UKGTL Season 11 World Prototype Cup - Le Mans (Sarthe) - Dec 29

[Mike Miller]

I have to withdraw from the race guys. I am working today and I simply can't break away. Enjoy the drafting.

[Pelle_B]

Argh Mike 

What is a home, without this DVD
...and what do I see? This year it has been released on blu-ray, with DTS sound, should I really buy another one?

[purdie]

after all that practise i can't seem to find the server. Have the GTL Revived edition as my old DVD wouldn't work on Win7, tried the Lobby patch too and see only 5 servers available and can't connect via direct ip. Gutted 

[johnw]

Can you see any of the altbierbude servers?
Have you tried this: http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184088

[purdie]

Can you see any of the altbierbude servers?
Have you tried this: http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184088

absolute legend it worked thank u !!!!

[purdie]

was evolving into a really interesting race... got to the 45 min mark and had to pit for a s/g after a few ambitious lines through the old porsche curves.... as I pulled into the pit stall the game crashed 

still great fun and amazing pace John!

[phspok]

was having a great time dicing with GT, went into pits at end of lap 15 with fuel light just starting to flash
pulled up to my pit guy as I had practiced, but he didnt see me
reversed back a bit and forward ad infinitum, still no go. turned off auto gears
and engine stopped, but no pit work, so left.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Results and replay now posted

Thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to the drivers who lasted the full distance

1st John W  

2nd Goldtop  

3rd Pelle B  

And the final results for the WPC are

Overall Champion Pelle B  

2nd Alex vV  

3rd Wiltshire Tony  

S5.0 Champion Pelle B  

2nd Wiltshire Tony  

3rd SpecialKS  

P3.0 Champion Alex vV  

2nd Syd Drake  

3rd Wiltshire Tony  

P2.0 Champion Phspok  

2nd Navin R Johnson  

3rd Alex vV  

That's the last GTL event of 2011. Thank you to everyone who took part and you all deserve a pat on the back for making this year another without a single moderators report. That's a sign of the quality of driving we are proud to promote at Simracing.org.uk.

The new season kicks off on January 2nd and I hope you all enjoy all the new series lined up for 2012.

Cheers and a Happy New Year to you all

WT

[Phil Gilliland]

Big thanks to you Tony for all your hard work in bringing these great series to us.

[BillThomas]

Yea, thanks Tony for the Series and all the other Series and Events you've organised during the year - tip top car/track combos. 

During practice, I found 2 places where I "lost"  the car in the race - one a jump the barrier and the other over the sand dune and into a permanent spin in space.    I drove steadily at those 2 points and avoided trouble up to my pit stop.  Changed rear tyres and fuelled up.  After that the car seemed nicer to drive and after a fastest race lap I thought I'd amuse myself by seeing if I could do better.    What a wally,  went too fast into that right hand kink before the right angle left hander and finished up on the left side of the track and was unable to avoid going over the top of the sand dune - race over.  :'(

Perhaps I'll be able to last longer tonight - at least I know the track better and it's not got any "spins in space", at least I've not found any - plenty of unforgiving banks though. 

[goldtop]

Great event last night Tony and thanks for putting this series together. Just wish I could have made more of them.

The Alfa was terrific around here with quite a stiff setup and a few tweaks to my ffb settings I felt really in the seat. Had a nice start and managed to maintain a gap to Matt behind up until about lap 12 or so when my tyres started to suffer.

I had a miraculous escape going through the fast right/left (old Porsche curves?) when I did a complete 360, missing everything and continuing on in 3rd gear. Couldn't do that again if I tried. This allowed however Matt to close right up and we had a great battle as we changed places for a couple of laps before I decided to pit. Forgot to fill up with fuel, so I only did 5 or so laps before my next stop for a half tank and new tyres. By this time Matt had retired which was a real shame as I'm sure it would have been a race long battle.

I had another scare when I went a bit deep into Indianapolis, but managed to keep things pretty clean for the rest of the race. The last half hour or so was tough going, but reat to be able to finish an event like this.

Well done to John for a dominant win and to all those who took part 

[Pelle_B]

This was a fantastic end to this series...Thanks to everyone who joined, & a special big thank you to Tony  

Qual:
Regardless of who should hold the pole, I wanted a Porsche 917 first...but suddenly there came a name 'John W' at the top 'wtf Ferrari'...& who is John W.  
Luckily, NRJ & I know some tricks...& everything ended as planned  

Race:
My plan was medium tires, fit very well on my tires so I could run 14 laps & 2xpit...but in the race, nothing can be predicted, one thing is always exciting & unpredictable.
917 had no chance against 512 (John W) & we lost seconds every lap. Unfortunately, we meet Bill an unfortunate place on the track, the hard & fast S cornering 'Maison Blanche'. Maybe I should have waited until after, but Bill seemed fast...suddenly we're in the middle of the turn, Bill, me & NRJ & everything goes wrong. We made a mistake, but the same happened in the movie.  
After the turn, I look more in the mirror after NRJ...& I is on way to the old part of Le Mans (without chicane) & watching a straw bale & BANG 'DOH'. NRJ is rotating at 200 mph past me on the grass & disappears into the black hole, ARGH. Both Porsche 917 sidelined in seconds.
What lies back of my 917 I packages together & crawl into the pit. Fine work of mechanics - the car was fine again - but weird: XD still said 100% engine, but there were no forces & especially topspeed was gone.  

Pit stop strategy was gone, but I struggled with my blunt 917 & are able to make a mistake more, the last pit stop I order too little fuel & may later take a splash n' dash & GT that was my next goal could sit & laugh  
Overall: I'm glad I managed to get a Porsche 917 on the podium & not least, finish on the podium as the champ in this fine series  

Big Grats to John W & GT...incredibly nice there were so many left after several hours of race  

I wish you all a Happy New Year  

[Navin R Johnson]

Yes, As Pelle said two 917's are quicker than 1 . But Pelle was the one who actually deserved the better time as he is always faster than me in these cars. But with our shenanigans I was the fortunate one  . I for one was well aware of John W's abilities . We had an all IROC 911 P&G race(I think it was a GamersCribs race) in May of 2009 at the Nordschleife Tourist. It was a 7 lap race where we battled for the win and were never more than 3 seconds apart for the entire race . Honestly, it was one of my best ever performances in an online race as both of us never made any bad mistakes and the last lap was our fastest lap with myself driving at 10/10th's for the whole last lap. So it was no surprise to me that John W was so dang fast in that Ferrari . The start went well although John did get a better jump on me and was leading going into the first sets of turns. I could of passed going down the Mulsanne straight but I just figured that John was going to be faster and didn't want anything bad to happen in the braking zone. I say that because I was having a real problem on a full tank keeping the 917 from yawing to the right under threshold braking. As I thought John was quicker and started pulling away slowly but steadily at every split time. After a lap or so Pelle started closing the gap to me and then I started making some little mistakes which allowed Pelle to pass. I was maybe a second or two behind Pelle when I saw him closing on Bill entering the s's. Once Pelle got pasted I thought go right and then there was no right so I tried to juke to the left only to drop my left side wheels in the dirt. I didn't lift off the gas enough and the car started to spin. Unfortunately I spun off to the right before the last chicane and was then in the Twilight Zones eternal spin. DOA It was still fun to run a proper Le Mans race with proper Le Mans cars

A big congrats to John W for another steller performance Props to Goldtop for a solid 2nd place and to Pelle for getting back to 3rd place somehow
Also a solid nod to Kurt and Alex for both finishing that grueling race

   *************WPC Champions************
Both well earned and deserved all around
Overall Champion Pelle B
S5.0 Champion Pelle B
P3.0 Champion Alex vV
P2.0 Champion Phspok
That goes equal to Tony,Kurt and Syd in their respective podiums places in the Championships
There were also some very close competitors that just missed a pody spot and they too deserve another nod for there performances. You know who you are

And once again a special thank you to Tony for being a rock in the GTL world. Truly keeping this oldie but a goodie game rolling strong

[Alex vV]

Unofficial LapChart

What a gruelling race!

Start proved to be rather funny because I was looking at a marshall instead of the flag man. Moved when everybody else already started   (I refuse to use the countdown thingie).
The the first 6 laps were classic slipstream battles with my follow Alfa competitors and Eifel's 908. Classic stuff on the Mulsanne straight all without incidents  
Then teamie Sandor misjudged the classic Porsche curves and went off big time (at least it was a nice sight   ).
With nobody around I settled to bring the car in for my first an only pitstop. With tyre values deep in the red and running on fumes fortunately the pitcrew was sober and serviced the car.
After the pitstop I was behind Eifel and tried to catch up. Got the difference back from 25 sec to around 10 but could not match some monster laps.
Last half hour proved to be very uncomfy on a deskchair. Did some stretching on the straight and was glad I finished  
Congrats to Eifel. You rightly won our little Gentleman Driver competition  

A BIG thanks to Tony for organising this championship. Proved to by not everybody's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed the awesome monster machines from the 70's. Let's you know how though these cars were to drive (oversteer, understeer).. very much appreciated!
Also thanks to everybody who showed up. There was some good racing.

Congrats to the fast guys at the front.

Ah, I see that I won quite some silverware. When is the award ceremony   (expecting lots of champagne)

[johnw]

I think that's the longest race I've ever done! Impressed at the number of runners at the end as well. It was a shame to see the two 917s out of contention so early on - unlucky guys. The same as with Pelle & Navin, I also came up on some people a bit quicker than I was expecting a couple of times but luckily for me they were on the ball every time Thanks also to Navin for not attempting a pass at the end of the Mulsanne, once I saw the flash of lights I knew I'd be safe to turn in.

Grats to all finishers in this very challenging race 

We had an all IROC 911 P&G race(I think it was a GamersCribs race) in May of 2009 at the Nordschleife Tourist. It was a 7 lap race where we battled for the win and were never more than 3 seconds apart for the entire race

Yeah, I remember that one! You were on fumes going over the line, if I remember correctly. Good race