UKGTR Season 7 Lower Endurance (GT2/3) - Donington Park (GP) - May 11

[ginsters sponsored]

Not really interested in that and boy it showed. Sorry to Martin for clip at hairpin Twas fun racing you but couldn't spot you after pitstop and called it a day. Boy I hate that car park bit so much.

Still, that shouldn't take away anything from another excellent season Thx to Dave, Simon, Pseudo, Matt, Dan and Paul for some brilliant racing throughout the season. Congrats to Paul for a fully deserving championship win and congrats to fellow kerbies Mo and Ade for wrapping up team honours As always the biggest honours go to Dave, Pete and the others behind the scene for making it possible.

Cya in S8 (hopefully without Donni ).



 

[sooty1977]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !
Blue screen of death halfway threw the race well and truly gutted was enjoying that
Not done any practice and no setup as that was my 1st time in a gt3 viper 

[sooty1977]

Pedals decided to start playing up just before the race

Well gutted to miss out as i think that would have been a good race. Hope everyone has fun

What wheel you got there m8 as mine do tend to go awol at times

[Simon Gymer]

Pffff. I've now tried all 3 GT3 cars this season and I can honestly say.....they all suck beyond belief. Never again will I go anywhere near GT3, it's by far the most boring class.

Well done to Paul +40kg Harrington on the drivers championship and the smelly Kerb Crawlers for the team championship.

[Jeffrey]

Interesting race. Got a comfortable pole infront of Busi, Backo and FreQ.
Busi and Backo didn't look in control most of the time, and I didn't want to fight them too hard. Good call, as they both went into the pits very soon.
So now I had FreQ behind me again, and he was gaining. He was closing in so fast, as again I was unlucky with backmarkers.
MJ got beached at the chicane and I had to come to a complete stop to prevent running into him. That's 3 out of 4 events where a backmarkers costs me the lead  .
I could follow FreQ, but not attack, as the Dunlops were already worst than the Michelins by then.

Pitted in few laps earlier than him, and got out infront when he came out. After that he was gaining as well, but he was enjoying the drifting too much .
Grats Dan on the win, and Simon for pushing a tyre round the track .

[Mike Hammer]

Well, I was a bit off front runner pace today.

At the start, there was Jeff at the front in his Ibiza..I mean Toledo, but other then that, all I saw was BMW's everywhere 

Tried to hang on to FreQ for a few laps but to no avail. Lost between 0.2 and 0.5 secs at the chicane every lap, and lost more then I gained elsewhere as well.

Wasn't long until Carl Hart wanted to get past me, and soon enough I was sandwiched between the BMW's of Hart and Gazza. Don't really recall what happened, I think I made some mistakes, Hart got away, and then I spun it in the first hairpin, letting Gazza get past and away as well.

After the pitstop I was again in between Gazza and Hart, but now they had switched places  . I came up to lap Paul in his GT3 car, but breaking for the last hairpin I spun right in front of him instead.  Sorry about that Paul.

Gave chase to catch Hart and Gazza again, and thanks to their battle I caught up before long. Hart was a little heavy on the gas in the last corner, and once again I was in between the two BMW's. Chased Gazza for the rest of the race, but everytime I came a bit closer, I made a mistake or was too slow lapping GT2's. Kept hoping Gazza would make a small mistake so I could challenge him but it never happened.

I also redid my mistake from Mugello, once again misreading Psuedo's Viper. I was going to wait 'til after T3, but then it looked like you braked early to give me room. I was wrong.  My apologies. 2nd stint I came up on you again in the same spot. This time I was certainly going to wait until after T3, but now you DID brake early to let me pass 
This ain't always easy.


Enjoyed the battle with Hart and Gazza throughout the race. Sorry if my crummy driving was annoying at times.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Was really surprised to grab the GT3 pole at a track which isn't Viper friendly, but knew my tyres were going to be dead after about 10 or 15 minutes (hard rears, medium fronts). Car felt totally different in the race under braking for the Foggy Esses and got a huge fishtail going before collecting Lee's GT2 Fezza whilst try to regain control. After that I was always on the back foot.

Knew I wasn't really racing the Cup cars of Paul or Dan as they would have much shorter stops but was keen to fight my way back past RM's VCC before the stops. Unfortunately he was so much slower in certain corners I was struggling not to run into the back of him, and eventually did precisely that. We both survived but a few corners later, side by side with him, Paul behind didn't anticipate how slow we'd be and ran smack into the back of me, putting me into the gravel.

Rejoined with a few laps to go before my stop, which went smoothly but left me way behind Dan and Paul. Passed a couple of other GT3 cars, most notably Shark's 811, and almost got collected by another VCC in the final turn when it's driver was thinking more about the pit stop he was heading for than me.

A podium to end the season isn't a bad result I suppose. It was just disappointing to not be able to battle other cars properly with my tyres going off so quick and my brakes being rather inconsistent at the chicane.

Had a very scary moment after Mike Hammer lapped me too - a momentary warp which moved him backwards towards me.

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results are posted

Congratulations to all who've taken part, especially to those who've won. Thanks for taking part all.

[Martin Buchan]

Not really interested in that and boy it showed. Sorry to Martin for clip at hairpin Twas fun racing you but couldn't spot you after pitstop and called it a day. Boy I hate that car park bit so much.

No prob ginsters, Did screw my strategy a tad but it was rubbish probabaly hehe. You coudlnt see me after the pitstops as I only took 1l and didnt take tyres, Hards FTW!!!

As for my race, settled down early on, had a nice fight with scotty,simon and ginsters. Then afetr my stop I was quite high in gt3 but had Reign man down my neck, we did touch but he let me pass and wanted to pass me twice lol the cheek of some eh  Nah was very nice of you man, much appreciated but by this time my rears were at 30 wear and over so was basically gonna get gobbeld up like a chicken on a egg fee diet.

Good fun arce, thanks guys 

[stnasky]

Just about got in to this with 2 or 3 minutes to spare, tried to get in earlier but the server was full but i checked back later and seen 27/28 in the lobby and jumped in . 

Didnt get a lap in quick enough so i started from the back and was dreading trying to get through the GT3s even before i left the line but they where all great, some even moved over straightaway as we crossed the line but stupid here goes and runs wide at macleans and all those GT3s that let me through where now back infront 

Eventually managed get through to some GT2s and i remember hassling Peter and having a bit of a moment entering the pits together, still dont know how we got through that lol.  Didnt take tires in a desperate attempt to gain places, may have been a bad decision because i would and did struggle near the end, but i do think i got a few places as a result.

Mike then appeared just ahead on the edge of the track, i think he made a mistake and was recovering just as i passed.  He caught me in no time tho and i really couldnt put up much of a fight and he got me at T1 when i left a pile of room for him to get through.

cyas at the next.

Congrats podiums  

[Truetom]

Had FPS problems, it went down to 30 in practice, blue flags everywhere.    Was a bit better in race, but it not very much. 
Had comp problems earlier, too, no signal on the monitor, had to manualy force it to boot from my usual HD.  No virus, etc. found. Is HD going its way?

In the race I felt cyclic low FPS at the Old Hairpin (?) also got blue flages there. Went with full tank and thought to add only a bit towards the end. In off-line training tyre wear was much lower, so the plan didn't work. Had to come in with about 30 min to go. In the frenzy I miscalculated the fuel, so I would have to come in again.    Went out into the wall instead. 

Hope my problems resolve before the Sprint race. 

TT   

[Mark J]

Apologies to Jeff for costing him the lead last night, i had a real 'newbie' moment down at the chicane as i went into wide-eyed rabbit stare moment as i watched his Toledo catch me like i was standing still at the end of the straight. It meant i out braked myself as i wasnt sure if he was going to dive up the inside of me, i subsequently bounced over the kerbs and lost all momentum, hoping that by pulling across to wide left he might be able to shoot back up the inside on the exit but unfortunately he got stuck behind me and i felt rather guilty as i saw his nemesis Freq get by him    Sorry about that.

I was tweaking the car with each qually lap i went out on last night not having run a cup car before at Doni
and only finding out i could race quite late on. Enjoyed some great battles with Ted early on in his viper and then some brilliant wheel to wheel, side by side in a lot of corners with either Madd or Dan in his black porker (cant remember who it was) through middle of race. Other than that battle i think i would have retired early as could see i was no where near the pace of top few G3 cars and didnt fancy 80mins of trundling around at the back and was worried i would get in the way of someone vital championship battle, so pulled into the pits and retired with half hour remaining.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

was worried i would get in the way of someone vital championship battle, so pulled into the pits and retired with half hour remaining.

I thought you didn't like quitting?

[psuedo]

also redid my mistake from Mugello, once again misreading Psuedo's Viper. I was going to wait 'til after T3, but then it looked like you braked early to give me room. I was wrong.   My apologies. 2nd stint I came up on you again in the same spot. This time I was certainly going to wait until after T3, but now you DID brake early to let me pass 
This ain't always easy.

No worries Mike, I understand the difficulties. The second time round I was just a little
N-e-R-v-O-u-S 

Got a bit of a buffeting from a few gt2's last night...mainly due to the fact they expected me to use that OTHER racing line round Craner Curves and the Old Hairpin whilst they stuck to the proper one.

Was strange last night...quite a few folk seemed well off the pace shown in practice over the last few days, myself included. I had been doing steady high 34's in race trim for the last 3/4 days on the praccy server...with very similar weather and temps...but couldn't even manage a 34 in qually last night and race pace was down into the 36's and 37's 

First stint went reasonable, held position without much trouble. I pitted early (lap 18) as I had worked it out to be around then when the GT2's would be upon me and thought I would be able to avoid the majority of them...didn't quite work out as planned though and rejoined with 3 or 4 of them not far behind. Should have stayed out 1 lap longer.

Second stint was very hard work...had a number of double downshifts under heavy braking making the car a proper handful and myself very tentative when aproaching turns etc..it cought me out good style on the second last lap when downshifting from 5th to 3rd for the old hairpin, it jumped straight to 2nd putting me deep into the gravel and losing the 8 or so seconds margin I had to Madd-Rip behind.

Other than that, I actually quite enjoyed it...I like Donington and will be working hard to ensure my problems don't continue for the sprint and upper E races.

Congrats to FreQ and Paul on their championship victories and also to Shark Juniors and the Kerbies for the team wins.
Well done everyone in this series. Even though GT3 is a 'strange' class with vastly differing cars I have really enjoyed the challenge.

Special mention to Gazza49er, Backo and Jorgen for bringing team Pseudo home in an excellent 3rd place in the GT2 championship....great stuff lads   

And also to Reign Man, H@L9000 and Ted for securing a very creditable 4th in the GT3 for the team. 

[Simon Gymer]

To the provisional championship winners and podiums I congratulate you all and to everyone that's taken part this season and to the organisers for the efforts they put in to bring this league to reality.

GTC
Joss 'FreQ' Pinkgott - 1st
Jeffrey Ruskus - 2nd
Mark McClean - 3rd

Team Shark Junior - 1st
Team Shark - 2nd
Team Pseudo - 3rd

GT3
Paul '+40kg' Harrington - 1st
Ian 'SBG' Curnow - 2nd
Simon 'Shark' Gymer - 3rd

Kerb Crawlers - 1st
Team Shark - 2nd
Team RVS - 3rd

Special Awards
Backo - Most stop and gos in a race.
Simon 'Shark' Gymer - Most car changes in a season.
Mo - Only 100% record in the championship (pole, fastest lap and win in every race attended ).