UKGTR Season 10 Lower Endurance - Interlagos - Oct 25

[Jayblue]

Wow what an amazing race, totally engrossing right the way through. Start fourth and having fitted med front hard rear due to some worries on my rear tyre temps. Iwas no happy with the car for my entire first stint. But somehow there were incidents ahead and only Ginsters got away into any kind of a significant lead. I had a superb battle with Jon, so very clean and we tussled for lap after lap. His Ferrari was very good in the middle sector, just where i was very slow. So on at least three occasions he got past me, but the BMW was quick with my low rear wing on the straight and i was able to cruise straight back past by turn one. At one point a backmaker ended up blocking me accidently and Jon got by, but i think he conceeded the position back to me, if you did thanks Jon but you didn't need to - maybe you were just enjoying our battle as much as me  

After many laps Jon squeezed past with a great move and Gazza and Jure closed in. At this point my throttle potentiometer starting playing up and not reading full throttle properly, allowing Gazza past easily on a straight of all places. Very annoying. I took my eye off the ball for a couple of laps after this as it continued to distractme until my stop, at which point the problem seemed to solve itself as it normally does after a while. Switched to mediums all round and felt much quicker, putting in some good times. As things unravelled i saw only Ginsters would exit the pits ahead of me, but i had no idea it would be such a close call as he left the pits just two seconds ahead of me. I pushed hard knowing my best chance was while his tyres were cold and to my suprise he had a little moment at the hairpin and i slipped past. The gap stayed around 2 secs for a while but my tyres were already going past their best and he had fresh rubber, not to mention better pace to start with, so i waited for the storm to begin.

Where the Ferrari had proved superior in the middle sector the Lambo wasn't quite as good, but it was quicker on the straight, though still not up to my BMW's straight line prowess. After several laps of pressure i got a break with some traffic that allowed me to get myself together for the closing laps. Despite some intense pressure i held on for the win in a brilliant race. Totally enjoyed tonight and the standard of  driving was once agian very high, hats off to you all on a brilliant league.

[ginsters sponsored]

Shame to see the early disco's. Funny that they all happen at same dangerous place and one of them sent myself and jon off :'(

Got back in front of TT then created a quite comfortable gap to field. Decided to change tyres at stop as I thought I had enough time and I did, just 0.5 to JayBlue. Had one eye on him and dumbly did an incredibly bad slow spin to let him past. He prolly hadn't changed tyres and I was all over him for last 15 mins, threw every ruddy thing at him with no luck and decided a late punt into T1 in a last lap do or die effort was best option. 0.1 when we crossed the line and it was on but, rugger me, no time left Great defence JB.

Gotta say GT3 gents were excellent. Congrats to champ winners in both I had some rotten luck at start of season but I've enjoyed the actual races I've competed in immensely.

Much thx to Dave (its your birthday  ), Pete, Prof and other moderators. Roll on S11.

[JonM_uk]

Well I was a bit gutted after that. Qualified as well I thought I could. The start of the race was great because I thought SBG was gonna disappear but he didn't. That joy soon turned to   when a BMW was frozen in the middle of the track, was quite funny to see postions 1-2-3 all sliding across the grass after going for avoiding action. I rejoined in 5th I think quickly passing a couple of cars and then coming across JayBlue, we had a great scrap for a good few laps but his tyres looked like they were wearing badly and the F430 doesn't have that problem. Set about chasing SBG who was 14 or so seconds ahead. Thought I'd pit on about half way and make the most of the rubber but I had a disaster in the pits, I pulled up to my pit box pressed return and turned the engine off......"Turn off your engine so the refuelling can start" Tried starting the car and turning it off again...Same thing Then pressed my ignition off button again(no engine sounds at this point) and then the refuelling started. Any chance of fighting for the win had gone and I was tempted to press the escape button but thought better of it. Another strange thing happened in the 2nd half of the race, as I was approaching Jure for the 1st time my monitor went blank and I thought it was a CTD but a few seconds later it came back on and I'd drifted off the track but was lucky not to hit anything. What did you make of this Jure? After this had good battles with Jure and Legzy. Just touched legzy in one the corners spinning him, waited for him to pass again before racing some more. Finished well in the end I guess but it was a case of what could have been. The racing was great tho
Grats to JayBlue and Lazlow


Edit:

At one point a backmaker ended up blocking me accidently and Jon got by, but i think he conceeded the position back to me, if you did thanks Jon but you didn't need to - maybe you were just enjoying our battle as much as me 

I didn't really want to pass like that TBH although the devil sitting on my right shoulder told me to floor it tho' Was a great fight

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Simon Gymer]

I'm so gutted for Picnic as not only did the damn internet cheat him out of a championship win, but we didn't know the points permuations well enough to know that we could have got him up to 4th position and still won him the championship despite the internet putting him a lap down near the start. Very sorry about that Pete, my instinct was to tell the other two drivers to let him by and if I'd know API was Team Oldie we should have done cause the team championship was lost anyway.

Despite that I'd like to say well done Picnic on a great championship run and I would like to congratulate API on the GT3 drivers title and Team Oldie on their very strong performances to win the team championship too.

Additionally congratulations to Gazza on the GT2 drivers title and to JonM on securing the team title, with me, for Team Shark. Gazza has been the most consistent driver this season and those two wins at the start gave you a great start, so thoroughly deserved.

My race was good fun. Qualified 9th on the grid with what I thought was a really good lap that I was really pleased with. Couldn't believe how much faster 8 other guys were though. Still I thought I would jump a few of them in the pits if I could just keep near enough, so all was not lost. After quite a few laps dicing with Spanner and Hal I eventually did a bit of a do-or-die move on Hal to get past him in the twisties where he was so slow. I couldn't keep within 30 car lengths of him on the straights even in his slipstream so I knew it was my only chance as he was soooo slow in the twisties.

After that I made a boob in the 2nd last turn to hand some places back to other drivers who themselves had made mistakes and then stayed quiet till the pit stops.

Had a quick pit stop for tyres and fuel and this bumped me right up to third after everyone else had pitted. I thought Gazza was going to catch me after the pit stops, but I held my own and in the end I was quite comfortable with a small-ish gap back to Gazza and then Legzy later on.

Very pleased with 3rd myself considering I started 9th and I think that gives me 2nd in the drivers championship too, so doubly pleased at finishing there as it's a very pleasant suprise.

Wierd season for me. After missing the first round at one of my best and favorite circuits (Estoril) I started the next round in the F430. After doing half the races in the F430 I decided it was too common and switched back to my trusty M3 for Silverstone. I really didn't get on with the car though and decided to try yet another car and take a 20% hit on points for switching cars twice. Stuck with the 997 for the last 3 rounds and it was certainly interesting. Takes a lot of getting used to and an awful lot (more than any other car imho) of setting up is required for each circuit, as the previous settings just don't seem to work very well at the next track.

Anyway, another enjoyable season and thanks to all the backroom staff that make it possible and I've had a lot of fun racing everyone again.

Cheers.

Simon.

[JonM_uk]

Grats to Gazzer and API on thier Championships and Team Shark and the Oldies for the Team Champs
Wow, I didn't realise that the GT3 Title was so close. Unlucky to lose such a close one Picnic but well done for the season

Thankyou to all the guys who make this league possible I love you all

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

I should've had a better race than I did; after Robert jumped the start (I think) and passed me, he and Goldtop then touched on the opening lap and unfortunately I picked up a modicum of front end damage and was losing about a second a lap on my expected pace. I couldn't stop very early because of the tyre wear, so I had to suffer it until half distance.

Despite putting in a bit too much fuel I had a really first class stop and not only passed Matt Rowe's Viper, but also came out just a few second's behind Prof, a position I was genuinely surprised to keep right to the end of the race, though to be fair the car worked much better once the damaged splitter was repaired.

I'm absolutely gutted about Picnic's championship - I nearly pulled over on the last lap but thought the championship was probably lost for him, didn't realise he had such a good lead going in.

[Prof]

Firstly congratulations to API and Gazza for two well deserved championships and to the Oldies and Sharks for their respective team wins.

I share Shark's feelings about Picnic's luck tonight. If I had understood the scoring implications as we raced, I would have moved over in an instant. Perhaps some kindly moderator will DQ me to make me feel better   I have never less wanted a podium.

I could have been more help to Picnic and the team simply by not showing up.

Anyway both the GT3 and GTC championships have been excellent this season and now just Imola to go...

[phspok]

Good race. I had no idea about championship stuff, but I let Picnic unlap himself by falling off somewhere  
As usual I got mugged in the pits after having a good 1st half, I always lose about 30 secs in pitstops
even when i just hit return and take the preset one stop. Anyway, Dave jumped me in the pits
and then I set about trying to catch him, with GT2s lapping he would pull away then I'd catch up
My motor seemed off song, would not go over 160 on the straight, just sat at same revs for the last
section, so I could not catch up as I might, well held though Dave was a good chase
Oh and Happy Birthday  

[Gazza49er]

What a race  

Had to really go some to get a decent grid spot as i was down in 8th for some time but just got one in the 31's to get 6th.  Thought i was gunna get eaten up on the first straight by my team mate but he had an issue so gave me some space. Followed Jure for quite a while but couldn't get close enough to make a pass (think i had to much wing on). Finally he made a small error and i sneaked by. Next up was TT, he made a mistake which allowed me to get close but he was a little quicker than me so again it took another mistake for me to get by. ( TT i couldn't avoid the slight touch when you spun in front of me).

Then some how i was catching Jon and Jay as they were fighting and i got passed Jay. GT3's were excellent but a couple of times they would flash me by on the straights but i didn't have the top speed and we were side by side and i guess they missed their braking points and flew straight on narrowly missing me  , felt like a target for a missile  

The slight damage cost me in the pits as it repaired which allowed Simon to jump me.  Had real trouble requesting pitstop tonight, i was pressing the button for 2 laps and nothing was happening  

Anyway thought i might catch Simon but pesky Legsy came out just infront of me and we had a nice little battle but managed to get him but traffic and Simon's similar pace meant i couldnt catch. Great drive from 9th.

So pretty happy with 4th and the GT2 championship  

Lets face it though if Jon, Jay, Jose and maybe Simon had done all the races it would of been very different but i'll take it  

This series has been incredable with some amazing battles and close racing, everybody here is a credit to this league and i thank the hard work from the chaps that put this all together.  

[Truetom]

Next up was TT, he made a mistake which allowed me to get close but he was a little quicker than me so again it took another mistake for me to get by. ( TT i couldn't avoid the slight touch when you spun in front of me).

Meh, to be frank I was more concerned about you than I was about me - by that time I already knew my race was and I was afraid I'm gonna take you with me. So after I surprised H@l with braking - I was a bit off the braking point but I think it was 'cause of lapping - and another spin I decided to quit and go shoot some G1TS.

Grats to Winners and Champions.

[Burtoner]

I should've had a better race than I did; after Robert jumped the start (I think) and passed me, he and Goldtop then touched on the opening lap and unfortunately I picked up a modicum of front end damage and was losing about a second a lap on my expected pace. I couldn't stop very early because of the tyre wear, so I had to suffer it until half distance.

I didnt jump the start just got a great start

Good race made some places, love the track knew it really well, was just matter of keeping it going.
My laptimes were good, but still 2-3 secs off my main bunch of drivers in midfield. Had a few off moments but nothing too serious.

[H@L9000]

Nice race.

Had some good battles with Legzy, Spanner, Simon, TT to name but a few. There was only a part of the race towards the end where I was not close to another car.

No worries Spanner. It was a big crash that you had. Made my pit lane entrance interesting.

Well done podiums and well done Gazza for 1st in the championship. Team Pseudo also take 2nd in the team championship. Aaahhhh YYeeeeerrrr!. Thanks Matt Rowe for the back up on that one. Well done API as well.

See you all in next seasons Lower Endurance.

[Legzy]

Had a nightmare 1st lap. Started 8th, somehow out accelerated H@l's Viper off the start line (double gear change mate?) to get 7th by T1. Then a series of mini errors set me back to 11th by the start of L2. Then had half a lap of side by side "gloves off public server style" racing with Jose (both our faults I think, so sorry for my part), which cost us both about two more positions each. So 13th & with it all to do again.

Raced like a demon from then (by my standards ) & finished a very active/hectic 7th & recorded the most overtakes (13) of anyone.

Had some really good racing with a good few people tonight, my strategy meant that I got to see just about everyone at some stage & apologies for the state of my tyres in the last few laps as I tried to fend off Gazza, Jure & JonM.

Well I've lost my GT2 crown (congrats Gazza), but I'm actually more proud of my 5th spot this time in a much stronger field of aliens/opponents.

Really well done to API & Lazlow for bringing Team Oldie yet more silverware. Hard luck to Pete, you've driven really well all season mate. Not sure how I'd have felt if Simon had worked out the required team orders in time... that would have brought us down to F1 levels .

Anyhow, great great Lower Endurance season, thank you everyone.

[picnic]

Had a nightmare 1st lap. ......... Hard luck to Pete, you've driven really well all season mate.

Not as nightmarish as my 2nd lap when the game froze on me. I sat there sobbing on to my G25 hoping the game might recover, and it did. Sadly the cars that had been following me by 5 or so seconds were now just in front, not just by 5 or 6 secs but a full lap as well. I managed to unlap myself from everyone but lazlow. I would have easily got a podium on my pace with out that glitch.

Add to that the race I was winning by 30 secs when my ADSL died with 5 mins to go I was robbed.

I must have been really bad in a past life to have this much bad karma  :'(