Season 38: GT Cup: Round 10. Le Mans (15 laps)

In the end it was chaos.  I came to Le Mans well out of the championship, looking just to have a good race to finish on.  I had kept the Ferrari for this race, whereas Tristain had the Lola.  He qualified third, behind Markus in another Ferrari.  I was 1.6 quicker than Markus, on pole by a country mile.  But at the start was mad.  

 I had an OK start but Tris had a better one.  As we swept into turn 1 he was on the outside of me.  I tried to give him space but halfway through he squeezed my line before hitting the side of my car.  Both of us spun across the track and into the wall. This causes the entire field behind us of 11 cars to get caught up in the crash, cars were flying everywhere.  I got straightened out but then hit from behind and knocked into the air.  I came down okay and managed to dodge a couple of wrecks on the run to the esses.  Tris escaped of course and led me by 8 seconds.  So the chase was on.  The gap started coming down, I was very determined.  On about lap 4 Tris lost control into Indianapolis and spun into the gravel trap.  I swept into the lead and that was that.  I finished about 18 seconds ahead of Tris.

I put in an official protest and tagged everyone involved in the first turn crash.  After about a month the judgement came back, I was exonerated and Tristain got the full blame (despite trying to claim I should have gotten out of his way because he was on the racing line!)  .  He got a three place penalty.  So in the end he won the championship from me by eight points.  Retroactively if I'd been calmer at Isle of Man and Hockenheim I could have won the championship.  But who could of known he was going to cause such a massive pileup?

Final Standings:

Open - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	±	Total	Vehicle
1	MagicArsouille	4	356.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0	37.0	50.0	32.0	50.0	50.0	28.0
2	Mark Jones	2	348.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0	50.0	43.0	43.0	32.0	21.0	50.0
3	fpolicardi		252.0	*Mixture*	17.0	43.0		23.0	32.0	37.0	50.0	23.0	23.0	21.0
4	Doni Yourth		219.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0		23.0	19.0	25.0	37.0	43.0
5	Cookie		205.0	*Mixture*	32.0	32.0		43.0	28.0		25.0	28.0	17.0
6	Phil Thornton		202.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0		25.0	28.0	23.0		19.0	32.0
7	philippe GIRARD		201.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0	17.0	32.0	37.0	19.0		23.0
8	Pete Bennett		166.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0	23.0	15.0	15.0	17.0	28.0	19.0
9	francesco		135.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0			21.0	25.0	11.0		13.0	37.0
10	Alain Maurice		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
11	EvilClive		119.0	*Mixture*	25.0					17.0		37.0	25.0	15.0
12	GregT		118.0	*Mixture*					43.0			43.0	32.0
13	Rainier	2	112.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0		21.0	9.0
14	Enrique Farina		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
15	Markus Friedrich		86.0	*Mixture*	23.0						17.0	21.0		25.0

Season 38: GT Cup: Round 9 at Isle of Man (2 laps)

Well it all fell apart, which in a way felt inevitable.  In the end I hadn't practiced enough and did not have enough confidence to drive this track at speed.  I qualified fourth, though behind Tristan who was third.  At the start he was super aggressive.  Hounding after first and second, crawling all over them.  When the inevitable crash came, somehow Tris avoided it all and had the lead.  I followed, losing time to him constantly.  I had a few small scares on the opening lap and as we started lap 2 I only had a small gap.  That led to me pushing a bit too hard in a dangerous fast corner start of lap 2, which led to a big crash.  I reset, was stuck behind Doni and had another bigger crash.  You cannot drive this track when behind another car, you just can't see anything.  Then after getting going again had two more crashes and resets.  That put me over the limit for allowed resets, so I quit in disgust.  Just wasn't meant to be I guess.  Tris won.

Open - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	±	Total	Vehicle
1	MagicArsouille (FT)	2	356.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0	37.0	50.0	32.0	50.0	50.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)	2	319.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0	50.0	43.0	43.0	32.0	21.0
3	fpolicardi (FT)		248.0	*Mixture*	17.0	43.0		23.0	32.0	37.0	50.0	23.0	23.0
4	Cookie (FT)		205.0	*Mixture*	32.0	32.0		43.0	28.0		25.0	28.0	17.0
5	philippe GIRARD (FT)		195.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0	17.0	32.0	37.0	19.0
6	Doni Yourth (FT)		193.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0		23.0	19.0	25.0	37.0
7	Phil Thornton (R1)		170.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0		25.0	28.0	23.0		19.0
8	Pete Bennett (FT)		156.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0	23.0	15.0	15.0	17.0	28.0
9	Alain Maurice (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
10	GregT (R1)		118.0	*Mixture*					43.0			43.0	32.0
11	Rainier (FT)	2	112.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0		21.0	9.0
12	EvilClive (FT)		104.0	*Mixture*	25.0					17.0		37.0	25.0
13	francesco (FT)		98.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0			21.0	25.0	11.0		13.0
14	Enrique Farina (FT)		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
15	Giovanni Centorame (R1)		77.0	*Mixture*							21.0	13.0	43.0
16	PaulV (FT)		70.0	*Mixture*			19.0		19.0	19.0	13.0
17	Markus Friedrich (R1)		61.0	*Mixture*	23.0						17.0	21.0
18	maddog (R1)		56.0	Lola T70 MkIII			28.0				28.0
19	Christian Dauger (R1)		30.0	*Mixture*								15.0	15.0

Survivng at Isle of Man

This is the craziest and most dangerous track in the world.  It's so fast, with so many deadly turns with nothing on the outside but walls and trees that the slightest mistake is death.  And I can't remember it from the last time I was here all those years ago.  This is the extended version, but it might as well be brand new to me.  I have corner markers turned on, and am simply working on trying to survive a lap.  The Ferrari is dialled back to give a solid reliable feel under braking into high speed bends.  This won't be a race, it will be survival.

News: The protest resutls are back.  Tristain has been demoted 3 spots, but I've been demoted down too.  Someone protested my awkward collision with Tristin after Canada corner.  So.

Rank	Drivers	±	Total	Vehicle
1	MagicArsouille (FT)	2	306.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0	37.0	50.0	32.0	50.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)	2	298.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0	50.0	43.0	43.0	32.0
3	fpolicardi (FT)		225.0	*Mixture*	17.0	43.0		23.0	32.0	37.0	50.0	23.0
4	philippe GIRARD (FT)		195.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0	17.0	32.0	37.0	19.0
5	Cookie (FT)		188.0	*Mixture*	32.0	32.0		43.0	28.0		25.0	28.0
6	Doni Yourth (FT)		156.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0		23.0	19.0	25.0
7	Phil Thornton (R1)		151.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0		25.0	28.0	23.0
8	Alain Maurice (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
9	Pete Bennett (FT)		128.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0	23.0	15.0	15.0	17.0
10	Rainier (FT)	2	112.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0		21.0	9.0
11	Enrique Farina (FT)		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
12	GregT (R1)		86.0	Ferrari 330/P4					43.0			43.0
13	francesco (FT)		85.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0			21.0	25.0	11.0

Season 38: GT Cup: Round 8 at Hocklenheim (25 laps)

Not a great race.  Picked up a decent draft and scored pole position.  But from the opening lap the heat was on and before the stadium section Tristin was ahead.  As I followed him out of turn 1 I couldn't believe how fast he was.  I drafted but couldn't really get in a position to pass and as we braked for Ostkurve I had a wobble and went wide.  That gave Greg 2nd place.  I then spun again trying to catch up, then another wobble later meant that Clive and Axel got ahead.  As I tried to pass Axel I crashed hard, and had to do a reset.  Managed to finally chase him down but 4th was a poor reward given where I should have finished.

Greg chased Tris all race long but couldn't try for a pass once.  We're in dire straights here.

Rank	Drivers	±	Total	Vehicle
1	MagicArsouille (FT)	2	306.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0	37.0	50.0	32.0	50.0
2	Mark Jones (FT)	2	298.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0	50.0	43.0	43.0	32.0
3	fpolicardi (FT)		225.0	*Mixture*	17.0	43.0		23.0	32.0	37.0	50.0	23.0
4	philippe GIRARD (FT)		195.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0	17.0	32.0	37.0	19.0
5	Cookie (FT)		188.0	*Mixture*	32.0	32.0		43.0	28.0		25.0	28.0
6	Doni Yourth (FT)		156.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0		23.0	19.0	25.0
7	Phil Thornton (R1)		151.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0		25.0	28.0	23.0
8	Alain Maurice (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
9	Pete Bennett (FT)		128.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0	23.0	15.0	15.0	17.0
10	Rainier (FT)	2	112.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0		21.0	9.0
11	Enrique Farina (FT)		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
12	GregT (R1)		86.0	Ferrari 330/P4					43.0			43.0
13	francesco (FT)		85.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0			21.0	25.0	11.0
14	EvilClive (FT)		79.0	*Mixture*	25.0					17.0		37.0

Testing at Hockenheim

You can test and test here, but the real key is: how does the car work in traffic, with a car or two ahead, under braking?  That's really the ultimate question, but you still have to set the car up all the same.  Finally back in the Ferrari.

Season 38: GT Cup: Round 7 at Road America (21 laps)

Aka: The battle of Elkhart Lake.  With a few minutes left in qualifying I had pole position, but somehow I knew Tristan was going to go faster, so i went out again and tried even harder.  The result was pole by only 0.1 of a second.  But pole none the less, vital for the run into turn 1.  Both me and Tris were in white Lolas.  I thought that was a good thing...

Race start was okay, was well ahead and through turn 1, but since I'm on the right hand side I did have a tighter line.  Tris used the chance to get a run out of turn 1 but was wrong footed slightly behind my car.  By the time he got to the inside line we were going at about the same speed, so he slotted back in behind me.  I braked as normal for turn 2, and Tristan ran into the back of me and we both spun off.

I got back on in about 6th, angry as hell, with Tris trailing behind, and started working though the field.  I found I could overtake cars in the tricky section leading up to Canada corner, but it wasn't easy.  And I was effectively making a way for Tris.  I got up to 2nd, but got balked by the leader which gave Tris a look exiting Canada corner, he then trips the right rear corner of my car and I go off.  I rejoin 3rd, and pissed off.  I managed to chase Tris down, as he had trouble passing the leader, and I put my nose in the inside of a left handler where it probably shouldn't go.  Tris turned across, hit my nose and spun off.  I got to the lead, but again Tris wasn't far behind.  Once he was second, he started hunting me down.  I was pushing hard, but the gap was closing.  Then finally I made a mistake under the long downhill braking for turn 3, downchanged into neutral and half spun.  Tris hit me and knocked me upside down.  I had to reset, chased desperately after Tris over the last few laps but to no avail.

I registered an incident report after the race specifically regarding the turn 2 collision.  Ukgpl has a blanket lap one no-contact rule, which means T should get a penalty.  But Axel the administrator has stated he thinks this championship is more for fun.  ?  Why all the rules and regs then?  Why have championship points?

Temporary (as far as I am concerned) standings:

Tristain: 274

Mark: 266

3 races to go

Testing at Elkhart Lake

 Back in the Lola again at Rd America. After dialling out the toe in on the rears the car started feeling more consistent through the corners. This is a very good track, with a great flow to it. Braking into turn three is very tricky because it's initially downhill and the rears are locking, which can throw the car into a spin. There is a lot of sliding going on as well, at times it feels like a rally car.