Brno 330k (GT/nGT)

Well that was real cool.

Had a decent qual considering the conditions and managed 2nd sandwiched between Ari and Enis in some real close lap times.

My race was shortened dramatically while I was in 2nd place nGT. I was pressuring Ari and we were having some great racing, nice and clean, as good as I have had to date. The leaders came through making nice clean passes and that gave Ari and little brething room. A lap later ... [snip by TM]

Ari I hope you ended up winning, you were driving excellent and deserve it.

Anyone interested I invite you to watch at time mark 2169 and the following 2 laps.

[Edit by TM: Public accusations will not be tolerated. There is a PRIVATE email system in place if you have an issue with another driver. This is not the appropriate place for such discussions.]

Just explaing in my post race why my race ended. After watching the replay I feel even stronger about what I said.

That sucked.

Car was ok over a single lap, could've been better. But in the race it was so bad after 15 laps I can't even describe it. From 2:01's to 2:05's, unbelievable. Ultimately I decided to DNF when my brake pedal started to act funny. Apart from quali, horrible race for me. Guess I need to practice next time, and set up car properly.

That was lots of fun. My first lap in the car was in the damp qually session. Each lap was a second or two faster than the last, and I got a lap in at the perfect time right at the end before it pored with rain. It wasnt the perfect lap, but even if it had been I'd still have been nowhere near CJ or Tolga, so I was happy :)
Start went well, kept up with the top two for a lap, then dropped away. Didnt see anyone until 20 mins to go when I caught a Corvette (sorry, forgot your name!) who must have been one stopping (I two stopped). Got passed pretty easily after a nice battle finished up with a small mistake from him into T1. After that I just cruised to the end and another 3rd... I havent been beaten by the same person twice so far in this series, so I might just end up near the top of the standings :)

Cya next time
Scott

Well the good news this time is that I was aware of the rolling start and didn't make a fool of myself again. Qualifying was an adventure, the damp track really threw me a curve ball as I've never really spent anytime practing in the wet. It wouldn't have mattered much anyways as I was expecting to start behind the rest of the GT's anyway. When it came to race time I made a big mistake in choosing the intermediate tires seeing the cloud and raindrops icon, while not noticing it said the track was actually dry. Bye bye field. The intermediates were horrible and I tried to hold my own long enough to still run a two stop race. After watching the field of GT's drive away for nearly 20 minutes I took a guess and pitted for medium tires and a full tank. That did the trick and the car felt much much better. From there I just drove my own race while trying to be a non-fator while passing the nGT guys, who were easy to deal with once again. Thanks guys!
In the end I'm happy with a 7th place I suppose and even happier to not have to race Brno again for a while.
Also the lag issues that plaugued the VVC race earlier this afternoon seemed to be gone making it a pretty good race.
Congrats to the winners and podiums, see ya'll next time.

First of all i want to say that Claus please take me as your apprentice and teach everything u know :)). What a great performance with a 575. Im using it sometimes but i cant challenge 550s with it. U were way faster than me with it lol.

Qualy were strange for me. I saw that track was damp. Dunno maybe its about my english, but i thought damp is a bit wettish not fully wet but wettish (think i found a new word lol). I tried soft wets coz of this. They were behaving so strange. In first try i maxed rear wing then change tyres to soft wets and after outlap left front punctured lol. When i came to pits i seen that pressures and temps were so high like 160 degrees lol. I reduced the tyre pressures very much and tried again. This time left front and right rear punctured LOL. While i was experincing these things qualy time was getting less. I came to pits again with 2 tyre punctured. I took softs after this and made a clean lap then took the pole with only a time.

For race it was simple. I kept 1st position while CJ was 2nd till pit times. Pit request button is on my keyboard while i was trying to find the pit request key on keyboard i lost concentration and CJ passed me noob me :/. I entered the pits, CJ was 1 second ahead of me. He entered pits 3-4 laps later than me. After he came to track again after his pits i took 1.5 sec lead again. He came close again and caught me. 550 is faster on straights thats the only reason i could stayed with CJ. Due to fuel consuming i had to make 2nd pit with 550 and made it in 3/4 race. While trying to find pit request key again he took the lead LOL. I made my 2nd pit then i was all alone.

I finished the race 2nd but i would have no chance against CJ if i took a car which can finish the race with 1 stops so im happy with my 2nd place. But it was fun driving with Claus. Felt myself as an "alien" while fighting with him lol.

Disappointing all the way-round...In race, either I hit lag or George Pol did, because I ended up reshaping my front end after he appeared from no-where. Then my pit stop, I had to wait for 1min + because the Lambo was in my stall- yet I watch replay, and it shows me going past my crew- all the tires behind me in a different stall- kinda funny but not really. Did a half decent best lap even though my car was really messed up. Think I couldve gotten top 3 today, but congrats to those guys...

What started oke ended in a very stupid way. Was pleased with 4th in quali but soon in the race I lost 2 places due to a horrible lag. Slowly gained back some time but it took a lot of time to get Wayne in view again. Did my first stop after about 40 minutes. That one went ok. The 2nd didnt. :-( I shifted back one too much which made the car spin and missing the pitentryline. So when I got to my my crew they were just moving the tyres back into the pitbox. They just refused to service me :-( And I didnt have enough fuel to do another lap. Damn shame all this hard work gone by such a stupid mistake. But hey ... there will be other races. :-) Cya next time.

Another great race at Race2Play! The rain during qual had me slowing down several seconds. After my initial qual I tried wet tires only to have them puncture after just 2 laps. Damp conditions definitely don't require a different tire. But, in the confusion I raced with soft slicks and wore them out after just 17 laps and had to pit. I got another "tires worn" message from my pit crew and had to make another pit around lap 30, but when I tried to signal for a pit I accidentally hit the pit speed limiter and when I turned it off I spun and hit some tires...luckily I didn't damage anything except puncture a tire...which I was going to replace anyway. My last pit was at lap 45...again for tires...next time I must select medium tires because I'm obviously not very nice on my tires.

I had a tense moment the second time McLean in the Corvette passed me to take I think 7th place from me...he made it by me fine on one corner, but we were side by side on the next corner and bumped...sorry about that McLean. He managed to pull away from me from then on. Good job on setting up that Vette well enough to make it look easy to pass an F550 in the corners. I spun one other time and almost lost it several more, but I managed to keep it together for an 8th place finish...2 laps behind the leaders (my lap counter said 58 laps during my last lap). I look forward to more racing.

First off congrats to both GT and nGT podiums. Seemed like a fairly clean race from my standpoint (as compared to the crash fest I caused and Astorrp) but I'm sorry to hear about your crash Kent...a vetter took me off course early on (more on that later) Seems some rule reviewing is necessary by some folks.

Qualifying was a trip...never had to qualify in the rain like that so i stuck with softs which seemed to be the tire of choice considering the only damp conditions and the times of the top qualifiers. Pitted with about 8 minutes of qualy left and tried the soft wets...holy shit did they heat up...wrong choice. By the time I pitted and took on a fresh set of soft slicks the rain began to come down a bit harder and I just couldn't get the hang of what the car was doing. Not a great qualifying for me, but considering the competition I was happy where I ended up (NOT) 2nd to last in nGT cars.

I like the way Ari paced the nGT's on the formation lap...we had a nice close bunch by the time we hit the final turn and didn't seem to be in the mix of GT cars.

That includes me. Contrary to the rules i found meself pulling out of the way offline for the GT cars to pass and I hope that did not cause any. Partially it was the scare early on.

Don and I had an early dice where he took clear advantage of a horrible exit on my part entering the s/f straight. We had Ortega behind us in the Vette and it seemed a matter of time, but we entered T1 side by side...i though that little bit driving was a blast as we both held our lines mostly but i managed to get the best exit...thanks for the clean driving on that...but, because of our little tussle Dan Ortega has a good run on us both leading into T2. But in a bit of an optimistic move, while Dan was clearly past Don he overcooked a bit and nearly took us both out. Unfortunately as I approached the apex Ortega had overcooked it into the turn, push and just tapped my rear...I think Don was slamming on his brakes to avoid the whole thing but got caught up in it as well.

Needless to say Dan, you could have passed me cleanly on the next straight (EDIT) - i understand some controller problems may have been to blame so no hard feelings.

It was frustrating, but an incident and I am certainly not one to talk...but it was early in the race...too early to banzai moves imho.

The damage was light, no handling problems and fortunately not a puncture so I just continued to toodle around in last place taking advantage of attrition in the ranks. Created my pit strategy wrong so I fueled up on my first pit, should have been the second pit and undercalculated my fuel use so a quick splash and dash together with my scheduled tire change was necessary late in the race and i hoped my math was right (anyone know how tough it is to figure simple math while driving) and sure enough...

I was wrong...however, it was late enough in the race that I just cruised for the last 12 minutes keeping my fuel use to 2L per lap and running something like 210's...but better to finish with 1L of fuel than not finish at all.

Great race again and great fun. I'm not sure how all the nGT aliens do it but it was great...just wished I had been there a bit more to battle than driving around solo only competing against the times shown on the pit board.

mog

Tracy, real sorry for that totally bonehead move!!! : (

I'm usually very cautious at start of race, but guess not this time!

I am so pathetically slow, I was unable to carry enough speed down the straight to pass the slowest nGT's!!!

After ruining Tracy's race, I wasn't about to take another chance, so I would just slow down if I did manage to catch someone. After all that, my heart just wasn't in it and I just wanted to get the thing over with.

Well, I got my wish and had to DNF after I screwed up and hit enter at the pit board with zero fuel selected!!!

I had 1 liter of fuel in the tank so going around again was impossible. My suffering was over! : )

Not sure why I'm getting slower and slower, guess I just have to accept it. I remember feeling sorry for one of the members during the S2 races. He was slow as molasses, but he was having fun.

Well, now I'm that guy and it's no fun!!! : (

I'll shut up now, looking forward to racing the rF and GTR2 V8's. See you guys there! : )

Dan