UKGTR Season 8 Upper Endurance (GT1/GT2) - Spa (2004-6) - Sep 21 - Super

[Kerr]

Not sure if I will be able to race tonight as I have plans but thought I would stick a little practice in just incase.

I tried my old Lambo and it felt great. Instantly in 2.10s for quali and low 2.12 with race set up.

However I've just noticed I did attend one of these races and went with the Vette. Back to the drawing board now

[spanner]

Was looking forward to this but i've been feeling pretty horrible this weekend, was hardly able to walk up the stairs yesterday so I wont run tonight. 130mins is just too long.

[Prof]

I have a couple of visitors this evening and we're all hoping for a Ryder Cup miracle. Might have got away with a 40 minute race but not 130 mins. Will show them the GTR2 Top gear track with the reasonably priced car if we require a golf break later.

Good luck to all.

p.s. Congrats to Purdie on the real-life Silverstone success! 

[LEUVEN]

damn pc froze. 

The start was a bit iffy as I pressed the pit status instead of limiter, I'll get the hang of it soon  (apologies to Dave and others behind.)
 I was looking forward to seeing how it turned out too with me and Dave as I was slightly faster but ended up behind after putting a wheel in the sand.
I started with 100l so may have helped me a lot but we'll never know.

Looks like it's time for a new GPU anyhow, sick of it running so hot and now theres been a couple of blue screens relating to GFX it's time to bin it.

[JonM_uk]

Bit of a horror show from me Some awful driving. Think I need to do a fair bit offline before entering again TBH. Went out in a blaze of glory at Eau Rouge. Hope you all had a good race anyhow.

Jon

[D_Nichols]

I think Eau Rouge hates me.

Managed to loose it twice just coming out of the pits    the first time I ran into the path of a GT car as the car tried to get sideways and got some suspension damage, didn't realise until the next time I came up Eau Rouge and couldn't steer right to save my life, I even got a stop go for my troubles.     So 3 pit-stops in 3 laps later I settled into a rythm squarely last and got on with it. Then on my final stop coming out the pits car just jerks off to the left and into the wall. Game over.

Tonight was my first run in the GTC and the way its grown on me is the only positive from a very poor nights driving.

[psuedo]

Totally enjoyable terrible race 

No pace...No Consistency...and NO Fuel for half the last lap. 

Looked like some good battles up front though.

Grats to podies.

[Busi]

wow!

Longest race I had done till this one was 90 min, so this was new for me, and I really felt mentally exhausted at the 3rd stint

A shame that I joined too late for a qualifying lap and had to start last when seeing the quali laptimes I might have been on pole.. so started to comeback from the very beginning and was up to 5th before the 1st pitstop. Truetom and I leapfrogged Mike Hammer and Gazza so we were 2nd and 3rd. And what a hot battle during the whole 2nd stint! I was attacking hard all the time but TT showed me tonight that he is impossible to overtake well done mate, 20 laps looking at the mirrors is hard.

Luckily I leapfrogged him at the 2nd pitstop and was only behind FreQ. I tried to push hard to see if the 40 sec gap remained. And it quite did remain, only 3 or 4 seconds that I lost during that stint so happy with my pace.

Well done FreQ and rest of podiums

[nsfast]

That was a lonely but enjoyable race tonight. 

Real sense of achievement that I finished.

Settled into P8 early on and continued there for most of the race with a large gap behind and in front. Finished P7 after Pseudo ran out of fuel.

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Mike Hammer]

Phew. Finally over. That 130min is tough, especially if you've done an hour or more parctice just before hand. Note to self: Practice on saturday, k?  


Got a decent qually and third spot. First lap and Jon is off at the top of the hill. If I spooked you being a bit hot into the turn, causing you to take evasive action to the outside curbing, I'm sorry. I think it was within limits still, doubt there would have been contact.

After that it was a bit of a cruise for a while. No chance to keep up with FreQ, and Gazza slowly falling behind. Half a lap after I can't see Gazza in my mirror anymore, so I naturally loose focus, quickly bringing him back as a wakeup call  

A GT2 goes wide in the Eau Rouge uphill left, I try to avoid him when he comes back, but he comes all the way across the track, squeezing me in between the railing and his car. Car is a bit understeery but nothing too bad.

Once the tires start to go, I have a hard time keeping Gazza at arms length. When I press the pit key, the guy tells me "better come in, you've got some aero damage" ( at least I think that's what he said), but the pit light doesn't come on.

On the following lap I spin it at the first right at the top of the hill, and Gazza spins too while trying to avoid me. Sorry about that.

Second stint I'm alone pretty much, chasing Gazza but loosing plenty of time/gap to lappers. I catch Allnut just before Eau Rouge twice, the first time I try to squeeze by side by side, costing me two seconds, and Peter a cut track possibly? Second time I coast part of the downhill, keeping my distance, then going full speed through Eau, this method only costing me one sec, should have done that the first time as well.

On the third stint TT come out of the pits just a little too early, just early enough that I can't pass before the end of the straight, aaagh. I chase him with less then a second of gap for most of the final stint. When he gets away, a lapper brings him back  . What I lost to Gazza, I gain with Tom.

But even though I'm right on his tail I don't really have a chance to attempt a pass. Only place I had enough of an advantage is at the top of the hill into the first righthander, but sadly I'm unable to find the room I would have needed.

We catch Gazza towards the end, TT gets past, but some defensive driving by Gazza keeps me behind. The final laps I struggle to keep in touch, slipping and sliding with fairly worn tires.

All in all an enjoyable, if *very* exhausting race. The third stint made up for the less eventful 1st and 2nd. A bit disappointed I couldn't, hmm, 'capitalize' on the qually position, but, should have expected it. Endurance remains a challenge for me, just getting to the finish line, I mean  


Heh, a short novel again, gotta learn to be brief one of these days. 

[H@L9000]

Very difficult race

In the end I was glad to get to the end without too much damage and no stop-go for corner cutting. I must have achieved the highest number of pitstops in UKGTR history at the SE of Spa last seasson, mainly due to cutting Eau Rouge after too much time on the public servers.

Sorry to RM whom I caused a little trouble at one point

Another fine race but it did not seem to get any darker for me after about half way through the race. Not sure if it just took a long time for the sun to set or if I had some sort of GFX issue

Well done podiums, nice one Busi for getting a Team Psuedo car on the podium, after starting from the back as well

Thanks organisers, another fine race

[picnic]

Sorry to everyone who I got in the way of tonight  Seemed to catch half the GT1 guys such that Eau Rouge or the exit of the But Stop where in the way. Especially sorry to MJ for kissing your rear coming out of Eau Rouge early in the race. You slowed way after the point I'd got back on the gas I waited and I hope any damage was not too serious.

MJ and I then proceeded to pass a couple of other GT2s until it was just us. With about a 5 or 6 sec gap. I didn't really seem to be able to break away or MJ  to close it. Much the same for the 2nd stint. It was only the last where I seemed to have a few 10'ths a lap advantage on the lighter fuel load. DG was well gone, however the low turnout and Shark 1-2 helps greatly in the Team Championship

Bad luck Leuven, could have been a Team Shark clean sweep of the GT2 podium

[Mark J]

that was a tough long event.  

As per usual couldnt get near my PB in qually and despite setting a quickish time on my final run i still found myself 3rd, a few tenths behind Leuven and DG. I could have shot the fezza driver who lost it at bus stop when i was 0.5 up at that point and had to hit my anchors harder than i wanted !

Race start was a total balls up and i nearly quit out in disgust I couldnt believe it when someone hit my rear quarter at La source just before green flag, and span me around..i was fuming
Not only was it bloody annoying, about 4 cars all went past my stranded car and i had damage before the race had even begun. I floored it down the straight to get in with the pack only to find a car past the line with his limiter still on   Their was all sorts of chaos and confusion and then to top off on the following lap at Eau rouge i caught (another) blinking fezza who hit his brakes half way up! and Peter following had nowhere to go but straight up my backside (oo-er) and i shunted hard into the wall  :'( ...all this before 2 laps were complete    If Pete hadnt been such a gent and pulled over to let me past i definitely would have quit.
All this pandemonium had cost me heaps of time and totally removed me from the relative comfort zone of running 3rd, where i had been looking forward to a race long fight with DG and Leuven. Instead, me and Pete found ourselves caught up behind one slower car or another and having a fantastic scrap lap after lap. I was amazed how hard it was for us to get past some cars despite being about 2-3 secs a lap quicker when on a clear lap.
Rest of the long 130 min race was a fight between me and Peter, even after the pitstops we were near each other on track with Peter being able to stay one step ahead all the time. It was the only fight on track to keep us both interested for all that time and meant no letup or mistakes could be made, and neither of us did.
But on the last pitstop, for some reason the gap widened and i found myself 20 secs behind at the end  

Brought the car home 3rd, just couldnt catch the two sharks on the night. Well done DG on a comprehensive GT2 win   and congrats to Peter for his well earned 2nd  

[Gazza49er]

Enjoyed that one!

Drove almost faultless race apart from a little spin when Mike Hammer spun in front of me and i had to take avoiding action and having to crawl round last lap of my first stint coz missed my pit time.

Me Mike and TT were all very close nearly whole race and at the end i was just keeping a 3 second gap between myself and TT but i got held up second to last lap when a GT2 was very slow at en rouge so had to lift alot which let TT gain on me and then i just met another GT2 at the bus stop (noones fault just the way it happens) which gave him a run at me on the long straight and i knew i was done. Tried to brave it out on the outside but just couldnt do it after very minor touch. I then had to defend against Mike. Caught TT up again on last lap but couldnt do anything.

Very exciting last few laps.

Bit dissapointed to lose 3rd but i'll take 4th as i usually struggle here. My setup actually worked for a change lol.

Grats Freq, Busi and TT.

Grats GT2 podium too.