AC GT3 Championship Round 4 - Sunday 23rd October 2022

[Interslice]

I am still a bit in shock that I forgot to pit! I had my best ever stint at Spa and thanks to @RasmusP explaining the AC clutch to me the start wasn't even that bad. The 488 was beautiful to drive here for the first 20 odd minutes, then it requires nursing for the last bit before the pits. I managed that pretty well too.

30 minutes in I drove through the bus stop at a leisurely pace, exited ok and looked down to see 0.3 laps if fuel left. That was where things started to unravel. I'm just going to focus on the first stint and forget about the rest

Thank to everyone who took part in the championship. Well done to the podium tonight and congrats to Demetri for the win and the overall. It has set a very high bar for folks to aim for!

 

[Shed 17]

Congrats to Demetri on the win and the championship, also for coming from the back and having to navigate some of us mortals at the back of the field.
For me this was an enjoyable race, I got a reasonable start and avoided the bumping at La Source to move up a couple of places ahead of Ernie and Han.

Han clattered into me as I turned in at Les Combes but luck was on my side as I got the GTR together and straightened up over the run off area, no time lost.

I then had some close battles with Pat in the 650 which was quicker through the corners but I could make the old boat of a GTR wide enough to defend and then gap him on the straights. Tim and Ernie's Z4's went by under braking for Les Combes (I struggled to get the GTR through Eau Rouge and Raidillon cleanly)and then it was Han's turn to loom large in my mirrors. I made a small mistake at Campus which allowed Han to get by and then Thomas was lining me up. But Thomas ran out of laps as I managed to keep things together to finish where I started.

So a sweaty time trying to keep the GTR on the road but I was pleased that I could keep the faster drivers behind for longer than usual.
Thanks to Brian for organizing the Championship, great fun and I learnt a lot.

 

[Kek700]

I tried my best to hold up Demetri. on two occasions, both with very little luck or outcome.

Made a cod’s up of the start , again, hit Demetri on our first encounter , wheel on the grass, which luckily cost me a lot of time , and not Demetri.
On reflection , had good pace, with a possibility of a much better placing.
A arthritic nervous twitch put me from a good start in first gear to a chugg in second gear, bugger, all down hill after corner one. Just shows the importance of a good start. Especially with a strong field, the start and my hitting Demetri was my down fall.

 

[pattikins]

Congrats to Dmitry for his 4 out 4 wins. He's looking invincible @ the moment. I think we need Chris to come out of retirement, & stop playing XCom, to give him some competition. Congrats also to Joel & Thomas for 2nd & 3rd respectively.

As far as the race goes, I had a very unusual start. To begin with, I wasn't overtaken by two or three cars, as is the norm, by T1. Luckily, I had a bmw buffer between me and Thomas (& Hank) on the start line, plus Brian seemed to have had a poor start (down to p5 @ T1), but quickly recovered his 2nd spot. Brian kept me on my toes throughout the first stint, but then had his pit-stop mishap. The second stint was just about managing my v. hot rear tyres, with a bit of entertainment watching Ernie fend off Dmitry (more than I could do) for a couple of laps .

 

[demetri]

Thanks to everyone participating and especially Brian for organizing this championship. I honestly didn't expect to win all four rounds, specifically the 2nd and the 3rd as those weren't high-speed tracks where the Audi might have an edge vs the McLaren, but I managed to improve my pace quite a bit on both these tracks (beat my PB at Kyalami by half a second) which helped to secure the title going into the final race. As for Spa, I'd like to commend Ernie for putting up a good and fair fight, and not once but twice! You were the toughest one to get around of that day. And if not for the astroturf mishap, you probably would've finished on the podium, the pace and strategy was there, but the luck wasn't .

Too bad that technical and health issues prevented some of the faster guys to show what they are truly capable of, hope y'all get well soon!

P.S. I'm gonna focus on another GT3 league where I'm currently getting my ass kicked and probably won't be able to attend RD events for a couple of months

 

[ColinMac]

Wow - a lot of technical understanding here of AC tyres etc, and their effect. I tend to just leave my setup as mostly standard (what a AC noob lol) and I'm sad to have missed this Championship. I'll maybe sign up for the next one, should you guru's not object.

Sounds like it was a great set of races.

I've spent some setup time in ACC but never really felt that AC's made all the difference - clearly wrong here, so I'll maybe need some schooling.

I'll keep an eye on the forum threads.

 

[Interslice]

Wow - a lot of technical understanding here of AC tyres etc, and their effect. I tend to just leave my setup as mostly standard (what a AC noob lol) and I'm sad to have missed this Championship. I'll maybe sign up for the next one, should you guru's not object.

Sounds like it was a great set of races.

I've spent some setup time in ACC but never really felt that AC's made all the difference - clearly wrong here, so I'll maybe need some schooling.

I'll keep an eye on the forum threads.

Everyone is welcome Colin! We even let some rF2 guys race from time to time