CotM GTC65 Alpines @ Zolder - Saturday 18th April 2009

[Stuart Thomson]

Servername: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM
Class: Car of the Month - GTC65 Renault Alpine
Track: Zolder
Conditions: 17.00 In-Game Race Time

Practice: 19.00 GMT / 20.00 UK / 21.00 Europe (40 min)
Qualification: 19.40 GMT / 20.40 UK / 21.40 Europe (20 min)
Race: 20.00 GMT / 21.00 UK / 22.00 Europe- 38 laps (approx 1 hour)

Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note 2: As this event is a 1 hour endurance race, 1 pit stop is mandatory. Please read Warren's pit stop tutorial here for tips on a smooth and error free pit stop.
Note 3: A skinpack will be used for this event. All partipants are to download ths pack here whether they are using one of the skins or not.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK, so my last post was only about 3 posts too late to help, then

Rapido!

 

[Warren Dawes]

Sorry guys, I really doubt I'll be able to make this one.
This OECC GTP Enduro at Nurburgring has gone waaaaay over time, I'm absolutely buggered, and can't see me getting out of bed at 4AM, which is in about 4 hrs time.

 

[Glenn Morris]

Boo hiss Warren! lol.
Ah well, I'll hopefully be able to drag myself up and try and harass the euros :laugh2:

 

[Matt Crouch]

turns out I'm here so I should be there although my internets seem rather dodgy right now

 

[Sam J Simpson]

Still not feeling too great from my episode during Thursday's race but I'll try to be there if it's at all possible.

Sam

Tried, Failed, SORRY!!

 

[Stuart Thomson]

For those of you attending tonight, the server is now up :good:

If you are TS-ing it for this race, make sure you go into the GTL room

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Still not feeling too great from my episode during Thursday's race but I'll try to be there if it's at all possible.

Sam

Tried, Failed, SORRY!!

Don't worry , mate - take it easy :good:

 

[Warren Dawes]

Again, apologies for not making it. I actually managed to get myself out of bed at 4AM, but I had a huge headache. After taking some pills, I dozed off again.
I have now realised that GTRE Enduro events that end up going for more than 5 hours is too much for old farts like me. Never again.

I hope you have enough starters to have some GTL fun.

 

[Frank Herfjord]

Ack sorry guys but after the fourth stop&go penalty I just couldn't find the motivation to finish the last 15 laps of the race.

But now I know that I need to slow down before the car automatically slows down for the pit lane...

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

I wasn't able to report my absence tonight. Sorry Stuart! Still one COTM to go though!

 

[Stuart Thomson]

No problem Frank - you live and learn

Knut - you were down as tentative anyway, so again, no problem.

Got to tell you, was a really good night's racing :good:

Had between 8-10 thw whole night, and the racing was very good, very close & very clean - in short, a textbook GTL Gentlemen Racer event

I started 5th, finished 4th, but there was so much between those 2 events

 

[Luc Frachon]

Another great GTL event tonight!

Joined in qualy and had 20 minutes to learn how to drive the Alpine on that track. Luckily I knew the car and the track separately and managed to quali 3rd.
As in my previous race, I botched the start - this time by stalling the engine on the grid. I need to quit the habit really.
I hope I didn't cause too much chaos and apologies to the bloke who hit me in the back - I gope you didn't get too much damage.
My car by then had a damaged suspension and I was last, quite far from the group.
I made too many mistakes in the first half of the race to hope for a podium finish, however the second part of the race was much more interesting. Towards the end, I was closing in on Matt and Stuart who seemed to be having a great fight, then passed both of them when seemingly Matt got a bit too close to Stuart.
I though I had 4th place in the bag, when 3 or 4 laps before finish I engaged 3rd gear instead of 5th (bloody G25 H-shifter!) and had another spin.
This actually made the last couple of laps really intense as Matt, Stuart and I were all within a few tenths of a sec. At one point I thought I touched Stuart in turn 2, because he went into a spin right in front of me Not entirely sure whether there actually was contact but I waited for him so the fight would continue until finish. I wasn't able to get ahead though and him and I finished 4th and 5th respectively.
EDIT : I watched the replay and I did touch Stuart, sorry for that.

Excellent racing tonight and tons of fun, thanks Stuart!

 

[Matt Crouch]

Woop. That was voflworthy. Slightly disappointing considering the potential I had for once, but I don't think it was meant to be...

Joined 15 mins early for some practice, but ended up distracted through phone calls, 'guests' etc. and only actually managed to get 2 full laps in the whole 55 minutes of practice. Luckily I had previous experience of Zolder and Peter's nifty setup :thumb:. I managed a somewhat surprising 2nd place in quali :th_o:. Used the last few laps to try to work out the fuel usage

The race started well, was actually challenging for first place for the first couple of laps, wheras normally I just happen to be gifted the lead for a few seconds through someone else's misfortune, but disaster struck very early when I oversteered off the chicane. When I pulled off I noticed my pit limiter was on - I'm not sure which order events occured in but at some point I knocked the limiter which is a pretty dangerous thing to do in GTL...

Recovered a few places down and still had enough pace to make up most of the places. Pitted fairly late from second place behind Peter, came out in 4th, but fell for that practical joke that they decided to leave in the game and received a stop n' go for speeding in the pits. Think I was around 7th after the SNG and started to make up a couple of places. Caught up to Stuart and had a good race until I managed to repeat my first mistake of the race, except without the limiter as an excuse. I guess just having someone directly in front made me natuarally turn in slightly early before the car was stable.

Lost concentration slightly after that, but got past Luc when he visited the grass.
Then my fuel light started to flash.
Ironically I think paying too much attention to my fuel cause me to come off the track and waste even more - I probably would have finished under my own power but instead I lost both the places from Luc and Stuart. Then the temptation to race instead of short shift got the better of me and I tried to keep up, until I started to hear it cutting out and I had to drop right back. Ran out of fuel on the grid and couldn't cross the line, but Gaynall was nice enough to help me over the line for 7th place :rofl:

Thanks for the event, was one of my favourites I think despite the 2 or 3 silly mistakes that cost me a lot
Also thanks to Peter as the setup felt very good. I was quite happy having -0.4 up on my best time of 57.3 but had to slow down naturally having caught up to the person in front

 

[Matt Crouch]

I was closing in on Matt and Stuart who seemed to be having a great fight, then passed both of them when seemingly Matt got a bit too close to Stuart.

I think we just both managed to do exactly the same thing independently and didn't touch at-all :drool:
(Thanks for waiting btw although it was really down to me)

looking at the replay I don't even think I turned in particularly early... we'll have to just put it down to oil on the track causing us both to spin

 

[Glenn Morris]

Oh man.
Sorry Stu. Completely slept through my alarm for this one :shame:

Sounds like it was a great event, I really like Zolder too.

Ah well. Hopefully I can get to some events during this coming week, as I've got it off. Love to get to the Abarths.

 

[Hans Sneep]

First long race after 2 weeks ,was 2 sec short in Quali bu was 2 sec faster then in training.. started 8 bud the second gravel trap was mine so lost contact try to do some good laptime's fore me that is, made some mistakes bud not major,

After pitting in lap 19-20 back on track again was surprised my lights still working,stupid thing to sink off 2 corners farther hit the wall no lights any more,
bud finessed the race in 8 spot (3 laps back) .

Still happy my leg is working again ,so up to the next race

see you and thanks all for another nice race evening

Hans