UKPnG Season 2 - Fun Race - Dubai (National) - Jan 14

[Mark J]

That was brilliant fun !  

Qually was fiercely fought with everyone seeming to up their pace from the praccy but i managed to stay in the top 3 or 4 for most of the session, then right at the end i banged in my best lap and grabbed Pole !!  
Sorry Mike   (who had seemed invincible!)

Sat on the grid knowing i had 3 aliens right behind me and several much more powerful cars...gulp   As predicted, at green light i got swamped by half a dozen cars passing me left right and centre before T1   but luckily for me a few of them over cooked it and missed their turn in points while i calmly cut back down the inside and got back to 3rd  
There then ensued a fierce scrap with Pauls Elan for the next 17 laps while SBG and Mike edged out a lead.
I tried all sorts of attack angles but Paul being the master racer he is, closed me off well wherever he could see i was quicker and the dice continued without respite.
Finally on lap 17 he cracked and outbraked himself at the final corner before the s/f and i scampered through. I knew the fight had been costing me time but once clear i pulled out a gap until i had a 6 second breathing space and the front two right in front of me dualling away. I closed right up on Ginsters fezza derrier in the final laps but had no answer to their bhp down the straights and the race finished with all 3 of us less than a second apart over the line.
Brilliant race!

Great mix of cars, cool driving by all and a superb track   shame turnout was low this eve  

Grats to Mike on the win and Ginsters and Paul for a great race.

[Legzy]

Replay & Results in usual places

[Clive Loynes]

Very sorry about driving into the back of you at the start Clive. I was so keen to get off the line quickly and make a couple of places before T1. A real rush of blood to the head which isn't usually my style Apologies also to those who were caught up in it. I hope I didn't cause too much damage.

I'll put my report in.

Looking at the replay Tudor I would say that it was my fault.  Without an analyser I haven't a clue exactly what I did but after an initial good start I seem to go nowhere.

Theories are:
1  Selected neutral instead of second

2 Brain jumped out of gear and I hit that blasted clutch button again.

Sorry mate

[Mike Miller]

I decided to go with the L88 in the closing moments before the race cause I really enjoy driving the car and didn't get any practice time in the Cobra. Turns out my selection was spot on with the pace of others. Paul handicapped himself too much, but still put in a brilliant fight and had great pace. If the race included a pit stop for fuel he surely would have clobbered Ian and I.

I didn't take too many laps earlier in the week for practice and new I'd have to make some radical changes to my base L88 setup to work properly for this track. I got to work right away on tire pressures and cranknig up the rear bar trying to get the pig to turn. In the end, I got something that worked well for a handful of laps, but then would melt the tires. I didn't have time to work more so I had to make due.

The setup worked very well on low fuel for quali. My first flyer was quick, but Ian pipped me by a cuople tenths so I put my head down and really worked hard on the next couple laps. I was surprised to nail a 1:27.2 and felt I could do no better so I parked it. I watched others to see if I can identify their strong and weak points on the track to prepare for the race. I thought I had it locked up when Ian wasn't making an impression on my time. Last lap, MJ got me by a couple tenths and foiled my pole, but I wasn't worried being on the front row with a bazilliion horsepower.

When the light turned green, I took off and initially felt the race may be boring. Things changed on lap 5 when my tires started to complain. Ian reeled me in and pressured me into a mistake at the chicane shortly afterwards. I knew if I could catch and repass him I could "park" it in the turns and use my power to keep him at bay into T1. I had to work very hard to get within striking distance. Hew as so much better in the last sector and particularly the last turn before start/finish. It took some time, but I eventually got a good enough run through the 3rd sector and a good exit off the last turn to just get along side at the brake zone and hold on for the lead going into turn 1. From there, my tires were filayed. I was all over the place. Ian poked his head in looking for weaknesses and like he said earlier, developed a plan for the last lap pass. I knew where he was strong so I made sure to keep things tight and tidy the last lap in sector 3. If he would have pounced elsewhere, I wouldn't have expected it, but it likely would have ended in tears for both of us. And if we had 10 more minutes, I think MJ would have taken us both down.

Congrats on a great run Ian and MJ.

Let's do pit stops one of these days.

[goldtop]

That's very generous of you Clive. My start method does make me quick off the mark these days and looking at the replay, you did seem to bog down a little on your gear change. A combination of the two maybe, but I'll certainly be more careful in future.

[pribeiro]

Brilliant, just brilliant.
Superb mix of cars. Legzy and Tony you are spoiling us.  
After a couple of laps with the Elan, I realised I was having lack of skills to get a decent lap on it.
Last minute change to the Daytona, just to add one different more car to the field.
First impressions were fine. Managed a 1.40.
Start went well and I found myself at 6th, but to be honest, I was having so much fun drifting,
that after 10 laps my rear tires melt...
Meanwhile I had lots of fun with Matt and Tinman first, and Clive and Legzy later.
Unfortunately, I got a S/G for a cutting (after a mistake) went to pits to get my penalty,
returned to track and got a DQ for ignoring the penalty   What the heck and bollocks.
Even at the end of the pack I was enjoying so much the drifting Shelby.
Remain untill the finish, watching a few battles.
Congrats Mike, Ian and Mark for the perfect driving.
Well done to all finishers.

Cheers

[Legzy]

Managed to avoid the early problems, but that left me with a quite first 3rd of the race.

Luckily PR, Clive & API sorted that out over the rest of the race . I think Goldy was just going to join the party, but lost it sadly.

Next PnG event is at Ahvenisto, hope to see you there... it's a real treat!

[Paul968]

Really good fun fending off MJ in his 914 for a good part of the race. In a bid to stop the left rear overheating I had gone with soft fronts and hard rears, but this ended up giving me badly worn fronts and fresh rears and ever increasing understeer. I was never going to catch Mike or Ian, but I could foil Mark every lap because the Lotus had a bit more power to weight. In the end I went slightly wide at the penultimate corner and then lost track of which gear I was in, meaning I took the last corner in 3rd instead of 2nd and the car just ploughed straight on. I expect you would have got by in the end anyway, but it would have been nice to see you try for a few more laps 

Grats to Mike, Ian and MJ for the podiums 

[phspok]

NOt enough practice here. Had tried all the cars, decided Ferri was the least painful at this track.
I've never liked this track in GTR2 and with that nasty triple chicane link is worse. Had been going through the tyre types
(I really should read the tyre manual one day) Ended up with red spot on the front to stop Front left from going
red after a few laps, with yellow spot on rear which made for an understeery, but easier to drive setup, was fine
for most of the race, I had Tinman hovering around within striking distance from the end of lap one until the flag
Had not realised just how close until I watched the replay. last few laps my rears were getting very worn
and it was hard to keep the thing at a decent pace, Tinman spent the last couple being carefull not to  thump
me up the rear as I tried to stay on line, he would easily catch in the last section but the Ferri would just
romp off down the straight. Was gaining on Ade at one point, but he re discovered his pace and pulled away again.
Track seems slippery to me, maybe they recreated the sand effect, dunno, but I don't get the "flow" here
it just seems to be one awkward corner leading into another.

[ginsters sponsored]

Let's do pit stops one of these days.

Any plans to run enduro length races in PnG S2? I wouldn't necessarily want a series of them but the odd one thrown in would be nice.

[pribeiro]

Let's do pit stops one of these days.

Any plans to run enduro length races in PnG S2? I wouldn't necessarily want a series of them but the odd one thrown in would be nice.

Agree! 

[BillThomas]

Reason for not finishing unknown - what a prized plonker  It was my first timed as opposed to number of laps race, I saw the time go - - - and thought what now   so I continued.  Then I saw the checkered flag and thougth that's it then and quit - wrong.  Other than a short tussle with purdie I had a quiet race trying to stay out of everbodies way.

Looking forward to the next race.

Bill

[Clive Loynes]

LAP CHART HERE:-

www.planet-venom.co.uk/PnG/DubaiN/index.html

[Legzy]

It was my first timed as opposed to number of laps race, I saw the time go - - - and thought what now   so I continued.  Then I saw the checkered flag and thought that's it then and quit - wrong.  

There are some advantages to using a timed race (but also some issues) & I fiured it would be worth trying it out again (think we did it once before at some point ) to see what opinions came back.

[BillThomas]

It was my first timed as opposed to number of laps race, I saw the time go - - - and thought what now   so I continued.  Then I saw the checkered flag and thought that's it then and quit - wrong.  

There are some advantages to using a timed race (but also some issues) & I fiured it would be worth trying it out again (think we did it once before at some point ) to see what opinions came back.

Now I know what to expect, I have no problem with a timed race.  

Bill