German GT/ST Cup

Good way to start the season and good race.

I was a bit pessimistic during practice with my times, but in the end I think it will be a very long and tough season on the GT category as all cars on the grid today had a very close pace and I think driver's mistakes opened the gaps.

I made one at half race, when I was P2 and braking for T1 over the left kerb and completely loosing the car but luckily without crashing against walls, but loosing about 20 secs and 4-5 places (that tight the race was)

I recovered a lot of time on the pit stop as the Vertigo needs way less fuel than the other, but I had a huuuuuuuge disadvantage to be competitive in close racing: the straight and my top speed. Very good racing with Xavier and Neil but I had no chance to fight on the long straight and, although I could go out of last and 1st corner way faster than them, in just 50 metres they already had better speed than me.

I was hoping other cars had to do two stops, at least for the first race, but most people went for only one.

Still, the car has a lot of potential, although unlike the Ford GT it suits Andy better than me :p Great race he made, way to go for your new G27!!!

Now heading to Spa, I'm already thinking the worst with those two long full throttle sectors, but the Vertigo races at home, so let's see!

Congrats to the podiums, and see you at Spa!

Was a good race, had abit of a dicey start nearly running into a gt car in the 1st corner losing 2 places in the proccess.
I managed to get those back within a few laps then opening up a gap of about 6-8 secs over the Uyan's in 2nd and 3rd.
They pitted abit earlier I think hoping to gain track posistion but I managed to pit at 3rd distance as I intended still in the lead.
At this point I had 2 cut warnings so drove the next hour of the race on tender hooks, luckily I'd built up another lead so I could take it easy through the 1st corner to avoid the s&g.
Troy I think had to serve 2 s&g's and I'm not sure if Jon served one or stopped 3 times but it meant I could just bring it home after my 2nd stop.
Gratz to Andy wth a very impressive performance with his new wheel, it looked a very competative race in the gt's.

Having driven the BMW & Aston Martin many times before i decided to go with something i have never used before so i went with the Seat which felt good even with a low wing setting and i had the brake balance just right for pretty even tyre wear.

Took it easy for the first few laps to see how it was panning out and it soon became apparent that i was quick on the straight as i started to zoom up behind the cars in front every lap but i of blew my first attempt at passing and outbraked myself at the hairpin so i lost a couple of places then.

A few laps later and i seemed to be getting more of an advantage as even with worn tyres i was still lapping quickly enough and soon made it up to 4th and then after i pitted on lap 28 i made it up to 2nd only to get my tail rearranged by another Seat going into T2 on lap 31 or 32 (half expected the culprit to be waiting but no such luck) so i lost 15 seconds and a few places.

Tried like hell to push as hard as i could but after that hit the car felt like shit and the harder i pushed the more mistakes i made, i had one great move where i got a good tow along the straight from the 2 cars in front and we were nearly 3 abreast going along the straight with me coming out in front as we cleared the hairpin (great driving there guys).

Alberto tried hard to catch me and he did get past once after i made a mistake but i think he lost heart after he saw how easy i went past him on the straight, but some tricky bends at the next track so i guess the tables will be turned there.

Thnx all for the race.

I didn't have a good race. I made too many small errors, spinning and because of the close field I had to wait for a gap to rejoin.
I went with a 2 stop strategy but I think I might have got off with doing a 1 stopper. I also got a stop n go for cutting at T1.
Looks like I'll have to some long testing for Spa.

First of all, well done to Andy for the win and some good pace. Also, thanks to the ST cars for helping out when being lapped, especially when the GT's were battling for position.

MY qualie was a bit disappointing- i tried a different setup initially but realised it wasn't going to work, so pitted and made a few changes before setting off again with 5mins left. Felt i could've shaved a couple of tenths of my time but 2nd was ok.

As the race started i was immediately passed by John's powerful Seat on the main straight, and he and Marcos kept a couple of seconds ahead while i had Andy right up my trumpet behind. We had a tight battle for a few laps before i edged slightly ahead and when John & Marcos came together at the hairpin i was up to 2nd, but now Andy was closing in again. After thinking it might be better to let him through to challenge John rather than slow us both down by trying to battle him, i rather blew it by putting my left-rear on the kerb at turn 1, spinning me round and down to 6th or 7th? Eventually i managed to claw back some time and after the pit-stop i was running in 4th. This became third when John re-arranged Neil's back-end, and then 2nd when John pitted. However, i also had Marcos closing in on me, so i had to keep up the pace- no longer thinking about Andy way out in front- but unfortunately i made the same mistake as earlier and half-spun at turn 1, promoting Marcos to 2nd. He was pulling away but in the last 3 laps i was cathcing him again. On the penultimate lap, i was right on his tail but half-spun again, making me think the chance had gone. Fortunately, Andy had crossed the line before the clock went to 00:00, so i had another opportunity to close in, but with the gap at 2s i wasn't hopful. Somehow i managed it though, and we had a nice bit of side-by-side action until i made it stick just before the stadium section on the last lap, but he then dropped back quite a bit- presumably his tyres had gone. Nice fight there though Marcos!

Overall then, possibly not the strongest track for the Beemer, but i should be satisfied with 2nd considering the mistakes i made. Cheers all, looking forward to the next one!

Pretty interesting race yesterday for sure. Between the two classes I think we saw just about every pit strategy in play - I wouldn't be surprised if we something similar again at Spa as it's completely different from Hock. Grats to Alden for the complete domination of the ST race - well done!!!

As for my race, I only put in a mild effort during qualifying as I knew I was going on the slower end of things, so my only shot for a good finish would be pit strategy.

At the start I was barely keeping pace with Colin as he stretched out a second plus margin on me, but a rare mistake on his part caused him to spin on the curbs entering turn one and handed me the position.

From then on, I tried to stay focused, only slightly changing my pit strategy when I saw that the lower temps were favorable for tire wear. My only errors were one spin in the hairpin when I rad too wide to allow a few GTC cars through. And an unforced error near the end of the race in the stadium section.

Between those two mistakes, I had saved up with a small time advantage over Jon who was gaining on me nearly 1.5 seconds per lap. Ultimately, he caught me and put a textbook-perfect pass on me heading into the hairpin.

All in all, it was a tense race for me which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll have some admin notes to add later.

Having received my brand new G27 during the week, replacing my well used (nearly 4 year old) Momo, I spent quite some time getting used it the feel of the wheel and pedals. I had a couple of ARCA events and this Race 07 one, and slightly amended settings from my Momo seemed to suit just fine.

Along with Alberto, we worked on a set up I had for the Vertigo that I ran at Brands Hatch over a year ago. It evolved quite nicely over a few days and I improved my times by over 3 seconds. For me, it was awesome on the brakes in particular - total faith in it, and if a bit of oversteer occured on turn in then the new wheel gave me heaps of confidence that I could correct it.

And so we went to Qualifying. I ended up P4, a very close top 4 in GT Club class - seperated by only 0.259 of a second! It was my race set with low fuel, so that gave me even more hope!!

Filled to the brim on fuel, aim was to 1 stop and run half distance - more if the tyres would allow. At the rolling start John Passmore (Seat) got by Ross McGregor (Z4), with Marcos Junior P1 (Vertigo).

I tried my hardest to get by Ross in those opening laps - extremely close racing - but that Z4 had some grunt! Down the back straight into the Hairpin he would leave me standing, only for me to catch right up in the braking zone for the Hairpin. One time I got a great exit out of T1, Ross defended on the inside into T2, I attempted a switchback and got halfway alongside, but he had the inside line onto the back straight. I tucked in right behind him (Iactually touched his bumper) yet despite the great tow he inched away from me! At this point I knew I'd have to think of something else. So I backed off slightly and decided to save the tyres (in particular that left front) and try again later on.

I expected Marcos and John to leave us as we battled, but once we steadied down we closed right up - in fact the whole GT Club field was very close for a long time - great stuff with various cars being used. As John and Marcos tussled, John got by into the Hairpin, Marcos went wide, Ross and me got by. I must admit I expected Marcos to come flying by - but entering the Stadium complex, he dropped back a lot - replay shows some kind of freeze of his car, which was a pity - and he was 18 seconds back when he got going again.

As we got further into the race, Ross's Z4 seemed to struggle with traction in a few turns and that was the signal for me to attack again. Two laps later I was right on his tail and we were doing that close racing thing again!!!! As we reached one-third distance into the race, I'd got a great exit out of the last turn and was close down the straight, when he touched that left kerb on entry and around he went, smoke everywhere! I went past into P2 and then started to chase down John Passmore in 1st place - over 2 seconds ahead by now.

It took a few laps but as I got within a second of him, he darted into the pits. At that point I knew he had to be on a 2 stopper (either that or a 1 stopper with a set of shot tyres at the end?). I decided to continue on, but at this point the tyres had seen their best - I was still the quickest thing out there in the Stadium complex though (LOL, not on the bits where the engine counts), so kept on opening that gap to 2nd - who had ended up being Neil Gault in that Seat of his when Alberto Alvarez dropped back.

That gap slowly opened up to 17 seconds when Neil pitted. As all other GT Club cars pitted I kept on going. Run it till the last drop of fuel, leaving me less fuel to add and fresher tyres for race end was the idea. I reduced my expected fuel input to 58 litres (from 65 max) based on what I could see in XD and work out in my head whilst racing - it still ended up being a few laps of fuel left at race end, but still better safe that sorry. And so it was that I pitted at the end of lap 30 (there would be 25 laps to go). Hit my marks just fine, crew changed all 4 tyres and put the fuel in. And off I went. I could hear cars going by - mainly I think Super Tourers. And rejoined with no cars in the immediate vicinity.

Completing that first lap, I was extremely pleased to see the gap had opened up to 23 seconds to Neil. At this point I went into "automatic pilot" mode - braking slightly earlier, more careful on the throttle - nice and smooth. A few 1m 48's, then I just banged in 47 after 47 - keeping that gap manageable and always above 20 seconds.

As the race progressed, the lap times increased - but the pleasing thing was that whoever was behind me (Neil; Ross; Marcos) was slowly getting further behind.

In those last few laps my tyres must have been better than the others, the gap going over 33 seconds. I caught up to Ed Lorente in the Super Tourer, asked him on Teamspeak if he wanted me to stay behind him to give him a chance of a better finish should a car ahead have a problem, and he was fine with that. 2 laps behind Ed, dropping a potential 6 seconds, I still finished 30 seconds ahead of Ross in 2nd place.

Apart from a Fun run, that was my first win in anything other than an ARCA car since June 2011! So I was VERY happy about that.

Many thanks to Ross in particular for such a great battle over P3 in that first third of the race. We fought extremely closely and all very fair, great to see and a lot of fun.

Thanks to all GT Club and Super Tourer drivers I came across - you all did a great job in being aware I was there and letting me choose the place to pass (or indicating that you would let me through). Both categories were close in straight line speed, so managing that was a bonus with helpful drivers.

Well done Alden on the ST win. Thanks to Ed for running this new series. I hope you get more ST runners and that we keep the Club entries up, because this works!!!

See you all at the next one.

Hockenheim Post Race Notes

* At the start of the next event, we will ask the Super Touring pole-sitter to delay the formation lap 10 seconds to allow sufficient gap between the two categories. This should be enough time to avoid any potential accidents during lap 1 involving GT and ST cars.

* Marcos Junior's pole position at Hockenheim earned him the honor of having the third most pole positions in the IMSS league history among current drivers. He will need 2 more pole positions to overtake Goran Gorgiev for second place.

And of course, our unofficial manufacturer's championship based upon the total points earned by the top two finishers:

GT-Club Manufacturer's Championship

Super Touring Manufacturer's Championship

Hey Ed, Vertigo is powered by 3.6Lt Alfa Romeo engine just for the record.
By the way production version actually held 0-60mph record for awhile I believe, with 3.2sec. so it is not a slow car either...

Thanks for pointing that out Jon - I stand corrected, it is the V6 Alfa Romeo, not the V8 Maserati.

[edited]