rF2 GT3 Club @ Autódromo do Estoril - Friday 21st August 2015

[Sharjeel]

Count me in mate.

 

[Yuri]

@Gijs van Elderen new week new chances

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

@Gijs van Elderen new week new chances

I'm at the beach, 26 °C, sunny...
Next week...

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

 

[James Maskell]

I'm at the beach, 26 °C, sunny...
Next week...

Its meant to get to 24 °C here tomorrow, oh wait today and its still winter...

 

[Theo van den Brink]

Something came up...hope i can make it in time so for me a maybe...

 

[Luis Ferreira]

sign me up please sorry for the late sign in

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

Cant do it. Have to sleep now

 

[Gerard Hatfield]

Got disconnected. re-entered but a few laps down. Had fun though. Thanks again for the racing.

 

[Martin Bulgin]

I really enjoyed tonights racing, I was a bit over exuberant after a good start and I think It was Ricardo that I tapped round on turn 2 so sorry mate, some good consistent driving from the guys up ahead looking at their lap times, so consistency seems to be key here, thanks organizers great job

 

[David O'Reilly]

Thanks all for a great race.
The cars were not all the same pace so sorry for anyone that drove a slower one.
I did my testing and my favourite car the BES 911 GT3 was about 1.5 sec slower than the BOP Nissan GTR. I figured its about time I played around nearer the front so I took the BOP Nissan and I put some more over-steer in to the set up.

My quali was P4 which made me happy and Simon Christman was P5 so I knew I would be under attack from the get go.
I wasn't disappointed and had to defend into T1 and several times in the opening laps. His BOP Corvette and my BOP Nissan have roughly equal performance at the Nordschleife but it seemed that the extra drag didn't punish it as much here without those super long straights. So in essence I think my car had an edge.
As I battled Simon the top 3 drove away like Lance Armstrong using some good EPO in the Alps. At one point Javier was -12 sec.
Simons Nordschleife set was understeering a bit and my car balance was good. It was hurting his entry to the main straight and nullifying any gains he made in the lap so eventually I got a comfortable gap.

Then it got exciting as Javier started to drop back to me. With 5 mins to go it was 5 sec gap. His tyres had let go a bit and we closed to 2 sec on the line.

So great fun.

Edit: and of course thank you to @Daiman Patel for organising.

 

[Yuri]

I had a really good time again in the trusty Z4. Started pole but I knew that I wouldn't be able to run as agressive all race long without a pitstop. Into T1 Tero got alongside, T2 he was still alongside but I had to let him pass as I was on the outside. He put in some super fast laps at the start and it put me 6 seconds down but I was hoping he would zlow down a bit, he did but very slightly and I made an all in efford to catch up. The gap got down to 3 seconds when I got very unlucky with a backmarker and it jumped upto 5 again. The last lap I was about 2 seconds off when he got spun accidently by a lapper, and in good clubrace spirit I gave him the position back hoping that I would be able to make the pass but I couldn't get close enough. Pace was very very high up front with no room for error great race everybody!

 

[elpolan]

The race today was fun too like the last week. I can get the P3 in qualy, the top posisition that i could get viewed the practice. Starting the race i can keep the gap with Yuri but i see that the front left tyre was down so i decided go conservative. The distance with the 4th is 12 sec but bit by bit the distance go down. David could put me underpressure but i didn´t make any mistake so in the end i kept the 3th position.

About the car, I repeted with F458 now with BES. The car maybe wasn´t the fastes but it very fun to drive, maybe i´ll have to make some change with the set up to keep the tyre.

Fantastic races with all of you, i just waiting for the next race. Happy to find this club!!!

 

[Simon Christmann]

Did practice so i just took my nords setup. It think the small adjustments i did before qualy went in the wrong direction. So P5 was ok. I hoped for P3 but P5 was also good to start the race.

Had a good start of the line and was before T1 already ahead of David. But not far enough so i could not defend the inside line and he slipped through again. I the following laps i could put some pressure on David but also need to look behind because Tal was always there to capitalize on a mistake. Luckly he did the mistake and i could close the small gap to David but had no chance to start a move. Then the longer the race was going my balance got worse and i started to make smaller mistakes. So a gap for 2sec open and for a long time it always moved between 2.5 and 1.5 sec. The in the last 10 min i had to avoid Ricardo rejoining the track which made me lose another 2sec to David. At this point i gave open to gain P4 and just cruised home.

 

[Tero Dahlberg]

I remembered the ISI Vette having good FFB so made an early decision to go with it. But maybe I was wrong as it was somewhat disappointing when I was doing laps. And not having a setup of any kind (I had worked on one some months a go but accidentally deleted it. Doh!) didn't help as the car felt very sensitive to everything! I tried the BES Z4 briefly as I drove that at Silverstone, and I think it was much easier and more forgiving. Maybe faster too.

But I made quick progress with the C6 setup trying the "usual tricks" or just making it "softer all around" basically. But I was going to switch to the Z4 but didn't realise you can't do it in Q so I was stuck with the Vette

Based on practice speed I thought I might have a chance for pole. But it didn't look like it for a while during qualifying. My last run after some tweaks had potential but I lost some time in T1 already due to a mistake and last corner was always a bit on/off and I was a bit hesitant in that last run and that caused some understeer mid-corner and I was late getting on the throttle. Should've just floored it and hoped for the best! In the end I was 0.15s behind Yuri. Even without the mistakes I think that lap wouldn't have been more than 2 tenths faster than it was. So it would've been very close either way!

Got a slightly better start than Yuri. Pure luck btw as I've never raced the C6 before so had no idea how to get off the line with it! Went side by side with him for a couple of corners and then got P1. I was pushing, especially on the first 1-2 laps, and pulled a gap. I wasn't pushing like mad after that, but still a bit. I tried to drive relaxed and without wheelspin as I knew I can wear out the rears fast as the setup wasn't as balanced as I would've liked so had to compensate at times with throttle which we know isn't great for rear tyre wear.

Didn't make any big mistakes and a gap to Yuri was always there, though it got shorter toward the end as Yuri said. Then on the last lap had contact with a backmarker that spun me around. Yuri didn't want to take the lead and win that way so he let me rejoin ahead of him. Great sportmanship from him Though I do think he should've just gone for the win! But I can see it from his point of view of course

Overall it was a fun race and quite intensive despite being in the lead practically the whole race with a small gap. I knew a spin would lose the lead and I feel the car is more sensitive and challenging even with my setup changes than the BES cars, or at least the Z4. So I felt more pressure to drive it straight.

Thanks everyone for joining the fun!

 

[Joao Fernandes]

Great fun as always.

The start went well and i was able to keep it close to the cars in front. I was slower than the cars ahead but maybe with some pressure the mistakes could happen and i could gain some positions.
A little bump in the back and a trip to the gravel made me loose some time and i knew it was almost impossible to recover that time. I couldn't loose focus so it was time to fight the cars closest to me.

Me and my Camaro were once again feeling comfortable in the middle of the pack trying to keep it clean because a little mistake could cost us some places. Couldn't let my guard down as the gaps to the cars behind were small enough and had to keep pushing until the end.

Thanks to all for some nice battles, a fair race and a nice grid.

 

[Daiman Patel]

Absolutely gutted that I'm missing all of these races. I unfortunately don't have any time at the moment, not to mention that my rig is currently in pieces. However, I hope to join you guys again soon.

Meanwhile, the next event thread will be up tomorrow.

 

[Daiman Patel]

The next GT3 Club event is now up; the race, at Road America, is scheduled for this coming Friday (28th August 2015). Details about the event can be found here. Be sure to get involved! Hopefully we'll see you on track. And a quick heads up, this week we shall be using the BOP Apex Modding GT3 cars, by Apex Modding, @Frederic Schornstein et al., alongside the popular BES mod. If you have any other suggestions be sure to let us know.