GT Sprint Cup - Season 1, Round 5, Donington - Aug 10th

[Smoothy]

Qualified 14th on race setup (not much practice so thought it would be safer).

After my shameful performance at Enna I'm pleased to say I kept my nose clean this time.
Just as well really as someone took it off at the Foggy esses when I made a stupid mistake and spun into the first part at low speed while in 9th.
So it was a 55 second pit stop to get it repaired.

Came out of the pits in 20th and finished 14th after spending the rest of the race in amongst people who were a lap ahead.

(edited after watching replay).

[Jamera]

who do we put the incident reports into??

[Smoothy]

Dave Gymer.

[Blaz]

Had bad quali (10th), clean race (5th), minor incident (for me) with Luis, hope it is not my fault because i left Luis some space and u made mistake (i think?)

[JonM_uk]

Had a great blast today  
 Just nicked pole with my last lap off mark with a nice time
 Then the race....Started off well and tried to put a bit of a gap between me and mark, and then tried a little harder until I was right on the limit and then beyond, started to make slight errors. The times were pretty fast but I just couldn't shake him. And then the inevitable happened and mark came past at the hairpin,nice move dude! thought he would go away from me, at first he did but was able to see which lines mark was taking(especially through the old hairpin) and started to come back at him, strange thing was that the car seemed to handle better in 2nd place??? Guess that's the pressure.Came close to overtaking at redgate on last lap but that was about only chance.The boy was just to good for me. Great racing mark, and grats on a well deserved win  

[Aagramn]

Qualified 14th on race setup (not much practice so thought it would be safer).

Think I might do the same for the rest of the season, so I can cruise around and actually finish. I was lapping comfortably until Blaz caught up to me after I passed a back-marker, trying to hold my best pace while watching my mirrors probably caused my mistake. I don't have so much trouble following people around as I just ease off before the big braking points to give myself room for error.

[Simon Gymer]

Managed to get my comp freeze out after a few turns - had to reset manualy, everything just f...king froze! Hope I wasn't on the track, that would be a massive destruction! I it was - sorry all, there was really nothing I could do. 

I had to swerve hard to avoid you but just managed, but it was instinct and not sure you can hit a warped car anyway.

Server replay and exports are up here.

I had quite a dull race once my damned tyres had warmed up. Really struggled for the first 3 laps and then tyres on heat and off I went. Couldn't stay with Jon and Mark though, Whoosh, they were fast. Well done to both for their blistering pace.

And finally, two points I'd like to make...

(1) JonM leading the pace lap was going far too slow on the start finish straight on the warmup lap. 45 mph as we crossed the line, we should have been doing 75mph, it bunched up the pack dangerously, so please keep it consistent at the reasonable 75mph speed.
(2) If you are a reserve you should not join before 8:55pm. I believe there was at least one person who joined very early and was a reserve and possibly one other (no names). Please remember to be fair on the full timers they must be allowed 10 mins once the server is started to get in and get the first spots and reserves only get what's left, a free for all when 8:55pm goes <BONG> (use your imagination  )

[Aagramn]

Results are up.

[Mark Harrison]

Wooooh yeah!  Am I knackered.  Brilliant, brilliant race.  All races should be like that.

Qualifying was pretty poor really - I'd done a 26.7 offline in qualy setup, but couldn't hook it up.  It looked as though I might snatch pole anyway, until Jon put his great lap in.  Hmmm, this could be interesting, I thought.

Race started, and we quickly pulled away from Shark, who was having tyre problems.  I was having to really go for it to stay with Jon, I think our fastest laps were both 27.4, which shows how hard we were pushing.  I could see Jon was trying fairly hard though, and I thought if I stayed with him, I'd have a chance.

I got close a couple of times in the first half of the race, before signs that his tyres were starting to go.  He washed out with understeer a couple of times at the hairpins - I wondered whether he outbraked himself, or whether he had put softs on the front or something.  But he regained his momentum, and his former lap times, so I began to doubt that.

Then, about two-thirds into the race, Jon makes a small mistake out of the chicane, and I get a run down to Melbourne hairpin.  I go inside, and make the move stick - Jon tried to cut back under, but I sat on the apex, and there was no chance of that.  Mission accomplished, I thought.  Now the hard part - surviving the pressure of 6-7 laps in front.

So I turned Motec off and just drove.  I didn't care how many laps were left, as long as I stayed in front of Jon, I didn't mind.

Then, 2 laps to go, and everything's going to plan.  Heading down to the chicane, and "you're running low on fuel, pit in next lap".  NOOOOO!!!!  Quick check of Motec and I saw that I indeed only had 4 litres left.  Would it last?  I knew it would be close, so started shortshifting a bit.

Then heading down to the first corner on the last lap, Jon gets a good run and is right on me.  I stay right, defending the inside line, and to my huge relief Jon doesn't find a way to get around me.  All thoughts off shortshifting out of my head, I made sure of not making another mistake.  I didn't - and the fuel held.  So I brought it home, massively relieved, by 2 tenths of a second.  What a tremendously exciting race - Jon and I were so evenly matched.  My championship hopes, which were on life support, have just flickered their eyelids.

Thanks guys

[JonM_uk]

Yep Definitely a classic encounter mark, hope there's a few more of them 
 Sorry for the slow pace on S/F straight, to be honest I wasn't paying enough attention....Sorry 

[greg130]

Well what a disaster of a race for me, had to happen sometime I guess.
Qualed in 8th, bit slow but not to bad, wow those guys are fast at the top.

Had a good warmup lap, then it was downhill i'm affraid.

Just at the start of lap 1 the noiseist aircraft in the world decides to take off from our local RAF base, the house is vibrating, cant even hear the game, spun twice.  Then to cap it off another bugger takes off, by this stage the kids have run in to ask me whats going on, ive completly lost all concentation and am now at the back of the pack, disaster to say the least ,lol.

So now i'm last with one heck of a lot of overtaking to do, at Doni, fantastic.
Anyway battled my way back up to a resonable position given the previous events. Obviously I pushing fairly hard, well a bit to hard perhaps.  
Then nightmare number 2 unfolds, I pass CP on the exit of the last turn, floor it and promptly spin into the pits, what the heck do I do now. Engage the pit limiter and drive thro, watching all the cars I had just passed overtake me, oh well bugger it.
By this stage i'm back in 16th or so with about 10 mins to go, give up ? Well I was tempted but on we go.
Somehow over the next 10 mins I crawl back up to 9th, then for the 3rd race running the car infront for some unknown reason hands me an extra place, thanks.
So finished 8th in the end, bloody amazing really considering all the events of the race.
Grats to the podium, great times guys.

[ginsters sponsored]

Greg, do you practice wolverhampton voodoo? Is that the reason we lost 3-1 lead last night?

[Luis Branco]

Had bad quali (10th), clean race (5th), minor incident (for me) with Luis, hope it is not my fault because i left Luis some space and u made mistake (i think?)

That ended my race
But no mistake from me, just race incident I think.
I think both cars were in a blind spot for us both. At least yours were for me. I left some space to the left but I thought you were already behind be. If I knew we were so close I would let it slip a bit to the right as I would be in a better position to take the next right corner.
I think I was in your blind spot as well. In the replay I notice that you jerked a bit to the left when you seem to be aware of my position on you right.
At least that didn't put us both out
However it was an unfortunate way to end the race.

[greg130]

Greg, do you practice wolverhampton voodoo? Is that the reason we lost 3-1 lead last night?

Hehe, if only I had such powers. Still its nice to be above you guys in the league, even if it is early days.

[Truetom]

Were you in a Saleen? There was a saleen with uberlag on L1 - I ploughed right through it with no damage!

Yes, I was in yellow Saleen. As far as I can tell I didn't cause a massive incident.  That's really strange 'cause I joined a public race and had no problems whatsoever. #&*#! Another race went by!