GT Sprint Cup - Season 1, Round 1, Barcelona - July 13

[harv_gtr]

well happy not to come last and to have some interesting tussles for a change... swapped places with glide a few times over the race as we took turns going into the gravel, a "battle" he eventually won 
brain fade towards the end as the "1" in the sky behind me turned out not to be the ferrari but the lister that appeared behind it when i let the ferrari past  seems i got the place back again, though under unfortunate circumstances.
congrats to mark and thanks all, 'twas great

[JonM_uk]

Had a nice race. Think I qualified 9th and finished 4th. Only had one spin, when Loc was pressuring me for about 3-4 laps. Didn't have any problems in the race, everything ran smooth and had a couple of decent little battles with Greg,Loc and Paul. Nice racing  
Thanks for the race all at UKGTR   And grats to Mark 

[ginsters sponsored]

well done mark.

Sorry to moan, but now i've only got 10 servers, all 10ticle servers and ukgtr have dissapeared, to choose from.
i'm off to kick the cat

[Simon Gymer]

There did seem to be a glitch with the lobby near the end of practice one. Whilst sitting in the lobby waiting to get a reserve spot i got a message about being disconnected from the lobby. I checked on the server in case something had gone with that and for some reason it had restarted the event. I suspect the 2 events are linked, given the state of this dreadful net code it wouldn't suprise me. I exited the lobby and came back in and everything seemed fine, I joined the server and we voted on to Q2 to keep things on schedule.

Finished 2nd, which I am quite chuffed about, I really wasn't expecting too with the quality drivers that had turned up. Just drove a very consistent error free race.

Congrats to Mark, he was in a class of his own, untouchable.

[Simon Gymer]

well done mark.

Sorry to moan, but now i've only got 10 servers, all 10ticle servers and ukgtr have dissapeared, to choose from.
i'm off to kick the cat

UKGTR is not running anymore Ginsters, so you definately wont be seeing it.

[Simon Gymer]

Server replay and exports are now uploaded.

I uploaded the wrong one to start with so apologies if you got the first copy (it had the wrong replay and no exports), so basically poop.

[Simon Gymer]

BTW, thought i'd mention it here rather than as an incident report (as it's more a rule "breaking" than an incident), Mark from pole led the pace lap fine until the start finish straight. In my opinion the rule is that no-one accelerates past 75mph (ish) until after the start line, this was not the case in this race where Mark accelerated a long time before the start line taking P2 with him (presumably not wanting to get left behind). This resulted in an unfair gap between 1st and 3rd of about 2 seconds into T1 because 3rd (me) accelerated only after the start line as per what is the rule (as I see it and how it's been done previously).

This is how we've done pace laps in all previous races so I'm assuming my intrepretation is correct and has been set by example in previous races.

Just wanted to post this so everybody has a clear understanding on the correct starting procedure as I'm assuming Mark has intepreted it slightly differently. (Gizmo, correct me if I'm not intepreting the rule as you intended it.)

[Mark Harrison]

Ah.  My interpretation was that I lead away from pole at 75mph, until we get to the start/finish straight, then I bolt when I choose to gain an advantage.  This is how it normally works where the leader acts as the pace car.  I wondered why I had such a big lead to 2nd and 3rd at the end of the S/F straight.  Sorry about that

Looking at the rules, they make it fairly clear.  Oops

[David M]

I couldn't even get into lobby 

[Luis Branco]

Well, since about a week ago I’m sort of jinxed and I’m doing silly mistakes one after the other that are becoming dreadful for my race expectations.
Tonight things seemed to starting to fit back to their right places.
Qualified within the top times (except Mark that was racing his own league in Barça ) and sticked with the front group (again Mark aside, as no one seem to be able to follow him ).
The racing times in the 4/5 cars group was very close, meaning it would be quite difficult and very risky to speed the pace to try to overtake. I could only expected that the front runners have a slip that allows me to take places.
And that was what happened, making possible to go up places till 3rd behind Simon.
Unfortunately the spell turn against the sorcerer and I made (again ) a terrible and silly mistake that cost me dearly, and when I was only at little more then 3 secs from Simon.
I dropped from 3rd to 6th with little more then 3 minutes left till end.
I must say I’m starting to fell a bit frustrated with my driving and with finishing positions. This is even worst when I spin alone and without any really pressure from other drivers.
I’m going to take a time off from GTR, although respecting the commitments I’ve made with the 3 leagues I’m in (yeah, I know it’s too much, but really I couldn’t turn my back to any of them, being the last a Portuguese league)
But I’m going to limit my driving to the scheduled race days for each league. At least for some time till my jinx as gone

[FlyBri]

Hi all, First off congrats to Mark for winning. What a difference racing with good, fair, clean drivers  What a buzz racing in a league situation (1st time for me!).

My race- was struggling a bit in qualifying until i managed a 10th place lap which i was pleased about  So driving round formation/pace lap with a big grin on me face lol gets to hairpin near end of lap before the 2 right handers, everyone started to accelerate, so in my keeness/noobness in wanting to keep up i accelerated too but spun like a noob    putting me last before i crossed the start line!!

Had a good first couple of laps , some peeps in front spun off but managed to pass a few and eventually finished 9th. I was very pleased with myself, i never made any mistakes(big ones anyway!) during race  , was happy at the consistacey of my race laps, although i was lapping only in the 1.43's. I need to practice my formation/pace laps LMAO,    Lol do i get ant points for 9th??

As far as peeps getting lost connection or whatever, i was in lobby an hr before race was due to start speaking to some peeps, and in the 20 mins i was there i lost connection 3 times, once the every game server lost connection so everyone racing at the time got kicked off, poor show simbin!

Anyways, thanks for the good race everyone,

FlyBri

[Aagramn]

Server replay and exports are now uploaded.

I uploaded the wrong one to start with so apologies if you got the first copy (it had the wrong replay and no exports), so basically poop.

Thanks, I'll upload the results when I get home.

Race was a bit of a disaster for me. Qualified a decent 6th on a very competitive grid, but missed my braking point at T1 a couple laps in. Ended up back in 13th, and two laps in a row found I couldn't spot my braking point from offline trying to pass harv, and flew off again. Think I'm relying too much on the track textures at some corners, looks like I need to practise driving off the racing line more.

[Jamera]

Fozz, I think it may be one all  , let me know what you think after viewing the replay

[Paul968]

After the calm of the NGT race, this was much more 'interesting'. Joined late with litle practice and in a Lister which I need practice in. Ended up 4th on the grid behind Simon in his Lambo. Followed him for a few laps at the start, with both of us gaining a place when Sho Ryu Ken Kishore went wide early on. I seemed to be a bit quicker but couldn't get close enough to pass, which was a bit frustrating. Dropped back a few times as backmarkers came into play but always got back on terms. Then had a bump with Locotus who looked to pass down the outside into T1 - he lost out and I was unaffected. Then had a rather silly stab up the inside into T1 (not sure why I tried it with hindsight?) where I ran wide and rejoined before Luis passed me. Yet again I was chasing Simon down, and was nearly back with him when I used too much gas out of Seat and spun. This left me 6th some way behind Jon, who kindly messed up Seat too a couple of laps later just so that we could have a battle   Great fun for several laps, but I was overdriving a car with worn tyres by now, and had to settle for 5th (Luis had dropped down by then).

One comment about the race - I was a bit confused by Rik Briant when we lapped him - he let Simon by straight away but then made me wait several corners, which cost quite a bit of time, something you don't have in a sprint race. Not sure it made any difference except that it took 2 more laps to catch Simon again. Rik didn't do anyting clearly against the rules, but if lapping drivers are not given reasonably even treatment it can really affect the result of a close race. As it turned out, by making me wait the cars behind me all bunched up and Rik lost out in the melee at la Caixa.

Anyway, the race was great fun if rather scrappy for me. Must try and get more GT practice before the next one (if I get in).

Paul

[fozzmeister]

Fozz, I think it may be one all  , let me know what you think after viewing the replay

Well the former, that was my normal line (i always pull back across there, to the left of most peoples line).  I thought you were further behind but I clearly cut across you, the question is, is it my right to cut across you there because this is my normal line? the line does move left slightly there I think as well. Did you continue afterwards as I'd like to know if it does turn out to my fault.

The latter one you may have rolled down the hill and to be honest there was no way I was going to lift (which may swing any verdict back in your favour), Three times now I've been hit like that, and the previous two times I've got away with nothing more than a loss of speed down the next straight, and i've not been hit in situations like that about 6 times.

I haven't analyzed them both very hard yet and I don't believe you or I were outrageously stupid in any of them at present.

I will of course be submitting incident reports probably later on today, at which point you will see my final and considered opinion of the incidents (they get mailed to you too).

We aren't allowed to discuss incidents in public, and I hope that you (and anybody else reading this) understand that this opinion is based on about 2 viewings of the incidents. I admit my view may well change later on when I properly review it. I certainly have not drawn any final conclusions, and I would appreciate it if no one else would.

Fozzmeister