GTx: Zhuhai

... lol

Qual went well in wet conditions and i got 4th which was ok for me.

With the race start, dunno what happened but Heinz didnt move and that stopped Claus too who were 3rd and i jumped to 2nd. I wanted to take lead quickly and i was faster than George at that point who was leading. I could overtake him in 1st lap and after that i increased the gap lap by lap. Then i went to pits at midway with confident 15 secs lead. I forgot not to change tyres lol. Tyres i was using was going well actually. This mistake cost me time surely but i wasnt bothering too much. Again i made fast laps and got 2nd pos after other guys pits with nearly 30 secs behind of Claus who didnt make pits.

Everything was going good till i realized that i was pushing throttle pedal but car was slowing rofl, engine gone ...

I would be so glad to win that race, because i havent got any in last couple races, anyways grats to winner and podium :(

I dont have much to say except sorry for already making things complicated 0.01 seconds after the lights went green, cant believe i put my clutch in but like a real dork forgot to engage first gear :( ..what a waste of my first GTx pole....

Then i just got taken out in T1, and later again .. but race was cocked up anyway .. so glad to salvage 6th.
Had a crazy race in back with a few guys, one of them Miguel de Raton, well done on holding it infront of me for so long.. took the pressure well..

Well done to george picking up a win, and Janko for taking the series!

well done on a podiumn darren!

Action packed event from the get go. Qual was interesting, I went for hard wets but track was VERY wet so it was on the limit of traction in most of the corners. Track got better as the session progressed so I decided to stay out and see where that would take me. Got from 6th to P3 on the last lap, so that was ok.
Race went green Heinz was sitting on pole with a box of neutrals (don't worry Heinz, it happens, I even did the same stunt at Oschersleben in S6-GTX lol) so had to quickly swerve around him, amazingly I still held on to P3 down to T1 but then got a tap that sent me sideways, got going again in 6th got 5th before end of lap I think as I overtook Condurata. Was running 5th for several laps but then lost that position to D'Amico. I knew I had a good strategy that could see me higher up before the end, so as ppl started to pit it began to look better. Had to fiddle some with the pitboard not to get repairs after the L1 antics had caused abit of damage so pitstop was 5s longer than it should've been. Got out again with 4s lead to George and I knew that wasnt going to be enuff, car was beginning to be a handful on entry, understeer creeping in, plus had to cope with the usual oversteer on the way out too. SO after some 6-7laps I was back in 2nd, was a good gap to 3rd so just focused on not screwing it up and just get the car home.

Last a sorry to Tommy Gunn which I had some contact with in T1 during race, I was behind about to lap you, wasnt going to try in T1, but I caught the draft and suddenly the Viper was goin 270 click so I couldn't quite manage to slow it down and had to take evasive action but not without hitting your doorside.

Edit: after watching start I can see it was a risk to close the door there which caused my tap, but ok I couldn't see Robs car at that point, which made me turn in without worries, 10cm more and there wouldnt have been any contact guess shit happens....thanks for straitening my car up again tho :-P

ooops i meant 2nd pole in GTx.. successive poles with the lister!!

booya

Wow some great pics you folks posted.

First, congrats to George, Claus, and Darren, excellent drive gents.

I'm not a big fan of the 550, yes I know it's faster, but I just never feel comfortable driving it. Qual was interesting with the wet track, caught me out as I went out on slicks with dry setup. Got back to the pits after considerable time and quickly made changes for wet, didn't have a wet setup at all, so just winged it and it showed.

Race was dry, fortunately. Lights turn green and nobody in front moved?? Then I realize why, Heinz was stationary, so I got into Claus who was directly behind Heinz. Ugh sorry Claus, then I braked very early for T1 but it became a slide show of warping cars as I think there must have been 10-12 cars bunched up in T1 -- what appeared like a small tap to me, sent Claus into a spin. Ugh, double sorry Claus. So I waited for Claus to pass before I set off, since it was a lap 1 incident I also immediately took my drive thru penalty.

So, came out of the pits in last place and feeling pretty bad. From that point on it was just a case of drive consistent, which I did. I could see Heinz up front in a pack with 2 other cars, I was closing on the group and then it looked liked all 3 got tangled up and I was able to squeeze thru into the top 10.

I just kept my head down and tried not to over drive the car/tires as I knew I wasn't planning on changing the tires in my pit stop and was very heavy on fuel.

Slowly worked my way up behind Darren and we both pitted on the same lap, but for whatever reason, my stop took about 9 seconds longer, not sure why, I think we both opt'd for no tire change, but Darren's crew is well paid and my guys work for nothin' :)

So I come out in 5th or 6th, not exactly sure what happened, but before I know it I'm in 4th and Darren is 3rd and I was closing the gap. George and Claus were definitely out of reach even though we we're closing on them, just not enough laps left. Then Donato comes out of no where and is catching me at a furious pace (guessing new tires), I battle with him for a few corners but I know it's only a matter of time, he gets by and starts to distance me. But I'm still gaining on Darren. Then kablamo, Donato's car explodes in a spectacular ball of fire. So I find myself back in 4th.

I think Darren got word I was closing and he increased his pace, it seemed to stabilize for several laps. So I do a quick tire/engine check with about 7-8 mins left and decide F'it, I'm pushing the beast to try and get that 3rd spot from Darren. I drove hard and was able to drop the gap to around 1 sec, but too little too late...race finished.

Great fun, congrats to all the finishers.

Congratulations to Mr Corvette...Janko Glavac :D. Very nice results through the season with 2nd hand car ,well deserved championship.. 8).

Good job from the team... We took the team championship :D, well done Kent , Claus & Tristan.

Thx for the season , i'm taking a small summer break but i'm sure we will see on the track again...

edit: Grts to George for the race win , man you're on fire...Wins and championships here and there.. 8)

-----
Samuel

race ended horrible
got a great start from the back of the grid ending 1st lap in 5th
claus was behind me and thought he was quicker so i let him pass hoping to be able to stay close behind him and was doing that until i started making mistakes, lost about 10 seconds and a few places but recovered from it and was going ok
was about 20 seconds behind claus when i pitted .. but there something went wrong. A lambo entered the pits just in front of me and I couldn't stop in my box, fuel was low so i couldn't do another lap so that was is .. DNF
A top 5 was probably possible with all those top guys having DNFs .. but shit happens

Normally my quali in wet conditions suck. But not this one. And 2nd behind Heinz gave me the left lane to T1. And yes Heinz ... we all make that gearmistake from time to time. :-). It got me to T1 in 1st with Tolga close behind me. We changed positions a few times but after that I had nothing against the straight line speed of the 550. And I also had to watch Mario behind me who kept pushing me. But lady luck helped me a bit when both Mario and Tolga blew their Ferrari-engines. After Claus made is late stop I was 4 secs behind him. Closed the gap and waited for the right moment to make the pass. Very nice to end the season in GTX with a win. Looking forward to all the good series in S9. Thanks for all the kind words ... especially Sam. :-)

Grats to George on the win, and Janko for the championship and GTNDC for the team trophy.

The 2nd half of this series has been like a nightmare for me, I won't bore you with the details but I've just had problem after problem. I'm trying desperately to get them sorted out before the start of S9 now.
The only reason I continued was to try and hold on to the team's position. In the end Scuderia had terrible luck in the final round and we were gifted 2nd so that made it worthwhile.

In this race, I started by crashing out on intermediates in quali, but the T1 troubles promoted me to 10th and then higher when a couple cars peeled off into the pits at the end of lap 1. I was on my own for the whole race after that, and that was a relief because I have to back off if a car gets too close because of lag.
At the end I saw Rob gaining and I didn't want him within a couple seconds of me because of the possibility of lag, I wasn't sure if my lag was actually what was causing him to stay back. Anyway I wasn't going to stop now, after reaching a podium spot. The race ended just in time for me and I was amazed to get 3rd, struggling as I am at the moment.
Well done Heinz, securing 2nd in the championship, you sure made that Lister fly this season.