Oschersleben 330K

Qualified but decided not to race.

"Are you turning into some Hollywood finochia?"

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. Hard wets in the first stint together with a large off doomed me to a lousy finish. In the past, I've always cooked soft wets and this time, they were needed. Fell all the way back to last place overall.

Through attrition and changing to soft wets for second stint, finished 9th overall. Yuck.

Fun however to do some good old fashioned TM.net shitty conditions racing. I guess I should be happy to have merely finished. Enzo's grit and determination were truly something to behold. His race exemplifies sheer toughness.

Congrats to winners and podiums and finishers. Thanks to HRH and Todd.

No, I'm just getting fed up.

wow tough race,only just made q and it went from bad to worse , once the rain came :-( adjusted set best i could ,seemed pretty stable,then a gt car that had spun came bye and pulled straight onto my line and hit the brakes,no chance to stop,car damaged but too hard to tell so carried on,nightmare from then on,hadnt had chance to alter plr so everytime cars came in a group fps took a hit and worse if it thundered lol,eventually pitted and threw a hail mary and put slicks on(my 2nd dumb move ,1st was turning up :-)},came straight back in and put on soft wets,times back,by then just drove to finish,sorry if i got in anyones way,congrats all winners and finishers

nice race all!
holy crap - RAIN? flooded!!!!!!!
first time ever for me in the rain -
im glad to finish this event in a goood spot - - thanks for the faster cars being patient !
congradulations to the podiums - and this was my best finish yet in this class -
i love the long races got settled in and alls i hear in the headphones is BOOM the sound of thunder [scared the crap outta me]i spun out a few times but have to say thanks to Dennis for the heads up on watching the conditions and weather - hard to drink beer at that track too! LOL
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Qual was good as it was dry :)
Did a track record.
Race was pretty boring , most of time alone and laping slower cars.
Had a fun chasing Conor , until my tires lasted :)

Grats Conor and all others , it was a hard race.

Pjioewww... 2 hours on a flooded track. That doesn't happen much. I was running 2nd behind Tim when the fuckups began. Had maybe 4 offs in total with the result I left the pits after my stop in 7th. But my 2nd stint was much better. No fuckups this time while other had their share of problems. First I caught Jeff, then Craig had an off, then Scott too and finally Tim lost the car in T4 bringing me a never expected 3rd. Grats to Conor and Marko for the win and to Dennis for getting 2nd dispite a perculiar pitsstrategy. :-) My compliments to the nGT-drivers for making a pass easy to do under difficult conditions.

Way cool race. This was my first GT-O win in GT/nGT competition, first win in the wet, and also my first points paying win in the Vette. It surely made up for my disco in the PLMS race this morning :).

I felt really comfortable with the Vette here and was able to turn consistent 1.22s in practice. When qual came, I ran the 3rd fastest time and was only 2 tenths off from Tim's time.

Then the rains came, and so did the cold! I've never seen it stay in the low 40s ever in this game. Anyway, the track was flooded so soft wets were a no brainer for me to take. The race started off conservatively until turn 4 when I pushed it too hard and got into the grass/gravel. That sent me back to 6th, so I started working my way up. Kept my patience while others made mistakes, and found myself up to 2nd and battling Tim within 20 laps. Unfortunately, I pushed the envelope too hard and shoved him off the track after a little game of chicken going down the back straight. I felt pretty bad about it and gave up the lead and second to Dennis and Scott. Tim filed in behind me and we continued on till pit stops.

I pitted with about 5 minutes left until the 1 hr mark. I originally took on 85L of fuel and thought if I could make it all this way with that amount, that I could easily make this a 1 stop race. So I came in and ordered 100L of fuel just to make sure I would last. The pit stop was fast but the driver was an idiot and stalled the car. Took me 10 valuable seconds to get me going again but I finally did and came back out in 6th or 7th.

The few laps after the stops were some of my fastest and after the cycle almost completed, I was back up to 3rd. Then Tim pitted and I barely edged him out for 2nd. Pulled away rather quickly from him since he only took on fuel and set my sights on Dennis. I wasn't too worried about him because he stuck himself in a 2 stop strategy, but nevertheless, I was determined to try and catch up to him just in case he was playing something :). I was starting to catch him by a second a lap but noticed that I was burning WAY too much fuel and started to slow down and conserve. Fortunately for me, he pitted like I expected so that took off a bit of stress, but my fuel mileage still wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be. Since Tim was in 2nd and almost a second off my pace, I did my best to conserve fuel for the final stint. Backing off early, short shifting, and rolling into corners were what I had to due to keep enough fuel in the tank for me to get to the finish. I prevailed and came home with the victory and with just 7 liters in the tank :). *phew*

Good race ya'll. Wasn't even planning on running this race until an hour before but I am glad I did. All of you raced clean and were courteous :). Thanks!

Going into this race I didn't really know what to expect, after seeing some of the names on the pre-entry list and only a mediocre qualifying effort, chances of a podium finish were looking slim.
And then came the rain. Having never raced on a wet track let alone a flooded track, I was already sweating before the green light came on. I choose to run soft wets all around and the thought of making it a one stop race never occured to me so I was set up for a two stopper as normal.
The race started cleanly and for the most part the GT's stayed in line for a while as we tiptoed our way around lap after lap. Eventually I began to trust my car and tires more and began pushing it a little harder. As the guys in front made their own mistakes I kept my focus and gradually moved up to 2nd. Eventually I made a tiny slip and Conor was able to slip by and started reeling in Tim. A little contact between them sent Tim into the grass and while Conor waited for him I inherited the lead.
Suprisingly I held on to that lead right up until I pitted about 40 minutes in. After a decent stop I came out in 7th and started watching to see when others would pit, it wasnt long before I realized that most everyone else was on a one stop strategy and it was confirmed when it was nearly the halfway mark before I started gaining back the positions I lost on my stop :( Once the field did pit I found myself back out front and held on until my final stop with around 45 minutes to go.
Although it wasn't a great strategy, maybe the shorter runs allowed me to push it a little harder while staying fairly consistent for most of the race and through that final stint I was able to chase down Craig, George, and Tim to finish 2nd behind only Conor. I'll take that anyday.
Congrats to Conor and Marko for their wins.
Big congrats to my teammate Russ for his first ever podium over in the nGT class and to George and Mark for their podium finishes as well.
That was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next time we face a monsoon ;)

My strategy to complete the whole race without changing tires did not work :-)

I was running very quickly and leading come mid part of the race. Tire wear was still great too, so I took fuel only on my one stop. I knew it right away when I came out of the pits with Conor leaving me in his mist. My tires could not keep up with full fuel anymore and I was falling back badly. I did all I could to hold a podium, but the last half-hour I was dropping 3-5 seconds a lap. I simply could not keep the thing straight, even on the straights. Educational... but not very fun to drive.

I loved the first hour though. Monsoon conditions with the top-5 running nose to tail. That was some great driving by everyone. Congrats to all finishers, well deserved.