UKGTR Season 8 Pre-season 9 - Valencia (GP) - Jan 11

[API]

What a race!

First of all, the qualifying went well. I set my PB and I achieved my best qualifying position ever! The difference to H@l was only 0.036 seconds or something! So close but so far. 

The race started well. I managed to keep the gap to H@l in only few secs. Then it was time to pit. I had problems with ignition/starter thingy so I lost time about 30 secs  . When I came back to track, I was 9th or something. I managed to climb up to 5th place after guys in front of me pitted. That situation lasted until Lazlow pitted for some reason  . Because of that, I finished 4th place. I'm quite happy about the result even though the problems in pit were totally my own fault. 

Well done H@l, TT and MJ! 

Edit. Oh, bad luck Lazlow 

[phspok]

Legzy, for the braking into the final turn (Too late now, but maybe for Thurs..) brake/downshift before and after
not on the brow, not sure that's what the Aliens do, but works for me.
I had some fun, I was more on the pace than usual, messed up my race with an 80 sec pitstop, i really
need to practice them

[Mark J]

That was a cracking race from start to finish, a proper endurance event even though it felt like an 80 minute sprint for me with all that close no-prisoners racing action  

Got in late from a tasty Tapas restaurant (ironically !) and had to hit the ground running during qually. First few laps were well off the pace (about 2 secs slower than my PBs) and despite creeping into the 36's was down in a lowly 14th.  I was 0.6 up on one of my last flying laps and got stuck behind a blinking Z4 in the final 2 corners and cost me all my hard earned 10ths  

The low qually slot put me a little out of place pace wise on the grid as i knew i had my Race setup honed well to run in low-mid 36's.
That put me in the middle of a fierce battle from the green lights with Matts Viper ahead and Profs Z4/Jans Fezza behind me. Had some great battles with Matt first off though some slightly rough chopping nearly ended in disaster and then cost me a slot to one of the guys behind as i once more had to slam on the anchors to avoid contact   , still, no harm done.  
From then on it was a battle royale with Profs z4 and Jans F430 as the 3 of us had one hell of a ding dong for about 30-40 minutes with no let up whatsoever We swapped places several times and ran side by side or bumper to bumper for lap after lap. Great clean racing action gents  
I seemed quicker than Profs Z4 around a lap as was all over him until we reached the straights, then his Z4 would just blast away and leave me standing   which meant for lap after lap i couldnt get by him. Eventually him and Jan touched, dropping Jan back and then Prof pitted later and i set about trying to get some quick laps in to create a breathing space...it seemed to work a treat 
My tyres held out really well as i had the car well balanced tyre wear wise and i kept an eye out for the weather changing before i decided to pit. I came in whilst running 3rd or 4th? with half hour to go, as others up front had pitted before me, put soft fronts on and set about doing my fastest laps of the race with my lower fuel load.
With 10 mins to go i started to worry about my remaining fuel and began short-shifting as i had built up a 17 second lead over the 4th place guy behind me (API) and was about 20 odd secs behind 2nd, so just had to keep it clean and cruise as much as possible.
I really started to panic when i saw JPS pull over onto the verge out of fuel as i knew he had used my setup (or similar) and then my mouth went dry as i crossed the line only to find i still had one more lap to go  
Thankfully the short-shifting worked and i was very pleased with myself to cross the line with a measly 3 litres left  
Very chuffed to bag a podium, i felt like i drove a proper enduro, quick when i needed to be, cautious when required, no mistakes and added to a dose of racing luck with Lazlow having to make another stop, got the 3rd place  

Another great legends result with TT 2nd and my 3rd  
Congrats also to H@L for his fine win and everyone else for great close, clean racing, not easy on this tight undulating track.  
The GTC class should make a great championship.  

[linco24]

Was good to be back racing again after such a long absense. I ran the DBR9 for a while tonight, but couldn't get much out of it and opted for the Z4. First time i'd driven it, and it seems like a solid car. Qualified well, 5th I think and had some nice little short battles. Then, as normal, my pit stop goes wrong. Had transmission problems which I didn't fix, then got a stop/go for pitlane speeding. Climbed back to grab 6th (I think) so all in all, not a bad return for me.

Cheers all

[phspok]

Couldnt understand what you meant by chopping MJ, watched replay, I see what you mean
sorry 'bout that, car was longer than I thought.

[Prof]

Really good racing as described above for the first 40 minutes. Sorry about the nudge Jan - slowed and thought I'd let you back through but realised later that neither of those I let through really was you - too many white cars and I should put the name tag things on.

Managed an ultra slow pit stop putting 100l of fuel in when I only needed 60. Must learn to check settings carefully after qually - meant to start with 100 and top to 60 not vice versa!

I Turned off the instrument display and concentrated just on driving in the last half hour and was glad to finish higher than qually holding off a much faster Colin Hines in the last few laps.

The BMW is a joy to drive but a bit too quick I fear for a fair league as it stands. It is fun to leave people on the straight for a change after a year with the Vertislow - certainly handles better than Picnic's hedgehog

[picnic]

certainly handles better than Picnic's hedgehog

Well I shall not be driving that hedgehog again. That race was a complete embarrassment. A sec slower than every one in qual and ditto the race. I'm sure someone who has a clue setting a car up can get more out of it but I can't. The car is fun to drive until the tyres get close to 10 wear when it starts to fall off everywhere, generally under braking. Dave did mutter something about brake balance on TeamSpeak, trouble is it's on the keyboard that I can't reach while racing  Even if it's fun to drive it's dog slow, everyone in qually took chunks of time out of me at every phase of the track, only the end of the long straight did I hold my own.

[Mark J]

Couldnt understand what you meant by chopping MJ, watched replay, I see what you mean
sorry 'bout that, car was longer than I thought.

No worries Matt, i am pretty sure you only had eyes for the apex's ahead as the racing is so intense at this track and that Viper is long!. I initially thought you were 'putting some manners' on me when you chopped across my nose down the straight as it forced me to drastically lift when i should have been foot to the floor, allowing Prof or Jan to jump all over me.
Great racing all round, really enjoyed it and a great spread of cars to battle against including an epic porsche v fezza fight against Jan and some German rivalry with Profs Beemer. 

Sounds like fuel had a lot of us on our toes in the dying minutes ! 

[Prof]

Sounds like fuel had a lot of us on our toes in the dying minutes ! 

I had plenty I'm afraid! 

[Truetom]

BMW is a notably faster car, though in endurance racing this doesn't always mean it'll win. There were 3 of them in front of on qualy and also Evert passed me in the opening race laps without much sweat.    I could hold their pace until tyres started to go a bit loose, then the gap started to open. That means I was holding, no, clutching to them with sheer will of my unberable character.   Seems like Purdie had a similar problem, dunno about Jan and MJ.

Seems like they also had tyre problems, though while I was slowed pace-wise, they made mistakes which enabled me undeserved gaining of places. At pitting API stayed in front but I gained 15 seconds on him in pit. Started to close on H@l towards the end, finishing 2 seconds behind after 80 min race. After his (first ) pitstop Lazlow was closing on me alarmingly (softs?) but then had to pit again. It might have been close otherwise. 

Good race, Legends. Grats H@l, MJ.    Good show from beemer drivers and Purds, of course. 

TT

[linco24]

I Turned off the instrument display and concentrated just on driving in the last half hour and was glad to finish higher than qually holding off a much faster Colin Hines in the last few laps

Yeah mate, would have loved a few more laps for that little battle. Some good blocks by you too, and with me being rusty, I didn't want to make some silly attempts to pass you

[Legzy]

Oh yeah, I was going to ask if anyone else had Frame rate issues during the race?
For the majority of the race I was getting about 80fps (+/-10). But for about ten seconds, roughly five times during the race it dipped down to about 25fps & the picture was very jerky!
Very odd & I think I'd have had to abandon the race if it was happening for more then ten secs.

[Simon Gymer]

Make sure you select "Simple Debris Collisions - ON" in the in-game options, as this prevents other people's accidents on the circuit affecting your frame rate.

[Prof]

Oh yeah, I was going to ask if anyone else had Frame rate issues during the race?
For the majority of the race I was getting about 80fps (+/-10). But for about ten seconds, roughly five times during the race it dipped down to about 25fps & the picture was very jerky!
Very odd & I think I'd have had to abandon the race if it was happening for more then ten secs.

I had this in Qually but not during the race. Simple Debris Collisions is definitely on but my old computer system is beginning to creak a bit - it definitely doesn't like weather conditions changing or day turning to evening to night during a race. I have dialled the track details well back in GTR2 settings and nearly always drive at 720p now rather than 1080p. I shall look at what background apps I can kill whilst racing next (AVG?) to try to help stability.

[Simon Gymer]

Well I shall not be driving that hedgehog again. That race was a complete embarrassment. A sec slower than every one in qual and ditto the race. I'm sure someone who has a clue setting a car up can get more out of it but I can't. The car is fun to drive until the tyres get close to 10 wear when it starts to fall off everywhere, generally under braking. Dave did mutter something about brake balance on TeamSpeak, trouble is it's on the keyboard that I can't reach while racing  Even if it's fun to drive it's dog slow, everyone in qually took chunks of time out of me at every phase of the track, only the end of the long straight did I hold my own.

I managed to get down to 1:37.2 in the Spyker with major setup adjustments (although it still doesn't feel very easy to drive), but it's pretty slow none-the-less. Not sure it's competitive enough tbh as again quite a tricky thing to drive although it's more about control than naughty car. The Aston Martin is probably still slower, but they're both outclassed at the moment I feel. Plus the Spyker is ugly.