Mother:censored:! I've just spent the best part of the last hour posting and editing the final set of results into the Day 2 post, and it's just done the same goddamn thing as it did to me in post #1. I'm a touch fukt toff.
1 post I can cope with. 2 is just irritating. This is a lot of work to lose. I'm a touch annoyed right now. But please bear with me. The truth shall be posted! vBollockstin or not!
itgirlxx
Calm down boys, this is getting a little out of hand. I'm starting to blush! (Where's the smiley for that by the way?)
[Northern English Accent] Sorry babe, tha speaks truth an'all! This's photo I was talkin' 'bout though! You wit' pole! [/Northern English Accent] Still cute as a button though. With a capital Q!
Just noticed Day 1 results have totally disappeared, but I now have a text file complete with image links and vB code courtesy of Jordan that I can replace it with later on. I'm working from home today, so I'll have a chance to get to it once I'm finished with the real work I have to do.
With itgirlxx behind the camera again, the Day 2 participants pose for a picture. L to R: Smallhorses, alrivers, ceiling_fan & SimRaceDriver (still sulking in the corner!!!
)
The first order of the day on Sunday, after the Smallhorseses have been treated to breakfast by SimRaceDriver, is to go and meet our new racer for the day alrivers (Alex) from the BART station.
Sadly I'd received a call earlier on from juana b. to let us know that regrettably he'd not be able to compete today,
so with ceiling_fan back in the legendary pink driving seat, we were ready for the off!
And so to the racing!
Ray watches the battle for 2nd place in Race 4 of the Convertible Handicap at Grand Valley East Reverse.
The day's first event was the homage to clothtops, targa tops and retractable hardtops, but as that's a huge unwieldy mouthful, we'll stick with this!
Series 4. Convertible Handicap
Same as before, handicap wise, except for today's event we'll be advancing the top 2 drivers from each race down to the next car in the pack in order to make things flow more quickly.
Race 1: Special Stage Route 5
First race sees everyone start out in the AMG SL55, and on the streetlighted roads of SSR5, SimRaceDriver continues his form from Saturday (although we made sure he wasn't on pole each time for Sunday!!!) with the win, from alrivers coming in 2nd, using the DS2 rather than Josh's DFP which'd been left connected at the beginning of the race and left him unable to steer to begin with!
With Ray & Alex down into the Spoon S2000s, undoubtably the largest step of the handicap series, Smallhorses & ceiling_fan were able to use the supreme power of the heavy AMG to good effect here, although I must admit to following David off the track on numerous laps exiting the fast chicane before the final turns, before finally managing to pass him!
Again many groans and not much adulation for the circuit in the South China Sea. A quartet of Spoons (almost enough for a soup kitchen!
) takes to the streets of the former British Colony, and it seems to suit Smallhorses & alrivers the most as they take the coveted promotion (or should that be demotion
) spots, while SimRaceDriver is condemned to a 3rd race in the Spoon. (it's rumoured he prefers forks!
David, Alex & Nick, the participants in that 2nd place battle, look on with interest too!
ceiling_fan shows off the front of his SFGTP1 t-shirt too, complete with GT Planet.net & Username / Avatar logos! Think we may have our own "Evil Dave" here too, judging by the redeyes & expression! Hard to believe that much effort goes into changing views in a replay!
Race 4: Grand Valley Reverse
A race which Ray ran away with, and David could rightly claim he should've had second in. The aforementioned battle for second place reached it's climax entering the first turn, the fast left kink before the double hairpin, on lap 4. With ceiling_fan clinging onto 2nd place for dear life, Smallhorses & alrivers Nissans were only yards behind coming onto the straight, and as Nick caught the Spoon's draft and pulled out to pass on the right, David, gentlemanly pulled left to let him by. Alex seeing the gap between the Nissan & Spoon ahead, and also having caught a draft, tucks himself in there, and suddenly we're 3 abreast heading into the fast left turn, with the faster car on the non-optimal left side of the track!
Look away now UKGTPers! That's real sun outside!
itgirlxx tries to convince us to get some daylight, but we're all engrossed in the battling convertibles!!!
Our "hostess with the mostess" and Excel guru, itgirlxx, is enthralled by the results spreadsheet while alrivers and ceiling_fan watch the buildup to the paint-exchanging confrontation that took place on lap 4!
I don't remember clearly the circumstances, but it came as a shock to all 3 of us who all believed ourselves to be in 2 car battles going into the turn, when we all pretty much turned into one-another (car-wise of course. I didn't suddenly become David, nor did David become Alex or anything silly like that!
) Nick turned left to enter the bend, hitting Alex who in turn got sandwiched by David trying to get over to the right to line up the left bend, and unfortunately it was David who came off worst, as his attempts to move right were met with dual Nissan shaped resistance briefly, and then suddenly not, leaving him turning sharp right, at speed, into the gravel trap!
A hectic race to the line for 2nd place saw Smallhorses narrowly edge out alrivers to become the first driver into the BMW Z4 for the next race.
A bridge too far, on this "power" circuit for the Z4, which although Alex was disappointed not to be driving (as a huge BMW fan) he'll've been glad he wasn't stranded in, judging by the results here! Ray and Alex make a Nissan 1-2 finish, followed by David's Spoon.
A BMW 1-2-3 here as alrivers & SimRaceDriver join Smallhorses in the Z4. The twisty technical circuit doesn't seem to suit ceiling_fan whose Spoon comes home 4th. We have to wonder if Alex finishes 3rd just to enjoy his beloved BMW for another race though!
The weekend's 2nd visit to the corner everyone forgets! alrivers escapes the BMW, while ceiling_fan's affair with the Spoon also comes to an end. A pair of Elises rounds out the field having battled all the way for 3rd place.
Expecting the Nissan to clean house with us here down the straights, it comes as a surprise to Nick & Ray to pull off a Lotus 1-2 as Alex & David get to grips (or perhaps lack of it!!
Alex goes from 4th to 1st in one race here, even coping with launching the lightweight Elise over the massive rumblies on the Stock Car turn! Meanwhile Nick comes off best from a close battle for 2nd place in MG TF160s from Ray who takes 3rd ahead of David whose contempt for anything Infineon related continues!
This time it's ceiling_fan who makes the turnaround, finishing 1st in the Nissan, after a previous 4th place finish. Again alrivers makes light work of the step down to the MG and places it ahead of the identical car of SimRaceDriver while Smallhorses' white & tan (what a surprise!
Back-to-Back wins for ceiling_fan as the track generator throws out High Speed Ring, which predictably favours the faster cars, and SimRaceDriver's MG pulls away into 2nd place to leave the Miatae (?) of Nick & Alex to fight for scraps.
A small conspiracy developed while Smallhorses had a quick bathroom pitstop, and knowing that he was inevitably going to select the white/tan Miata colour out of the 3 options, another 2 white/tan Miatas joined the fray to add confusion to the replay! ceiling_fan also managed to select a pale silver colour for his Elise, to match as well as possible! An awesome race followed, with extremely close racing throughout, until the last couple of laps when Smallhorses capitalised on SimRaceDriver's error pushing too hard through the first chicane, clobbering the wall hard.
This also allowed ceiling_fan to clinch his 3rd consecutive podium, and progress down to the MG for the next race.
Honestly, there's a Lotus Elise somewhere amongst the heated Miata battle at Trial Mountain Reverse!
Race 13: Autumn Ring Reverse
Smallhorses gets the first opportunity to take the overall series win in the last car of the bunch, the FF Peugeot 206cc, and ceiling_fan's hot streak sadly comes to an end at Autumn Ring Reverse.
This means that the Miata 1-2 (not all white this time!!) for Ray & Alex drops them both down to the Pug too, and ensures that unless ceiling_fan resumes his winning ways at the next race, that an overall champion will be crowned!
The final race of the Convertible Handicap series sees a menage-a-trois of Peugeot 206ccs locked in a hyper-close battle for 6 laps of Opera Paris. Somehow ceiling_fan's MG TF160 had gotten left behind by this point.
Race 14: Opera Paris
One of the best races ever, eventful to the end, as 3 Pugs battled through 6 laps and finished 1-2-3 separated by under 1s!!!!
Somehow SimRaceDriver came back from a first lap altercation with the barrier outside the fast lefthand turn, as alrivers & Smallhorses hold each other up, first passing ceiling_fan's MG, which he needed a little more time to warm up to, and then swapping the lead over and over again!
The final 2 laps were fraught with potential for paintswapping and collisions, but were surprisingly clean(-ish) while everyone sought a suitable place to pass, and Alex in the red Pug narrowly squeaks the win ahead of Ray's also red Pug, and Nick's green one!
(Maybe there's truth in that "Red cars go faster" adage!!!
Although Ray gets 2nd place in the last race, the overall final standings are based on who, after the overall winner, reached the cars in descending order first. Nick, being the first to the last car before Ray, is thus awarded 2nd place.
At this point we broke for lunch, Ray kindly volunteering to act as Chauffeur to the hungry contestants (it was nearing 2:30pm!!!) and we dropped into the Emeryville Public Market, which to Ray's surprise isn't a fruity/veggy Farmer's Market type place, but an International food court with just about everything you can imagine to gorge on available. A burger & fries, 2 Gyro plates and an unhealthily large mountain of Thai food loaded with extra chillies (guess who!!!!
) later, and we made our way back to the race venue. (With Ballast weight!!!!
)
A quick time check lead us to believe that we probably wouldn't have enough time to run another full handicap series, so sadly the race car handicap was postponed, but only until SFGTP2, where it'll be run without question!
Thus it was decided to cram in a couple of Pick'n'Mixes which've already more than proved their mettle at UKGTP events, a 6 car DTM choice from UKGTP VII and the highly fun, though less well matched, 6 Group B Road Car selection from UKGTP V.
Same format as the previous day's P'n'M events, 6 cars, 6 tracks, each driver uses each car only once. This time, our choices come from the stables of the German Touring Car Championship over the past few decades, with an Italian thrown in for good measure!
Audi A4 Touring Car '04
Abt Audi TT-R Touring Car '02
Alfa Romeo 155 2.5 V6 TI '93
AMG Mercedes 190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II Touring Car '92
Mercedes-Benz CLK Touring Car '00
Opel Calibra Touring Car '94
Race 1: Twin Ring Motegi Road
It seems that 3 of us quickly opted to get one of the slower 4WD cars out of the way first, leaving Alex unchallenged in the monstrous A4 and with the first win of the series.
A great race here as Nick springs a surprise that Ray wasn't expecting, (although having competed in the recent WRS event in the same car & track combo helped) and glued the AMG to the A4's bumper and refused to let go! Sadly the older car just hadn't got the bottle to make any serious passing move stick!
Alex gets the Calibra out of the way, while David gives the Italian thoroughbred it's first outing, but still isn't getting along with our local course.
The big V8s run away with this one, although SimRaceDriver makes Smallhorses' last lap mistake prove costly as he steals by to take a 2nd win on the trot. The older Mercs are left trailing here on the fast sections after the hairpin.
The chicaned Le Mans circuit gives Ray his hat-trick of wins, this time in the fast TT, while Nick manages to place the A4 second after Alex's incident exiting Porsche Curves. David, who let us know is more comfortable in the lower HP cars, nurses his CLK home at the back of the field.
The pause in racing came at this point again as is documented & pictured below!
A welcome break in proceedings comes when juana b., who couldn't race on Sunday, stops by to introduce Mrs. juana b. & juana b. Jr. to us! He, like the rest of us, just can't resist a drive in Ray's seat, although the rest of us didn't follow his lead in having a chew on the seat afterwards!!!
Having met juana b.'s family and welcomed itgirlxx from her shopping expedition, we'd taken time to visit the fridge of drinks and make personal pitstops before resuming the racing.
Race 5: Nurburgring (2 Laps)
Nick brings Ray's winning streak to an end at the 'Ring, with Alex's CLK coming in second, ahead of Ray's older Merc. The DTMs continue to be unkind to poor old David (who in fact is actually not old at all!
Once again Smallhorses ruins SimRaceDriver's record and takes the win. Passing him out of the left turn up the hill towards the Corkscrew for a lead that wasn't relinquished, although I have to admit to being a little sneaky and deliberately braking very, very late for Andretti Hairpin on the next lap and the following Alfa of Ray instictually tried to go even later, which earned him a trip to the sand just as I turned in.
Ray nets his 4th overall win out of 5 series in the weekend so far by 4 clear points over Nick this time.
Series 6. Group B Road Car Pick'n'Mix
So the final series of SFGTP1 is a hit from the UKGTP V event where a stack of Group B Rally Cars toned down and homologated for road use take to the track.
Race 1: New York Reverse
A battle-royale zips through the streets of New York, as Alex and Ray tear round almost neck-and-neck to the very end in their mid-engined Renaults. Nick is powerless to catch them in the Audi, while David learns the hard way that the Nissan needs another gear as it bounced off the limiter at 125mph in top gear coming down the straight, putting a rather abrupt end to his charge!
This time another Renault triumphs, and it's Nick at the wheel. Ray's Peugeot makes light work of the loathsome, lethargic Lancias of David & Alex, but makes no impression on the leader.
Something about the result here doesn't look quite right, but sure enough Smallhorses is just able to squash his understeery Lancia home ahead of ceiling_fan's Pug, while alrivers finishes way out in front.
A first outing and first victory for the Ford in this race, as once again the rev limiter in top gear on Nick's Nissan puts paid to any hope of catching the leader down the straights!
Another head-to-head for Alex & Ray in identical cars again sees the outcome go the opposite way to the race at New York, with Ray emerging triumphant this time. David is able to capitalise on Nick's failure to deal with the sudden snap-oversteer of the Peugeot, which catches him out in the first bend, and then repeatedly during his vain attempts to catch up again!
Into the last race, and there's 3 Fords in contention for top spot, while Ray's Audi struggles to keep up. At the end of the day it's Alex who comes home ahead of Nick, who was unable to find a way by, and David nets his second consecutive podium place of the series! 👍
alrivers win at Seoul means he leapfrogs SimRaceDriver again who'd overtaken him for top spot at the end of the 5th race, and thus it's Alex that takes his 2nd event win of the day!
After this, enough time was available to slot in a couple of laps round the Nurb' in road cars on RD tyres with a view to submitting a few times for the RING OPENDAY - combined LAN results - thread that Rypien runs. Ray & Nick got a little over ambitious in their selections and inexperience in driving powerful cars on road tyres, going for a RUF CTR "Yellowbird" and TVR Tuscan Speed 6 respectively. Neither was able to turn a quick or clean lap!
We did get 2 submissions in though, Alex in his oft proclaimed favourite motor, the BMW M5 '05, which he must've driven on RD tyres before, completing a neat 7'45-ish lap and David, opting for a much, much more pedestrian ride and demonstrating almost infinite patience as he completes 2 full laps of the Nurb' in a Daihatsu Midget '63 in just under 40 minutes! His best coming in at under 20 minutes, much to the relief of his Mom who'd been upstairs chatting to Mr. & Mrs. Smallhorses while he indulged in this low speed marathon!
Ok, there's news on the results fiasco!
Seems that my issue were being caused by my verbal diarrhea, and the posts were just too damned long! Longer than the 22000 character limit that GT Planet will support!
Consequently Day 1's results are now reposted in 2 parts, in Posts 1 & 2, while Day 2's results have now been "cleft in twain" and relocated to Posts 36 & 37, just above here.
Sorry for all the fuss and confusion , enjoy the full SFGTP1 experience in glorious completeness now!!!
Just to let you guys know, I submitted alrivers & ceiling_fan's times for Rypien's list which can be found, (fully updated to include these times) here:- RING OPENDAY - combined LAN results -
I recorded them in the results spreadsheet I made, I just didn't get round to sharing them with Rypien until a few days ago! Things go busy in the meantime, and stuff!
What does everyone thing of the results layout? Too much? Not enough?
Any mistakes? Glaring inaccuracies? Let me know. I need feedback!!! 👍
I think the results are excellently laid out. I can't find anything worth adding or correcting. 👍 I just read them again, I never noticed you put my quote in the El Capitan race report.
I also didn't notice I was last every single race that took place at either of the Infineon's. I'm gonna practice a bunch on the world circuits.
I was thinking about my Nurburgring speed lap in the Midget. I might have been redlining in second instead of third for a lot of the race (because I would be redlining anyway) and didn't notice. I'm hesitant to try it again!
We should be having a little mini-LAN on Monday, since it's a holiday here in the US, so in the absence of pre-prepared events I can imagine we'll spend a good deal of time running road cars / road tyres on the Nurb'. Look out for some new times soon! 👍
I'm a touch fukt toff.
That's cool!
, enjoy the full SFGTP1 experience in glorious completeness now!!! 
