UKGTR Season 7 GTC Sprint - Mugello (GP) - Apr 1

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

After opening the power side of the diff up completely I could just about get the car to turn; qualifying wasn't encouraging with only 2 cars behind me, but again I made a special effort to warm the tyres on the pace lap and once the race started I was looking a lot more competitive, moving quickly past Ade's Vertislow. At one point I was running as high as 11th and starting to catch the other Gillet, but the tyres were going off very fast - wear was much higher than I had anticipated - and I let Picnic by so he could try for 10th and I could concentrate on just staying on the road. One of the porkers was catching me fast and I ran off in the final corner, dropping to 13th and almost back into Ade's clutches. Just managed to hang on to 13th with the car become worse and worse..

Should be better in the Lambo with it's excellent cornering, but I may struggle to keep it on the track for over an hour!

[Kerr]

Once again though, a totally different car in the race to the one I've been praccy in 

did 40+ laps this afternoon, pushing hard, exactly the same conditions as the race, and never even felt the back end twitch once....race started....could hardly touch my gas pedal without the back end swinging round and trying to go faster than the front. 

Really ******es me off....especially as I felt good tonight...chance of my best ever finish.

I always find my tyres very slippery for the first few laps before they get up to temperature.

It shows more in the race than practice for some reason

[Kerr]

Had a fun if lonely race.

The Morgan is a blast on this track. It felt great throwing it about.

Made a couple of minor mistakes when I was distracted and ordered to turn down the speakers.

Other than that it all went really smooth.

I did not see anyone for the whole race though.

Congrats to TT and Paul for podium positions

[Mark J]

dominant drive Brian, nice win 

Congrats also to teamie TT, who got a storming 2nd place 

Had a mare this eve, typical as was really looking forward to this race all week. My flipping speed 7's decided to detach themselves from the pedal plate on the race frame after 15mins or so  i had to drive the rest of the race with them at about 40 degrees, only stopped from moving further by my subwoofer where they became wedged against it  :'(
Despite that i had managed to stay 5th, with a good gap, until 13 mins to go but the pedal angle, heat and worn tyres then took their toll on me and i must have put one wheel on the suction grass/gravel about 5 times in last phase of the race dropping me from 5th down to 7th then finally to 8th with 5mins remaining...gutted !  Was not happy losing 3 places in last part of race tyres were fooked by last two laps.

 Like others reported my great feeling offline setup was very different on race night with more understeer and glass-grip tyres late on.

Great track. 

[LuKe#69]

Nice to be back  Qually wasnt bad 6th, far from my PB but wasnt gona moan. Durin the race I madee afew cock ups most of the at the end of the S/F straight when I was under pressure from cars coming up behind. Had a couple of good battles but just couldnt keep up, with about 5-6 laps left the tyres ere absolutly cooked and rear grip was non existant and P7 was closing down fast another lap and you would of had me no doubt.
Nice to be back guys, cant wait for Anderstorp.

Many congrats to podium!!!

[Truetom]

I couldn't get a good quali lap, I ended 5th with 1 sec off pb.    I gained two places in lap 1 or 2 due to Backo and Psuedo internal battle.    Closed on Paul Richards and it was very interesting as I was faster on braking into T1, then slower in T2, T3, then again faster T6, T7, slower in T11 and we were about exual at exit on the straight, where I was again a bit faster. But all in all the lap-times were fairly equal and so was the gap. Had some laps where I could push through on braking but it would be dangerous, so I didn't. 
Had some scarry moments when tyres started to go and almost lost it twice in the last corner. So I backed off, waited and let Paul a chance to make a mistake... Which he did, 4 laps before end.    We were both pushing then, on the limit. This last four laps were more intense than all the race before.    Good racing Paul, bad luck with the mistake. Brian was unreachable in his boat so I'm satisfied with my 2nd place. 

Bad luck for the other Legends, with MJ a flashing beacon who had more pace than it is seen through the results. Seems like my 30 EUR equipmet works better than your 500 EUR...    Maybe sometimes more is less.     

Not looking forward to Anderstorp. I feel about it the same way Shark feels about Mugello. Or Nordschleife. 

TT

[Mark J]

Seems like my 30 EUR equipmet works better than your 500 EUR...    Maybe sometimes more is less.     

M'eh, yeah just like a formula 1 car, an expensive bit of kit can be let down by a two-bob item!   , in this case the velcro straps securing the speed 7's to the pedal plate of the race frame gave up the struggle against my pedal foot pressure !

So tonight it gets to meet my drill kit  I'm gonna bolt the buggers down.

...as for Anders-bleedin-storp zzzzzzzzzzz.....

[baracus250gt]

Interesting session. Had real trouble finding a setup that worked around the whole lap in the bit of practice I did before the race but managed to cobble something together that wasn't too bad. In a way its nice to just have to deal with a setup rather than tewaking it to death so I just concentrated on getting the most out of what I had as I didn't have time to keep messing with it.

My modem decided to stop working near the end of Practice1, so spent all of P2 switching it off and on again hoping it would come back to life - so appologies for joining in the Q session :-(

Managed 8th on the grid which was higher than I was expecting seeing the times people were doing in pre-race praccy. Got a steady start and picked up a few places through others off's. Spent most of the race chasing down TT - I could close the gap sometimes but then my next laps would be about .8 slower and the gap increased again. Not sure where I was losing the time but the more I tried the worse it got - ending in a couple of grass excursions on the last lap when I went do-or-die at it, so all in all very happy with 4th at the line!!

Great drive by Brian - u must have added some more outboard motors to that thing when we weren't looking!! ;P

Also very good consistency from TT and Paul - wish I could have troubled you but t'was not to be (this time! ;P)

[jan duijs]

Gutted to miss this one ,but what can you do when the misses returns from Paris on racenight.
i hope to be there on Sunday cause i love the track,after that the only track i look forward to is good old Doni.

Jan

[Kerr]

I'm suprised I'm the only one using the Morgan.      It's a very fun car to drive and has good pace.     You can throw the thing about as it's very forgiving.   

[Simon Gymer]

I love the Morgan too Kerr, although I'm not sure about the forgiving thing, it certainly is one of the most fun cars to drive. 

[Kerr]

I love the Morgan too Kerr, although I'm not sure about the forgiving thing, it certainly is one of the most fun cars to drive. 

My set up is.     I could throw the car into first and last bends and even if it did get out of shape it was predictable to catch.    Likewise too much throttle on exit only reguired a little opposite lock and ease the throttle a bit and the thing would go where I wanted.      Car felt like it really suited this track.

[picnic]

I might race the Morgan again next season, last night's race was the first time I've enjoyed driving the TVR in ages. But I'm not swapping mid season, don't think it's the right spirit myself

[spanner]

  Another night to forget :sigh:

The car just didnt feel the same as i remembered driving it before, I seemed to be locking the rears and just couldnt get the car to turn in, well, more than normal and couldnt generate the heat in them. Admitedly i never got the chance to practise since sunday night and probably never quite re-adjusted back. Watching some of you guys i cant believe just how quick you can change direction, how do you do that???

With the car just not right i just wanted to get a safe lap in, even though it was a second slower than i'd done offline

I cant believe how quick some people are getting but at the end of qualy surprised to see Dave and trio of Legends behind. Are people just not trying?  especially as you seemed quicker in the race!

It just seemed as though the grip was really low and I just struggled around getting further behind until i fell off again, in the last turn  under braking and just wondered why i bothered and quit.

And its been annoying me all day, well its kept my mind of work!

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

at the end of qualy surprised to see Dave and trio of Legends behind. Are people just not trying?  especially as you seemed quicker in the race!

Combination of things; I'm a perennial underperformer in qually, and I had done no practice at all so I was learning the track all the way through practice and qually.