904 GTS VS Daytona Coupe @ Melbourne - Tuesday April 20th 2010

Carlos Diaz · Apr 16, 2010

Servername: RACEDEPT.COM GTC65
Class: Porsche 904 GTS VS Shelby Daytona Coupe (The GTS is only available from the Bude, please sign up as there are many more files that we can only get from there.)
Class Note: There are two versions of the GTS (GTS/4 and GTS/6). For this event we are using the 4, not the 6.
Track: Melbourne Albert Park GTL V3.04 (This is the latest version, if you already have this track from RDHGP S5, please delete that one and install this one.)
Start Time: 19.00 GMT
Practice: 20 minutes
Qualification: 10 minutes (ONE TIMED LAP)
Race: 2 x 10 laps
Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: Default Skins Only
Note3: You must choose a different make of car for each race. The order in which you drive them will be assigned based on the order of sign-ups. Starting with the Daytona for myself, and alternating onwards down the list.
Note4: I don't know if they will help or hinder, but here they are...My setups for both cars (you might need to adjust gearing)

Senad Subasic · Apr 20, 2010

Sorry about race 2 guys, had an issue here, came back a couple of minutes after the start. Hope you have a good one.

Tom Wilson · Apr 21, 2010

A good evenings racing once again. Unfortuately while I seemed to have some pace on paper I was once again unable to convert to a win..

Race one - I had really enjoyed practiing in the 904, mangaged 2nd fastest in warm up but in qualy I span which saw me start 6th. I don't quite know what happened at the start but somehow I hooked it up perfectly and shot into the lead before T1. I actually thought I must have jumped it but I didn't see any warnings so I stuck at it. I knew Ryan would be fast so when I saw him have a spill on lap one I pushed on to try and open up the gap. however I hadn't banked on Steven joining me and we had a good little battle until I managed to spunk another chance up the wall by going off for no real reason other than lack of concentration. I fell down the order slightly and had a nice battle with Carlos to come home 3rd.

Race two - Normally big muscle cars suit by aggressive style but I really didn't gel with the Shelby tonight. My setup was gash and had far too much front brake, so every turn was a battle as the rear started to come round on me under braking. Lap one I got another good start but I couldn't quite sqeeze between Ryan and Steven and I was 4th after T1. I tried to get past Stu and coming up to Turn 11 or 12 I got a good run on him. Alas it wasn't meant to be and my car washed out wide under acceleration thus meaning I tagged Stu (sorry) - however he managed to quite incredibly hold the slide (only to go straight on since I'd made him miss his braking point) he joined the track again and we retained our positions. However I never quite had the confidence in the car to have another go. After only a few laps my tires were ruined as my setup was causing them to wear too fast. I rode out the race gradually falling down teh order with spin after spin (even managed to lose it on the last turn of the last lap) and I came home 10th.

Congrats to Ryan for the double win, very impressive driving, and thanks to Carlos and RD!

Senad Subasic · Apr 21, 2010

The Porsche was fun.
I started well, kept in the mid pack for an entire lap \o/. Was scared I'd hit someone, so I was looking everywhere around me. Sorry if I was in your way too much Roman, I know I was braking too early for most of the corners.
After a few mishaps, I was back where I belong, around 10-11th place. Hans either had an off, or he was waiting for someone, but I caught up with him, and we had a nice close lap or two

. Mechanical issues on your end, or was I competitive there?

After that, 20 second gap in front, 7 second gap behind, so I just tried to improve my times. I guess the tires were getting worn then, so it wasn't really that clean.

Apologies again for missing Race 2, and thank you for trying to wait

EDIT: ah, yes, thanks for the setups Carlos!

Steven Palmer · Apr 21, 2010

Enjoyed that.......

Glad we switched to single class as it was maybe closer for everyone.

Anyways...... had a 2nd in Race 1 after a good fight with Tom and later with Ryan who had a great pace tonight. Tom you really can nail those starts, I just saw a flash go up the inside of me and you were away....

duly noted for the second race when Tom made his usual good start I had just enough on him and slightly squeezed you over to Ryan, so that I had P1 by T1...didn't last long as Ryan squeezed by a few turns later and disappeared into the Oz sunset....Just concentrated on keeping it together then and managed another second place... well pleased.

Cheers Carlos for the set ups, they were both great.....

Thx to all the drivers taking part tonight, was a very enjoyable evening

Bob Hutchins · Apr 21, 2010

Another top evening at the GTL club......

Race 1 in the Porsche 904 GTS 4; after a poor quali, spun it coming out of the last turn just before my qualifing lap but still managed 8th, I think. Anyway as the race started I got a good start and after exsiting T1 I found myself in 5th behind Stuart. As the lap progressed, first Ryan had a coming together with the wall before the fast left right which put me upto 4th, & then Stu out braked himself into the last but one corner which now gave me third. Things were looking good and as I made my down to T1 for the second time I wasn't expecting Stu to make a late braking manuvore into T1 as I hadn't watched my mirrors and was on the racing line, Malaysia - Mark Webber comes to mind, but as Stu was now at the apex I thought ok just keep it all tidy and stick with him as there were plenty of laps left to get the position back. Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose as Ryan hit Stu I tried to avoid Stu and was then tagged by Ryan, result now in last place. After getting my head back together I run the rest of the laps and managed to cross the line in 8th.

It was a shame my race was ruined as I really think the 904 is a lovely car to drive as give good feedback. I wonder what the GTS 6 is like....hummmm

Race 2, Shelby Daytona; This was a race frought with danger for me, I don't really get on with American Muscle cars, & for me it was like trying to drive a double decker bus on a race track at speed. The start wasn't that bad but from then on in things just got worse. A few off track excusions left me way down the field and again to my amazement I managed to cross the line in 8th place again.

Thanks Carlos for introducing me to the wonder Porsche 904, lovely car, thanks for setting tonight up, again did a great job with car & track. Thanks to all the GTL club racers that showed up tonight, as always nice driving. Grats to Ryan on the two wins and well done to all podium finishers. Hope to see most of you on Thursday, nighty night..........

Manuel Spierenburg · Apr 21, 2010

nice racing night this was

quali 1:
felt good this porsche and thanks to the setup from Carlos I was able to get position 5. Was not so good in quali then in training though.

race 1:
This car was really sweet to drive but I didn't drive nice so tire would be an issue against the end of the race. As usual I had not so good start and I lost some positions. But I was able to gain positions back. At the end roman was getting closer from behind and my tires were already gone. So it was really hard to keep him behind. Without a failure from him he would have got me. But this way I ended where I stared, 5th.

quali 2:
In training I just went to get some feeling for the car. I also had to watch the game "inter-barca"

. So I did my first lap in quali which was 6th.
race 2:
Maybe I braked little bit early for first corner and roman couldn't avoid my back. He was very gentle an waited for me. So we both raced through the pack. After some while I saw Carlos and Tom battling hard. I was able to close the gap and tried also to battle with them. But carlos passed tom shortly after and created a gap. I was able to overtake tom too little bit later. At the end I made some mistakes and again roman catched me. This time I made a mistake and roman ended 5th and I 6th.

Thank RD and all the drivers for the enjoyable races

Philip Brown · Apr 21, 2010

Race 1) I agree with Bob, the Porsche was a wonderful little drive, but with both track and car to learn, I did not have much pace. Had a reasonable start, but just sort of drifted back in the pack. At one point got punted off the track going into T1, but it was only for 8th or 9th so no sweat. Finished 10th

race 2) The Daytona was a more daunting car by far, a stang on steroids, a darty devil, and it sounded like I was in a Saturday afternoon Sprint cup race. I felt pretty good with this car however and qualified 5th, ( kept the brake settings close to default )

I had a reasonable start and managed a good pace until I spun going into T1 at the start of the 2nd lap.( from the replay, I saw I was not the only one to do this!) Just like last week, spent mid-race dicing with Roman and Hans, we must have traded places 2 or 3 times. Eventually Roman got away and Hans had a big off. Found myself alone in 8th. Later came across a struggling TW and we raced around the track for a bit , Tom got by and then promptly demonstrated a nice double axle pirouette . Looked like fun! Finished a unexpected 7th.

Great fun again, thanks Carlos, and in this case, I think it was a good idea to go with the single type event. Thanks everyone who showed, good racing and congrats to our double race winner Ryan. Well done podium, see ya soon

Ryan Callan · Apr 21, 2010

Many thanks to Carlos - two new cars to me.

Quali 1: Grabbed a comfortable pole.

Race1: Got away OK but Tom shot past like a bolt of lightning, where you got that start from i have no idea

. Settled in behind Tom, only for HUGE lag to occur, cars stopping on the road. As they zoomed back past me into their normal position I was thrown up a wall round by the lake, fairly nasty damage. It was still happening by the next corner so I just cut across the gravel and tried to stay out of the way. This had dropped me down a fair way, so now I had to fight my way through once the lag stopped. The track is narrow and the braking zones realtively small with these 904s so it was tricky to say the least. My apologies to Bob - he was fighting Stu, I nipped through but tagged Stu, who held it, just, but then Bob came around the outside trying to take advantage and clipped the front of Stu spearing off into the gravel.

From here I managed to squeeze (and I mean squeeze) my way through to third. Tom and Steve were battling and Tom dropped it leaving me in second. I bided my time (I also got some more lag which lots me a second as I got hit by a stationary car!), but then Steve started dropping 18s the sneaky sandbagger so I had to get on it. I was pressuring him a little on lap 8 (not very much tbh - I was doubting getting past) - when he made a mistake in the fast chicane and then consequently into the next corner and I just squeezed past. I immediately got the hammer down to post a 17 and could take it easy the last lap as Steve made a small mistake.

Reset my router in between races.

Quali2: Took a comfortable pole again, despite a 100mph mega slide.

Race2: Got a decent start but Steve just kept first place while allowing me some room, nice driving. Then I nipped past just at the end of S1 and that was that. I drove near fautlessly from there (amazingly in the Shelby beast), and really enjoyed the car, my fastest lap was 2.3 seconds faster than the rest of the field, just managing a 15 with a .997

Jack Smith · Apr 21, 2010

Somehow I feel that the further behind you finish then the shorter your post race comments should be: therefore, I should say nothing at all and Ryan and Steve could each write a book . However, I will add that I actually had a couple racing duels with some fellow racers today and I found it quite enjoyable.. before losing it. Got to stay on the track!! I found that I was able to stay with the pack for a much longer period of time than ever before and simple went off the track and that ended that.
Milestone.... wasn't lapped for race one and was almost not lapped for race two. After seeing Ryan behind me the mirror I went off the track twice and that was that.

Thanks to all for this racing experience. PS I left an image of a G27 racing wheel on computer for the boss to maybe see... the seed has been planted and only time will tell if it will grow or if it will be crushed.

Roman Kruszewski · Apr 21, 2010

I waited for download of 904 for ages, as my download speed reached approximately 40 kB/s.

Therefore:

Q: Didn't quite got much laps which placed me rather at the back of the grid about 9th or 10th.

R1: Very clear start than I due to bad luck of some in front of me I gained a few places. Senad it was racing for position and the fight was fair! Then I had a short fight with Hans but he suddenly missed his braking point and was off the track. Then I met Stu crawling out of the gravel and I saw, to my surprise, that we are driving pretty same pace. In lap 9 I catch up Manuel who was as a little bit slower than me - due to his worn tire as he posted above - that was really nice piece of pushing - defending position. THX Manuel! in the last lap I made mistake in corner near the pool and dropped about 2-3 sec. behind so I finished 6th.
Nice handling of the Porsche but disaster sound

With laps passing by I got more and more confidence, improoving my PB about 3.5 sec. This was my best race so far regarding number of errors I made

Q2:
Had a phonecall with my wife, missed brake point and than I hited Tim hardly, who actually was leting me pass, ruining him a qual - sorry m8 for this. Ended just like R1 10th or 11th.

R2:
I was pretty surprised how early Manuel hit the brakes, with people around me I didn't manage to miss him, bang and Manuel spun off. Once more sorry for this, I waited for Manuel and we made a big catch up. I made a few errors other made them as well, so I climbed up the order up to 6th where I met Manuel again - this time it was him who made mistake and I finished 5th.

Both cars gave a lot of fun, although I had a better race in Porsche - I think I liked Dayton much more.

THX for the fight, THX Carlos&RD for these event.

One more thing Ryan's FL was out of this planet.

Stuart Thomson · Apr 21, 2010

Cheers Carlos - another good event.

Don't beat yourself up about the time disparity either - sometimes when you have cars that drive as differently as these two, you can gravitate to one you like better than the other and do "better" times with it, often masking the gap that a pack will find as driving preference evens itself out.

It's happened before with me too, it'll no doubt happen again - sometimes going to single make events (once it becomes clear that there's a disparity) is the way to go.

Race 1 - 904-4
Had an OK quali, and an OK start, watching Tom fly past off the line was also quite good fun, but the overriding impression from the race was the incident that Bob mentions, because after that, I was struggling to brake in a straight line (which isn't great news anywhere, but especially at Melbourne) and it kind of spoiled the 904 experience for me.

Race 2 - Shelby
Much more fun, great dicing with Tom over a few laps, and when he got a run on me, I knew he was coming, so I left him the inside (knowing that the Shelby doesn't turn that well), and switched back across his tail to take the place back, and I just kept it (relatively) tidy to the line for a 3rd.

Extra hidden track

We had about 5 or 6 of us on Zolder for a while doing a quick League skin test - all pretty positive.

Firstly Roman joined in a default Alfa (his Alfa skin wasn't in the pack), which is a good result considering the issues he's been having with the Abarths.

Senad joined in his default Cortina and was OK, he didn't report any problems on chat.

Bob, Carlos, Steve & I all joined in our League cars, no flashy name issues, and we all joined up for a few formation and proximity tests, again no issues I (Steve & Bob's Alfas both showing the gold wheels - maybe the time I got the silvers is when that other skin is actually loaded and being used).

Had a few nice laps with the chaps, so a pretty successful test all round.

Roman Kruszewski · Apr 21, 2010

I liked the test as well, didn't experience any issues which I was afraid of.

Skins worked perfectly.

Yes Stu this laps were nice, but these Abarths are so damn quick.

Ryan Callan · Apr 21, 2010

Stuart Thomson said:
but the overriding impression from the race was the incident that Bob mentions, because after that, I was struggling to brake in a straight line (which isn't great news anywhere, but especially at Melbourne) and it kind of spoiled the 904 experience for me.

My apologies Stu

- in hindsight I shouldn't have squeezed between you guys - difficult to judge for me, as I don't race with you guys too often.

Stuart Thomson · Apr 21, 2010

Roman Kruszewski said:
I liked the test as well, didn't experience any issues which I was afraid of.

Skins worked perfectly.

Yes Stu this laps were nice, but these Abarths are so damn quick.

The Alfas/Cortinas are just as quick in speed terms, on the whole back straight part of Zolder, when I was following Steve, there was nothing in it - in fact if anything, the Abarth feels like it runs out of puff at higher revs before the Alfa, Cortina , and especially the Falcon, do.

But - the Abarths strength is weighing about 40% of bugger all, can brake very late, and get up to speed really quickly. There was some moaning after the Ricard test, but Ricard is ALL about slow corners and subsequent acceleration, which is why they were so dominant there - it was almost like a perfect storm. Gary in his Falcon was often 0.8 - 1.0 sec up on the best time, until he hit the twisty bits on the back of the circuit.

Laguna Seca is more balanced as a track, and the results were much closer and more mixed - Abarths, Alfas, Falcon & Cortinas all pretty close, time wise.