Lotus Elite vs TVR Grantura @ Lakeside - Tuesday July 20th 2010

Carlos Diaz

Happily driving a "girly" car
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Servername: RD GTL Racing Club
Class: Lotus Elite vs TVR Grantura (Download HERE)
Class Note: We are using the Grantura with 146HP (numbers #298 and #612)
Track: Lakeside Raceway
Start Time: 19.00 GMT
Practice: 20 minutes
Qualification: 10 minutes (ONE TIMED LAP)
Race: 2 x 24 laps
Note1: Click here to read the password and golden rules!
Note2: We are using the Lotus Elite skin pack. Default skins only for the Grantura.
Note3: The car you will be driving in Race 1 will be listed next to your name in the sign-ups. Please make sure you know what car you are driving in Race 1.

My Setups: : Lotus Elite / TVR Grantura
 
Anyway, on to the racing...

First up, thanks to Carlos for trying out the TVR on a suggestion, and throwing up such a nicely balanced event.

Race 1 - Elite
After there were a few "No Time" qualis, I ended up a bit higher than I was expecting on the grid, although I was pretty comfortable with my race pace. Got a decent start (especially compared to Race 2 :D ) and it was pretty much as Knut describes it, me and him within a second or so for ages, swapping places a few times, side by side more than a few times. The gap ebbed and flowed, as we were quicker in different parts of the track as Knut said, so the splits would be something like 0.5, 1.1, 0.5 etc. It's always the mark of a good race when you check the lap counter, and it's almost double what you were expecting, and that's what happened here - no way had we done 16 laps already.

The final gap opened up as we encountered a bit of traffic, and I dropped a wheel on the grass out of the final turn to try and give myself enough room to get round cleanly. Brilliant racing Knut, despite that closeness for over 90% of the race, not even a touch. Top skills :good: During the race I managed a PB by over a second at 1:03.3, which I was pretty well chuffed with. WD to Bob as well for completing the podium.

Race 2 - TVR
Given the choice, I would have rather gone from the TVR to the Elite, which is not to say that the TVR isn't any good - far from it - it's just quite different and after the duel with Knut in the Elites it was hard to adjust. I couldn't quite dip under the 1:04 mark in prac & quali, then I suppose didn't do that in the Elite until the race anyway.

Decent quali again, but had a stinker on the start - TS had been talking about starts in 2nd, and I was caught between gears (ie in Neutral - Doh!) as the "Go!" appeared, me revving my tits off, but not actually moving anywhere. Sorry to Bob and everyone else behind - i know you were expecting an impromptu chicane to appear on the S/F line :(

Finally got going and had a nice couple of clean laps, staying out of trouble and ended up in 2nd chasing down Knut (again!). about halfway through the race I had a stinker in the (I think) uphill lefthander towards the end of the lap, letting Knut disappear into the sunset, and Carlos through into a clear second. I got going about 10 sec behind Carlos, and decided to try and catch him for P2 in the 12 or so laps left. I had a good go, chopping the difference down to about 4 sec with 4 laps to go, but took one chance too many in that uphill left again, and span out, letting Tom & Bob through. I had no chance to catch Bob in the time remaining, so I just coasted home the last couple of laps. Good stuff by Knut again, wd to Carlos for keeping it on the black stuff, and Tom for being there to take advantage after I spewed it.

Thanks to Carlos & RD for another corker.

As I've said previously, after next Tuesday's event in the (evil) Porsches, next Thursdays BMW Le Mans enduro, and next Saturday's RDHGP finale, Carlos and I will be changing things around, him doing some mini series on the Tuesdays, and me reverting to "open" events on the Thursdays.

Thanks to all the cracking events he's put up, I've now got one hell of an act to follow. I promise I'll do my best :good:
 
Actually, I had a go in the Porsches last night around 70s, chicanery-free, Monza. They are still utter brutes, but go quite well around there, as you tend to quite easily always be in the power band, thereby avoiding all that "lag, lag, turbo torque!" that just breaks the rears free without any warning.

Which is not to say they are docile (far from it) but the character of the track mitigates their most unappealing aspect.

I think it will be a good event, and I hope we get some decent numbers.
 
As I've said previously, after next Tuesday's event in the (evil) Porsches, next Thursdays BMW Le Mans enduro, and next Saturday's RDHGP finale, Carlos and I will be changing things around, him doing some mini series on the Tuesdays, and me reverting to "open" events on the Thursdays.

Thanks to all the cracking events he's put up, I've now got one hell of an act to follow. I promise I'll do my best :good:

Thanks for the compliments sir, but you are the master, you won't have any trouble at all delivering great events, you always have. And you won't even have to try hard lol.

I have to spend hours researching and messing around to cook just one event up while you are juggling the Cats on Fridays, our club on Thursdays, our entire league, and the upcoming Cats league! How do you do it?!
 
Thanks for the compliments sir, but you are the master, you won't have any trouble at all delivering great events, you always have. And you won't even have to try hard lol.

I have to spend hours researching and messing around to cook just one event up while you are juggling the Cats on Fridays, our club on Thursdays, our entire league, and the upcoming Cats league! How do you do it?!

Nah - you've pulled out some real corkers, really unexpected combinations, and we've not had a misfire. I mean, no-one would have pegged the Merc to be competitive against the Shelby before the Spa race, but that was a belting event.

That right there is a yardstick.
 
Pretty exciting race evening, most afraid for the TVR but after some practice an playing a round with the setup, I did some steady laptimes.
To my surprise Q on p4?? take it easy on the first corner an get passed , had some nice fights with Bob an Tom an at the end with Tim,could hold him off just barely to take p5, good finish for a change .

Not a good Q in the lotus, run off so p7 to start with,hold a steady pace with it,an some good fights here an there ,Bob was driving away from me with half a second per lap, at the last few laps making some mistakes ,hold on to p6 to bring it back to the finish.

Great event again Carlos thanks for that,an the gents to race with..
 

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