NGT Sprint Cup - Season 2, Round 3, Enna - Nov 15th

[Pedro[PL]]

Well, qualification session went quite nicely - with exception of Shark and Mo in front of me My Athlon 2800+ is not a good companion when racing online. Despite X800XT PE onboard fps drops bad and I find myself unable to achieve my peak performance if graphics are not entirely smooth. Excuses, excuses... I did some nice 1.36.860 yesterday though and todays private afternoon practice session assured me that I will be able to qualify at low 1.37.

During first few laps I managed to keep up with the lead and finally due to Mo's error took second position. Quite nicely I thought and started chasing Shark in order to give him some team orders Then, on the second barrel trap I made a slight mistake, loosing 1,5s. Back on the track. Chasing again. I realized that with 20min of race I still have my chance to fight for the win - at least devil on my left shoulder was assuring me of I believed him and finished my race 2 laps later by hitting a barrel and destroying suspension. Guess I should have just raced my race and finish at least. But you know - all or nothing racing blood flows in my veins

On the other hand this season was quite lucky so far anyway. It is a pity this was probably one of my last races this season as due to moving house my adsl will be gone

[PaulW]

Totally gutted for you all. If it's any consolation, Enna is about the only track a crash that catastrophic can happen on 

I drove up to it and the whole track was covered in opaque smoke. Just slowed down and aimed for the centre in second with fingers crossed, somehow getting through. Found myself in a totally undeserved 4th place. Span 4 times though and struggled all night after having played and completed all the GTL cups A-D. Sat in front of GTR and was shocked how bad I was at it, oversteering on every corner. My qually time was a full 2.5 secs down on my PB, crazy. Adjusted the wheel lock from 16 down to 10 and it helped a bit but I think I'm really going to struggle switching between games :'(

[picnic]

Well I thought a real disaster became me at the start, two cars passed me before the first corner, one before the start line  As a result I was a wee bit miffed so decided to boot it on cold tyres  off I went. Got going again in last place

The good news is I was no where near the 1st chicane incident so didn't get tangled up in that which I would have seeing that of the cars that jumped me at the start, one quit and the other was limping back to the pits with damage.

Drove a decent race after that, clawing my way back up to 5th. Spent the last half dozen laps harrying Zacari, but he drove too well and I was never going to get passed without him making a mistake. Well done mate.

[picnic]

BTW replay and provisional results available 

[Simon Gymer]

Had a fantastic qualifying, took nearly all the session to get that perfect lap, but finally it came and I equalled my F360 PB with my trusty Morgan at 1:37.2!!!

Then led from start till 2nd to last lap, took it pretty easy for the whole race, knew it was as important to finish as to go fast and had it in the bag with people behind making mistakes.

Mo was only 5 secs behind me with 2 to go and I took the 2nd tyre chicane as normal, foot on accelerator as normal and whizz back end comes round on the long right hand bend. Really annoyed at that cause I didn't do anything different to normal and certainly wasn't pushing particularly hard. I guess I must have just hit that bump past the 2nd tyre chicane and it just caught the car wrong and that was that. Ended up 3 secs behind Mo, but annoyed that I missed out on an unlikely win for my Morgan.

On holiday for Brno so have fun without my Morgan there.

[picnic]

Bad luck Shark, that would have been a win for the scrap book

On holiday for Brno so have fun without my Morgan there.

Damn, I'll have to try and do my own setup

[Simon Gymer]

BTW replay and provisional results available 

Something wrong with the results, it has TrueTom, then Mo then me. It was Mo, then me  (not sure about Truetom, 3rd I guess?) in reality.

[Zacari]

That was good fun despite the lap 1 crash 

Only did 30 mins practice beforehand and couldn't stop the 360 from oversteering everywhere, so tried the Porsche for the first time ever in GTR - and it was great!  Managed to qualify 8th, plan being to get into a steady rythm and not push too hard as I was using soft tyers for the race.

Started well, avoided the slight melee into the first corner where Picnic was getting abused, got to the 2nd chicane and all you could see was smoke and tyers!  I almost managed to brake enough to squeez through a gap but either clipped the tyer wall or another car and span.  Rejoined in 11th that quickly became 9th, then tried to haul in the guys infront.  Got into a steady pace in the low 41's then after a few laps was in 5th trying to close PaulW down.  Just couldn't get the gap down below 4 sec without frying my rears so put in occasional fast laps, then noticed the gap back to 6th was dropping quite quickly so had to push harder!

Paul then clipped one of the high curbs before the first chicane and I was up to 4th, with Picnic still munching into my advantage in 5th.  Few laps later out-broke myself going into the final complex and idled over the gravel trap, which put Picnic right up my 'pipes   and had a heck of a time trying to keep him there!  Was a good battle and I was glad there weren't another couple of laps!  

So 4th was good for my first NGT race, thanks Dave for putting me on the reserve list so quickly!  


edit: was def. mo, shark, stnasky, zac, picnic top 5.  not sure 'bout others

[Simon Gymer]

Damn, I'll have to try and do my own setup

I'll try and make one up before I go away. Can't have my Sharkies without setups.
Not sure I'll make Donington either as it's the day after I get back from holiday. I'll try.

[popabawa]

Well I thought a real disaster became me at the start, two cars passed me before the first corner, one before the start line 

Well, one of them was me. I reckon I booted it at around 207s replay time, just as Shark was on the start / finish line so I think I misjudged it and was fractionally early to accelerate 

Apologies to Picnic & Locutos for that. I'm deeply sorry as it affected all our races.

Pops

[PaulW]

TrueTom finished 6th just in front of me. After hitting escape though I saw a DNF next to Tom's name which was odd- something definitely went wrong with the placing at the end.

[greg130]

Managed to jump Picnic after the line, so up to 6th.
Then Locutos has his little incident at the 1st tyre chicane.  Just couldn't avoid hitting his car head on, result was a puncture and a very slow limp back to the pits.
Rejoined in last place, managed to get back up to 9th.
Has someone jinked me this season in the NGT ?  After hitting an invisible bollard at Magny and getting a puncture only to get another flat tonight !!!!
Hopefully my luck is due to change, although they do come in 3's I believe, cant wait for the next one.

[picnic]

Not sure what's happened there with TrueTom, the results have him having run 22 laps like the leaders but the race time is DQ. Hopefully Gizmo can have a look at this, it maybe an import quirk associated with the results parser.

[Pedro[PL]]

Wasn't it Truetom that shark, mo and me double lapped just after 3 or 4 laps? Sorry if it was not you, but I have a recollection of such event.

[Truetom]

Lol, that's a jump, from 6th to 1st ! 

Something got mixed up, I finished on the 6th place. That's ok, after the L1 carnage, when I went from 7th to 14th place (I think it was something like that). Replay should sort all out, hopefully.