UKGTR Season 9 Lower Endurance (GTC) - Magny-Cours (GP) - Feb 1

[Josè Arrogantio]

Was 6th in quali until pc crashed    and by the time I rejoined there was no chance to do a fast lap so had to start at the back.
Put some intermediates on for the start of the race and had no grip at all 
Pitted after 20 minutes and ran the last 60 minutes with some hard wets.

Sorry to whoever I hit when I was splashing around early on, think it was H@L   

[Gazza49er]

Great race for me.

Was really suprised to be pole as i tried nearly every tire in qually and my fastest time was with soft slicks when the track said damp.

When the server clicked over to race and it said flooded track i thought its got to be soft wets so went with that. Hope the pace lap was ok as the guy in 2nd (Madd Rip)? left quite a gap to me and i thought i might of done something wrong but i went on limiter straight after the little chicane onto finish straight.

Started well but after 3 or 4 laps my tyres were getting very hot and i thought oh no wrong choice, but i was still able to do good lap times so stuck with it. Busi was right with me and we were pulling away from the pack untill he dissapeared (unlucky Busi). This gave me quite a gap so i just tried to do good consistant laps and i was pulling away.

Somehow i managed to make the tyres last almost 50 mins and was wondering what tyres to put on in the pitstop but then it started to rain again one lap before i was gunna come in so stuck soft wets on again and they were perfect.

Came out with 20 second lead i think and just went steady but was pulling away quite alot and built up a 50 second lead even with easing off for the last 15 mins to make sure fuel wasnt an issue.

Really chuffed with my first proper win.

Grats TT and MJ

Bad luck to team mate RM
Well done H@l for finishing in that Viper, that car must of been hard work in those conditions.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Not too bad a start to the season. A bit more work on the Aston's setup is starting to pay dividends, and the car is great in the wet. Started on hard wets and they worked well until the track was really starting to dry; eventually I couldn't keep them cool and pitted for intermediates, which would've been perfect to the end of the race had the skies not darkened and the heavens opened almost as soon as I'd made the change. Struggled on but a few laps after it started raining heavily again I aquaplaned off in Estoril and had no choice but to pit again, this time for soft wets. They were excellent and I unlapped a few cars, but the gaps ahead and behind were too great and 10th was the best I could manage.

[H@L9000]

Man, what a race.

Sorry to whoever I hit when I was splashing around early on, think it was H@L   

I dont think it was me, maybe Ted. With the weight of the Viper, it probably would have felt like I ran over a cat or something anyway
(PS dont run over cats).

Well done H@l for finishing in that Viper, that car must of been hard work in those conditions.

Mate, it was an absolute nightmare. Really hard work

My dry setup was never going to work. I halved the power in the diff, increased the pre-load from 2 to 3, put the wing on MAX, put the rev limit down to almost the MIN and still had immense difficulty getting the power down all through 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears.

I realise now that I should have done allot more wet testing as the tyre selection is hard to get rite. The car only felt good when the tyres were at exactly the correct temp. When they overheated I could not stop, and when they went cold I could not get the power down. I started on soft wets but, it should have been soft wet front and hard wet rear. In the pits I put hard wets on and it should have been soft wet fronts and hard wet rears again (I think). Similar difficulties for Ted in the other Viper as well I think. Well done Ted for gettin that thing home.

Still had some great battles and I am really glad to have gotten to the end in 8th

Well done podiums, especially Gazza who gets his first Championship race win.

And well done all finishers.

[Legzy]

Positives:
Enjoyed it loads, managed to work my way up to about 7th (from last on grid) when I pitted at lap ten & had the 6th fastest lap time of the finishers (that's very high for me).

Negatives:
I finished three laps down & lost count of how many times I seemed to pit for the wrong codding tyres!

Always finish on a high:
I'm going to enjoy this GTC enduro season massively 

[Busi]

Was really suprised to be pole as i tried nearly every tire in qually and my fastest time was with soft slicks when the track said damp.

That is something which also surprised me. I tried fast laps on hard wets, inters and soft slicks. Although the car was harder to control on slicks, laptimes were the same in the three types of tyres

[Truetom]

Had also fastest quali lap on soft slicks. Was 4th and was a bit worried about the weather, so I made some last minute changes, were fairly good this time. 
I took hard wets on start, even if it did say "flooded". I goped it would not stay this way and decided to reevaluate things at half. Car was ok, though not as the deadly GaZ4 combo. Well done, you two.   Was not aware it's your first win here, congrats for that as well.   You never forget the first one... 

At half I saw there's no need to change anything, I had a solid gap to back (and front ) so I took 10 litres of fuel just to be sure and new hard wets. All in all I was alone for most of the race, except for the first few minutes. Z4 guys were fast, though I had the impression they had troubles to get the power down, I think I outdragged API (or was it Evert?) out of a hairpin. 

MJ, you're promising that duel for some time now. Stop spinning and drive.   Grats to Gazza and MJ for podium.

TT

[Ted]

Ugh, nightmare 

Similar difficulties for Ted in the other Viper as well I think. Well done Ted for gettin that thing home

Thanks mate, just too darn stubborn to quit, that's all 

Really sorry to anyone who was put off by one of my many  "deviations from the racing line."  Perhaps I'll do some practice in the wet for next time.

[H@L9000]

GaZ4

Hehe, Pole, race win and fastest lap by GaZ4

Well done mate (and his team won the footie yesterday, some people get all the luck).

[Gazza49er]

  i like that.

well its about time all our late night practises started to pay off!