Sweede n' low down.


In practice for Anderstorp I'd driven a couple of 1:31's offline but really I felt they were blips rather than anything I could sustain. I hadn't quite set tyre pressures for the medium tyre race set-up though and so drove most of the practice on my race set-up to check them and was surprised to find I'd got a 1:32 with it. Q2 I made a bit of a mess of and managed to "say hello" to a couple of cars that had slid out in front of me but managed a 1:32 dead for 6th I think. Qualifying is pretty frantic in the sprint races, but I guess that's the point!

Race started and I managed to hang on to the train at the front of the pack. I was loosing a few 10ths every lap but driving within myself in the 32's and everything felt pretty good. The leaders were in sight and I wasn't having to drive on the edge to keep up. Come traffic I did my usual monkey style moves and lost a lot of time compared to the ninja overtaking at the front. It feels like the people ahead are slicing casually through the traffic whereas the traffic becomes as wide as a bus as you close in yourself! It's a practice thing and I definitely lack the gravitas to just muscle through.

About 2/3's in I came across Paul968 after a spin and tailed behind for a while- I could see he was really stuggling with the fps there in the corners and so I gave him a healthy amount of space to work with. It wasn't long though before he span and I couldn't quite believe I was in 2nd and nearly did the same! A few laps on, came across Shark after a spin and thought all my birthdays had come at once but he managed a solid save and got back out in front of me, eeking out a little gap each lap.

Right toward the end I could see Mike catching me but, with the time left, I wasn't pushing too hard and felt I could respond if need be to hold him off. I was more interested in conserving the tyres so that I didn't throw it all away with a silly spin. All the practice us virtual drivers put in and actually very little of that is spent learning how the car handles on badly worn tyres because, as a fraction of the overall time spent, it's miniscule. We continued passing traffic as we went and then, right at the very end, on the final two corners a 360 looked like it was going to let me pass but then pulled back on to the racing line to make the corner, I slid the tyres braking for it and the heartrate nearly hit the roof as Mike closed right in for the final long right. The 360 moved over for the very last left but it meant Mike exited the corner so close to me it was pretty much neck and neck. I wasn't sure if there would be one more lap or not, so moved over to the racing line and also executed my one good block. Thankfully it was race over and, bloody hell, I got 2nd by 0.2 of a second :)

NGT Sprint: Race 7 - Anderstorp

In contrast to the longest track in the GTR series at Spa last week, Anderstorp is the shortest, presenting it's own set of problems.

Unusually in the GTR series, Anderstorp has a series of long, banked corners where entry and exit speed are very difficult to get right; deep braking into the corner followed by tight throttle control on the way out.

My problems with qualifying continued with a mixture of traffic, poor judgement and the usual qualifying jitters. A very disappointing 14th place on the grid at one of my favourite tracks.

A top 8 place was imperitive, both to continue my good run of finishes but to try to grab a few more points for the team championship, last weeks excellent team result at Spa had completely cut the gap on the Kerb Crawlers in 4th place and left us only 2 points behind.

As we started the parade lap, I was one place behind greg130, who is closing fast on me in the championship standings so my plan was to try to follow him (hopefully) through the traffic.

A near calamity struck on the parade lap, a big pile-up left me nervously waiting for a call from my pit crew to see if there was any damage, as I pulled away again, it became apparent I'd dodged a bullet, no damage and I hadn't lost any places.

A tentative start saw me handy behind greg130, as the tyres warmed I was feeling fairly good, the line of traffic in front wasn't getting away, I felt I had a bit of speed to spare so decided to push on. Putting the gas down, I grabbed a little too much kerb and felt the car getting away from me, tried to correct but it was too late as I span off. Waiting 20s to safely rejoin, depair set in, I was down to 18th!

Knowing I had some speed over the immediate drivers in front of me and nothing to lose at this point I tried to relax into the race and just see what happened. Now the presure was off, my laptimes plummeted as I made my way through the field.

It was a new experience fighting my way up the field, I felt like I handled is reasonably well, a mixture of patience and aggression saw me steadily move up to the the top 10 and eventually into 8th. I thought I'd finish there when I saw Paul968 in the pits for me to grab what felt like a completely undeserved finish in 7th place, grabbing a few more vital points in the individual and team standings.

Relieved, hitting the 'Esc' after the race had finished, I was delighted to see PaulW had improved on his Spa performance last week and finished 2nd!

The combined team points saw us move ahead of the Kerb Crawlers into 4th and saw PaulW rocket up to 5th in the individual standings! A brilliant achievement on both counts!

I remain 8th but greg130 once again finished one place higher and inexorably, the gap is closing.

Endurance Div.2: Race 3 - Enna race report

After two 4th place finishes I was keen for a podium at Enna.

Having done well (5th) here in the NGT Sprint race I was fairly confident of putting up a decent performance.

Unfortunately, the NGT field was a small one, holidays taking their toll on the participants, no excuse for a poor result then!

Qualifying went well, placed in 2nd, 1s behind behind [ZiP]Tyf, closely followed by Jamera and Dave Gymer, although there was only 0.5 sec between 2nd to 4th.

I expected Tyf to pull away faily easily in the Porsche Bi-Turbo as Enna favours it's straight-line speed but I was surprised to stay with him, Tyf pulling away on the straights, I was catching up through the tricky chicane sections.

We battled for about 8 laps until Tyf lost it through the Schumacher chicane for me to pass for the lead. Unfortunately, this seemed to spur Tyf on and he caught and passed me quite quickly, only to lose it again! We swapped the lead 4 times in this way until finally I made it stick until I pitted in for fuel and tyres after 30 minutes.

I expected Dave Gymer not to pit as he'd mentioned he had a "cunning plan" before the race. I was hoping to be a couple of seconds a lap quicker so make it close despite my pitstop.

I was the first of the four to stop so watched Tyf, then Jamera and Dave shoot past, a lot quicker than I wanted. The battle with Tyf had obviously slowed me down more than I'd hoped.

Still, fresh tyres let me push on a bit and I quickly re-took the places from Jamera and Tyf as they pitted in. I was still quite a way behind Dave but catching at a reasonable rate, but maybe it would be enough if he made a mistake?

Decided to push on a little harder until the inevitable happened and I lost it, losing a lot of time and letting Jamera and Tyf through. Fortunately, Jamera span almost immediately and a couple of laps later, Tyf had to pit for fuel. Jamera chased me hard but I had a comfortable little gap to take through the last two laps for a 2nd place finish!

My first podium place, tinged a little by the low turnout but what they hell - doesn't happen every day!

Spa-ring with the big boys!

Well YOU think of a funny title for a circuit called "Spa Francorchamps" then!


Pops and I had both put a fair amount of practice in for this one and between us found a few new lines and corner approaches that meant both of us, for once, were faster than the mid pack by a good couple of seconds.

I'm just savouring that statement for a second because A. It's true and B. It's quite probably a one off!

Mmmm, feels good.

i know Spa better than any other circuit in the game because I lapped so many times in the demo I wore a hole in the bitmaps there. Hotlapping last week saw me take my previous best time of 2:25:X right down to 2:21:X with judicious use of sexy lines and smooth driving and so I was quite excited about the prospect of a race where I might be able to break out of the mid pack for once. This excitement was always tinged with a little bit of doubt though- I've been spinning more than a Labour campaign manager in the past fwe races and wouldn't have been surprised if I had an intimate moment with the gravel at some point last night.

For the first time I decided to just fuel the car up for 15 minutes of qualifying and lap away and see what I got. Spa is such a long track and has such a long pit lane that, trying to do two lots of flying laps, might have been really tough assuming you have to deal with the usual Q2 traffic problems. I got two half decent laps in and managed a 2:24 before my 4th lap saw me get a low 22. I ruined the next lap by mentally going "Yes! Yes!" rather than concentrating on braking points and then hit traffic in the next (faster still) lap. Ducking back into the garage I saw my 22 was good enough for 5th on the grid.

The race itself was pretty uneventful (hallelujah!) but that doesn't mean I wasn't gripping the wheel like my life depended on it! I was really stiff and awkward for the first few laps and Ruf was comfortably out breaking me into Les Combes each time- meaning he was slowly gaining and getting closer to being able to lunge through at the bus stop later on. Annoyed at myself I made a concious decision to relax and push a bit harder and began pulling away once more. 2/3rds through and, with Paul968's spin early on, I was still part of the 1,2,3,4 snake. We began to hit traffic though and, each time, rotten luck meant the others got past on the long straight after Eau Rouge whereas I had to sit behind for the corners leading up to Stavelot and I lost time (and sight) of the leaders. Towards the end Mike in P3 span at the bus stop and I closed in only to see him make a great recovery and keep position. The rest of the race saw us lapping together but I never had the pace (or balls for that matter) to challenge.

Net result- a 4th place, chuffed to bits. A solid race for Pops too saw the NGT Legends team grab some much needed points for the team championship last night and i think that calls for a keg of Hoegaarden and a JPS ciggie or two.

Got the keep the sponsors happy :D

NGT Sprint: Race 6 - Spa

Off to Belgium this wee for a few pints of Hoegaarden and a spin round the famous track at Spa.

Easily the longest track in the GTR series, Spa is a constant challenge. Spirts were high in the NGT Legends camp though after a hard week of practice, PaulW was looking fast, very fast and I wasn't too far behind.

Because the track is so long, you probably only get 4 laps on 'up to temperature' tyres so there's a lot to lose. Staying conservative, I put in a couple of decent mid-table laps and then went for the flyer on the last lap as my fuel dwindled. Looking good through section 2, I was 1.1s up on my best time and headed for a tasty 2:23.XX lap, hard on the brakes for Bus Stop, there was a car parked right in the middle of this section! Instinctively I avoided it but ran over the grass, losing my advantage.

Looking back, it should have been clear this was another GTR glitch, and I probably would have been OK to plough through as the car wasn't really there but too late, I'd qualified back in 12th.

Lap 1 saw a couple of cars in front of me leave the track as [ZiP]Tyf and Ginsters Sponsored left the track leaving me in 10th. It soon became apparent though that JM-Racing in 9th was pulling away quite handily and I was leaving 11th place behind me at a similar rate.

Next lap saw Paul968 leave the track and re-join behind Fozzmeister who was behind me.. I was hoping Fozz would hold him up for a while as I knew I wouldn't be hold on for 9th for long once Paul968 got up to me!

Paul968 quickly passed Fozz and began to chase me down but Eau Rouge saved me... I was gutted for Paul968 as I saw him disappear into the wall in this dangerous section.

Mo was next off the track to put me up to 8th and suddenly JM-Racing was right in front of me after a mistake! He was making a few mistakes but agonisingly still a little faster, I just couldn't close enough to make it count.

We then picked up RUF-BTR, JM-Racing passed easily but I wasn't quite able to get past before Bus Stop. RUF seemed to be having problems with his tyres and eventually he slid off, letting me past into 7th but by this time JM was well away.

So, finished in 7th, keeping up my excellent run of top 10 finishes, pretty good after a poor qualifying session but big congratulations go to PaulW with a stunning 4th place!

NGT Legends 911 - Finished!

NGT_Legends_V4_front_left
Originally uploaded by popabawa.

The final version sitting proudly in the showroom :)

Mmmmm... shiney...

NGT Legends V3

NGT_Legends_V3_track
Originally uploaded by popabawa.

On the track at Spa with the nearly finished design!

NGT Legends 911 GT3 RS (v1)

NGT_Legends_V1
Originally uploaded by popabawa.

Version 1 of the fabulous NGT Legends 911 GT3 RS!

Donington- Monsters of cack.

Put in quite a lot of practice for this one and wanted to do well to make up for the two finishes scoring "null points" so far.

Didn't.

Got 10th but could have got maybe 6th if I'd been able to avoid spinning at the chicane curb that, during practice I've hit hard without problems about a hundred times. I qualified 11th and got up to 8th after a couple of laps before my first spin which overhated the rear tyres and meant I was having 'moments' as the rears lost grip at most corners after that. Managed to cool the tyres by driving slightly gingerly whilst nervously glancing in the mirrors to see how much time I was loosing and then span again. At the same curb. Others were having similar problems and Pops, Aagramn, Don1 and I swapped the middle places many times. Very enjoyable- you get a little kick as you see someone bodge a corner and realise you can nip through.

I'm going to learn the tracks two ways from now on. A qualification 'hotlap' route where is all hangs out and what I'm going to call the 'beige' route that I imagine an elderly person might take should they wish to take their Yorkshire Terrier and matching parcel shelf cushions around the track in their Honda Civic. I'm hoping I can blend between the two as I need so that should I cook the tyres in the future I can 'go beige' at dangerous corners for a while. I hope that way I don't piss away too many places in the future.

She's a harsh mistress GTR but the challenge is still firmly on the side of 'enjoyable' rather than 'frustrating' for me and there is almost a masochistic element to games as demanding as GTR. You have to accept being average and relish the long slow climb to good. It's the difficulty that makes getting there all the sweeter I guess with little rewards along the way as you go to keep you hooked. Amazing to think there is so much depth and scope in something as simple as a silly driving game!



On to Spa next, a track I like a lot. I'm keeping an open mind about which car I'll drive and looking forward to a few go's at Eau Rouge.

NGT Sprint: Race 5 - Donington

Wanting to keep my good run of top 10 finishes in tact, I entered the Donington race with a small amount of trepidation. It's a tricky track, very easy to spin on the tight hairpins if you get the power down too early and very easy to leave the track on the fast first section.

I'd been practicing on a soft/soft set-up for qualifying but briefly experimented with soft/medium before the race as the softs seem to overheat very quickly here. Decided not to change things at the last minuts and stuck with the original plan.

Qualifying went badly though, traffic conspired to slow me down for the first half, then managed one decent lap which I screwed up by spinning. Starting the race back in 14th was pretty disappointing, especially as the times were so close.

Thought I was in for a tough time with Fozzmeister right behind me and he started to apply the pressure as I got off to my usual tentative start on cold brakes and tyres. Coming through the chicane for the first time Fozz got a little close under braking and gave me a little tap, Fozz span, I didn't. Phew.

Chased Aangram for a while 'til we caught PaulW, we seemed to be pretty evenly matched until PaulW span on the first hairpin, letting us through.

Spinning at Doni is a viscious circle, one spin overheats the tyres, which reduces grip....

By this time, Fozz was back on my tail, starting to get close and was mighty relieved to see him overcook a corner and disappear. Aangram was next to go, spinning at the chicane, which left me in 10th, behind Don1.

Don1 drove brilliantly, we were about 1-2s apart for about 15mins, did all I could to close and put some pressure on but he kept responding. I was faster through section 1 but Don1 was pulling it back again in section 2. There seemed to be no way through as the laps ticked down.

As the pressure and tyre wear started to take its toll, we both made some mistakes, had some contact, let PaulW through as I ran off, who promptly span again to let me though!

Chased down Don1 again who was starting to look a bit scrappy, with about 3 laps to go we caught some backmarkers, this looked like my last opportunity. Somewhere in the melee, Don1 span and finally I was through! Cruised through the last two laps for a hard-fought 8th.

Good to see both the NGT Legends in the top 10 with PaulW finishing in 10th.

Endurance Div.2: Race 2 - Magny Cours race report

Only half the NGT Legends team made the trip over to France for round 2 of the Endurance Div 2 championship as I lined up in the now familiar blue & gray of my 911 GT3RS.

Hopes were high after a decent performance at Barcelona (4th) in round 1. I see Magny Cours as one of my stronger tracks after a creditable 7th in the Sprint championship so I was looking forward to this one.

The dreaded 1FPS bug hit early in qualifying but the 30 min qualifying time (only 15 mins in the Sprints) gave me time to recover and post a fairly decent time to qualify in 3rd in the NGT class.

As the race started, it became apparent all was not quite right, [ZiP]Tyf and Iain disappeared quite quickly away and I was under a lot of pressure from as-here for the first couple of laps. The speed that I'd shown in qualifying just wasn't there and the pressure was making me more tentative.

Pushing on, I took a place from Iain (not sure how), then rounding the final bend into the start/finish straight, [ZiP]Tyf had spun, leaving me in the lead!

This proved to be somewhat short-lived unfortunately as Iain recovered and passed me easily. Got to hand it to him here, he was a class above in this race.

As I tried to consolidate my 2nd position, I failed to notice that the 1st braking marker had been clobbered and entirely missed my braking point for the first hairpin, hurtling into the gravel at 'splitter-crunching' speed. It's a long way to the back of the gravel trap here and even though I hit the barrier fairly hard, nothing was damaged. Phew. However, it's such a long way back to the track that I got 'lost', almost re-joined at the wrong point, then had to back-track, losing about a minute in the entire process. I'm not sure what my little diversion into the gravel did to the tyres but they weren't feeling too secure for the remainder of my first stint.

After the pit-stop at half-way, I pushed a bit trying to catch [ZiP]Tyf but to no avail, he was pulling out 2-3 sec per lap.

So, a little disappointed with my 4th place in the end. Maybe I'll be able to push onto the podium at Enna in two weeks time.

Magny Cours - Endurance championship Div 2.

After my 4th pace showing at Barcelona in round 1 of the Endurance Div 2, both NGT Legends drivers will (hopefully) on the track at Magny Cours on Sunday night in the NGT class.

First thoughts on Donington

This is a tough track and a complete change after the wide track of Brno. Narrow, bumpy and unpredictable, it feels like a different track on each lap.

With a best lap of 01:34.776, we headed into the jungle of the public servers for a team practice session yesterday afternoon with the hope of getting a few laps under our belts in preparation for next week. Unfortunately, only a 10Tacle server was available and only allowing Italian cars so I was forced away from the 911 to the Ferrari 360.

After the inevitable carnage of the first lap (damn the general public!), a decent performance by both of us with only about 4s splitting us after a 36min race.

I have to agree with Paul on the merits of the 360 v's the 911 at Donington, it does seem more predictable and (dare I say) a little easier to drive but hey, if I wanted 'easy to drive' I can go buy 'Need for Speed'...

Daddy or Chips.

I'm in a bit of a quandry. After my disastrous race at Brno (won't repeat it here, see Pops' post) I need to get some points on the board. It's a matter of pride! And minimising ribbing from Pops!

And unfortunately it looks like the best way of doing that is to do a "Jenson Button" and ditch any sense of loyalty or obligation and just do what is best for ME!

i.e. change cars....

With a tear in my eye it looks like I'll be closing the pit garage door on the 911GT3 and strapping into the Ferrari 360 for more of the remaining races- it's just a much more predicatable and stable car to drive. If I new how I'd insert a sad smiley right here.

I've always been a Porsche fan. Have a (loaded) friend with a Carerra S and, should I ever strike the jackpot in the lottery, a jet black Porsche will be the first thing I buy, no doubt. So it was always going to be a Porsche in GTR. I think I've held my own amongst racers at my level in the middle of the UKGTR pack well with one but never realised how much more stable my opponents 360 was in all of those fights until I tried one recently for Brno. The 360 grips better in the corners and driving on the edge of it's traction requires less precise input and is therefore more forgiving if you have to duke it out with a fellow driver. It brakes poorly compared to the 911GT3 though and doesn't feel any faster in a straight line. Overall the 360's superior 'chuckability' means I'll finish more races in the 360 and after a nasty shunt from another driver at Barcelona and a self enforced intimate moment with the tyre barriers at Enna that is what I need to do.

I pledge to drive a 911GT3 at least one more time this season though- I've my eye on the final race at Monza, Pops and I in twin Porsches and a 1, 2 at the chequered flag...

You never know, if about 10 people fall of the track in front of us, it could happen.

NGT Sprint: Race 4 - Brno

Brno turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag for the NGT Legends team.

Some amazing qualifying times saw PaulW in 11th and me in 12th on the grid, I was looking forward to an NGT Legends convoy but disaster struck on the parade lap when PaulW span off over-enthusiastically trying to get some heat into his tyres.

My pre-race strategy was to not push too hard in the race, keep it nice and consistent, hoping to pick up some places toward the end after Brno's punishing tyre wear begain to bite.

With Paul's status unknown at the end of the parade lap, I felt I had to see the strategy through, I had to pick up some points!

A few spins in front of me and I'm up from 11th into 9th with JM-Racing chasing me hard but not gaining. So far, so good.

Coming into T1, there's a car off the road, it's Paul968 re-joining the track, I'm up into 8th but now I have to worry about Paul968 breathing down my neck.

Fortunately, I didn't have to worry long as he easily caught and passed me which I was somewhat relieved by as I'm not sure my skills are up to keeping a driver of his calibre at bay.

In the meantime, something had happend to JM-Racing as there was now a 10s gap to the car behind. Time to dig in and keep going, there was a similar distance to the car in front of me.

Kept my pace consistent and eventually saw smoke in the distance and RUFBTR re-joining the track about 2s in front. 5 laps left in the race, time to use the rest of those tyres and push a little.

We were very evenly matched, RUF was faster on the last turn, I'd catch up again on T1, otherwise, there was nothing between us. The gap hardly moved from 1-2s.

I was steeling myself for one last effort with 2 laps to go when RUF span, enabling me to take the (unfortunately non-existent in GTR) chequered flag in an excellent 8th place.

Exiting from the track my delight was somewhat tempered as I discovered that PaulW had run out of fuel with half a lap to go and failed to finish. It's a mistake that anyone could make and I was hugely disappointed for him.

In the team standings, NGT Legends remain 5th and in the individuals, PaulW and I swap 10th & 11th position overall.

On to Donnington next week for round 5.

NGT Legends are born!