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

[Mark J]

was surprised that people were able to fly using slicks last night. I thought it was possible to use them when only 'damp' but when i tried them in qually i had zero grip and they would not get any heat into them in the C6 Vette. When we went to grid for the race it flicked between damp and wet, and was still raining, so i went for the logical choice of Inters. They were okay in the race with decent temps and was able to do 2:17's mid race. I was looking forward to a great final 12 minutes as seemed to be reeling the next group of cars in rapidly. 

Still feel such a schmuck for not doing any wet practise beforehand...lesson learned ! 

[Syd Drake]

I just got GTR2, and now I'm up for some racing. But first, what does upper/lower championship means?

[Mark J]

Upper is GT1 sprint and GT1/GT2 Endurance series

Lower is GTC sprint and endurance.

[Truetom]

About track being damp/wet: I also didn't make any laps in the wet at Spa as the weather prediction said "Clear"    It's nice to have this unpredictable weather component, though. Gives a chance against the aliens.    I experimented with wet settings in practice until I saw in chat it was damp and should dry out. Was quali time already, so I strapped my dry setup on and made good time, enough for 2nd place. I could probably make a better laptime, but I felt good enough and prefered to try the race setup. It was stable enough so I went to race with it, no ammends made, not even brake ballance or wing. I was a bit reassured in pre-race chat where H@l said he's gonna try with the slicks. I was of the same oppinion, but, you know, it was a bit of a lottery. Thank you, H@l. 

I remember some seasons back when Rusky, Shark and other aliens were talking about having the same setup for wet and dry. I'm (slowly  ) getting to the same conclusion. Ok, flood is extreme, but for a normal wet race you can get away with only tyre and brake ballance change - providing your dry setup is stable and makes the car act predictable. 

Ok, enough of the wise/hoch talk now. 
Bad luck, Legends, tech problems enabled those pesky Pseudododo team to take a lead. 

TT

[picnic]

As usual I hadn't done a lot of practice. I did look at the weather around 7:30pm and the magic number was .15 in to wet so I did 3 practice laps offline at 20% wet in the C6R as earlier in this thread it was hinted at as not being too hard to drive (I don't do GT1 very much )

I'm rubbish at setups so I simply ran the C6R default with fuel set for the race during qualification and was mid pack on inters. Switched to Soft Slicks and the car felt so much better under braking, but if you got off the racing line woe is you. My team mates both went for inters but I braved it out and it worked for me. Bad luck Gazza with the fuel, I did wonder on that last lap if you were having issues.

[Simon Gymer]

Yey! Well done Pete, great to see you in the Top 5.

Congrats to TT on the win, looks like you had a close battle at the front from looking at the finishing results.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I was on intermediates and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed slicks!

Lower is GTC sprint and endurance.

Lower Endurance is GTC but Lower Sprint is GT2.

[Busi]

I remember some seasons back when Rusky, Shark and other aliens were talking about having the same setup for wet and dry. I'm (slowly  ) getting to the same conclusion. Ok, flood is extreme, but for a normal wet race you can get away with only tyre and brake ballance change - providing your dry setup is stable and makes the car act predictable. 

Totally agreed, I had done 0 practice on wet for yesterday but my only tweaks on the setup were tyres, brake pressure and one more click of rear wing. Had it not been for the tyre choice...

[Legzy]

Certainly an eventful yet lonely race. Shocked to find we were racing in the "Damp" then it changed to "wet". Had to bail out half way through qually to reduce my settings as the rain was just battering my FPS. Finally got a qually lap in & was 2nd last on the grid... but amongst friends as Team Oldie occupied  three of the last four spots 
Had an early off on the 1st proper lap, then was tanking it to try & catch up. Came round the corner & what looked like a police road blockade was waiting to ambush me. Still cold tyres/still cold brakes & water on the track meant I could do nothing but pile in  . Car was not as damaged as I expected but my lap times suffered with the lack of grip on the front. Spent the rest of the race nowhere near anyone other then when people pitted, till with five laps to go... the car in-front was 50secs ahead but started leaking 10secs per lap to me. It was Matt, I'm not sure what happened, (maybe you thought I was lapping you or low fuel issues?) but you just seemed to leave the door wide open for me to come past under braking to the Bus Stop. So I got through there & held position going round la Source for 12th spot.

[Legzy]

Separately, could anyone tell me why my 'Team Oldie Lister' is showing with Dunlop tyres? The other Lister was on Michelin's last night. While according to the game, all Lister's should be on Michelin's.  Aren't Michelin's the better tyre too?

I did look at the weather around 7:30pm and the magic number was .15 in to wet so I did 3 practice laps offline at 20% wet in the C6R as earlier in this thread it was hinted at as not being too hard to drive (I don't do GT1 very much )

I wonder if you could return the 'easy car' hint favour (no problem  ), with hinting to me where you saw that "magic number was .15 in to wet"? All I could see (& other people it seems) on the weather forecast link, was clear & zero mention of a chance of rain. I don't mind it being wet, if I'd have a sniff of a warning. 

[picnic]

I thought Dave had made the Generate Weather link available to everyone, it's to the right of the weather report link and is the source for the server starter.

That gives an initial condition, although what happens after is to some extent random.

[Joss]

I remember some seasons back when Rusky, Shark and other aliens were talking about having the same setup for wet and dry. I'm (slowly  ) getting to the same conclusion. Ok, flood is extreme, but for a normal wet race you can get away with only tyre and brake ballance change - providing your dry setup is stable and makes the car act predictable. 

Totally agreed, I had done 0 practice on wet for yesterday but my only tweaks on the setup were tyres, brake pressure and one more click of rear wing. Had it not been for the tyre choice...

Interesting, I normally up the pressures a little and maybe click the brake balance back by 0.5 or 1....but I normally do that on the track when I'm driving, not beforehand. Maybe add 1 to the rear wing....but I never touch the braking force - it's always on 100% and I always run 3 braking vents. Then again, TT beat me in my last wet race so I clearly have a lot to learn! 

I would do these events, but I struggle to get back from work in time - so I expect to do enduro's instead.

Congrats to TT & Hal on the inspired tyre choice. I would likely have picked inters as well.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, Jeff does this:

Dry setup - check
Drop slicks, stick on wets.
Go Go Go!

That's what you gotta aim for TT 

[Truetom]

I generally stay away from Rusky's advice as they tend to leave me miserably stuck in the armco... on the second lap.

TT

[Reign Man]

I never change my setup between dry and wet apart from the Lowering the power setting on the diff and it always seems to work out OK for me....

except for yesterday...I tried inters all round.  They worked great on the front, i could break almost in the same place as if it was dry, but it quickly became clear that the rears were failing, it was quite shocking how quick they went off! I think it might be because the fronts were working so well, I nearly lost it a couple of times tuning into a corner so quickly the back end couldn't cope with it.

after the first few laps I had to back off a bit, and it wasn't long before TT was right behind me...thats when I lost the back end.  It was down hill after that, rejoined in 3 and was losing about 1 second per lap.

Then i lost the back end again at Eau Rouge, went wide onto the very slippery bit of tarmac, unfortunately, my team mate Jorgen was chilln' out  at the exit of the pit lane after a spin and I blundered into him, and I span into the track almost collecting Busi. Sorry bout that!    .....Race over.  Luckily at least Jorgen was able to finish the race.

Hopefully the enduro will go better as i had the pace to do well.

RM

[spanner]

(yay i can now access this site from work!)

Interestingly i would have though you would want to raise the power side to help reduce wheel spin, improve traction?


However that and taking off the rear ARB di make it bit understeery, though the Aston was lairy in the dry so needed to calm it down a bit.