Zhuhai Masters

meh, I got caught up in someone else's incident... sucks when it happens but oh well :D

Contact between Al and Heinz ahead of me going through the flat out T3 I think it is, couldn't do anything but brake hard to avoid Heinz spinning, got hit very hard from behind. No rear wing, race over, although I decided to pit and keep going for some laps.

Shame because after my looong pitstop I was doing the same pace as the leaders, should've been interesting without that unlucky incident :(

Sorry you got caught up in that mess Xavier .. and Everyone else.
I had the fastest line, and clearly infront of Al Canal going into T3, I didn't intend on kissing the Apex as I wanted Al to have a chance to hit the brakes since he was out of place to take that flat out ...

Grats to Podium

Had a good battle with Richard Floer untill the pitstop. I could just keep him behind me. But I lost +10 in the pits. Man those guys work slow. Next time I'll get out of the car and put on the tires myself along with the fuel !! That will save me half the time atleast. When I got out of the pits Richard was some 16 second in front. Couldn't catch him anymore since we where doing simular laptime. Well he deserves p8 after spinning out on p5. Good job Richard.

Interesting outing - hadn't done one of these long weekend events or been in a GT car in probably over a year, but things lined up today so I figured I'd have a go. Only got four laps in offline before joining and they were way off the laptimes I'd seen posted, so wasn't expecting much; a top ten maybe if I could get it figured out. Kind of remembered liking the Lambo before and having used it the most, but I thought I'd try the Ferrari this time as it looked like a popular choice. I grabbed the one with the fanciest paint job since that had to be good for some speed... ;-)

Was clueless about what to do for qualy when I saw it was wet. Just threw a bunch of rear wing and inters on, and skated around for a grid spot way down field. Had no idea what the right choice had been for the conditions in Q, so didn't know what to expect pacewise in the dry.

Race start was sketchy, as I got bumped off track at the exit of T1 by a car that had already punted someone else in the same corner. No damage though, and I got back on just in time to see tire smoke and parts flying up ahead. Tip-toed through that carnage into 7th, happy to have all the bits still attached. That was a nasty mess, with the initial incident between Heinz and Al being a door-to-door thing that really shouldn't have resulted in such mayhem, and most of the rest being the result of a Lambo flying into the scrum with its throttle pinned "Days of Thunder" style. Brakes, guys, brakes...

Getting clear of that had me on Richard's tail, and while I had a little pace on him he was defending well. Finally dove under him in the last corner, but got in too deep and he got back by, along with Donato who took up my role of hounding Richard. That didn't last long, as he punted him in the hairpin half a lap later. That put Richard off and meant a ride through pits for Donato, so I was up to 5th behind Al and GP, with Brian and Claudiu close behind.

The gap up to two in front of me was nearly 5 seconds, but I managed to whittle it down to a tad over 3 before stalling out a bit. Starting getting a little over my head, still trying to figure out what the car needed to go quickly. Missed a braking point and Brian was on me - knew I was holding him up so I backed off to give him the next corner, but overdid it and suddenly had Claudiu on me too. DOH! Back down to 7th... ;-)

Hadn't been sure about strategy, so I'd just dumped a full tank of fuel on and figured to take fuel and tires at my stop, but the med tires were looking like they might be able to go the distance if I took it easy on 'em. That was surprising to me, but I figured a shift in strategy might get me what pace wasn't going to. So I clicked into tire conservation mode for the rest of the race, and didn't put up much of a fight if/when anyone came up to me. Was a little worried about the motor lasting as well, since I was geared too short in 6th for the S/F straight and the engine life was going down faster than I was comfortable with as a result.

From there I soft-pedaled and short-shifted my way to a late stop, with the switched strategy giving me a very fast pit lap and gaining me a couple of positions. Didn't have the pace to keep them though, so I ended up back where I was, just sort of driving around to see what attrition might bring me. Was sorry to see GP go out late, and then saw Al go out too. What's that they say, "to finish 7th, first you must finish"? Something like that... ;-)

Another GT Masters event packed full of outstanding drivers!

I blew qual by waiting to long to go out, I know better than that. With a damp track and it raining the times would only get slower. So I went out too late and pussy footed it for my first lap which ended up being my fastest lap. No way to get anywhere close to the pole.

Started 5th and got a decent enough start holding my position through T1 then was shocked to see smoke and cars everywhere at the exit of the sweeper T2. All I saw was a 575 fully 90 degrees to the track with Al over to the right and slow. Xavier was in front of me and I braked right away. Lucky to not have anyone rear end me as Xavier T-boned Heinz and I managed to find a way through between Heinz and Al for T3.

Joco was ahead and I was 2nd exiting T3 and we both made quick work of opening a gap to Al. Joco was just too fast for me today though I managed to keep it fairly close for almost the entire first stint. I was about 1.5 seconds behind when I signalled my crew to get ready for me. They ignored me! So I did another lap and in the confusion of changing my strategy to accomodate the extra lap I spun at T1 losing over 8 seconds to Joco.

We both pitted the same lap and I actually gained 5 seconds on Joco in the pit exchange. Unfortunately that was the end of our race as Joco drove very fast and very consistantly for hte next 10 laps and I finally threw in the towel at about lap 42 or 43. There was no way I was going to catch him with out a mistake and I was driving on the edge already and losing ground. So I dropped it down a notch and dropped back to about 5 seconds behind.

With 2 to go I noticed that my fuel was short for 60 laps and I wasn't positive that the race wuld end on 59 so I slowed drastically lap 58 and brought it home safely in 2nd.

Joco, awsome drive today, very well done!

Grats to Darren for the podium and all that managed to finish.

Had a good start and saw the problem ahead developing with Heinz and Al, I took avoiding action and thought I'd got the best track position going straight down the outside of all that mayhem. But Heinz span right across the track and clipped me, putting me onto the grass, I still got it slowed down and wasn't going to spin until a Lambo came through and also clipped me putting me into a full spin. I had to sit there and watch most of the field go by before I could rejoin.
The car wasn't badly damaged and I had a very good race after that. There were some good early battles before I could set off after Claudiu, Brian and George. Once I caught them I got really lucky when they had small incidents which let me get past without a big battle.
Al was next up the road but he was out of reach, but then his engine blew and I inherited 3rd. I doubt I'd have done better than that without the start problems so it was as good as I could have hoped for.
Grats Joco and Kent.