GT Racing - GT1, GT3, Blancpain Endurance Series & National GT SeriesSports Cars

[Speedster502]

Cheers, I hate how ESPN always show the quali race live, but then rugby or some other such rubbish is on at the same time as the main race, and they subsequently show it delayed.

It's annoying aswell as it looks fab in HD. I wish they adjust the audio levels though so the engines are louder compared to the very loud John Watson. It'd also be better if it was in 5.1 aswell, so I could hear/feel the bass of the Nissan and 'Vette throught my subwoofer.

Haha, yeah I got the impression they put most rugby and football matches with a higher priority than their motorsports before when I was considering persuading my Dad to upgrade the Sky to include ESPN. Glad I didn't though, the only thing I appear to be missing out on is the HD.

I never really noticed John Watson being so loud last year, but he seems considerably noisier this year. I preferred Johnny Herbert commentating if I'm honest. Also hoping that they do a couple of those moments when the commentators are quiet for a minute or two, just to kind of experience sounds of the cars. It's always great when they do that, even if we aren't hearing the 'real' sound.

EDIT: Appears that Bloomberg is showing the Qualifying Race first, so we'll have to wait awhile before the Championship Race begins.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Heads up. Championship race about to start.

http://gt1world.com/

 

[Clark]

Yup, I've got it on Bloomberg, the highlights of the quali race gave me time to eat some food.

 

[Speedster502]

Yup, chaotic start again was 4 cars wide going into turn one!

 

[Clark]

What a race! Still can't believe the incident in the pit lane with the Marc VDS GT and the Nissan.

I tell you what the Tourist Trophy can't come soon enough later in the year.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Best race I've seen this year so far. Excellent stuff. I feel bad for Nissan though.

 

[Speedster502]

Agreed superb racing! That final push by Westbrook was fantastic, shame he didn't make it, but still amazing racing. The pit lane incident was pretty over the top too, but certainly emphasised the pressure that both teams were finding themselves with.

Also agree with Duffers, can't wait for Silverstone.

 

[MagpieRacer]

How about GTP GT1 fans meet at the TT.?

Great opening round, was working so missed the championship race. Looks nice in HD too.

 

[Type S Tony]

Managed to start watching the race about 25 mins till finish, that pit lane incident was lol, even my wife got interested after that. Have to say one of the best races Ive seen in a long time, the final push from the GTR had use both on the edge of our seats.

Funny thing was after the race me & the wife started arguing over the top 3 and how it was that a lamborghini came in 3rd compared to a skyline comming in 2nd. After trying to explain to her how these cars are not regular street cars and discussing racing dynamics and general race stratergy it became apparent I was getting know where.

Fired up GT5, SSR7, wife: Stock Diablo SV, Me: Stock GTR V-spec 09, 1 lap, GTR ended up winning thanks to GT's unbelievable drafting and being able to put the pressure on for her to make a mistake which was pretty lol considering it was around 5am by this stage.

Cant wait for the next race.

 

[Clark]

How about GTP GT1 fans meet at the TT.?

Great opening round, was working so missed the championship race. Looks nice in HD too.

I'd be up for that, especially since nobody I know wants to go.

 

[Clark]

Andy Blackmore has done a Spotter Guide for all you guys who want to follow the race but aren't to sure on the cars/drivers. Personally I think he has the colour wrong on the #8 AMR car though.

EDIT: I'm an idiot but I may aswell leave it here, next I'm should read OP's.

 

[Speedster502]

Andy Blackmore has done a Spotter Guide for all you guys who want to follow the race but aren't to sure on the cars/drivers. Personally I think he has the colour wrong on the #8 AMR car though.

Yup, I had that linked on the previous page before the first event. 👍

 

[Tommi]

I've just heard some terrible news, Matech Racing & Competition Team Boss Martin Bartek has passed away aged only 44.

http://www.planetlemans.com/2011/04/07/martin-bartek-1967-2011/77

R.I.P ​

 

[Speedster502]

Dreadful news, Martin was such a key part of the Ford GT's development cycle but also had a major role in getting GT1 to the way it is today.

R.I.P Martin


_______________________

Sadly, we have to move on from this as the Qualifying Session for the FIA GT1 World Championship Round 2 at Zolder is about to begin, Lamborghini's have shown a strong pace in both the Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying Session yesterday, today could be a different story. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

I'm personally hoping for the JRM Group Nissan's to set a decent time to place them in a ideal situation for the Qualifying Race this afternoon.

Times for the races are as follows (local time to Zolder):

Saturday 9th April

10:05-11:05 – Qualifying (live streaming on GT1TV)

16:15-17:15 – Qualifying Race (live streaming on GT1TV)

Sunday 10th April

10:05-10:35 – Warm-up

14:45-15:45 – Championship Race (live streaming on GT1TV)

For the live stream go to the FIA GT1 homepage (http://www.gt1world.com/) then click to the 'GT1 TV' section, then on the interface for the Dailymotion player press 'Live GT1'.

The stream is live as of now. 👍

 

[Clark]

GT1 quali is below F1 quali for me, I'll check the times later. Hopefully DT can maked up for the bad results from last race(s).

 

[RPM_Online]

Feature about the pre-qualify on Friday, Circuit Zolder;







We're following and featuring each day this weekend, source;
http://www.rpmvision.nl/features/134/fia-gt1-r2-pre-qualify

 

[Speedster502]

Nice work! Props to your photographer as well he's got some really nice shots, I'll add your site as a link in the first post. 👍

Qualifying Session finished just over a hour ago, and here are the top 8 times from Q3. However, it should be noted that several cars incurred (in pre-qualifying yesterday) a penalty of a 3 car drop in Qualifying and this hasn't been taken into account on this list).

1 - Dominki Schwager/Nicky Pastorelli - Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-SV (37) - 1:27.691
2 - Alex Müller/Tomas Enge - Aston Martin DBR9 (7) - 1:28.119
3 - Darren Turner/Stefan Mücke - Aston Martin DBR9 (8) - 1:28.170
4 - Mike Hezemans/Nicky Catsburg - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R (11) - 1:28.283
5 - Peter Dumbreck/Richard Westbrook - Nissan GT-R (22) - 1:28.359
6 - Christian Hohenadel/Andrea Piccini - Aston Martin DBR9 (4) - 1:28.424
7 - Lucas Luhr/Michael Krumm - Nissan GT-R (23) - 1:28.521
8 - Jamie Campbell-Walter/David Brabham - Nissan GT-R (23) - 1:28.555

There were in total 6 cars that were set to be penalised but from the looks of things only two made it into the Q3. So, Tomas Enge and Alex Müller will be starting in 4th Position, and Mike Hezemans and Nicky Catsbury will be starting in 6th. This means that the front 3 of the starting grid now look like this:

1 - 37 Lamborghini
2 - 8 Aston Martin
3 - 22 Nissan

Stats/Times taken from Qualifying Report

Should be a interesting race, the coverage starts at 1500GMT time on Bloomberg and probably the same time on GT1World.

 

[Clark]

The Quali race is on live on ESPN in HD in 10 mins aswell .

 

[Speedster502]

The Quali race is on live on ESPN in HD in 10 mins aswell .

Yup, hopefully it'll be a good race! 👍

I'd like either the 08 Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke to do well, or the 22 car of Richard Westbrook and Peter Dumbreck but I have the feeling they may be hampered by the extra weight from Abu Dhabi. But let's see how it plays out!

 

[Clark]

Oh great I forgot about John Watson. My headache isn't going to get any better in the next hour.

Hopefully it's a decent race, I hate Zolder with a passion.

 

[Clark]

Well that was a good way to ruin your whole team's race.

 

[Speedster502]

Well that was a good way to ruin your whole team's race.

Yeah, not the smartest move. However people on Twitter are suggesting that the brake fire that we saw in the pits may well have been the reason he ran into Ickx. Which would explain things and make it seem a bit more reasonable, but at the same time he shouldn't have dived down the inside.

 

[Clark]

You should always aim for where the car is to miss it on the entry of a corner. Never aim at where the car is going to be.

Fischer need to improve their pit stops if they want to do well in any of the races.

 

[Speedster502]

You should always aim for where the car is to miss it on the entry of a corner. Never aim at where the car is going to be.

Agreed, still have't heard Ickx's side of the story, might be quite interesting to hear. Solid pitstop from Hexis again, will be interesting to see if they've outperformed the other teams. Marc VDS has just come into the pits now. 👍

 

[Clark]

And once again Fischer do a rubbish pit stop and the Enge car has lost a place to the Lambo.

 

[Speedster502]

I really think the other teams need to look at their pitstop strategy, Hexis seem to and will dominate every race with their superb pit stops unless the other teams seriously up their game. The Marc VDS pitstop was particularly slow, looked like a wheel nut probelm or something.

EDIT: A probelm with the gun according to Makowiecki.

 

[Clark]

I'm not an R35 GT-R fan, but I can't help love the GT1 version, it's like the C6.R and it just sounds meaty. I love it on the onboards when the drivers just slam down through the gears under braking.

And one thing I always notice with the Ford as well it so breathless it seems on the straights, it has a lot higher revving V8 engine but can't match the other, torquey V8's on the straight, and is probably the slowest car in the field on straight-line speed.

EDIT: I tell you one thing this race has confirmed for me. After being in the doldrums a few years ago, GT1 is now a great series, and is equal with the BTCC for exciting racing.

 

[Speedster502]

Same, I love the GT1 GT-R's, they sound incredible (probably due to not using the same engine as the road car). I found a video earlier of some of the onboards from the Qualifying Session earlier, I'll have to post it up as it was great. 👍

And yeah, the two other V8 powered cars (GT-R & C6.R) have, or appear to have, a much higher top speed. It seems to me that the C6.R of Hezemans is only doing well in this race due to luck, without all the start line chaos I think that we would have seen either the Lamborghini or a Ford GT in lead as Zolder seems to suit the more agile cars.

 

[Clark]

Wow, I never knew that about driving aids in GT1, I know ABS and TCS is in GT3 but assumed TCS was still in GT1 (considering it's used in GTE, LMP1 and 2).

The less driving aids the better 👍

 

[RPM_Online]

Nice work! Props to your photographer as well he's got some really nice shots, I'll add your site as a link in the first post. 👍

Thanks mate 👍, just added a new feature about today with some more pics;







Source: http://www.rpmvision.nl/features/137/fia-gt1-r2-qualification-rounds.