UKGTR Season 7 Super Endurance - Estoril (GP) - May 17

[Tibernius]

Absolutely undrivable, this is the word. I was having around 20 fps during the whole lap, with a maximum of 30 and having under 15 in some corners.

That's not undriveable. That's more than the frame rate I get.

[Zacari]

Absolutely gutted

Quali'd with race setup, then 11th to 3rd in 15 laps, 4 sec behind JR and Brian with still 35L of fuel before stop, and the game froze as I was on the back straight :'(  I'm hoping I just went into the tyres on the outside rather than freezing on the racing line.

It was great fun while it lasted!

[Busi]

Absolutely undrivable, this is the word. I was having around 20 fps during the whole lap, with a maximum of 30 and having under 15 in some corners.

That's not undriveable. That's more than the frame rate I get.

It's still enough for normal daylight racing, but on the dark it's just impossible to keep the car under control cause apart from that you struggle to see much

[picnic]

You froze on the racing line 

My ADSL decided that it would reset after about an hour. So after falling off early and killing my lights I had to do an early pitstop, then proceeded to misread a couple of passing moves while trying to get back through the field, apologies there folks. All in all a bit of a mare 

[Zacari]

You froze on the racing line 

Bum

[Kerr]

Quite probably my worst ever race.

Qualified in pole and was happy with my set up but I had not practiced in the dark yet.

It was actually much better than my old PC as before I really struggled to make out enough to race.

Today I could see enough but struggling to judge the braking points for a couple of corners.

I made a good start and already had a little lead. I then completely missed one of the braking points and went straight ahead.

I dropped back a few positions and then gave chase.

I caught Ruskus up but could not get passed him. I was quicker at most sections of the track but as Jeff was driving the car well there was no space for me to pass. Come the straight he was gone.

I was struggling with rear medium tyres. I never thought it could get so warn at that time in the morning.

The only place I could see that I thought I could pick Jeff off was the exit of that awkward uphill chicane. I kept making the same stupid mistake again and again. Too much power too early with over heating tyres.

Zacari caught us up and when I went off he went passed. I managed to overtake him the next again lap.

I finally got by Jeff when he ran wide on last bend.

I was able to pull away and put a few seconds between us.

Soon after I caught a backmarker who moved over to let me through at the chicane. Off line I could not get grip and lost time, I then stupidly lost more time touching the grass on the straight and I was worried Jeff was going to try to slip up the inside at first bend. I looked in mirror and missed my braking point. How stupid!.

I was just winding myself up making mistake after mistake, which is unlike me.

I knew I had a fast car today and just could not make any use of it.

I finally had a spin and hit the barrier. The car was damaged and wedged on the kerb, probably because of the puncture.

No point of going on.

[Simon Gymer]

I'm hoping I just went into the tyres on the outside rather than freezing on the racing line.

I drove right into your frozen car with TT managing to avoid behind. Caused me some minor frontal damage, but nothing serious and it magically kept me in a straight line. Gutted for you as we were all having a really close scrap for the podium positions. The top 3 ended up only finishing 10 seconds between them so it really was close to the end. Could have been a 5 way battle if Brian hadn't had a bad race too.

Driving in the dark was ok actually. Obviously driving slower than in the day, but as there are so few braking markers at Estoril anyway, that was the real issue, not knowing where to brake. Last 20 minutes was even harder than dark, couldn't see anything round the back of the circuit. Fortunately after 2 hours you know pretty much what gears and revs you will be in for braking and I was finding my braking points more with that than anything. Sun coming up looked fantastic though. The kink of the back straight was hard though.

I actually found that easier than Nurburgring, not half as tired from driving at night as I was in the wet.

Thanks for the fun scraps, TT (as usual sir, we always seem to end up having close races , I lost track of the number of times we passed each other), Carl and Brian.

[jpv]

Start of the race in the dark was pure terror as usual, I was completely lost with my braking points. After a while I got into a rhythm and had some great racing with sooty. Unfortunately he went off as I was about to pass him in Orelha. It was clean on my screen, but apparently the server decided there was contact and off into the wall he went, really sorry sooty!

After that I was again alone at the back, managed to bring the car home despite some engine concerns towards the end.

[Jeffrey]

Start of the race was interesting. First time ever at Estoril in the dark, so I coulnd't see my normal brakemarkers (dark racing line). Very few signs or anyhting else that sticks out.

Busi soon went off due to FPS problems. Then I was following Reign man and Brian. I coulnd't gain anything and only try and stay close.
Then Brian had his first off and Reign Man was in the lead. We stayed at the same distance for very long, and I lost so much on that MC12 in that last corner, that any win I had at the straight was useless .
Brian soon was right behind me trying to get past. I could use the power to my advantage, as I could prevent getting outbraked.
Then Reign Man spun and I was in the lead, still with Brian hot on my tail. A few times I got breathing space due to his small errors.

My aim was to try and keep him behind till the stops, and get a bigger lead due to the stops. But before he had a bigger off and it was Simon I had to worry about. So when he went in, I went in the lap afterwards, still with 4 laps of fuel. My stop was quicker and I had a few seconds space.
Can't really remember everything that happened, as I was fighting to get that Viper around this track.

Probably the most Viper unfriendly track, and it showed, as I was really struggling with pace. The only way I could try and be competitive is be consistent. Like at Nurby and Suzuka, Simon was gaining on the at the end of the race, and thankfully the gap was big enough to stay ahead. If only he didn't take all that ballast .

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

If it's any consolation, Brian, you still managed to get fastest lap you cheeky bugger despite me stretching my first two stints enough to take on soft fronts for a short final stint.

I should've had a corker of a race with Hal, RM and Psu..psu..psudeo but my PC decided to give me a totally new sort of wierdness and freeze for about 40 seconds. Alt-Tabbed out to the desktop and miraculously succeeded in getting back into the game to find my car sitting safely in the T3 gravel trap having hit nothing - good job I jumped on the anchors when it froze!

Made one silly mistake but other than that drove well and thanks to my short final stop managed to jump Pseueueuedo at the end. Despite the small field and the numerous retirements there always seemed to be something to concentrate on.

Results and replay now up.

The sun ended up a non-problem as it did it's "big watery ball" trick instead of looking like it had when I practiced at 6am. Bizarre.

[Simon Gymer]

If only he didn't take all that ballast .

Ah, but the 2 points extra from the ballast made it all worth it.

[Jeffrey]

Ah, but the 2 points extra from the ballast made it all worth it.

. I like my round number now

[psuedo]

Grats everyone, that was most enjoyable.

Had an incident on the first lap (that's new eh!) Gazza ran wide at curva vip and I went up the inside, just as he managed to recover and we shared the same bit of tarmac for a mo till I ended up nose first pointing at a barrier  ...all I could do was sit and wait for the field to pass by before reversing out.

First stint was pretty decent after that though..made a few places through offs and retirements...and a couple of passes. Didn't have any bother with the dark personally...either driving wise or with FPS.

My concentration started wandering a bit in the second stint...enabling Dave to close a 40 odd second gap to just 8 secs before I made my stop  . Did a few good laps after the second stop though and thought it would be enough to keep/extend over him when he 'eventually' decided to pit. His tactics won the day though as he stayed out forever, giving me plenty of time of lose any advantage without his help and he emerged 10 secs ahead after his stop. Started closing a bit though...got it down to about 7.5 before RM and H@L lapped me with obout half a foot between them....looked like a good battle going on..I got a real close up of it at the chicane when I had to carefully thread my way through the debris  
That left me about 15 secs behind Dave and I was starting to get pretty tired so I backed off and just cruised to the  finish, wasn't going to catch him...and even if I did the chances of passing were slim with his fresher rubber.
Bit suprised by the temps in the last section....37 deg at 6am....think I'll move to Portugal  

Grats to JR and podium.

[Kerr]

If it's any consolation, Brian, you still managed to get fastest lap you cheeky bugger despite me stretching my first two stints enough to take on soft fronts for a short final stint.

Not really, it's the results that count. No point in being fast between your mistakes.

I only did about a dozen laps earlier today to make sure I had a rough set up, I was actually happy with it.

I was pretty sure I could beat both lap records and did so in qualifying.

In the race, I really can't remember many clear laps. The first few were all finding my feet and working out where I was going. I did not manage that too well at times.

After I pitted the tyres were barely up to temperatures for fast laps before I caught Truetom and then Simon.

I really think I could have managed the 1.33s once vision and tyres were good, but not to be.

I made more mistakes in that race that I have ever done. I've been feeling rather irritable all day and that showed in my racing

[Truetom]

Thanks for the fun scraps, TT (as usual sir, we always seem to end up having close races  , I lost track of the number of times we passed each other), Carl and Brian.

Lol, I think we drove side by side for more than half of the lap and there were several occasions like that in the race. 
For all you moaners about close racing - this is where it's happening! So get in this championship and drive! 

Was counting on my "fast" last pit-stop. Lol, I think even MJ has faster pit-stops than this one was.    First three inside 10 seconds after more than 2 hrs. racing!    Dave, if you start tinkering with fuel tanks: this is the only thing that gets Lister as close to the top, so think twice. 

I found this race harder than wet Nuerburgring. Last 20 minutes I was literaly blind, guided by the thin white line with a sign "Shark(2)". 

TT