GT3: Brno

This GT3 lark has been nothing but bad luck for me. Earlier I did the Euro race, and made 2 stoopid rookie mistakes. I did this one to make up a bit, and promptly got tangled up in Rob's first lap spin. Sorry Rob, had nowhere to go and as you rolled back my evasion tactics were foiled. Ended up having to pit to replace my punctured tire. Only option left was to just finish and not get lapped, which I thankfully managed.

oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i forgot about the race

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You wally ... :D

Woot! Solid qual and finish in the little Porsche for me finally. Patience, consistency, staying on pavement. All very positive for racing ;)

Had some very fun laps with (EDIT sorry Mike!:) Mike B. He ended up cooking it too hard into 1; 5 or so laps in a row and on the last one I saw from behind, nearly forgot about it all together :) Which is exactly what my goal was to NOT do.

Mr Carty... if only there had been one more lap!

Tristan - you are way to damn consistently fast. Congrats Aaaagain. ;)

Good racing all!

Boyd, no worries, my mistake. Paul checked up on the brakes and it really caught me by surprise (especially considering I was pretty far back from him going into the brake zone) so rather than hit Paul I opted for what I knew would either be a spin or the sand trap.

Sorry for the mess I created.

Other than that and my total lack of performance to the front runners -- not sure what the heck I'm doing wrong but obviously I can't seem to drive these GT3 Porsches -- it was still a lot of fun. Enjoyed it.

Congrats to Tristan, Steve, Maciej.

Great result for Steve, you've obviously got a handle on this GT3.

Thanks Rob; that was fun trying to hang with Tristan and Maciej. Precious little room for mistakes with those two!

I was actually surprised to run that well since I hadn't done any real prep to speak of since the last one, but I suppose the car and track were familiar enough that it didn't matter. Had a good Q set too, so that helped. The race set could have used some work as far as maintaining balance over the distance, but it was alright as well. Good bit stiffer in the back than the front, but my '02 S2K is the same, so maybe driving to work every day is good prep for racing the GT3s... ;-)

Had fun chasing Tristan in Q, but probably should've laid back a bit more as I think being that close probably hampered us both a bit - sorry, Tristan. Once the race was underway it was pretty much just trying to stick with 'em and see if an opportunity would present itself since I sure wasn't going to do it on pace. I was a tenth or two off on average, but their dicing would work to my advantage I figured. I kept making little mistakes and dropped back a bit, but would occasionally close up when they'd get racy with each other. Was a real pleasure to have a front row seat to watch them go at it.

Unfortunately, they ended up getting together slightly and Maciej spun. I saw Tristan waiting for him and nearly waited also to resume where we'd left off, but Garret was right there behind me so I went on through into the lead. Figured I'd probably see them again later... ;-)

Wondered at first whether to run like a bunny and try to build a gap or try to save the tires for the end, and decided on the latter. I knew my race set was likely to fry the rears and get loose on me if I pushed it too hard, and I had been doing just that trying to make up for my mistakes early. Dumb of me to think I could close on the front two by trying harder, but there you go - slow learner!

Sure enough, I saw them coming with a few to go and had nothing for Tristan when he came by on penultimate lap. I was just hanging on and scrubbing speed terribly in the corners, and apart from a brief off on his part behind me, Maciej probably would have had me too.

Too bad Heinz was off at the bar (or w/Kent at the hairdresser's). Missed a good one!

This was some of the closest racing I've had in a very long time; a real thrill.

Q:
I ran hard tires by accident, because I did not re-check my tire selection after the sessions changed. Low fuel and hards worked reasonably well regardless, and I really pushed the rears deep into corners as they stuck great. A few tenths off of Maciej's fantastic lap record with hards... not bad.

R:
I ran too long of a first gear and so Maciej got a good launch ahead into T1. I followed as fast as I could and got frustrated how the accordian effect came into play. Maciej and I ran almost completely different lines, as I had an understeery car which preferred high entry speeds with late throttle application, and Maciej appeared to use his car in exactly the opposite fashion.

As a result of this discrepancy, I got into the back of Maciej just as he was in his off-throttle-to-on-throttle transition and spun him around. Fuck... I felt terrible, still feel terrible. I love running close to people because the thrill I get in racing with you gentlemen is in applying the pressure I like to apply and see what happens as a result. Well... this time I fucked up and likely cost Maciej the win. Waiting for him to repass me is really only a gesture, as I really owe him a win.

After MB and I caught back up with Steve, I got back inside Maciej after he had a very slight oversteer moment in the middle left-right complex following the downhill sweepers. I pushed very hard and got up to Steve with 2 to go, and poked underneath as we dueled under braking for T2. The balance of my car improved in the last few laps as the rears wore out and I could rotate the car more in mid-corner.

I think I will voluntarily start in the back of the pack for the final race.

I had a blast even though I blew a pretty good finish. I haven't ran GTR2 in a long time. I jumped in this race and worked on setup for about an half an hour. I had a fun race with Paul until I blew it going into turn 1. I miss having the time to run better and more often.