. After that I was pushing all the time, trying to strike a balance between letting him get any sort of sniff of the lead and not cooking my tyres or burning up my engine.

With just a few laps left the Team Shark spotters called him beached on the back straight - then I saw him in the pits and knew that I just had to cruise round a few anticlimactic laps to take what turned out to be far too easy a class win as the only GT3 finisher - I was even able to slow right down and let JR Ewing lap me again to avoid having to do what should've been my final lap.

Still, for 95% of the race it was great stuff and just what I needed to relight my interest after Thursday's abortive GTL disaster.

ps. Thanks to Shark for the setup!

[Paul Richards]

Sorry to hear that Zacari. Tough race again. Couldn't hook a lap up in qually so started towards the back of the GT1. Decided on a long first stint followed by a quick pit stop and a quicker last stint. It worked!! It was a really quick pace at the start and I was trying to hang onto the back of TT while not being able to pull away from my team mate Mo. Into the pit stops and I just tried to keep pace with the fading tyres. Stayed out to long at Anders so pitted slightly earlier than planned with 9 litres still left. Quick stop and was surprised to come out right behind backo who was in 2nd. Chased him for the last stint and was closing towards the end but no way I was I going to make it in time.

Congrats to Jeff and Leuven on their wins.  Thanks to the slower class cars for the being so considerate when lapping.  

[Simon Gymer]

Provisional results, replay and provisionally updating standings.

[Madd-RIP]

  PB in quali made up for terrible race last week, motec showed me that the set-up I had was good ,so it was obviously driver error that made the car slow.
So tried different lines and ended up with my pb....chuffed. Apart from the fact that Reign Man was in front and that TVR is quicker. Damn  :'(
Made a silly mistake early on and was just about holding station with Reign Man ,Darrren and Pribeiro.
Did a long 1st stint but locked the rears up big time into T1 so decided to pit a little early to fix any damage.
Came out behind Reign Man and just went for it, managed to close in after a  while, probably due to him coming off somewhere, and then began a right 'ol scrap, a little bit of paint trading....brilliant!  and then I managed to squeeze past on the penultimate lap, very lucky I know but really pleased!
I must say sorry to Mo as I may have baulked him whilst trying to let him past, and I should say sorry to anyone else who I unintentionally held up.
I tried to give way as soon as was reasonably safe to do so.
felt like I was mugged some times with GT1's appearing everywhere!! 

[Simon Gymer]

Ignoring everything else cause quite frankly everything else was boring compared to my fight with Luis... 

Thanks for a great scrap Luis. Was some classic overtaking manoeuvres with out-braking attempts and then cut backs to the inside and then outside and so on. Was really entertaining stuff and very clean too. That's why I race as although I ultimately lost my 2nd place in class I was thrilled to have such a closely fought battle and a podium is not bad for my first Ferrari 360 Endurance GT2 class start of the season against the mighty RSRs.

[psuedo]

First time I have ever driven the Viper cc.....good int it!        Didn't have a very good setup through lack of time...only decided to join at last minute when I saw the numbers were a bit low.

Hey Adam....can I have my paint back?   .. sorry about that...just swung a little wide and tried too hard to correct it turning back into your path.

Not a great race for me. spent lots of time on the grass just trying to stay out of the way. had a couple of small battles at the back with Will and Anthony till they dropped out.

Edit.    Just watched the replay and offer my appologies to Anthony..didn't realise I had knocked you off track on the first lap :'(. I must have been too fixated on Adams passing manouver on me and simply didn't see you nipping through aswell....I will practice my awareness before the next race.

had to retire myself at end of lap 18.....ran out of fuel in the pit lane...(must read up on the 'pit push' option). Not that it mattered too much. 1:20:00 ish down plumb last....I would only have been in the way.

Congrats to all class podiums.....see ya all at the next one.

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[LEUVEN]

Came into qually expecting to get a mid 1;57, but because it was so damn hot  I had to qually on mediums so am happy with pole.(anyone use softs?)

Managed to pull away quite steadily from the off, but even the Hards I used got very slippery a few laps before my scheduled stop so I decided to do just over half race distance before pitting, in the hope the second set of tyres would be OK till the end especially with the lower fuel load.

Exited the pits right behind Madd-Rip and decided to take it easy until the car was up to speed, I edged in and after a few turns I was wondering why he hadn't moved over yet as he's normally a gent, but then I realised we were battling for position as he hadn't stopped yet.  

Built up a nice 20+ second lead but with about four laps to go the tyres had showed how much they had suffered because of the pace and I ended up having a couple of sideways corner exits and a spin, but managed to keep the lead.

Only other moment I remember was when being lapped by Backo who dived down the inside and locked a wheel and rearranged the bodywork of my RSR  , but thankfully had decided to stay a bit wide and the contact was not too hard and I stayed on track with not much time loss.

It was close in the NGT at the end, only 10 seconds or so covering the top 3 after 80 mins with good drives from Luis and Shark.

Well done to Ruskus, Me, Madd and Gizmo.  

[Truetom]

After mypitstop I kept waiting for mo and Paul Richards to pit as I had the lead on them and so perserved my engine. After some time I realized they must have pitted already.     Started to chase mo came onto his bumper but couldn't get by 'till the end. As good as the chase was I feel robbed of my 3rd place 'cause of my pitcrew slowmotioned sabotage.  

TT