GTC-East Donington

Oh well, should've known that wasn't going to work. Left work late as usual and barely squeezed into Q without any time to turn a lap, zilch for practice. Thought I'd just start from the back and pit at the end of L1 for rears only so I could get back out and have a clear track to get settled in on. Oops - short laptimes and me being too slow in the pits meant that put me a lap down and in the middle of front-running traffic when I got back out. Not only that, I got a stop/go when the pit speed limiter wasn't on after my stop, although I had it on going into the pit. Did my penalty and was going to hang in there, but was watching the mirrors too much and driving utterly haplessly, so I pulled out rather than mess anyone up. Shouldn't have entered to begin with without any more prep than that. At least now I can go eat dinner!

Just need a couple more hours in the day... ;-)

Knocked off the track on lap 1 in T1...AGAIN. Unbelievable.

If this happens in the Euro race I will know it is bad karma :(

That was anything but ordinary, it started when I loaded my race setup for qualifying without noticing. I started the race 17th and then through being too careful maybe I let a few cars past and gave chase from 19th or 20th before lap 1 was over. I managed to gain several positions during the first stint as guys were going off track pretty much all over the place it seemed. Everything was going alright untill my first scheduled pitstop on lap 24, I approached the pit entrance cautiously thinking I was staying out of the way of whoever was flying up in my mirror. Turns out it was Sam who I assume wanted to pit as well and I got tapped and spun right in the pit entrance. Very sorry to anyone I held up trying to find reverse, there was a few of you I know. After all that I finally got through the rest of that stop and the next uneventfully and did my best to put the trouble behind and finish as well as I could. When it was all over I held on to finish 10th 2 laps down. I can't be too disappointed as thats probably pretty close to where I would have finished even without problems.
Congrats to Claus, Tolga and Kent.

Qual was decent for me with the competition in this room, I started 4th. I wasn't too concerned because I was on the inside and I knew with a decent start I had a good chance to get into second.

Sure enough Claus got a good start and I just tucked in behind his bumper well clear of David and about half a car length ahead of Tolga. I think Tolga realised he had the door open but it was too late and he turning down into me when he realized I was there, we had a small touch and continued. I saw Tolga get a little sideways in my mirror and then saw another car get totally sideways blocking the track.

Tolga recovered quickly and was ON MY ASS before half a lap was done. We ran like that for about 10 laps. Like usual he was faster half the track and I was faster the other half, but really no way for him to get by without taking a big risk. The second half of stint 1 I was able to build a small gap of about 4 seconds. BTW Claus checked out he was 6+ seconds up the road already.

I pitted one lap after Tolga and hit the down arrow one time extra and changed the rears thinking I was changing the fronts. Went out and pitted again the next lap and changed the rears. Ya you read that correctly, changed rears both stops DOH! Rejoined about 4 seconds ahead of Tolga and breathed a sigh of relief. After my out lap it was down to 2 seconds and I thought okay tires are warm now time to crank it up. Hit T1 and the front just washed out , at the end of that lap he was on me again. It was about that time I started thinking about the pit board. Got wide a few corners later and Tolga was by me without even a challenge. Judging by my lap times and the lack of front grip I figured out what happened. I had 11 seconds behind me so their was no way I was going to stop again. Struggled around the remainder of the race wit htire warnings with 18 and 8 to go. Lap 47 Sam was on my ass and I flashed him by since I was clearly just blocking to maintain my position. Well Sam gave it back to me at the line.

Grats to Claus the class of the field, and thanks Tolga for some fun racing for a long time.

I had a good quali in 6th, setting my personal best. All the big monsters were here, Tolga, Sam, Claus and kent, so i was very satisfied with 6th. I had a bad start where i lost 2 spots, but reclaimed 7th in the end of lap 1, where the other car made a mistake in the chicane, and it was just enough for me to get him on the straight. I was chasing down the pack of three, Barry being in front of me by a little over a second, and i was closing in like a tenth per lap. I was pushing like there was no tommorow. Then... all of a sudden, the cars dissapear... i lose connection... I think it was lap 5 or something. MAN i was pissed. Looking at the results laptimes and race pace, i had the pace to challenge sam.
WOOHOO!!!

Bumped off in T1 on lap1 like David & back to 15th, so i was happy for 7th place finish.Not sure changing 4 tires twice is the way to go here, but I don't know if i could have stayed with Claus & Tolga in the 550 :) thanks to the guys a lap down for making room to get by, so hard to pass here.

My first event with pit stops. And it showed! :-(

First of all - this was an extremely fun event and i had a blast running with truely talented and mature sim racers. I ability to run in tight packs without incident is a real fun experience!

Well, having tried Donington for the first time on Monday evening with the elise-fun-run, I sat down pre-race for a half-hour practice session with yet another car I had never tried - the M3GTR. A couple of tweaks to the stock setup was all that time allowed for. To say the car was twitchy and difficult to drive is an understatement! Qualified mid-pack realizing afterwards that the car had 30min of fuel in it! DUH!

Racing was intense! A better working setup would have helped take the car off it's knife-edge. I did notice that through T4 (old hairpin) if i got it right, my closing rate on the car ahead was very fast every time. I had trouble getting off of coppice as the car setup was way too stiff - the rear would wash away with anything more than half throttle.

Pit stops. Looking at the lap times i noticed that each of my two pit stops took 2:13 while most everyone elses were in the 1:45ish range. I haven't quite figured out the pit thing yet as this way my first race with a pit stop. Will have to work on that!

Was not aware of the ESC in qual rule and was fairly penalized one lap for it. I have now reviewed the R2P rules. Sorry Tim!

I was happy to see that my best race lap, a 1:06.8 was 4th fastest of the group. Next time I hope to have more time to work on a setup and get more familiar with a car.

Great FUN thanks everyone!

CJ did a 106.1 during the race!!! That's just not fair.

Firstly im thinking CJ should be forced to use extra weights. :P

Heres my report:

Qualy went good. Got pole position very luckily after i saw Claus's time in practice. But times were really close and i was happy with that.

I made another legendary(!) start in race and lost 2 places lol. Claus and Kent passed me with the start. I chased Kent closely till pits. 5-6 laps till pits i lost concentration a bit and gap increased like 4 secs. I made double pits and after i came back from pits Kent was in 2nd place again. I was closing gap fastly and thought that Kent was having problems and he had so. Unlucky mate :). I could pass him and took it easy after this coz CJ was way faster than me and I got 2nd position in the end.

Huge grats to CJ on his win with 36 secs lead in 48 lap race and thanks to Kent for his mistake in pits lol, it was fun racing with him in first part though. :))

LOL David, ya pretty amazing pace CJ had in this race. I was running low 07's with Tolga and watched CJ just drive off into the distance, this with full fuel load. Of course I expected CJ to be faster but sheeesh that was impressive.