UKGTR Season 7 Upper Endurance (GT1/C) - Brno - Mar 16

[Zacari]

Messy race for me.  Quali'd 3rd, flicked myself off on the parade lap and started 10th-ish, then someone (again) jumped the start behind me and I ended up losing a bucket load of time until I pushed my way back passed.  Then pushed as much as I could with damage, pitted early and didn't take enough fuel then lost out a 50/50 into T1 and lost about 15 seconds, faught back to 3rd only to have to pit for fuel, came out 5th but managed to get 4th back before the end.

Given all that, 4th wasn't too bad!   Grats to FreQ and Paul for wins.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

This may sound like an excuse but my engine began to splutter and stall a little towards the end of the race I had my radiator to far open and i think that my engine may have been to cold. It seemed to go a little when i reved the nuts off it but it distracted the hell out of me and contributed to me missing my baking point as i described above and prevented me from putting up much of a fight against Dave at the end.   Does this happen in GTR2 or is it my wheel

Shame about your spell of bad luck Gazza, but it cant last forever.

Could be your throttle potentiometer. My old DFP pedals were a bit like that towards the end of their life.

I presume you weren't running very low on fuel?

[Truetom]

I'm surprised. 2nd in Brno - Moi I never score in Brno, so aliens must have been missing.  
Not much to say about the race, was trying unsuccesfully to catch Paul968 through the whole race, but he was too fast even with his backpack on.     Too bad I couldn't score in Dubai - the ladder would have been a bit different.  

Bad luck MJ couldn't race. I think he had a chance to win this one, or at least put more pressure on Paul968 then I was able to.  
Saw Mike stopped soon after the start - bad luck buddy, you would be on a podium for sure.  

Good show, Legends!  

TT

[Adam Parle]

A race to forget for me .... having been struggling with the flu since Wednesday and still feeling pretty rotten I wasn't actually planning on racing.

The race started reasonably well, chasing Darren round the park.  There were only a couple of occasions where I had a sniff of getting by (bent my front splitter on one of those occasions!), but I never really threatened.  The tyres went off a bit and when the GT1's came through I lost touch and that was that really.

I found some decent pace in the 2nd half of the race and was ahead of Psuedo and Reign Man, but the tyres went off again .... one splin let Reign Man through, another let Pseudo through ... and by that point I was really struggling.  Was absolutely shattered come the end of the race.  Lost the back end a "couple" of times and handed another position away.  Should have done a lot better last night, having fought long and hard with TT in the sprint, last nights pace was a dissapointment for me.

[Simon Gymer]

I both qualified and raced much further up than I expected. Although I'd done 1:52.5 in TT mode, I was not expecting to do that online, so I was pleasantly surprised that lowering the wing and making some more changes (mostly to the rear), helped get me that time in qually online. However my race pace was seemingly 2-3 seconds slower than that in practice, but I guess whatever it was that I changed on the car worked, because I was able to be only 1-2 seconds slower than qually in the race actually. It also helped that the track temperature went up for the race as it made medium/medium work nicely.

I was utterly amazed that I was able to hang on to FreQ and SBG in the first half of the race. I was in close attendance for the whole first half of the race, but when we hit traffic, he seemed to get the better of it, catching people in better places. There were a couple of moments where there seemed to be misunderstandings with GTCs as it looked like they were letting both cars through when they probably weren't. That's multi-class racing, I hope I didn't cause too much discomfort for anyone.

Anyway, after seeming to get the slightly worse end of the stick in traffic against SBG, I was hoping for the "swings and roundabouts effect" and sure enough with one of the GTCs, he seemed to suddenly get super cautious and I managed to sneak on through.

I extended my second place lead over SBG until the pit stops, up to around 6 seconds?, with FreQ now 10 seconds or so up the road. We came to the pits on the same lap. I had to get some damage repaired as well as fuel and tyres, so I was worried SBG would gain those 6 seconds back. I was willing my crew to get me out before and sure enough they did, despite me over-running my stall slightly.

Came out of the pits side by side with a charging Zacari, which somehow knocked his car into the gravel. Still don't get that, as there should have been room for side-by-side there and down the straight into a braking fight. Haven't downloaded the replay yet as I was watching A1GP after the race till sleepy-time.

After the rest of the pit stops sorted themselves out, FreQ was a way off in the lead and Paul Richards was not gaining any on me behind, so I drove within myself to the end to claim a very unexpected 2nd place.

After that rubbish I'm gonna ditch GT1  , 2 laps down, with no offs, only a stop/go as an excuse, best of 1:56xxx is cwap  . GTC here I come.

I hope you don't ditch GT1 as part of my problem with this series is that there are too many GTCs and not enough GT1s. It means no one gets a clean lap in qually and no one gets a clean lap in the race. I'm all for having some lapping of different classes during a race, but it was 1 or 2 cars at minimum every lap almost, it was a little silly.

I don't think the problem is anti-GT1, it's just that everyone seems to love GTC (GTR1 nGT). Perhaps this series should get cut down to just GTCs next season if the split is going to be like this. It's effectively a 10/11 car race in GT1 for 80 minutes so if you get stuck in no mans land there's no chance to have a race with anyone even in the pit stops.

[picnic]

I was not expecting to enjoy this, seem to have totally lost my racing mo-jo at the moment. Qually as expected was poor and I ended up near the back. The race started a bit better, passing a Vertigo at the start and comfortably following 2 cars battling in front until I dropped it at the last corner. No idea why the car had felt good and I wasn't pushing that hard. Had driven wide there loads of times in P,Q and the race without serious issues but because it was the race I hit the tyre wall, no engine, dead car. Fed up.

[Paul968]

What looked like an easy race turned into quite a struggle. Mike H and myself were well ahead in qual, so I assumed that the race would mainly be a battle with him, but when he dropped back I thought it might be a lonely drive - wrong! TT was grimly hanging on behind, although I expected to gain a lot at the pitstops. Slightly more worrying was the fact that the Vertigos of Pops and Pseudo were not that much further back. Even so, I had enough of a gap to cope with them, or at least I did until I started thinking about stopping. Fuel  on the RS is right on the edge of going all the way on a full tank, and to be safe I wanted to add a few litres at the stop. This meant working out when to pit so that the 13.2 litres I had set in the strategy would be more than the current tank contents. I was busy working this out when I missed the braking point for T4, ran wide on the grass and let TT through - fiddlesticks (or words to that effect). This wasn't a complete distaster though,  except that I did the same thing a couple of laps later, at the same corner  I lost even more time than the first off, and now it was all looking a lot harder. By the time we had all pitted Mike was well ahead. I followed Pops out of the pits, but first I had to get past Evert, who had just nipped ahead as I exited. I have to say a big sorry to him because I misread the screen and thought it said he was a lap down. As Pops disappeared up the road I was desperately flashing Evert to let me past, but quite rightly he held his line and made life hard for me - sorry for the mistake . I got by after a lap or so, in which time Pops had got a bit of a gap. TT was also right behind me now (who was so close to getting by at T1 as I passed Evert), although I now had 50kg less weight, so I hoped that would make the difference. We closed up on Pops who tried hard to hang on but didn't really have much chance. He let TT by as well, who was flying. Around this time Mike had his spin and dropped back, leaving TT and me to fight over the win. In the end though I just managed to ease away, allowing me to relax a bit for the last few laps.

Good to battle  TT again and nice to see you get some reward this time. Also nice to see Pops on the podium in the Vertigo.  Hard luck to new teamie Mike, who did amazingly to be in the lead after the stops considering his problem earlier on. I'm not sure it would have paid off  not changing tyres though - we were catching you at over a second a lap and this would be worse later on. Quite an eventful race for you though!

Congrats to Freq on yet another win ([cough] ballast [/cough]), Simon on an overdue return to form and well done to the other kerbies, especially Paul on 3rd in GT1. Only one issue with GT1s when I left room down the inside at the penultimate corner only to have the lapper slide wide and nearly push me off - no harm done but I need room to get round the corner too 

[Paul968]

Who is going to be first out of T1?






Me - just! 

[popabawa]

Phew! What an enjoyable race that was

I hadn't had much chance to practice for this unfortunately so I wasn't 100% sharp but I knew I had a decent set-up and reasonable pace from the Sprint race.

I got a break in qualifying when I pipped Reign Man by a few hundredths then Pseudo got between us right at the death so I had another Vertigo behind me rather than a TVR ready to just blast past me at the start! Reign & Psuedo held each other up a bit as I pulled out a bit of a gap but then Pseudo came back really strongly and started to put a bit of pressure on. Pseudo looked like he was abusing his tyres a little though so i just tried to keep it smooth and a few laps later a few mistakes crept in and I was able to slowly build a bit of a gap again, that was impressive speed though Psuedo!

I thought I was fairly safe in 3rd when Mike Hammer suddenly appeared. I'd assumed you'd disco'ed Mike when I saw your stationary car at the start, I hadn't realised you'd deliberately stopped! I was unable to put up much a fight there and dropped to 4th but hoped I'd make enough up in the pits.

Surprisingly I came out a few seconds behind Mike (that was a surprise but it sounds like you didn't change tyres so that explains it) but ahead of Paul & TT by a few. I was desperately trying to work out how I was going to catch Mike or prevent Paul or TT from overtaking  and I have to say it didn't seem promising! Mike wasn't pulling away though, I guess the tyres were wearing but TT & Paul were catching me pretty handily. Then Mike went off which left me in a glorious lead which I had no chance of defending :'(

Paul took me by surprise catching me just coming into the 2nd to last corner, I was expecting to let you & TT past on the straight so I got a bit out of shape going wide into the bend to let you through, I hope that didn't give you a scare. TT went past on the straight so I was still grimly hanging on the final podum spot 8s ahead of Mike with about 10 laps to go.

I was expecting to see Mike appear pretty quickly but I was able to slowly pull a few more seconds ahead with Paul & TT a similar amount ahead so I knew I was safe barring any silly mistakes. In the end i came in pretty comfortably in 3rd which I was really happy with, my first podium of the season! 

A great team performance coming 2nd, 3rd & 4th

Grats to Paul968, how you haul that ballast around at that speed will forever be a mystery, great driving sir!

The GT drivers (with one exception) were really great tonight, thanks.

[DynoDaz]

Up until last night Brno has been a nightmare track for me.  So finishing 4th in class is a big surprise!

During the first half of the race I had an epic battle with Reign Man and Adam.  Although I was faster through the corners, the lower grunt of Reign's TVR always allowed him to gain the better exit.  Adding Reign's excellent defensive driving into the equation meant that I was always faced with trying to overtake on the outside.  Fantastic driving mate.  

The exhilarating battle with Reign was intensified by the fact that Adam spent most of the time on my back bumper.  Knowing Adam wouldn't make any rash moves really allowed me to concentrate on Reign, and even on the one occasion I got a tad out of shape, Adam expertly avoided serious contact. Thank you, great reactions mate!  

Unfortunately this 3 way battle was broken up prematurely by a lapping GT1 car.    How was the tyre wall Reign?  

This meant the second half of the race was a dull hot lapping session.  That was until the final few laps when the gap to Mike came tumbling down.  I knew something had to be wrong for me to catch and pass him so fast.  Earlier in the race when I was battling Reign and Adam, Mike caught us so fast I thought he was a GT1 car and let him past without a fight. Doh!  Fantastic pace Mike.  Sorry to hear about your problems, you deserved a podium place....

Congrats Paul, very impressive as always.  Also congrats to both TT and Pops on great drives...            

  

[Truetom]

Great find, Paul!    I think we even made a micro contact but fortunately it didn't lead into your spin. I was sooooooooo sure I was gonna be the first through there.    I feel a bit sorry for ol' Evert, must have been a bit scarry to get passed on both sides...    I hope we can interprete this situation as an illustration of possibilities - there's no need for a carnage with three cars abreast into T1. 

Succesful pit strategy / tactics remains a dark area for me. 

TT

[Ade]

Best race of the season. Too often I have found myself in 'no man's land' with 30 or more seconds between me and the next person both ahead and behind.
Two good battles this evening first with a Porsche (API?) which was faster in a straight lines but struggling on wearing tyres in the corners.

After my pit stop I caught Ade and spent the last half hour of the race within a second or so either just behind or just in front. Great fair racing on your part Ade trying to race me and watch out for the GT1s. One classic moment where having let lapping cars through we were both waiting for the other to take the lead to resume the battle. I am not entirely sure I finally deserved to finish just ahead, I hope you feel I played 'fair'. 

  Cheers Prof did enjoy that     after watching the replay and seeing your coming together with Evert and being a jolly good egg waiting for him and in the process  letting everyone else past and ending up last, then having to fight your way back up the field ,good work    i just couldn't take the position after you made contact with H@L wouldn't feel right after a good fight. Thanks again 

[Paul968]

Succesful pit strategy / tactics remains a dark area for me.  Sad

I'm not sure you do anything wrong - you could do what I do and run full fuel at the start, but then you'd be slower. I prefer it my way, especially as the extra ballast means that passing on the road can be difficult anyway (people drive away from me on the straights) and it gives me the chance to pass in the pits.

[spanner]

I cant write the expitives that i felt after the race

I'd tried adjusting a few things both in the setup and controller setup earlier in the day and felt quite comfortable with it but i've never been comfortable around Brno so its no surprise i'm so far back, but i'm not happy about it as i was over a second slower i was doing in practise.

The race started ok though surprised to see sharks so far back and for most of the first half was shadowing Ade but the mosler is slightly faster but slower through bends so really struggled. Afew times i was caught out by hesitant GT1's, watching the mirrors expecting them to go through rather than watching the road!

I pitted a few seconds behind Ade but seemed to end up a minute or so behind him. Admittedly i have autopit on but still!

And i'm sorry for hitting someone i was following far too closely towards the end of the race into turn 1.

But overall my driving was dreadful, I can't brake, downchange or get on the throttle for £1'000'000.  pathetic.

I'm braking before anyone else, but need to carry it on into the corner, i loose front grip, lock up then i try and accelerate out and slide the back. I'm loosing the front on the way in then the back on the way out! Why is every braking area so bumpy!

 Yes i know i'm over driving but i dont know how to improve!

Starting to wonder why i bother, i'm supposed to be enjoying it!

[Truetom]

All these things can be improved by a proper setup and I find I improve the most (when learning a track) with the usage of time-trial. Visible race line on, so you can see where to improve. Download some on-line setups for the car, try them and see which suits your driving style most. Then try to change it so you can drive the way you would like to. Change one thing at the time, go slow, try every change for a few laps. Man, this is time consuming to even think about it.    But it works. 

TT

P.S. Bumpy braking surfaces? Your springs/dampers are too stiff.