UKGTR Season 6 Upper Endurance - Monza (GP) - Sep 16

[Paul968]

Can't say I was expecting a lot in the Morgan at Monza. I was well off my times in the RS in practice, and the fact that most people are pretty competitive there meant that I needed others to make a few mistakes. I opted for a better handling/slow speed high downforce setup to avoid my usual Monza raggedness, and got the best I could hope for in qual, putting me several cars back in the GTC field.

Off the line Adam seemed to miss a gear or something, as I was soon level and on the inside line into T1. We squeezed through without contact and I was left with the place on the exit. It didn't last long though, as Adam came past effortlessly soon after on the straight. I started with a full fuel tank, and this plus the extra 25 kg had a big effect early on. John passed me in his Morgan not long after, and I was left pondering how things might play out on the strategy front - pondering all the way into the braking zone at Parabolica, where I went to brake and realised I'd got the wrong braking board   I skittered across the gravel, kissed the barrier and watched as everyone went by - bugger!

After extracting myself from the gravel trap I set off after teamie Rob, who was keeping up a good pace in the RS. I got past after he made a mistake at Ascari, and then chased after Pseudo. After a short time trying to hassle him in his faster ferrari, he lost control at the 2nd chicane and I had another place. Then I came up behind Dave and Mark Jonzo in a close battle, and managed to take advantage out of T1 and get alongside Dave on the exit. Side by side round curve grande was interesting, but it left me with an outbraking chance into the 2nd chicane which Dave didn't dispute too hard although I left room in case he did. Mark then made a mistake soon after and I was up to 16th. I was then chasing Pops in a pretty brisk Nissan, and I spent the next 17 laps trying to close the few seconds gap. During this time most people ahead pitted, so we rose up the list together until we were 11th and 12th. As time went on his tyres were clearly going off and he got more ragged (although I was too to be honest), and I closed right up, but couldn't find a way past. I aimed to pit very, very late as it was touch and go whether I could make it without refuelling and I wanted to see how things panned out. I realised as time went on that I could probably avoid changing tyres too, and I assumed Pops wouldn't either. As it happens he did change but also messed up the fueling, so when I pitted several laps later I was left in clear air about 20 seconds ahead of SBG and 7 behind Pribeiro. He then gifted me the lead by blowing his engine, and I could turn the wick down and cruise to the end. Phew!

Thanks to all the lappers - no problems at all   Well done to Ruskus and Simon (really good pace in the Viper), and to Ian for a great drive - you deserved the win I think.

[Rob Bywater "Kerb Crawlers"]

Quite a consistent race again for me, until I thought I`d squeeze 1 more lap in before I pitted - ooohhh big mistake, spun it and punctured my left front.  Ended up in the gravel and couldnt get out, car just wanted to do left hand circles!!

Started a bit carelessly, letting Pseudo through a huge gap I left at T1! and that was that. Had 1 or 2 little offs, but nothing major till lap 27! So I concentrated on watching the Kerbies bring home the Italian bacon!! Congrats to Paul, SBG, and Dave for podium.

One question I`d like to ask - why do drivers who dont finish the race get points? John (nothing personal) got DQ`d, yet still scored.

Cheers

Rob

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

One question I`d like to ask - why do drivers who dont finish the race get points? John (nothing personal) got DQ`d, yet still scored.

Mostly a DQ is given out by the game - often a driver will quit if taking a stop and go will put them to the back with no chance to return, so we don't add insult to injury by exluding them from the points - particularly if they got further into the race than another driver.

If a driver has done something Really Bad^(TM) to earn the DQ then the moderator may choose to exclude them, but I don't think that's ever happened.

[Mark J]

regarding the corner that gave me a stop and go, i'm not really sure that there should be a cut warning applied to that inside grass crete. The very fact there is grass-crete there means its meant to be used, as that Variante complex is a very tricky set of curves with the kerbs often un-settling the car mid-curve when your trying to line up the 2nd part.
The penalty for cutting it too strongly would be having your left front sucked into the gravel so that should be ample penalty for anyone bending the rule deliberately.
I always find the porker a real handful through that series of turns everytime we race there and could do without the fear of a draconian penalty for getting it wrong just once in a 80 minute race.

[John]

Dont want to dance on paul968s parade,but if it wasnt for the 3 stop and goes and my own pitstop.
That race would have been mine.
At the start of quali i knew ihad a good setup,but i also knew i had a bad race setup.    
So i went out and done one quick quali lap.and spent the rest of quali on my race setup.
A couple of minutes from the end of quali i realised my race setup was poo.
So i went back to my quali setup and opened the rad to 4 and put on meds.
Had a quick go in the warm up,but was still lacking grip.
A minute before the race i decided to take a chance and change my strategy.
I put softs on both front and rear,and put in 20 laps of fuel.
2nd stint was going to be 26 laps of fuel and change to meds.
I was bricking it at the start of the race as i only managed 13 laps on softs when testing with Darren.
I shot off like a bullet,only to be held up by cars in front.Plus a few errors I'd made in the 1st few laps.
Then i got my rhythm,but by this time,Darren had caught me and we had a few position changes between us.
Until we came to the last turn,Couldn't see anything,just plumes of smoke.
Darren took the inside line and i took the middle.
Next thing i saw was i think Edamspeed sitting in the middle,i swerved to the left but Darren had no where to go and careered straight into him.
Bad luck mate,we were having a good dogfight.
Although i was taking it easy on my tyres
I took my 1st stop and go 2 laps before my pitstop.
That killed it for me,i thought,but no,i came out and was flying through the field.
I then managed to get 2 stop and goes on the same lap
So had to come in one lap after another.
On the 3rd stop and go i didn't slow down enough as i entered the pit.
Got another stop and go,but then DQ as i exited the pits.
I must of spent nearly two and a half minutes in the pits,maybe more.
I was gutted.
Congrates to winners

[Paul968]

Dont want to dance on paul968s parade,but if it wasnt for the 3 stop and goes and my own pitstop.
That race would have been mine.

No problem John. I said in my report:

...I needed others to make a few mistakes.

and you all duly obliged! 

[Joss]

Had terrible trouble trying to join this server and finally got in in Q2, only to do 2 race setup laps before my old PC crashed *again*.
Thought that was it, only to get in with about 20 seconds of Q2 left...so I'm starting at the back then

I was very careful to only overtake on acceleration so as not to interfere with the GTC lads too much. It must have been odd to see a Lambo come past on lap 1+2! Quite tough to do though as unless you utilise the better exit speed, the Lambo struggles to overhaul GTC's on the straights. By the time that was done, I was about 7 or 8 seconds behind the last GT1 so set about after that.

Only real battle was with Jure, after that it was just constant hot-lapping to try to get back into it. Was surprised to be up to 4th by my pit-stop but expected to lose 3 or 4 places during it, only to come out in front of Reign Man in 5th! I was about 31 seconds behind 4th at that point so thought that would be it, then the gap dropped to 18 seconds (after PR pitted) and I had a crack at chasing him down. With one lap to go the gap was about 2 seconds....only for me to realise I had all of 3.5 litres or fuel left  :'(
So I had to short-shift the lap, and give up on a very unlikely 4th place. I wouldn't have got it without a mistake from PR though, gd driving under pressure 

Then I ran out of fuel going across the grid, crossing the line with nothing left. 2 more litres wouldda done it! Gd race though

[CeeJay]

Overall a pretty poor race here, started pretty well and had a close battle with Shark and Zac, got a shot at the Viper but just barely locked the rear and spun in the chicane, got back in the action again pretty quick tho and swapped places with Zac a few times as we took turn making small mistakes or get caught by backmarkers. But by then I started getting FPS crap again  First time it started up to the Ascari complex, allmost lost it there and was lucky not to take out Zacari I think.
The poor FPS at Ascari scenario repeated itself for a few laps, strangely after a few laps it dissappeared again, but by then I had had to make an unscheduled stop alrdy after 15laps with some various splitter/suspension/tire damage after getting a bit frustrated about the FPS that was slowly starting to ruin my race and spun it out of Lesmo, got slowly and safely back to pits so only cost a minute so I figured I could still be in the hunt for a top 5 if I could stretch the fuel, figured it was just enuff with a full tank to make it to the end. But then unfortunately with the poor fps I had cut a few times and on the outlap I got a 3rd and final cut warning again after focusing too much on a GTC car as I lined up to pass it out of Ascari, bloody hell in to the pits again and came out in languishing in 18th almost 2laps down on leaders.
Last 30 laps was pretty lonely then, after getting past the GTCs ahead and ppl started pitting I was running 9th but gap to 8th was coming down by 2s a lap so that was a small motivation to keep goin at a reasonable pace. Car was actually good and no probs running that long on the same tires here. Ended just a few secs behind P7. I think next time I need to get abit into the rhytm of driving a RHD car prior to the race, kept putting the wrong side where it shouldn't be 

[Jure]

Monza - the venue of last seasons' nightmare went fairly better this year. This season brought a new concept to it - some actual practice.

Anyway, first things first.

Being a reserve I was sitting in the lobby waiting for practice 1 to end (26/28). Then, suddenly, 28/28 while lobby still showed Practice 1 (teamspeak2, a? ). Arghhh. Then, during practice 2, it showed 27/28 players, tried to join for like... 3 minutes but to no avail, didn't work (?). Finally got in while having a bad feeling I took a spot from FT driver. Did I? 

Anyway, was running 1-3 wing on full load of fuel during practice sessions, times were fairly good (high 44s/low 45s) but with a HUGE fuel consumption, 4.15L per lap which basically meant 100L + 90L stints. A nightmare. Anyway, didn't do well in quali, way of PB, but still, wasn't that bad, was pretty sure I'd have a good race pace (judging by free practice session times from people in my grid-neighbourhood). Race started fine, although I have no idea why I did not attack Mo in T1 though, room was there I simply didn't take it, that Saleen is very poor on the brakes.

Settled in, waiting for tyres to heat up (med-med), then went off track in Parabolica due to Reign Man (I think) messing it up (will he bounce back into me or won't he?  ) Overreacted, went to the left to avoid him and ran out of tarmac. Off to the gravel trap and into the barrier. Ignoring a slight nudge in armco I did my best to get out (didn't want to get back on track on ideal line through Parabolica so I eventually drove off at exit from old, concrete inclined Parabolica, ha!) but lost some 17-18 seconds, argh.

Drove behind Backo for few laps while we both tried to hunt down Mo. Turned out Backo was 1 lap down, lol, with a slightly slower pace than I. Pushed as hell only to (eventually) realise although running in P11 there was a car behind me doing amazing times (was in 44s-45s at the time, so I went.... Que? How can that be, there were no GT1 cars messing it up this early, I'd see them off track... ). Of course it was FreQ hunting me down like a banshee out of hell (with a car sound to match!). He caught up fast so I went "OK, I'm gonna be as wide as possible for a lap or so just to prove a point, then he'd better pass, no way I can hold him back for much longer than that". But he jinxed me, giggle, could not get it right through, you've guessed it, Parabolica with him on my gearbox (Parabolica being one of the strongest points of my setup. Ouch.). So he passed on main straight only to lose his position at Variante Ascari (worth a look 1580+ on the replay, god knows how a morgan driver felt while he was being passed by a Z350 on the right and lambo on the left down the back straight. Pure gold for you video buffs out there ), same process repeat itself soon after. And then again after the pits. Nice racing FreQ, thoroughly enjoyed it. It's interesting how very different setup we drove, completely different wing AND gear ratios, very cool.

Then, as you all know, the sunday carnage at Parabolica happened.(it looked something like this http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=18303185 ). Fortunatelly I was not stubborn enough to go in at full pace when I saw clouds of smoke approaching the corner. Round the corner we go and dear lord, what is this, bowling alley? But I missed them all, pheeew. Gained, erm, 4 positions (I think), running 7th.

Pitted... not very late tbh, ran out of fuel fast, lambo's thirsty (I suspect it had lots to do with my gear ratios, high rpm in 5th gear @ Curva Grande for.... forever!!!). Actually gained some time on Reign Man (I'd say some 10 seconds) although pit time was 62 seconds. Anyway, went in 7th, came out 7th. Chase was on again. But guess what, Backo, still a lap down, right in front of me. Again. OK, at least he'll plough through backmarkers for me, cool. But it soon became apparent to both of us I'm slightly faster and he let me by. Thx mate.

Nudged Dan Minton at 1st chicane (he came out of pits on cold tyres, I passed someone right behind him, Dan "stalled" on the exit and I spun him around oh so slightly. Corrected the situation in a split second decision and nudged him again to point him into right direction because I knew there's a train of cars right behind us. Pheeew, disaster avoided  )

Had few semi-spins in second chicane (three, I think) not getting a single warning though (I suspect it was due to NOT being on throttle  when returning to track). Lucky lucky.

Then the FreQ nightmare started to repeat itself, as mentioned earlier. He got by, of course. Was chasing Reign Man again only to realise there MUST be another alien behind me cause he was eating that time difference like crazy. But I did know there's not much more to go so I went "OK, let him blast around the track, I'm slowing down and he still won't catch me, only thing I HAVE to avoid is a mistake".

Which I didn't, of course, had 3-4 costly mistakes (must avoid rhythm changes next time) and had something like 4 seconds on him at the finish line. Him being CeeJay, of course.

All in all a fun race, endurance rules supreme.

[Reign Man]

Sorry Jure! I didnt realise I was the cause of your off. i'll check the replay and submit a report

[Jure]

lol. what for? you messed up, I over reacted - far from being your fault mate