UKGTL Season 11 European Classic Car Cup - Snetterton - Feb 3

[M Cinderby]

   A great first race for me with you guys. Ran the Lotus started P8 & finished P7 with some excellent close racing in between.
I hoped the TVR & Porsche boys would get tyre problems towards the end but this didn't really seem to happen at least with the TVR gang, but then again I did not really get to see them way down in midfield.  :'( Everyone I raced with behaved very gentlemanly and it was nice to be in a reasonably good field and mix of cars. Thanks for letting me join and I hope I behaved OK? 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Replay and results now posted.

Thanks for the great turnout guy's and welcome to our new drivers. Hope you all had a good race.

We wave good bye to the TVR. Although it was equal in popularity with the Lotus Elan, it finished higher in the results and that's how I will decide between makes that end up equal.

[Geoffers]

Great race for me, spent nearly the whole 36 laps battling with Phil. Very gentlemanly stuff though, only one change of position!  

Was a bit dissappointed with qually, I had done laps in the 1.18s in testing (1.18.1 best) but couldn't get under 1.19 tonight   Got into 5th place on lap 1 when a couple of Porsches made a mess of Sear, looked like I was heading for a lonely race as the top 4 were pulling away & those behind were falling back. But after 5 or 6 laps I started to close up on Phil's TVR & from then on there was rarely more than a second between us.

Nearly all came to grief when we caught Bill at Russell, I got very out of shape coming out of the bend & was heading up pitlane, but just managed to get back on track before hitting the pitwall A few laps later Phil was a bit slow out of Russell & I managed to get past into Riches, our only place swap! Phil stayed close behind for the rest of the race & we were a bit lucky to gain a place on the last lap when Ade spun off  

Congrats to Mike & Sqter & thanks for a good race Phil.

[Phil Gilliland]

Great driving Geoffers, you had the patience of a saint waiting lap after lap to make your move.    After that it was all I could do to just try and hang on to your coattails. Superb stuff.

[goldtop]

A bit of a late decision to take the Porsche, but again it proved to be a fantastic ride. I was quicker in the TVR and the Elan, but found the Elan a bit boring round here and the TVR a bit too exciting

All my race reports seem to be the same these days. A good start off the grid closely followed by a big mistake on lap 1    then a few close battles as I claw my way back. This was the case last night as I almost spun it pulling on to Rebbit and scrabbled around on the grass losing a good few places. Had a nice chase back though and had some great racing with Mark, Berger, Pelle and Legzy until just past mid race when I found myself in a bit of a gap which remained to the finish.

I had a bit of a moment going into the chicane with Berger. I was caught out by the braking of his heavier Porsche and found myself locking up, skewing me over the curb on the entry. Thankfully we managed to avoid contact, but I hope I didn't give you too much of a shock.

[BillThomas]

Thanks Tony for a good car/track selection and the race.  All of a sudden you seemed to hang it all together and catch, pass and go away from me very quickly.

It's nice to race on a track you know in a car you're happy driving.  Had a number of laps battling with people, the best when Syd and Matt must have had a coming together allowing me to get pass them.  Had a few laps with Syd behind me he got by fairly quickly but Matt had more problems with his Jag, he worked out where to do it, the right hander after the bridge, and we had a few close encounters on that section after the bridge.  After he passed me he had a moment allowing me back in front but he passed me on the same corner I only just missed his rear end by inches through the corner as he squirmed on entry to the right hander.

I guess doing a quick count the TVR and Lotus will be missing for the next race in the Series.

[phspok]

Indeed Bill is right, we did have some good tussles, My braking seemd a lot later than most other people
and I tapped GT on lap 1, then Syd later on.
I had a half chance of keeping up with Syd, but was struggling
to know where he was going to go next, some but not all was warping, as his car jumped around a bit
he was a bit quicker over a lap, and i kept falling off/going wide trying to keep up
i think I battled with and eventually passed Bil at least twice. They were the highlights of an
otherwise tedious race. With the forums being down I had forgotten what cars were valid
so had only tested Aston and 904s Didn't know TVR was an option untill Thursday
My history in it has always been major disasters later in a race, plus I could only just
manage 21's with no real setup time, so went for jag as it seemed fast enough and nice
and stable, and it turned out to be neither

[Alex vV]

Unofficial LapChart

Slow driver in a slow car... and it showed  

[spanner]

Took an age to finally get GTL up and running, tried a few cars but settled on the new porsche which felt brilliant compared to alot of others. Got nudged on the first corner as i decided to brake for it and ended up last and worked my way back up to around 10th in no-mans land with large gaps each way but then Berger started droping further and further back then managed to get the hang of it and managed to climb back up sadly. As the race went on i was struggling into the chicane at the end of the back straight, i would loose the back and almost hit the wall as i ended up turning in early so ended up picking up a stop go.

You didnt need to chuck it at the scenery Alex when i came past

Enjoyed getting back into it after a long time away.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Thanks Tony for a good car/track selection and the race.  All of a sudden you seemed to hang it all together and catch, pass and go away from me very quickly.

It's nice to race on a track you know in a car you're happy driving.  Had a number of laps battling with people, the best when Syd and Matt must have had a coming together allowing me to get pass them.  Had a few laps with Syd behind me he got by fairly quickly but Matt had more problems with his Jag, he worked out where to do it, the right hander after the bridge, and we had a few close encounters on that section after the bridge.  After he passed me he had a moment allowing me back in front but he passed me on the same corner I only just missed his rear end by inches through the corner as he squirmed on entry to the right hander.

I guess doing a quick count the TVR and Lotus will be missing for the next race in the Series.

One nill to me then Bill  Hope to repeat that form in Portugal.

Just one make goes per race Bill and the TVR is removed from future races.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Respect to Phspok and Alex for taking less popular choices, for whatever reasons. I couldn't decide what to drive on the night and ended up taking the Lotus, however I just couldn't get my setup right and actually found her bit of a handfull. Had some fine moments with Matt and Bill and loved the burble of those Porsche cars as they passed me by. Seems that Cosworth has some computer problems otherwise he would have joined in too.

Nice to see a good mix on the grid although I know some of you are questioning the series format. The choices at the beginning and the end of the series will be much easier than say the middle third. Sorry for all the downloading but once it's done it's done. Some are saying that it's not necessary to buy all the cars. They may be right but I always do so don't actually know 

Portugal next and if you have never raced at Porto your in for a shock  . I have some great memories of this tight twisty circuit. One being Tibs reversing out of a run off area into the path of a rather irate driver, who was later reprimanded for his "colourful" language.
This track actually featured in the Classic Cars TV series so it's right that it should be part of our ECCC.

Hope to see you all there.

PS Please drive at least one lap online BEFORE race night, please 

[BillThomas]

Can't see Porto (3rd March ?) in your list of GTL races.    Link to track please so I can give it a whirl in my Elan.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Can't see Porto (3rd March ?) in your list of GTL races.    Link to track please so I can give it a whirl in my Elan.

Here you are Bill https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8789.msg156627#msg156627

Looks like you found the race announcement on December 19th Bill  Must be an age thing 

[SpecialKS]

But I cannot download Porto. Humyo requires registration (don't know why - cars download is ok) anf
filefront reports error.

Please give us a valid link for download.

Thanks a lot Tony.

[Wiltshire Tony]

try registering on the humyo site before requesting download