UKGTR Season 6 Lower Endurance - Sugo (Classic) - Dec 2

[Truetom]

I had no problems whatsoever and only started to notice things when people started disappearing. I thought - wtf, Aliens 5 ? 

TT

[Madd-RIP]

Well, it was cetainly different I'll grant you, ended up with a very twitchy car after a tap from behind so had to be soooo careful in corners, but managed to find a rhythm...eventually, then saw SBG having fun and outbraked him and set off after Gizmo.
I came across Gizmo creating a bow wave in his plough and got past when his rudder failed  
After that it was just a case of trying to keep it on the flood/track and noticed that a dry line was starting as my tyres were cooking, so I switched to inters and was immediately almost 2 seconds faster.
Trouble was as I tried to catch SBG I kept making trips in the gravel.
The number of issues tonight were unbelievable, cars were warping all over and disco's everywhere.
At what lap did the problems really start?

[pribeiro]

I got my disco 13 minutes to the end

[John]

Only 6 finished

[picnic]

For what it's worth the very provisional results and standings are posted.

The replay had the 'real' (1st) practice and qual times plus the 2nd race data files.

[Kerr]

Sounds like I missed a complete disaster tonight. Only 6 from 22 finishing!

[R. Midderhoff]

What a waste of time that was.


Then it all went to pot and i lost connection.
Very gutted and frustrated.

I Lost my connection too, after a frustrating start. Had no chance with intermediates, i forgot to change them to wet tyres, or i loaded the wrong setup... . So i spun off many times before i got in the pits. leaving the pits, i was already lapped and at the end of the field :-( . Stucked behind other driver trying to relap me, but no way past. The car was not really good to drive and because i lost connection i could never check which setup i loaded... .

Hopefully the  next race will be better.

[Madd-RIP]

  Personally I'd like the results to stand 

[picnic]

Well I've hated this track all along but I've had my best ever results here, guess it was luck (although not if the race does not count)

Got GTC pole only to lose it with the false start and then binned it in the real event. Would have been happy with 3rd in class but with Paul and Jeff being among the retirements I inherited the lead. Had some good racing all through especially with MJ for ages

I wonder if Panis felt he never should have got his one and only F1 win  

[picnic]

I probably shouldn't admit to this as it will no doubt be another nail in the coffin to my first class win but .....

I've contacted i3d support and they confirmed they are indeed having a network issue this evening

[MortenS]

Don't suppose the extreme weather, everyone having lights on and a buggy track is a great combination.

Probably didn't help much, but I left my lights in some wall, about 5 laps into the race.

[Joss]

Annoyed I missed yet another wet race (I can't remember the last one!) but was on a train back through London...so no choice really
Sounds like I missed a messy session 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I've contacted i3d support and they confirmed they are indeed having a network issue this evening

Thanks Pete, I knew there had to be more going on than just the add-on track after we got through last weekend's Upper Endurance okay.

Obviously in the exceptional circumstances the result can't stand, but rather than throw it away I've declared it a non-championship race which means it will remain in the database forever, so at least there's some reward for those who persevered. Rather than re-running it I would like to declare Zhuhai to be the final race - a 6 race season is short by our standards but means we get a clean break over the holidays and a fresh start next year.

Let's hope things are better tonight for the Race '07 fun run.

From the back of the race 1 grid I had a good view of the carnage - it was quickly apparent what was going on and mid-way through the formation lap I could see no alternative but to red-flag it. In theory GTR2 Manager supports grid restoration but you need to have it turned on beforehand and besides it's not seen as reliable.

Managed to let a load of GTC and GT2 cars past during the second formation lap - tried to get Ginsters past too but he wasn't having any of it. Probably wanted to hand my my bum on the track. The VCC is a nightmare to pick tyres for in wet conditions but with the monsoon in full flight, soft wets on the front and hard wets on the rear actually worked pretty well, and I was able to keep SbG behind using the Viper's power until I reached my stop window. With fuel usage down I could've stayed out a while longer but having completely failed to make intermediates work during qualifying, my only real hope was that it continued to rain hard so I pitted for more of the same and some go juice.

Sod's Law promptly kicked in and the rain started to ease off. With my left side tyres overheating terribly in the final corner, all I could do was drive off line on the two straights and try to cool them down again. By that stage I was way behind the other GT3 cars but with all the strange events going on (Picnic managed to lap me twice whilst invisible - convenient if nerve-wracking!) I knew I had to keep going as anything could happen.

Then with about 10 minutes to go and just 9 cars left the inevitable happened and I got 'Connection Lost' and that was that.

[Truetom]

I'd like to congratulate to Picnic for his win anyway.    You were very fast, Pete, seems like that ugly car fits you.    Congrats! 

TT

[Simon Gymer]

At what lap did the problems really start?

Lap 0! Did you see the first pace lap?

Such a shame, as it kind makes the championship win feel a bit hollow with 2 dropped races. Maybe I would have come out on top anyway, I was certainly doing well leading the race last night with an already healthy championship lead, but you never know and I don't like to win things that way as that's not racing it's Lord of Luck.

I'm still not convinced the changeable weather is 100% stable and that coupled with an addon track and the network issues was a disaster.

On to Zhuhai now where I can relax and just go for the win rather than worry about the championship. I hope we all have much better luck and nobody gets disconnected at all!!!