NGT Sprint Cup - Season 1, Round 3, Enna - July 26

[Matjaz Plotajs]

Made an absolute pig's-ear of letting Matj past at the end, god that was awful, didn't stay on the racing line. Pathetic. So sorry Matj  :'( My concentration was completely shot by that point

No problem m8 all ended well but yes it was scarry... how did I manage to catch the car is beyond me. It looked like you were staying on the line but then I saw you were actually slowly coming to the right were I was approaching really fast so I had to move over to the grass at 250 km/h. 
 
I must say I don't like this rule of backmarkers holding the line beacuse you never know when and if he will lift off the throttle to let you pass. I would rather see backmarkers to move off the line so I can be sure they see me aproaching and want to give me room for the pass. Or maybe they can stay on the line but please do not lift off your throttle when there is a car straight behind you. Lift it when the car behind you is commiting a pass.

My race was quite nervous. In qualifying I couldn't make a single lap without being stopped by a slower car and then managed to get the pole in the last second.

Race start was OK although I was passed by a  powerfull Porsche Bi - Turbo straight after the finish line. I folowed him closely and just waited for his mistake because I know Bi Turbo is a hard car to drive through the corners. He did a mistake and I could pass him for the lead but soon after that I did a small mistake as well going over the curb and losing some speed so Shark made a nice pass to gain the lead. Then I followed him and again was waiting for his mistake as normal overtaking is not possible at Enna. Then we were approaching a backmarker and I was following Shark really close as he suddenly overtook backmarker while I found myself hitting the backmarker (sorry for that) as he was slowing on the racing line to let Shark pass.  Both I and Shark had to cut the chicane and by doing so Shark lost the control and spun giving me the lead.

The rest was just surviving and apart from the scarry moment with overtaking popabawa all went smooth. 

[Jamera]

I must say I don't like this rule of backmarkers holding the line beacuse you never know when and if he will lift off the throttle to let you pass. I would rather see backmarkers to move off the line so I can be sure they see me aproaching and want to give me room for the pass. Or maybe they can stay on the line but please do not lift off your throttle when there is a car straight behind you. Lift it when the car behind you is commiting a pass.

I must confess Mat, the TWO times you passed me I did move off the racing line because at the speed you were going and the close proximity of the tyre chicanes it was safer to do that and let you straight through

[Matjaz Plotajs]

Yes that was OK. You moved away and let me pass. That's how it should be IMO.

[Jamera]

Quick question, slightly off topic, what do I need to adjust to stop the rear end bouncing under hard acceleration???

[fozzmeister]

Then Fozz got a bit of a run onto the long straight but not enough to get by. He then missed his braking point and locked everything up. I saw him coming, realised that if I turned in I'd be collected and so stayed out of the way on the left, taking to the gravel. He missed the corner too but ended up in front. I hoped he would give the place back but that didn't happen, so while I was seething about the injustice of it I missed my braking point and nudged him off at T1. He took the to the exit road and reappeared ahead again.

Yeh the not giving you the place back at first was probably a bit naughty, particularly after you was kind enough not to turn in on me, when I'd clearly gone too deep.

I was actually thinking about whether or not to lift off (whether I should or not I feel depends if you take it as one incident or two) and give you it back for quite a while. Then you hit me up the rear, so having missed the corners just went down the escape road and came out infront of you. After being nurfed by you i figured we were about even in our joint rule breaking so I wasn't going to give you it back after that.

I would like to complement you on your sensible and attentive (is that the right word?) driving though, If you'd turned in it would have been a lot worse for both of us.

Up until that point everything was quite good, And I was happy to still be going with little to no damage. In the end I notched up quite a few accidents, none I feel were my fault, had to pit for a splitter and was happy to finish about 8th.

I hope the Endurance race has less accidents for me.

Fozzmeister

[Mike Wrightson]

@Jamera: If it's in the F360, stiffen the rear springs so they are equal to the fronts.  I have gone 1 stage further and run stiffer rear spring on the F360, which helps it turn under power.  I still had some bounce, think it's impossible to get totally rid of it, but it stayed smooth and rode the kerbs OK.

I'm still struggling with braking tho.  dammit!

[fozzmeister]

Then as I was closing in on Fozz, he spun in the 2nd to last turn and I lost it just a little as well, hehe. No real damage... I thought, lol. 'Just' a puncture... In the sand trap just past the pit entrance, rofl!

Soz for that, I know there was no contact (or not before we went off anyway) but I know how hard it can be to keep concentration when that happens. I was lucky, i spun into the pit lane virtually. I'm surprised you didn't do a naughty and go back along the grass, you can get away with it for a bit and providing you don't have to cross the road whats the problem... Supose it depends how far you were passed tho really.

Foz

[Aagramn]

Results are up here:

http://www.ukgtr.org/lm2-report.php?group=10121&event=18

[Zacari]

Or maybe they can stay on the line but please do not lift off your throttle when there is a car straight behind you. Lift it when the car behind you is commiting a pass

I wasn't in the race but I agree with this, or you do end up with a Coulthard Vs Schumacher at spa scenario (for those that missed that, Coulthard lifted on the racing line & Schuey clouted him up the back at 150mph).  If I'm being lapped I either move off the racing line out of a corner and accelerate late, or wait for them to make a move and then back off to make it easier.

To add to the rear-end bouncing question, other than increasing the strength of the dampers (and if you're not using all the travel softening the suspension) there aint much you can do.  If there's a big imbalance between the front & rear spring rates this can make it worse, but it's a fine balance between good handling round corners and equal spring rates front/rear. (also depends on the weight distribution of the car, but I'm too tired to go into the finer points of engineering theory.  Besides, it's all waaaay too boring!)

[fozzmeister]

@Jamera: If it's in the F360, stiffen the rear springs so they are equal to the fronts.  I have gone 1 stage further and run stiffer rear spring on the F360, which helps it turn under power.  I still had some bounce, think it's impossible to get totally rid of it, but it stayed smooth and rode the kerbs OK.

I'm still struggling with braking tho.  dammit!

To control bounce, you need to consider your bump and rebound settings before your springs, as that is what they are there for, of course springs _may_ come into it, but the bump and rebound control the speed of your suspension more than anything else.

If your curb hopping at Enna its impossible to get rid of it fully, you didn't say where it was bouncing tho.

Fozzmeister

[Mike Wrightson]

A tough race.

Used a race setup to qualify with (needed the practice!) and promptly screwed up the first corner and plummeted down the field   began to make up some places and got up behind Pops when he had his little moment and in trying to avoid him and still take advantage, I put it into the fence    Thankfully, no harm done but lost 2 places.  Got them back again the next lap, then passed Pops into T1 and headed off in search of new prey

RUFBTR was next and I passed into T1, then at the first of the tyre-chicanes, saw him clip the tyres and totally obliterate his car    Tyf was a fair bit up the road now and I wasn't making any impression until he crashed.  Then there was another big gap to PaulW, thought I wouldn't catch it but he dropped it as well, leaving me 4th.  Then crossed the finish after lapping Fozz and I was 3rd!!!

Don't worry about the incident Pops, thats the breaks of racing

[Jamera]

Trying to setup the CR5 for tomorrow, fairly happy with the general handling, but boy does it bounce under power coming out of the corners

[Iain]

hit a curb early on, which really unsettled me, ended up in the chicane thingy :-s

[fozzmeister]

If there's a big imbalance between the front & rear spring rates this can make it worse, but it's a fine balance between good handling round corners and equal spring rates front/rear. (also depends on the weight distribution of the car, but I'm too tired to go into the finer points of engineering theory.  Besides, it's all waaaay too boring!)

Corners? Are there corners at Enna? I find dampeners interesting, particularly with the massive performance benefit they give... once you understand them :-)

Fozzmeister

[Don]

Can't say how lucky I feel to have picked up 7th spot. I was lapping in the 1.45,s, but managed to stay out of trouble and was rewarded with a top 10 finish. More than happy.
Don.