UKGTR Season 7 Lower Endurance (GT2/3) - Dubai (GP) - Mar 2

[Jeffrey]

I meant physically - you mentioned you were in pain.

I've been told Simon had a very stubborn moment  . You're not so young anymore Simon, can't jump as high anymore

[Simon Gymer]

I meant physically - you mentioned you were in pain.

I badly wrenched by shoulder/neck about 10 days ago trying to get into the loft without a ladder (d'oh!). That was getting better earlier this week and I was even able to do last weeks Sunday race, but then on Tuesday I was in agony again for some reason, Wednesday wasn't much better and then it's gradually got better again. Still in pain round the base of my neck and shoulder so sudden movements are a no-no and sitting in one position gets me stiff again so driving for 80 minutes is going to hurt I suspect. I need to keep relaxed so no weaving around in my mirrors making me stressed and nervous!!

[pribeiro]

I meant physically - you mentioned you were in pain.

I badly wrenched by shoulder/neck about 10 days ago trying to get into the loft without a ladder (d'oh!). That was getting better earlier this week and I was even able to do last weeks Sunday race, but then on Tuesday I was in agony again for some reason, Wednesday wasn't much better and then it's gradually got better again. Still in pain round the base of my neck and shoulder so sudden movements are a no-no and sitting in one position gets me stiff again so driving for 80 minutes is going to hurt I suspect. I need to keep relaxed so no weaving around in my mirrors making me stressed and nervous!!

I wish you get better soon, Simon.

[pribeiro]

Qualified 5th, made my best start ever and reach 1st corner in 1st (with some turbo help).
3rd lap, Mark breaked better and overtook me at 4th or 5th corner (i didnt try to hold position,
because i didnt want to put in jeopardy a 120mnts race on minute 6) i fall into 2nd position.
I have to say that Mark manouvre was fair and clean.
But....then, i was hit hard and i spun, fall into 8th.
After that hit, i began to have some difficulty to turn right, due to this falling places,
i tried hard, but i only got a tire wear more intense (cool fight there Gomes) 
People in front start to pit, i was in 4th triyng very hard, but i was hit again,
and honestly i quit, because i´m a bit tired of beeing hit race after race.
Can you please accept that each of us, has a different driving stile, therefore (because of
different cars also) we have different breaking points and sometimes different racing lines?
If someone need my spot on lower endurance championship, please tell me, and i give it.
Good driving with the default setup Gomes. 
Hope you all had fun.
By the way, i know and i believe that those incidents are not intentional.
But if the car in front of me is slower, i dont have the right to force the pass because of that,
if he is holding the position fairly.

Cheers

[Joss]

B*ll*cks 

[Kerr]

What a race!

I lost two places right away at the start. I think Freq forgot to go and Mark and PR were off.

There was loads of tussles and people running wide from the off. Positions changing every second corner.

Zacari passed me and then everyone started to trip over one another. Zacari's car came across me and we had some contact, Not my fault but sorry anyway.

As the race wore on I was 3rd right behind Freq at pit stops. I was certain I could jump him at pits.

I overshot my bay and lost a few seconds but thought I would be ok. NO Freq pulled out 8 seconds.

Made a daft mistake lapping Dave. I put tyres wide and lost the car backwards into barrier.

Freq and Mark were well gone. I put my foot down and had TT for company again.

We were both catching Freq and Mark all the time but race was too short.

That was good fun, well done Mark and Simon. Unlucky Freq what a time to happen.

[Reign Man]

Another good race for me....until the end.

Qualified second behind Simon which i was quite pleased about

Start was a bit weird no sooner had I piut the limiter on.... simon was dashing up the road at full tilt. After a few laps simon made a mistake giving me GT3 lead and I managed to stay there until simon made his stop. I Decided to pit in on the next lap as I knew that simon would be out of the pits sharpish and I wanted to minimise any loss in time.

Had a good stop managing to stay ahead of SBG as he came out of the pits. Simon was only 3 or 4 seconds behind. Simon got past SBG and was pressuring me...I cracked and went wide and nearley spun as a came back onto the track.

SBG was a few seconds up the road and with the help of traffic I was in a position to pass him. I passed him once and went wide .Doh!

Thats when I noticed that i might not have enough fuel to finish, I slowed down and tried to chance it...it didn't work, I ran out of fuel on the last lap

Never mind It was a lot of fun.

RM

[psuedo]

I feel sorry for Simon....being in pain b4 it began....coz I'm certainly in pain after it. That was just damn hard work fighting the Viper all race.

Setup was ok...done loads of laps with it and felt fine....I did (once again) forget to alter the tyres to better suit the temperatures though, which made the car a little unpredictable to say the least.

had a good couple of semi=battles with [email protected] he was miles faster in the end.

New fuel was gonna be tight...had 20+ secs on the cars behind so took it very very easy for the last few laps...but it didnt work....ran out anyway...100yds before the finish line....but still a lap to do

Was going to dart in for a quick splash....but....cruising along upto the pit entry JPV (or was it API?...always get mixed up with them )...bumped me and pushed me well past the pit entry point....lol...thought better than going the wrong way up track so managed to coast in neutral to the line to finish the lap at least.....

Grats winners and podiums

[Simon Gymer]

That was a tough one, pretty close throughout with Reign Man and then after the stops the two Kerbies of SBG and Paul.

After seeing my early lead get taken by Reign Man as I ran into a GT2 that had spun in the middle of the road (what was going on in the first 30 mins in GT2, quite a few having bad races!?) I desperately needed to pit after pushing really hard at the end of the first stint. Was surprised to have come out of the pits still in a competitive position after having to get damaged repaired and putting in a lot of fuel. With the reasonable position in mind I didn't push, conserved my tyres and kept a close eye on my engine temp. After a few laps it was clear I needed to go a little bit faster to catch up with SBG. Once he was dispatched I had to start pushing reasonably hard again, but without shredding my tyres. Caught up to Reign Man and pressured him into a mistake going into the back straight. After that it was plain sailing.

Good to win that, but with about 10 minutes to go I was really wishing the race was over already and struggling physically.

Shame about FreQ's disco with less than a lap to go wasn't it? He sounded like he was having a great time battling for the lead with Mark. Well done Mark on your win.

[jpv]

Well that was a wild ride. Started in the last position with my GT3 Cup Porsche. I was initially keeping up with the last few cars, but soon started to lose focus and was all over the place. Running 10 secs behind after the first stint. Tyres were starting to wear out and I pitted in on lap 17.

During the pit stops I somehow gained that 10 secs and was right behind Ade. We raced for a few laps a couple of seconds apart, but I couldn't quite close the gap. At this point we were getting lapping cars behind. The GT2's were easy to let through, but the lead cars of GT3 weren't that much faster, and it wasn't easy to let them by. At one point I was racing with the guy in front, had another closing in from the back and one of the lead GT3's lapping together with a GT2 lapping for second or third time! Got really confusing at times.

Right at the end another moment of confusion, was suddenly rapidly closing up with Psuedo. Thought he had wounded his car and tried maintain his position, I was thinking we were on the last lap. In the second to last corner he was very slow and I pushed a bit too hard and knocked him wide. Obviously my fault, and tried of course to give the place back. Little did I know he had run out of fuel and we were crawling through the last corner, he stopping just short of the finish line. At this point I noticed the race wasn't over and ran one more lap. Sorry for the trouble, if you only had signalled that you were pitting in!

Fun and eventful race anyhow, thanks and congratulations to the winners!

[psuedo]

Sorry for the trouble, if you only had signalled that you were pitting in!

No problem mate...you would have taken the place anyway even if I did manage to pit....I found it quite funny actually

[Zacari]

But....then, i was hit hard and i spun, fall into 8th.

Apologies for that, to both you and Brian (and Joss if he was close enough to get caught in it), totally my cock-up.  I had a different line in that corner than anyone else and I was caught out by how different the other GT2's braking points were it wasn't the only time I cocked up that corner

The whole race was a nightmare from the moment I took off my limiter!  The Ferrari around here is a total horror to drive, I must have spun 4 or 5 times in total which is very rare for me.

Quali was ok, 4th I think, then the start- I was following the guy infront as normal and before I'd even turned off my limiter I was overtaken which was more than a little annoying!  For the next 4 laps I was having to creep everywhere, the differences in the way I was driving the first half of the lap made it totally impossible to follow anyone closely- and as soon as I tried a more normal racing line the ferrari would be even more of a handful

After waiting for Prib to get back going (which wasn't hard, I was pointing the wrong way), I was down in about 12th.  Got hit a few laps after that and from then on nothing went right- I'd be minding my own business and suddenly I'd get armfulls of oversteer.  Trying to pass anyone was a complete lottery, be it for position or lapping.  Nothing against any of the GT3 cars it was just one of those days!  I even managed to wrench my entire wheel off the desk when coming up to lap Dave's Viper, which must have looked very odd and I didn't realise until I exited the game that my mic wasn't selected, so all those 'thanks' over TS went unheard so thanks ended up a very undeserved 4th with 0.6L fuel

Looked like a great battle up the front, what a horrible time to get a disco! grats to Mark and the podium, hopefully the next race in the TVR will be better round here- I do like the track just not in that Ferrari!

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results are available

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Made a daft mistake lapping Dave. I put tyres wide and lost the car backwards into barrier.

Not as daft as me running off in sympathy.

I have to thank Shark for his setup - I couldn't go quick with it in qualifying and set my time with my own setup, but that was too extreme for the race so I used his setup and hards all round.

Blasted by SbG at the start using the mighty V10, despite hesitating when he seemed to take a very long time coming off the limiter. Set off after Paul's 811 and after a few laps I was able to get alongside on the front straight, only for him to repass as I struggled to get the car stopped into turn 1.

And repeat.

Finally, at the third time of asking I got a great run onto the back straight and was able to make a pass stick. Pulled out 2 or 3 seconds of gap but couldn't make any more headway with my tyres going off.

Had to pit two laps later than scheduled as all the boxes were in use and was amazed to come out not far behind Paul despite taking on 90 litres of fuel (about 15 too many as it turned out). I have to say it was really hard work letting GT2 cars by in the VCC, only the M3 is faster in a straight line and the only places I could let them by without losing loads of time were in the turns.

My personal experience with the cars I was lapping were that they were very good at moving out of the way when needed and not interfering with my attempts to catch Paul, SbG and RM. But I sometimes wonder if being Chief Mod has an effect on people on the track.

Had one terrifying moment when a VCC I was about to lap froze on the main straight with me too close behind to avoid, and I ran right through it, sending it skywards but luckily doing me no damage at all.

Continued to push had and the gap to Paul was coming down, but between letting the leaders by and my tyres wearing it didn't look like I stood any chance of catching them before the end of the race, so you can imagine my surprised and delight to see Paul and RM suddenly much closer, and then Paul going off and RM waiting for him allowing me to slip through to pinch a podium place on the last lap!

SbG was off too in the nasty tightening left hander but I wasn't quite close enough to capitalise and had to settle for the bottom step of the rostrum in GT3.

I even managed to wrench my entire wheel off the desk when coming up to lap Dave's Viper, which must have looked very odd and I didn't realise until I exited the game that my mic wasn't selected, so all those 'thanks' over TS went unheard so thanks

I had to apologise for holding you up so badly as I was really trying very hard to catch the cars ahead. Then you just vanished. Now I know why!

[Kerr]

Sorry about that Dave. It was one of many mistakes I made.      I don't actually recall a race with so many errors by drivers. Very exciting though