UKGTR Season 8 Pre-season 9 - Barcelona (National) - Jan 13

[Prof]

Highlight was 3 abreast down the s/f straight with DG and Prof, got a slight hit on the rear from Prof? but kept hold of it to get through T1 first 

I wasn't fast enough to hit anything on the straight just watched everything fly past. Just to check I tried a lap in the Z4 after the race with same fuel and tyres and did 3.3s faster than anything in the race first lap up.

The Vertislow is a Vertis-still-slow and not even as nice to handle as the old one. It will not get close to the faster cars unless Jeff or someone is driving.

[Busi]

The Vertislow is a Vertis-still-slow and not even as nice to handle as the old one. It will not get close to the faster cars unless Jeff or someone is driving.

I like it though, having a slow car but at the same time quite good on corners is great fun.


My race was all about trying overtakes with a car I had never driven I think lol so I did it good enough, up to 4th and about to catch Michael Sunny for a podium position. I had done too many mistakes though and lost too much time to catch him. Maybe 1-2 more laps...

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

[phspok]

Crap result for me but most excellent fun. 1st half was great, played yoyo with the twin brothers JPV and JPS in there
matching red beetles. (Some sort of Finnish/American twinning?) they would catch, then I would pull away a bit
they were swapping places occasionally, stayed wide for Busi after being an unpredictable mobile chicane
to him for a lap or two, same for Colin who despatched the Porche brothers and came zooming up behind me
so quickly I assumed he was trying to lap! either way I would rather a much faster car is in front than
worrying my hind quarters when I'm in a wayward tank. second half was less fun, tyres were shot
particularly rears, was having trouble staying on the track nevermind racing, went wide into caixa (sp?)
JPS? nipped through, I stayed right to aviod any unpleasantness, and Nsfast tried his luck round the outside
into the next right hander, I kept as tight as the growling monster would allow, not sure if we touched
or he just lost it? a succesfull pass was unlikely in any event.
Probly should have taken something lighter like the Moggy, that Viper tears up the tyres big styley on a twisty
track like that (which I'd never driven before..)

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Span trying to avoid the mess down at T1 where two other cars were stranded, then got my wheel sheered off by Daves Aston as he came through. End of race for me.

Ended my race too - Picnic had called "spun cars in T1" over TeamSpeak and I was so busy avoiding Steve and nsfast that by the time I noticed you there too I had no room left to play with. Busted my suspension - I was so far off the pace that there was no point spending two laps in the pits getting repaired and then tooling round at the back.

Highlight was 3 abreast down the s/f straight with DG and Prof, got a slight hit on the rear from Prof? but kept hold of it to get through T1 first 

Heh heh, that was rather exciting wasn't it. The Aston pulls well enough out of the corners but just runs out of puff half way down the straights - those Porkers were all flying past me like I was standing still.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Good old Tiscali. As I say, I really think my connections ok as I can dl files ok, race Race, NK and GPL all ok. Wish it twas as simple as that :'( However I am using a wireless connection, and have done for 18 months or so with no grief, so will try Ethernet connection instead morrow.

Good old Tiscali and their "we're not traffic shaping, honest". Course they are - that's why I dumped Nildram.

[Mark J]

We need a wet race now really to check all is well with these cars in the rain. How about a monsoon in Zhuhai? 

The Z4s are still the car to beat, followed by the Fezzas. Though i wouldnt change the latter for fear of handicapping them too much. Ive had good battles with them in the few races so far. The Z's do appear faster than all, with 4 out of top 5 qually slots taken by them again and 3 out of top 5 race finishes. I dont mind there being one quickest car personally as i am not a fan of this performance equalising, though i understand why its done, but i wouldnt want to suddenly find grids full of Z4s just because its a race winner.

[Steve Holmes]

Big apologies to nsfast for hitting his rear.  That first corner is a real problem because of the very different lines you can take through it, either go in fast and scrub speed off on the outside then take a late apex, or brake earlier and follow the kerb more.

After being very conservative in the first few laps as it was very tight (mistakes up ahead, slam on the brakes, and lose a place to MJ ) I decided to up the pace and take my preferred high speed entry into T1, unfortunately that lap nsfast took an early and slow entry and I was surprised by how much we closed up, panicked and locked wheels which of course led to contact.  Should have been plenty of space for my later braking but I was caught out by nsfast's slower turn in.  My misjudgment.

Trashed both our races. Very sorry.

Then managed to hold up Lazlow as he lapped me by getting lairy on the kerb exiting the high speed chicane so instead of being able to pull left I was wrestling the car and losing momentum.  After he tapped my rear due to my slow up all I could do was run off the track to make space.  Glad it didn't cost you badly.

[Truetom]

Qualified 4th with laptime slightly slower than pb. Didn't finish race setup yet, so I used quali session to do that. 
Colin - did you get a stop&go for jumping the start? I saw your car moving a bit before green lights were on. Impatient? 
Openning laps were ok, Colin went to pit, Sunny made a mistake and Lazlow was pulling away slowly. At one time I came to 1,5 sec close to him, but then he pulled away again. The rest was hotlapping. 

Good win, Lazlow. Grats to Sunny for his first podium.

Legends rule! 

TT

[Michael Sunny]

Hi!

I'm so glad that I managed to join this race. I did some fine tuning of setup and managed to achieve 2nd in qualifications and 3rd in race.

Z4 is very fast and easy to drive car so I will not fool my self thinking that I am an excellent driver. Nevertheless I needed this podium to keep me going to achieve better results.

Thank you all for good race!

[Legzy]

Darn PC decided to crash  Think legzy was all over me at the time, I hope I didn't cause you any grief!

I was literally just making a move up the inside of you, so luckily missed your 'halted' car by mm's!

Z4 is very fast and easy to drive car so I will not fool my self thinking that I am an excellent driver.

Oh   Having driven the Z4 to my best ever qually & finish, I was just about to make a speech thanking my parents etc... it was going to be very emotional & tears would have rolled 


I had a great race. Was somewhat nervous on the grid lined up in 5th spot! I'm more used to starting in 25th (if I can finish that high in the Z4, it obviously does need 'equalising', before anyone else mentions it )
Managed to pester TT from the start till he got past Sunny, then I was all over Sunny for ages but unable to pass him. I finally managed to spin myself  at the dodgy chicane, when I was looking pretty good for a 4th place finish (10 secs gap to car behind), took an age to get myself back on the black stuff & was down to 7th/8th. Was very pleased to work my way back up to finish 6th despite the faster Colin passing me comfortably. The last few laps were very tough going as somehow i had totally shot my tyres!

[linco24]

Colin - did you get a stop&go for jumping the start? I saw your car moving a bit before green lights were on. Impatient? 

Yeah TT, didn't mean to move forward, but that'll teach me. Not that I believe I'll be on the front row again any time soon. Though I did think I had the pace to finish in the top 3 last night.

[nsfast]

Big apologies to nsfast for hitting his rear. 

It's ok Steve. 

Another dissapointing race for me. I am doing well in qualifying and my race pace is ok but for one reason or another I don't seem able to string together a complete race at the moment. I think switching between iracing and GTR2 is not helping. Maybe its time to take a break for a bit. 

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I think switching between iracing and GTR2 is not helping. Maybe its time to take a break for a bit. 

Maybe it's just my mentality but I actually find it helps to be chopping and changing around a bit. Stops me getting board with one car or sim and also makes sure I keep thinking about all aspects of my driving and not just whatever is the most critical for a specific car.

[JPS]

Crap result for me but most excellent fun. 1st half was great, played yoyo with the twin brothers JPV and JPS in there
matching red beetles. (Some sort of Finnish/American twinning?) they would catch, then I would pull away a bit
they were swapping places occasionally, stayed wide for Busi after being an unpredictable mobile chicane
to him for a lap or two, same for Colin who despatched the Porche brothers and came zooming up behind me
so quickly I assumed he was trying to lap! either way I would rather a much faster car is in front than
worrying my hind quarters when I'm in a wayward tank. second half was less fun, tyres were shot
particularly rears, was having trouble staying on the track nevermind racing, went wide into caixa (sp?)
JPS? nipped through, I stayed right to aviod any unpleasantness, and Nsfast tried his luck round the outside
into the next right hander, I kept as tight as the growling monster would allow, not sure if we touched
or he just lost it? a succesfull pass was unlikely in any event.
Probly should have taken something lighter like the Moggy, that Viper tears up the tyres big styley on a twisty
track like that (which I'd never driven before..)

Yeah great battle with JPV, very close, but I managed to pull away in the end, running behind your big beast was a skill in itself Phspok...interest to see the vast differnce in the cars yet run together..great fun.