UKGTR Season 9 Upper Sprint (GT1) - Spa (2003) - Jan 27

[linco24]

Really really sorry for whoever I knocked off in the orange and black lambo and then caused a pile up. Really sorry If I caused anyone any damage.

I've ruined peoples races the lost connection with the server.

Sorry

[Blunder]

Mmmmm.
Had to rebuild my Pc the last few days!
Spent 2 hours tonight putting GTR back on!
Made it by the skin of my teeth with no set up / practice etc!
Not an ideal start to the season!
Had a coulple of hints in Practice/Quali that something was going on? Frame rate dropping very low.
Exited Quali and reduced all my settings.
Rejoined, all ok until Pouhon on lap 1 !
Low frame rate, pulled off track, exited to be safe for everyone else!
Thought it may be just me but tried an offline race as a test and all ok!
No rouge processes etc.

Will see what the rest of you think!?

M.

[Steve Holmes]

Dropped it with a tired and heavy right foot, these cars in the wet aren't very easy when you don't have great reaction speed, and then got utterly confused with buttons on the wheel, had pressed neutral when I thought it was the clutch, and accidentally engaged reverse when I wanted to go forwards; reversed further onto the track.

Seeing Dave enter the pits for repairs I think I collected you, very sorry, I certainly wasn't trying to reverse onto the track, just all fumble fingers.

After missing pit entry I finally got in but the 30 second pitstop clearly didn't repair anything, blah blah blah just awful.

Should've expected a wet race but I didn't give it a moments thought (or practice).

I did get some choppinness at times, frames dropped to 20 or so for a few seconds once.

[Mark J]

Dammit !...was having a great race, got myself upto 10th with 9th just ahead and really flying but got a puncture right after the pit entrance which left me stuck up at La Source. Hobbled down the road and retired off into the safe area past the pits.  :'(

Couldnt believe it when i saw it was damp/wet. Had spent a load of time perfecting my setup today and was really looking forward to a strong race. However i completely forgot we now use variable weather for GT1 sprint and hadnt done a single lap damp or wet practise so didnt even have a setup for it  

Stuck a few notches of wing on and Intermediates and hoped for the best. Had early scrap with Dave until he unfortunately broadsided into a stranded team mates car at Malmedy   unlucky DG, looks like we could have had a race long fight.
Then had quick battle with Prof for a few laps and was losing tons of time behind him in the twisties...low wing? Got past and immediately went 1.5 secs quicker in the first sector !
Made up a 10 second deficit to catch the top 10 and was looking forward to the last 12 minutes of the race when i got the disastrous puncture. Dont even know how.  

Love the weather change though, despite being caught out by it, especially at Spa .  

[Truetom]

Hehe, that was the most interesting finish, EVER! 
2nd on start after RM, guess he and Busi made a wrong tyre choice. I decided to gamble and took slicks, same as the sneaky H@l, I guess. After RM spun, I got the lead. H@l was ever close, but could not pass.    Race timer was getting towards 0 and I slowed down a bit to give it more time. Then I realized it's not gonna be and H@l passed me. Guess he was a bit  as he made a mistake on the top of the hill and I could get my 1st back which I managed to keep to the end. 

Good stuff H@l, good tyre choice. 

Where did all my Legends go?    Bad luck, guys. 
Grats to third and all finishers. 

TT

[spanner]

Wow that was intense

I got comfortable with dry practise beforehand so was really disapointed when it turned out wet having done no wet weather driving. Realised that hard wets where going going to get too hot during the race as after a few laps in qually they were really high so decided to try inters on for the last lap or so before the session ended and once up to temp they didnt seem too bad.

During the race i did struggle with the tyres early on, they did seem to be better than wets but was struggling in the slower stuff until the tyres got upto to temp. Nearly got caught out by API as i was struggling, then slowly seems to catch Evert but couldnt do much then got mugged on the last lap for 7th.

Surprised myself tonight especially with no practise for a wet race. Realise i hadn't got 'simple debris colision' on last night, switched that on tonight and even with the low fps at times i had no problems.

[Prof]

Then had quick battle with Prof for a few laps and was losing tons of time behind him in the twisties...low wing? Got past and immediately went 1.5 secs quicker in the first sector !

Yeah, that and wrong tyres. The car felt fine in the faster bits but was rubbish in Sector 2 and got progressively worse. One of those races where the main difficulty was keeping concentration to keep going when in a big gap ahead and behind.

Well done to the podium and Pete for an excellent 4th with no practice or setup before race time.

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Josè Arrogantio]

Was 6th early on but then spun at the exit of the bus stop and dropped down to 9th
After about half an hour my hard wet tires had no grip at all
Going on to the last lap I was 8th and caching the 2 cars in front of me.
Passed spanner at that corner with no name in-between rivarge and pouhon.
Then I caught evert going in to the bus stop for the final time.
He defended the inside line going in to la source but then ran wide and I slipped up the inside and moved in to 6th on the last corner!!!
    

[H@L9000]

Then I realized it's not gonna be and H@l passed me. Guess he was a bit  as he made a mistake on the top of the hill and I could get my 1st back which I managed to keep to the end. 

LOL, I thought you were slowing to make it a close finish as I assumed the race would end there.

When the race was not over I almost lost it at Eau Rouge,  

Great race, much fun. I was lucky with the tyres. Soft front slick and med slick rear.

Nice racing TT, I just could not get past.

Well done podium and everyone else

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Gutted had a programme crash once in quali and then again in the race, I see from the threads there are a number people suffering this, is it the new pack set Gizmo? Or is the server just not up to taking full grids like we had tonight?

Most of us had no problems; make sure you've got shadows on minimum, they have more effect on stability and FPS than any other single thing. Also, if your internet connection isn't totally stable you will have occasional crashes.

Stuck a few notches of wing on and Intermediates and hoped for the best. Had early scrap with Dave until he unfortunately broadsided into a stranded team mates car at Malmedy  unlucky DG, looks like we could have had a race long fight.

It was shaping up to be a good one, wasn't it? I was surprised you didn't just rocket past on the Kemmel straight - I think once you'd found a way by you'd have disappear off into the distance.

Seeing Dave enter the pits for repairs I think I collected you, very sorry, I certainly wasn't trying to reverse onto the track, just all fumble fingers.

Just one of those things, I was too busy concentrating on MJ behind me and didn't see you broadside across the track until it was too late; hit the brakes and turned a certain head-on collision into a WWE-style bodyslam. Unfortunately that bent the suspension so I had to crawl round to the pits for 90 seconds of repairs; in other circumstances I'd have quit, but I needed the testing miles ready for Upper Endurance so I carried on plugging away, initially with Steve to keep me honest.

[Gazza49er]

Interesting race!

Had 2 ctd's one as the server clicked over to qually and one as i tried to rejoin. When i did get back in only had time for a couple of laps and had no idea what the track was like and hence put the wrong tires on so all i could manage was 12th.

Starting from 12th i thought bugger it and went for soft slicks on front and medium slicks rear as the track said damp (but it was still raining) and i remember the Zuhia  race where slicks were the way to go on damp track.

Started a little causious going through en rouge first time which almost let Steve Holmes get the drive on me for turn 3 and was expecting him to get past but maybe you remembered the last race you were behind me lol. Anyway started catching people and thought im on the right tires here as i was quicker than most ahead. Had a good clean high speed battle with Jose going into the Bus stop and got myself up to 4th and was catching Busi but realised my fuel was not gunna make it so backed right off for 2 laps desperately trying to get to the finish and maybe keep 4th but going round the last corner i had 0.2litres and Picnic got past as i coasted over the line.

Bit gutted with the qually problems and my fuel mistake but probably had more fun actually racing and passing cars starting further down.

Grats TT, h@l and Busi.

[spanner]

Can someone fix the series standings please as its shown as a non-championship race! Aparently we should have started at donnington.

[H@L9000]

LOL, I thought you were slowing to make it a close finish as I assumed the race would end there.

If I had my brain switched on, I would have figured out what you were doing TT and slowed as well so that Gazza would not run out of fuel. 

Sorry Gazza

[Busi]

I was on inters, which clearly weren't the best choice. Nevertheless they gave me the advantage at the start and I had a go at TT into Les Combes, he defended though and his tyres were up to operating temp after that so never had the chance again.

Then coming into La Source I was taking a look at the gaps and lost my braking point, went off and spend over 5 seconds to get away from there :'(

Down to 5th or 6th, luckily I could pass Pete and RM had an accident at Eau Rouge. At that moment BTW his car crashed and came into the middle of the track. I tried to avoid it but I made contact with his car. Should have been a huge accident for me but car was only gonna spin and I could control it with a quick reaction on the pedals really scary moment I thought my race was gonna be over

I kept pushing as hard as I could but TT and H@L were going away and Gazza was catching me! Could keep him behind though to take a podium