UKGTR Season 11 - Donington Park (GP) - Nov 29

[JonM_uk]

Feel for you Ad. ISP trouble? I think I got a little bit of a problem like that myself. My connection dropped during qualifying and when I rejoined I couldn't see myself. Managed to sneak in right at the end but wished I hadn't bothered tbh. I'd only had a few laps practice beforehand so. So I started from the back and span a few times and slid off once. I decided that it was just a matter of time before I took someone out so pressed the esc button. Hope you all had a good race.

[picnic]

I GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A BROKEN MAN  :'(

2nd'ed but that's cos I suck and when it's wet I just fall off. Taking a new car, being unable to do a decent setup also doesn't help but me and wet has an underlying theme.

[spanner]

Didnt rralise it was going to rain until Lazlow mentioned on TS a few mins before hand. One of my worst driving displays ever, couldnt keep the car on the track and it would just randomly spin up and spit me into the barriers meaning i have to wait and let people by dropping me further back I appologise. I just hope we do get some dry running.

[ginsters sponsored]

Pretty tough way to start S11 that  

Luckily, Tudor and I could test what was best in quali and quickly plumped with the slicks which served us well. It was a bit trickier to choose for race as I feared med/med slicks might not get hot enough but guessed it was the only option. Truly horrible for first few laps on very cold tyres and duly fell off. Enjoyed coming back through the field and then the challenge of bringing it home safely. Congrats to all that did the same, it wasn't easy.

Gotta say GT1 boys were excellent, especially considering the weather Consider the battle for the GTC begun Team Teeth  

[jpv]

That was a tricky one. Turn four seemed to be my biggest nemesis here, locked up under braking and slid out 4-5 times there. Otherwise managed to stay on the track pretty well, and didn't even pick up any stop and go's, guess thanks to driving really carefully on the wet track.

Had a couple of tight spots with the lapping GT1's again, especially in the fast bits where I needed all my concentration just to stay on the track by myself. They didn't seem as fast usual here, and right at the beginning on the wet I would even get faster out of the corners.

[Simon Gymer]

Didn't actually know S11 was starting so soon, so turned up, found out what cars the other Team Shark guys were running and evened out the showing by selecting a GT1. Thought about the Aston, but having no setup and no practice in any car, I plumped for something familiar.

Just grabbed my Zhuhai setup, did absolutely zero to it and used it for both qually and race. Dunno why, but it was just very driveable in the conditions and gave me a decent amount of confidence as others struggled severly.

Unbelievably I thought I was going to get pole but Jayblue just pipped my time at the last second. Well done.

Couldn't then keep with him in the race and decided to just go whatever pace I could manage. First stint was wierd as it seemed reasonably fast straight away, but then it was almost as if it got wetter cause my times got worse and worse and it felt more slippery. After pitting at half distance the speed came back and I just got faster and faster as the track definately dried a lot more in the second half.

Unlucky JB getting the Legends Racing pit crew to service you, but for me I'm pleased (sorry) as I suspect that will be my one and only win this year thanks to that costly episode.

Thanks to all the people being lapped, very courteous, hope I didn't scare you too much as there was a massive speed difference tonight.

P.S. I ran soft slicks in all sessions including a new set at my pit stop.

[phspok]

Poor race for me, never enjoy wet races, and even the GTC Viper is not friendly with too much moisture around.
got bored with going off trying to give slower GT1s room, got 2x cut tracks and fell off several times, some unprovoked
some waiting for people to make their mind up. The usual front runners were decisive and were co operative as always.
Took hard rear med front slicks at stop, had no idea what would work best, they were better than the shot inters
I started on at least  

[picnic]

Replay and provisional results posted

LapChart

[Prof]

I had to concentrate hard but it became more enjoyable as the track dried. Once the tyres warmed, the Z4 behaved very predictably. Well done to SbG for the win and to Dave for third. With any luck we may have an epic battle for GTC team honours with the Kerbies just like the one with the Oldies in S10. I fear the GTC driver's championship will be less close with only one alien in the field.

Congrats to Shark for the GT1 win and the podium sitters in that class too.

[H@L9000]

Nice race 

The Weather made it tough.

My inters were getting a bit hot in that first stint.

I had some nice fights with nsfast again and some others. Me and Legzy took it in turns to fall off for a while then he left me far behind towards the end.

Brno next, one of my all time favourites.

[API]

No practice in wet conditions. Wrong tyre choice (hard wet...)

Car was horrible to drive at the start of the race. Luckily, I managed to keep the car on the tarmac and gain few positions. However, my tyres started to melt soon and car was even more horrible to drive. I had to do an early pit stop as the car was undriveable. Put med slicks as the track was dry enough for them. I started to get some decent lap times as the track became more and more drier. During the race I managed to get 2 stop&go penalties for cutting the track and I spun about 6(?) times.

Sorry GTCs (and some GT1s) about those scary moments. Car was terrible to drive and Donington isn't maybe the easiest track for lapping anyway.

Not the best way to start my GT1 career, eh?

Edit. Well done winners and pods.

API

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Well a podium was totally unexpected - started dead last of the qualifiers having completely failed to grasp the obvious fact (given the two inches of water my patio is under) that it was likely to be wet and thus practiced only in the dry.

Once the race got underway, I was getting dropped off the back very quickly, despite the cars ahead going off quite a lot. I was starting to think that my medium rear slicks and soft fronts were a mistake - especially when I aquaplaned off at the Old Hairpin. Luckily didn't hit anything or get stuck and rejoined to drive a little bit more carefully around the shiny stuff and just try not to go off until it started to dry. In hindsight I should've taken soft slicks on the rear and intermediates on the front, but the car was at least drivable, if slow.

Kept plugging away and one by one the other GTCs started to fall off. The other 997 Cups of Goldtop and JPV, who had streaked away early on, must've been running wet tyres and/or full wet setups because once a proper dry line started to emerge they were struggling to stay on the track. Pitted relatively late, once I knew I didn't need any extra fuel, and changed the tyres for the same compound - and repaired 5 seconds of front end damage, which was odd because I don't remember hitting anything.

By this time I'd pretty much lost track of who was where in GTC, other than Ginsters way out front of course, but with three quaters of a minute in front and behind, it dawned on me in the closing laps that I was third in class behind Prof.

I still need a lot of time in the 997 to really work out what the setup options really do - playing with the ride heights in practice, the behaviour wasn't what I expected.

[Legzy]

Other then one fun race in PnG (which was also wet), I've never enjoyed Donnington races. I've found them dull & the cut track warnings are far too harsh to add to the frustrations. Well tonight it was the total opposite to my normal experience here & I did enjoy it... must have been the added rain 

Only decided to take the Aston about 10 mins before joining the server &  I was shocked in qually to stick in some decent laptimes right from the start & was mixing it roughly with TT/Lazlow on the grid... till I got the GTR2 windows error

By the time I got back in, there was no time to get a lap in. I asked on TS if anyone had tried Softs & Lazlow reckoned it was the way to go, so managed to do about 5 bends on those before it was next session. Started 2nd last next to JohnM, so just flashed him through on the pace lap, no point trying to hold him up I thought... so was dead last. Really pleased that by the end I'd got myself upto 4th, having had some good scraps along the way. I'm not sure I'd have beaten Lazlow if he'd not had fuel problems. Shame really, because 4th & 5th would have been a very decent showing on Team Oldie's GT1 debut. Not sure I'd have finished higher had I set a qually time either

Thanks to Spanner for agreeing to loan me the excellent Prodigy Aston for the night, I just didn't want to add to the expected sea of white cars we seem to be enjoying at the moment

Well done to both podiums & all finishers, thanks to anyone that allowed me to lap them with no dramas  (I know I'm more used to being lapped!)

[Jayblue]

Really tricky weather to pick the correct tyres. In quali inters were best to start with but the track dried just enough at the end for soft slicks to heat up and they were the golden ticket. I did quite a few laps just missing out on Simons pole time before finally hooking it up at the death.

For the race i knew softs were a BIG gamble as on the weather screen before the race it said wet for track conditions initially, then it changed to damp just before the race began. Having tried soft slicks in the pre race practice session with very similar conditions without success (inters were much quicker) i really didn't know what to do. For some reason i alway gamble on weather like that so i chanced the slicks again. As soon as we took the parade lap i knew it was the right choice, the tyres had plenty of bite in them, except at the bottom of the craners curves which was very wet, and at the Melbourne loop, were i had problems with the Aston coming round on me even in the dry.

Over the opening laps on Simon was right there with me, everyone else must have picked mediums slicks, inters or wets as we quickly gapped everyone. A big suprise to be lapping people so early in the race but we were both flying. Eventually Simons pace seemed to fall away slightly. In my case the Aston just got better and better as the race unfolded and even after 30 laps on my soft slicks, which were now well past the worn tyres warning, the car felt great and my laptimes were still in the 27's. I decided to pit - i started with a full tanks so i could react to whatever the weather did. I checked the pit menu in XD and adjusted my fuel to match the remaining number of laps and revised fuel consumption, everything looked great as i had around a 30 second lead before the stops.

I entered the pits and the crew serviced the car as normal but after doing the tyres nothing happened and i couldn't go  
I had only had a small bit of contact in my stint with Goldentop57 at the final corner when he accidentally slid in to the side of my car, but the pitcrew started repairing some mystery damage. The time ticked by and my stop which should have been 30 seconds top ended up being 90 seconds stationary! In previous races a repair of that long normally means you've lost a front splitter of some other major body panel like a bonnet or rear bumper so i was pretty mad. The race was going perfect up till then but now i had a lot of work to do. Simon was over 20 secs up the road already.

I pushed of hard, maybe a little too hard in places and mistakes started to creep in. I apologize to Ginsters for squeezing past in the craner curves, i felt bad afterwards as i saw you had to go over the grass after going onto less grippy tarmac to avoid me  

I closed Simon down at over a second per lap and it would have been touch and go at the finish but my rear tyres were now getting too hot and i span out exiting the Melbourne loop. After that i was all over. I still got the gap down to six seconds i think but things were messy from me at the end. Congrats to Simon on the win, it was well deserved as you made all the right plays with tyres and kept it on the road where others couldn't. Congrats to TT also. Also congrats to Ginsters and the GT2 winners.

[ginsters sponsored]

I apologize to Ginsters for squeezing past in the craner curves, i felt bad afterwards as i saw you had to go over the grass after going onto less grippy tarmac to avoid me  

No worries Jayblue It was more suprise that anything else. I was expecting you to wait until past old chicane but I thoroughly understand the move, its a real 50/50 at that point. Simon did exactly the same move a little later and, as I was expecting it that time, it all went off well. I reiterate, considering the weather, the GT1 boys were excellent (bound to be bedlam next time out  )