AC RaceDepartment European GT Championship 2021

[Chris Down]

That is totally fair, though you know, turn 1 incidents are part of the racing, removing them definitely removes some excitement to me.

Note to self: when racing against Casper, be sure to send him into the wall in T1 to ensure his maximum enjoyment

 

[The Almighty Snark]

Note to self: when racing against Casper, be sure to send him into the wall in T1 to ensure his maximum enjoyment

Well, that'll be the day I qualify ahead of you!

 

[Interslice]

https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/gt-championship-race-5-sunday-2th-january-2022.214497/

Race thread is up.

You will need to notice the slightly unusual 'start line', the length of the race and the qualification changes

 

[The Almighty Snark]

almost 1.5 hours of Nordschleiffe!

I think I should just obey public traffic laws in this race and cruise into an easy first place as the rest of the field plows itself into infinity at one of the straights!

 

[HF2000]

Fireworks all over the place in practice session online today!

 

[FischBoB]

Wasn't able to make it in time tonight i'm sorry

 

[Chris Down]

After coming 2nd by one point(!) in RDGTC, winning RDEGTC is sweet redemption. Congrats @EireGreen™ on the GT4 win!

I made a mess of qualifying, I planned to do two outlaps and two flying laps, but I messed up the first flying lap so I only had one shot. Thankfully I managed to do it with the only remaining opportunity I had left otherwise it would have been the back of the grid for me!

The race was a simpler prospect, despite qualifying I knew that @demetri is super strong here so didn't expect to keep him behind for long. I firmly kept my mind focused on the championship and finishing ahead of Aki and tried to let him by in the least time consuming way possible. In the end my mistake meant that it happened in a good place on the straight.

I wasn't going to change tyres but seeing the large gap, I thought it was safer to do so, so did medium + medium ~50% fuel which worked out nicely and kept the tyres in good condition.

What an amazing championship. Thank you @Interslice and @HF2000 on the amazing organisation, and @Aksu and @demetri for the tough competition. Really, really enjoyable.

My VR onboard:

 

[Herlev]

Wow, what an epic championship and finale
Thanks for hosting guys - Looking forward to the next one

And congrats to the winners of course. That was well deserved

 

[Fiberoptix]

Great race all. I had a bit of VR stutter first lap and managed to bin it quite early and drop to fourth, glad I did as the following laps racing with Brian and Han was such fun. Once I got behind Michael I knew I would catch him but figured he would be very hard to overtake so I decided to pit and use the clean space to make up time and get past when he stopped. It worked, then it was just a case of managing tyres last few laps., although I had a slight wobble when Chris was lapping me. Not sure about other GT4s but I ran with 120 litres and didn't change tyres.

Congratulations Chris and Michael on the wins, I missed out on 3rd by 3 points. So congratulations to all the top 3s it did seem to go down to the wire in both classes.

I've learnt a lot this last year racing here, I just need to make less mistakes and focus on consistency. I got away with it today due to pace between crashes and also Brian and Han having wobbles too. Looking forward to the next championship, thank you Brian and Han for setting these up, the racing here is fantastic.

 

[Kek700]

Managed to sneeze myself of the track a couple of times, apart from that a very long 84 minutes .
Could do little about Thomas, other than wait for a mistake, or an undercut in the pits.
But an unforced off gave me an overtake and I assume with red tyres managed to sneak by.
The problem is if you have very similar pace to the Nissan here, trying to close a 2 second gap is very difficult, you put in a big effort to take back a second in the twisty bits only to see that advantage disappear on the long straights.
Amazing pace from the front three so did not have to trouble myself with anything other than keep an eye on Thomas, managed softs which basically on both occasions were in the red at each halfway point.

Please no more 84 minutes.

Congrats to all podiums GT3 and GT4, and a great 2022 to all.

 

[EireGreen™]

Thank you for your kind wishes. I congratulate Chris Down on winning the GT3 class with a slim 3 point lead. Well done! Congratulations also to Tim on the victory in the Green Hell. It was probably due to the green Maserati and, if you asked, 50/45 liters and a set of new tires. The Maserati has very good brakes and always hoped for serious mistakes from you. In the end it was enough for you. The whole championship was a lot of fun. There is only one thing I have to complain about, if the first run has already been completed, you should not tinker with the GT4 regulations again afterwards, with regard to the traction control to allow them. In the end, thumbs up for all finishers who pulled through to the end of the championship.

 

[Shed 17]

At the time, one of the most intense (and long) races I have done but looking back now, probably the most exciting and fun.
Qualifying in 7th between Richard and Hans-Peter I planned to go for a long first stint on mediums and then take another set of mediums for the last 30 minutes or so. But a tap from behind from Hape going into the Aremburg right hander had us both in the gravel and Richard 10 seconds up the road.
I managed to maintain the gap to Richard and when he pitted at the midway point I decided to push on and see how far I dared to go on the mediums before they were losing me time. With 27 minutes to go I pitted and changed my plan to go on softs for the final stint but messed up my pit stop by over shooting the box and lost about 5 seconds getting back in line.
When I exited the pits Richard was just ahead and what followed was a great battle with us going side by side in the Karussell and down the long straight. I was pleased that I could match the GTR for speed and later on with a tow and fresher soft tyres I managed a pass and then stretched out my lead to take P6 at the finish.
So well happy with that but more pleased with the racing. Congrats to the podiums, to Chris and Michael on the championship wins, to Brian for the organising and to the GT4 guys for the tidy passing opportunities. A special shout out to Gary who’s awareness of the quicker cars was brilliant. Sorry I didn’t thank you Gary but during the race I am to Discord what Kimi Raikkonen is to after dinner speaking!.
A fantastic series and I hope the next one is as enjoyable. I really liked the rolling starts but understand the excitement of standing starts and I seem to go better at the longer events as it takes me a while to settle down, but overall I think the format was just right. Well done all and looking forward to racing with you in 2022.

 

[Fiberoptix]

Chris and Tim Michael on the championship wins

I wish Paul. .

 

[Shed 17]

Oops!! Sorry Tim, maybe this year??? Belated Congrats to Michael

 

[Interslice]

There is only one thing I have to complain about, if the first run has already been completed, you should not tinker with the GT4 regulations again afterwards, with regard to the traction control to allow them.

Not a decision taken lightly. When setting up the championship we thought the porsche needed to change tyres to finish a 60 minute race and the two cars were fairly balanced as a result. We unfortunately had pretty limited to no participation in the GT4 events prior to the championship so it was hard to get some proper data with only 2 or 3 of us racing.

I'm still not sure which is quicker over a 60 minute race at a selection of 10 GT tracks, to be honest. The maserati is certainly faster in medium and high speed corners and the porsche has the acceleration out of slow corners and the speed in the straights so i think it will depend on the track. It's also very hard to impossible to overtake the porsche in the maser without a big dive.

 

[Chris Down]

I'm still not sure which is quicker over a 60 minute race at a selection of 10 GT tracks, to be honest. The maserati is certainly faster in medium and high speed corners and the porsche has the acceleration out of slow corners and the speed in the straights so i think it will depend on the track. It's also very hard to impossible to overtake the porsche in the maser without a big dive.

My opinion as someone who's driven both at the limit: they are about equal. The Porsche is hard to overtake because of the straight line speed but that's no different than (for example) the GT-R or R8 on the straight yesterday. The Maserati is a lot better in the corners, but in the race it requires persistence to get past the Porsche.

 

[Fiberoptix]

I normally look at rsr on which most of the records are the same driver. I think the Porsche was 2 seconds quicker on the Nordschleife so literally nothing. I don't run TC, it slows the Maserati down a lot on corner exit. ABS is an advantage I will admit but not sure why it doesn't have it in the first place.

 

[Interslice]

My opinion as someone who's driven both at the limit: they are about equal. The Porsche is hard to overtake because of the straight line speed but that's no different than (for example) the GT-R or R8 on the straight yesterday. The Maserati is a lot better in the corners, but in the race it requires persistence to get past the Porsche.

Ye it's pretty similar to gt-r vs 488 or whtaever. Is that with or without the assists on the maser? Over a lap or a 1 hour distance?

Over a short race or quali they were pretty equal for me without the assists on the maser. The front tyres were getting destroyed in a long distance race without abs, especially when you're trying to catch and pass the porkers. Maybe a different ball game for the aliens! Would be interesting to see a 6 alien, 1 hour battle in the 2 cars.

 

[Fiberoptix]

Would be interesting to see a 6 alien, 1 hour battle in the 2 cars.

Didn't we have that yesterday?

 

[Interslice]

I normally look at rsr on which most of the records are the same driver. I think the Porsche was 2 seconds quicker on the Nordschleife so literally nothing. I don't run TC, it slows the Maserati down a lot on corner exit. ABS is an advantage I will admit but not sure why it doesn't have it in the first place.

On RSR the porsche is generally quicker on every normal track by .2 - .5. It's tires go off faster than the maser though... unless you flatspot the maser tyres. Hard to know the balance with them.