UKGPL Season 16 (2008) Amateurs '65 - Zandvoort (1967) - Jan 20

[Phil Thornton]

UKGPL Season 16 - Amateurs - Race 9 - 65 mod - Zandvoort(1967)

The results of the amateurs race.

[Hristo Itchov]

Great driving by Jethro which surprised everyone I think, not just in qualifying but also in the race by getting the fastest lap. I suspect it won't be long before he improves his consistency and becomes a force to be reckoned with in every race.

I had a good start but because Jethro was warping I didn't want to risk by going too close, so I kept my distance and just put as much pressure on him as I could. It was impossible to go for a pass in a braking zone because his BRM pulled away effortlessly out of each corner.

Eventually he went wide and off though, so I was through and apart from a backmarker that had spun at the hairpin and was making his way around the track thus narowly avoiding contact, all went without problems.

Grats to eClive (next time...  ) and Nicky for making the podium, and Jethro for his excellent performance, if he takes BRM to Monza I expect him to easily guide it to victory. Grats all other finishers as well, good consistency by everyone.

[NickyIckx]

 

Ickx short race report on his lucky 3rd at Zandy :

Just watch the replay , thx for upload .

Well , to me qualification worked out good . 0,3sec off my PB but good enough for 5th on grid.
Considering days test results , my goals in order where:
1.   watch the engines temps . don’t blow up

2.   watch both left tyres temps , no wide walks on to the greens
3.   try racing

the race :
as expected EvilClive overtook me at start , so I settled down on 6th.
Bit hunted then by Sam Blood  till he spon. Meanwhile my engine decide to love 121 Celsius, so no way to lay on any sort of aggressive driving style. Man I lift throttle all that gently while shifting…felts more like cruising then racing.lol.
J.W went wide , pitty.
Nothing spectacular till L14 : Tim spins two times dropped him on 6th ,me lifted to 4th.
Ginsters starts to hunt me but lost somewhere at L16.
L19 lapped unlucky pitter B.Darwin.
L20 EvilClive slipstreamed Natan ,second then.
L22 Natan tried to slipstream right side defending EvilClive but touched those exit-pitwall slightly . Thatwhy he chrashed into EvilClive  in front of T1.
Unbelievable  ,both cars survived those heavy chrash without any damage !!! wow.
L22 still ,  Natan slipped twice and I earned 3rd.
L23 Natan did his fastes lap.
L24 Natan`s engine explodes. Luckily in front of the pits entry ,where he pitstoped. Wd !
L25 my so called fastes race lap 1-30-32 .  wooooooooooooow.
Tim starts hunting me , so I prepared myself to eventually  right side defending line on the long straight . like I did noticed EvilClive did with success during test races.
Well but Tim didn’t come that close. Slipped somewhere on  L26 at least.

Couldn’t believe , 3rd in the end. What kinda lucky result   !!!


Congratulations goes to J.Walters and Hristo ; outstanding  !!! class of his own.
As well to Natan , EvilClive and Tim , who have been a class off his own too.
And of course big hand to winners of Novices and to all taken part.


See ya all at Monza for the  last race of this great funny season.
(will modified slipstream be ready for 65mod till then  ? ) that would be nice.

Regards
Nicky Ickx

[bernie]

L19 lapped unlucky pitter B.Darwin.

I've been called worse names than that 

[EvilClive]

How on earth I squeezed a Cooperslug into 2nd place I will never understand!!

The qualifying times were leaving me about 1.5secs a lap behind, so I expected to be battling in the midfield at best in this race after
somehow holding onto 6th place on the grid after an almost pb qually lap.

As Nicky said, I jumped his 5th place at the start and tucked in behind Tim's Honda which just breezed away each time we reached the straight.
For lap after lap I tried to get onto Tim's tail pipes and pick up the slipstream entering the main straight and for lap after lap I failed.
Jethro's excursion onto the dunes moved me up to 4th, so passing Tim could mean a podium place...hmmmmm

Eventually Tim made a couple of miniscule errors and I found myself examining his valve gear with a magnifying glass ( very impressive by the way  ) as we hit the straight .( thank goodness he didn't back off at that point as I was 150% commited with the throttle through the floor!!).
At last I got the pull from the fast Honda and held the brute within striking distance. I made my move quite early and got half alongside Tim before the braking zone and on the inside line.....all I had to do now was
a) brake later ,
b) keep it tucked into the kerb and   
c) make a blinding exit from Tarzan!!

piece of cake really     phew! I did not breathe for about 15 secs. Butgrats to Tim for keeping to the wide line although I think he messed up his exit with a little premature throttle application which gave me the break I needed.

The rest of that lap was a banzai excercise, as I knew Tim would be after revenge and he had extra straight line speed down the straight. I eeked out about a second by the time we hit the straight and manged to retain the place.
Natan was a few seconds ahead but Hristo was off into the sunset by now!!

The next 10 laps or so were spent slowly drawing Natan closer and closer...jeez that was hard work!!! 

Once on his tail I had the same prob as with Tim ( who had now had the decency to retire to respectable distance behind  ) but worse.
That Lotus was just so quick out of the corners  that all my work was undone everytime we reached the straight. It seems that eventually the pressure paid off and Natan clipped the verge just prior to the straight and made a slower than normal transition.

This was likely to be my only chance and I was on his tail and in the slipstream to repeat the overtaking maneouvre into Tarzan which worked again.
On the next lap Natan was far too close for comfort as we entered the straight and I knew his speed would get him past, so I took the right hand side early to make him go "the long way around me".  He picked up the slipstream and I was gobsmacked when he pulled further to right and into the pitlane area.
The next thing I know is being hit from behind and spinning down to Tarzan. I presume that Natan clipped the straw bales at the pit exit, but I have not viewed the replay to see waht happened.

By some miracle I bounced off the catch fencing and was able to regain the track to discover no apparent damage to the car. From there on I had no problems to the end of the race and was able to ease down and nurse it for the last few laps.

Amazed to finish in 2nd given the lap times that some were posting...still need to look at the Natan incident to check that I did not deviate from my line...I don't think I did but

A great race with some very long dices.

[FullMetalGasket]

2.   watch both left tyres temps

I suggest you do as I do if you worry about tire temps - Press F4 until they arn't displayed anymore  Et Voila, no more worrying red numbers at the top of the screen 
I did make a small mistake somewhere on the penultimate lap, think it was somewhere in the valley (Panorama maybe) where I went wide. If that hadn't happened I may have been close enough to hastle you by the finish 

Very upset I span while following eClive, was greatly enjoying the chase. We 3 (Natan, Clive and myself) had very similar average laps so while the gaps would vary we all remained together, clive and I were very very slowly reeling Natan in while having a pretty good race ourselves - Clive eventually got me under braking for Tarzan as I lost a little too much speed in Bos Uit - I tried to hang onto the outside line but used too much throttle and wasted my exit speed in a massive powerslide    ()
Was hanging on pretty damn well until I span it - then span again a lap or so later due to pushing too hard before my tires had chance to re-solidify. 

Despite the setbacks that's probably my favourite race of the season so far (I love Zandy anyway) and has now bumped me back up to 1 point from the top of the championship 

[Turkey Machine]

Great driving by Jethro which surprised everyone I think, not just in qualifying but also in the race by getting the fastest lap. I suspect it won't be long before he improves his consistency and becomes a force to be reckoned with in every race.

I had a good start but because Jethro was warping I didn't want to risk by going too close, so I kept my distance and just put as much pressure on him as I could. It was impossible to go for a pass in a braking zone because his BRM pulled away effortlessly out of each corner.

Eventually he went wide and off though, so I was through and apart from a backmarker that had spun at the hairpin and was making his way around the track thus narowly avoiding contact, all went without problems.

Grats to eClive (next time...  ) and Nicky for making the podium, and Jethro for his excellent performance, if he takes BRM to Monza I expect him to easily guide it to victory. Grats all other finishers as well, good consistency by everyone.

You flatter me too much Hristo. True, I like Monza, but that's no guarantee I'll do well!

Replay for those who want it: http://rapidshare.com/files/186830375/ukgpl_zandvoort65s_20012008.rpy
DISCLAIMER: THIS SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR INCIDENT REPORTS, PLEASE USE THE SERVER REPLAY WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE. THERE IS ALSO 10 MINUTES OR SO MISSING FROM PRACTICE.

Did well in practice, was just trying to get a good rhythm, and then a 1:28.0 popped out from nowhere, and I could have gone faster in the last sector too! It was one of those perfect laps that can be difficult to replicate, and I'll be finding that and keeping it.

The start was a little interesting, since I forgot to pull the clutch when I changed from N to 1st, to see how close we were to starting. That creeped me forward a fraction, but I pulled it back into Neutral and made probably the best start of my life! I knew Hristo was alongside me, so I kept it on the inside, hoped he didn't do anything stupid while I was braking and turning into the corner, and just tried to establish good steady pace. However, that's difficult when you have the whiniest Cooper right on your rear end!!! I have never sworn so much at a fellow competitor, one of the things I can publish that I was shouting to my monitor frantically was "Get off my back!!!", as it was a bit disconcerting you being so close because lag crashes are not nice. In the end, through a combination of bad luck, a lapse of concentration, and frame-skip / lag, I ran a bit wide half-way round the lap which let Hristo through. In hindsight, I should have just Shift-R'd and did a Stop n Go, but I tried to make it onto the track legally and just set about charging forward, hoping I couldn't make any mistakes. Fulvio proved a worthy adversary several times (still haven't watched the replay), and I apologise to ginsters for tagging you. Towards the end of the race, I popped in fastest lap, which I wasn't expecting having watched Hristo's laptimes and knew full well what he's capable of!

Good race, shame I couldn't keep it on the black stuff.

[Samb]

The race was fun while it lasted. I managed an unspectacular 8th on the grid, just shy of the 1.29 club and made a reasonable start and began to follow Niki for a few laps. I then began to get to grips with the cricuit and closed up on him, but the I couldn't get good drive out of the last corner so the Ferrari stayed put. Eventually my lead foot got the better of me and I spun out of the second hairpin, maintaining 7th but a good few seconds behind Niki.

I then made the mistake of overdriving trying to catch the cars ahead and I spun again at the last turn, losing a place in the process. Now normally I would carry on regardless but I had other things on my mind so decided to retire. Loot was furious and said I hadn't tried hard enough. I guess i'll have to make amends in the Clubmans this Sunday.

[Phil Thornton]

The server replay is available via the link (top left) on the UKGPL Homepage.