Testing at Brands

Taking the Lola to Brands, and it's taking a while to get into the groove. The car feels very heavy, and rolls around a bit. Stiffening the springs made things worse though. So I reversed the settings and went with slightly stiffer bars. Need to get used to this car, and the key is to break earlier than you'd think and power through the apex.

Season 38: GT Cup: Round 5 at Spa (14 laps)

This was going to be a challenge.  A lot of times I've come to Spa and had things go badly at some point, usually with me going off the track.  So here we were again, and qualifying as expected was flat-out.  Tristain in the Lola took pole with a 3.24.8, and I thought I could get close, but in the end I could not match that time.  At the end of qualifying I was concentrating on my race setup, and that was when Greg took 2nd place from me.  Typical, he's always been so fast around here.

So to the start.  I didn't get the best start, and Axel actually had to lift off past Eau Rouge to not run into the back of me.  Tristain and Greg were well away, but by the end of the lap I had caught up again, and as we braked into La Source unfortunately there was a slight glitch, and I ran into the back of Greg's car.  He spun wide.  I waited for about a second, but there were cars coming around the hairpin, and Tristain was getting away.  I just couldn't wait.  Greg rejoined about fifth.  I chased after Tris, and for the next seven laps or so I pushed as hard as I could.  Despite Tris trying to mess up the draft I steadily closed in.  Started putting him under pressure, but it was so tough.  The closer the are the more odd the car seems to react, and also it's tougher to see the lines and turn in points, and this is such a narrow track at speed.  I did make a mistake into the right hander before Blanchimont, ran onto the grass but managed to keep control and swept back onto the track.  Then a lap later it all changed.  As we charged toward the fearsome Masta kink, Tris pushed too hard into the first left hander.  He'd done that a couple times, and this time it was a bit too much, he hit the bump in the middle of the corner and that pushed him wider than before.  he clipped the grass, which dragged him off and he hit the house on the left.  I flinched as I went under him while he flew to the right, and then I was through.  Tris restarted fourth and would end up third, behind Greg who was so fast today, set fastest lap and probably would have won if not for my error.  

Anyway, two wins on the go puts me in the championship lead, at the halfway point.

Open - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	Mark Jones (FT)		180.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0	50.0
2	MagicArsouille (FT)		174.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0	37.0
3	Cookie (FT)		135.0	*Mixture*	32.0	32.0		43.0	28.0
4	Alain Maurice (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
5	fpolicardi (FT)		115.0	Ferrari 330/P4	17.0	43.0		23.0	32.0
6	philippe GIRARD (FT)		105.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0	15.0
7	Rainier (FT)		101.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0	19.0
8	Phil Thornton (R1)		100.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0		25.0
9	Doni Yourth (FT)		89.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0
10	Enrique Farina (FT)		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
11	Pete Bennett (FT)		81.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0	23.0
12	francesco (FT)		49.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0			21.0
13	GregT (R1)		43.0	Ferrari 330/P4					43.0
14	PaulV (FT)		36.0	Ferrari 330/P4			19.0		17.0
15	maddog (R1)		28.0	Lola T70 MkIII			28.0
16	EvilClive (FT)		25.0	Ferrari 330/P4	25.0
17	Markus Friedrich (R1)		23.0	Lola T70 MkIII	23.0
	Raoni Frizzo (R1)

Testing at Spa

Back to Spa, again in the Ferrari.  I suspect properly setup the Lola could be pretty good around here but I've been running the Fezzah here for years so I'll stick with that.  These extended GT cars do seem to understeer a little more, so most of the fettling at the moment is dialling out the understeer, because boy do you need to be accellerating hard through the long fast corners this track has.  The extra fuel load is making itself felt as well.

Season 38: GT Cup: Round 4 at Dundrod (13 laps)

Finally we get to the meat of the season.  This is one of the greatest tracks ever made, and I've really really been looking forward to this.  After asking the organizer to check that there would not be a ping limitation on the server I woke up Sat morning ready to go.  Into the qualifying session and almost straight into the 3.27's  That felt pretty good, but as always with this track you can always find a little more speed.  I knew I could go faster but I figured I sit back and watch for a while.  Everything was pretty safe, Tristain was pretty consistently in the 3.29's.  So I focused on my race setup.  Near the end though Tris somehow found some time and did a 3.28!  Anyway, I had pole.  

And after a determinedly good start I pulled away in the lead.  Tris had a bad start and fell behind Peter, who chased Axel in second.  As they approached the fearsome Deer's Leap corner, Tris went too hot into the braking zone, hit Peter and they both went spinning off.  Tris spent the rest of the race battling with Doni for 3rd, which he eventually got.  Axel settled into second, and I realised after a few laps I had the win in the bag, as long as I didn't make any silly mistakes, or get hit by bad luck.  So I got to really enjoyed myself, going at about 90% around this remarkable track for an hour.  Finally I have a win in this series, at one of the best tracks ever.  This is a good boost to my championship standings.

Open - Drivers Championship (scoring)
Rank	Drivers	PP	Total	Vehicle
1	MagicArsouille (FT)		137.0	*Mixture*	50.0		50.0	37.0
2	Alain Maurice (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	37.0	50.0	43.0
= 2	Mark Jones (FT)		130.0	*Mixture*	43.0	37.0		50.0
4	Cookie (FT)		107.0	Lola T70 MkIII	32.0	32.0		43.0
5	philippe GIRARD (FT)		90.0	*Mixture*	21.0	25.0	23.0	21.0
6	Doni Yourth (FT)		89.0	*Mixture*	19.0	21.0	17.0	32.0
7	Enrique Farina (FT)		88.0	*Mixture*	28.0	23.0	37.0
8	fpolicardi (FT)		83.0	Ferrari 330/P4	17.0	43.0		23.0
9	Rainier (FT)		82.0	*Mixture*	13.0	19.0	25.0	25.0
10	Phil Thornton (R1)		75.0	*Mixture*	15.0	28.0	32.0
11	Pete Bennett (FT)		58.0	*Mixture*	9.0		21.0	28.0
12	maddog (R1)		28.0	Lola T70 MkIII			28.0
13	francesco (FT)		28.0	*Mixture*	11.0	17.0
14	EvilClive (FT)		25.0	Ferrari 330/P4	25.0
15	Markus Friedrich (R1)		23.0	Lola T70 MkIII	23.0
16	PaulV (FT)		19.0	Ferrari 330/P4			19.0
	GregT (R1)