UKGTR Season 8 Lower Endurance (GT3) - Imola - Sep 28

[David M]

Odd, but exciting and great fun evening for me!

Started off well in practice, was going relativley quickly by my standards and was confident of a decent Quali position.

Then I quit and rejoined when the server was restarted and got booted as a cheat a few times, which was worrying...'cause by now it was 2015! I reinstalled the Skin/Track packs, to no avail and then rebooted and I managed to get in then - not sure why it started throwing that error at me though, I hadn't changed a thing!

Nevertheless, there was still time in Quali, and I did an alright lap to start 13th I think.

Now, with losing 20 mins of being booted, I didn't have time to work out my race strategy or race setup, so I just reduced the rev limit and put mediums on all round, and filled the tank to the brim. Now this, it turns out - was genius - I was able to pretty much keep pace with those around me, knowing I was probably heavier than them (I think I was running heavier than almost anyone - nobody would be going much longer for sure!). Given this, I was quite happy to just follow and pass when folk made mistakes, I knew I'd manage to pass folk on strategy (ooh, how F1 of me!).

The strategy was working quite well, until I was given a stop/go penalty for cutting the track (I'd ran wide a few times at the bottom of the hill in the right hander before the chicane) - which I took, when I stopped I was given options for other pit stuff, so I hit enter and assumed I'd get a pitstop at the same time (I'm not sure why, but I did!) so I cut my engine to let 'em refuel as soon as the penalty was over - but ofcourse they weren't gonna' fuel me so I lost another 10s trying to restart my engine!

This had ruined my strategy a bit, so I decided to cut my losses and take my pitstop the next lap, and spend the rest of the race chasing - which I did, but I lost time selecting my pit options - I had to change my fuel level 'cause I was pitting about 20/25mins earlier than planned - and lost more trying to restart my engine.

So by now the race was a bit wrecked, and more misery was piled upon my with another stop/go about 10mins from the end!

I had the pace for a 7th/8th place, but alas, it was never gonna happen!

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Linus27]

I was feeling a bit worse for wear due to an evening of BMXing at a skatepark and falling 5ft bashing my wrists and legs. Very aching and very sore so I decided to just run a concervative race. Qualified 18th I think so I knew I was in for a quite night. No such luck. Titanic battle with Dave early on. Worked my way up to 6th as I pitted late to see Dave flying past me whilst I was still in the pits. Came out around 14th and managed to get back up to 11th. Then I noticed Dave was slowing and I was catching him as the minutes counted down. I was driving the arse of the little Lotus and crossed the line about 1.9 seconds behind him. I think the whole race was driven at 110% as i either tried to keep people behind me or try and catch drivers up. Great fun.

Great racing Dave and you did a super job jumping me in the pits 

[Mike Hammer]

Picked the Elise because I remembered it came already set up from the factory, no tweaking neccesary  
Reduced wing a bit, upped the steering lock, soft fronts, good to go. Lovely. Tuta å köra, as the swedish say. Just honk and drive.

Well it had a bit of trouble over the bumpier bits, giving some issues on the third chicane. Spun twice there, then took it through slowly for the rest of the race.

Spun a few times, had a stop/go, and messed up my pit stop. Other then that, a good race  

A few good battles along the way, all in all a fun race.

Ran out of fuel just at the start of the last lap...in a cumfy 5th too. 

Oh that's what happened. I dunno about cumfy though, I had you in my sights  

[psuedo]

Oh that's what happened. I dunno about cumfy though, I had you in my sights

yeah...you might have caught me.....but I tell you, them Vipers can get VERY wide...passing would have been another matter. 

[Busi]

Good quali lap and pole position. Start of the race with way too cold tyres, FreQ got past and I couldn't keep up with him.

Pitted early to change only fronts and have a good balance for most of the 2nd stint. But I rejoined just behind TT who after holding me up for a whole stint at Spa last Sunday, he held me up for several laps today as well lol nice racing mate luckily FreQ left the pits JUST behind me with TT still ahead so I was on a critical sandwitch. In the end FreQ used his chance when I was slow away from one corner keeping an eye on TT, so he retook the lead. I tried to keep the pace, temps were a bit hotter so I was a bit faster.

Chase finished when I found several lapped cars fighting each other. FreQ got through well but I had a nightmare passing them. And it wasn't really me making "silly mistakes" but I was actually feeling I had to race against them to get ahead. That made me ran a bit wide on a couple of corners and with their higher power they kept passing me again in the straights. When I finally got passed them the gap to FreQ had increased a lot up to over 10 seconds. Didn't give up and he actually had an issue or something, gap down to 5 seconds.

Pushing too hard specially over the kerbs at the Variante Alta I was given a stop&go. Came into the pits with 2 laps to go, and pressed ESC instead of Enter when the pitstop board appeared, what a stupid way of having to retire from a race. The gap to 3rd was nearly 1 minute so I was in no hurry to serve the penalty and rejoin in 2nd. Owh well championship chances over.

Grats FreQ, I didn't expect you being so fast in such slow circuit, but looks like both 350z and CC were as fast or faster than the Gillet.

[H@L9000]

Fun race

Good result for me but I only got it from other drivers misfortunes rather than fast driving. I tried to keep up with Zak but he was too fast (good going in the Viper mate) I got close to Zak again after my pit stop but he soon lost me again.

I got a stop-go for corner cutting in the last 20 mins and ended up behind RM. We had a close battle all the way to the end which was made all the more intense by Team Radio problems. We had a slight racing incident on the last lap and RM gave me his position at the end because he thought he was responsible, what a diamond geezer 

I had done at least one suspect defensive move in this battle (sorry mate) so I would not have been bothered anyway but I took about a milli second to decide to take the position when RM slowed a little on the start finish line

Another fine evenings entertainment

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

And it wasn't really me making "silly mistakes" but I was actually feeling I had to race against them to get ahead. That made me ran a bit wide on a couple of corners and with their higher power they kept passing me again in the straights.

You were completely sideways into and out of several corners!

[psuedo]

 

I know the leaders had a hard time when lapping me too, I had just caught a couple of backmarkers myself and was trying to find a good spot to pass etc just as Freq and Busi caught me  ....made it 'interesting' to say the least. 

[Truetom]

Pitted early to change only fronts and have a good balance for most of the 2nd stint. But I rejoined just behind TT who after holding me up for a whole stint at Spa last Sunday, he held me up for several laps today as well lol nice racing mate luckily FreQ left the pits JUST behind me with TT still ahead so I was on a critical sandwitch. In the end FreQ used his chance when I was slow away from one corner keeping an eye on TT, so he retook the lead.

Always great to drive against you, Busi. Like Shark and MarkMc you are stable and don't make flashy moves, bomb diving, etc.    You may have noticed I didn't go for inside lanes in defensive driving. I wanted to keep the outside lane 'cause of my silly setup mistake and not to pick up anyone on braking. I experimented with lower brake cooling as it was cold at the end of quali. Saw it was ok up to the 10'C temps but not open enough if the temps would rise. Guess what happened - I forgot to open it back and started the race with the closed cooling.    So the car was ok on braking early on but front brakes were starting to overheat after about 20 minutes of the race.    So I was never sure when I'll spin and had to brake much earlier than I should have.  

I was setting lap-times of 1.53.7xx with full fuel in training the other day and was appaled with my quali setup - couldn't get enywhere near my former race laptimes.    So in the end I took my race setup with low fuel to set my poor quali lap, really don't know what got into the car last night.   Made a few mistakes in the race, lost some gained some due to mistake of others. Strange - I like Imola but always make mistakes here, even more than in Enna, lol. Well, I usually make only one mistake in Enna.  

Was driving alone on 6th place towards the end but gained two more places due to misfortune of others.    Seems like would be battle for podium if I had the car set as it should be. Grats to MIP.    And Freq, of course.  

Nice to see new faces. I hope your misfortune in the race won't prevent you from comming back.  

TT

[Ted]

A really enjoyable race for me. I'd done a fair bit of practice but still thought I would struggle as I seemed very inconsistent. However on the night it all seemed to come together and my pace kept improving throughout.

Had so many tussles I can't remember them all, but thanks to everyone for really good racing. 5th placed is my best finish so far, of course largely due to others' bad luck.

[purdie]

pretty crap for me.....was never quick in the Vertigo and race i was very inconsistent!

Sorry to Pseudo, i drifted wide on the formation lap 3 corners before the end....i was leaning over trying to shut up my mobile...the alarm wudn't ssssh! Had a fun tussle with him, but the Viper pulled away on the straight and i cudn't do much in the corners but close up on him again. Few spinners out there tonight (including me).....saw Truetom pass me, spin....and pass me again!

I need to see why my vertigo was soooo far off the pace, especially since we drove the ukgtr version of the track  :'(

[Truetom]

Couldn't believe I was the only 911 Porka out there tonight  Mark Jonzo where were you, I was hoping you might turn up with a trusty 911

MJ doesn't believe in this series - he's very sensitive about any kind of Porsche rating.   Give me comparable cars and trusty drivers and we can race anything.     

TT

[Blunder]

Titanic battle with Martin, I began to think we were glued to each other, thanks Martin, enjoyed that alot you made very few mistakes.

Thanks to you too buddy!
That was absolutely brilliant!?
What an intense race. I seemed to be marginally quicker than you in the first half of the race and thought I'd 'got ya' !? 
but after we both pitted you came out a few seconds ahead of me and try as I might I could not catch you!?
You were flying!  That is what it is all about, good clean close racing!?

That circuit is awesome too, I can't remember having to work so hard for so long while feeling on the edge the whole time!?
I usually drive a bit conservative in these things but not last night!? I had numerous little moments! 

Must mention kidzer/Dave Milne! you got past me near the end and I had to drive like a mad man to get back past you !
A new PB !? That was tough!

Mind you virtually all my laps were PB's!

Thanks all, really enjoyed it!?


i

[Legzy]

That was absolutely brilliant!?
What an intense race.
That circuit is awesome too, I can't remember having to work so hard for so long while feeling on the edge the whole time!?
Thanks all, really enjoyed it!?

I just wanted to echo what Martin said. Fantastically tough race on a track that's growing on me quickly.

Really enjoyed my 'start to finish' 80 min battle with API. I think I may have just had the edge over say one lap, but in the end API's consistently fast driving won our little duel. Great racing/effort API.

I have to say that this GT3 Lower Endurance series is definitely my favourite I'm currently racing. Awesome!