UKGTR Season 9 Upper Sprint (GT1) - Silverstone (GP 2000 ) - Apr 21

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

My network connection tottally binned out to rob me of going on to further enjoy the practice tonight.

Ah, one moment you were about to come barrelling past me and the next you were gone.

I had my own drama. Swapped my 8800GT back into my games box from my workstation, moving my older but still perfectly serviceable Radeon 1900XT the other way. Big mistake. When I built the machine I had nothing but trouble, which I originally put down to a bad PSU, but, no, it really is a piece of carp. Frozen screen somewhere around Abbey; eventually it unfroze and I was able to Alt-Tab around until I had control again, losing two places.

Then it froze again when I quite GTR2 and I had to reset blind with the three fingered salute. Pff.

[lazlow]

That was a good race tonight...very close lap times!! Felt like I was 2 secs behind Purdie most of the race 
Sorry about the bump Jose you braked a tad earlier than me into Abbey and I couldn't slow the beast down 
Congrats to the podies!!

See you soon!!

[goldtop]

A miserable race for me. I seemed to lose grip very quickly on meds and was sliding about all over the place in the vette after only a couple of laps. I had to take a stop/go for corner cutting which was for running wide which cost me even more time fumbling around in the pits.

Hope for a better race next time

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Josè Arrogantio]

Never driven Silverstone Northampton before this afternoon so was really pleased to qualify 4th. 
Was having a good battle with Purdie but we were slowing each other down and this allowed lazlow to catch us. Purdie slipped past after me and lazlow made contact at Abbey and I started pushing to try and get my 4th place back. Managed to close the gap a bit but then dropped it on the exit of Abbey on the net lap. Just got too much kerb and spun in to the bridge at Bridge. 

[Busi]

What a race! Don't stop having brilliant races here lately

Started 2nd, SbG did a brake test on me when we were gonna release the limiter (I think he released it a bit too early then he noticed, I almost tapped him as I'd followed him right after he'd released it lol).

I chose soft fronts / med rears to have more or less equal tyre wear and not struggle with rear grip at the end of the race. Instead, this cost me a lot of hard work in the beginning laps, I had no rear grip at all! Had to make many corrections, one of them before Hanger Straight which allowed RR to close on me and I let him through. Then I started to find the grip and got used to the car, RR had exactly the same problem as me two laps later in same corner (Chapel) so then I closed on him and he let me through

Started the chase on SbG who was about 4 seconds ahead. He was going fast, was very hard to try and close on him, was gaining 2-3 tenths per lap.

With 10 laps to go I was right behind, but couldn't find a place to make the move, I was not faster enough I could barely keep his pace! Then with two laps to go I tried to outbrake him in Stowe but didn't work, bit too late and went wide, he retained the lead, good stuff! all over the place for those last two laps, couldn't make it. We finished 1 tenth apart though

Grats mate great racing

[purdie]

unexpected result and tough race so happy with that  

After driving the 911 so much in this and the R24-7 league I haven't had much GT1 Aston practise. Got some practise in late this afternoon and found a great setup to reduce this cars understeer. Problem is front tyres paid for it and I finished with mediums all round but fronts at 25 wear    

Managed 5th in quali with a one-off mad lap.... the five people behind me were quicker or equal in S1 and S2 but I was quick in S3. Was with Jose at the beginning and we had some great side by side racing and Lazlow joined the mix. I slipped past while they were battling and Jose disappeared from my mirrors (unlucky mate  ).... then Lazlow just sat on my backside till the flag  

Great pressure mate, I really could not relax for a split second...we ran 44s all the time  

Grats Ginsters and my two team-mates on the podium Busi and Roadunner......great pace  

[ginsters sponsored]

Started 2nd, SbG did a brake test on me when we were gonna release the limiter (I think he released it a bit too early then he noticed, I almost tapped him as I'd followed him right after he'd released it lol).

Guilty as charged, sorry for that and well avoided. I really couldn't work out where lap started and made a right rollicks of it. That apart, I enjoyed that.

Really couldn't decide which car to take before race as Lister, Lambo and MC12 were all about same pace for me and really feared the MC12 would kill me in race, as usual. Still, can't resist a challenge and went with it anyways. Knew it would be quick in quali and I really should have knicked the record off of Freq but rather ballsed up it up, never disappointed with pole mind

Decided to go soft/med combo as the more oversteery the better for me around here. Thought that meant I had to gap those behind before I ran outta grip and for first 25 laps I managed to do that. But boy did Busi come back at me after that To be honest I'm not sure how I managed to hold him off and I really thought he had me at Stowe where I was very luck he ran wide after. Unfortunately, it didn't take him long to get back up to me with only two laps to go. He made a little mistake on final lap and I drove beautifully/safely to finish (in reality I took it too cautiously, he was flying and I had to defend inside line in final turn to make it ). Really enjoyed that and my return to GTR2 so far.

Not sure to be more chuffed about beating Legzy (its been an age) or grabbing my first win in the MC12 after so many disasters in it, especially last time out around Silverstone where I got rightly done for cutting. On my best behaviour tonight and having a driveable MC12 this time out helped  Hope to catch you all next time.

[Truetom]

Couldn't get enough speed, this is really not my circuit.    Small mistakes cost me going higher up and later there were tyre troubles, so... 
Grats pody. 

TT

[Mark J]

A race of two halves for me last night. This track is amazingly fast, you really feel your going at breakneck speed here in a GT1 and always one moment away from a huge off !!

Qualied a respectable 8th, was in the top 5 most of the session, which amazed me.

Car felt pretty good in the race for the first 25 mins and i stayed on the tail of the top 6 ahead for a while. Then i ran wide up at Priory with the bucket load of understeer i couldnt dial out in praccy and dropped about 3 places 
Then had some great battles with the two sexy looking Prodigy Aston Martins (look ace in those skins) and a flying H@L in his F575? for many laps until i got a huge power oversteer 180 in the middle of Club with a big old cloud of tyre smoke and lost another couple of places 

From the 25minute mark onwards my car just got progressively more oversteery as the tyres wore out, despite running med fronts and hard slick rears !  It would seem my 8 rear wing was fine with grippy tyres but nowhere near enough once they reached the 15-23 wear rate. For the last 10 mins of the race the car just basically tried to kill me at every corner combo and i started dropping 2 secs a lap.  :'( Fortunately i had a 20 second gap over the next car down.
I nearly caught Oily and stewprovo at the end but couldnt attack enough on the tyres. Finished 10th.

Out of interest, what rear wing did most of you run with ? I had 8 which i thought was the right compromise between the high speeds needed and the fast corners but this place needs a fair bit of downforce and now i know i should have gone higher still.

[Legzy]

Not sure to be more chuffed about beating Legzy (its been an age) or grabbing my first win in the MC12 after so many disasters in it

Beating Busi & the rest of the field is obviously small-time compared to beating me!
Great to see you doing a couple of GTR2 races recently Ginsters, now let me see what your pace is like in GTC/GT2's?

Then had some great battles with the two sexy looking Prodigy Aston Martins (look ace in those skins)

Funniest thing I've read all week! You've been staring at 'that green' too long & need your eyes testing MJ

[lazlow]

Out of interest, what rear wing did most of you run with ? I had 8 which i thought was the right compromise between the high speeds needed and the fast corners but this place needs a fair bit of downforce and now i know i should have gone higher still.

I ran my rear wing at 10, seemed to give me the best grip without being over twitchy through the corners.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Then had some great battles with the two sexy looking Prodigy Aston Martins (look ace in those skins)

Funniest thing I've read all week! You've been staring at 'that green' too long & need your eyes testing MJ

I kept warning Picnic to stay away from them in case he got radiation sickness!

[Stewprovo]

Out of interest, what rear wing did most of you run with ? I had 8 which i thought was the right compromise between the high speeds needed and the fast corners but this place needs a fair bit of downforce and now i know i should have gone higher still.

Was running 2 front 5 rear in the Aston, running meds fr+re, lasted whole race, even with loads of understeer after heavy front contact at end with Oily.

[Busi]

2-7 for me, made me have some oversteer, probably 2-8 would've been better with the soft/med combo