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

[Ted]

Thoroughly enjoyed that - managed to acheive both my goals for my first race:

1)Finish
2)Not stop anyone else from finishing!

Shocking pit stop, must practice those...  Still, made for an exciting last few laps catching JPV and Ade - good race guys, see you next time

[Kerr]

Well done Ted. I'm sure you will find the more you are involved the faster you will get. Also cut out mistakes and work out pit stops.

[Paul968]

Despite my frustration at throwing away a podium, that was a highly exciting race with several drivers in with a shot of the win. Personally I pushed a bit too hard in the first stint and ended up spinning twice, the 2nd being quite costly because I lost my bearings and spent ages faffing around trying to rejoin safely. Had a cracking little battle with Dave's Viper early on, but the spins put me right in the middle of the vipers after the pitstops. Simon came out just ahead and drove off into the distance, but Dave was some way back and not closing fast. Near the end Reign Man dropped back and I could see a chance to snatch 3rd as the last lap started. He suddenly slowed into the chicane at the end of the first sector and I nipped by, not knowing what the problem was. I was busy trying to work out what was happening when I stupidly went too wide at the long left onto the straight and had another slow spin, letting RM and Dave past, only to see RM grind to a halt and give the place back. 4th isn't so bad on a Viper friendly track, but without all those mistakes it might have been so different.

Congrats to Simon on a good win despite the pain, to Mark on the GT2 win and to SBG for another solid drive for the Kerbies. When the high temps didn't materialise it was always going to be a real fight in the cup car and that is exactly how it turned out. Not the best for lapping though, as I encountered hesitant lappers, hard to lap backmarkers and got hit up the exhaust all in the same race.

[Joss]

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

That was pretty embarrassing. I was looking behind to make sure everyone was lined up properly and when I looked back, I realised I'd already passed the s/f line. Screwed my and your start up and gifted a good start to the others behind....doh...

Was surprised with pole (really ) because I hate this track. At the start I tried to stay close but thought a few people around me were faster, so just tried to stay out of trouble. Bad luck to Zacari and Ribs.....was a massive group of us at the time 
Got lucky after a while and got in front of Kerr and stayed there with him breathing down my neck until we pitted...on exactly the same lap!
Was fully expecting him to exit before me, so was shocked to beat him out and....extend my lead  What are you doing wrong! 

Had closed the gap to Mark as well, but couldn't close up on the track. Was prepared to settle for 2nd as he'd been fast all race, but then somehow ended up on his ass for the last 30 mins of the race.......and it was soooo much fun

We were soooo close for the whole time, and swapped positions at least 4 or 5 times, including one great double overtake at the last corner!    Was annoying my teamies by screaming into the mic about how fun it was

Looked like it was going to be a grandstand finish over the last 3 corners......so 3/4 round the last lap............my PC screen went blank and then died 

Didn't even say anything - just got up in disgust, got a drink and then got on with some uni work. I was too angry to be angry, if that makes sense. My motherboard has lost it's CMOS settings twice today, and 4 times over the last 2 weeks. Either the 5 month old mobo is dying, or the battery is dead in it. Not impressed Asus.

On the bright side, it was an intense race to start and a fantastic last half. I remember saying I don't care if I come second, coss this race has been awesome, and really you were faster overall, so brilliant win Mark Glad to see you didn't have any problems being right behind my stupid frozen car

Great fighting with Brian, Ribs, Backo and TT as well. Real close stuff round here.    Nice one Super Gymer Bros on the 1-3 in GT3

Oh well.....6 points I suppose 

[ginsters sponsored]

Best race this season that

Dreading coming off limiter at start and duly got swamped by ruddy Vipers. Accepted that and got on with battling Paul who was realistically the only one on the same pace. Really jealous when he and Dave were duking it out, looked like great fun, but that held him just enough for me to get in touch. Then spent five or so laps just hanging on to Paul which was like an extended TT, its just so much easier to go fast when you follow someone who knows what they are doing. Eventually his extra ballast made him push too hard and I was all alone up to pit.


Stayed out to long really, as lap times dropped by 1-2 seconds but still jumped Simon with Reign Man leading. Pushed really hard with Simon in close attendance and improved my fastest lap three times on the trot but he wast still gaining . Think I put in my fastest lap when he eventually overtook me. He then caught RM who slipped into my clutches, good stuff for 3,4 laps then dropped him. Then held up for a long time by a backmarker (just one of those things) and he was right on me again. Great fun

Running low on gas had to cruise to finish, with final slip that made gap to Dave a little too close. Delighted with second

Grats to Simon for the hard earned win, Dave and commiserations to our Paul who deserved better. Its only your choice to take ballast that made mine and Daves race, so cheers Simon and Paul  

[Kerr]

I over shot my pit tonight Freq. I also added a little bit too much fuel as I found too often I use more in the second half of race for some reason. I did not think it was that bad not to jump your bmw though.  If I had not made so many stupid mistakes tonight I would have been up with you and Mark. I was catching all the time. TT was never far away either.            Thought you would have the starts worked out by now Freq, you've had enough pole positions lately! I had to back off and Mark jumped me. PR also went through but think he would have been ahead anyway since he was very keen at the start.

[Truetom]

What a bummer, Freq. 

Qualified 7th, though I was 1 sec off my pb. Left it at that as I wanted to hone my race setup. I did it in the 2nd part of the quali session and it looks like it was the right decission.
Race started ok, was funny to see a trail of 6,7 cars in front. Waited for a confusion which must come with a close trail like this. After some laps I came into 4th position and waited for an outcome of Freq/Kerr duel. Both being faster then me, their struggle enabled me to stay close but even with close racing they weren't making big mistakes so I couldn't gain any positions. Great driving, guys. 
After they went to pit I stayed 2 or 3 laps longer but saw I was losing too much time so I also went to pit. Came out about 10 sec behind Kerr and their close racing resulted in slower driving at first and I could close the gap again. Then they must have had a touch, Kerr went out but was staying 1-2 seconds in front of me the whole time. I saw our gap to MarkMc and Freq was diminishing but we would need ten more minutes to close it. Would be a grand finish of four cars struggle for the win.   
Bad luck, Freq. Grats to MarkMc, Shark and the rest of the podiums. GT3s were superb. 

TT

[Simon Gymer]

If Paul hadn't had his two spins I think it would have been close for the GT3 win. The track favours the Viper CC and I was pleased that despite being a lot slower than the last race we had here in GT3s the Viper was still faster than the Cup which it needed to be with the pit stops in mind.

Nice to see the extra point (wow a whole point ) for taking driver ballast, I see that win has put me in third. Would love to see a new skin pack so I can drive the Team Shark Viper CC that I did a while ago.

Anderstorp and Barcelona should be quite good for the Viper CC, with Donington most definately being good for the Cup and rubbish for the Viper CC. However, what is the next race, as it says Unknown in the calendar?

[ginsters sponsored]

However, what is the next race, as it says Unknown in the calendar?

Is it Mugello?  

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

However, what is the next race, as it says Unknown in the calendar?

Depends on the outcome of the Mugello test...

[Jure]

Right. My first outing in 911, ever!  Not a bad car to race in, it's great to drive until something goes wrong which turns it into a handful of German engineering going it's own stubborn pendulum effect way. I still think it would be nice if ze engineers put ze engine in ze right place. Anywhere but behind rear axle would be nice (OK, OK, above it from 996 onwards, calm down MJ ). 

Anyway, cool race. I put in a race setup medium-medium low fuel "just set a reasonable time then go to toilet and smoke a big fat one" quali "effort".. erm... got 8th place, 1/100th behind TT, not bad considering his mileage in RSR.

Race: opted for medium-medium & 63L of fuel. Race started in a classic Jure@SROU way, was enjoying view of battles in front - "he's gonna hit him... don't hit him, don't hit him... aaah, he didn't hit him, good!" only to outbrake myself at the end of back straight resulting in semi spin right back on the track clipping Jan (which sent me in a real spin, lol). Sorry mate, at least you managed to continue, I had to wait for cars to go by (and spin the car into the right direction beforehand, argh).

Chase was on again and after dispatching with lower class cars (which were insanely fast down the straight, I was on wing 8 ), Zacari (joined us after his off track excursion), Jan and myself had a nice little battle with Jan having obvious understeer problems (right?! your car felt... funny...) so Zacari and I were all over him, then he spun... again. But so did Zac and I, repeatedly, one of the mutual spins being courtesy of yours truly (gave Zac a nudge braking into last corner, completely my fault, Zac came in a bit too slow while I was setting up a good exit... eh.).

Before pit window started we were running in 9th, 10th and 11th. I stayed out the longest (23 laps, I think, perhaps 24), pitted while in the lead and came out in 9th. My girlfriend/race engineer had a strike of genius and proposed soft-soft combo. Excellent decision, medium-medium in 1st stint were running way too cold and only working well if pushing like crazy. Reason being we both anticipated rise in track and air temperatures (based on FP1 and Q weather) so I let some air out of the tyres. Same goes for radiator @ 3. It turned out there was no need for both tweaks, but capitalised on it by choosing soft-soft option, they were perfect (albeit a bit too hot at rear left, but manageable, as long as they stayed on 200kPa I was happy). Lost few seconds for aero repairs but who cares, pit time said 49s.

Man was I flying on softs, constant low 2.00s, great stuff (had clear track to begin with), chased down Peter Allnutt and Gomes Silva (they both spun right in front of me @ same part of the track, sigh) then settled in 6th with Zacari too far to catch. Finished fifth thanks to Asus. 

@FreQ: just a game mate. You know you had it.


Question: upper endurance ---> any chance of using RSR setup on RS or what?

[stnasky]

Superb race there last night.   Guessed id have 2nd at T1 Lap 1 but a brief look in the mirror i saw PRibero blasting up the inside to take 1st , tucked up behind him and thought id have 2nd as Feq was left up high on the ouside but he took the long way around and kept 2nd.  Very close group of cars in the opening laps,  Managed to pass Freq on the outside of the last turn as he had to back off from PRibero.  I then followed PR for another lap or so with Brian fairly close to me too, but i figured my only way to get PR was in the slow section as id have no chance to get him on the straights, and lucky for me it worked although at the time i thought id touched him and made him spin but i never felt any contact so i drove on .

Clear track ahead of me so i was able to just drive and not worry about the guys behind.  I thought if i could keep this little gap id have 1st after the pitsops.  I didnt expect Freq to have such a good stop and so my gap was not so good.  Then caught up with Backo and i suspected he never took tires since i was able to close up easy, then got on the inside at that long left hander and got by.

After that Freq closed up little by little and eventually was right on me,  We then battled it out, he got alongside for maybe the 3rd time and he had the line for T1 but i tried to go round the outside while we were side by side and at T2 i was worried about leaving him room and cut T2 to much and had a slide allowing Freq to take the lead.  Got back on track and was following him when he had a moment of his own and i promptly dived down the inside making a little contact, Sorry about that BTW. 

So i had the lead again but he just stuck to my bumper and i couldnt shake him at all, he'd have a run but id go to the inside to cover and just about cling on.  But he eventually got the lead back and i really couldnt see how i could get it back but 3 turns from the end Freqs car froze and i hit it, knocked me off track but nothing to serious as i got back on track, i actually thought he may have had a bit of lag and i expected him to be around the last corner doing doughnuts lol .

But anyway what crappy luck you had there m8, PCs are a nigthmare sometimes but im sure you'd have won it.

Congrats Simon for the GT3 win

Cheers

Cyas for the next one

[Gomes Silva]

another great night racing, i use a default setup but i love this race, great 80minutes of racing

[Joss]

@FreQ: just a game mate. You know you had it.

That's the thing...I really didn't! Mark had been faster most of the race and I was genuinely excited about who was going to win, and we only had 3 corners to go! That was the most annoying part, not the loss of points Arghh You were v fast in the Porker though. How on earth did you get softs to last?! I was pondering H/H for a while!

...i was worried about leaving him room and cut T2 to much and had a slide allowing Freq to take the lead.  Got back on track and was following him when he had a moment of his own and i promptly dived down the inside making a little contact, Sorry about that BTW. 

Yea, I wondered what happened to you. I thought I'd hit you so I eased off for a couple of corners but didn't feel any contact. Then you dived inside and I didn't mind the contact becuase I thought it was payback Now I know 
It's difficult leaving room round those sweepers, I tried to give more space but it probably wasn't enough, so I'm glad you got the place back. I had loads of side by side moments with Brian, Zacari, Backo, TT and loaads with you. Was nuts

Was also surprised to see you actualy hit my non-existant car. Very lucky it didn't damage you or launch you.....at least my car didn't lag in the spot....it just vanished!! 

Lastly, I've looked at your pitstop Brian. We've gotta sort you out.  It looks like you have automatic pit entry enabled (AI control in the pits)...is that right? That will be where you're losing out.

Tips for a quick pitstop: (apparently these are TS secrets.....so blue = TS only!!) 

• Map a button for the ignition. It will cut/start your engine, no need for the starter.
• Practise the pit entrance, and get the braking right for the speed line. You should have the limiter mapped manually to your wheel so that it's easy to hit whilst steering in.
• Cut your engine on the way into your box and coast in. Make sure you don't over/undershoot because otherwise you gotta start your engine again and it takes aages.
• Work your fuel out beforehand, so you can just whack "enter" and not adjust anything. That wastes precious seconds
• Once the fuel is done, hit ignition to re-start the engine whilst the tyres are being done. Again, save a few seconds.
• As soon as you are back in the car, 1st gear....GOGOGO
• Pit limiter comes off automatically. Brake early for T1 

I only found out about starting the engine whilst your tyres are being done recently. It is soo much faster! With this method, the Porsche's should always have a faster stop. The 360 is ok, and the M3 needs more fuel that the others, so expect a longer stop. Same with the Vipers (lot of fuel) and GT3's (frugal).
I learnt most of this just by being on teamspeak, so it really helps. Although the profanities have been lower recently without Jeff and Jon on there 

[Simon Gymer]

Do you mind Joss?! You're giving away all the team's secrets!!!