2024 GTWS Exhibition Season 1 – Season Review
Due to meddling pesky real life taking precedence, I haven’t really been able to contribute to this thread this season, but firstly I’d like to echo comments above thanking those who have contributed so much in terms of testing data – it really helps when you want to comprehensively prepare for a race but will have to do it piecemeal with half-an-hour or so sessions sprinkled throughout the week.
After the “proper” GTWS season finished I was fed up with online racing, courtesy of somehow becoming the victim of a dedicated rammer in the last MC round at Fuji – you know, the kind that lay back on the straight just so they can sole into you at the T1 hairpin just to knock you so far off the track that you’d need to buy a ticket to get back on. It was the very last slot (Life lesson: Don’t rush home to get the last slot for a round you didn’t think you’d be able to do – so didn’t prepare – because others will be using it to deprive folk of points as they somehow don’t care about the points themselves.) The guy didn’t even get “SR down” and I finished the season thoroughly browned off and determined Never To Race Online Ever Ever Again. Indeed, I stopped using GT7 and was racing in PC2 and AC instead.
It was the wonderful Mrs. Bald that told me not to be so daft. She asked why I hadn’t been nipping off at the weekend to catch the x-O’clock start, and I replied that the season for those races was over, I didn’t expect another one until the autumn (thinking of last year’s timetable), and in any case I wasn’t going to waste my time with online racing any more due to rammers. She pointed out that if I quit then they’d have won and made me promise that I’d race next time there was a GTWS. (yes, she made me promise I
would race – I kinda remember why I married her now
)
I went on GTP a week or so later looking for a setup tip for PC2 on a Thursday Afternoon only to discover a snap GTWS series had been called (like a snap election but for racing) and it started on Saturday. I was determined not to spend ages preparing only to have my time wasted by idiots, so I went into the series with the mindset of “I’ll prepare and drive to the best of my abilities, but I won’t do my normal level of prep and if I get a poor result so be it – 1 and done in each round unless I really fancy trying again” (in the end, it was 1 and done in each round, but that was because I never felt I could improve my result).
So to the races:
MC Rd1, Interlagos
I didn’t even put the GT7 disc back in the PS until mid-morning, although I’d been thinking about what manufacturer to go with – in the end the lack of time meant I went with my normal MC squeeze of Nissan, if only because I have all the Gr3 cars from that marque – even the legends – so would be able to fine tune my choice. A quick race-length run in Free Practice in the ’18 car, an even quicker 5-lap run in the ’13 and ’99 cars – they’re slower, no need to go further – a full-race run in Custom Race to determine how many laps I can do on RS and how many need to be on RM, and then the first bit of another Custom Race starting on RM to see how it feels starting on the harder rubber with full tanks, and then it’s time to go racing – slot 4 or 5 by the time I was ready. I felt my decision not to get bent out of shape over positions was justified as I could only get Q13 in a mid-to-upper B race, but then I never could qualify well here.
Started on RMs, made a few places up in the first couple of laps as people spun or tangled with others, then made up more places as RS starters pitted, however lost a bunch when I went in and agonisingly was passed by a group of 4 cars as I exited pit lane. Even though I was now on RS it looked like I would finish P9, then with 3 laps to go a car fell back from the group ahead with cooked tyres and I was able to get by them – now P8, DR up time, interesting – and made even better when another car ahead pitted with one lap to go – maybe they accidentally selected RS at their pit stop so had to go RS-RS-RM with the final stint being a single lap – and I nabbed P7 (92pts). DR definitely up, then, and more importantly I’d had a really good race in terms of, well, actual racing so my relationship with online competition and GT7 was well on the way back to full health.
MC Rd2, Tokyo
I was able to get a bit of practice in for this – albeit mainly full-race runs in FP to determine the best time to change tyres – both before and after the change in drying time and initial moisture that came midweek – and in terms of which car to use, the long straight meant then the old JGTC cars were ideally placed to do well, which benefits Nissan runners but nowhere near as much as Honda drivers! I knew that if the track was drying in quali then timing your run as late as possible would be a big bonus – I got that bit right, crossing the line to start my final lap with 2 seconds left – hooray! – but then had to pass a car on that lap, meaning I compromised my line through the fast Esses – boo! – and didn’t improve, so Q7.
Started well – the ’99 Nissan’s high top end speed made picking places up on the run to T1 easy and I was P5 as we tentatively braked. I picked up another place on the exit of T2 thanks to a spinner and just avoided being part of a big crash that happened just behind me at the Esses (heard a lot of skidding and wall-scraping), then settled down in P4 until I took my stop a lap earlier than most. That helped me as I undercut a car to be P3, unfortunately two Hondas got past in the latter half of the race to leave me P5 again, then the leader who’d opted for an IM no-stopper spun at T1 on the last lap so I took P4 (108pts). The win went to one of the Hondas, who’d not taken a quali time and therefore successfully did a last-to-first.
MC Rd3, Autopolis
I thought I’d sorted my tyre strategy for this earlier in the week – RS would last the race length no problem – but then Update 1.49 came along and suddenly tyre wear was up and the possibility of limping round for a single lap on a fully-red tyre was down. OK, no-stop RM it is then, at least for me – one thing the new physics has taught me is that I’ll need to be a LOT better at tyre management – with RS only used in quali. That went well, I got a lap I was really pleased with for the first time in the series – Q4.
The race started well – I was challenged at T1 but held the place, and I was able to get alongside the McLaren in P3 coming into the hairpin at the top of the hill – I had P3 as we exited the corner, but they tried to get too much power on too soon, fishtailed, overcorrected and hit me on the front corner – damage for me (thankfully we’re in GT2 here and it would go away of it’s own accord, plus I’m sure no malice was meant in the move) and I have to take it gingerly into the fast corner at the bottom of the hill meaning I’m back in P4. The Macca then overcooks the right-hander before the tight S-bend before Kermit Bridge and I’m back in P3 behind a Genesis with P1 already well up the road. We hold station with P2 drawing away from me and the gap to the McLaren behind shrinking – either I’m slow or they’re on RS. That question is answered around Lap 5 – The car behind sweeps into the pits, and I gain around 5 seconds on P2 in that single lap. I have another challenger 2 seconds behind me, and I’m just wondering how I get past the slow Genesis without losing time and being dragged into another battle, when they solve my conundrum by pitting – I hold station in P2 and that’s where I finish (121pts), actually gaining on the P1 car in the last 2 laps but never anywhere near passing them.
MC Rd4, Nurburgring
It’s Manufacturers’ Cup, so I believe there is an ancient law, passed down through generations, that there must be a round at the Nurburgring… what do you mean, it’s on the GP-Strecke?
I’d sorted out a tyre strategy that meant I’d be suffering on the last lap on the softer boots but was still quicker than stopping a lap earlier. Qualifying was acceptable – nothing more – and I lined up Q6.
To the race itself, and on L1 there was a case worthy of “Unsolved Mysteries” – how on earth did I make a place up through AMG-Arena? I’ve never, ever been quick through there so I have no idea, but it was a genuine overtake into T3. That became another at the Schumacher-S as a car ahead went wide, leaving me P4 after Lap 1. The cars ahead pulled away and the cars behind dropped back, leaving me with a lonely first stint, I pitted and amazingly, once the cars ahead had done similar, I was in P2, and first of those who’d pitted! Once I’d stopped rubbing my eyes in disbelief I got on with trying to stay ahead of a rapidly closing P3, however we caught up with a late-pitting backmarker who decided to fight for the lead and slowed me up on the last chicane so much that even though they pitted immediately afterwards my time in P1 lasted for less than 100m and I was passed on the next turn. Another car got past me with a lap and a half to go – they’d started on the harder tyre, I’d started on the softer – and I finished P3 and 119pts. I was now at about 90%B and had had a very good season, winning UK GT2 Nissans which gave me a smile – however, the cars have become increasingly less popular, I think there were only about 13 of us in GT2 racing them in the UK, and for the first time in MC I never saw a fellow Nissan user in any of my races.
After a short break, a Nations’ Cup season was announced…
NC Rd1, Dragons’ Trail Seaside
A Nations’ Cup season featuring the X-things is as predictable as the Manufacturers’ holding a round in the Eifel mountains, and I think a lot of folk took one look at the combination of semi-guided missile of a car and 32 times through the Death Chicken - er - Chicane, and promptly nope’d their way out of there – participation seemed well down as it did throughout this series, and for the first time on this account I found myself sharing the track with A drivers – 3 of them, with me having door 16. Qualifying was good, considering – I always practice to drive consistently rather than balls-out single-lap speed, so I was happy with Q8.
Lap 1 was nice and clean for me for the first few corners as those ahead bumped and barged, then through the sweepers I came up behind a car that was already carrying a 5s penalty, they got sideways, I guessed which side to go, guessed wrong and hit them – 4s pen (deserved, I should have held back even though that would have meant losing spots) and by the time that was served I was P13. Never mind, long race and all that – I was back in the top 10 a lap later courtesy of a spinner, a chicken-hitter and a penalty server and on the back of a group all the way back from P4 to me in P10. I’d switched to a 9S-14M-9S strategy at the last minute, I’d practised 11S-21M and made it work for me but the short pit stops meant I went for the 2-stopper, and I drove conservatively in the remainder of the first stint – only making passes when those ahead served penalties or went off / hit the chicken, that meant I could get an extra lap on RS (so now 10S-13M-9s) which got me the undercut and I was P5 as I went on to Mediums. I got in some tight battles in this stint, I let the others by rather than holding us all up battling and then stuck in their slipstream, they pitted earlier (meaning they’d gone RS-RS-RM) and I was able to undercut them, I was P5 again as I re-emerged on RS with a light fuel load, I picked up a place after reeling back P4 by about 8 seconds and then set off after P3 who was a further 10 seconds up the road. I nearly got them too, finishing 0.18s down. I was a bit gutted as surely the 127pts for 4th would be the highest I’d get all season and I was within an ace of making that even more, still I’d survived a race in the X-things and I’d beaten all the A-drivers (indeed, I lapped one of them!). Oh, and no chickens were harmed at any point in my run. And I had been door 16, so P4 wasn’t bad at all.
NC Rd2 – Eiger Nordwald
Hang on, isn’t this the car/track/tyre combo that was derided by all and sundry when it was Daily C recently? The one that had such low participation that A+ and B drivers were in lobbies together? Seems a strange choice… I can understand the desire to showcase the returning track, and I can understand the choice of tyres as it’s probably something like these cars had in period, when they raced on treaded crossplies (bias-plies), but together? Maybe PD thought the sequence of hairpins was a bit Monaco-like or something. I had similar misgivings when there was an NC race in the Jimny at Lake Louise a few months ago, and that turned out really well, so let’s have a go.
Well… I managed to get in the top 300 in FP without a ghost, and I was able to win lobby races against opposition of all grades, so I might be on to something here.
The race-meeting format looked a bit odd with a quali session longer than the race, but at least it would mean that everyone got at least one good lap in, so the race wouldn’t have much barging on lap 1 but might be a bit of a procession. I waited for everyone else to get going, went out as late as I could without being lapped in the Q session, immediately got my head down and once the tyres were up to temp on my 2nd lap I logged a mid-1:13 to take provisional pole which I held for the rest of the session! Pole in a Formula 1 race – where’s my prize scooter?
At the start of the race, it seems that the releasing of the field half-way round a corner makes some positions better than others – I timed my gearchanges perfectly but P2 was still easily able to get alongside me into T1. I don’t fight too much – better to pull away from P3 together – but as the race goes on I have the pace to get by but not the opportunity, until P1 has to check up very slightly on the final corner of Lap 4, I draw alongside over the hump and time my braking (and rapid downshifting) to perfection to run the front right wheel onto the kerb of T1 like a dream while they run wide, and I have the lead back. They stay within half a second for the next lap and a half, and I begin to worry about a last-lap divebomb, but through the back stretch on L6 I get the pit-exit esses absolutely perfect, they don’t and I have 2.5s entering the last tour – enough to take no risks, indeed I think they got involved in another battle as I took the chequered flag by 4 seconds!
My first sport-mode victory in an age, a new GTWS PB of 150pts, first time I’d ever won against A opposition (8 of them!) in Sport Mode and moving this account to 99%B – I was just glad I’d managed to make a combo that really suited me count. As reported earlier, I then dusted off an account I haven’t really used since it became A – I’m a morning racer, I can’t do GT1 generally but I had an opening in slot 1 today, so I used it for a nice comfortable Q3 P3 – apart from drawing level with P2 at the end of lap 1 after they’d nearly gone in the railway station I had no interaction with other cars at all in quali or the race – and 155pts, so
that’s now my PB.
NC Rd3 – Monza
A case of “After The Lord Mayor’s Show” for me, I knew that in a very fast car on grippy tyres on “the Italian Cathedral of Speed” (copyright every motorsport writer) I wouldn’t really stand out, however by now I was sure I’d scored my points for the season and I just wanted DR up, with the goal of being A by the end. I’d settled on 9S-11M if I qualified well (unlikely) or 10M-10S if I didn’t. Well, I gave it my best shot in quali but could only get Q12, however that did match my door ranking and I was the top Non-A in this race. I was ruminating about this so much that I completely forgot to change tyres between quali and the race like a moron so would have to start on RS. Damn.
I used some push-to-pass off the grid to try to keep up, however this promoted me a couple of places and I was able to get over to the left hand side of the track approaching the chicane in an attempt to avoid carnage on the apex, this I did but someone bounced out of that carnage and hit me wide along with the car in front of me, I missed the barrier and was able to rejoin without being reset and just missed another couple of cars on the exit, as I accelerated through Curva Grande I looked at the car in front and was astonished to see a “4” above them. Surely I hadn’t come out of the melee in P5? I had, and I held it for the next couple of laps until 2 faster drivers came back through and I was now P7, I stayed there until my pit stop at the end of L9, this pushed me back to 10th, and I was only able to make up one place as others pitted, so by the time we all settled down again I was P9, but at the end of a 5-car train. I got up to P8 as others went wide – great, in the DR-up places, then I got punted into the gravel at Ascari by someone who just tried an impossible send – I recovered just behind them, they got 4s penalty then immediately quit, however we’d been passed by others so I was now P9 again with about 4 laps to go. I got into a battle with P8 and made it my own when they got slightly sideways between the two Lesmos, but they were right behind me for the last DR-up place. I relaxed a bit on the penultimate lap when we passed a recovering spinner out of Lesmo 2, meaning we were now P7 and P8, and P7 was secured when my close follower messed up Ascari almost immediately after, so I could bring home a bit of DR up and 120pts. I already knew the points wouldn’t count but the DR up was a very pleasing bonus and filled the remining tiny bit at the end of the B bar.
NC Rd4 – Watkins Glen
I expected, as this was the NC round that most resembled a “Normal” Daily C, that participation would be up for this one, and it seemed to be so – certainly lobby races were a lot more well-populated and I was a bit further down the leaderboard even after putting a 1:43 in in Free Practice. Unfortunately, as alluded to above, Custom Races and Lobby races showed me very clearly that I wouldn’t be able to follow the 6S-14M or 7S-13M strategy that others could – my tyre management skills just aren’t there, I would have to resort to 8M-12H, or I could go 10H-10M if I started on the hards – however, getting track limit penalties in the first 2 laps of a lobby race dissuaded me of this as I simply couldn’t keep up with the field on hard tyres and full tanks, better to get rid of a bit of fuel beforehand. As mentioned above, I was now at 100%B so anything that ended with me in the top 8 would make me A, right?
In Qualifying I calculated I could easily wait for 1 minute before going out and still get 2 flying laps in just like everyone else, so off they all rushed as normal and I had a lovely clear track. 8 A drivers in this one so I wasn’t expecting much, but I was very happy when a 1:44.4 got me provisional P4 after my first lap – shame I overdrove lap 2 and ended up with P8. Still, OK from Door 9 and I was confident that I race better than I qualify so maybe I could get that final bit of DR up.
Remembering to change from RS to RM before the race this time, I was able to hold position at T1 despite being challenged, I then caught up with P7 at the Inner Loop and followed them through the Boot, as we rejoined the short course P4-5-6 were beating and banging on each other something rotten, we both got past 2 of them so I ended the first lap in P5. P4 went off and caught P3, their battle brought them back into my range and when P4 forced an opening at the Toe I was able to follow them through – now P4. P3 was quicker than me but prone to track limit pens – they went wide on the exit of the Outer Loop twice in succession and the second of these allowed me past them. Meanwhile, it became apparent that those ahead had all started on RS and as they pitted after L5 and L6 I led for a couple of laps before my stop for RH on lap 8. The car I had been close to all this time came in with me, also on Mediums – I didn’t take any notice of their tyre choice, I was too busy making sure I avoided a 3s pen on pit exit, they got past me after a couple of laps and after a bit of drama where the car that had taken pole by a country mile slowed for a couple of laps then went past us all again, the P3 car pulled away and I managed the gap to P5 to finish P4 – er wait, no P3 after my battler went RM-RM and thus copped a 4 minute penalty. 143 points – actually, I was as pleased as punch with this, happier than when I won in Rd2 even – and yes, that DR up did get me into A. 2nd in GT2 UK and just outside the top 16 in GT2 EMEA.
As always, there were things I liked and things I didn’t in this series, but quite frankly this post is already far too long, so that’ll be another post…
TL
R – Guy wasn’t going to do this series but did it after his wife told him to do it, and really enjoyed it and ended up DR A.
