UKGTL Season 5 Classic Endurance Cup - Dijon-Prenois (GP) - Mar 6

[psuedo]

Results and Replay available

[Geoffers]

Hi Ruskus

No chance of making tonight, only DLed 45mb in the last 20mins. Why is it so sloooooooow. Never have DL speed probs anywhere else, always the same at Filefront. Oh well, just have to be patient I suppose.

Would you believe after 1h 45m it got to 188mb & discoed from the server. AHHHHHH (tearing hair out)

Will try on the PC at work tomorrow, see if that makes a difference.

[ginsters sponsored]

Shame that Geoffers, look forward to racing you again . Hope you can make next week.

Best GTL race I've had here that

Great first half battle with Syd. So tricky to find a way past even though I was little quicker, think his tyres were going? Squeaked ahead just before I thought about pitting. Major brain malfunction as I attempted to pit, didn't slow down quick enough and was heading towards the tyre wall so had to abort and was swamped by three cars on straight. Bit edgy when I came in next lap, sorry about sliding around everywhere Dave but I was tad nervous after the feck up That pit entry is a shocker.

Couple of dull laps after pitting, then Mike began to catch me at some rate of knots. Unfortunately, when he caught me he was surprised by my lack of speed. Got a frightfull clattering, but he waited for me and remained behind me for a bit, shamefaced no doubt. So no worries and thx for waiting, I'm sure I'll return the favour soon. That incident meant Dave was now able to catch me and we had a brilliant five or so laps as I tried to hold him off. My smile was as wide as my Falcon everytime we passed through final corner, brilliant fun. Could almost hear your brain working and congrats on finding a way past  

Thx to all for the great turnout and extremely sensible driving into T1 and around first lap. Top drawer . Congrats to JR and rest of podium. Look forward to seeing you all next week and looks like more GTL enduros will come

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

After Tuesday's disasterous non-race and last week's frustrationfest at Spa I needed a good race and by  herring I got one!

Lobby wouldn't start on first attempt and I feared the worst but got into the practice server on my second try and then straight in for the race after quitting GTL to join the Team Speak channel. Qualified 8th with what I thought was a pretty good lap, and started okay, squeeked past PR before starting a series of stupid spins which put me well down the field. Had a few good fights along the way but it was becoming rather frustrating that I couldn't seem to keep the car pointing in the right direction for more than a few laps at a time.

Somehow got to half distance without actually hitting anything solid, and with fresh tyres the car handled better and I was a able to start making progress up the field as others pitted. With the car feeling better and the tyres holding up better as a result I started making big inroads into the gap to SbG's Falcon ahead and after a few laps I was all over him in the twisties, but of course he was disappearing back up the road each time we got to the main straight.

Each lap I concentrated on applying maximum pressure where I could and gradually the gap as we reached the first corner was coming down. After getting by first on the outside and then the inside of the final corner before getting repassed down the straight, I finally managed to get by a few corners before the end of the lap and had enough of a gap to use the Cortina's ability to brake much, much later than the Falcon for turn 1 to ensure the pass stuck.

Had to keep the pace up after that to make sure Ginsters couldn't catch me again and found myself closing in on MC Hammer's Mustank, which he was hurling about with gay abandon and stripping all the rubber off the tyres. After not very long he ran wide out of the final corner and that left me close enough going into turn 1 to slot up the inside and muscle through with my nimble steed, to take a totallly unexpected and very satisting 5th place.

Even more of a surprise was that I picked up 3rd fastest race lap - no idea where that came from! Probably off the slipstream of one of those big things.

[MortenS]

Firstly Sorry to Dave for spinning in front of you, hope you didn't get any damage. And sorry for going slightly wide with someone in a red Alfa on my outside.

Secondly I'm sorry for those few which didn't finish. Would've been nice to maybe have someone to race.

i'm not just slow, but when I'm driving by myself there's nothing to really push me. Did close up to someone which had lapped me by some laps, but I finally thought I could do some fighting, but then he went to the pit. The second half of the race I didn't care much, so I took some chances and spun about every lap. Nice fun race, but with noone in my 'class', that really takes much fun from it.

I didn't even take the car I felt most confident in, I took one with great engine sounds just to try and get better at driving this type of cars. Not a bad choice, but with too little practice, the setup was far from ideal.

Looking foreward to the next endurance GTL race

[MortenS]

How can those two guys be on unknown tires, in the standings?

[Zacari]

Quite a quiet race for me, quali'd in 4th which was much better than expected.

Not much happened in the race, other than every man and their dog cutting turn 2 I dropped to 5th early on but was up to 4th when Dan started having issues with the tail-happy Falcon.  Pitted early when I started getting held up by yet another Falcon, but the stop went as badly as taking 1L of fuel could!  Stopped in pits, nothing.  Forward/reverse a couple of times finally sorted it but I wish pitstops were better in GTL!  Came out 10th roughly, eventually after many laps I ended up in 2nd, which I was suprised about as I was expecting more people opting not to change tyres.

Grats to JR for the dominant win, and for Dave coming home 5th   can't say I enjoyed that one as much as Spa, I think if I wasn't listening to music all race I'd have fallen asleep at some point!

[psuedo]

How can those two guys be on unknown tires, in the standings?

cos I didnt know what tyres they were on when i imported the results.....but they would be the standard type for that vehicle.

good race indeed that one. lost a few places in the early stages due to being a little too cautious and then quite a few more after running into the back of a very very erratic falcon sorry..seen replay now...it was a mustang... that slammed it's anchors on at a corner apex, just as i was hitting the gas ....sorry for the tap (if you felt it) whoever it was...took me a bit by suprise.

car felt a little strange for a lap or two after that and i thought seriously about pitting very early...but then i put a decent lap time in so decided to try and stick to my planned strategy...the car seemed to get better and better as the tyres wore and i was matching my best times. got back to 13th place before folk started pitting, car was feeling really good so I decided to stay out for as long as my times were decent...eventually pitted from 6th on lap 32 ....small fuel top up...new front tyres only, told the crew not to spend 95 seconds replacing a busted suspension and got away after just 38 secs stop ....rejoined in 10th and the car still felt good, lapping within 10ths of my best times. Caught up with Phill in 5th place and followed him round for a few laps till he pitted very late for tyres....he must have had a fairly long stop though as I got round the lap and ahead of him by 9 seconds putting me up to 9th.  Just holding station then till the end.

Pretty pleased with the result, started 13th. A thank you to everyone that convinced me to take the mini...it was fun and was a lot more competetive than I imagined.

Grats to Jeff and the podiums.

[baracus250gt]

Tough race that! I was outfoxed by Zacari's strategy.

I was surprised the Mini could only take 50 litres in the tank, and I needed 55! So I planned on doing 2 equal stints with 30 litres at a time and fresh fronts at the stop.

Spent the last 20 laps thinking "Zacari's gotta pit soon, soon, soon" not realising he had ALREADY pitted before me!

No catching Jeff, but had a good chase on with Mike until he missed his braking and I got past and stayed there. Had a few laps where I was 0.7 off my pace, and finished about 4 seconds behind Zacari, so if it wasnt for those lapses it might have been an interesting last lap

I was also pleasantly surprised of the way the Mini works around here, with long gears that straight is not as much of a disadvatage as it looked like it should be. Grats to everyone - good racing.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Firstly Sorry to Dave for spinning in front of you, hope you didn't get any damage.

Busted my left headlight but luckily nothing else.

[Tibernius]

Sorry Tibs,

Tried to keep the car in a straight line but didn't succeeded  :'(

No problem, I've calmed down a bit now.

[BillThomas]

Sorry Will 16v, you got involved in my unfortunate major lag - decided to quit then. 

I've been having ISP problems through out this year so I was very pleased to be able to drive for about 1 3/4 hrs.  Qualification went well qualified 14th, the start and first lap went well 11th I think.     On the second lap I had a tap and went off, rejoined I think in 17th.  Had a battle with a blue Alfa and we were catching Alex and then I took too much left hand kerb on the 2nd of the sharp left handers and rode along on 2 wheels before completing the roll.    After that I drove on and eventually I think caught up with the Alfa.  About half distance I started to get the odd touch of lag.

Pit stop went OK and I rejoined in 11th shortly after that minor lag came back and went until it eventually returned  big time resulting in the contact with Will 16v.  :'(

Bill

[Sandor M]

Ah, That was me, Bill.

If you get points for a roll i would have given a 10+ . 
We had a nice battle indeed.

sandor

[Mike Hammer]

Well, I knew it, should have stayed in the Alfa  

That barge felt okay for about four or five laps, then it didn't want to turn anymore, and I had to rear wheel steer it  

Fun for a bit, but it there was a price to pay, as after 40 laps or so I was doing +3,5 to +4 seconds of my best lap in race, even though I changed tires at lap 25. I think I might have benefitted from being a bit easier on the tires, but I never was any good at that. And isn't Dijon about having just a bit of wheelspin at almost all times  

I've done countless laps in the Alfa around the short version of Dijon, and I think old habits cost me a few corners every now and then, since this barge is so slow to react.

Really sorry about the punt ginsters, I'd like to blame the heavy weight of the big car, but I really can't since the problem is between the seat and the steering wheel, as always.

Towards the end I tried to keep Dave stuck behind me, but I was having serious problems keeping the front end pointing forward *and* staying on track, especially in the last turn. Once he got ahead into T1, there was no taking that position back.


Interesting race, even if it mostly confirmed I either have to learn tire conservation, or stay out of the yanktanks. Got a bit lonely at times, with something like +5 and -35 on the gap sign for a large part of the race.

[ginsters sponsored]

Really sorry about the punt ginsters, I'd like to blame the heavy weight of the big car, but I really can't since the problem is between the seat and the steering wheel, as always.

No worries Mike. Sliding and rear wheel steering, you were a sight to behold 

Personnally, I can't wait to use the Falcon again.