UKGTR Season 10 Lower Endurance - Silverstone (GP 2000 ) - Sep 13

[Simon Gymer]

Unlucky Picnic. So glad I'm on VM Cable and not that ADSL rubbish.

My race was interesting with a fair bit of action for the first half and then very boring for the second stint.

Couldn't reach my off-line pace in qually, as only managed 1:47.8 or something after I managed very low 1:47s off-line.

The BMW was nice on low fuel, but with a tank full of fuel it was diabolical. In the race I was having to try and find ways to get the fronts to grip with the full tank, like weaving down the straights, but it wasn't helping much. Second stint it was like a completely different car, 1-1.5 seconds a lap faster with half a tank of fuel (and some damage repaired) and it was much less lairy too. If I'd known how much faster it was on half a tank I would have not filled the tank in the first place and done 2x 60 litre stints instead as I would have definately made the time up I'd lose from refueling for longer.

I was having to run low wing to gain speed down the straights. I think that compromised me most through Maggots and Beckets, but elsewhere it wasn't really noticable.

Well done to the podium.

[Stewprovo]

Thats it, the porker sucks!!! It would seriuosly get out dragged by an asmatic donkey on the straights! Not a good race really, decided to go long first stint, only to find that hard/hard only last 40 mins anyway, so plans to run med/med for last 25 mins scuppered, and the fact that for the second time this season, the tean KC fuel man was having a wee or something when I came in, so no fuel was added at stop. Then get stop/go for speeding in pitlane, only for my pit to be occupied by someone elses BMW when I came back in, so another 40 secs lost there. When are we going back to sprints, cause pitstops are really   me off!!! Nice dice for last few mins with Legzy, as I had to short shift everywhere to save fuel, him & Blunder were all over me, nice driving guys. Oh well, back to my trusty Aston for next week. Laters guys.

[Simon Gymer]

only for my pit to be occupied by someone elses BMW when I came back in, so another 40 secs lost there.

You have to remember to request pit stops (even for stop and gos) so you can tell if someone is in your box. If the blue light won't come on then you shouldn't come in.

[ginsters sponsored]

Not good Pete  

Sorry for tap on warm up lap JR. It looks like you caught Dan and I out somehow, just a shame it took Dan off (maybe we are never destined to race each other at Silverstone Dan ) Totally our fault for sleeping of course and hope it didn't damage your car.

Quite race really and highlights were meeting GT3, who were excellent, and Stew/Legzy at end. Legzy, less chat and more driving next time . Congrats to Stew on that one I think.

Congrats JR, Gazza and GT3 fellas.

[Jimmie]

This track really shows the 360 GTC can't keep up with all those add on cars.

That's a bit of a pitty, on the other hand I had a challenge in front of me.

Started 10th I think, just fueled the car up to 100L, seen others do that stratey before with great succes
It drove pretty horrible but not that bad. H@L9000 did the same strategy I think cause when I pitted one lap later we drove out side by side, while at first I was still close chasing him. Spanner was suddenly like 10 seconds behind insted of in front.

The strategy works, but it gave me a pretty boring race. Hard to keep up with the guys in front, it's like the average F1 race, overtaking in the pit

Then at one of the last laps my tyres were so horrible and my times were dropping hard, so Spanner could get me on the straight

Overall pretty happy with an almost clean race, only 1 off moment and no spinning


ps: I was suprised the race ended at lap 43 of 48, guess it does stop at 80 minutes

[Jeffrey]

Sorry for tap on warm up lap JR. It looks like you caught Dan and I out somehow, just a shame it took Dan off (maybe we are never destined to race each other at Silverstone Dan ) Totally our fault for sleeping of course and hope it didn't damage your car.

Dunno how I could catch you out, as that was a known slow corner, even in a formation lap it requirs braking. I checked the replay and don't see it as I've done anything weird. If you do you can send a report.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Terrible luck for Picnic, he was going to win that by miles. :'(

I thought I was going to struggle a bit after I missed all my pre-race setup time with a busted HomePlug (bah! technology! ).

Sure enough I qualified dead last, and slowly but surely the cars ahead eased away.

I can't now remember whether Lazlow fell off before or after the stop, but having failed to catch API despite the Porka's customary lengthy stop, I was having to push a fair bit to keep the gap back to Lazlow to around 10 seconds. This wasn't helped by 57GoldTop's Fezza, which was singularly unable to lap me and pull away, and I was losing so much time that when the gap behind was down to about 6, and the opportunity presented itself courtesy of another car lapping the both of us, I repassed him and proceeded to pulll away and then Lazlow was out anyway.

In the last 10 minutes I suddenly started gaining on API again, depsite a front left which must've looked like it'd been through a combine harvester. The gap was dropping, dropping, dropping... then Picnic was gone and instead of a battle for 2nd, the class win was tantalisingly close. The gap kept dropping, and whilst I was low on fuel, I had enough for one more lap... but it wasn't enough.

[ginsters sponsored]

As I said, totally our fault JR. Sure you didn't do anything odd but we just cocked up, at least I did anyways. Or, perhaps I'm just faster through that corner  

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[goldtop]

Decided on a splash&dash strategy which would have worked out nicely if it wasn't for those pesky pitmen. Somehow they didn't put in enough fuel and I had to come in again 2 laps later losing a handful of places

Had some nice battles with Blunder and Matt and a few comedy moments with Dave Hope I didn't distract you too much.

Congrats to podies.

[H@L9000]

H@L9000 did the same strategy I think cause when I pitted one lap later we drove out side by side, while at first I was still close chasing him.

Yep, same strategy.

I knew I had to apply the pressure before you got some temp in your tyres after that pit stop. We had a nice chase there.

I was doing OK to start with until I lost it on the S/F straight following Simon. I was distracted by him trying to warm his tyres up. Dipped the left tyres onto the grass and spun because I kept the power fully down like a numpty. :'(

Nice chase with Jimmie and a few other after that.

Well done podiums. Gazza gets 3rd. Nice. Go Team.

[Dan Minton]

No i didnt get caught out by you two,  Just had one of them weird low rev spins on cold tires.  Wasnt sure what the regs were regarding getting back into position so just slotted in behind Simon.   Legzy was the only one kind enough to let me go back past...Cheers mate

[Truetom]

First of all, sorry to Mr. Blunder for a contact in the pits. I just finished with the pitstop and your stall was directly in front. You were outside my view and I didn't see you come in until contact. Saw you stopped a bit out of position and I hope your crew didn't object.

@Stewprovo: thought you were gonna take the F430? I found the porker exquisite and refreshing after grappling with first Gallardo and then Esperante. I had a constant feeling I'm not using the car's potential and that I could go faster. Well, I guess that's true, it takes JonM to put the car on the limit...  

After a first few laps the race was rather uneventful. Seems like F1, if there's no mistake / disco / freeze the only overtaking goes on in the pits.

@Shark: saw Legzy flinged over the track in front of you. I bet you flinched like you saw a giant hornet comming at you.  

Good job with the Gallardo, boyz. I never could get that car that fast.

Bad luck for Pete.

[Gazza49er]

First few laps of this race were very exciting    Made a mistake at the first corner on lap 1 which gave Simon a run on me and he got past me down the hanger straight. Got myself back together and started closing him down. He went a little wide after the bridge and i made a move down the inside, there was slight contact but i think it was ok? (havnt seen replay yet). Then i managed to close on TT, my car felt great and i could really push it. Was on TT's bumper for quite a few laps and we had a good dice untill he lost it at Stowe spinning very close to the front of my car 

Managed to pull away and at the pit stop i chose not to change rear tyres and put new softs on front, this ruined the balance of my car and i had terrible oversteer everywhere so it was quite a job just keeping it on the road. TT was catching me but just had enough gap from the pit stop to keep 3rd.

That was my 100th race here so was really happy with a podium 

Grats Jeff & SBG

[Stewprovo]

@Stewprovo: thought you were gonna take the F430? I found the porker exquisite and refreshing after grappling with first Gallardo and then Esperante. I had a constant feeling I'm not using the car's potential and that I could go faster. Well, I guess that's true, it takes JonM to put the car on the limit...  

With hindsight, I should have. In the corners, be it slow or fast, the 997 is ok, but when, for instance, I needed Dave in the GT3 350Z to have a big lift on the straight  so I could get by, then surely something is not right. I know the classes are fairly close speed wise, but I could only just gain on most cars on the straights, including the GT3's. It just seems to lack a bit of grunt compared to everything else. I want to stay with it as I really do like the way it drives, but whats the point, when you make up a fair bit of ground in the corners, only to lose it all on the straights. I know thats what the balancing was all about, but I found that I was taking more risks going passed people under the brakes, and risking collisions in the process. I suppose the other solution would be to drop into the GT3 Cup 996, but that would leave me no excuses for my carp driving . As for the pits, Simon has put me in the picture on that one, in my red mist moment, I forgot to request the stop for my stop/go, so all my own doing that one