RD GT Championship 2011

[Rami Kaukola]

Group 1 Quali 2 race 2 I got the lead after pit but Peter was faster and pass me and took the win Grats Peter and Marcin for podium finish.
Here my date after the race

 

[Dag Erik Lund]

blu flag bug for me at 5 minutes for finish.
i was quietly 6th.....i would cry :-(

I feel sorry for you, I noticed you all of sudden were gone.
Had again a decent qualy, ended up 8th on the grid. But then I made a mistake in very first lap, lost me 3 places. Had a lot of battles for position until my pitstop. There i was plain stupid, and filled the car up way to much, ending up with dragging 50kg unnecessary fuel around the track for 20+ laps. But finished on a decent 8th place.

 

[Ross McGregor]

That was the toughest race so far, you really had to concentrate to avoid heading off-track. After arriving late into qualie i only had time to load my setup and bang in one lap. Luckily it was my quickest yet, but still only good enough for 8th.

Got into the race, and i had a small gap to the cars behind due to an incident i think, so iwas able to focus on Steve, Dino, David, Morten etc ahead. Steve pitted early & David spun out, so i ended up battling with Dino for many, many laps. We didn't actually get that close too often, but we were trading lap times constantly. After the pits, i was a little closer to Morten in 4th, but he pulled away slightly while Dino caught me up. Gradually however, i began to pull slightly away from Dino and catch Morten a little, and we were both catching Marcin ahead in 3rd- probably due to tyre wear.

In the end, i was happy with 5th as i thought i would struggle a little here. Congrats to Peter and the rest of the podium, and congrats to my fellow BVM'ers also for some decent points.

Thanks Bram/RD

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Had a very hard race today! I planned to practice this afternoon, but some unexpected events prevented me from doing that, so I found myself doing my first ever lap in this car on this track in quali on my outlap, using the Nurburgring setup. I was very slow, even in the warmup, but at least in the race I could find some pace so I could compete with others on the back! It was pretty much up and down however for me, sometimes I could do some pretty OK laps, sometimes I just couldn't do that. At the end I finished 17th and I'm happy about that, especially if I take it into account that I didn't have a single lap of practice before this race! For Monza I'll make sure I'll have some time to practice, I won't leave it to the last day for sure! (that's my favourite track in this league so I must practice for it!)

Thanks everyone!

 

[Chris Jacque]

Will be late with business next week so wont make it unfortunately.

 

[Dino Paolini]

Group 1:

Had a very nice race today on one of my good tracks.

Q: The superpole lap was a very good one, except for one turn at the middle sector where I lost atleast 2 tenths by going wide of the line. It was enough for p6, very happy with that

R: This time i was happy with my pace throughout, the only problem was that I made a total of 3 mistakes today which was clearly too much to really compete with Ross for the position. I planned to come out ahead of him, but that was not possible anymore after a mistake in turn1 on the inlap to the first pitstop ;( That was really bad timing, as someone was letting me lap him very nicely but I missed the breaking point there to almost hit him.

I'm still very pleased to end up on p6 !
Now heading to Monza where I always have big problems + bad pace + I really dislike driving on that track.

 

[Morten Wernersen]

My race in group 1
Qually: 5th, a bit supriceingly cos I think I made at least 2 big mistakes, so happy with that

Race: Had a good start and kept Dino behind me in 6th, as the 4 cars in front pulled away, but Zafiu, in 4th, had problems keeping the car on the track and spun of and I got passed him, so now I was up to 4th, I started to pull away from Dino behind, I took my pit stop about halfway now with Ross behind, came out in 8th I think, and kept my pace as others took their pit stop, and I was back in 4th after about 5-6 laps, but now with Ross gaining on me so I concentrated on keeping my pace and dont make to many mistakes, Ross got closer and closer but I held him at about 5,5-6sek. behind and finished in 4th, so very happy with that

CYA next time

 

[Theo de Bruin]

Group 2

I had a great qualifying lap putting me in p.5 for the race. Never expected that!

For the race I expected to be struggling to keep the pace at the front. And I could just kling on to the top 4 drivers for the first 2 laps or so but then those guys where gone... And I also got some pressure from behind as well. Had a couple of great fights with lots of chaps and unfortunately I ran wide in a corner and got into the gravel. Came back on track in p.9 and had to fight my way back up again. Ran in p6 for a long while, also after my (and everyone else) pitstop. I lost my concentration and started to make small mistakes and I was doing bad laptimes. So the guys behind managed to catch up to me.
Marco overtook me when I made (another) small mistake and I was running in p.7. With about 6 minutes left on the clock I was looking forward to try to catch him again but unfortunately his connection broke down, sorry to see that Marco, might have been an interesting finish to the race!

Ended in p.6. See you all next week!

 

[Andreas Löffler]

Really frustrating race tonight, first i miss my hotlap and started from 20th place.

After i find some places to about 14th i couldn´t get my pace on track cause i couldn´t pass Ramon. And after i miscalculated his speed in this horrable slow left up the hill i hit him and he spun. Thoght "ah ****", waited and fall back behind Chris. Decided to make a much earlier stop to be out of traffic and run my speed. This worked well, good laps aand after 2nd stop in 13th position.

Now i wanted use my tyres to pick up some places but already Danny in 12th destroy me everything, can´t say it other - sorry. Ok, it´s your right to defend but i had new tyres and was about 1,5 sec per lap faster. Had only a disadvynce out of corner and probably more rearwing. Blocked me every corner about 15 min and after i pass it become more frustrating cause after a mistake he passed me again. And lost another felt 10 min. Lost all the rythm and motivation, thought more "what i´m doing here ? ". Was really not how i was imagine my race. Yves and David got some tyre probblems and could go on P10. Was short also on P9, got checkered flag but then i notice it´s still a lap but lost P9 already again, which doesn´t matter at the end after this race.

I´m already forced to make 2 stops cause i haven´t a clue to drive this car and then additional i also get punishment cause i cant use my newer tyres cause fighting for positons against drivers which block me with much older tyres, it´s a really frustrating driving for me. Sure it´s racing, but it´s hard to be fair in this situaitons cause you know this isn´t really your opponent, you have to pass him as fast as possible. This makes me not much fun and probably also not the driver in front.

Not sure if i want to race the next races, i think it´s shame. The league have i my view so much potential if easy everybody had to do 2 stops. With the fuelconsumption and tyrewear it would be so many different strategies possible. Would be sure more interesting for everybody. Hopefully it sounds not to negative to you (but thats i fell atm), had at least a big fight with Danny, enjoyed it not much but ok ..., maybe i have to think not so much to what would possible with my laptimes normally.

Congrats to our outclassing podium, it´s impressive how much faster it can be with lesser tyre wear and this without any train. A further slap in the face for anyybody else.

 

[János Ócsai]

Group 2:
Hard race for me as I was really tired and distorted. Had a lot of battles with various drivers all along the race but couldn't enjoy them as much as last week, because I had a hard time to keep my concentration level up. Didn't always manage as I had much more mistakes than usual. Finished in a respectable P7, but it could have been better without the errors as my pace was quite good.
Sum up it result of this race is positive.

And now comes a praise of the car:
What a magnificent machine this is! The more I drive it the more I love it. It's amazing how well balanced and predictable it is. No wonder these cars are winning endurance races. It's so easy to adjust to changing grip of tires and it always makes me smile how well it's controllable with throttle.
With every race it gets easier to pick up the pace during practice. I have never driven on Valencia Long layout before but right after 5 laps of track learning I could run a session of 25 consistent laps. Never managed with any other car before...

 

[Andreas Löffler]

Nice you share this Rami but to me it gives only more question. How is it possible to have a tyre temp in front of 70 °C at the end of the stint ? Sure, i´m not a benchmark with all my tyres in infield over 105 °C but you also drive > 1 sec faster per lap

, without getting any temperature. My setups are in corner mostly quite understeer which i can´t get away so think i should stop driving immediately, seems i have no clue. Not sure but i think i have 70° when i leave pits, after that never again . Short, a big miracle for me, you must fly anyhow !

 

[Bob Hutchins]

compleat and utter ****

why did i pit early for tyres as i was planning a 2 stopper and not even 1 other guy was on this stratigy

as we know valencia has such a long pit by the time i came out i was last and by the time was nearly into the 40 mins past i knew i had ****** it

so dossapointed all these school boy errors i am making latly is really putting me off playing my fav game

and with no guys willing to share with stratigys i have got no chance

regards

Steve, surely you have worked it out by now that the only way to go is 1 stop strategy. You may have to compromise on your race setup so the tyres last or even change your driving style a bit but 2 stops, unless your really fast, is too slow as it takes around 25 secs a stop. Even if your 1.5/2 secs a lap slower on worn rubber at the end it's still faster than a 2 stopper.

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Came in for the one stop strat around 45 mins.
Stopped in box and was told to go go go straight away, wtf
Had just enough fuel for another lap, so did so and called in for a pitstop again.
Same thing - no fuel nor tyre change .. woohoo!

Brendon, do you have manual or auto pitstop on, if auto then change to manual. Also did you setup your pit requests correctly, maybe the problem was in there.

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Server 2 report;

After a quite good quali I managed to stick it on p2 but thought I could have done better. Knowing my race setup was good for a 1 stopper I was optimistic of a good finish as long as no mistakes crept in. With good parade lap, nice one Ross B, it was race on. Had a nice pace on the opening laps which would bode well for later on. Ross B was running well but I could see after around 4 laps he was sliding the car too much to last 23 laps on 1 set of tyres. I was ready to hang on in there until he made his pit stop which at this rate would have to be an eary one. I got my chance a few laps later when Ross went wide in the last turn. I took the opportunity & set about opening a gap. I put in some consistant laps and kept it mistake free until my pit stop which this week went like clockwork. Came back out in p1 & made my one and only mistake going into T2 on cold brakes which sent me a bit wide but kept it on the green stuff. From here on in I just kept the lap times consistant and never put another foot wrong & took the chequered flag. I would like to say a big thank you to all the guys I met on server 2 who did a great job of driving tonight.

Thanks to Bram & all the staff running the league and wd done to all that finished tonight.

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

Group 1

Report from a difficult night
For some reason the Game vs Pedals were not working tonight. Brake pedal it is.
I had to press it much deeper than normal. (Club Sports Pedals)

Because I could not manage to do any good laps I quit the game, unplugged my pedals and attached it again. It was much better then, but still not good.

I hoped to qualify around P10, but due to the problems it was somewhere around P15 or so.

The Start went well, although I had some distance to the car in front. I tried to focus on my braking and could do some consistent laps. Slowly I was getting more speed and closed the gap, heading to the Top 10.

Because I had to compensate while braking (much earlier then normal), I tried to get more speed from corners by throttling earlier, which also will destroy the rear tires.
This was indeed the case halfway the race. Still it was competative with the cars around.

Andreas was a bit faster behind, but Valencia is an easy track to cover the corners. In that very slow left hander before uphill I always drive very careful and Andreas mis-judge my braking there and tipped me around. No problem, how could he know about my super brakes
Andreas waited and I could pass him, but there was a train of cars immediately following and he lost more then 1 place by it.

I did a pitstop just after the Race mid point and gained 2 positions by it when the other cars went into the pits

At this point I knew my tires would be tricky to the end of the race and I drove them very careful. The car in front (I think David) was driving away fast, and the car behind me was closing in slowly. For me it was all about tire-management at this stage.

Then when the car behind was within 2 seconds it was time for me to push push push. I had 87% front tires left and 81% rear tires with <20 mins on the clock.
Immediately I could increase the gap to my follower by a few tenths a lap and I knew he would possibly be pushing more and more and destroying his tires/making mistakes. It seems working fine and I was also much faster then David in front of me.
Once I closed the 10+ seconds gap near the end of the race, his tires were gone. I saw him sliding all over the place and it was an easy pass.

I finished a very pleased P7 with my braking problems. Mission Accomplished to finish in Top10

Grats to Peter for a very good win. Also grats to the other podium finishers and other great drivers. It was very fair again, nice to see this!

@Andreas:
It is all about tire-management to finish the race in a good position. I see you always driving on/over the limit in the beginning of the race. I bet you are already down to 60% tires with still 70mins on the clock. That is the thing you should manage.
Try to slide less, and use better throttle control out of the corners. If you have tools like MotecAdd (http://www.racedepartment.com/motecadd/) it is easy to see if you lockup too much/too often, or to see if you have wheelspin.
Valencia was also for me very hard on the tires, but normally I still have around 70% tires left with 45mins on the clock. This time it was around 60% and got a tirewear warning rear-left with 43mins left.
Another try is to use a different gear-ratio to exit a corner in 2nd (where you normally use 1st) or 3rd (if you normally use 2nd) gears. Saves a lot on tires!
Okay, I am in no way as fast as you in a single lap. And much slower then Rami/Peter/Marcin in a single lap/race distance. But I know I am consistent and it brings me pleasing finishing positions during the race

Passing is another thing. You said you were stuck behind Danny. I know Danny is very hard in defending, but also I know he is fair once you get him. On Valencia there are only 2 real spots for me to pass others. First is where you tipped me around uphill. If you take the corner where you hit me a bit wider, you can cut it deeply and because your car is already straight the acceleration is much faster and you have the next corner on the inside. Guarenteed pass. You only need to cover the next straight and left hander (T1).
Next place for me is just before T2. Drive a good solid T1 and you get slingshot on the small straight after it and you can dive on the inside. And with the camber this T2 corner has, you can save the car while braking easily.

Hope you have something useful with this info. Hope you stay positive and continue the league.

Final Grats to Bob for finishing 1st in Group 2. I guess we see you back in Group 1 next week

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Really frustrating race tonight, first i miss my hotlap and started from 20th place.

After i find some places to about 14th i couldn´t get my pace on track cause i couldn´t pass Ramon. And after i miscalculated his speed in this horrable slow left up the hill i hit him and he spun. Thoght "ah ****", waited and fall back behind Chris. Decided to make a much earlier stop to be out of traffic and run my speed. This worked well, good laps aand after 2nd stop in 13th position.

Now i wanted use my tyres to pick up some places but already Danny in 12th destroy me everything, can´t say it other - sorry. Ok, it´s your right to defend but i had new tyres and was about 1,5 sec per lap faster. Had only a disadvynce out of corner and probably more rearwing. Blocked me every corner about 15 min and after i pass it become more frustrating cause after a mistake he passed me again. And lost another felt 10 min. Lost all the rythm and motivation, thought more "what i´m doing here ? ". Was really not how i was imagine my race. Yves and David got some tyre probblems and could go on P10. Was short also on P9, got checkered flag but then i notice it´s still a lap but lost P9 already again, which doesn´t matter at the end after this race.

I´m already forced to make 2 stops cause i haven´t a clue to drive this car and then additional i also get punishment cause i cant use my newer tyres cause fighting for positons against drivers which block me with much older tyres, it´s a really frustrating driving for me. Sure it´s racing, but it´s hard to be fair in this situaitons cause you know this isn´t really your opponent, you have to pass him as fast as possible. This makes me not much fun and probably also not the driver in front.

Not sure if i want to race the next races, i think it´s shame. The league have i my view so much potential if easy everybody had to do 2 stops. With the fuelconsumption and tyrewear it would be so many different strategies possible. Would be sure more interesting for everybody. Hopefully it sounds not to negative to you (but thats i fell atm), had at least a big fight with Danny, enjoyed it not much but ok ..., maybe i have to think not so much to what would possible with my laptimes normally.

Congrats to our outclassing podium, it´s impressive how much faster it can be with lesser tyre wear and this without any train. A further slap in the face for anyybody else.

You surprise me every week more and more that you have absolutely no clue about racing rules Andreas

Fighting for a position a driver is entitled to block the attacking driver one time per corner or straight. If that means you can't get passed a driver that "isn't really your opponent" you should be able to get around him quickly in a clean way. If that doesnt work he is your opponent

Fought some great battles with Danny last week and he is a top notch defender imo. That is also a great driver quality.

Maybe we should all move over next week and wait until you have pitted twice again and let you get by once more so you can have your win. Seems that we must modify the league (mandatory two stops) only to have you in the first positions.

Or you just accept that you are not good enough to win here because you can only win short sprint races where you can use the max out of your tires without having to think about tactics, tiremanagement and pitstopstrategy.

Hey that sounds like WTCC! :thumb:

 

[Danny Pattiwael]

Really frustrating race tonight, first i miss my hotlap and started from 20th place.

After i find some places to about 14th i couldn´t get my pace on track cause i couldn´t pass Ramon. And after i miscalculated his speed in this horrable slow left up the hill i hit him and he spun. Thoght "ah ****", waited and fall back behind Chris. Decided to make a much earlier stop to be out of traffic and run my speed. This worked well, good laps aand after 2nd stop in 13th position.

Now i wanted use my tyres to pick up some places but already Danny in 12th destroy me everything, can´t say it other - sorry. Ok, it´s your right to defend but i had new tyres and was about 1,5 sec per lap faster. Had only a disadvynce out of corner and probably more rearwing. Blocked me every corner about 15 min and after i pass it become more frustrating cause after a mistake he passed me again. And lost another felt 10 min. Lost all the rythm and motivation, thought more "what i´m doing here ? ". Was really not how i was imagine my race. Yves and David got some tyre probblems and could go on P10. Was short also on P9, got checkered flag but then i notice it´s still a lap but lost P9 already again, which doesn´t matter at the end after this race.

I´m already forced to make 2 stops cause i haven´t a clue to drive this car and then additional i also get punishment cause i cant use my newer tyres cause fighting for positons against drivers which block me with much older tyres, it´s a really frustrating driving for me. Sure it´s racing, but it´s hard to be fair in this situaitons cause you know this isn´t really your opponent, you have to pass him as fast as possible. This makes me not much fun and probably also not the driver in front.

Not sure if i want to race the next races, i think it´s shame. The league have i my view so much potential if easy everybody had to do 2 stops. With the fuelconsumption and tyrewear it would be so many different strategies possible. Would be sure more interesting for everybody. Hopefully it sounds not to negative to you (but thats i fell atm), had at least a big fight with Danny, enjoyed it not much but ok ..., maybe i have to think not so much to what would possible with my laptimes normally.

Congrats to our outclassing podium, it´s impressive how much faster it can be with lesser tyre wear and this without any train. A further slap in the face for anyybody else.

Although I am not unhappy with my results, at the same time I felt it could have been better.
I had a great setup from my fellow BVM teammate Yves Larose, so that helped me with the results achieved last night.
In Qualy I ended up 11th, which was a bit disappointing, cause I hoped to get a 1:53.xxx, but I was not aggressive enough in the corners.
Race-start went well, and soon I allready gained a few positions, due to some crashes in the first lap. Had an intense fight with David Gronvalls and after a while he managed to pass me, but I tried to keep him in sight.

After about 24 laps my tyres were degrading, and I made some small mistakes, and the lap where I decided to pit, I pushed the pit-in button, but I did it at a bad moment because I spun out in the gravel loosing lots of seconds. 2nd mistake is I pushed the ignition button to soon after coming into the pits, causing me to slow down too fast, also loosing precious time.
After rejoining I was 13th, but I was hoping there would still be people coming in for their pits, but lap after lap I was still in same position lol.
And then there was this big fight with Andreas, which obviously frustrated him. @ Andreas, it is not my intention to frustrate you, but I was also a bit disappointed about my current raceposition, and I decided to fight for my current position and to give it all I got. Despite some bumping I found it fair. I think with about 10 minutes left, Andreas managed to pass me, and allready raceleader Duivelaar came up behind me. I was then in battle again with David Gronvalls (remember him ), but this time my tyres were a bit better than his, so I managed to overtake him.
Last thing was I saw Yves spinning and was trying to get out of the kerbs, where he was stuck. Felt sorry for him :-(
Credits go to him for my well balanced car

Cya next race

 

[Linus Pettersson]

I report absence for:

Round 4: Monza 07 - Monday June 6, 2011
- June 6 is a national holiday in Sweden = no time to play

Round 5: Oschersleben 07 - Monday June 13, 2011
- I'm at a conference in Stockholm the whole day, it's a 1 h 15 mins flight and I won't be back home in time

Thanks for this very fun league, one of the most enjoyable I've done at RD. Unfortunately time hasn't been on my side, but I got to do a few races. There's always next time. Good luck fellow BVM'ers in the remaining rounds .

 

[Wayne Reed]

Group 2
what a weird race

Quly
I got p10 was really happy with that i am most of the time p18 so I must have liked the track more then I thought?

Race
Had an ok start got up to p5 after about 10 mins with most of the ones in front have a hard battle and it all went wrong for most of them coming of. ( was fun to watch) I then made my way to 3rd place I was so happy. Then 2nd place pitted and i had a 15 sec gap to 3rd when I pitted. Then I came out in 6th and was like wtf but then i thought they must be the 2 stopers and 1 by 1 they pitted Then it all started going wrong from then on in I was in 2nd place I was so happy. Then my wheel went up the wall. I could not upshift with my paddle and had to use the H box but there was a problem there as 1st ans 2nd gear on the H box I use for my break bios. so I had to use all gears all over the place and lost so much time I went down to 3rd then 4th I could have cryed then 3rd started to have car problems going wide all over the place so I went on the attack and jsut got it with 1 lap to go Yee haa 3rd place for me

Congrats to Bob for the win

 

[Wayne Reed]

Really frustrating race tonight, first i miss my hotlap and started from 20th place.

After i find some places to about 14th i couldn´t get my pace on track cause i couldn´t pass Ramon. And after i miscalculated his speed in this horrable slow left up the hill i hit him and he spun. Thoght "ah ****", waited and fall back behind Chris. Decided to make a much earlier stop to be out of traffic and run my speed. This worked well, good laps aand after 2nd stop in 13th position.

Now i wanted use my tyres to pick up some places but already Danny in 12th destroy me everything, can´t say it other - sorry. Ok, it´s your right to defend but i had new tyres and was about 1,5 sec per lap faster. Had only a disadvynce out of corner and probably more rearwing. Blocked me every corner about 15 min and after i pass it become more frustrating cause after a mistake he passed me again. And lost another felt 10 min. Lost all the rythm and motivation, thought more "what i´m doing here ? ". Was really not how i was imagine my race. Yves and David got some tyre probblems and could go on P10. Was short also on P9, got checkered flag but then i notice it´s still a lap but lost P9 already again, which doesn´t matter at the end after this race.

I´m already forced to make 2 stops cause i haven´t a clue to drive this car and then additional i also get punishment cause i cant use my newer tyres cause fighting for positons against drivers which block me with much older tyres, it´s a really frustrating driving for me. Sure it´s racing, but it´s hard to be fair in this situaitons cause you know this isn´t really your opponent, you have to pass him as fast as possible. This makes me not much fun and probably also not the driver in front.

Not sure if i want to race the next races, i think it´s shame. The league have i my view so much potential if easy everybody had to do 2 stops. With the fuelconsumption and tyrewear it would be so many different strategies possible. Would be sure more interesting for everybody. Hopefully it sounds not to negative to you (but thats i fell atm), had at least a big fight with Danny, enjoyed it not much but ok ..., maybe i have to think not so much to what would possible with my laptimes normally.

Congrats to our outclassing podium, it´s impressive how much faster it can be with lesser tyre wear and this without any train. A further slap in the face for anyybody else.

As others have said it is down to you to make a clean pace not to moan about it. It is the same for us all. I remember some one came out be hind me and he was all over me for about 5 to 10 laps but he did not punt me off the track or force me wide he waited for me to pit then went on his way.

As Bram said your a sprint racer and most of us are enduro guys and you have to teach your self how to play the long game