UKGTR Season 5 GT1 Sprint - Oschersleben (GP) - Jun 19

[Mark J]

That was another stonking race, i enjoyed it all the way from start to finish.

Had a naff qually despite getting 9th/10th on the grid but i was a whole second off my PB. Literally minutes before the first practise session i did a 1:21.2 and a 1:21.3   so thought i was on for a top 5 grid spot this eve    
Oddly i seemed to get less grip as the qually session wore on  ...was it getting hotter? i forgot to look.

Race was one long hard pushing fight from the green flag to the chequered one. For quite a spell there was a 4 way fight going on from simon in 3rd back to me in 7th with Freq and Mark Mc in between. It was superb watching the fight whilst hanging on for dear life to Marks Viper wing  
That Viper was incredibly quick down the straight, you literally just blew past me half way down it  
..the Massa seems way down on power still, and is left for dead by the 550's too. Shame we havent got an F1 style speed trap to record top ends down the s/f straight.
Eventually the cars in front eeked out a 2.5 sec gap and that stayed like that give or take a second for the remaining half of the race and i brought it home a well earned 6th/7th?? I was hoping Marks viper tyres would go off as i closed near the end but alas no joy.
Cracking race, hats off to the top 6 for the non stop brutal pace.  

[Kerr]

Sorry i had to run right after race, but i'm at work now!    using phone so sorry about paragraphs etc.  Found qualifying hard. 3 times was i caught out by drivers just cruising along on racing line, you guys know better. Did not post the best of times but still 4th.    i could match ruskus and zacari for pace. Made a couple of stupid mistakes as still not got to grips with this track.   Got passed zacari after he had a spin.   I was a couple of tenths quicker than ruskus and was slowly reeling him in. My tyres never lost as much performance as usual and i caught him quickly at the end. Had a chance to pass when  after gazza ran wide and ruskus backed off. Got inside him a lap later but that viper has serious power.   I just could not pass. Great race all and well done leuven on the win.                                        

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

That was in equal parts hard work, great fun, frustrating, and enjoyably meaningless.

Hard work - made a few mistakes and traded places with Madd-RIPP, Gazza and Picnic in the process. Had another bash at fixing my pedals before the race and that seems to have worked. Also rearranged things to put GTR2_PD on a second monitor rather than my laptop but obviously got something wrong in the dual view setup and I had stuttering all through the event; went back after the race and did it again from scratch and it seems okay again so I don't get it. It was still drivable though, just anoying.

I was too rushed during qualifying so never had a chance to set the car up properly - was mostly okay but the gear ratios were too short so the 550's tendency to waltz away down the straights was exacerbated. Tyres were getting pretty nasty towards the end and the Vette was sliding all over the place and I actually started deliberately powersliding it in places to use the rears which were in better shape than the fronts.

Gutted to lose a place to Madd on the last lap, especially with a stupid error, running wide in the compound left handers.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make the Clubmen Endurance event on Sunday unless I happen to invent a warp drive in the next few days.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Always enjoyed Oschersleben, it's a great hot lapping track

I never liked it that much in GTR1 but with the low speed grip sorted out it's a great place in GTR2 to really hustle a car - it's only really the  evil Triple where a small mistake gets punished really heavily.

Totally the opposite of Enna.

[Gazza49er]

Thanks guys, that was good fun although im a little dissapointed overall where i finished because when i saw most people were in the 1.22's i thought ok im gunna be in the middle of this lot and felt good but i think wrong choice of tires and first race nerves got the better of me. All week i had been getting steady 1.22's all be it with slightly less fuel so to get 1.24 in the race was not good. I was well over cautious at times when around other cars coz i didnt want to cause any accidents on my debut and at one point let Dave i think go round the outside of me in turn 2 although i had inside line lol.

Im glad to hear i didnt cost Ruskus a place when he and Kerr lapped me, i knew they were coming up behind me and kept checking mirrors but ran wide in turn 1 and stayed on grass to let them pass.

See you at the next one.

[Zacari]

I do like that track, great fun!   Qualifying was the closest I've seen in ages, I was more than happy with being 3rd on the grid.

Start was fine, I dropped off Jeff briefly but a couple of laps later I was right up with him again.  Tried hard to find a way passed but only managed once to get along-side, the rest of the time I was using the best of my tyres up trying to find a gap!  Some nice slidey moments. A lap later I tried to get inside again, but Jeff kept it tighter and I either had to run wide (ie collide) or spin, so I had to spin.

After that I totally lost concentration, dropped an extra gear into the triple left-hander and spun out- apologies if I stuck my nose over the kerb when rejoining a little early.  Numerous other offs resulted in 9th, which was pretty awful, though I did manage the fastest lap when chasing Jeff

[Kerr]

Remember when you play offline gazza the weight ballast might not be taken into account. Note the 550 has an extra 25kg when racing here.     At least your first race went without any incident. I'm sure you will find your feet and there is loads of good guys willing to help out in need be.      I was baffled when i first joined how fast and consistent most drivers are.   Everything on here is fair and well organised. It's on a completely different level than open server races where they are full of idiots. On here everything is good clean and taken seriously. The only problem i have is some guys are too fast! 
will you be back for the clubmen endurance race using the 550?
 

[Truetom]

Had TT behind me for the first section of the race whilst I was bedding myself in, the noise of that MC12 was horrible behind me I just couldn't hear myself think. Then thankfully (for me) TT made a mistake...

I felt I could go quicker there but could not prepare a line that would work towards overtaking. One of this cases lead to unhealty line through the Esses and off I went... 

The circuit definately suits the Lambo and MC12 with their great cornering ability...

As much as this is true it is also true that MC12 is (again) faster where you can't overtake and (still) doesn't have the power to overtake on the straight. Couldn't even come into slipstream to stick a nose into the inside corner to force my way through have a "legal half" of the car beside the one I wanted to overtake.

It was identical to Dubai where I was right on the rear of Mos Viper but when the road straightened out he simply drove away.    That leads to a conclusion that MC12 is still too heavy to compete with other GT1 cars. MJ also stated this in his post and I think Picnic would agree. 

Otherwise I can't say anything bad about event. I thorougly enjoyed the quali session. I must say I could improve another 0,3 or 0,4 seconds towards the end if I had a clean lap. I know everybody tried to set their best time but as DG said in one of his posts - every driver knows when he's on a fast lap and when you make a mistake please let the faster car behind you pass, do not race him. It ruins both drivers laps. Let him pass and prepare for the next fast lap. No hard feelings anyone, just a note. 

As I said, MC12 can be quite fast around this circuit, if there's noone in front.    I felt I could go faster through the corners but could never prepare an overtaking opportunity when driving either behind Shark (Lambo), Jure (F550) or Bernie (F550). Fair racing all and great duels but despite being dangerously too close through the corners MC12 couldn't close the gap on the straight. Trying to find alternative lines only brought me two mistakes in the Esses and when driving behind Bernie I prefered to quit rather than force a way through which could result in a touch and ending both of our race. When I was driving behind Jure it was clearly visible that even when I was 1 sec per lap faster when closing the gap once we were close any advantage MC12 has in cornering ability meant zip. Even when Jure made small mistakes when driving on the limit, MC12 was too slow to exploit them in a safe way. After he made a mistake before the Esses he let me pass like a true gentleman    and then I was able to make a gap of a few seconds in a lap or two. Same story with Bernie, F550 is too fast after the corner ends.

MC12 feels great to drive otherwise, I'm not sorry to have picked it for this season, it's just that the results on the board show it's underpowered to be really on par with F550, Saleen, Lambo or even Viper. I'd like this to be noted for the next season.     That said - I must be fair and say that the car field is much more evened with the ballast pack so this was the step in the right direction. 

Sorry for the long post - I needed to take this off my chest but my wife is not interested in this kind of rambling. 

TT
     

[picnic]

It was identical to Dubai where I was right on the rear of Mos Viper but when the road straightened out he simply drove away.    That leads to a conclusion that MC12 is still too heavy to compete with other GT1 cars. MJ also stated this in his post and I think Picnic would agree. 

I do agree, I had a good speed advantage coming on the the start/finish straight on Mad when his line was compromised by another car but the Lambo just left me. My team mates think I'm mad to drive the MC12 because of it's propencity to swap ends but this is the first time / track I've really had these issues and I do love the way it gets into the corners  Never being one who will win races, let alone championships, I'm happy to poodle around in one of the less popular cars and was pleasantly surprised that the MC12 is as popular as it is

[Simon Gymer]

Each car has different characteristics. The Viper and 550 were faster down the straights than the Lambo as well as the MC12 but the Lambo is better through the corner and out of it and the MC12 is better into the corner and through it. You need to work out someway of making it your advantage. The Viper was quicker down the straights but it didn't blow people away, it's all very close and we don't know what each other's wing settings were either. I was running 2-10 for example but I've no idea what the cars around me were running.

I know the Lambo has great traction out of the corners so with people running behind me I tended to make sure that I got a better exit than them by slowing the first part of the corner down if necessary. They can't overtake mid-corner and nearly every corner get too close and can't react to me getting the power down quicker than them, which doesn't give them enough time to get me under braking (the easiest way to overtake) on a circuit like Oschers. Different circuits suit different tactics to keeping someone behind, some circuits are much harder to prevent overtakes, but Oschers is quite easy to not be overtaken if you just drive your lines and don't make mistakes. Of course the best tactic is to simply be able to lap faster but with the top 10 yesterday all qualifying within a second there was virtually nothing between a lot of drivers.

I do unmistakably see too many cars running very close to the ground when at places like Enna and Oschersleben. Too many sparks from the ground. I believe you have to put the ride height up when using so much of these big curbs otherwise the bottom of your car will hit the teethy curbs and cause unexpected reactions. It's much more of an advantage to be able to hit a curb and not have the bottom of your car spit you off than it is run a tiny bit lower for very very very marginally better cornering. If the bottom of your car is hitting the floor then you can expect the unexpected.

Congrats Jeff, can't believe how many points you've racked up despite being in the Viper half of the season! Well done. Perhaps we need to stick you in a 911 GT2 to keep up!

[Jure]

Congrats to Jeffrey for wrapping it up with 2 races to go.   

Right. New venue for me, had a first bit of practice on Monday (and watched AI for a lap or two on Saturday just to know what's comming  ). When I first saw the track I went: "oooops, understeer-o-rama for F550, Lambos and MC12s will kick ass". Man I hate it when I'm right. 

Anyway, after running reasonable pace (i.e. not going off every second turn, 1 hour prior to race start I was still in "hmmm, is the next one in 3rd or 4th?") in free practice I had a nightmare of a quali session. First of all apologies to all that I've blocked/got in a away/ruined concentration during quali. Bloody track, if one wants to let by guys on a flying lap it's simply mission impossible. The more I tried, the worse it get, short lap didn't help either, quali was packed as never before and that resulted in Q time being 1 second off my best times in race trim. No comment. BTW, close times in Q are more a result of a short lap than anything else IMHO.

I knew soft-med combo wouldn't last, hated med-med so I opted for med-hard. Unfortunately I ran out of time to tweak it to perfection, i.e. my tyres just wouldn't heat up during the race except for few laps I drove on my own. The moment I got into duels race pace dropped and voila, back to 195kPa and cold tyres. Catch 22.

Race start was fairly good, I could push a bit more but decided it's "just" a GT1 sprint which I consider as a training session for endurance anyway, hence one must finish, period. Was happy to let Baracus by after he had a spin and caught me as a banshee out of hell. Tried to keep him behind for... 5-6 corners, then I went "naaaah, we'll both crash, it's no use, time to flash him by, he's a teammate.". Great racing vs glued-to-the-ground-MC12s followed.  Bloody things were sooooo fast in fast triple left corner it was incredible. That's why I made a mistake and let Truetom by, I was watching him in the mirror, thinking "maaaan, I wish F550 could be so precise through here" and whammo, off I went.  Next time I will use classic Italian credo: "dee trafik beehind meee does naaat matter" since it was, as TT clearly stated, impossible for them to keep up on the straight plus if one used slow in-fast out approach, you could block ANY car - forever. I do agree with MC12 drivers opinion as per MC12 goes, it's still waaay too slow down the straight, am watching it throughout the season although new ballast pack made them a bit more competitive. 

And oh yeah, repeat after me: "if Jure thinks rest of us will all suffer on soft fronts in the last stages of the race we shall oblige and stick to his plan." 

Congrats to Gazza for finishing the race and having a reasonable pace. You'll do just fine. Welcome to the series.

Looking forward to endurance, it'll be a hard race for all of us, track isn't that much forgiving and, short as it is, does not give you any rest (unless you all agree to GET OF MY A** down the S/F straight ). I should also tweak the setup a bit more, wing 2-11 is simply too understeery.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

That leads to a conclusion that MC12 is still too heavy to compete with other GT1 cars. MJ also stated this in his post and I think Picnic would agree. 

I don't think it's a weight issue - if it were I'd expect the car to be pants in the twisties too and it manifestly isn't. More likely the MC12 needs to run a little more downforce and is less aerodynamic as a result - not to mention comparisons with the Viper aren't really representative because that's the torquiest car in GTR2 with a whopping 850Nm against the MC12's very modest 655Nm - the C5-R and 550 being in-between with 775 and 774 respectively - and a lack of torque hurts a car with less torque a lot more than one with lots.

[Truetom]

I know the Lambo has great traction out of the corners so with people running behind me I tended to make sure that I got a better exit than them by slowing the first part of the corner down if necessary. They can't overtake mid-corner and nearly every corner get too close and can't react to me getting the power down quicker than them, which doesn't give them enough time to get me under braking (the easiest way to overtake) on a circuit like Oschers.

I agree and that's why I've been searching alternate lines. As I had a quicker entry I was able to go wide into the corner right on the bumper of the car in front. The line also enablem me to be put onto the straight line at the same moment as the car in front, thus having a FULL acceleration at the same time as the car in front. But then MC12 was left behind and zero gap turned into 1 or even 1,5 car length at the end of the straight. This was most visible against F550 (Jure&Bernie) and I was not enough time behind you, Shark to exploit all the alternatives.    Also, the exit tecnique you described prevented me from applying full throttle at the same tima as you. But the result was the same - the gap increased on the straight and decreased again through corners.  

I was running wing 11 but was experimenting a lot with lower wings. Every other setting was making me slower exactly 'cause the exit speed was lower with the lower wing (the car was less stable and the full acceleration could be done at a later point). The maximum speed on the straight was not higher by using wing 10 or 9 exactly 'cause the acceleration was applied gradualy.

Oschers is quite easy to not be overtaken if you just drive your lines and don't make mistakes.

Yes, it kind of reminds me on Monaco with no walls.    That makes my point about qualifying all the more important.  
I hated the circuit in GTR1 but I feel it's much easier to drive in GTR2. Endurance will be fun.  

TT

[Truetom]

That leads to a conclusion that MC12 is still too heavy to compete with other GT1 cars. MJ also stated this in his post and I think Picnic would agree. 

I don't think it's a weight issue - if it were I'd expect the car to be pants in the twisties too and it manifestly isn't. More likely the MC12 needs to run a little more downforce and is less aerodynamic as a result - not to mention comparisons with the Viper aren't really representative because that's the torquiest car in GTR2 with a whopping 850Nm against the MC12's very modest 655Nm - the C5-R and 550 being in-between with 775 and 774 respectively - and a lack of torque hurts a car with less torque a lot more than one with lots.

Dave, you have to take my statements with some reserve.    By using the term "too heavy" I simply meant "not being able to compete on the straight", thus losing 'cause you can't exploit what you gain through the corners (where you can't overtake) once you get on the straights (where you can overtake - if you can  ).
I'm still learning English. 

TT

[Simon Gymer]

Dave, you have to take my statements with some reserve.
I'm still learning English. 

TT

Apparently you need to learn not to double post too.