UKGTR Season 9 Upper Sprint (GT1) - Oschersleben (GP) - May 5

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

An almost good race from me. Almost allowed Jure past and then was totally taken by surprised when having passed me on the brakes into the final corner I braked at my normal point for turn 1 (where the skid marks start) and ran square into the back of him.

Then almost failed to catch 57Goldtop by running off again before finally getting a mistake out of him and scampering past.

Then almost had a good race with JPS, getting a run on him out of the final corner and braving it out round the outside of T1, only to find that either I didn't leave him enough room or he just couldn't make the corner from the inside line and spun.

Then almost binned it coming out of the last corner and let Jure back past.

Almost 15th. I was catching Craske too.

[H@L9000]

Intense!

Great race again. Good battle with Simon and TT. Gazza was also involved early on and Napo later on.

After making early contact with TT (my fault, not too much damage I hope TT), I decided not to push too hard for an overtake. It proved near imposable to make a clean pass on TT or Simon unless they made a mistake. I decided that maybe I would get a bit more pushy later on but then Napo closed up on us so I could not afford to risk pushing harder. Doh!

I had great fun trying to apply the most amount of pressure possable and nearly lost it a few times from trying to keep the gap rite down. I ended up completely 90 degrees in the opposite direction of the road at turn 1 at one point. Somehow got away with it.

I also went defensive against Simon at one point as I feared he may out brake me. Although looking back it was probably not necessary as it was so hard to pass anyway.

Well done podiums.

[Craske]

pretty average qualy for me ended up in 13th again. Race started well i was keeping up with the pack in front of me then after about 5 laps somebody pit manoeuvred me on the approach to T1 which spun me right onto the race line facing the wrong way with incoming traffic, I tried to move my car off the track but at least 2 people hit me, Very sorry to those guys hope there was no damage. So got going again and managed to make my way back to 14th where i was in no mans land for a while 13secs away from car in front and 7 secs for the car behind. just settled at an average pace until the last few laps where i noticed the car behind me was reeling me in so i picked up the pace again and finished in 14th.

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Simon Gymer]

Qualified a mighty 4th, dunno how I managed that but heck, not complaining. Really get on well with Oschers and my Sprint Series car, the Lambo, suits it for outright lap times, but not at all for racing. The complete lack of straight line speed made overtaking almost impossible. Started ok, steady, but reasonably quick with Lazlow behind looked like he was going to keep me company, but I made a stupid error early on going through the double apex fast left hander and strayed onto the grass losing me 2 places. This put me behind arch-nemesis Truetom in his Ford GT and down to 6th.

Good down the straights but so slow through the corners and into the braking Truetom was really holding me up (god damn it ). I was having to try so hard to get a run on him out of a corner to give me a chance to outbrake that I made another quick error (I think it was out the back on the big kerbs) that saw Hal go through and I dropped to 7th.

I then spent half of the race trying to get past Hal who's even faster Ferrari was awesome down the straights, but again rubbish in the corners and not so great under brakes either. Was a mighty tussle where at one point I'd got round the outside on the second part of the first corner only for Hal to say no sir you ain't getting through that way. Eventually he made a mistake on the big curbs out the back and I outbrake him at the end of the back straight.

With only minutes left I stormed towards Truetom desperate to get at least 5th back. He was painfully slow around the corners now, even more than before. Must have been losing 1-2 seconds a lap stuck behind, but his straight line speed was almost impossible to combat, even the best run meant I could just grab his slipstream and sometimes get enough to be really close into the next corner. I was following so close behind at times that the network jitter on his car was being a pain as I had to let off the throttle a number of times to avoid the minute warps.

Last lap and Truetom, myself and Hal were stuck together like glue whilst Napo watched from behind ready to pick up the peices. I got a good run down the main straight and kept in TTs slipstream pulling out to put him off into braking for T1. No way by there, but we got really close and the mini-warp was just enough to cause proper contact and see me off into the gravel as the contact on my right front sent me out of control. Sorry for the contact, but I think if the jitters had not been there that would have just been a close shave and line me up for a possible slingshot for an outbrake at the next corner. Anyway as I was behind that was my fault so apologies. it wasn't meant to be and I lost all 3 places sending me to a dissapointing 8th from 4th on the grid.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the epic battles with Hal and TT, it really was great fun and hats off to you both for great driving. I'll get you next time!

I was going to do one series in iRacing (Daytona Prototype) this season, but I enjoyed that so much that I may not bother with any iRacing at all. The enjoyment just doesn't come close to this so why waste time on something else.

Lobby was slow tonight and the mass disco in qually shows the networking stuff in GTR2 to be the culprit to these random CTDs I reckon and network jitters. Picnic and Gizmo both said they had jittery cars too on TeamSpeak. Most frustrating that Tuesday night seems so bad for online racing.

[Simon Gymer]

P.S. Well done podium, great win Ginsters in that nasty MC12. Also great to see Jon back and not have to very nobley give his place up for a championship contender like he did on Sunday.

[phspok]

Could have been fun, tapped Caske into t1 having misjudged his braking, then threw myself off into the fence  a lap later
and got a puncture, end of race

[H@L9000]

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the epic battles with Hal and TT, it really was great fun and hats off to you both for great driving. I'll get you next time!

Nice one mate. It was great fun. The next track is uncharted territory for all us I think so it certainly will be interesting.

Interestingly, the only person that can knock me off the podium in the championship now is Gazza So for next race its go team Psuedo (except Gazza ).

[Napo]

Well once again people's worry of rain brought me to the tuesday sprint race in hope for fun in the race...once again I was left disappointed.

As usual I decided to stick it out. 1st time driving the lambo and didn't practice. Was reasonably happy with my qual time, I felt I could have gone much faster. Start went well, I quickly dropped off from the guys ahead of me and slowly tried to learn the lambo. The gap to TT, Hal and Simon dropped to 5 seconds before TT started making them go backwards. That's when I was able to close in on them all and join the battle. Not really being that much faster I opted to drive with caution and hope for a mistake on their part. Got one car and almost got another car in the end. Was nice to watch the battle from the back, they were really going at it!

Congrats to Ginsters in holding off Jon in their dominating performance. and congrats to Jose for completing the podium.

[JPS]

Then almost had a good race with JPS, getting a run on him out of the final corner and braving it out round the outside of T1, only to find that either I didn't leave him enough room or he just couldn't make the corner from the inside line and spun.

Don't particulary like this track, however tried to make the most of it. Some good battles with Jure (who seemed to keep letting me take the lead by throwing himself off the circuit then re joining) and Gizmo..it was close going into that corner Dave and rather than risk taking you out by accident (cock pit view wasn't quite sure if you had a enough room) I decided to brake too aggressively and induced a slight spin, which then allowed Jure through as well.

Not looking forward to racing here again

[ginsters sponsored]

Crikey that was tough, but good

Chuffed with new pb in quali but noticed Jon was getting faster and faster. As usual it was just a case of hanging on, sometimes for dear life  , in the MC12 during race. Jon made a couple of mistakes which should have given me breathing space but I was pretty poor if he wasn't up my chuff. Hence we went to nose to tail for the whole race. Think he quickly twigged that, thx to the narrow track and extra maserati grunt, that a mistake was his best chance to get by. Luckily I didn't make too many and held him up even with some slippery tyres in end.

Its getting quite a theme of good quali and holding on, which is fine when the MC12 has the advantage as it did here and at Silverstone. Sure the Lambo boys are gonna have revenge soon and it wont be pretty.

Congrats to Jon, Jose and the fast improving Lazlow, the best of team Oldie . Nice to some new faces and a decent grid as well. I'm not sure Jon would agree, but maybe, just maybe, this combo might have just worked. Thank gawd it stayed dry. Good work Dave

[Jure]

After initial "I'll just watch" idea I've decided to join the race 5 mins in quali session.

No prior practice at all. Tweaked gears on (the only existing) GT's Silverstone setup and off we went.

Poorly.

Was learning the track in quali and througout the race and memorising stuff to fix in setup.

Sorry if I scared you Gizmo, it was an ambitious move and I felt sorry (i.e. guilty) for your spin.

Endurance in sorted car should be fun, one can race here imho.

[Truetom]

I'm not really proud of my racing here last night. Can't even say I enjoyed it too much, though this track is fabulous, if demanding.    Yes, ok, leading a train of 4 cars, fending off Shark and H@l, that was good. But I was going deliberately slow through the corners, not wanting to make a mistake and then make a drag race to the next corner. Since I was still theoretically in game for GT1 title I came with a plan to snatch as many points as I can, since Busi was missing the event. I was never ever as close to the title in GT1, so this wasn't just a random race for me. Was counting on more points but with aliens in front this was as good as it gets. And I had no intention to let off any positions - hence the slow coach and careful driving. Too many times to count Oschers had spit me away in the Esses. 

I must thank Shark and H@l and Napo for their patience. Oh, and Gazza for his timely mistake. 
Micro warps, Shark? Might not be so. You were folowing closely and through that long, slow right hander (2nd corner) and others as well, I had to steer with the throttle as well as with the wheel, so it might be this slower-faster movement that caused our contact(s) - once or twice you were even more gentle than my wife. 

Anyways, since I didn't get enough points with my 5th place I'd like to congratulate to Busi for his GT1 title.     I still need to beat H@l to be 2nd overall, while Gazzer is to far for me, though he can still catch H@l for 3rd. Go, Team Psuedo, have a fight for 3rd and leave me be! 

@Jure: Ford GT is a great car, but no setup for Oschers means rallycross.    This track is too mean to just come and drive.

TT

P.S. Gazza, your car was still doing some small warping but it was noticably better than at Silverstone. 

[Blunder]

Congrats to Jon, Jose and the fast improving Lazlow, the best of team Oldie .

Deaply offended! 
but I'm guessing that was directed at Legzy! 

That was a fantastic race!
Was in a 4 car train for 9th to 12th, Napo, Gazza, Spanner and me ( I think! )
I was hassling Spanner all the way but only a mistake was going to give me any hope of a pass!
I think it was Gazza who had some sort of incident which left spanner and I to race together.
Must have been between 20 to 30mins we ran bumper to bumper! That was just fantastic!
Over that time I figured out that braking into the right hander after the back straight was about the only place where I always closed up!
So tried to be patient and eventually the slightest run onto the rumble strips by Spanner the corner before that gave me a better run up to that corner. Braked later than him and only just got away with a sort of block pass!
Pulled out a couple of seconds and held off the recovering Gazza by a couple of car lengths at the end!
Awesome! really enjoyed it!

Never done well in GT1's so was really pleased with 9th given the standard of drivers here!

Thanks all

M.

[Simon Gymer]

Micro warps, Shark? Might not be so.

Yeah I've seen it before, it's like the car is shivering almost. It gets worse the closer you get. Perhaps it was just your fear as I got close that was causing you to shiver?