UKGTR Season 5 Endurance Clubmen - Imola - Jul 22

[ginsters sponsored]

That was the kind of racing I'd been hoping for all season. Shame that for one reason or another it hasn't happened enough for my liking.

Done over by real team effort from the Leg-ends tonight. Wingman Parle held me up for long enough that I couldn't quite sneak past pops (was I along side in last chicane? ). Great stuff. Congrats to you both on 1/2 and team champs, very much deserved . And we'll get it back next season.

From my point of view the GT boys have been real gentleman all season . Thats why I was so annoyed/disappointed that one of them tried to outbreak me twice, once on their outlap, in quali costing me two fast laps. However, that stood out as unusual and you even showed great patience as I was totally focused on my own race and held some of you up more than I would like tonight.

Roll on next season
 

[Adam Parle]

Done over by real team effort from the Leg-ends tonight. Wingman Parle held me up for long enough that I couldn't quite sneak past pops (was I along side in last chicane? ). Great stuff. Congrats to you both on 1/2 and team champs, very much deserved . And we'll get it back next season.

   Cheers SBG -great season.  Shame we lost a few runners, but we've had some cracking fights between us. Bring on next season!

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results and final standings

[popabawa]

I'll write a race report tomorrow but I just want to get this off my chest...

NO CHAT DURING THE RACE 

It's not hard, just wait until the race is over, it's damn distracting and downright inconsiderate and came close to ruining my amazing fight with SBG.

Rant over 

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Easily my most satisfying drive of the season - quite possibly my only satisfying drive of the season!

Qualified dead last in GT1 (as usual) but made a place up off trhe start when Prof got all confused about whether his limiter was on or not (hint - once it's on it's a bad idea to take it off again!) and I stormed past - after Backo did the same at Magny Cours I was taking no prisoners this time! Race pace was good enough to start to pull away a bit and with the higher temperatures my mediums worked well, much better than in the Sprint.

Then Jure (who had a torrid race by the look of it) and Robert Midderhoff slipped off and I was up another couple of places. Picnic also ran wide and allowed me to squeek past. After a few laps Robert caught me up and for once rather than folding like a deck chair I managed a great display of defensive driving to keep him behind until eventually he made another mistake at the Variante Alta and gave me a little breathing space.

With the low tyre wear I could run as long as I wanted and stayed out until there were just 30 minutes to go, holding Brian up for a couple of laps in the process. (Sorry, Junior Boy - no team orders there. ) Stop was a bit of a faff with me barely making the speed limit (hadn't practiced the entry like I normally do) but once in the crew did a sterling job and with no damage and the stop being at the planned time I wasted no time checking the board so that they could get straight to work.

Came out again some 20 seconds ahead of the next car - MJ I think, though I assumed it was Robert at the time - but right behind Prof, now a lap down but pretty much able to match me for pace. The gap behind was coming down but Prof very sensibly allowed me past when the chance arose and I started pushing a bit harder trying to slow the rate of closure. Suddenly the gap was back to 30 seconds and I eased off a little to preserve the engine - and my brain.

Really pleased to get 5th - not sure how! - especially with some new guys showing up. Wasn't terribly consistent - kept running wide or biting off more inside curb than I intended - but didn't spin or actually run off once, which is a novelty for me in GT1! Good to see a full grid for the last race too - bodes well for Season 6!

[Mark J]

Bit of a non-event race for me, despite setting 4th fastest race lap, the rest of them were way off pace   I was about 2 seconds a lap slower on average than any offline testing i had done with my race setup and still no idea why
I just had no confidence in the car in most of the corners and just seemed able to plod around in the 47's which is cack.
Lost loads of time to traffic tonight, no fault of the slower cars as they were mainly great at moving aside, but catching a vertigo or cup porker at the chicanes or the fast s section was a nightmare and easily cost upto 4 seconds a lap at times, i just seemed to catch them at all the wrong places tonight.
2 spins didnt help either, 1 when i went offline to lap a G3 car and 1 at the uphill chicane in front of the team boss Pops  ..there goes my pay rise
I had run 4th for quite a while and enjoyed a good battle with Kit-kat? in the viper but after my spin his pressure ceased and the gap just got bigger by the lap.
To add insult to injury, when i finally came out of the pits after the worlds slowest mechanics had filled me up and changed tyres i found myself down in 8th place which redeemed itself to a final 6th when others stopped.
Getting lapped by mid race distance just showed me that i am way off the pace in GT1 class at this place but at a loss to see where i am losing so much time.  :'(

Well done to all the class winners, top job boys and thanks to the moderators and organisers for another great season of racing.

[Reign Man]

Had a great first half of the race, spent the whole time behind Pribeiro I just could not find a way past. Good race dude.

I spoiled it by spinning a couple of times and then having a dreadful pitstop I spent 30 seconds faffing around with the board selecting softer tyres (as I was on MED/HARDS) and as I forgot to change the amount of fueltops i had to hammer the keyboard until it got below what i currently had..

I come out 30 secs behind pribeiro and with one lap to go I have to go for a splash and dash.....not good. 

Sorry to a couple of GT1's by costing you more time than necessary, can't remember who you are but I spun in front of one and got mixed up on where another was gonna pass me.

....ah Picnic I think....span in front of you, sorry!

Not looking forward to the sprint on Tuesday, as I'm not that much faster in the TVR. 

See ya there

RM

[Kerr]

Just thought I would say well done to all for a great season. There has been a few good races and many great battles.

Anderstorp I really shot myself in the foot. Leading with only a few laps to go and stupidly spun overtaking back marker. Still a very tight and fun race.

Silverstone was great. had a few top battles only for a big accident to wipe out a few cars. Happy to win!

Estoril and Dubai I was a bit off the pace and Backo won both.

I missed enna as off on holiday.

Suffered connection problems as Oschersleben whilst leading only to spin off and lose lead because of it. shortly afterwards disconnection.

Magny Cours was a great series of races regardless of race/class.

Imola was fun too. Had a few battles with Backo tonight. Nice to finish with a win.

It's been a fun season with many highlights, a few unsavory moments too. On the whole it's been great.

I have found I have improved greatly this season with more laps under my belt and getting some help with my steering wheel set up especially.

I will be back next season ready to do battle.


Looking forward to hearing the plans for races next season

[BACKO]

THX to all for gratulation to me ,this was my frist  season in  SimRacing,which i really enjoyed .THX to all for makeing this racing profesional!!!I like very much and I'm sure come back for next season. ,of course more stronger

Last Endurance Clubmen race in Imola was amazing and I had nice fight with Kerr about top position.Half of race I went on 75% and other half 90% like I came from pit stop 8 sec behind Kerr.I started to chase Kerr ,I manage overtake him again.But 2 laps to go I did big mistake in last chicane (poor concentration)and spin my car ,then Kerr took my position,I tryed overtake him but he did superb last 2 laps.Well done mate!Thx again for nice race and whole season!!!!

[psuedo]

I have enjoyed this endurance clubmen competition....my first go at sim racing and it's been brilliant. Thanks to all and especially the organisers and behind the scenes folk for making it possible. Great job, and I eagerly anticipate the start of season 6.

I wont make a race report tonight.....it will just be repeating myself....mistake, error, mistake, error.  :'(

No probs with the love tap Will....I lost it more by trying to recover and overdoing it.

On the slightly down side, I did notice a bit of rather impatient overtaking moves from some lapping cars.
I actually read somwhere that it is best to either overtake under braking or wait to use the extra power in the straight......NOT on the apex of corners   forcing the slower cars into the gravel etc.

[Eddie Meyer]

I wont write a rece report either as it would more or less sound like what Mark said above with lots of  :'( as well
Apologies to Ruskus for the tap at Rivazza

Congratulations to all the class winners and thanks to the organisers and mods.
Looking forward to season 6

[Eddie Meyer]

sorry to pseudo and i think eddy meyer - i lost all force feedback on my wheel tonight - had to exit before i caused anymore damage

no problem Will, helped me to wake up a little

[Jeffrey]

Apologies to Ruskus for the tap at Rivazza

No problem, I did a nice 360 and off I went again . Didn't change anything in my race, so no harm done 

[popabawa]

Well, don't I feel stupid? I thought I just had to finish ahead of SBG and in the top 4 to nick 3^rd place in the GTC/G2 standings because I thought I'd get the tie-break based on number of wins. That'll teach me not to read the rules, SBG gets the tie-break due to attending more races.

That was a great race though.

I set a new PB by 0.7s in qually to be a few 100ths behind SBG on the grid so my intention was to hang on for as long as possible and hope for a mistake or to see what happened in the pits.

The first half of the race was pretty intense, it was obvious SBG was a bit quicker but I had all the luck when the GT1's started to steam round and lap us so he was only able to build a few seconds lead as he pitted. The skies had darkened at that point so I decided to stay out for a bit in case the weather changed. The skies brightened a few laps later so I came in to pit, hit the limiter perfectly and was out again with what I reckon was my fastest pit-stop of the season.

I was amazed to find myself nearly 10s ahead of Adam and SBG but I knew my engine was in pretty poor shape after the abuse it got in the first part of the race so I had to ease off a little and short-shifted for a few laps. With about 20 mins to go I could see SBG storming up on me. I seemed to get the worse of the traffic so it was an easy job to get on my tail with 4-5 laps to go.

That was a very sweaty last 10 minutes trying not to bin it whilst SBG piled on the pressure. I almost did lose it on a couple of occasions, that chicane on the back section was an adventure every time!

In the end I just held on by the skin of my teeth, I'm not sure I would have lasted another lap...

Great race SBG, you were unlucky, you were clearly faster last night

Congrats to Adam on an immense performance to win GTC and GTC/G2, fantastic driving mate.

I had a great season in the Vertigo, it was really good fun