UKGTR Season 6 Lower Endurance - Valencia (GP) - Sep 9

[John]

To knackered to wright a post on this race,i'll do it tomorrow.

[EdamSpeed]

Awwww. Nuts.

Was going reasonably well, having good battles with John (Pseudo) and P_Silva(Sonic), and Johan, plus a few others, and the car was handling nicely. Was about 15th mostly. Then, 3 minutes from the end, I start seeing smoke from the back of the Fezza.

No amount of short shifting could save it, it was doomed. With 2 minutes to go, I pulled off at Turn 7 and the engine finally died Gutted doesn't come close.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Damn run outta gas

Ah - wondered how I was suddenly reeling you in so fast.

Knew I needed to get ahead and stay ahead in GT3 for as long as possible to mitigate the Viper's thirsty habit and long stop - Madd-RIPP was never going to be in my sights, but got the jump on SbG's 811 and just drove and drove, concentrating on hitting apexes and early exits knowing that there was no way he'd get past the VCC's awesome (and ridiculously reliable - 94% health at the end!) V10. I knew that if the cars being held up behind - SbG and later PRibeiro - could stop early, the game was up.

TBH, had Ginsters actually put some petrol in it I'd never had got on the podium - Valencia is far too twisty despite its long front straight to use the Viper's strength. Monza will be a different story, though fuel consumption will still be an issue.

[Truetom]

Overtook Gomes halfway in my 2nd stint and slowly drove off when he made a mistake. I then saw TT infront at about 3s.
It was a matter of winning some, losing some. With 10 minutes to go I was slowly gaining and with 4 minutes to go TT went off at the last corner  . Real shame as it was gonna be a very tight finish.

I thought I was "oh so smart"    to let you slowly close the gap towards the end, though I was still driving on the edge. Or over it, as I had a lock up and the steering was gone even as I lifted off the brake.    DAMN !      I'll never have the chance again. 

I was driving "sparingly" in the first stint, wanted to save as much fuel as possible. And I did, just changed my tires in the pits. I had enough fuel then to really push, but I only managed to get my tires worn sooner.    Hope I can keep Fezza this high through more races. 

Sorry to Robert - I cocked it up at the last, upper going chicane and it cost you places.    It was a mistake, not a dirty move.    I'm sorry, hope I can make it up to you. 

And for that sneaky Shark, why I oughtta...    Grats, very fast and consistent.    It's Pauls fault, he was too slow.     

Good show, Legends.    Too bad others were missing. 

TT

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial lapchart

[Madd-RIP]

  After the server test on Friday I was quite confident with the setup I had so left it alone for this race.

Managed a good quali with SBG a little closer than I would have liked but I kept missing a couple of apexes in quali, so tbh was pretty happy with GT3 pole.

As for the race I decided to try and be consistent as I possibly could and not cook my tyres too early, in fact they lasted better than I could have hoped which enabled me to play my trump card and pit late so giving me the slight advantage of a lighter car and new tyres, plus the fact that I'd fueled the car to the end so I could make a quicker pitstop, it all worked out perfectly.

I was always worried about the Vipers' grunt on the straights but I was lucky as they got involved in a scrap in the first stint so I managed to eek out a little cushion and by pacing myself to Dave and SBG  could maintain the gap  .
Must say lapping cars (in my situation) were very good and didn't lose too much time when letting them pass, but its not the best track for this tbh.
Chuffed with probably my best race in terms of no cock-ups and pretty consistent laptimes and a good pitstop ever in GTR2, roll on Monza, where my Porker will be a right little fat piggy 

[BACKO]

Race weekend was ok for but I expected more .I did in qualification nice lap my PB and I took 4th place on grip.Race start ok I've been push very hard nad I had nice challenge with A.Parle M3,his M3 looks very nervous so I tried pushed him,but ones he was breaking early (now I know why,more fuel and I litle touch  his back of car and he spin(sorry mate). I've been waiting for him ,so we lost some positions.Then I had nice racing with TT,also close racing with him ,we had some contact but TT manage to stay on track,well done mate! :oThen I've been lead 5 laps when I went to pitstop which cost me top 3 !!!(bloody fuel I took it!!!=cost me about 20s more stay in pit !!!Finished 6th,but not happy :(Thx for nice race and congratulation top 3 each class!!!

[Simon Gymer]

Wow, haven't been in that position for quite a long time, not since the early GTR 1 days. Was expecting to do reasonably well in this championship but didn't expect pole in a car I had not done any practice in at all.

Managed a 1:33 in one of the practice sessions, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't quite scrape into the 1:33s in the real qualification session managing to take pole by 0.4 with a 1:34.0.

Was quietly confident going into the race assuming the GTC drivers that got good qualification times would not be able to match those when it came to medium tyres and race fuel. And that it where my plan almost fell down. You GTC guys were amazingly quick, although I suspect the twistiness (well I hope anyway!) of Valencia made the GTC and GT2 battle closer I am in awe at the times you were doing in the GTC cars. I was 1-2 seconds slower when I raced GTC in the Lower Sprint so I'm glad I had a GT2 car!

Race started and I slowly built my pace up. With Adam slowly dissapearing in my mirrors I saw no reason to really push it. The M3 was a bit of a struggle on a full fuel tank, but I could still lap as fast as I needed to. After a while Paul got past Adam and I thought, great I can cruise now, so I was driving very smoothly and carefully with an eye on the possibility of conserving enough fuel to not even have to fill up at the pit stop. Unfortunately, for me, Paul had different ideas and after I made my one and only stupid mistake half spinning into the tight left hander at the beginning of the circuit my 6 second lead was gone and he was right on my tail. Don't worry I thought, just drive with your eyes ahead and you'll be fine. This was true, but with my heavy M3 and wearing tyres it was getting increasingly difficult especially on the brakes to stop the heavy thing. I controlled my pace and was prepared to let Paul get about 1 second behind but no closer, I knew he would find it difficult to overtake as surely my M3 was faster down the straights. This didn't seem to be a problem and I controlled the race up front even with Paul so close I didn't really feel under pressure and didn't have one of those races where I was looking in my mirrors more than in front.

Knowing that even with a small amount of fuel I needed to put in at the stop with my well drilled pit crew I was a bit worried that Paul would make up time in the pits having to take on less or no fuel. I came in one lap after Paul, took on a new set of mediums and put in another 10 or so litres of fuel, off I went and was pleased to see I'd gained 5 seconds in the pits. Had dropped down to 4th or 5th in the pits but knew I would get all those places back as others stopped so was very pleased that it looked like a win if I just held it together.

With a lighter car in the second stint I could push harder and duly dropped into the 1:34s to make sure I got fastest lap and then went back to driving smoothly and consistantly. I seemed to lose more time in traffic than Paul and he managed to close the gap again, but I was never worried he could overtake me (as I had some extra speed in the bag) so wasn't concerned even when he managed to get under a second behind me with only a lap to go. I've learnt over many many years of online sim racing that unnecessary pushing under pressure near the end of a long race is a recipe for disaster so just drove my own race with my eyes on the tarmac ahead. It's also advantageous to know where you need to be fast and where it doesn't matter so I controlled my lap speed with the important corners in mind.

In the end it was a victory that I was very pleased to win, even being able to control the race up front I could not let up very much at all with Paul keeping my very honest in his Porker. Hats off to you Paul, very quick in that RS.

Sorry for the long report, it's the end now.

Well done to Paul on his GTC win and Madd-Ripp on the GT3 win.

P.S. Thanks to all the cars being lapped, the standard of driving was as normal very high and I thank you for your sporting driving.

[will16v]

Good race - enjoyed that one, although didn't qualify as well as i would have hoped to - bit of the pace compared to the rest of the GT2's...
But had a busy race - sorry to Prof for tapping you on T2 m8 - but had some great racing with you later on - albeit us both being in different classes, but good stuff...!
I think i made the mistake also of not filling up with fuel for the full race distance - made my stop seem to take forever.
Anyway - good racing all...i thought that the standard of driving was excellent from 1st to last.
See you at Monza.

[ginsters sponsored]

Good fun race that.

Knew I was in trouble when Dave qualified just behind me and he duly wizzed past me into T1. Much fun ensued as I tried to pressurise him into a mistake with no luck, although his team mate picnic did his best to put him off . Realised that I wasn't gonna get past with him driving well, and with PR catching us both up, decided to pit early knowing he would have to take longer in his stop. With a clean track, and only one rather silly rejoiner slowing me down, this strategy worked and when things settled down I had 10 second gap on him but not enough gas to bring it home . Now wish I stayed on track and carried on the fight wih Dave and PR instead of pitting.

Congrats to Shark, Paul (amazing pace), Mad ripp and PR who was flying in the ickle bmw.

[picnic]

although his team mate picnic did his best to put him off

Don't think that was me  Wouldn't dare upset one of the team owners 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

although his team mate picnic did his best to put him off

Don't think that was me  Wouldn't dare upset one of the team owners 

Owner? I'm just a thick racing driver. Nah, one car did put me off at one point but it definitely wasn't a Shark...

[Madd-RIP]

  Just one thing guys its  Madd-RIP 

[Jeffrey]

Just one thing guys its  Madd-RIP 

And that after almost 2 years, they'll never learn 

 

[Paul968]

What a great race!   Just squeezed into 3rd on the grid behind Adam in his M3. The first few laps were tricky trying to pressure Adam into a mistake without giving Backo a sniff in this Morgan, and thankfully I got past around lap 4. Chasing Simon's M3 was a struggle to start with, especially as my rear tyres were too hot and got even hotter every time I pushed. At about lap 13 Simon made a mistake and the gap came right down, and we then spent the rest of that stint in close company. Towards the end his tyres were clearly a problem, and although mine were not great either I think I had more pace at that stage.

I hoped to use the pits to jump ahead so I pitted first, but I fluffed the entry (slowed too early and then wasn't sure about whether the limiter was on). Needed a tiny splash of fuel and then came out hoping to put in a fast couple of laps, but things went wrong after a misunderstanding with Ossie . The contact left me with some sort of damage but also a huge judder in the steering for the next lap, which really slowed me down (My MSFF wheel does this after hitting curbs too hard, posts at MC, etc, sometimes pulling hard to to one side in random pulses, but stops after a lap or so - does this happen to other wheels?). The upshot of all this was the loss of several seconds to Simon, who emerged 2 laps later on fresh tyres and with a lot more pace.

After the pitstops had shaken out, I was starting to look at the gap behind, wondering if Ruskus was going to come charging back on soft tyres, but Simon pulled me along at a fast enough pace to extend the gap. As we neared the end he started to slow with tyre problems and I detected a chance of glory. I was closing in with about 5 to go but then ran wide  at the last corner trying to get on the power too early, and then needed several more laps to get back on terms again. Even so, as we started the last lap I was within a second, and this came down through the lap. Coming into the last corner I had one last effort trying to stay as far right on the entry as possible to get a run onto the straight (and also hoping to unsettle Simon). Unfortunately I bit off a bit too much curb, spun it and Simon slipped out of my grasp and over the line. With a big gap to 3rd though I had plenty of time to rejoin and take 2nd.

Thanks to all those I lapped - no complaints at all  (although I'm sure those sneaky Sharks managed to gain a little breathing space for Simon   ). Lapping the Viper though is a PITA - it has more power down the straight and is too slow in the corners to get a good run on . Congrats to Simon for a typically controlled win and to Madd-RIP (happy now?  ) for a dominant drive in the Cup car.

Valencia is definitely one of my favourite tracks, so I won't be this near the front very often, especially next time out at Monza - yuck!