UKGTR Season 9 Lower Endurance (GTC) - Barcelona (GP) - Mar 1

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Ted]

A race of two halves...

Excellent 1st half, tailing Prof and trying to keep ahead of Picnic. Great consistent driving all round. Finally managed a pass on Prof but 1 lap later it was time to pit.

Stupidly got a stop and go speeding penalty and that was that really for the rest of the race. Fell apart slowly and lost place after place towards the end.

Anyway, memorable first 40 minutes  

[Busi]

Very funny race!

It's a shame that you crashed when I rejoined Evert, but at the same time I was rejoining because I had also had a game crash! which made me start from the back in 25th.

First two laps were brilliant, lots of action with 4-5 cars together I somehow managed to use the corner speed of the Vertigo to take wide lines and end up ahead of the battling packs.

Had a very long and tough fight with Simon his Morgan was much faster on straight line and I couldn't overtake even in the slipstream. Most cars were actually much faster on straights

After the pitstops and some more moves I was 5th and catching TT. Almost got him into T1, well kept there mate made an error to lose time but not track position. Ended 5th with teammate winning, nice result

[spanner]

Well.. That was one of the most stressful tiring races ever

Shocked during qually after my first run to be 4th and under 46. Never did a low fuel run beforehand so was completely surprised. Wasnt sure about going the full distance on a tank so decided to split the fuel evenly just to try and minimise the extra wear from full. Started 8th with Shark barely a whisker ahead then had an amazing first half racing with Shark, Legzy, TT, H@L.

then had Spanner's F430 spin in front of me in turn 1 and I dithered for too long about whether to brake or attempt to steer round him and ended up doing neither very well.

Dont think that was me Dave, the first time i saw you, you were just ahead and pulled off just before the back straight.

After TT pitted i lost concentration, I'm not used to being up this high and hit the curb badly through turn 1, spun and got a puncture.   Somehow managed to get round a lap but decided to save time and not repair the damage, just change tyres and fill with fuel.

Came out around 6 sec behind Legzy and was initially sure i could catch him based on the first half but clearly the car had other ideas and was a struggle to drive. Also had Jorgen behind me a lap back but was gaining slowly on JPS slightly ahead. Sorry about being caught up with your battle you two. Then had a close race with Legzy again but managed to spin out under pressure. Not sure if you realised Legzy, Jorgen was a lap back. Then just tried to follow Legzy home, hoping i'd out drag you to the line, nearly!

[Lubi325i]

325i I think, had a spin in front of me in the opening laps and I got collected in the process :'(

Really sorry about that mate, that chicane caught me out a couple of times. Luckily the second time noone was behind me.

[H@L9000]

H@l first, I could see your tyres disintegrating, lol. 

Tell me about it 

The Viper needed to be muted a bit to stop the tyres from reaching the temperature of the Sun. It felt soooooooooooo slow :'(

Was a hard race for me but, I had battles with Spanner, Lazlow, TT and others, so I had fun

Well done podiums, Gazza and Team Pseudo remain in the lead of the championship

[Simon Gymer]

Not convinced that the Z4 is THAT much faster. It's certainly good round the corners, but straight line speed and braking it had nothing on my Morgan for example. Looking at who was at the top in qually and it was the fastest people at the front. Yes in the fastest cars, but still the fastest people. Busi was pretty quick in the Vertigo. I think that circuit was very good for the BMW, but I think it's also very good for the Porsche and never ever has it been a Ferrari circuit. Some cars suit some circuits. The BMW probably has the greatest grip for the corners in that class and that's the only thing that maybe needs a little adjustment imho.

Anyway, onto my race. Boring no-mans land racing interspersed with having first Busi for must have been 10 laps and then Lazlow also for quite a few laps near the end buzzing around my tail trying to find a way past. Was most amusing having a slight advantage on the straight on the Z4 and a bigger advantage against the Vertigo. I don't think I drove defensively once, which was why they found it so difficult to get past. I just drove my line and tried to avoid looking in my mirrors too much.

Finishing 6th was a great result as I thought I'd be 10th or so, yee haaw.

I was eating the tyres too much the first half of the race which saw my lap times go from 1:45 to 1:48s. Second half I used about half as much steering input and tried never to lock the brakes. Worked a treat as I did 1:45s/1:46s consistently to the end.

Wasn't sure whether I could get away with no extra fuel at the pit stop so ended up putting 2 (yes a measly 2) litres in just to be safe. Wasn't really that close in the end LOL.

Anyway, usual awesome quality and closeness of racing in a league here. League racing rocks.

[Legzy]

Great qualifying & race for me last night. A very rare visit to the dizzy heights of the top ten as I both qualified & finished in ninth

So ninth off the grid & glued to Spanner's rear bumper for the 1st 25mins. We both picked up a couple of places as TT & Shark made errors. TT was straight back on me & considering I only normally see TT when he's lapping me, I was chuffed to be able to fend him off for about five laps (till I ran a little wide & flashed him through), I had exactly the same thing with Busi, but while he was testing me Spanner started creeping away from me. Pitted on 40mins, but I hadn't practiced pitting here at all & didn't know where the speed restriction line started. I assumed it was where the pit lights are, immediately as you leave the track... However, watching the replay of others it's become obvious that I lost about 10-15 secs by not accelerating to the correct point much further down the pit lane  & might explain why I seemed to loose so many positions in the pit (I was convinced at the time that about 3 drivers "must be doing a splash & dash in the last few laps & I'd get my places back" as I said on TS  :'()

For some reason, I was never comfortable/confident with the car in the 2nd half of the race & Spanner gradually reeled my 7 seconds advantage back in. So we were able to spend the final 25mins glued to each other again, swapping positions a couple of times (while being attacked from behind by drivers a lap down  ).

Final lap, I don't do the penultimate few corners brilliantly, Spanner is right on my rear for the last corner & gets a better exit... if the finish was just 10 yards further, you'd have had it mate. Great racing through out, not even the slightest rub of paint! 

Congrats to the Aliens at the front.

p.s. Spanner's Porka was definitely faster on the straights/acceleration (& I was only running 4 wing, what did you have Spanner?), while my Z4 seemed quicker on the long corners (turns 3+4 especially). I don't find the Z4 quicker over a lap then the others, I just find I can drive more consistently fast in it.

[spanner]

Really seem to struggle into the that tight left hairpin-type corner so sorry for any problems there.

Wing wise i was running 2-9. I tend not to touch the wing settings now as i cant carry the speed through the corners if i drop it, though i did drop it down one to 9 though that was more of a psychological thing to help on the straight. struggled with the fronts all race, they were wearing more than the rears which is the first time i've seen that.

[Legzy]

So you in the 997 had wing of 2-9
Me in the Z4 with wing settings 2-4
Yet even when I got equal last corner exit to you & was right in your draft, I still couldn't gain on you down the straight. Wow!
The Z4 in an  's hands seems unbeatable, but for us norms, I'd say it was well balanced with the rest.

Really seem to struggle into the that tight left hairpin-type corner so sorry for any problems there.

No problems, having followed so closely for so many laps, I think I knew pretty much how you were going to take each & every corner. Just a shame I was rarely able to take much advantage out of it 

[Josè Arrogantio]

Was gaining two seconds per lap towards the end to Jose. Tyres? Needed just two more laps.  

Tired not Tyres!!!
Only got 2 hour kip saturday night and was about dropping off at the end 
Two more laps and I would have ran out of fuel, pitted early and forgot to add extra

[Roadrunner]

Was a good race, though i never expected to win it...was always 2-3 tenths of Gazzer no matter how hard i tried...

Managed to keep on him for first 14 laps or so, gap was rarely more than a second, but i seemed to lack grip through the final corner, so never able to get close enough into t1...then my tyres must have fallen off much quicker than his...gap was 4-5 secs at the pitstops, an despite going only the 1 lap longer..came out JUST infront...managed to hold on for a while, then the inevitable overtake happened..again managed to tag on to the back..an just hoped for a mistake in traffic or anything..which happened, an i got back the lead an held onto the finish...

Probably not a deserved win, like i said..Gazzer was the faster of us..but ya gotta take what comes...and hats off to the backmarkers..some sound driving from all concerned, even those we came tearing up on having a battle of there own 

[Gazza49er]

Wouldnt say not deserved RR there was nothing between us.

Looks like i need to practise pitstops a bit more, like you said i lost 5-6 seconds in the pits. Was great racing that close to each other, which i think is pretty hard to do. Was pretty happy with 2nd really as i consider you one of the faster guys here and to be on your pace is a good sign.

The times we were doing suprised me though as they were ALOT quicker than anything i'd done before.