UKGTR Season 7 Lower Endurance (GT2/3) - Brno - Feb 3

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results available

[Jeffrey]

Again very close in qually with me and FreQ.

It was really Silverstone in vice versa . I was infront of FreQ for the whole 1st stint. Then he disappeared all of a sudden and I thought he wrecked, but the bugger pitted early.
So when I came out he was 2s infront and I thought, oh he still needs to pit, but he didn't. So I had to push.
We had another cracking battling . Side by side for half a lap .

Sorry Mo for the tap, I thought you left room for me after letting FreQ past 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Enjoyed that more than I expected - made some setup changes during qualifying to take some of the understeer out without making it snappish and they worked pretty well; not much pace in qualifying but once the race started I was able to power past Shark's Z3M and the Porsches of Madd and SbG, after the latter was subject to a little bump pass by another 811. Couldn't make any impression on the next car up and by halfway through the stint my tyres were shot (as usual) and it was more a matter of not doing anything crazy and nursing it round to the halfway point.

Stop went perfectly and found myself in last position but in good shape compated to a whole bunch of other runners, including Madd who should have been able to pass me easily in the stops but was nobbled by his ignition problem.

The track temperature had dropped off a bit, and where I'd had tyres nicely in the high 90s during the first stint, the second stint was more difficult with tyre temperatures only reaching high 80s most of the time. Pushed hard to maximise any advantage I might have over any late stoppers, and to try and build a gap over Shark behind who was now gaining alarmingly, knowing that once I got to the hour mark my tyres would be shot again and I'd be struggling to hold him off.

Was a bit disappointed to be flashed through by Ade who I was looking forward to passing for 17th, but we were out of sequence really.

Shark caught me up with about 30 minutes to go and I had to concentrate sooo hard to not leave the door open for him, and be able to get on the throttle early to build a little gap down the straights. I knew that if he got alongside under braking at the start of a twisty section he'd be past and away but somehow I failed to throw myself off the road, just dipping a wheel off now and again, nothing serious.

Quite chuffed with that as a finishing position at a track which doesn't really suit the VCC at all.

[Jeffrey]

Unofficial Lapchart

[ginsters sponsored]

Don't know why, but me, the 811 and this track don't get on. So the result, and fun I had, came as a nice surprise 

Great fun fun for first 20 with Dan (no worries about touch whoever was at fault ), DG and Madd. Dan eventually got past and pulled away, you seemed much quicker than me on straights, and I was left with a more ding dong battle with DG with his tyres going off. With some passes and avoiding action, as we both pushed hard , Madd also caught us up until his spin :'(. Pitted early as fight with Dave was costing us both time and luckily I timed it as GT2 boys came round to laps us. This good fortune, and some fast laps, whipped me past those chaps and close to Paul after his eventful pit. Closed in on him at first but my tyres felt wonky and gradually fell away from him. Still, more than happy with 3rd with a track/car combo I didn't feel comfortable with.

Congrats to Jr and the new Mo (Irl version)   Thx to GT2 boys who were great again and Madd/Paul for taking the extra weight, much appreciated

Your right Simon, the bimmer could do with a little leg up mid season I feel.

[purdie]

!!! had a fun & great race today !!!

made such a difference having a solid hours practise before the race! focused solely on race setup and honed in my strategy... running meds/meds and pitting half-way through with my fuel calculations saying I could make it on 100l  it was close as I had to short-shifting most of the race 

Start of the race was tough  with Gazza49er hassling me but he was in turn being hassled by pablo. Around lap 10 pablo passed gazza and sat on my backside for 5laps  before passing me. Due to it being an enduro I didn't defend too hard as pablo was faster and a teamie   

Pitting just for a fresh set of mediums I was out and running in 3rd until the end of the race. pablo would have beaten me if he didn't get any fuel (can't the M3 do it without refuelling? I thought FreQ just had tyres in his  )

Thanks to the GT3 cars for being fair...sorry to Morten, I know we didn't make contact but you spun so sorry anyway 

Grats to Ruskus on a class win....great consistency in pace 

[Joss]

He haa, that was fun! Who needs soppy ballast to make things close

Tested a bit in qually and surprised to get so close to Jeff at the end, never expected to challenge him like in Silverstone. Great to see Purdie back at the front - you guys look like you had a close race. The race started off as expected, but my plan to run soft/medium went down the pan as soon as I saw the track temps - 34 degrees! 

Running med/hard for both stints, I decided to run a short first stint and then a longer second.....caught Jeff out a treat when he came out the pits 2 seconds behind me

Then we had a reverse Silverstone duel. Great stuff again and we went side by side for 7 consecutive corners. That's pretty awesome, especially 2 races in a row!    Not quite a last lap gasp...but I suppose that's good for the ol' seniors 

Well done all the podiums. The fuel calculation prize goes to Zacari for finishing with 0.5 litres left I'm miles off with almost 11, anyone get closer?

See ya next time folks

[Gazza49er]

That was hard work, quite suprised to be 4th on grid. Start of race was really fun, close to purdie and pablo all over my bumper, managed to fend him off for 5-6 laps while closing on purdie with a few side by side moments but eventually he got by and i was running really well in 6th still on a good pace, then tyres started wearing bad and i stayed out to long (as i didnt really do a proper calculation on pit stops coz i wasnt sure i was gunna race).

Once again though my terrible pitstops cost me at least 2 places, taking 3.28, really must practice  these. Came out in 10th, a few still hadnt pitted so got back to 8th and catching roadrunner when he spun on last corner so brought home in 7th.

Not bad for my first time driving these cars, might have to continue in the series now as ive lost the GT1 sprints.

Grats to podiums

[Joss]

Pitting just for a fresh set of mediums I was out and running in 3rd until the end of the race. pablo would have beaten me if he didn't get any fuel (can't the M3 do it without refuelling? I thought FreQ just had tyres in his  )

Forgot to answer this, no the M3 is a little thirsty and needs a fuel top-up. I needed around 20 extra litres for this one.

[picnic]

Fuel strategy is too complex  My calculations said I needed 114L for the race. I pitted a little early but had only used 46 or 47 in the first stint, was no more than 41 mins to run in 2nd stint. So topped up to 57L - enough for the second stint I thought......

Zacari was chasing me down over the last few laps, he was a good second a lap quicker than me and got passed with about 2 laps to go Well done (he said grudgingly ) Then started talking about having a low fuel message from the pits. Mine followed half a lap later. I finished with 1.4L  I would have been dust if we had had to do another lap!

Enjoyed this race so much more than running the Viper in GT3 even if I did get pipped at the end by the pesky Junior boy 

[Paul968]

Another good race, although I never quite managed to match Mo, who returned to dominate both qual and the race. I knew I had a good race setup, so 2nd on the grid was fine. I hung on grimly to Mo over the first half, although he slowly inched away so that by the time of the pitstops he was several seconds ahead and I had a nice gap to those behind. I thought I'd try a slightly early stop, but my request fell on deaf ears and I went round again. This time I was called in and the first part went well. I didn't bother turning off the ignition as I didn't need fuel, but the stupid pitcrew insisted I had some and waited for me to turn it off I had set up a 0-stop strategy but presumably I should have set stop 1 to min fuel - I'll have to remember that. Anyway, the lost time meant that when Mo pitted the following lap he was much quicker and the gap went from about 5 secs to 15  It also meant that Dan pulled a sneaky fast stop and jumped ahead, although it would soon be apparent how he did it. I quickly closed in behind him and he was clearly struggling in the corners but very quick in a straight line. I had numerous looks down the inside into the slow corners but backed out each time. Then I got a good run as he had a mid corner wobble, took the inside line and then felt Dan bounce off my door and he half spun off. I hope you are OK with this Dan, if not then send me a pm (I assume you didn't change tyres btw?). By this time SBG was closing in, but with a clear track I started to stretch the gap and this is how it was to the end (Mo was long gone by then). Nice to see a Kerbie 1-2-3 although not sure if Mo [IRL] has set up an Irish splinter group    Congrats to him and to JR on the wins and thanks to all the lappers, who were very polite.

[Simon Gymer]

Don't think you need to set a strategy at all in the garage Paul. You simply need to make sure you ask for less than you have left. Certainly this is what I do in the Z3M. I had say 53 litres left and so I asked for 52L (or less) and they just change my tyres.

[Jeffrey]

Here is the nice side by side action me and FreQ had

YOUTUBE

[Paul968]

I just assumed Simon that setting '0 stops' in the strategy would give me no fuel if I did stop. I stopped and just hit enter without looking. In fact, the strategy for stop 1 was used when I did, even though when you have 0 stops selected it doesn't show you the amount of fuel, so I got the tanks topped up to 17.2 gallons at half distance when I could do the whole race on about 25   I won't make that mistake again!

[Truetom]

Here is the nice side by side action me and FreQ had

YOUTUBE

I hope you know him well enough to say it, even if did it. 

TT