Donington 400k

No disco!

Well it was fun while it lasted. Had a decent race but just too many mistakes. While leading, last lap before pit stop I spun and gave up a position and a nice lead. After pitting I was in 5th but was having a decent race and before long found myself gaining and after others pitted I was in second then spun again. Came in for 2nd stop and came out in 4th right behind 2nd and 3rd, we had a nice fight for the entire 3rd stint with Milan and Craig, at one point I even got the lead only to make another mistake within the next lap. Caught back up to Milan again and spun again :( Pitted the final time and came out about 8 seconds back, was pushing the car, closed to with 6 seconds and POOF motor blew :(

Grats to Milan and Tim

congrats to milan and tim.

i loathe this place. i kept hearing how the lambo loves this place and maybe in the hands of better drivers it does. for me, the hardest struggle all season long by a mile. brno and estroril were a piece of cake compared to this place. i dont know; this was my first week ever at this place in GTR and i wont miss it.

coming in i had very low expectations even though because of some weird work hours this week, i had a chance to learn from dave pike and craig h. despite their efforts and advice, i did not feel ready. only goal was to finish. clearly i was lucky to finish 5th. it took no skill from me; others way faster were unfortunate.

about the only thing i take from the race is that even though it was hot, the car was better on med/med rather than med/hard. pretty much sums up my thoughts on this place: bizarre.

congrats again to winners and finishers. tough luck dave. i know you would have at least made the podium. thanks to HRH for making it happen.

Hmmm. Disasterous race for me. I only entered at the last moment because I was free and "home alone". hehe. Plus, I really wanted to try the ole 360 in a race! Didn't expect to be struggling so much though. :-)

Started out with med/hards, and that turned out to be a big mistake. Was easily 3 secs off my own pace and spun the car at least a dozen times in the first half! Pummeling the barriers as often as I could. Just horrible. The highest temperature they reached was 65 degrees. Jeepers. A smarter man might have pitted to change tyres..........DOH!

Pitted on schedule though, at half-distance, and swiched to med/meds while telling the crew to disregard my damage. They looked at me in disbelief as my body panels were all toast from hitting the barriers so many times! But, they complied, and I was off in no-time. Much better now! Good temps and no spins. Managed to pull myself out of the hole I had dug, and started catching up. Eventually settling in to 3rd in class. Just cruised from then on though, as there was absolutely no-chance of improvement seeing that Tim and Finn were 4 laps up. LOL.

Still, I suppose I can be happy with third. A podium finish with no practice, in a car I haven't driven before can't be all that bad huh? hehe.

Grats to Milan and Tim. Good race fellas. Always a pleasure!

strange race,practiced well as i like donni,but when i came to join server it would'nt let me in,eventually i used the 104 car and it let me in,wish i had'nt bothered,bad fps anywere near pits,which made both hairpins tricky,settled in to last place at q,so decided to go for 1 pit ,didnt make any difference lol as leaders were coming to lap me ,i moved over to let kent thru caught the dirty stuff and spun,as i was spinning to a halt ,i was coming back on track and i saw 2nd place dave i think coming towards me,reflex to escape,i really hate this game sometimes :-(

I was hoping for the pole in this race, but come qualy time I just could not string all the sectors together, did a 1m26.1 in practise but could not match it in qualy so settled for 2nd.

I hit panic stations on the formation lap when Kent spun at the Esses but decided to slow the field and give him a chance to catch back up, much to the disgust of some (Sorry Ari, I didnt think it would be fair to take Kent's place and I didn't think it would be too much hassle as we only got about a 100m ahead before he came back.

Race start went as planned, Knew kent would pull away slightly as my Lambo was full to the brim with fuel and my strategy did not allow me to push to hard in the opening laps, I kept him in sight and concentrated on keeping the gap to the pack behind me consistant. The moment Kent had a spin I saw my chance and only just made it past him, started to push and build up a comfort zone.

2 Laps before my 1st scheduled stop my rear tyres cried enough and I suffered 2 spins in the 2nd hairpin, so pitted early handing the lead to the chasing pack. Stop went well, came back out in 4th and set about pushing immediately (mistake) eventually got 1st back with about 40L still in the tank and managed to keep Milan just behind me before my 2nd stop. I knew he had to stop again so I made my pit stop as scheduled, got out of the pits again and pushed some more. 2nd Lap out, I made a mistake on tyres that werent quite up to temp yet and ended up with a puncture for my efforts, when I came into the pits I had a brief chat on TS with my Team Mate and decided that the championship points battle between him and Jeff was more important so decided to call it a day, it was already 1am here in South Africa and I was feeling the sleep monster approaching.

I stayed on and watched the race to completion, awesome racing from all, had some great battles on track and all the backmarkers and lapped cars were simply fantastic, did not have any issues at all although I may have surprised a few cars in the hairpins and Esses with some late braking techniques.

Congrats to all who finished, its an honor to race with you all. Hopefully I can get my act together and take my 1st race victory like the great Schumacher at the infamous SPA :)

(Sorry teamie, I'm going to have to whip yer ass at SPA)

Congrats to Milan & Tim on your victories,
All I can say for this race is one word…clusterfoock, the last week I couldn’t find anything to become fast, this track either didn’t suit the 550 or me, I am going with both, Kent great pole! Craig…way to hang in there, I was gaining on you in the second stint down to under 4 seconds after I finally was able to put together laps only to have the 2 problems I have been fighting for a week, the car swapped ends @ about the 10 lap mark, once in turn 1 which i have not had any issues with to date, too laps in a row, tire temps were perfect, no rhyme or reason, this is the only track I have fought this issue, so It was into full damage control mode, so I dialed up the brake bias towards the front and that helped the end swapping but I lost time because of increased braking distance, I am going back to racing 101, I have a street fight with craig on my hands and this battle will go down to a very fitting spa 500k finish line. I want to thank all the competitors on a great race and the sportsmanship displayed is second to none, No BS, great job by everybody but Tim, Damn…Passing you is like…be careful and don’t wipe out your boss, sheez, death grip of the wheel going around you J, but seriously, great job all.

Besides my many problems, I had 1 instance with dan in the chicane when he spun right in the middle and I went with the grass as my avoidance measure and I guess wrong, sry for the hit dan.

lastly, I miss calculated fuel, This joint used more than i antisipated, i needed to run the last 5 laps under 3/4 throttle, by doing so i crossed the S/F line with O in the tank.

Finally good race for me.
After 4th on the start I had many battles during race. Mostly with Kent and Craig.
Been very exciting in some moments and I really enjoy.
When Kent had engine failure I cruising to victory but still with solid lap times till the end, otherwise I would be probably crashed :).

And congrats to GT2 winner Tim and second placed Johan for their great close race.

Thanks all for good race.

Grats Milan on the first Enduro win!!!

I was a bit amazed at Johan's new-fond speed in qualifying. Testing times showed I had a comfortable margin over all other GT2 cars and then all of a sudden Johan lays out a lap that almost took my pole. My qual wasnt great... I went out on a full tank of fuel by accident. By the time I realized it I was already on a hot lap. I pitted and came back out with light fuel, but snuffed it into a barrier trying to do better. I got lucky that my other lap was actually a decent lap.

Race start went very well. The top-3 in GT2 trailed nose to tail for numerous laps. I wasnt going to push the car at all... in fact I was only keeping *just* in front of Johan and Barry and saving tires until Johan played his cards. Im not sure what happened to Barry, just all of a sudden he wasnt there anymore, to my dismay. I really needed people to finish between myself and Johan to make up maximum points before Spa.

The race continued on with Johan never any further then 5-6 seconds behind me. I didnt risk pushing the car so was never really able to pull away from Johan's very respectable lap times. I had a quick, minor, spin in the final hairpin, losing my 6 sec lead. Next lap Johan dove into the pits, just before the half-way mark of the race. I figured he may go for a 1-stopper, so I was prepared too by starting the race with a full 26gal onboard. My tires were hurting pretty badly, but I was near the half-way mark. But if I were to have stayed out Johan would have gained the lead after my stop a few laps later. I pitted the next lap to keep Johan behind me...

Came out of the pits with a 2 sec lead and that margin fluctuated between 1 sec and 7 sec for the next 45 minutes. Again, I would lap *just* fast enough to keep Johan in that margin, and not much more. With only 25 minutes remaining in the race I was very concerned about my tires. They were hurting bad on the first stint and it lasted only 1:10, and now I had to make them last even longer if we kept on a 1-stop strategy. To make matters worse, I was showing 2 laps shy on fuel. It was marginal, but I needed to make sure I could make it. So I started short shifting and lifting on the straights, all while still running mid 34's to keep the gap to Johan.

All of a sudden Johan dives into the pits again (Thank you!) so I came in the next lap to take on fresh tires and 2 gallons of fuel. That was all I needed... so I laid down some more hot laps to build up a margin of 20 seconds. In the closing minutes of the race I came up on Dan in the Viper. I was in no rush to pass him as he was running my pace... so I tucked in for the rest of the race... or so I thought. Dan had a moment and was in the process of spinning and I over-reacted and went off and into a barrier. Not big, but it took me some time to dig out of the sand. I got going again with only a few second lead over Johan. We finished like that, but it was a close call for sure.

Very pressure filled race and a lot of fun to boot. The GT1 cars were great... I really enjoyed seeing them from time to time. There were times were 2 or 3 of them would be lined up nose to tail as they were lapping me... that was tough trying to let them all go without backing off my pace much. Couple close calls, but otherwise great driving on everyone's part.

Im glad we all had a disco free race this time :)
I was really impressed not only how the Admin handled the last race situation but how all drivers communicated their feelings without it turning into a slugging match :)
Said this before and I will say it again... Im really glad to be here :)

I was coming into the race knowing I had to win it or at least finish ahead of Jeff and take as many points as possible this race as Spa will be a red car dominating event and will more than likly struggle to take top spot on speed alone.
Quali went ok I was not expecting much as there were a few drivers including my teammate who were faster (excellent pace for Doni Dave)

Race start went fine I had a good battle with Ari and Milan in the begining milan eventually got past and then Ari was hounding me until he went off at the first corner.
Rest of the stint went well, I never had the pace to challenge the 3 musketeers up front so I just made sure I managed my tyres kept as constant a pace as possible with no mistakes.
I had an excellent battle for most of my second stint with Kent and Milan.
The three of us were head to tail for many a lap sometimes 3 wide going down a straight and sometimes we were doing that amongst lapped traffic.. Was a real fine battle and we must have scared the living daylights out of everyone as nobody was taking any prisoners (excellent racing there Milan and Kent.. definatly was one of my most enjoyable fights for the time it lasted)
Tried to hold them back as long as possible as I knew they were 3 stopping but didnt have the pace to maintain it.

Dave was looking very strong at that time before he went offtrack and got a puncture.
I believe if you had not have had the failure you would have been in for a chance for your 1st win :)
In fact if you had 3 stopped like Kent and Milan your chances were even better :)
I was talking to him when in the pits and said he should carry on but he decided not to as he would more than likly come out between Jeff and I and that would have hurt Jeff even more at the time... (Thanks dude)

Lucky to finish in second because of Daves exit and Kents engine failure.. better than I expected so I am happy with that :)
Would also like to thank all the GT2 class runners and the lapped GT1 drivers... there were no issues on track and everyone drove with exceptional manners and skill throughout the race! was a real pleasure.. Hope the same can be said about me :)

1 race left to go Jeff :)
Its going to be close dude! the red car should have the upperhand at Spa because of its awesome pace so it should be interesting to see how it all finishes :)
Its been a real pleasure racing with you and Im looking forward to the last race of the season.

Well done to all the winners :)
and also to Dave for eventually showing his true colours hehehe
You eventually found your confidence with the Lambo and with the track and once you did you were almost unstoppable.. well done bud... im glad your my team mate *grins*

See you all at Spa.. its going to be 3 hours of pure pleasure and pain lol