Zhuhai 120K

Guess it was my turn to disco out of a race! : (

Was having a great scrap with Barry when it happend.

Sorry for the hit Barry, you were warping in and out and would disappear for seconds at a time. That's why I would drop so far back, I would have to hit the brakes on the straight when you would pop back on the track.
Guess the problem was more on my end, as we were approaching turn 7, you dissapeard and when you popped back in, we were both in the middle of the turn.
It was fun while it lasted, hope you made it too the end.

Hope you all had a great race! : )

Got to go practice for the Extreme GT race later on...

Dan

Poor race from me. Sat in third for G3 class most of the race dispite 4x self spins :/

Last self spin happened with 2mins remaining and cost me 2 places.

Pit stratigy was poor which didn't help either. Still a good race and I'll know better for next time.

Some dodgy driving this evening in places but on the whole pretty good...

pfffffffffffffffffft

worst qualy ever, was 1.2 up and aproaching final turn then 'next session'

i started in 14th.

formation lap was a joke imho, driving round at 30mph, almost 4 mins to go round then a car park at the 1st corner.

bumped every where but i was doing ok.

was getting held up which was fustrating me but i tried to keep everything, i think i might have dived bombed tommey a bit too l8, ill have to watch the reply sorry for ur spin m8.

edit: i think u were spinning as u went in to the corner

alex effectively cost me any chance at 1st and he was a lap down and tried to over take me in t1 and used me as a wall :(

with 3 laps to go andy spun and i found myself in 2nd with gregg on my tail.

he was on fresher tires than me but in the end it was my own driving error that gave him the place. i almost made it a tence final lap and i was 0.800 behind him going into the last turn with 10 seconds left on the clock. i then pushed to hard and he got away :( good race could have been better congrats to all

A lot better race than in Imola nGT where i didn't know the car nor the track. Here I was always on the pace but didn't manage to qualify due to getting stuck on the sand trap after someone pushed me on debris and ruined my tires.
Same luck in the race where i couldn't avoid hitting someone who spun on turn one and had to pit on lap 1. Ever after that it was an impossible catch up which forced me to pull some aggressive unlapping moves.
I have to say a big sorry for interfering with guyz one lap ahead, but it's a difficult situation being more than 1 second per lap faster but behind a car thats one lap ahead.
Great race everyone, hopefully next time i will be more lucky and able to play in front.

Hi Dan,hope it wasn't me lagging,although everything looked fine from my end.A couple of other guys discoed,one just in front of me,frightening thing that,i couldn't avoid him and just had to hope he wasn't solid.I got a shock after my pitstop,went in with a 10sec lead on 3rd and came out 20sec behind,wtf.I was wondering how i could have nessed up so badly,but luckily 2nd then had to pit once more.Congrats to Paul,well run.

Well thats my best finish to date and I think I could have done better but made too many unforced errors, although I kept getting cramp in my foot :)

I agree with Andy about the formation lap!

Congrats to my team mate Bazza for the podium and that leaves Race2Play Orphans at the top of the table after round one! Wonder if we can stay there Bazza? :-)

Wow - what race! Lots of highs and lows for me in this one.

I spent the whole race chasing down John Mueller for the lead in G3, which was extremely tough as he was running fast, consistent laps with no mistakes. It was all I could do just to try to not let him build too much of a lead during the first stint, so that I might have a chance to close the gap after the pit stops cycled through.

I managed to build a gap to third during the race (which would come in VERY handy later), and found myself on John's bumper following our pit stops. I did everything I could to stay right on him, without touching him, and try to find a way by (I know that John's a clean racer, so a move with even the slightest chance of contact was out of the question). After several laps, I had managed to determine where I was quicker, and where I would make my move (which would take about half a lap to set up.) For lap after lap I tried to set it up, but John was always just a bit too quick in the turns leading up to my chosen spot, and I wasn't quite able to get enough of a run to go for it.

Then, with about 3 minutes left in the race, right when I had resolved to hang it all out in an effort to go for the win, disaster struck: LOW FUEL WARNING!!! I did some quick math and realized that there was no way I could continue the pace I was on and hope to finish, so I had no choice but to let John go, and switch into fuel conservation mode. Fortunately I had built a large gap to third place, and was able to short-shift and keep the revs low enough to squeeze the remaining fuel. But even with that, I still had to enter the pits at the very end for a quick splash. Fortunately, the G2 leader crossed the line for checkers as I was approaching my pit stall (which was on the far end of pit lane), and I managed to hold onto my second place finish.

Congrats to John for the G3 win! I've now learned to always put a few more liters in the tank than I think I'll need, and hopefully that will keep me from having this problem again.

On the upside to all of this, I realized after the race that I apparently set a new R2P track record for G3 while chasing John down, so that gives an idea of how hard we were running.

Nice to finally get my 1st R2P win. 1st half of the race was uneventful & had a 10 sec. lead over the next G3 car.
After my pit, Garry M. put alot of pressure on me for the last 20 mins. he was quicker getting into a few corners & I was Quicker getting out of a few.
Grats to Paul on the G2 win.
Also Garry, you showed alot of patience when you could have forced a pass, great job.

Pretty ugly one for me, too much like an open server race. To begin with I jumped in late since I hadn't expected to do this one. Tried the Elise at first, but realized that was too slow with the long straights so I went back out for the Porsche. Hadn't driven it in a while, but it's benign enough. I threw in an Estoril setup after qualifying on a funky old one and guessed I'd figure it out during the race. Was interested to see how pitting would go, since this was my 1st pit race in GTR2 since I figured out how to turn off the pitcontrol thing. Bright boy! ;-)

As Craig noted, the formation lap was crazy. Started when Tommy G. took off through half the field, then pulled over to get back in place. Guess he forgot about the formation lap. NP, but then about halfway through the form. lap he just takes off and plows into me on a straight. The group wasn't really bunching or anything, so what the heck was up with that? I got back on somewhat bent, but he stayed two cars ahead, out of place for the start though he qualified behind me. No comment from the stewards? Then I got plowed from behind again when the G2's bunched the field in the last turn. That one was on the front G2 guys for doing that. Nice.

Finally got underway, and was taking the outside in T1 when Tommy G., who started ahead of me out of order, slid wide and spun me. That damaged me a bit more, and some others worse when they hit me. I got going again with one goal. Catch Tommy, who had a reeely big bullseye on his back at that point...

Fortunately it took a few laps to get there and I'd calmed down by then, so when I did I went by clean and just focused on the group in the distance ahead. Gradually reeled in Greg and Craig, catching them right at the time when Alex clocked Craig in T1. Bad form doing that when you're lapped, man - not a good move. It was distracting enough that I dropped a wheel off and spun again, almost collecting Mark as he came back from his pit.

Got going again OK, but noticed the tires were unhappy from all the spinning, so I pitted early taking 100L and 4 tires. Nice being able to drive into your own pit! Got back out and settled down after all the early drama, just trying to run steady laps and see what came to me. Hoped I had enough fuel to go the distance, and had more than enough. Was fairly uneventful other than a couple of brief offs into the gravel traps learning the GT3 braking points at Zuhai. Those things really work here - hard to get out with a long first gear! ;-)

Glad to get the event in, but was bummed about the way it started. Laptimes were competitive so it would've been really fun otherwise. I think we need to start an anti-doping program for R2P though; some seriously overstimulated drivers out there. Just say no to Caffiene! ;-)

I was almost certain we'd have a wet race, so spent an hour beforehand trying to fathom the tyre question of Intermediates vs Soft/Hard Wets, and slicks in the wet. As it turned out the sun was shining!

Qually went OK with Maciej just pipping me for pole, but at least a front row start... err no, it's a rolling start (new for me here at R2P), but credit to Maciej - because he kept me guessing at the start, but he promptly went off by himself into T1 giving me the lead. I was surprised to see Mark Carty not only behind me, but hassling the hell out of me as well - keeping the gap to less than a second for the first 12 or 13 laps. A few times I felt he could have attempted a T1 pass, but each time he slotted in behind me, just waiting for a mistake. Thoroughly enjoyed those laps Mark - Great Stuff. Lap 13 saw Mark duck in for his 1st stop - and I was sure he'd need to pit again, so if I kept it clean & smooth I'd be fine, as I was on a 1 stop strategy.

Thanks to the lappers tonight, only one nervous moment when a car rejoined whilst Mark & I were running nose to tail - he must've got a shock when I went past him one side, Mark went past on the other! Thanks R2P & Stewards. Grats to all on the podiums for both classes.