UKGTR Season 6 Lower Endurance - Adria - Oct 7

[Kerr]

Lots of freezing tonight.

My PC completely froze during second practice session. It took me ages to get PC shut down and restarted. I could see a few people suffering too. Something wrong somewhere?

Could barely get a clean lap in during qualifying but still managed a lap good enough for pole which surprised me.

Managed to keep Backo at arms length for the opening period and was easing away ever so slowly. Then Robert Middlehoff was on a charge and caught me right up. Make a mistake and lost the back end under power and this allowed Robert the chance to pass.

Started to chase but Robert was quicker so decided to pit. Made a good stop and noticed Simon had made up loads of ground on me. I just passed him at pit exit.

Then the game started to stutter. Edamspeeds car stopped at start finishline and for the next countless corners I was struggling to drive with all the stutter. I then ran off because of it.

Not sure what happened as I only say Mark Jonzo pass me and nothing else. I looked behind and saw Simon was there. Come start finish line it appeared Mark slowed down to let me pass, which I doubt would happen as it was for 2 or 3rd spot. Then suddenly Simon appeared in front of me when he was behind 2 secs before. Very odd.

A few other bit of warping then it cleared.

Gave chase to Simon and caught him up. For the final 20 mins I tried all I could but could not get passed. A little moment with a backmarker allowed me the run but Simon closed off my space. Then again a wobble allowed me the chance only for me guess Simon was going to move the other way. I had to lift off!

The BMW was way too quick on the straights and even though I could easily out brake him I could never get close enough to attempt a move.

Nice racing Simon, that's going to be a heavy car now!

Most of the backmarkers were excellent in very difficult conditions. Although I did not like the one or two that wanted to race. Again although I was 2-3 secs a lap quicker, it's still hard to pass.

I followed one through about 5-6 corners and could not get passed. I put my nose up the inside a few times only to have it slammed shut. Then went around the outside and nearly got t boned off.

I still can't say I like the track but I'm beginning to get used of it.

Well done Simon and Backo for class wins. Good race again Robert. You lost that one in the pits tonight as you were the quickest most of the time.

[Mark J]

phew, that was 80 mins of pure action !

No let up at all from start to finish.

Really enjoyed the tight qually battle with Mo, TT, Jeff and Zacari, even though i lost 3 places at the end to them

Race was fantastic, had the first 10 laps or so glued to Jeffs bumper as he sought a way past Zacari, then spent the next 10-12 laps glued to Zacari's TVR. It was so intense i was sweating buckets just through concentration.
Eventually i got alongside Zacari upto that nasty little jink turn, i thought i had the line at that point but his TVR thought otherwise and we clashed as two cars tried to squeeze into one spot and Mo was following so close behind he thumped the pair of us  ...bit of a 'race incident' that one.
Unfortunately i pulled my damn wheel of the desk in that melee and had to drive the few laps leaning my body on it against the desk hoping it wouldnt fly off as the clamp had got stuck  ...i eventually did it up one turn at a time between frantic gear changes on the small straights.
During those laps me and Zacari changed places a couple of times under braking but despite untold severe braking moments behind his Tiv because the Fezza could brake far later, i clipped his rear quarter as he braked harder than i had got used to at that tight right hairpin and spun him. I stopped dead and let him through but Picnic had sneaked past the pair of us (wheres yellow flags when you need them? ). So apologies to Zacari for the contact, it certainly wasnt deliberate as the previous 15 laps should testify!
A few laps later his TVR completely disapeared from my view and i thought he had Discod  
By about lap 42 i found myself up in 3rd whilst others had pitted and then i got caught up in the front runners battle when i just really wanted them to go by as i cost myself loads of time trying to defend my 3rd on worn rubber ala Hamilton! (but without the skill )
I tried pitting for about 3 laps but everytime i hit pit request, i got a garbled response and didnt trust the useless b*stards in the pitlane so kept going around on shagged tyres until i finally dived in.
I dropped from 3rd to 12th !! ...without taking any fuel on, just tyres   sod knows how?
Then i just chased Adams ass for lap after lap but was also short shifting for the last 10 laps as my lap counter was saying there were 82 laps and i thought it would be touch or go to finish. But then without warning i saw a big plume of smoke up at T1 and thought there had been a big old off but got the race finish notice ??!  Weird...anyone else have that?
Cracking race though, finished soaked in sweat, congrats to podium guys

[Madd-RIP]

   Saw a warped car at start, think it was edamspeed, then as I was tootling along all of a sudden.. smack, he just reappered by me, I even had a ctd in quali, as I noticed a few others did too. As for the quali, car was horrid with the weight, so it must be working!

Hoped my race strategy would work out but made a silly error out of the last turn and spun, and did it again a little later.
So basically damage limitation was the order of the day!

I kept trying to be consistent...ish and just slowly get back into contention and when I started seeing people pit I knew I could leapfrog a few and so it turned out, I managed to get past Dave in the pitstops but SBG and Pribeiro were just too far in front but Ossie made a mistake into the last turn so got past.  

We had a great scrap for a few laps with him all over me like a cheap suit on the straights, but I kept my line and made it as difficult as I could, he made a couple of attempts at the Esses and one stuck, until he came across a spinner but made another go soon after and sailed past me and the Esses too   , after that he seemed to drop back and I just had to keep it on the Island for 3rd  

Thought the Vipers would struggle more but on the straights they're just monsters!

Grats to GT2 and GTC podium!

[picnic]

Provisional Results above, replay here plus provisional standings

[ginsters sponsored]

Well, I still ain't that keen on the track, but it don't half produce some fun racing

To much fun to recall  . Can remember stand out battles with Dan, Dave, Pseudo and PR (sorry if I missed anyone out). Quite lucky to win I guess as early tap and resultant spin left more too far behind PR. Not sure how I caught you PR but congrats on top effort in the bimmer. We might struggle at Spa with some extra bodyweight . And thanks for waiting Dan, as Dave and I were trying to get back in order after some lapping confused the hell outta Dave .

Top work from GT2 and GTC boys in very trying conditions

 

[Simon Gymer]

Wow, that went from extremely boring to a strenous battle. Managed a 1:13.8 in TimeTrial mode with ballasted car but without the extra 40kg success ballast so was expecting to be about a second slower than that in qually. Sure enough bang on a second slower which gave me a reasonable 4th on the grid and a good platform for getting a podium finish.

After some off-line testing I realised there was a chance to get the BMW to do the whole race without stopping for fuel, but I needed to drive a bit conservatively to eek out the fuel consumption as it was touch and go. So I started on full tank and soft tyres and boy was the first half of the race hard. The car felt immensely heavy so getting the car stopped was a big issue and it felt quite understeery whilst the car was heavy with fuel and ballast. So much so that I was using lower gears for some corners over qualifying laps. Still my fuel consumption was going really well and I was happy that I could do the race without fuel.

Up to that point I'd had a dull race, just conserving fuel and trying to egg the Beamer round the corners and into the braking zones. Just after half way I pitted for my tyre stop, told the crew to leave my fuel alone and so a quick stop saw me jump up to the previous leader Brian. I was really surprised to come out literally just as Brian was coming by and racing him for position. I was too slow to realise it was him and he easily got by into T1 as I struggled on cold tyres.

I chased Brian for a while knowing we were the virtual leaders, but he was ever-so-slightly quicker than me and although I was going much faster on half a tank of fuel and fresh rubber I didn't think it was going to be enough. After a while Brian made a mistake into the kink and took a minor trip into the gravel allowing me to get through and take a 2 second lead. And that two seconds was as big as it was for the rest of the race. For i dunno, 20-25 minutes or more, I had Brian breathing down my neck trying to force me into a big enough mistake to let him by. Had some moments along the way with back markers and so on, but this track is VERY hard to get by and I drove defensively at times when I needed to and that was enough to keep him behind. The BMW had enough grunt on the straight to make sure Brian had little chance into the braking zones and the rest was just about getting the car in the right place to prevent and sneaky dives up the inside.

Nearer the end I realised there was enough fuel to rev it into the red so I was a bit quicker down the straights near the end. In fact I finished with 8 litres so there was plenty to spare.

It was a tough battle, hats off to Brian for making it the best race so far at Adria for me, although I still hate the place with a vengeance.

Well done to Backo in the Morgan for the GTC class win, fantastic pace in that lively beast.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

That was very tough. Had to break from the script at the end of qually in order to ensure that I didn't start dead last, then either PRibeiro didn't use his limiter at the start, or the Z3M doesn't have the flashing light. Either way I completely failed to use Viper Power^(tm) to pass him and after that could only try and hang on to his coat tails.

Getting lapped was very hard work - not helped by accidentally letting SbG and one of the RVS 811s past by accident, though they very generously let me back past again. One thing that really annoys me though is when I lose time letting someone by, and then they chuck it off the road... twice! I get less generous each time I have to let you by again.

Stopped pretty much bang on half distance. Had to take on 75 litres of go juice and came out ahead of PRibeiro on the road, but nearly a lap down on the frugal Z3M - held him up for a bit before having a stupid off and losing a place to Ossie, and after that I started to fall seriously into the clutches of Dan Minton's 811. The last 20 or 30 minutes consisted of desperately trying to stay ahead of the Porsche, despite rear tyres that felt distinctly like Lewis Hamilton's.

At one point, I found myself stuck behind Prof's Morgan, a lap ahead but holding me up and starting to overdrive on what looked to be well worn rubber. Very narrowly avoided running into the back of him in turn 1 (and I thought the Viper had to brake early!) but then he got sideways in one of the long left handers and I ground almost to a halt just as Rob Midderhof was trying to lap the lot of us and he ran smack into the back of me. Not sure if it did any real damage as the car was already a total handful but the last 10 minutes or so were white knuckle laps and then some.

No idea where I finished but that's three races at Adria and three intense battles.

[Simon Gymer]

I even had a ctd in quali, as I noticed a few others did too.

Yep I got a CTD tonight too in practice I think probably same time as others. Seems there maybe some buggettes in the track I fear, or maybe something else.

[Simon Gymer]

Again very hard track for lappers and lappees alike but I want to have a little moan I'm afraid for which I'm going to feel really awful as the thought was always there when I came up to lap drivers it was just sometimes the execution that needed some work.

It wasn't the getting let through as that was great and very generous as usual, it was the sudden swerves off-line unpredictably to be let through. There was a number of times that I was about to pull out to lap and suddenly the driver being lapped would pull off-line and I'd have to brake or swerve back and then it would be even harder to pass. Some drivers were different to others and this meant you had no idea how the next guy would let you through.

I just say this because being predictable is the absolute king to lapping and being lapped. Stay on the racing line, blend off the throttle. The car lapping is expecting to have to drive off-line to get by so knowing this it is much better if cars being lapped stay on line so this can be achieved with as little confusion as possible. It is in the SRou guidelines because of many years experience in the safest way to lap in online races.

I hope no one takes this the wrong way as I really don't like having little moans like this. Everyone was really great being lapped and I hate to criticise the lapping / lapped thing cause it's a very difficult thing especially on a track like this with such similar performance cars.

[picnic]

There are definitely problems with this track, both in Tuesdays sprint and tonights race I had cars stuck where the timing lines are, both on the main straight and the 2nd, tighter, corner with a kinky entrance (o er misses) Also at those times the gap timer would drop like the car had stopped there to jump back up to a sensible value as I got close  

As for tonights race, managed to qualify 2/10ths quicker than Tuesday night so that was good but still I'm not very quick here. At the start of the race I was in no mans land. The cars in Ruskus/Zac/MJ etc. battle were driving away at a second a lap and I was doing like wise to the cars behind me. Then I think MJ and Zacari had an 'incident' and they were only 3 secs up the road. With their battling I managed to keep them insight. Then they had contact at the hairpin and I was trough. Stuggled to keep them behind as they were both quicker than me and after some sideways efforts I had lost the positions.

Similar later when I had Adam chase me down. Good battle but I think a small mistake was inevitable, it happened and you got away. Somehow I had jumped MJ in the pitstops and he then chased me down and another sideways moment and he was through.

Tyre wear was horrid here and I couldn't make them last all race but fuel was not an issue.

Not sure I like this mix of classes racing here. Non of them have the extra grunt to get my safely, and with the short nature of the track it seems there are always battles which seems to make the "I'll slow down to let you passed" so much harder. That's not a complaint against people tonight but a general observation

[Zacari]

Apologies to Mo who I clipped on lap 2, just couldn't get my nose out of the way but was completely my fault.  The rest of the race I wont comment on here.

Grats to Simon and BACKO for some stonking pace up front

[EdamSpeed]

That was frustrating. During the warmup lap, everyone disappeared! I was supposedly in 20th, and did most of a lap hoping I wouldn't get a 'connection lost' message, then the cars reappeared and I was 23rd. Sorry Madd RIP if my reappearance caused you problems

Had some real good battles with Prof and Ossie along the way.

Finally ended early with a disco, and a big sorry to Adam Parle, who was following me closely when I braked early. Sorry about that mate, I was distracted by a vanishing car in front of me and just braked in a stupid place

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[pribeiro]

PR but congrats on top effort in the bimmer. We might struggle at Spa with some extra bodyweight .
 

Indeed, those will be the most long 5 miles of the year  
Congrats for GT3 win SBG, excellent pace  

Congratulations also to Simon   and to backo  
Well done to all, 20+ in different classes on this track is a top driving
Fortunatly its over. I totally agree with Picnic, this track have some problems, as for me,
i usually get 60-80 fps average on most of the tracks, but at Adria i run with 30-50
and even get some sudenly drops to 20 or so, from time to time. Another annoying stuff
that sun flares all over the place during all 80 mnts. (the sun doesnt move at that part
of Italy?)  

As for the race, went well (2 spins only) and 60 mnts of hard but clean fights, i tried to stay close
to SBG, but i couldnt as your pace was a bit faster, so i am quite happy with the 2nd GT3 place  

Dave, i put my pit limiter on, just after last corner, when i got near to the car in front,
i hope that could be easy to verify in the replay (by the sound of engine)

Cheers

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I just say this because being predictable is the absolute king to lapping and being lapped. Stay on the racing line, blend off the throttle.

Just so we don't get the wrong end of the stick - do not come off the throttle with another car right behind - wait until they've moved out! Otherwise contact is inevitable.