UKGTR Season 11 - Spa (2003) - Jan 3

[Jayblue]

Welcome Berger! 

My race prep is done now, like Busi said at Spa anything can happen and the cut warnings are easy to pick up too so anyone could win it. Especially as a stop/go with such a long pitlane will cost any chance of a good finish. Looking forward to getting back into the action and having done some test races it seems my ISP has finally got their issues solved so i'm hoping for no more disco's for the remaining races.

[lazlow]

looks like I set my original time on the 2004 circuit  
My time now is 2:10.7.

Edit: 2:10.3

[David M]

Damn, I forgot about this due to Christmas/New Year/Uni Work/Actual work - haven't driven Spa for a while, but I should make it tonight.

We're having folks over for tea tonight, but as soon as they're gone I'll get on and see how my laptimes are, if they're safe enough then I'll be joining you guys again

[Legzy]

It's not until you try driving a GT1 round here that you truly remember why you really don't like Spa .

I've got down to 2:10.9 but I can't see myself lasting 5 laps before being in a wall. This track just appears to be above my skill level in cars this fast

Still, Magny-Cours to look forward to next week

[Jayblue]

Mmm, looks like the weather might be typical of our venue for tonight then, i haven't done any damp or wet laps 

[David M]

Sorry guys, my PC froze coming out of the Bus Stop...hopefully I didn't get hit by anybody!

Shame, I had a pretty unstable setup that wanted to kill me, but going by my first lap I was in for a pretty fun race...I like driving in the wet, I think most people don't!

[Blunder]

Server full!!
Think that may have been a good thing! 

[Busi]

That is really frustrating...

I was on the right tyres for the first stint (hard wets) and I was dominating with more than 20 seconds to TT and over a minute to the rest. Decided that I was gonna pit on the last moment in case the weather was gonna change before I pitted and take the right tyres for some last few laps.

A very little mistake put me off track at Rivage and I kissed the wall. So far no damage. But 20 metres later that stupid tyrewall, which is closer to the track than the grey wall so I crashed straight into the start of that tyre wall. Thats silly... (replay: 3420)

With no splitter I crawled back to watch the pits. Went slightly off on the exit of Stavelot, went to kiss that tyrewall which everybody kisses and there is no problem with, but this time (never before) the wall decided to kill my car... (replay: 3475)

Easy win thrown away. Meh!

[Simon Gymer]

Not normally anti-wet weather, but really didn't particularly enjoy that one despite finishing 3rd.

Managed to qualifying 5th I think on soft wets, but as the track said damp and it didn't look like it was raining that hard I started on intermediates. They were rubbish for 30 out of the first 40 minutes and I lost lots of places and then reasonable for the last 10 where I gained a load back. Refused to pit out of my schedule after making that mistake already more than once this season so was determined that no matter what the weather I wasn't pitting till my scheduled time.

Came in on inters and because it had started raining hard again I switched to soft wets. These were good for about 10-15 minutes whilst it was heavy rain and I was gaining on people and places too again. Then the rain slacked off and my tyres were far too hot and was having to cool them everywhere to not overheat too much. Managed this quite well and with other retirements I found myself in 3rd after being chased by Berger for a lot of the race with just one more lap to go. Last lap and I found JPV in the middle of the track, was unable to avoid and whacked him hard. This bent my front left I think it was and made my car drive in a not very straight line at all. Only had 4 or 5 corners left though, but as one of them was the really fast one was pretty scared. Driving as fast as I could with the car wanting to go in another direction I very luckily held on to 3rd, another 2 corners and it would have been all over.

I really hope for a dry race next race cause I really don't want to do another wet one. It's alright once in a while but not every week.

[Jayblue]

Well that was certainly eventful! In quali i tried soft slicks which worked great and i took pole by a large margin. As usual i waited before joining the grid to see if the weather changed and it did, from wet to damp. Left with a gamble between slicks and wets and having seen how much quicker soft slicks were in quali i went with the slicks  

After a few laps this was obviously not a wise decision and i was slipping down the field and struggling for any kind of grip at all. So despite the extra long Spa pitlane i had no choice but to pit and change tyres. I decided to go with hard wets as i noticed the softs had a very small operating window and after my stop i left the pits way back also with the knowledge i needed to make another stop at some point. Once the tyres were up to temp i found myself gaining time nicely, especially in the drier parts of the race were others really seemed to be struggling. Eventually i took the lead as everyone stopped and i saw that i had a 45 second gap on Jose and began to wonder if a podium was possible  

I pushed really hard in this part of the race and after Busi retired i only had TT ahead and i was gaining around 3 secs a lap on him. I stopped on lap 27 and decided to keep my very worn hard wets and just take the fuel. Somehow i left the pits with a 5 second lead which i was able to build up until the flag. It was a very exciting race for me and a totally suprising win, although really Busi should have been somewhere far down the road...

I also hope for some drier conditions next week as it always seems to rain recently! All this dry practice for nothing!

[jan duijs]

great to be back after almost a year ,on my favourite track,and my favourite conditions ,installed Gtr2 fresh so no setups completely blank.
Went suprisingly well, some nice scraps,most of the time alone ( thats the only thing i dont like from these mixed classes)
hope to do a few more races,sad to hear Blunder could not join,it feels like i took his place

great to cu all back,

Jan

[Prof]

I started on slicks hoping damp would become dry. When it didn't I switched to hard wet all round and made up a few places but could not quite catch Mcfids. I hoped my best chance was that my splash/dash near the end would help me leap frog the stop I guessed he had to make. My stop was 15s slower so cruised to the end for 3rd place.
Well done to winners and other podium people and let's hope the rain stops soon (at least the season ends in Dubai  )

[H@L9000]

Great race.

The weather was a real challenge. I had inters for qualy and all of the race. I had some nice battles early on and was happy with 6th after crashing a few times.

My bloomin chair moved a bit in the early stages of the race and I ended up sort of sitting at an angle to my wheel and peddles. My left leg was killing me by about half way through. It was really off putting and spoiled my fun of the race. :'(

I still enjoyed my self though.

Well done podiums. See you all in France.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

That was all just a bit too much - first race on the Eyefinity setup, left headlights on medium effects setting and it hurt the frame rate, but really I was mostly suffering a lack of testing and a bad tyre choice, starting on inters which were okay for the first few laps, but after 10 or 20 minutes the standing water was too much for them and I just aquaplaned off repeatedly, not only losing loads of time but also bashing the car up to the tune of 50 seconds of repairs.

Had no choice but to stop and repair it; took on soft wet fronts and hard wet rears, which are really the only choice that seems to work. Unfortunately I was so far behind that all I could do was press on and hope for others to have problems.

If only I'd gone with a safer full wet setup I'd have done okay.

[Mark J]

Had an awful race that just never got better  

Hadnt raced in GTR2 (modern) for months and my first race back is an 80min rainshower in a GT1 car !!

Qually was a disaster, on final run i was 1.6 secs up on my time in final sector and would have leapfrogged 3 or 4 places on the grid, only to come across a recovering GTC up near the bus-stop   got the angle wrong over the kerbs and got my lap DQ'd  

Race was a case of 110% concentratrion and hard work. Stayed out just a bit too long hoping for a break in the weather before i made my stop. Held out until about 35mins left but my worn tyres were costing me 4-9 secs a lap in the heavier rain   Made up a few places near the end as others had incidents and thought i had 11th? in the bag when i finally got past Laslow again after his spin, only for the race not to end across the line, even though my counter showed zero and i was a lap down on the leader  
That royally screwed me as i was on fumes in the fuel tank and had to watch Laz steam back past down the kemmel and i ran out of fuel with only La source hairpin to get around on that last sodding lap  

Didnt enjoy any of that event and i dont mind varied weather normally, it was just too hard work for no hint of reward.
Congrats to the podium, well done