Zhuhai 400k

Me and Sam had to help our parents paint our new house, which was just a horrible experience. Of course, we get back 15 minutes too late. What a crap weekend I'm having!!!

Well, that's probably it for me and S5, because BT are going to take an age to convert our internet connection to our new house which is less than a mile away... peachy.

Cya in a few weeks, when hopefully life will be a bit more worth bothering with

I need a sledgehammer....

Shit.

I thought this race started at 11am. I was an hour off.

I hear ya Conor

Phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. I eventually parked it to answer the phone and see what kind of emergency is it. There wasn't any emergency. Lost whole minute there, and when I saw Claus is gonna lap me before first stops I saw no need to continue that.

First engine blow... 17 mins from end :(
Alt Tabbed by accident and then got a CTD sorry about that, hope it didnt cause any issues....

Started OK but I noticed at one point I was speed-ploughing in sandtrap. Thanks for sending me there. For a while I was so pissed that I was going to ESC.

Spent remaining part of 1st stint to hunt Mr Shackleton down - got close but no chance to overtake as we had about the sama pace. We caought Mr Manocchia and all three went nose to tail for several laps. Midpoint of the race was close so I thought I'd try to overtake in pits and went for gas and tyres.

After my pitstop and some laps I noticed that I had managed to pass several cars. After this it was just question of keeping it together. I had a fuel issue as the car seemed to be thirstier on 2nd stint and spent last 30 minutes shortshifting like hell. At finish line I had about four litres left.

My Porkster setup was incredibly stable and good to drive. Tyre wear was non-existent. One notch less wing might have given a bit of edge on main straight but who gives a shit anymore... :)

SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS TO NGT CLASS WINNER SIR PETE OF BUNCE!!!

Both of my stints were about the same. Hold off Tom as long as possible, then just cruise. I went with med/hard for both stints expecting it to get hot, but it never did, and my tires were stone cold for the whole race, which had a lot to do with my lack of pace. Spent the last 10 laps saving fuel and literally ran out as I crossed the line just in front of Jerry.

Can't say I'm too happy about having a GTC in the hands of a perfectly capable driver. Tom's come a very long way since he started. He drove a very clean, good race. I just wish it were on more even terms.

Almost forgot. With 2 laps to go I was really saving fuel and trying to stay out of everyone's way, but CJ got into the back of me in one of the kinks. Really sorry about that.

CJ and Sam look like they had lots of fun. heh

Bob, that was fun stuff in both stints.

Craig, sorry mate for the love tap in the 1st half. Me, Dean and Bob were nose to tail, I got a little tunnel vision chasing down Dean's ass, and you snuck right in between us just as I hit my braking point. Seemed every time you came to lap me, it was in the worst possible spot. :)

Did med/med for first stint, which was horrible. Tires never got above 70 degrees. After the incident with Craig, noticed on GTRPD that my brake was dragging around 2-3%. No wonder it felt like I was towing a parachute down the front straight. :D

2nd stint opted for Soft/med. Much better. Somehow came out behind Bob, chased him down, had a great battle. Eventually got by, and started chasing down whoever was in front. Didn't know at the time, but turned out it was Adriano. The gap was pretty steady, until about quarter of the race left. My laps were still the same consistent time every lap around, but the gap was closing. Figured whoever it was must be on the wrong tires. Got it down to 7.7, then GTR froze on me coming out of last corner. Sat there for a good 10 secs. Bob passed me again. Had some more fun with Bob until he had to get a splash and go. Fighting with Bob wore my fronts down. Finished the race with 43.7 on frLft, 34.1 on frRght. LOL, the pit chief was screaming at me to change tires. I told him to shut his trap! The car felt fine. :P

Came up on Adriano last lap. Saw him limping, figured it must be fuel. Remembered Johan helping me out at Magny, so I returned the favor to Adriano and checked up on the back straight in 5th gear. Saw he had enough to make it to the line without me pushing, so got a little draft coming out of the last turn to make it interesting at the line. ;)

Great stuff by everyone.

I am not sure what happened today... I got in the cockpit and noticed theFinn had qualified right in front of me... Last time I remember running laps with him, we were at Anderstorp in October, I was in a Saleen, he was in a Morgan and had to slow down to let me keep up with him. Today I started the race with him right in front of me and it seemed odd that after several laps he was still right in front of me. Then something happened and then other things happened followed by various occurences then I noticed that the race was over.

Regarding Adriano's comment about me driving a car that is faster (and better looking too), it did appear today that my car was much faster than yours, but it may have had alot more to do with tires than anything, I ran softs all around the whole race, my tires were just about perfect the whole race.

Overall it was probably the best overall race for me... very rough start of the day though, had to re-install gtr2 just minutes before qualifying.