It's quite remarkable how much things can change in just two rounds. Two straight wins can launch you from quite a big gap into the championship lead or the other way around, couple of bad results can loose you one.
Round 5, UFR and South City Long rev. The combo received no love from anyone but Schuhti. This car has seen a lot more interesting tracks and whilst this track is great fun in some other cars, it was devastating in this one. Barely noone trained enough and I myself not much either. Schuhti took an easy win with clearly lot of training and pace advantage to get back in title chase. Paddi ren into troubles with wheel which put him out of league for now and Daniel didn't race the given round. So midway thru the race all alone in 2nd place the boredom started to set in and I relaxed too much only to end up in the first wall and on the roof. At the time I didn't think it would be too much trouble, until I realized how bad were two opening rounds for me. So I dropped to 3rd in standings behind Daniel and Schuhti at that point.
That really fired me off to give my best in next round and so I did, but I lacked luck this time. The grid was set by tracker again and in the very last minutes Schuhti took pole position away by disappointing 0.01sec. I'd give it best in 3 lap sprint race that determined the final grid, but it only made me realize that my thoughts were right before when I thought that RAC doesn't pick draft unless the guy in front slides out of the corner. Not even on a track with straights of the sort ky32 has. And there I am then sitting for an entire hour behind him trying to find a way, force a mistake, anything, but all to vain as he just sits on the apex every time I come close making sure he doesn't make the slightest mistake on the way out. Therefor Schuhti takes on the lead in championship and I'm the chaser now with only a 14 points to haunt down. Daniel had a relatively poor round as Patrick beat him to 3rd place.
The decision and the goal now is to win the next two rounds and not only regain the championship lead, but to make a vital gap, preferably over 30 points to closes chaser, before we head to closing stages of the championship. This is especially important since the next two combos are Schuhti's weaknesses. Both high-speed, wing helped, slick driven machines on tracks where overtaking won't be even as close as possible as in RAC was where qualifying will be everything and with proper qualifying.
Our only visit to Westhill this season was to have one good long LX6 race. The car that demands ultimate patience and the track that demands ultimate patience made for a very intriguing combo. Amazingly Paddi, myself, Patrick, Phil, Daniel and Schuhti were all squeezed in only 0.11sec in prequal with top 4 beating the previous world record.
Two sessions of 7min quali promissed to shuffle the grid for sure. In first 7 min session top 7 that made it thru to second quali session were myself, Schuhti, Phil, Pärschke, Daniel, Basti and Patrick. Quite a bit different from the prequal results you might say. Importantly Paddi skipped this race due to personal obligations of his, but he can always count on two worst round dropouts. Quali 1 results
Second quali session saw again a different formation and this time it was for the final positions on the grid in following order Daniel, myself in second, Patrick, Schuhti, Phil, Parschke and Basti. I myself had to abort my first flying lap and made one small mistake in second run, nevertheless it's always good to start the race on the front row. 37 lap here promised plenty of time to work my way back as I had over an hour to race for it. Quali 2 results
The race was hugely intense and I don't want to spoil it for you. Instead check out my so far longest video of the longest battle of the season.
A lot of the guys also had a fantastic battles all thru the field. Race stream replay<-- very worth checking out.
I'm pleasantly surprised by Daniel and Paddi thru these four opening rounds. Both extremely quick racers no doubt there, but what really amazes me is their race craft. The way they deal with pressure and the gentleman clean racing is always very welcome.
Championship standings
Admins have calculated one round dropout already to make things look even more equalas quite a few racers missed a round already.
I'm proud to announce that these two victories have ensured current lead in the championship standings. However Daniel and Paddi are still extremely close and for sure I'll keep on pushing. For next round we're going back to South City. This time on the longer layout than we've been at round 1 and with a FWD car to make sure the race is completely different to round one, admins made it a 90min long which is the longest distance of the season at that point and I'm very positive that Schuhti is going to put a strong race in his beloved FWD car.
I've decided to retire from the GT1 Challenge. I find it near impossible to give 100% of myself on the City Liga race and then go out the next day in what is possibly the most difficult class of cars and do exactly the same again. This has lead to many unwanted mistakes and personally it started to affect my private life a little bit too much. I wish everyone in there plenty of good races.
Round 2 of GT1 Challenge has seen us move to my favorite track. Pole position with the margin of 0.62sec on Aston North was always going to mean I'd be of for a lonely race if I managed to stay ahead on the start and that's exactly how it started off. Krasi went thru from P5 to P2 in first few corners and was the main rival. Joni hasn't even showed up, as I've heard he's busy with iRacing. So, I started building the gap and managing my tires as there was nothing else to do, until we reached in about 15 minutes before end of the race. I cought up with some backmarkers and just a small lapse of concentration has seen me follow them thru corckscrew into a disaster catching the inside tires which sent me off to outside tires and into a spin. This kind of mistake hasn't happened to me in years. Nevertheless a 13 second gap ensured I'd still stay in the lead. Few laps later I went in for my mandatory pit stop. I wouldn't think the flatspots from spin were all that bad, so I stayed with the same tires and that's what the real mistake was. Two laps to the end, the tire that suffers the most, rear right, and the tire that cought the most flatspots in the spin punctured. Another pit stop and I'm down to disappointing 8th.
We've seen Krasi puncture the same tire in last corner to practically hand victory to Piotr from Conquest. Paul from evo went thru to complete the podium.
It's very unfortunate that race ended the way it did for me, but I'm happy to see the pace. Perhaps it won't be this way in every race, as I can't put this amount of time in every race, due to City Liga and closeness of that championship, but when I happen to have the same situation I'm sure I'll come on top of it.
Interestingly, I'm equal 3rd in championship, just like in City Liga. We're off to South City Long rev for next round, just a day after extremely difficult City Liga round on Westhill with LX6. Krasi is currently leading the championship, but 14kg of extra ballast might be quite a handicap for him. So, that will be quite interesting to see how it plays out.
Round 3 of City Liga's 15th season has seen us move well known demo combo on Blackwood for a 44 lap race with XFG. In a 15 minute quali session the whole grid of 20 cars was squeezed inside 0.59sec amazingly. The traffic was quite big on this short track and I managed to have only two clean laps which was enough for 4th on the grid, behind Paddi, the current series leader who took his first pole position of the season, Schuhti in second who was extremely strong in this car and the always quick Maurizio. Qualifying results
For this round we had low wind which came into play in early laps of the race of course. I made a good start and got ahead of Maurizio early on, sending myself into the chase of front two who remained in same formation. The battle that followed was deferentially highlight of the week and the current season as well. Take an onboard ride with me on lap two thru the deciding battle for the lead.
After this it was all about pushing to stay ahead of Schuhti to keep my title hopes wide open. Paddi had a silent drive to round up the podium. Max drove a good race to 4th and Daniel as well to 5th, respectively. Race results
Paddi still leads the championship with two wins ahead of Daniel with one race victory, who had very good opening races and I'm equal third with Max now. The championship is still wide open for the next round at Westhill with always challenging LX6. Current championship standings
Opening round of GT1 Challenge by GenR
Genuine Racing has made the championship many of us were looking for, for years. The classic GT1, 1 hour races, for single driver. We haven't had anything like this since 07/08 and good old eTM days. The races are held every Tuesday for next seven weeks, which means there isn't really a lot of time to practice and this is a good thing. Most of us know the tracks well enough from endu championships and there is enough time to get the setup ready for a single driver in the car. I'd have to say it's a bit tougher on me as I'm currently racing City Liga as well, which is on every second Monday and for the first round it turns out I was on the same track, day after day. You'd think it's easier then switching tracks, but I tell you, the speed difference between XFG and FZR is so big that they have nothing in common. The qualifying was during the weekend and I managed to put myself in very good 2nd on the grid. But, I tell you I was quite exhausted from City Liga race, as the pressure was immense to stay ahead of Schuhti.
I had a lot of luck on the start of the race, when Joni had a poor reacting to Green flag from pole position, which sent me straight into the lead. Joni was staying close, until he made a huge mistake just few laps into the race, exiting the chicane way too fast, which sent him into the tires and into the wall ultimately. He was able to continue the race, but the time damage was huge for him.
At the same time Dennis made quite a charge thru the field. Climbing up all the way from 11th, right in-behind me. He had a lot of luck at the start though, sticking it to P5 by turn one, which left him with fast paced cars in front only. He was following me closely for about seven laps, before one of Conquest backmarkers went straight thru the tires in the chicane, trowing them everywhere and giving Dennis finally the opportunity to attack as I had to avoid all of that first. We had a good dice for the lead, battling thru for five laps in which we had changed the positions more than severall times, passing and repassing each other. At some point I thought that it might be better to let him thru as it seamd like he was very pace that day. But then again Krasi was right there and maybe he could interfere in such way that would give me ever so important edge to pull away.
Unfortunately he interfered in such way to trow me out of the race.
After that I went immediately for my mandatory pitstop and had a calm 20ish laps before I cought up with Mr. Mocanu. I shared setups with him before the race and same wing level wasn't of any help now. I was stuck for about 10 laps, before he finally made a mistake allowing me thru into 6th after everyone cycled their pits thru. Congratulations to Dennis on a good drive and hope to see you attending more than one round thru the season. Race results
DT penalty dropped Krasi to 5th. Joni had another spin later in the race and managed 7th only. We've all seen our share of bad luck, leaving the championship wide open for round 2 at one of my favorite tracks, Aston North, next week. Current points standings
Well, as you could see the track was extremely challenging. With two weeks to spare we had plenty of time exploring every little bit of it and by the end of practice there were three of us standing out. Patrick, Paddi and myself. The rest were slightly off pace. I remember Patrick saying that he hasn't done this much practice for a race in a very long time. Seems like some boundaries were pushed. I had a lot of fun chasing those faster and faster times with you guys.
We had a two shot qualifying in a 15 minute session and I set the pole position time on my first run. Paddi and Patrick were slightly off. I spectated their second run and when I saw that my first City Liga pole position was secured, I used my 2nd shot to get up to speed with race setup. Paddi was 2nd on the grid and Patick only 10th.
Unfortunately for me, my computer completely screwed the things for me. The FPS dropped down under 20ish with the whole grid packed together and with my oversteery race setup, which was necessary to make tires last the distance, I didn't dare to push the exits. It was really weird and frustrating, because the day before we did a test race with nearly a full grid and things were ok. So, I suddenly found myself all the way down in 6th with decent gaps between each driver and half a race to go. The despair was only emotion I could feel. Instead of fighting for victory I would have a hard time even getting on the podium, with no fault of my own. Of course I would be quicker than the drivers ahead of me, but I could never push too much because of the risky track and the tires which just lasted the race. I'd manage to climb up to 4th only. I collect more points than in Round 1 though, but it's still very disappointing after starting from pole position. Paddi won the race easily and took the lead of championship with Daniel and Patrick completing the podium.
Next couple of races are on standard LFS tracks and I'll be looking to keep my title hopes alive.
Also I'm planning on making a little video with voice commentary of my own from a fight with Basti, this weekend or the next week, when I should have a bit more free time.
That really fired me off to give my best in next round and so I did, but I lacked luck this time. The grid was set by tracker again and in the very last minutes Schuhti took pole position away by disappointing 0.01sec. I'd give it best in 3 lap sprint race that determined the final grid, but it only made me realize that my thoughts were right before when I thought that RAC doesn't pick draft unless the guy in front slides out of the corner. Not even on a track with straights of the sort ky32 has. And there I am then sitting for an entire hour behind him trying to find a way, force a mistake, anything, but all to vain as he just sits on the apex every time I come close making sure he doesn't make the slightest mistake on the way out. Therefor Schuhti takes on the lead in championship and I'm the chaser now with only a 14 points to haunt down. Daniel had a relatively poor round as Patrick beat him to 3rd place.
