GTC-West Donington

Connection lost... frontrow lost ... temper lost... LOL

Untill the next time... cya and grats to podium.

------
Samuel

Great race for me tonight!

On the first lap, someone decided not to give me space on the outside in T1 and once again I was in the weeds before the race really got started.

Anyway, I had some great battles working my way back up to 5th to get some open track. Since this car/track combo is so rough on tires, esp. the rears, I had decided to pit early and get rear tires only, then get both changed later in the race. The strategy would have worked to perfection it appears were it not for the off and delay getting back up to speed.

The last 15 laps (after I got fresh tires) were awesome. I was closing on Barry quickly - I assume he was on older rubber. I knew it was going to be close but in the end I came up about a second short. Even so, as exciting for me as I have had in a while.

BTW Barry, I was flasing my lights on the last lap to let you know not to worry. I didn't want to win because of lapped traffic or from you getting in an incident trying to get around him :)

Hot Damn that was fun- new track record, a pole, a win and the entire CanAm team finished in the top 10 !!!!

Qualifyed on the last lap with a pole.
Got a great start with Conor and Darin never leaving my mirrors but managed to hold them off till something happened to them. Don't know what but all the sudden there was no one behind me, that kind of flipped me out with no sound of other cars around me but gave me a chance to cool down the pace a bit and decided to go to midway and do the back 2 back pit. Both went really well and came back out in 4th place 8o. After they went in I found myself back in the lead and a 10 sec gap (at least one of the very few times I looked at it) but was closing qick with Mr. Poel on the rieghns. I had to keep telling myself not to pay attention. But before long someone was in my mirrors big time . It was time to step it up and managed to get through traffic unscathed. There was 1 backmarker incedent where he ended up running off the track. I hope that was not my fault and very sorry if it was :(

Got across the line just after the fuel went to 0

Thanks again to Todd and Tim for the race!

David said:
BTW Barry, I was flasing my lights on the last lap to let you know not to worry. I didn't want to win because of lapped traffic or from you getting in an incident trying to get around him :)

Response: David to be honest I didn't even see you flashing...your lights..was in total concentration not to get in an accident.

Good Race.
Fun racing with Barry and Greg in the later stages. Great racing in the beginiing, lots of aggression and passing but no crashes or even contact from what I saw!!
I pit in 12th, came out in 15th, and din't pass anyone inthe pits!!

Does everyone's pit crew put the fuel line in for a half second, every pit with the m3, no matter what??? Very frustrating that 1 second delay. Also I tried letting the computer shut off/turn on my engine for me.... big mistake, the AI takes it's time going on and off.

I was able to pass a few when they had to let a faster car through, I snuck in there and held them off.
The last half of the race flew by!! I was saving my tires for the last 10 laps or so...I use the minimum hud with gear and rpm only... I switched to full hud to check laps.... and damn already on lap 45. So I pushed it and was able to open a comfortable gap to keep my posistion.

Good race, congrats leaders.

Wow what a night.
Got a good lap in qual and had pole for most of the session, then all the sudden 3 guys get by me in the last minute, Barry was barley halfway through his lap when time ran out and somehow snuck in about 2 seconds before the session switched with pole.

Race started pretty well, I guess I pinched off Dave a bit, sorry m8 I seemed to be well clear of you before I ever got near the exit curb. Anyway mad dash begins with Barry, Conor and me. We are all 3 less than a second apart for most of the 1st 15 or so laps. Each of us has some slightly off laps but for the most part Conor and me are dogging Barry pretty bad. Then about lap 14 or 15 Conor starts to get a little loose in a couple of places especially "old hairpin" and Coppice. So I started getting looks at him but there is just no good place to pass here as he as learned already with Barry. Couple laps later he gets real wide coming out of old hairpin again and I get a great run on him heading down to Mcleans. I figured I would run up his outside leave him some room but see what he did under pressure. As we come out of the slight left kink I drift a bit to the right as he drifts back out to the left and at the instant of a very light touch, FLING!!! I see him take off to my right and the next thing I know I'm 40 feet off the ground out over the grass and land on the fence. Apparently Conor fared far worse, I somehow got it to wiggle off the tire wall and got back going in like 7th place. Sorry Conor I was not trying to force that just getting a look and had every intention of backing off if you were still there at turn in for McLeans. Crazy stuff.

Anyway I did 2 more laps surprised nothing major was broken but I obviously had a lot of damage cause I was way off pace. Decided to do my 2 pits early I guess about lap 20 or 21. Came back out in like 14th and went to work, the car was better but by no means my normal pace but was able to fight my way back up to 4th so I really cant complain about that.

No worries Darin. Watching the replay, it would have been close. Considering my recent luck I may have been a bit panicky when I saw you coming closer and went wide to ensure there was no contact.

Coming from behind like that I didn't even realize Samuel, Conor, and Darin had problems. I just figured my pit strategy worked well :/ It would have been even more exciting for me with those 3 still up there!

*sigh*

It was fun while it lasted. Had a good practice and qual and felt like the car was good enough for a win. I was actually trying a brand new setup that I developed and for the most part it did very well and that was pretty much the best thing that came out of this race :P.

For much of the race, Darin and I were right on Barry's tail. I knew I was faster than him but this track has no real passing zones worth using and the grip levels are not that great either. But either way, it was still fun racing with Barry and Darin there. Gotta tell ya, Barry, you are scary to race behind :P. You brake quicker, sooner, and harder than anyone I know on here and many times during the race I came extremely close to smacking you :P.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to end. Near lap 15, my car started getting tight because of worn front tires from locking up all the time behind, Barry. So I started widening out my lines but I would over-do it through the esses which allowed Darin to close up on me. On one lap, he got a run on me after the Old Hairpin and tried to look to the left of me before Coppice. Problem was, there was no room for the both us and we got together and flipped up in the air like it was the GPL era all over again :P. I landed on my roof, ending my day, and Darin kept going after the incident.

The two things that this incident proved is that GTR's netcode is absolute shit and that this track is horrible when it comes to overtaking. It is just not a great track for passing at all and with all these strangely angled corners, it sure makes everything very difficult. I'll give Darin credit for trying to take advantage of my mistake but this track is not forgiving and going two wide or even looking to pass in most places here will result in a crash...unfortunately :(. And GTR's netcode? Well, we all know how notorious it is for causing freak accidents like that. In real life (or even in rFactor), that little bump between Darin in I would be just that...a little bump...nothing more. But oh well.

Anyway, glad this is over with. Saw that the points have tighten up because of it so the rest of the season should be interesting :). Darin, I definitely was not happy with that crash initially but I have cooled off and I'll accept it as a freak accident that shouldn't really have happened, especially in REAL LIFE :).

Cya'll next time.

yeah definitely a freak and even for GTR I think. Ive had many times where we could have gotten away with that, I can only think of one other time where CJ flipped me into the air at Brno (we have a vid of it I think)

But yah I obviously proved I can run close without making contact as I did so without error for 18 laps, despite Barry doing his best to get us both to plow into the back of him :P especially that one lap in the chicane LOL

anyway sorry it had to end that way for you, I think we both could have given Barry a run if our pits went well and we all seemed to be on a similar pace.

All I can say is WOW!
Great Race guys, Grats to Barry.
This is possibly the track I dislike most, I could never find a rhythm for a full lap, I was always quick in some corners but really tentative in others, but, qualy came along and lap 1 was conservative enough to get me to mid-field, then lap two was more aggressive and locked me into 6th, Ill take it,
The Race, I made 3 last second changes that proved to be vital to my race, usually when I do things last second they come back to bite me seriously, but onto the race, I got a decent launch at the greens and by T1 I was in 4th, from there I just kept pace with Barry, Connor and Darin, I was having a blast watching Connor and Darin bang wheels, I just kept my 1.5 distance and waited for something to happen, and boy did it, I witnessed take off, they must have reached 10-feet in the air, Holy Cow, from there I managed 2nd for the first stint pretty much un-challenged, I pit, I bobble the keyboard which cost me 6 seconds, then continue on my race, I take on my 2nd pit and was able to pull it off less interesting but the 2 small hiccups cost me 11 seconds on the track, Finished 3rd in this group, Ill take it everyday!

Great Race guys,
Cya next time!