UKGTR Season 10 Upper Endurance - Suzuka (GP) - Aug 2

[Josè Arrogantio]

At the start I rolled up behind ginsters and put my limiter on but my car seemed to be going faster than his. 
I had to lift a couple of times as I was starting to draw alongside, just seems a bit strange.
Sorry to Smokey. I moved right just as you moved right and braked to let me passed, glad to see you didn’t hit the wall.

Followed him again for the rest of the race but he always had a buffer of catching cars in the right places or so it seemed. 

Nothing to do with skill then. 

Well done Busi   

[Gazza49er]

Nothing to do with skill then.  

No lol 

[Busi]

I really enjoyed the race even if I lapped alone all the time. Just getting my way through the backmarkers who were good fun to lap and who I thank cause letting through at some parts of this track is very tricky

Quali: good laptime but felt it could've been a little faster yet, pole position anyway from FreQ who did a brilliant laptime with the Viper at this track

1st stint: push push push push - little mistake - push push push - 10 second advantage at the pitstop time.

Into the pits comes FreQ together with me, looks like he lost a bit of time so I could rejoin nearly 15 seconds ahead of him, even if I had trouble with the pitstop request - freaking mechanic staying there for like 5 seconds before getting the rig in! And I exited the pits with Stewprovo coming right with me into T1. When I saw he wasn't lifting at all I braked hard but he went very wide lol sorry mate if I disturbed you.

2nd stint: pushing hard again but I overcooked the rears all the time and I started doing some mistakes, I think 3 spins in 2 laps luckily I was still 5 seconds in the lead and decided to take it easy, it was 12 seconds at the end of the race

Grats podiums and thanks all for another cool race

[H@L9000]

Oh yes, forgot to say; sorry for bumping you in the pits FreQ

Pit box rite in front of mine and entering the box just as I am leaving mine = Viper paint swap patches.

Well done podiums. 

[Truetom]

The way it powered away fro me, can't wait to see that beast at Monza TT. You deserve a track were its unstoppable for putting the effort in. 

I like driving this car, sbg, even if it's a bit hard to navigate through the corners. Flooring it involves all sorts of correcting and swearing. Though I think I evened it out a bit with the settings.

Hard work in the Viper and beaten by TT in the Marcos again (not so badly this time though), but fun none the less.

Is this the measurement of your driving or mine?

Sorry for spinning in front of you TT. I could see you could not avoid me after that.

Lol, I thought if anyone's gonna spin there it would be me...

After qualifiying 10th with a pb I thought I didn't have a chance here, so I'm very satisfied with 5th place. Should be 6th, but I got the place from Mike through traffic involvement. Good stuff, Mike, nice racing. I saw you had a hard work, lol, even F550 only followed Marcos while slipstreaming and fell behind otherwise. Hard to prepare conditions to overtake in this situation. Though sbg made it easy to overtake me. Twice.

GTCs were real gents, making way asap. I thought it was gonna be harder to overtake, though power difference made it a bit easier, even if braking was sometimes a bit scary.

Grats to podys.

Going away for a few days, comming back for next enduro. 

TT

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

8th was more than I could really hope for after finding myself so far off the pace; things started well with half of the GT1 cars chucking themselves off in the opening laps, but after that they were streaming through like I was in a GTC. Car held up well for 35 minutes on medium fronts and hard rears but at the end of the first stint I was struggling and eventually picked up a cut warning in the final chicane trying not to let Ginsters past, and then ran off and damaged the front in the hairpin trying not to let H@l past.

After the latter I was only a lap or two away from my intended stop anyway so I pitted immediately. The plan had been to take fuel only, but with the damage I decided to take on fresh rubber as well whilst they repaired my splitter. I think that was the correct decision, but unfortunately the extra time lost was the difference between finishing ahead of H@l and behind him. Picked up another cut warning at the final chicane trying to lap some GTCs - just couldn't get the braking right there all race so I had to back off a bit after that.

Last lap was rather "exciting" - as the final car on the lead lap I was under no pressure from behind, but I was coming up to lap four GTCs, two of which were Sharks. In the process of trying to insert myself appropriately to help Prof in particular stay ahead of Lazlow, Picnic ran wide and it turned into chaos for the last few corners.

[Blunder]

CTD between it clicking over from quali to race!
Could not rejoin.
Had travelled back from Watford early especially for this race!
How frustrated am I  :'(

[Stewprovo]

And I exited the pits with Stewprovo coming right with me into T1. When I saw he wasn't lifting at all I braked hard but he went very wide lol sorry mate if I disturbed you.
Grats podiums and thanks all for another cool race

Sorry mate, all my own doing, was still annoyed with myself for making a strategy mistake again, and trying to push too hard with a damaged rear on the car. I should have just backed off and let you go, but the red mist came down. I'm sorry for that mate.

[Jure]

Right. Haven't raced in a while and it showed. Bigtime. Did some practice in the afternoon and made a semi-agreeable setup.

Quali - no clean lap but who cares, am getting used to spinning off on lap 1 so it's irrelevant anyway.  

Trouble is I've managed to punt Ginsters into the gravel in T1-T2 while performing my standard lap 1. My bad. Of course he went off bigtime so whole grid passed us by while waiting for him to get out of kitty litter. Sigh.

Was fun carving through GTC class later on (guys - GT1s CAN wait for the twisty bits to end in order to pass, no hurry) and trying to catch GT1 class. But... well, let's say it went something like this: gain 2 seconds, gain 2 seconds, do a 2.04 or so lap, gain 2 seconds, gain 2 seconds, 2.05, etc etc.  

Loved watching Jose/Gazza duel for P3 in later stages of the race, they were both on seriously sucky tyres IMHO (drove right behind them which was kind of frustrating, my pace was actually faster but blue flag became real PITA so I opted to let them by and watch'em race instead. Gazza would get Jose if race was a bit longer. ).

All in all it was a terrible race, at least on paper. Must have made 15 mistakes, chucking it into the gravel trap at last chicane while being on the in-lap to the pits topped it off, but by that time I was laughing at myself so I guess it was alright

Still huge fun. Suzuka rocks bigtime.

Edit: did a recount - 21 mistakes (missed apexes not included, of course). Must be a record.

[Jure]

Oh, forgot to add two observations:

Gizmo, I drove behind you in free practice and quali, your car was... how should I put it... pulsating forwards/backwards if you know what I mean. Longitudinal movement of about a meter, perhaps a bit more. Very weird.

Jose's car going faster than Ginsters prior to race start on pit-limiter - confirmed, was right behind and could see Jose closing in on Ginsters. Huh? Fezza must have bigger wheel diameter, that would confuse tachometer.   

[Legzy]

I managed to put in loads more practice time then I've been able to most events recently. It's very easy to find time to practice a track like that! Awesome track choice!

Having spent quite some time on the server over the weekend, at one point or another I'd seen most of the other GTC drivers & I was confident of a decent result. But then I shocked myself with my qually PB which was also my 1st ever official lap record  (later followed by the race lap record too )

I was aware Simon was back in forth GTC spot on the grid, but with two Oldie team mates between us, I hoped I'd get enough laps to build up a good cushion before he got through both Lazlow & API. Unfortunately he got past them both on lap three & I watched as he began chipping away at my lead. It didn't take him long as I bottled it on the fast left hander near the end of lap six, I went slightly wide & put a couple of wheels on the grass  & he slipped through  . Simon then managed a few good laps while his softs were still in peak condition (I guess). But as his tyres went off, my mediums were still doing the business & I was soon back on his tail. My Fezza was quicker through the twistys, but his Morgan had the straight line advantage. That's always going to be a recipe for a difficult time getting past, but I also knew Simon was a smart racer & would not be gifting me the pass any time soon. How right I was. I have to say, the few times I got a chance to have a look if there was a hint of a gap for me.... you closed of any glimmer of hope instantly. To say I was impressed was an understatement!

He pitted quite early & I knew he'd be well drilled on his pit stop too, so i tried to force some quick laps in to jump past. I ended up with very average laps as by this point my tyres were now past their best too. Pitted as planned, it went well but as I came out the pits, a gaggle of cars came flying past & Simon was among them  . I knew at that point my only hope was that his tyres would go off allowing me to get through near the end.

I chased & chased, getting his lead down to half a second even at one point, but what with lapping cars, my now over-heating oil, water & tyres  ... I was having to be a bit careful every third lap to keep them all healthy We got to half way around what turned out to be the second last lap & twigged that I had at absolute best, one more full careful lap of fuel left . With over 90 seconds back to the next car, I did the smart thing, eased right back & settled for second. In fairness, I think that even with fuel & another hour of driving, there's no way I was going to get past him. Nice drive Simon.

Well done to all podiums. Gutted for Blunder & MJ, both being on the server in qually but not being able to race. Both are normally good rivals in GTC too 

Only two races in, but the Team Championship is shaping up nicely!

[Legzy]

Lazlow seemed to stop twice though (speeding in the pits?), as he seemed to be leading after the pit stops, only to come in the next lap again.

He booked his pitstop, tried to get in his stall around a car parked in the stall before his, but no amount of maneuvering would get his crew to carry out his stop. So he had to do another lap & try again. He was gutted as it effectively ended his race for the podium spots.

[Mike Hammer]

Well, that went about as I expected, only a little worse. Always the same thing at Suzuka: I love the track, except for the chicane, but I can't stay on it for an entire race. I guess I have a subconscious desire to play in the sand or something.

I haven't fired up GTR since, I dunno, 2008 sometime maybe, but for this race I got in a fair amount of practice. I thought it had payed off rather well, got 7/10 laps in the 53's my last TT practice stint, with full gas. My favorite part of perhaps any track is the first section before the chicane, but come race time, I couldn't nail a single lap like I wanted to, in that section. Always messed it up in one way or another. Drenched in sweat, gripping the steering wheel hard as I could, I guess I needed to relax a bit  . I'll work on that.

Still had some good laps, good fun, first following FreQ, then with Gazza and Jose, then with Tom later in the race. That, whatever it was  , that Tom was driving, it sure took off when straights opened up. Lovely sound too. Still, did you have it geared properly, as I seemed to catch up in the latter part of the straights? Maybe it was just the slipstream.

Very sorry for the bumps to FreQ and Tom, both in the same spot braking for the chicane. I'm not sure what happened there, I was on the brakes early enough and I had them floored most of the distance. I guess I might have had (too much) power on, even though I didn't mean to.


Grats to podium. Busi has some really fast records now.

[ginsters sponsored]

Trouble is I've managed to punt Ginsters into the gravel in T1-T2 while performing my standard lap 1. My bad. Of course he went off bigtime so whole grid passed us by while waiting for him to get out of kitty litter. Sigh.

Thanks for the apology Jure, tis appreciated

At the start I rolled up behind ginsters and put my limiter on but my car seemed to be going faster than his.  

I had a quick look at replay to see what happened there and that does seem to be the case, very odd   I was left for dead by 550 in front and yours killed me at start. My MC12 did suffer from overheating very early doors, which I guessed was a result of earlier incident, but I'm wondering if my engine was damaged from start?

[Mark J]

does the server race produce a trace log file like our own installs of GTR2 does? These bloody constant discos are getting very frustrating and its getting to the point where i am not going to even bother turning up as im fed up wasting time practising etc to then get dropped out the server. 

So i wondered if the trace file mentions any reasons why or if its finding errors in a certain car etc. The P&G races dont seem to be suffering like this so makes me think its something to do with our car/physics set that we use for the srouk league events.