UKGTR Season 10 Upper Endurance - Zhuhai - Jul 19

[Ade]

Race was over quite early for me when Picnics stuck car got me doing aerobatics landed on my roof and didn't have the auto recovery on.

[Truetom]

Made some 50 laps in the Marcos, trying some desperate settings I never used before. Seems like it payed off. The car is awesomly powerful, so I was working on stability mostly.
Came 3rd in Q2, much to my surprise. Sure enough Freq was 1 sec and sbg 0,6 sec faster, but they're from somewhere out there.  I wouldn't think it possible to accomplish this a few months back - and it wouldn't be without fixing the brakes. Again, thanks to all who made it possible. Though - this track was suited to Marcos, might be different elsewhere.

Stewprovo was close and only to my mighty engine was I able to stay in front. Marcos may not be good to catch others, but it's great to stay in front.    SBG was easing away and the gap to 4th was growing slowly, so I concentrated on braking oversteer - less than before, but still present, though it can be handled now and I hope to transform this weakness into advantage. Need more laps.

GTC were great, letting me by eagerly. One thing about Marcos is that it doesn't like going off driving line. Becomes unstable, locks up and drifts all over. I think Legzy had a scary moment in T7 and Lazlow wisely let me have the racing line in T1.  

Two Legends had accidents, too bad. Speed differences were scary and it was difficult to judge weather to push or wait for the next straight. I was trying to do it safely, though, as I said - off line...  Glad you could make it, Colin. Hope you have time/will to race with us.

Bad luck SBG, you had 2nd place secured.    Grats to podys.

I did enjoy driving the Viper but its not easy.

Wanna try Marcos?  You might also consider it, Gazza.  Would be glad to have a session with you guys (or any) so you can at least decide knowingly. Marcos is much better now. And THE ROAR!
TT

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Did a few laps of practice on Saturday and I'm glad I did - spent the hour before the race, when I was expecting to be practising, trying to persuade Windows Server Update Services to stop mullering my bandwidth.

Spent most of qualifying working on my race setup, and did one brief run right at the end on low fuel to jump up a couple of grid slots. During the opening laps there was a gaggle of 5 or 6 of us but after a few laps that started to spread out and I was able to pull away from 57GoldTop and Fish Tail.

By half distance my tyres were starting to go off a little so I popped into the very busy pit lane for fresh boots and more go go juice. Think I came out dead last in class but of course gradually moved back up the order as others pitted and a few came to sticky ends. Was very lucky not to get collected by Spanner's stuck Aston and hurridly called it out over TeamSpeak to the other Sharks.

After Stewprovo's stop I thought I was in with a shot of catching him, but after a few laps he started to pull away and I had to concentrate on keeping my pace up to avoid getting caught by Gazza.

After taking the flag I watched various cars cross the line and saw GoldTop pit at the end of his last lap. We guessed he didn't realize the race was over so I used chat to encourage him to drive to the line before quitting - wouldn't have wanted him to lose a lap if he didn't twig what was going on.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

ps. GTCs were excellent and I tried not to be too aggressive, though I think my poor braking performance into the slower corners nearly had one or two rear end me in surprise.

The one place I was cursing people for trying to let me through was on the outside of the flat out right hand kink after the chicane; you just can't go through there flat out off line and I had a couple of hairy moments getting flashed through there when I would've been happy to wait for the slow right after it or even the kinked straight after that. Not a problem getting flashed through on the right side there although the cars concerned must've lost a fair bit of time slowing to make the corner themselves.

The closing speeds were pretty impressive but IMHO it made lapping safer by making it easier to pass under power down the straights. The GTCs were pretty quick in the slower corners so there wasn't much frustration factor when waiting for a corner or two before going past.

[Legzy]

Very much enjoyed that kick off to the new season.

Settled on F430 that I skinned last season with only five mins to go before the event started. Didn't manage to get more then half a lap in P1 as I was faffing   But set a PB on my 1st timed lap & then managed to improve it again! So was surprised to only be 7th GTC on the grid

While under the close attention of Colin, I followed Ade till he had a moment at the double left hander & we both slipped through. Then I tracked down Psuedo as I managed to pull away a little from Colin. We stayed like that for a good few laps till Psuedo was taken out by a lapper from his own team! So again I slipped through.

Was running well, but I lost 20 seconds & received front end damage when I came together with Prof. I was letting a lapper through at T1 & continued the turn totally unaware that Prof had not only caught me somehow but was sneaking up the inside too . Sorry Prof, I've not seen the replay to see exactly what happened, my car seemed to suddenly jerk right (so I wonder if I placed half a tyre on the grass?) & bam I hit you. It was somewhat of a shock as I hadn't seen you & couldn't hear your car for the noise of the GT1. So sorry mate, but as you'd long gone by the time I recovered I assume you were OK?

Decided not to repair the damage & held on to third GTC spot from the moment I'd left the pits, despite Lazlow managing to get the gap down to only one second from the fifteen when he finished his stop. Nice driving mate, you'd of had me if you'd pitted a couple of laps earlier! Good result for the team though, pushing the Shark Teams points total already.  

Finished third overall which I'm very pleased with, but can't help but think it would have been 2nd without the crash as API was only 6-8 seconds ahead the whole 2nd half of the race. No matter, enjoyed the race  

Well done all the podium guys tonight & a thanks to all the lappers who displayed patience tonight. I thought the GT1+GTC mix worked well. Not a massive difference through the corners, but it was very easy to set themselves up to out accelerate me at corner exit. Appreciated all the guys doing that  

[Simon Gymer]

There was only one place I had confusion whilst being lapped and that was out of the 2nd/3rd/4th gear double left handers about 2/3s the way around. You have to pull from the right hand side where the exit of second corner is over to the left quite soon for the next tight right hander and there were a few times where I got caught there. I wanted to go over to the racing line but ended up in one of those moves where you start pulling one way, see the GT1 pull that way, then pull back, see the GT1 do the same thing and then end up looking like your weaving to stop them coming through LOL. Very confusing. I like to stay on the racing line most of the time when letting people through as it's predictable, but that corner you have to go from one side to the other so it becomes tricky.

[Prof]

Was running well, but I lost 20 seconds & received front end damage when I came together with Prof. I was letting a lapper through at T1 & continued the turn totally unaware that Prof had not only caught me somehow but was sneaking up the inside too . Sorry Prof, I've not seen the replay to see exactly what happened, my car seemed to suddenly jerk right (so I wonder if I placed half a tyre on the grass?) & bam I hit you. It was somewhat of a shock as I hadn't seen you & couldn't hear your car for the noise of the GT1. So sorry mate, but as you'd long gone by the time I recovered I assume you were OK?

I would have to look at the replay too Legzy as things were a bit busy in that corner. I think four of us, two from each class went into turn one and as I was about to accelerate out, Jose lost it right in front of me causing me to hesitate momentarily on the gas to avoid him but meaning you probably accelerated sooner and nudged me - I thought the contact was with Jose as I tried to miss him and I was mystified to see two cars spinning in my mirrors. Racing incident as far as I am concerned. Please tell me where you recruit your pit crew as your pitting lap was 40 seconds faster than mine 

I enjoyed the futile chase of Lazlow in the other Z4 for a while in both halves of my race and spent the rest of the race trying to keep out of the way of the GT1s on the straights and trying not to rear end them if they caught me near the corners where my Beemer was excellent.

Nice to be racing again and congrats to all the podium winners.

p.s. It would be nice to get a few non-Shark moderators for GTR2. Please pm me if you are interested. You do not need to be an 'alien' to be an effective moderator and it helps keep the driving standards here remarkably high.

[goldtop]

After taking the flag I watched various cars cross the line and say GoldTop pit at the end of his last lap. We guessed he didn't realize the race was over so I used chat to encourage him to drive to the line before quitting - wouldn't have wanted him to lose a lap if he didn't twig what was going on.

Thanks for that Dave I needed to take a stop go on my last lap otherwise I guess I'd have been dq'd. Just lucky that my garage was before and not after the finish line

[Josè Arrogantio]

I was about to accelerate out, Jose lost it right in front of me

I think you mean goldtop 

[goldtop]

I was about to accelerate out, Jose lost it right in front of me

I think you mean goldtop 

Lost it? Coming out of a corner? After lapping GTCs? Me?

........apologies to all

[Prof]

I was about to accelerate out, Jose lost it right in front of me

I think you mean goldtop 

Many apologies Jose - it was something fast and red and scarily sideways. I must learn to drive with those label things on 

[H@L9000]

Wanna try Marcos?  

I will check it out again but, I had real trouble in that thing in my previous attempts at driving it. See how it goes.

Do you want to upload your set up from last night?

[Truetom]

Will do. It's named "Marcos-Zhuhai-q-TT", will be in Zhuhai directory.

[JPS]

didn't help things when I got shunted up the rear by a GT1 car whilst on the racing line in the braking zone severe rear end damage..undrivable..race over..

Sorry JPS, that was me, thought that the gap you left on left hand side was for me, only to see it very quickly dissappear.

No worries Stewprovo, would of expected a pass on the inside right on a right hand turn...just one of those things

[H@L9000]

Will do. It's named "Marcos-Zhuhai-q-TT", will be in Zhuhai directory.

Thanks mate.

Will try it out in the next couple of days.