Endurance Championship Division 1 - Season 1, Round 2, Magny-Cours - July 31

[picnic]

Sorry chaps, server is up but the die said "Monsoon"

[[ZiP]Tyf]

Hopefully I can get a spot then, hehe, because I like rain races

T

[PaulW]

Lol, all that practice sliding about in the Escort may come in handy!

Quite like the wet myself. Hope we don't get tonnes of drop-outs though and end up with 5 people at the end!

[Mark Harrison]

Wet races can be good after all!  That one was a barnburner.  Had it in the bag, and nearly threw it away....limped home by 6 tenths of a second.  Full report to follow....

[Glen VW]

Monsoon again............................

not so bad , evens the field a little I guess.

1 FPS bug on lap 18, sucks to have this happen, curse Simbin for not fixing some of the problems they know about  

Still fun to be out there with everyone (I think 20 drivers) for those 18 laps, maybe race number 3 will be better- no glitches and hopefully maybe some dry weather for a change  

[Simon Gymer]

I'm pretty good in the wet so was expecting top 3 finish. Unfortunately lap 1 and I clipped the grass side by side with someone (had no idea where you were so tried to stay as wide as possible ready to back off into the next corner), sadly probably hit a puddle or just lack of grip on the outside and i veered onto grass and lost it into the last chicane nearly wiping out Tom Tom and losing my front spliiter with a hard thwack against barrier. Came straight in for fixes and lost at least 45 seconds in the pits doing it.

Then had lots of fun going from way dead last through the field and didn't pit for my scheduled stop till 19 minutes to go. Had calculated in my head a reduced fuel load to put in rather than what I had set before hand as it was hardly using any in the wet and got it spot on with only 1 laps worth left at the end.

Ended up 6th but it could be have been a lot better as I was only 40 seconds behind at the end. So without my extra pit stop and at one point being collected by a Lister spinning out of last chicane whilst he was being lapped I would have been up there I reckon.

Anyway, I pray to god it's Dry for the next one as Enna and rain is just scarey as hell and i'm getting bored with rain now.

Congrats to Mark for the GT win and Matjaz for the NGT win.

[rik foster]

I was that Lister(no blue lites on dash or pitman advice),but you would of got past clean into T1 anyway.Car jus flipped sideways as i put power down a bit to fast Monty style .Sorry u got hit mate apologises.
Surprised how fast i was havin to make a setup for wet.Worked well cut the max revs down to 6300,and filled tank rite up,but after losing 5th place and my son and his mate telling me how good i was ,next thing i know i,m driving the long way to pits with a puncture,i HATE the way the pit man says punK ture  hehe lost the plot hehe.

[PaulW]

Joined up with not a lot of Q2 to go and was annoyed to have my best Q lap ruined by the damn invisible cone thing again 
Chalk up another one to a Simbin bug then, car skittered across the track and I lost a second or two from the time.

Stuck Hard wets on and filled the tank right up for the race. Just drove fairly carefully for the hour, and was, well, a little bored to be honest! Only two minor spins so consistent considering it was wet. Tyres had started to go with about 10 laps left but I'd been braking like an OAP (beige stylee) all race to look after them.

I'm afraid I have a major case of clinical depression now though after staring at that heavy grey sky for 60 minutes  

[fozzmeister]

Started an amazing 10th, and just drove, not particularly fast at all, was way down on the fastest lap thing, but made practically no mistakes what-so-ever (one slight contact, a few runs wide but staying on black stuff, no spins) and I don't believe I was lapping slowly, just being incredibly consistent with no startling laps, I was pulling 6 seconds a lap out for a few laps over 8th place, but settled into about 2-3 eventually. Chuffed to finish 7th, and the 2nd NGT driver behind Matjaz (who doesn't count in my book as he should be in division 0 ).

Funny what a bit of setup time can do with wet weather...

Fozzmeister

[Mike Wrightson]

I need to get into some setup practice.

Found out that with a light fuel load, my wet setup is an utter nightmare even with fresh tyres.  While the car is heavy, it's fine, but when it gets light, OMG!!

This gets much worse when you are on worn out tyres at the time LOL   Went for a non-stop race again, fell off on the pace lap (DOH!) and suffered a couple of spins en-route to 3rd place.  Without the sillier of my spins though, I had a chance for a win there.  Looks like I'll be better off making a pitstop though.  Maybe a change of car too

EDIT:  Yep, after some quick laps, I'm changing to the Saleen, pass the "I'm a big wuss" hat 

[Truetom]

Should have won this one. As Mark said, I had it in my basket... Made one big mistake, the same way as Shark did (btw, it was really scarry how you whoshed in front of my nose!). Had to pit and as it was just about half the race I changed tires from hard to soft. Came back 6th and made it to 2nd in the end with just a few sec behind 1st. If there were 2 more laps, I would have passed you, Mark  Anyway, my mistake, my second place - again, same as Barcelona.

In the game something strange was happening to me four times - like sbd would be pulling and releasing me on an elastic rope, really jerky graphics, couldn't drive as fast as I wanted and was happy to stay on the track. Every time it lasted for about 1 minute and I'm sorry to say the last time was just as I was trying to catch Mark. 

Seems like rain appeals to me or I'm just more careful - came 2nd in rain twice now, when I would be probably more to the back in dry. Congrats Mark! And of course to Matjaz, too - he was very fast in NGT.       

[Matjaz Plotajs]

Really enjoyed the race! Action began in the warm up lap when Mike spun in front of me and a couple of cars in the last chicane as well. In the race I just tried to keep it smooth and nurse my tyres as I was on a 0 stop strategy. I must say soft tyres performed extremely well although they were to cold most of the time. 10 minutes to go I was in 3rd and 15 seconds ahead of 4th position guy when I was laping Jamera. He gave me room on the long straight and I passed him normally but then he must have missed the braking point and crashed heavily into my back. I spun and almost ended up in the sand. When I got back to the track the 4th position guy was right behind me so that was it. I could not defend my position against his Saleen on the straights and had to settle for 4th. Anyway a nice win in the NGT class for me and a strong performance by Mike in the GT means a superb result for dE Racing Team. Hope for a dry weather at Enna !   

[picnic]

Replay now available on the website, www.ukgtr.org, at 34Meg

[Simon Gymer]

Should have won this one. As Mark said, I had it in my basket... Made one big mistake, the same way as Shark did (btw, it was really scarry how you whoshed in front of my nose!)

I was so glad I didn't collect you. I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best as once I was on the grass I had no control on the car at all and I could see I was heading right across your path and I thought I was definately going to hit you. You dissapeared to my left as you went round the corner and I was just waiting for the crunching noise. Must have missed you by inches and given you the fright of your life. The race director had the cheek to give me a warning for cutting the track! Cutting the track!?! I don't call being out of control and slamming into the tyre wall cutting the track, but hey I'm not a race director so I guess I must have been cheating by taking the shortcut into the tyres.

[Paul968]

Total distaster for me. Couldn't find a 550 setup which would work in qual and spent a lot of time trying to tweak it to get the temps up - waste of time. What I should have done is gone back to a much more understeering setup but I was fixated on tyre temps.

Started the race in 5th, lost a place when I went wide at the hairpin a few laps in (who nicked the 150 board then!) and in recovering Mike bounced off me and spun. I couldn't see him or vice versa I expect, but I don't think it was any more than a racing incident. Anyway, the car was undrivable on the power, and it was only a matter of time before I had a big off. In the end the car snapped on me in a straight line, and as I pirouetted into the barriers I couldn't face 40 more minutes of such torture and quit.

Having sice tried another setup based on default fast, I was much quicker and more consistent. Tyre temps were still c**p but at least I could drive the bugger in a straight line! 

One other thing. With the weather rules as they are, its possible to see the weather is wet and duck out for a more suitable car. Not saying anyone actually did this, but if you had a rear engined car last night you had a big advantage IMO. Certainly the 550 is a right handful in the (very) wet. Personally I'd still rather see everyone stick to one car all season.

Paul