Well, good racing everyone. Sorry I missed so many events. Those early times (5 AM UK) were just too much for me. I've always like this track though, as its just so fast and flowing. We should really do a GT race on this one of these days.

Screwed up my first qualifying lap when Motec decided to open like 3 mins AFTER I pressed the button in game. Panic when suddenly couldn't see where I was going :))). Thought I had the pole down easy when suddenly in the final secs Jose made it known he had other plans... :)

Race time, and I got a pretty good start. The big engined / high torque T-400R is just unmatchable in acceleration compared to the other NGTs, but I think the others were also held up due to a slow starter though.

I had a few secs lead and manage to maintain and pull away consistently from Jon in his Tuscan, but then I was surprised to see Jose blasting though the field in my rear view mirror. He caught up to me in about the space of a lap and I let him by thinking he was driving an RSR while thinking to myself... I can't be that slow??

I tried to up the pace a bit, I could catch him slightly into the corners, but his acceleration out was nothing short of incredible, and he was literally gaining like .5 secs just within like 300m while short shifting.

He continued his turbocharged run and from that point I just let it be, thinking I could get him in the pits. However I pretty much screwed that up too and I think probably everyone overtook me then :))).

Had to REALLY work for it after the stop and managed to get back past everyone. Lol... Vini just pulled over and let me by (thanks mate) :))). From that point I pushed as hard I dared to catch Jose, but every-time I got close he simply went faster and pulled away. At the end I slowed down due to fear of running out of fuel, but it didn't happen and I finished the race in 2nd place.

Incredible speed from Jose's RS and humbling to be smoked so badly by a Rank 3 driver. Well that is the way it goes sometimes...

Congrats to Jose for the victory and Jon for securing 3rd. Great racing everyone else and thanks Michael for hosting.

Take care.

Fernando

Excellent race today at Catalunya. Definitely one of my favourite tracks and always a hard but enjoyable day's work here.

I had the pace to match Reinhard and Joco, as evident in Qualifying where I took pole position (and my fastest time) on the very first try. I took three "1 lap" trials, and I think was actually about 0.3 secs up in the middle sector on the final attempt when the session changed near the finish line. So that ended my hope of beating the lap record.

- Also apologies to Andrea for that nudge in qualifying. I was turning in and you sort of twitched and took me by surprise. Hitting people off the track is not something that I do normally. Sorry mate.

The track temperature at race time was literally perfect (28 degrees Celsius) and I started on Medium / Hard tyres not expecting any issues at all. Tyre temps were almost spot-on with the left rear exactly on 90 degrees and the right about 5 to 10 degrees lower depending on the corner. The stint went very well and I was class and race leader for the entire first half. I got a bit distracted a few times but managed to keep my attention on the job and avoided making any real mistakes.

By the end of the stint though, my tyres were starting to scrub away and I think Reinhard closed the gap a bit. To be honest there wasn't really much between us and the gap remained more or less the same for the entire first half. My real mistake was made during the pit-stop where I overfilled the car and lost about 8 secs (and the lead) to him. Luckily, I had already decided I was gonna bolt on Medium / Medium Tyres and this certainly helped massively when it came to closing that gap. Unfortunately, by the time I caught up to him, the race and my tyres were pretty much over and I had to be content with a mighty close second place. Haha! I bet you were pretty worried there Reinhard :))

Overall, an excellent race, pretty similar to the last one I had here in G2, and despite the fuel issue and not winning, I'm content to call it a job well done.

Congrats to Reinhard and Mattias for their class wins and great jobs to the podiums. Thanks everyone for showing up. I was actually worried at the start that we might not have a race, as it pretty much shared the same time as the real F1 Barcelona event. (which I'm about to sit down and watch now, by the way.)

Great racing all

Fernando

Well excellent race. Had nowhere near the pace to challenge Reinhard on his home track today. And I was just too crap to fight and consistently hold off Cristi.

I did have a fantastic time at the start sparring and exchanging places with my other teammate Ricardo in his 550 GTS though (Somehow I always have more fun with the Viper when I am fighting a Prodrive), but then he went off and I didn't see him again. From that point it got pretty boring. I just tried to settle down and drive to the plan.

Second stint I tried to go all out thinking I was safe and ended up almost running out of fuel. I had to do the final lap with just 3 litres. Barely made it to the finish line. Ended in 3rd.

Anyway that was the race. Congrats to Reinhard and Samuel in their classes and great racing to the podiums and everyone else.

Next event is Barcelona and hopefully I should have better pace there.

Great racing everyone!

Fernando

PS:
What happened Ricardo? That was some pretty good action!!

Was a good race. The race restart was actually better in my favour as it was damp and I had a chance to stress race the Intermediates on 2x after my last try on Interlagos. I definitely had better brakes into the corners. The Toledo has a pretty nice turbocharged v6 with 600Nm Torque and very good acceleration. But I was getting distracted too much.

Had a great few first lap fights with Joco, then I got clipped in one of the chicanes through the straights. (I was still experimenting with the brake bias setting under heavy braking and at that point I has set it a little too far back). I was in the middle of struggling to recover the car on that slippery tarmac bit when I go hit. No fault of Joco. However, after this my car seemed to handle a bit differently. (I'd already had contact with another M3 coming through the field).

The Toledo is basically just a more powerful version of the Elise in terms of its mechanical handling. It uses almost exactly the same setup, and has pretty much the same balance. I.e. front grip limited. Which means one would have to use power or diff steer to correct any inherent understeer. This isn't so bad in the dry as this car tends to turn almost exactly on its centre axis like a spinning "Top" when diff steered. However in the wet, it can get a bit tricky when you take into account the car's twin-turbocharged "On Now" torque, and snap oversteer is a real threat in spite of its limited front end nature.

Still, racing in the rain was pretty unexpected and after the shunt, this along with other more (shapely) distractions from my girlfriend prevented me from regaining that fighting spirit. :)))). I went off a few times and I just sort of gave up and tried to stay in 3rd place. I pitted late to get new tyres and try for a fastest qualifying lap, but lost it just on the last chicane before the start/finish. Ended the race there in 3rd.

Eventful race if not surprising. Congrats to Reinhard and Vini for the class wins and Joco for staying close along with the other podiums.

Great racing everyone.

Fernando

This was a pretty good race. I wasn't actually expecting to do so well, as this track is not one of my most consistent. Was surprised to see Reinhard and Joco in the C5R as well.

I did some practising for this race on Thursday and final setup on Friday (Last night). Some rough calculations for the Viper came up with 16.5 litres per lap (or 265 litres total for the race). Two and a half tanks of fuel at full pace. Not bad for the old girl. I heard some talk of 3 stops (300+ litres) from the Ferrari and Chevrolet guys. So I knew I had it much easier. I had good pace in the car, but my problem was more one of consistency, as this huge track tends to blowup every little error made and you could end up losing your way pretty quickly.

At the start of Qualifying, everyone one around me froze and I thought my router had rebooted, but it seemed to be some sort of server hiccup and a bunch of people lost connection. This screwed up my qualifying session and I had only barely enough time to get one lap in by the time reconnected to the server.

I started on a good lap trying not to make any mistakes, (I never could qualify properly on these huge tracks), however I got into some trouble with another Viper and hit him (was more of just a glancing side blow) forcing him off the road and into a crash. (Sorry Felipe). This ruined my lap a bit but I still managed to salvaged 2nd fastest.

In the Race, it was a bit more difficult to pull away from the pack with cold tyres and those Corvettes definitely got a hitch on the back of my v10... Going where no Corvette has gone before down the Le-Mans straights :))) Well... whats the use all of that pulling power if I don't use it, Right? Ha!!

By the end of the first stint I had left the C5Rs behind and was slugging it out with Brian and his Prodrive 550. Yep, the horsepower club :). We all pitted at the same time but I made a few mistakes, mainly switching on my pit- limiter too soon and it cost some time (All the setup laps I do and I never once think to do a practice pit-stop...)

Reinhard managed to take advantage of this in his Corvette and jumped me by a few secs. (I don't think he changed his tyres either). It wasn't much of an advantage (about 2 to 3 secs), and I could catch him, but we also passing through the NGT traffic and that warped my concentration a bit.

Come the second pit-stop, he was less than a second in front. However, I made a critical error by cancelling my pit-stop while just metres away from the pit entrance and I had to wait what seemed like forever for the crew to respond once I got stationary. That plus I elected to repair a bit of a damage (I have no idea where it came from...) plus the time wasted reducing the fuel to the correct amount meant my "short" stop was even longer than my previous full one... :(. Another new set of tyres and off I went.

Reinhard was now 20 secs ahead of me. But it was a lot easier to set faster times as the car was essentially now in Qualifying Mode and I started to cut that down pretty quickly. I got the time down to about 8 secs, then ran out of laps as the race came to an end and finished in 2nd place. Not bad at all, as I actually didn't expect to do well. (This is my best finish at Le-Mans after all the bad luck I've had here).

Congrats to Reinhard and Luke for the top steps, and to all the podiums as well. A very good race filled with strategy, and it was very good to see the mix of high and low fuel cost cars being used.

The next event is my "home" track... Spa and the Viper GTS-R. I expect nothing less than the top trophy :))). And no crashing at Eau Rouge either!!

Thanks and congrats to everyone who took part. See you at Spa.

Great racing all!

Fernando

Lol Reinhard, I was wondering why the F1 GTR was so slow in top speed. I swear I checked the power and saw 600hp. (100hp more than the others). I've been getting really slack with my rules and so on regarding racing. Next time its back to business and I'm sticking with front engine cars. But I'm really still trying to get to grips with the huge amount of downforce these cars have (the overly heavy FFB doesn't help either). I usually depend on mechanical grip feel to drive the car.

Would have been comfortably in the top midfield if it weren't for an accident where I lost my front wing. But that is how things go. Hopefully better luck next time, but to be honest my mind has been on other (real world) stuff lately.

Grats to Maciej and the podiums and great racing everyone.

Fernando

PS: Sign up for the GT Masters next week at Le Mans!!

Okay fair enough Bruno. Just disappointed with the result. I was leading the race and managing to stay ahead of Mike til disaster struck me. Twice...

Great racing everyone and congrats to Vinicius and the podiums.

Fernando