UKGTR Season 9 Summer Challenge (GT3) - Spa (2004) - Jun 7

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Replay and results posted.

In qualifying I just couldn't get the Zed working on softs and wasted most of the time trying to work out how I'd managed to transplant the 360 GTC's evil snappish braking oversteer onto the 350. Went back out on medium slicks and immediately felt better. Most odd. In the process I completely forgot to practice the pit entry, so that was going to be an adventure in the race!

During the formation lap I realised that I hadn't opened the radiator vent - it was still at 1 from qualifying. The 350Z isn't bad for engine temps but I was still driving with an eye on them and short shifting a little before the rain came and saved me.

Early race pace was okay, though I lost a fair bit of time when I had to stop to avoid running into Legzy's spun Viper, and traded paint with Michael Boylan's Elise and Gomes's Vertigo, which had gone off along with Ade's Elise, and which unfortunately I bumped into the sand at Stavelot whilst we tried to run through the corner side by side.

Despite all this I soon caught JPS, who as usual was frutratingly slow in the corners and even more frustratingly fast down the straights. Eventually I got a run on him out of Eau Rouge, having dropped back over a second to do so, and once through was able to build up a gap of 4 to 5 seconds before resuming my short shifting regime.

All this time the clouds were getting thicker, and when the sun turned into a watery ball I knew that rain was almost upon us. Luckily that was whilst I was on my in lap so I cancelled my stop and held out until the tyre temperature was dropping rapidly.

Wasn't sure what tyres to change onto but my slicks had remained just about viable so I decided to go for hard wets and risk the rain getting worse. For 20 minutes they were perfect and I was reining in API's 6th place pretty quickly, but with 10 to go the amount of water on the track meant that I was struggling to keep them warm, and had to back off to avoid a major off. Still managed to get 6th when somebody else pitted (Lazlow I think).

Very nice to be back in a car I can actually drive.

Not sure whether this series is going to be viable with just 16 cars on the grid though.

[Linus27]

Linus. I believe that Gazza may have already been on track when you joined the server. This means that he could not see you on the track. I am sure that this is the case as no one bumps people off on purpose here. They would get banned.

We did discuss your comment on TS ("Thanks Gazza") but, I was not watching him or you at the time so we were confused by your comment. I told Gazza that I assume that you had mistaken the driver names. I hope this helps to clear the matter up.

Ah ok, I never knew that happened. It did seem a very odd thing for someone to do so it makes sense if he could not see me. Explains why he just tried to drive straight through as as if he could not see me. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Linus27]

Yes as Ginsters thought i never even saw your car Linus so had no idea what you were talking about and as we were in Qually couldn't ask what had happened coz we are not supposed to chat in qually, Anyway sorry but as i said i never saw or heard anything. I would never do that.

No worries Gazza, it did seem really odd. I nearly quit in frustration as I was on a good lap but pleased I did not, especially as not done on purpose and just seems to be an odd GTR2 thing.

[Truetom]

Been discussing strategy with Tudor and, as he is the "noob", I told him one tank will last 80 mins in the 811. O no it won't Your turn to organise strategy next time mate.

Could have nicked a dodgy (for me, weather just made it a lottery and I got lucky) win apart from strategy but you live and learn. Congrats Gazza, TT and Jon.    

Did you pit once or twice, SBG? Don't know which button toggles the XD display between time gap to the leader and laptimes so I saw only my relation to the previous and the next car. I guess you started on a full tank and I saw you pit in the last lap - did the fuel last that long? Rain certainly extended available time with one tank.  

Sneaky Gazza took my 3rd position, only noticed at the start procedure, lol.    JonM drove away while I was able to follow Gazza and SBG nipping at eachothers heels. The train of three of us proceeded on and on and small mistakes didn't really make a difference. Good driving, guys.    I had just enough fuel to see the rain comming. Took wet tyres and was worried for a time, there was not enough water and temps were getting a bit high. Spun once and it cost my win. Gazza went by and I couldn't close the gap 'till the end.    I guess Jon had a pure dry setup, couldn't drive very well in the wet and SBG finaly pitted  which placed me 2nd. Grats Gazza and JonM.

UKGTR version of this track is very unforgiving, cutting wise. While it's ok in the dry, the cars drift a bit more in the wet and some drivers got cutting penalty when it really wasn't necessary. Could the track be fixed against cutting (n00b here) by rising curbs a bit?  

TT  

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Could the track be fixed against cutting (n00b here) by rising curbs a bit?  

We can't physically modify the track easily, only the cut detection (by changing the AI line).

[ginsters sponsored]

Did you pit once or twice, SBG? Don't know which button toggles the XD display between time gap to the leader and laptimes so I saw only my relation to the previous and the next car. I guess you started on a full tank and I saw you pit in the last lap - did the fuel last that long? Rain certainly extended available time with one tank.  

Two stops, I would have started last lap with 1.6L and it needed 2 to make it I'm sure the 811 use to do 80 mins on one tank but it'll clearly only do that in the wet now. Clearly filling it right up at start was a bit of a boob and I blame Tudor 

[JPS]

Could the track be fixed against cutting (n00b here) by rising curbs a bit?  

We can't physically modify the track easily, only the cut detection (by changing the AI line).

Might be worth considering Dave for the next race at Spa...the standard of driving and ethics is very high at SROU, so there for the only winners will be drivers who get it it wrong through Eau Rouge but manage to save themselves by going wide..loosing time in the process but not getting a unwarranted stop/go

[spanner]

Was surprisingly fun that!

Started behind API and was following him closely hoping for some sort of chance and with Lazlow dropping back it was going to to be fun. Sadly a mistake by me dropped me back a bit out of the action as the softs were going off badly so decided to pit early for mediums but once again got caught out by pitlane speeding even though i'd engaged it well before the lights. And to make matters worse i'd ended up with softs on again It had just started raining but hoped the softs would cope once up to temp in a few laps. Came back round to take the stop-n-go and engaged it almost as i'd gone past the start of the armco. Stupidly i then spend about a minute trying to get the engine started as i must have switched it off automatically as i'd stopped.

Once the softs had dropped of dramatically in the wet and the car was a nightmare and being pretty much last i pitted for soft wets and then found i was lightning fast unlapping myself from Dave and API and H@L was dropping a bit but ended up 90secs ahead.

[JPS]

Despite all this I soon caught JPS, who as usual was frutratingly slow in the corners and even more frustratingly fast down the straights. Eventually I got a run on him out of Eau Rouge, having dropped back over a second to do so, and once through was able to build up a gap of 4 to 5 seconds before resuming my short shifting regime.

I think its called..Slow in...fast out..Dave   ...Eau Rouge was my achilles here :'(

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I think its called..Slow in...fast out..Dave

More like slow in, slow through and slow out and then Porsche Powah down the straights!

[ginsters sponsored]

Is the Lemans race a go-er?  Don't make me watch Last of the Summer Wine please

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Is the Lemans race a go-er?  Don't make me watch Last of the Summer Wine please

Carp, I haven't posted the announcement yet have I. Muppet.