UKGPL Season 21 (2011) Novices (65) - Watkins Glen (Classic) - May 17

[Cookie]

is it posible, that previous race time wraps was affected, that one car run ontrack before 30min mark?

Don't think so, this is what Fran regulary does... 

I think it is affected by extreme warping of drivers with bad connections.

Cheers
Axxel

[francesco]

Sorry, no. I made a mistake. Use the Ferrari.

Wow thank you,just in time.

[karlisss]

WELLL!
i should be so lucky lucky lucky lucky
i should be so lucky in Watkins Glen.....
but i am bittersweet feeling..
1.First time ever i did POLE POSITION!!! + PB on track
2.i leed a race for some 7 laps, when forfeith for Cookie, till SOME stupid algorythm in lap 10 BLOW my engine....
3. i was so lucky it happens at pit entrance
5. returned in P5 and aimed my goal, CONFIDENCE, do whatever you can except mistakes
6. somehow i went back to P2 tried to catch Fossa, but race was too short, my car was much hevier (about 1/3 than it shoud), so...10more laps and who knows:) P2 in +1sec afterall
7. afteralll FIRST UKGPL PODIUM for me, and FIRST EVER LEAGUE RACE PODIUM (counted all leagues where i raced), i shuld be so happy!
8. (avoided horriffic crash, maybe little touched red car, but not by fault)

[blito]

Well, I had a steady and pleasant (and slow) evenings drive to a unremarkable 10th place. The car was solid and stable and never once felt on edge but it just had no ball at all! Even coopers and BT7s were out dragging me on the straights! Only bit of fun was my cheeky re-passes on HappyAL and Badblood. The BRM had amazing traction out of the final corner! Pity it didnt have the grunt to match

[BadBlood]

Fun race for me. PB in qually and I was right up there in...14th

Started cautiously - thought that there might be some 1st lap fun and games... there were. Settled into a nice rhythm until I found a spinning car on the S/F and despite my best efforts hit it. Had to steer several times to make sure of contact. Sigh. Lost oout to Al and Blito and settled to chasing them down, which I did. Jason made a small mistake out of the loop and I was up with him. Could I pass? Maybe - yikes the big bend on the inside... gulp. Chickened out and lost time on the last corner. OK Chase him down again. This time I made the pass and made it stick but Jason got a good run on me out of the last corner - next time though I had the run and we went round side by side - oof. Not sure what exactly happened until I see the replay but I drove on in 9th I think. That scrap had put me into the clutches of Pete Maestro and I left him lots of room at the loop so as to make sure we both didn't crash - he was quicker and it was a matter of time.

Now I just needed to keep it going.... Did until 9 laps to go - caught the kerb at the right hander coming to the pits. Blast. Took ages to get going and my precious lead that I had eked out evaporated. Something had broken because the car wouldn't turn in and I clipped the armco in Turn 2. Horrible attempt to turn round as the track was clear but I couldn't get 1st - ended up sprawled across the track. Luckily no one hit me and I could get going again. Watch that one through my fingers I think. Drove for a finish and surprised to finish eleventh but not before some squabbling Ferraris took me out by the pits so that Jason could cheerily lap me... blast and double blast. Firts time I have beaten any of my cohort fair and square although Al's loss of Internet connection did help...

Not sure if I'll keep my place until I have seen the replay but it was a MASSIVE improvement for me. Great fun too. UPDATE - just watched the replay and I hope it goes down as a racing incident. It might be a bit ambitious from me though but I think I had the run on Jason. May be a penalty for me but I really hope not.

[miner2049er]

I hope the server was better for everyone this time.

[BadBlood]

It was fine Mike. Bit of warp but no real problems. Thanks.

[NHance]

Its 11pm on race night & I still haven't calmed down. I think this is now 6 races out of the last 7 where I have been involved in accidents and most of them, 4, from memory were on lap 1. Technically I may get the penalty here as when I turned in ( I was on the racing line) when contact was made the other car was half a car ahead. You can watch the mirrors & press the side view button but in the end you have to concentrate on taking the bend. Anybody heard of a bit of caution on cold tyres. We keep getting the mods stressing about you can't win a race on lap 1 but you can lose it. Well it seems I'm the one who always loses it.

So gentleman I am not happy. So here's something to think about & I would stress this is not aimed at anyone individually. If anybody comes near me with an overambitious manouver on lap 1 at the next race they will not see the end of the race without taking an s&g. In fact I might try one myself.
Norm H

[BadBlood]

Can't comment Norm because you are not on my replay on Lap 1 - strange. I couldn't see everyone at kick off either. Never seen that before. It will get moderated but I know that is not too much consolation.

Don't get too mad though. Lap 1 incidents seem to be very common lately. I started cautiously because I thought - somebody will cock it up and sure enough I made up 5 places before the loop.

[karlisss]

Can't comment Norm because you are not on my replay on Lap 1 - strange. ...

on my replay in lap 1 are only 10!!!!! cars... also one of them appears on uphill climb T2 from nowhere
what causes sutch thing?

[BadBlood]

Not sure - same for me. It was like that in the race as well.

[vosblod]

So gentleman I am not happy. So here's something to think about & I would stress this is not aimed at anyone individually. If anybody comes near me with an overambitious manouver on lap 1 at the next race they will not see the end of the race without taking an s&g. In fact I might try one myself.
Norm H

I can see you're not a happy bunny Norm but you are a sixth Season veteran in the Nov's. You must have got to the stage where you have seen more then your fair share of lap One-Ers. Guess you must have figured out why it's called the Novices and we have the hand of god (or is that Mike) who see's all...

[blito]

Lap one mayhem can be fustrating. I came to a standstill just before turn 1 as there was an upside down cooper in the way.. luckily no damage was done to my car and I was only delayed by a couple of seconds so it didn't hange my race too much. 

[happyal]

Hi Norm, sounds like you are having really bad luck recently with accidents. I say stick with it and your luck will change. If you remember I was involved in quite a few lap 1 accidents, normally with you, but I’ve managed to cut most of these out. With a bit more experience things will get better.

As for my race all I can say is a big disappointment. Same problem I had with the GT race, I could not get near my off line practice times during the race. The car felt weird and I could not push.

In qualifying I managed a time which I was quite happy with, I did a 1:10.99. It was half a second off my PB but it put me quite well up the grid. I quickly decided to work on race setup and full fuel testing. As I was doing this I saw myself slowly drop down the grid until I was left with 13th. Not was I was expecting.

Onto the race, I started OK. I threaded my way though the lap 1 chaos and I was lapping in 7th place. I was right behind Billy at this point and we were more or less on the same pace. I decided to follow Billy, and not challenge him, for a few laps and build up the gap with the cars behind. It worked well until I made a silly mistake at the Loop, I ran a bit wide and put my tyres onto the grass and spun.

After the spin I was behind Rog, who was battling someone just in front. I tried to do the same as with Billy, and settle down behind Rog and try to gap the car behind. I made another silly mistake at the last corner, where I spun again and lost a load more time, this time letting though quite a few cars.

At no time upto this point was I driving at 10/10th I wasn’t pushing, so I was a bit miffed as to why I kept making these mistakes. I tried to push from this point on, but it wasn’t working. I was lapping 1.5 to 2 seconds off what I was doing in off line practice on full tanks. The more I pushed, the more mistakes happened, and the slower I went.

I more or less gave up at this point, it was 15 laps to go, Jason was 8 seconds ahead, and I caught a glimpse of his car every lap at the last corner. I tried and tried to pull in the gap but could not. In the end I did another spin at the last corner. I just gave in at this point, didn’t try to get any kind of lap time and bring it home.

Just to put the cherry on top of the cake, my wife pulled out the internet cable from the phone line. I don’t know why? She doesn’t know why either. I don’t know what lap I was on, and I don’t know where I finished, and I’m still a bit deflated from the race.

No point in dwelling on anything, I will try to do better in the next race and hope that this race is a one off this season.

[Cookie]

At first I want to apologize my bad fault I did in lap 3 when I tried to outbrake Fabio....
But Fabios revanche I got later was not gentlemanlike! (31:53 - 31:56)

My practice:
Not a single clean lap, 3rd

My race:
Started with no problems in the first laps, besides my bad overtaking effort with Fabio.
Had fair and wonderful battles with Norbert and Karliss.
Being the leader made a mistake in turn 2 kissing the grass and then the armco...
Back in 6th I had to do some work.
Could get back to 2nd place until lap 27.
Then I did the last hairpin wide, was in the grass, came back on tarmac and got a big kick...
Had to wait more than 20sec until I could make s+r made the stop+go with 10 sec waiting
Ended in 9th, angry with myself, to have been unable to keep calm and cool!
Still have to learn and get more experienced.

Gratz to podium!

Cheers
Axel