Brno 350k

stupid windows started to update so i had terrible fps and i almost hit the top 3 in gt .. it didn't seem to stop so for safety reasons i had to quit .. i'm pissed off cause this time the dnf wasn't actually my fault :(

Well, I'll take a 5th considering I hate this track and am never fast at it. My original strategy was to go with a full tank at first then short stop it twice but because my pace was crap, I pulled an audible and decided for a 1 stopper with a couple laps in. I kept my nose clean for most of the race except for an incident when I punted Chris Melton and he went flipping (brilliant GTR2 physics). Very sorry about that, Chris :(. Couldn't brake fast enough to slow the car down on worn tires.

That was hard work, and very much a race of two halves. Reasonably quiet first half....and a manic second!

I had a shocker of a start getting onto the grass and I dropped a couple of positions from the start. I couldn't get any rhythm going at all, and ended up sat behind Enzo Trede and John Passmore for ages. I was quite happy to look after my tyres and get by if I could, but in the end they came together, and I grabbed 2 positions as they regrouped.

After that I was looking at a big gap behind, and another to the next guy, although as the pit stop window came up it was decreasing big-time. My position didn't change at the stop, and I came out where I went in.

After a lap or two, Rob Ainscough came out of the pits just infront of me - and I smelt a chance of another position. I got the hammer down, and managed to take advantage of Rob's cold tyres. It became clear pretty quickly that this was going to be a fight and a half to keep him behind me.....and indeed it was. The racing was close, hard, but fair. Thing we swapped paint on one occasion as my car got a bit fidgety under braking. Not too long after that Rob crept by at the uphill chicane. Now it was my turn to put the pressure on.

Both our laptimes came tumbling down as we got into the groove - only when getting lapped did the gap get over a second.

Given Rob's sideways entry to turn 1 every lap - I was confident that if I stayed with him then I'd get past him as he started racing on his rims....and it would have worked.

As we were simultaneously lapping and being lapped, I got surprised by Rob and had to jab my brakes on, and then the backmarker obviously got surprised by me and unfortunately ran into the back of my car. This sent me into the gravel, and left me with some 10 seconds to make up on Rob. Knackered tyres or not it was goign to be hard work. I kept on going, and was making a second or two up per lap on Rob, and looking good to take it on the final or penultimate lap. A botched exit cost me dearly though, and I ran out of time.....

Great racing Rob - really good fun.

There aren't many fans of this track but I actually like to drive the Saleen around here. Didn't think a front row would be possible and to keep close to Milan for the greater part of the race ... but both happend. Unfortunately two mistakes made it impossible to even think about catching him. One was a downshift too much followed by a spin and the other one a bump with Samuel for which I want to apologies. I was just a little too late on the brakes on worn tyres to get it right. At that point I thought it might have been Milan who lit the bbq already so I was in a hurry to get by. Great job Milan and grats to all other podiumfinishers.

Man that was bad luck... engine failure a few corners before finish after runing in second place for the whole race. A big thanks to Samuel for pushing my car back to the finish line so I didn't get a DNF. That was a realy nice gesture and I'm truly honored to race with such gents. Thank you my friend!

Had a superb race following Marko in striking distance but his driving was very constant, without any major mistakes so the closest I got to overtaking him was when we both entered the pits at the same time. That was fun to watch! This time my guys did a brilliant job to refuel me and change tyres without any hesitation but so were Marko's and we kept our positions. Again I followed him as long as I could, until some of the GT guys cought me in weird places to overtake so I lost some time. I then decided to settle for second and just conserve my car and what did I get in exchange.... a smoking engine and finally explosion few corners before finish...LOL. Nevertheless it was a fun race, no problems with faster GT guys and drivers being lapped.

Congrats to all who managed to finish this loooong race at Brno.

@ George: It was a bit of a bummer yeah , that smoking car was actually my target and i had closed the gap from 20 secs to 5 secs when we got together. I was wondering what was the hurry since P1 was long gone and P3 was nowhere near, but when i read that you were chasing that smoking car it kind of made sense then. You could have used the HUD display to show the gap to next car thou ;) , but ok... np George , these things happens.

@ Matjaz: I've once run out of fuel here in Brno on the top off the hill while on last lap , so i know how it feels :|. You run a good race and 2nd place on nGT was practically yours , least i could do was to help you over the finish line since you gave it to me ;).

Well.. not much to tell about the race , car didn't work on medium fronts and after 15 laps it just got worse and worse. It is so frustrating when you just feel the car doesn't work and there's not much you can do. At one point i got so mad that i decided to change soft fronts on my only stop , no matter where i end up... just wanted to drive a car that actually does what i want :|.

I had some extra fuel and stretched the 1st stint to lap 36 before pitting , soft fronts couldn't have lasted half a race but 25 laps were in the limits. Went a bit tight thou but tires were working reasonably well even in last laps , left front had a wear rate of 29 when race was over :O :D.

I'm so regretting that i didn't take a risk and go for a 2 stopper with soft fronts , prolly wouldn't have changed the end result but driving would have been much more fun than it was now. Ah well , last stint was ok and the present from Matjaz lifted up the spirit a little , althou i felt bad for him to have an engine failure in last lap :|.

Congratulations to Marko for the nGT win ,seems like you had the race nicely under control all the way... well done.

Big cheers to Emmo for taking the last podium place on nGT , another nice team effort with 2 cars on the podium 8).

Grts to Milan (again :D) , George and Roman for the GT podium too.

Cya in next one... ;)

-----
Samuel

Great race, I'm just glad I finally finished a 2 hr race.

My 1st stint was ok, until I realized that Med/Med tire combo was NOT going to last 1 hr...and it didn't, at 20 minutes til Pit I was on my 2nd Tire warning, 10 min til pits I was on 3rd tire - lap times droping drastically.

2nd stint I changed pit tire choice to hard/hard and I got out just in front of Adam and didn't actually realize it was for position and let him go by when I let a GT go by -- doooh! So that got me pumped up and I had to push harder than I would have liked. I was unsure of what I could get away with on the revs and had it at 8600. Adam and I had a good fight going but traffic was killing us both whenever we were real close. I had a bad line passing a lapper which caused me to take a turn slower than normal and I think this caught out Adam and lapper and I saw contact in my rear mirror - sorry guys was doing the best I could with the line I had.

After that I had a 10 second gap and was trying to "conserve" the car and tires with short shifting -- conserved a little too much and Adam got very close again.

And once again I found myself with WAY too much fuel at the end (10 laps worth!!) -- I guess it was my short shifting that left me with so much fuel.

But I had great fun, congrats to podiums. Thanks to all. Great racing Adam.

Qualy went wrong for me. I had no clean lap till the last attempt and got a pole, that surprised me because my time was not been so good for qual. Looks like other had the same prob in qual.
Race, ahh what a constant pressure I suffer from George, he wasn't been close to my bamper but these few seconds gap lasted most part of the race. Just after his spin I increase the safe lead. Well done George. Good race Roman.
Good percentage of finishers here.

Congrats nGT's Marko, we did it :)

p.s nice gesture from Samuel when helping Matjaz to see the flag :)

Well that was kind of a lonely race for me. First laps i was a bit stuck behind Rob. After i passed him i found myself in no mans land. I didn't have the pace to keep up with the the top 3 and my lead over Rob steadily increased.

Close before my pitstop i saw Sam having troubles as i closed the gap back to about 5 secs. I went in 2 laps before Sam did and hoped to pass him with some fast laps after my pit. It didn't work though. When he came out of the pit he was still in front. I never saw him again as he pulled away after that, guess his soft fronts really worked :)

Tough luck Matjaz. I saw u standing there on the last lap. Your misfortune gave me 3rd place. Again 2 F360's on the podium, not bad for the underdog car.

Grats to Milan and Marko and all the other podium finishers.

I didn't have time to practice so didn't set a quali lap.

Race was ok, help position on start. Got punted a few laps in but he waited for me which was cool (thanks for that whoever it was :D).

Had a tyre problem but tried to put up with it so i could get into the pit window, wasn't the best plan in the world as i was loosing about 6 seconds a lap to me normal pace.

Had a problem with the GT cars just diving at me, got hit so many times i lost count. If it was in real life there would have been loads of pens given out ;).

Had no one to race after Chris got flipped by a GT car, so just slowed the pace down to save tyres and fuel as i was short on fuel.

Finished 2nd to last and cant see why i was so slow, just cant get used to gtr2 i suppose. ;(

Simon..