Endurance Championship Division 1 - Season 1, Round 3, Enna - Aug 14

[Simon Gymer]

Glad that's over with. Finished 2nd can't complain. Fooked up my pitstops by somehow only putting in enough fuel to go till 10 mins left, shame as i had caught JonM almost and then had to pit again for 10 mins of fuel. I hate the pit board stuff when you pit, it's never clear whether what you specify is the extra you're putting in or the amount that will be in the tank after the stop. Always confused me and caught me out tonight, at least I'll know for next time.

[Mike Wrightson]

Arrrgh 

Well, not TOO bad I suppose.  Crashed a lot, got a puncture, spent 4 mins in the pits for repairs, came back from 11th to 6th at the end.

Not one of my better performances, looking forward to getting back to a proper race track next time

[fozzmeister]

Right arse.

Two big crashes, two trips to the pits (guess i should be grateful for keepign going). Every time, coz I had a go on arcade when without my wheel, I unbound the cursors to drive, so every time I had 100L of fuel (argh!).

Setup wasn't so good over an hour (knew I should have done a long run this afternoon), which pretty much caused my accidents. On the plus side, no contact with anybody else so at least I won't get no penalties.

Fozzmeister

[Muorali]

Enna. What a stupid track. Those chicanes are suicidal. 1.28.7 quali, i stuff it on the 1st lap, spin, had to work my way back up the field, finally get back into 1st with consistent 1.31's, a few 1.30's.  Stuff it after 20 minutes. Great. I hate this stupid game.

[JonM_uk]

Decent race and quali for me.
PB in quali and 1st in race. At the start mourali floored it way before S/F line and I was unsure what to do, kinda waited a sec then went with him. After a couple laps with Mourali could see he was a bit erratic( but fast) and soon slid off.I Spun twice in the race, It's so hard not to cock up at enna, I was lucky enough that it didn't end my race. the car seemed to lose some top end speed after the contacts with the walls.  Could see shark was closing fast coming upto the end of the race, would've been amazing finish if he didn't have to pit but the GTR gods smiled on me this day  . Grats to matjaz on his victory and 3rd overall  

[Matjaz Plotajs]

Quite an easy race for me. The rest of the NGT drivers were struggling a bit today so I just nursed the car the whole race. But then again I nearly spun my team mate when his Saleen came very suddenly rumbling down into the first corner. Sorry Mike I was just laping somebody and saw you in the last moment. Luckily we somehow managed to avoid the accident. 

[PaulW]

I hate the pit board stuff when you pit, it's never clear whether what you specify is the extra you're putting in or the amount that will be in the tank after the stop. Always confused me and caught me out tonight, at least I'll know for next time.

Did the same. In the cold light of day it seems obvious but in the neat of the pitstop I usually feck up the 50/50 call. Result being I added enough fuel to do about 80 minutes 

I've never had such a bad framerate as I did tonight- some of those corners were a slideshow at times. Really shocking. Enna seems to be the worst for these kind of complaints for some reason.

Qualified 3rd fastest NGT. Had a nice lap "in the bag" at a second faster for second but a sliding GT2 collected me at the exit of the second chicane. I decided I'd wait out the rest as it would only have gained me one place and I wasn't sure I could drive hard defending that place on medium tyres for an hour. Had a moment with a 550 performing an 'eager' overtaking move for position right at the first chicane  We both ran over the gravel area and rejoined. Also a bit miffed to be barged out of the way whilst being lapped by a GT car. I spent the whole of the previous straight offline leaving room to pass but had to move over to the braking zone and just got shunted for it and span. Mostly the GT cars were superb though tonight- I know I entered the first run of corners after teh start/finish with a GT car behind me on a couple of occasions and they were patient enough to wait until the straight to pass, great stuff.

Don1 and I had a loooong tussle somewhere in there- me faster in teh slow stuff but him always with enough pace to hold me off. I was planning to just stick behind and then go for it witha few laps to go because I thought I'd done well with the tyres all race but had a silly spin on a corner exit and got the dreaded "the splitters gone" message. Pitted and got back out in 14th and drove hard on my lovely soft/soft tyres- ahhh- just like hotlapping heaven 

Somehow, not sure how, got 3rd in NGT. Well done to Don who was solid under pressure and Matjas who was in another universe for NGT speed and consistency.

[picnic]

First endurance race and I too fell foul of the pit board. I decided before the start I was one stopping half way through and set the strategy accordingly. So on the first flying lap the car in front stuffed it into the tyres and blocked the track, twack, one puncture. Crawled back to the pits for new tyres, reset the fuel because I didn't need any. Of course come the real fuel stop and it didn't put any in! Then when I pitted again straight away I thought I was putting in another 5 gal but I was topping up to 5 gals so I had to make a forth stop

Apart from that the only fun was letting the cars passed that were lapping me. I was a lap down after the first lap and it went downhill with all the pitstops.


Replay is available too

[Don]

Thanks for the kind words Paul. I was anticipating an attack from you at some point and was happy to see I could keep you at bay for a while at least. Once you had spun out and the pressure was off I drove like a Grandma just to get it home.
Scary stuff that, with the GT's breathing down your neck! Hope I didn't cause too many probs.
Don.

[Zacari]

Well that was quite fun in the BMW, qualie'd 16th but I wasn't expecting higher!  The parade lap was a bit of a farce, ended up having to do over 200kmh on a couple of occasions to keep up.  Is it always like that near the back?

For the race I could easily go the distance without stopping so I kept it steady (which is about all you can do in the beamer!).  It's amazing how fast some of the GT guys fly up in the mirrors!  I don't usually go NGT so that was a bit different, all the lapping GTs were fine and gave lots of room.  I only had 1 spin, and that was into the last complex when I was distracted in my mirrors by someone uncharacteristically dithering on the inside trying to overtake.  No idea who it was but I should've been watching the road rather than my mirrors!

Shortly after that Fozz passed me and I was trying to keep up as best I could, then those chicanes bit him and I ended up a comfortable 9th.  I was suprised at how different it is running in a race when you know there's no hope of points, no pressure and I made basically no mistakes, so hopefully that run'll help for next weeks race when I'm back in the 550!  

[ginsters sponsored]

Zacari, congrats for winning beamer championship. Hoped to race you but couldn't live with your pace and then got stop/go for getting out of way of gt's.

I will now be far more understanding when lapping others. Its bloody terrifying having gt zooming up behind you.

[fozzmeister]

Shortly after that Fozz passed me and I was trying to keep up as best I could,

Looked like you lifted for a GT, which lost you all your speed, I think a few people did that too, was basically just let passed for 3 real places, wierd! It's probably what your meant to do, but I'm not gonna take that hit all the way down those long straights, I was letting people through on the enterance to chicanes which was fun

Fozzmeister

[Jamera]

Zacari, congrats for winning beamer championship. Hoped to race you but couldn't live with your pace and then got stop/go for getting out of way of gt's.

I will now be far more understanding when lapping others. Its bloody terrifying having gt zooming up behind you.

Lol i have that every race!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Zacari]

Cheers Ginsters    I couldn't believe how fast the GTs closed up either, a few times coming into the chicanes I was screaming at the screen for them to slow down!  I tended to assume the cornering speeds were pretty much the same for GT and NGT, but after that run I'll be more understanding of the NGT drivers in D2.

I did intentionally let you go Fozz, there's no way a beamer can keep up with a 360 over a lap with so many straights!  And I'd already suffered from a ferrari doing random things when trying to overtake me, so I made sure I could go through the chicane normally.  TBH I was never going to block a driver from passing when I was in a non-scoring car, seen as I was racing for fun rather than for points.  I was a bit nervous of even racing in case I forced someone into the tyers!  But it was all fine in the end 

[Muorali]

Yes I did floor it way before the Start finish line - realised what I did - and slowed down after Turn 2. Irrelevant anyway i stuffed it.