RDHCS S9 - Round 1 - 100km (20 laps) - Nueburgring GP - Tue 11th September 2012

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Stuart Thomson

The Stoat Without Fear ™
Premium
RaceDepartment Historic Club Series Season 9 is Open – We’ve had a Boob Job and Everything.

Welcome to Season 9 of the RaceDepartment Historic Club Series (RDHCS), covering the Autumn / Winter session of 2012. As you can see, we’ve changed our name slightly to allow the rF2 Historic Formula Cars to use the “Grand Prix” tag. After the extremely close and competitive TC-65 Season, it’s time for something with a little bit more of a kick, ie the GTC-76 Class. As I’ve been saying for some time now, the GTL truism is that the cars are better matched the lower the class you run. TC-65 class never lets us down in terms of racing, and last seasons cars were a superb spread of vehicle types. This season however, Knut & I (along with some of you who provided some invaluable data – ruling things out is just as big a deal as ruling them in) have done a lot of testing across a very broad group of cars, and we gravitated to a group that we ran 3 or so seasons ago, and that became the core of this seasons vehicles.

I sincerely believe that the testing event we held recently is a genuine indicator of the closeness we will experience throughout the season. The individual cars showed their (relative) strengths and weaknesses over the 2 test events, but the overall pace was pretty well matched across all the cars. The higher up the Classes you go, the further the cars diverge in their philosophies, so we do have some extremes in the field, but we also have a good variation of track to provide challenges right through the grid.

The car types mean that we cannot use quite as many short course tracks as last season – I think that the Corvette around Gellerasen may well be what the very definition of Hell feels like. We still have a spread of track type, but most have a decent overall length, with not that many short enough to cause a high lapcount.

The season opener takes us to Europe, and a very familiar venue, the Nuerburgring GP track in Germany.

event1.jpg


Circuit Notes
Located in the central West of Germany around the village of Nuerburg in the Eiffel mountains, situated roughly between Cologne & Frankfurt, we are driving the modern GP-Strecke. While it has entrances from, and exits onto, the fabled Nordschleife, the modern GP-Strecke was built in the mid-1980’s, and I won’t waste your valuable time talking about a hugely historic track that we will not be using for this race. While considered a pale imitation of it’s historic sibling, it really is a very important track as it innovated and introduced many safety features that are now standard on lots of more modern tracks.

The Nuerburgring GP-Strecke has received some less than enthusiastic reviews in it’s Formula 1 history, but the Historic warriors of the RDHCS, and their less than cutting edge suspensions and grip have always been able to have a right old ding-dong around it’s curves and gradients.

GP-Strecke starts on a long straight, canted slightly downhill, with enough time for cars to get nearly up to top speed. As we pass under the BMW banner across the S/F line, we still have a short piece of straight before the Michelin bridge, where we enter the braking zone for T1R, and what a start to the season it is. The braking zone is crested, slightly turned and so presents a challenge itself before you actually get into the process of navigating T1R itself.

T1R – After getting the car slowed and ready to turn, it’s an absolute monster of a corner to start the League season on. Starting with that non-direct, crested, downhill braking zone, the very tight apex falls away even more down and right, and cold tyres will make getting the nose around here extremely tricky. After getting the car settled on the wide, wide track, after T1R, you have a quick stab of acceleration before standing on the brakes for T2L – Mercedes I.

Mercedes I is a fairly standard Left hand 90, with a fairly wide diameter. The temptation is to be too greedy on the exit and end up running too wide over the rumble strips. Doing so will make life immediately tricky for you, as you need to be settled and in control for T3L – Mercedes II. This is a much tighter corner than Mercedes I, and seems to go on for a very long time. Again here though, patience is an absolute must, as going too quick will again upset your approach to the next, rapidly approaching turn. If you need to compromise any turn on the GP-Strecke it’s T3L, as the following corner has a fast exit that needs to be set up by a nice entrance.

T4R – Mercedes III is entered on the best possible line you can get out of Mercedes II, and opens onto one of the faster sections of the track. Again too much accelerator too soon will cause you to drift wide, across rumble strips and unsettling kerbs, but you do have to attack this corner otherwise you will could well be swamped on the straight that follows.

T5L – Drop a gear and get the nose in early across this turn so as to keep some pace up, onto the short downhill straight and then another stab of brakes for T6R – Ford-Kurve. Ford is off-camber, with a tempting downhill exit that begs to be taken quick. Put your foot down too soon, and you will very likely lose the rear, as it is very slippery in there.

Getting on the gas on the downhill straight, using the slip road on the left as an additional braking marker get hard, hard on the anchors for T7R – Dunlop-Kehre. This medium radiused 180 degree hairpin is again all about the patience to get on the loud pedal, as going too soon and spinning here is death to a lap. Get in tight on the entry, get as straight as you can and then squeeze the power on up the hill. Depending on the car, you will need either a feather, a dab of brake or even to drop a cog through T8L & T9R – Michael-Schumacher-S. The outer exit kerbs of T8L will throw the rear round under acceleration, whereas the humped inner kerbs will upset the straighter line. Make T9R your priority, as it opens onto a shortish up hill straight.

Give it some hard acceleration up the hill, and then a firm dab of brake, normally dropping 1 or 2 gears to try and drift across the apex of T10L – RTL-Kurve. Again this is a medium speed corner that you can attack, but not at the cost of getting off line for the following corner T11L – Warsteiner-Kurve. Get the nose in as early as you can, squeeze the accelerator on as you drift onto the downhill exit and onto the fastest run of the track. Full acceleration, just enough steering input to navigate T12R – ADVAN-Bogen, bottoming out at full speed and then climbing up the hill, again using slips roads as additional brake markers before you get hard on the brakes, as late as you dare, for T13L & T14R – NGK-Schikane. There are lots of kerbs, panels, grascrete, run-offs etc. in this area, so you need to be aware that your car can be easily unsettled here.

Accelerate out of NGK, and then gently brake, get the nose across to the right for the last corner of the lap T15R- Coca-Cola-Kurve. Accelerate hard out of Coca-Cola, control the inevitable drift wide, and stay hard on the gas across the grid to styart another lap of the Nuerburgring GP-Strecke.

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The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting. The worst offenders from previous seasons have not signed up, so I hope that this will be a non-issue this season.

Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.

T1R – Especially on Lap 1. Be aware of people as you turn in here, it has the possibility to cause huge problems if drivers don’t respect each other. Be aware that any incidents caused by reckless or over aggressive driving in Turn 1 during the first lap will be dealt with severely, probably with a “no quali” penalty for Round 2.

T4R – Mercedes III. Keep 2 wheels on the main circuit – the green grascrete and kerbs cannot be used as racing surface if you do not have 2 wheels inside the white line on the main track.

T7R – Dunlop-Kehre. This turn is approached under heavy braking after the high speed straight, so you will need to be aware of the differences in braking distances and relative manoueverability of the cars around you as you go into T7R. Going in too hot will drop you into the waiting sand trap, getting on the gas too early will spin you onto the grass. No weaving about to defend lines here. Give people room to race. Care must be taken when rejoining the track out of here.

T13L & T14R – NGK-Schikane. 2 wheels must be within the white lines and on track here. We all know the difference between missing it, and deliberately going straight across the kerbs here. Report people who are treating it as a straight line. Additionally, no weaving or late line changes – give people the room to race.

All points on the track – General Items
Drivers may put on their lights (and keep them on) during a timed qualification lap, so other drivers know to get out of the way when safe to do so.
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the Race Session.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
The Track must be re-entered safely so as not to ruin other peoples races.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.

Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
As it’s Round 1 of a new season, everyone comes into it with a completely clean slate.
As last season, 2 consecutive no-shows will mean removal from the League.
Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.) Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored.

Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.

Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHCS event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHCS.

Reporting Attendance
As GPCOS seems to be down, I will be sending a PM with the round password to all Signed-Up drivers. I will also be running an “Attendance” post. If you are definitely driving, you need to “like” the post. If you are NOT driving (or if you are unsure of attendance) you must post a reply to say so. If there is no response, or if a response is posted after 2 hours before race start time on race day, it will be treated as a No-Show. As before – 2 consecutive No-Shows will mean removal from the league.

Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1

1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
 
This event reminded me my starts with simracing. Mistakes, spins, a lot of fun. I was lucky that I always managed my high speed spins and didn't crash into the wall ... much :) The Escort is really little rally car, when it loses grip it's very hard to backup without spinning. Mainly in low speeds. I have to tweak my FFB because I had difficulty to recognize the line between having enough grip and losing it though. Still love the car, I am sure that I can get used to it in the future :)

Thanks for the race, especially to Peter!
 
Even though I went backwards, I'm still very pleased with my race.

I lucked into a good lap in qualifying and got a nice second place on the grid. Then after a decent start I was trying to keep up with Ross and destroyed my tires in the process. This enabled Dmytro to close the gap and after several laps of me holding him up, he eventually passed me. From there it was just a case of bringing the car home, which I did in third place...

The tire wear problem is something I definitely need to look into and try to determine if it was a setup problem, or just a simple case of me overdriving the car :unsure:

Anyway, well done Ross & Dmytro + everyone who finished (so everyone - I think) :thumbsup: See you guys at round 2...
 
Good start to the season and nice to see a big opening grid:thumbsup:
Started 17th, finished 17th but some great moments in between. After a very cautious T1 started to get into a pattern and settled in behind Norman Bruce for a very cagey first half of the race. He was faster in some parts and I in others. At some point we caught up with Senad because suddenly he was all over the me, right at the point my tyres started to really let go. Had a fantastic scrap with Senad, swapping places a couple of times. The charge down to T7 had me sweating buckets!!! Neither of us gave up on that one and yet didn't make any contact - proper hard racing:thumbsup:
Unfortunately all the exuberance took it's toll on my tyres, by the last 6 laps I had very little in the way of grip or feedback but managed to get home relatively unscathed - will be taking up Knut's suggestion of setup classes. I'm sure it had a lot to do with damper and rebound settings but beyond that I couldn't tell you:confused:
Thanks to the organisation, thanks to everyone for the race and Happy Birthday Warren, have a good one.:)
 
thanks to everyone for the race and Happy Birthday Warren, have a good one.:)

Thanks, I did Simon, everyone was very nice to me today and gave me plenty of room, mostly. ;)

Quite an enjoyable race for me, not a lot of spectacular close racing but I did enjoy the Skyline. Somehow, I managed to spend most of my birthday in bed with a migrane (from neck problems :( ), so didn't get to do much practice. I did fiddle with the setup after the test events last week, where the Skyline bit me a few times at Mondello, so I decided to remove some of it's teeth. It may have been a tad slower, but it proved to be a very stable setup and seemed quite easy to drive for most of the race.

Qualified P4 ( bit of a surprise) but after a typical lousy start, I was P8 by turn 1. I see Stu's statistics confirm, I'm still the worst starter of the Group :rolleyes: .That put me into a tight battle with David ( we rubbed lots of paint for a while trying to drive on the same bit of road that kept getting very narrow for me), Neil ( the red Vette blurr that blew by me on the straight), Roland (man the Pantera looked and sounded classy), and Carlos ( he had that Beemer weaving side to side looking for a passing gap). The first lap was a bit hair raising with the different cars all having different braking points (and straight line power too :D). My brakes were stronger than the Pantera and Vette, but I dared not use them late for now.
Lap 2, I managed to sneak past Roland in the twisty bits (turns 3 and 4) and set about trying to bridge the little gap to David. That wasn't to be though, we were just too similar, so I spent most of the race watching David and Neil battling. David closing up under brakes, Neil galloping away down anything resembling a straight.:cool:.

Surprisingly, the Nissan's tyres held up well, only going off a little over the last couple of laps. Maybe I wasn't pushing enough.

Finished a comfy P7, happy with that. :)

Grats to Ross, Dmytro, and Martin, clearly in a class of their own. Thanks to Stu for a great debut to the series, looks very promising for a most enjoyable League. :thumbsup:
 
Qual 6th
Finished 5th

Popped a dose of painkillers down my throat and heaped on the deepheat before the event so i sat here with my eye's watering with the fumes ready for action. Unsure if i could make the distance or not. :unsure:

Did my first qualifying stint early and was happy to hit 2 consecutive 2:18's so i went to the fridge and poured myself a pint happy in the knowledge i was sitting in 5th. Got back to the screen and see i am now down to 6th so thought ok we can do something about that so put down my pint and set about improving my lap time only to make a balls up on my first flying lap so i thought stuff it, sit and enjoy the ale and watch everyone else.

Got a lot of wheel spin getting off the line so i had to feather the clutch a lot and then it kicked going into second rubbing some paint off the side of Warren in the process, got it back only to see Roland in the Pantera exiting T1 in front of me. I could see the Pantera was quick but going into Dunlop he left it open on the inside so i just stuck my car where his wanted to be and took the place back.
After that it was just lap after lap of trying to close on Jay while all the time keeping an eye on David behind me, i did manage to close the gap some laps only for it to open up again on others, but i lost site of Jay after we lapped Ondrej. I had to ease up going into Dunlop as we met Ondrej, he left me room on the inside (thnx) but me easing up meant David closed up a bit and my weak point was coming up at the top of the hill and i only went and stuck a tyre on the wrong side of the curb this slowed me enough for David to try and make a move but he clipped my rear sending me off grass tracking (but slowed to let me get the place back again, thnx) Ondrej in the meantime panicked a bit at David and myself scrapping as i was almost T-boned by this blue escort that came bouncing over the grass almost taking the paint off my nose as it past in front of me mid curve.

By this time i knew David had no way past unless i made a mistake and this i did exiting Castrol i got too much power down on very worn tyres and it started fishtailing but luck was on my side as David was too far back to pounce.

Enjoyed this event a lot, keeping that Vette pointing the right way with worn tyres is frigging hard work and i was sweating like a pig at times, and the only thing that pissed me off is that i was kept to frigging busy to drink my pint and could only manage the odd sip here and there.;)

Anyway the race was good, the company better and the ale (aussi home brew coopers real ale) was still great after the race) :)
Happy birthday Warren :thumbsup:
 
Good race last night, glad to see a grid of 20+ as well.

Started very tightly, with Martin and Dmytro right up my trumpet in turn 1. Took the wide line (ie: the 'safe' line) into the hairpin, so was on the inside into turn 2 with Martin around the outside. Held position here and was able to build a gap of over 1s on lap one. (Had to get out of the 'DRS' zone you see!) For the next few laps i couldn't build a gap at all, and I had to concentrate on not making mistakes as Martin & Dmytro weren't far behind and one error would see me drop down to 3rd.

Fortunately for me, after about mid-distance Martin's pace dropped off, so i was now able to pull away a bit and had a nice cushion 5 laps from the end. Took these final laps nice and easily as i noticed quite a bit of tyre wear on my Skyline, so when Dmytro finally made it past Martin he was catching me at 1s per lap.

An interesting race overall then, had to concentrate hard to stop myself making too many mistakes early doors, and then had to try very hard to build a gap while Martin's tyres went off so i could be more cautious in the final few laps.

Well done to Dmytro & Martin, also to to everyone on getting through turn 1 unscathed. (i hope!) Thanks to Thommo & Knut for setting this up, and of course RD for hosting.

p.s.- good to see Hutcho back, and happy birthday Warren!
 
Started okayish, didn't lose many spots, but that's probably just because everyone was extra careful for the first turn :thumbsup:

Was pleased to see I could keep up with Jack and Bob at the start. But then had two offs in two successive corners, and lost 10-15 seconds... Ended up behind Simon and Norman.

Was slightly faster than Simon through the bends, but Simon was faster accelerating out. Tried to take advantage of him going wide and losing speed, but I underestimated my gap to him, so it turned into a dive bomb maneuvre by the time we got to the hairpin o_O. Luckily, control held, contact none, all was well.

Good fun there, nice grid as well. Big thanks to Stuart, as usual, looking forward to the next one :thumbsup:
 
Qualified 12th, Finished 12th.

Just taking those numbers at face value, it would appear like I had a boring, quiet race.

Not so. Not by a long chalk.

First off, my cold, black heart was gladdened to see the spirit in which it was driven last night. Space and respect given all round through the first few corners, racing room being given at all times through corners, and no-one straightlining the chicane. I even saw someone who was totally locked up struggling manfully to wrestle the car back onto the track so they wouldn't go straight across the right hand kerb.

That was only my perspective in the racing I had, but I heard similar feedback from others who were further up and farther down the pack during the race, so that is very good and my thanks to you all. (If I get any later complaints about people drivign poorly/selfishly, all bets are off).

So to the race. Nuerb GP was, I think a fairly good track to start on, there being something for everyone in a lap. There were enough straights for Neil & Roland, there were enough corners for the Alfas & Escorts to hassle the more powerful cars, but it was balanced enough that the all-rounders from BMW & Nissan were able to shine.

I had a decent enough start, climbing up into what turned out to be a 4- & 5-way battle with Jacob, Knut, Carlos, Roland & myself. Really good stuff, 2 Beemers, a Pantera, a Skyline & an Escort. Great stuff. At one point going into the last corner, Carlos & Roland were all over each other, with me & Knut right up their fundaments. Unfortunately, they got a little loose, and while Knut left me more than enough space outside of me, I just got my front wheel hooked up on the inner kerb, and lost a few seconds and a couple of places. No problem, just one of those things and no real harm done. Thereafter I was closing back up when I made my "proper" mistake, sensing I was closing up nicely on Jacob (I think?), and I left a little too much power on through Schumacher, just losing the inner rear on the kerb under acceleration, giving me a graceful spin into a glancing blow of the outer wall. This allowed Jack & Hutcho through, and so my last 4 laps were having a right old ding dong with those 2. I was lucky enough to be in the right place when Hutch got a wobble into T1, and I nipped past on the inner line of T2, but couldn't get close enough to Jack in the last remaining laps to pressure him into an error. Another couple of laps and maybe, but definitely not in the time left, he was impervious to any attempts I made.

So, started 12th, finished 12th, but it was ANYTHING but boring.

Great start to the season.
 
Lesson #1: How not to prepare for a race.
So, finished work, had a nice dinner, sat down and watched the news thinking, couple of hours to go and plenty of time to get some good practice in. Start thinking about it... hmmm... Nurburgr... hmmm... "David"... "DAVID!... haven't you got a race tonight", says she. What... what! oh ****. 10 minutes past eight and I've just been woken up so rub my eyes, stagger to the PC and fire up GTL. Then have a piss, then put on some strong coffee and lets go.

Race: So, with a fuzzy head I'm obviously not up to speed yet in qualy, so off the grid in 9th. All appears to go well around the first lap and I found myself in 6th place. Settling in for a few laps and now I think I've finally woken up and start to push the car, getting quicker and quicker lap times. Then I arrive at the back of Neils' Corvette and that's where I stay for the remainder of the race. As you'd expect, gaps in the long staights and tight in the corners. A few close moments where I had a sniff of a pass but without him making a mistake there was no easy pass. Good racing from Neil as he kept it all together, so finished in 6th. Get the feeling I'll be seeing a lot of the back of his red Vette. All in all, not too bad considering.
 
During practice had problems with my Logitech profiler, as I got 900 deg on my wheel, but atm I use 540 deg. Dunno why, but profiler won't set right angle for GTL-profile. So I've randomly tuned my general settings and back to the server right before qualy.

Q: thus, qualy turned into practice, I set not ideal 2.16.5 (was better in my pre-race practice runs). So, 3rd place on the grid.
R: had normal start, kept my position, but didn't won at least one place and this fact was decisive for my race. I ran behind Ross and Martin. 6-7 laps we were all pretty close to each other, but I knew that after half of distance Martin will have serious problems with his tires...

In fact, this problem has been a decisive factor in my final selection between BMW and Nissan. BMW is a good and very fast car, but unfortunately, her tires in this mod version are not suitable for 100 km race with maximum pace. It would be appropriate and intersting if all cars had such a wide variety of tires as the Nissan.

So, after lap 8th or 9th, I was right behind struggling Martin. His skill in driving and protection of the trajectory, and the power of BMW on acceleration, allowed him to survive long enough in front of me. At last, on lap #16 I was lucky to catch Martin in first corner. But, unfortunately, I lost too much time during this dog-fight and Ross was too far ahead and very few laps still to go. All I could do for the remaining laps, is to reduce the gap to 2.5 seconds, but the distance was completed. Ross, honestly I thought you were too lazy to go faster in the end and you was just cautious. :D

Well done Rossco, grats Martin and thanks to all people for the race! As usual, thanks to Stu and Knut for the organisation.
 
After that it was just lap after lap of trying to close on Jay while all the time keeping an eye on David behind me, i did manage to close the gap some laps only for it to open up again on others, but i lost site of Jay after we lapped Ondrej. I had to ease up going into Dunlop as we met Ondrej, he left me room on the inside (thnx) but me easing up meant David closed up a bit and my weak point was coming up at the top of the hill and i only went and stuck a tyre on the wrong side of the curb this slowed me enough for David to try and make a move but he clipped my rear sending me off grass tracking (but slowed to let me get the place back again, thnx) Ondrej in the meantime panicked a bit at David and myself scrapping as i was almost T-boned by this blue escort that came bouncing over the grass almost taking the paint off my nose as it past in front of me mid curve.

That was amazing moment. You said I panicked, it might have look like I did but the reality is different. I was climbing up the hill, full throttle trough the chicane and there the Escort is unstable, then I saw one of you getting of the track and then managing to get back, I turned the wheel to avoid that car but the Escort just slipped away to the grass... Then it was 1) crashing into the wall (not my way :D) or 2) try to recover. I did, but then I realised I am going straight into the corner by sideways. I prepared myself for quick escape and just hoped that you two will see me going there without control... It was amazing how close we avoided each other :D Luckily none accident happened
 
Well, from what I read here we pretty much all agree that this was a great opener for what promises to be another highly entertaining league season!!
Good-looking grid with a nice variety of cars, pretty close laptimes (well apart from a couple of :alien: who in turn are pretty close together:D ) and nothing but gentleman driving! It can hardly get any better IMO!

My race was very good fun, and I really like my Pantera even more now. Looks good, sound great, is pretty forgiving to drive, did not eat the tyres too bad -on this track at least-, so apart from the ridiculous fuel consumption and average-at-best brakes it really is a great car!:thumbsup:

And pretty quick off the line as well, since after taking 8th on the grid, I made it up to 5th place by Turn 1. Lost all those places again before the end of the lap though:laugh: , partly by not paying attention, and partly because its cold tires need some time to get grippy..
After they did I found a good steady pace, but slower than everyone ahead of me so a gap opened up in front.
I did have loads of fun trying to keep Carlos from overtaking lap after lap, as he drove very clean and careful which, along with the sheer width of the car and the tons of torque of the engine saved me a number of times.:confused:
Carlos in turn had Knut, Stuart and Jacob on his tail so while he was looking everywhere for a way past he also needed eyes on his back. Never a dull moment :p

I managed to keep everyone behind me until about half way through when Carlos finally decided he'd seen and heard enough of my Pantera, flew past and set off to chase Warren, while behind me first Stuart and then Knut had an unfortunate spin caused by emenergency braking I think.
I then had some breathing space in front and behind me then, until in L14 I was too eager on the throttle coming out of Mercedes III and spun :( and Jacob and Stuart flew by.
I set off to chase them, but to no avail, until Stuart had an off in the Schumacher-S so gained one place back. Bit less action from then on for me, but keeping the car going the right way on wearing tyres was enough of a challenge at that time. In the final laps, Jack was closing in behind me, but I could hold a comfortable gap until finish in 10th..
Phew, that was pretty intense, almost like working, but with a BIG :) on my face all the time. Can't wait for the next one!

Grats to Ross, Dmytro and Martin, and to all who made it to the end!
Thanks Stuart for all the time and effort you dedicate to bringing us an A+class league again, and CYA soon!
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Lesson #1: How not to prepare for a race.
So, finished work, had a nice dinner, sat down and watched the news thinking, couple of hours to go and plenty of time to get some good practice in. Start thinking about it... hmmm... Nurburgr... hmmm... "David"... "DAVID!... haven't you got a race tonight", says she. What... what! oh ****. 10 minutes past eight and I've just been woken up so rub my eyes, stagger to the PC and fire up GTL. Then have a piss, then put on some strong coffee and lets go.

Now that made me laugh :roflmao: i've done exactly the same, woke up looking at the clock thinking... is that the right time with about 10 minutes to go till qualifiying...:sleep:
 
Good to see all reports expressing the same view of a positive experience :thumbsup: and the same for me as well except for the fact that I just got back from the doctor and apparently I had a bad case of 2 hour Hutching's Disease last Tuesday. It started out as a small speck on my mirror but quickly grew into a lage rash all over my car's butt, then it was followed by a short bout of Stew Flu.

Thanks to Warren for sending me a replay of the race and also adding a little remedy to fix my impotent replay ability so now my replay is "up" and running again.

I must thank my "buddy":cool: Warren again for a much improved setup over the mangled effort that I had put together. It truly tamed the Skyline and did enhance my car's driving ability. Before his setup I truly expected to finish near the back of the pack but I was totally delighted to not only finish but to make it to 11th spot. I know that it will be a battle to match or improve that result with this field of drivers but I am eager for the challenge.

I never had a dull moment in the whole event and truly felt the pressure from Bob for the entire race and then from Stew near the end. Without that setup from Warren, I would have been Stew meat. I was surprised that I held it together for that length of time.
Found myself behind Roland for the latter part of the event but I could not quite close enough distance on him to cause him havoc.
Well done podiums, great driving skills shown there. Topdrawer event Stew.
 
Without that setup from Warren, I would have been Stew meat. I was surprised that I held it together for that length of time.

Don't sell yourself short Jack, setups only help you to feel comfy and build a little confidence, it's the "nut behind the wheel" that makes the difference. You drove a very consistent and fast race, reducing driving mistakes makes quite a difference to your overall result. You should take that confidence into future Rounds.
;)
 
Don't sell yourself short Jack, setups only help you to feel comfy and build a little confidence, it's the "nut behind the wheel" that makes the difference. You drove a very consistent and fast race, reducing driving mistakes makes quite a difference to your overall result.

This. ^

As I said to you on Sunday or Monday, you'll make/save way more time if you get to a setup that makes the car predictable, than one that's potentially slightly faster but is unpredictable/lairy.

My setup in the Escort is pretty stable at the expense of some small measure of ultimate agility, but every little problem I had was down to me taking liberties with it, not because it suddenly did something I wasn't expecting.
 
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