The Sunday Cup...Lotus Club GT...Open

[GTP_ADE]

Well, unfortunately my race report wont be very long tonight. The build up to the race was great, with plenty of practice on Friday and Saturday. I was happy with my pace, getting into the low 17's by the end of our final session. Race night came, and the worry of troubled internet connections soon went away, as the room seemed stable, and everyone could see each other. Quali went well, and I was happy with my grid position. The lights went out, and we were off. A few at the back were caught out at La source, but most got through. I had lost a position, and carried on through Eau Rouge. Great first lap, and at the start of lap 2, I was surprised to see Theewar had spun at La Source. The next few laps were spent settling into a composed drive, and getting a bit of consistency. Lap 4, and I had Theewar, Cobani and Goodwolf closing in behind. Knowing Warrens times were going to be quicker than mine, I let him pass me safely, in the hope that I could tag onto his slip. I managed to for a few turns, but then with Cobani breathing down my neck, DISASTER struck. Coming through Blancimont at very high speed, my horn button flashed wildly. There was no feeling in my wheel, and I carried on in a straight line, straight into the armco. My car bounced back, facing the track. I tried to get back on, but my car would not steer. All I had was accelerator and brake. My DFGT had packed in. With no steering I was forced to retire from the race.

Due to my retirement, my replay will not play any further than lap 4, so I could not take the fastest lap times. I have therefore entered the times I could remember for the front runners.

Heres the results guys.

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SoKa ran a blinding race, with some very impressive lap times, to take the win, but it was Capt D who extended his championship lead to 18 points. The fight for the next places in the championship are very close, with Will, Warren, Soka and Goodwolf in the hunt for top 3 positions going into the final race.

Now comes the twist. To take The Sunday Cup IV down to the wire for the last race, and pile on the pressure to finish as High as possible, the final race will be............................................

DOUBLE POINTS!
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This means that Captain D cant be crowned as the champion until after the final at Silverstone, and with 32 points up for grabs, anything is possible.

Finally gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for participating in Sunday Cup. Lets make this last race a blinder. 👍👍👍

 

[weescotman]

Bernies taken over Sunday Cup, well be in a prius next season hahaha

 

[Cobani]

Sunday Cup SIV Race #7

 

[Dowlin39]

Wow thanks very much Cobani for putting me in the Pic of the Day, most unexpected 👍

I was very happy with 4th since I had so little practice and I was making many mistakes during those few practice sectons. But I did have decent pace so I knew if I could have an incident free race, I would have a good chance of getting a good result. Which is exactly what happened.

I broke away with the front 4 or 5 drivers in the first few laps with Theewar right behind me, until he span out. Then I was getting pulled up along with Will and Capt D. Their battle cost them some time here and there which allowed me to have a little look into getting by every now and again until a few laps in going through Eau Rouge, Will ran wide on the exit and connected with the barrier, allowing me to slip through. Unfortunately once Capt D was on his own, he stopped making little mistakes and pulled away from me.

So I ended up on my own for a while until Will and Theewar managed to catch up to me. Then I decided to keep missing my braking points and let them catch me faster. Then on Lap 10 I missed my braking point going into Turn 1 and ended up on the run-off area. Will went by and Theewar ended up side by side with me as I returned to track, but I got a slight touch from Theewar which I was surprised by and moved to the left as a reaction which put me on the grass on the lead up to Eau Rouge and I lost the back end. Nothing more than a racing incident and even if it hadn't happened I don't think my final position would have changed as Will and Theewar were faster than me. Well it might have if Will hadn't had some pitstop issues

All in all I'm glad I got a decent result in Spa and I'm looking forward to double points in Silverstone 👍

 

[CTR Driver]

Dowlin???

 

[Dowlin39]

^This guy, so funny

 

[Cpt. Disaster]

At Spa I qualified second, but Will took that place as we got into the first corner after the start with SoKa holding his pole position with Will, myself and Dowlin chasing. By lap three I managed to get passed Will, SoKa increasing his lead with every lap, great pace. Lap four I was distracted whilst watching Will in the rear view having an off exiting Eau Rouge, I was on the grass which enabled Dowlin to gain on me until lap six where I could pull a decent gap. Those early laps were the drama ones for me, a quiet race from then on until the finish, although Warren was making great progress in third after having a spin in lap two, quite close at the end.

Congratulations to SoKa on another great win, well done Warren for third, 👍

 

[GTP_ADE]

Awesome pictures Gary. Im still gutted about my early exit from the race, as Im sure I could have finished with some good points, but there you go. I suppose it did add an element of reality by having a catastrophic hardware failure.

Also, another AWESOME post on the Lotus facebook page today pulled in more likes than any of the previous posts at this stage. Over 300 in just a few hours, so dont forget to visit the page, and like and share. 👍👍 We also gota cracking write up on The Lotus Forums page as well. 👍👍

Tonight I will be doing the donor wheel swap to my rig, so all being well I should be ready for an early practice tomorrow night, before our first official runs on Friday.

 

[J Daniels]

Great pics, another great race, really looking forward to Silverstone for the season finale. Nur and Spa are two tracks which I know my way around as I've had tons of practice in the past, but I can't say the same about Silverstone. So I think the key here will be to put in the laps before race day. Open lobby, here I come!

My thoughts today to the One, the Only, the Great Ayrton Senna.

 

[CTR Driver]

My race at Spa could have been better on a few fronts
To start with I had every member of my household try to be in the room with me at the start of qualifying. which made for some frustrating first few laps. To add to that I had to check why my front door was wide open. Its very disconcerting when you feel a cold draft for a while, when you think you are the only one able to open the door in the house.
I then manage to pull off what looks like qualifying 7th. Result . I pull over to wait out the remaining session and try to get my mini map to a more usable state on this big track. To my horror, I manage to quit to the pit lane With two minutes remaining there was no way I would regain any sort of time.
So I have no choice but to sit in the pits and cry a little.

With that all said and done I was surprised when I saw Cpt.D's pictures and that the scenes, angles and viewpoints were often very similar. Make your own mind up.

13 line up with V8 power for the penultimate race.


And in a cloud of tyre smoke, it begins.


Weescotman nails his launch and pinches pole around the first corner.


Only to lose it moments later before sizing up Eau Rouge for the first time.


Whilst everyone else follows along behind.


GC and Jammy's opening laps even with differing strategies.


Past Rivage and on to Pouhon.


Goodwolf spins pushing towards campus.


Allowing Jammy and GC to catch up.


until a spin at les combes.


Dowlin hanging onto Weescotman, hanging onto Cpt_D


The moment of Ade's mechanical failiure.


GC manages to pass Jammy. After a few messy attempts.


Theewar joins Will and Dowlin


Soka showing his astounding pace


Weescotman tackling Eau Rouge


SoKa moving through the pack.


After a lonely second half of the race for everyone Jammy reclaims his former position in the dying seconds.
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Bring on Silverstone and Double points!!!

On a side note. Some of you are aware I run a side project called 500pp club. This coming Saturday Evening we will be taking part in a club vs club event with Ready Or Not Racing from the states.

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This event will start at 22:00BST so will mean I and some other members here will leave Silverstone practice early to participate.

 

[GTP_ADE]

Nice one Gary, should be a lot of fun.

My wheel is fixed, so tonight I will be having a few laps at Silverstone for an hour or so from 8.30pm.

 

[GTP_ADE]

Great few laps tonight. Benchmark is 1:59.xxx, although I was well off this. First official timed runs from tomorrow at 8.30pm.

 

[GTP_ADE]

Awesome first official practice last night. The Esprit feels really at home at Silverstone. I havnt had a chance to view last nights replays to get the times, as tomorrow is my wedding anniversary, and I have been busy planning a day out for me and the missus. That brings me on to tomorrows practice. I wont be available to host tomorrow, so GC Gary has kindly offered to do the honors.

Therefore, fastest times will be posted on Monday, after I have gone over the replays, and conferred with Gary.

Tonights practice will start from 8.00pm, and as GC Gary has already pointed out, some of us will be taking part in a 500pp club vs club event at 10pm, so we will be leaving the lobby earlier than usual.

 

[CTR Driver]

I'll be sure to get some freshly squeezed "orange juice".
Can't be a proper Sunday Cup practice session host without it

It'll also give me chance to practice at hosting with Type R Cup on the horizon.

Let's hope there's no fireworks...

 

[VBR]

View attachment 149592

I have to say it again, that is just unfeasibly cool!

 

[Dowlin39]

I may make sure I get some decent practice tonight since my Internet cut out last night, I think I'll probably turn off the router for a while beforehand. May give it a break sometime I suppose

 

[scholesy1899]

I have to say it again, that is just unfeasibly cool!

Go look in the urban dictionary, it's not cool, Sunday Cup is........Ridonkulous!

And I'm a privileged pilot of the series. Yippeeee!

 

[GTP_ADE]

I have to say it again, that is just unfeasibly cool!

Cheers @VBR . It does take a lot of behind the scenes time to get Lotus to get the posts up after races, but its well worth it. To get approval from yourself is well received. Thank you very much. 👍👍👍👍

 

[GTP_ADE]

Cheers Gary for hosting last night. I still havnt had the time to go over Fri/Sat replays, as I have been very busy, so I will post the fastest times from the entire weekend tomorrow, which will give Gary a chance to get the times to me from last night. Tonight we will run some practice races, and include a few pit stop/tyre change races to make sure there are no surprises next Sunday. We will also go over track boundaries. Lobby will be open from 8.00pm tonight.

 

[Rosenlundaren]

... as I have been very busy,...

Lucky Mrs ADE3210!!

 

[jammyrex]

Loving the pictures from the Spa race Captain G and GC!

Well, a bit late, but here is my own race review from this race:

My practice sessions that I attended had gone OK, I was quite pleased with my pace... This is a track I already knew so I felt happier here straight away.

I was a bit late getting to the lobby immediately prior to the race, and I thought I'd get a few laps in on the SS tyres just so I had a brief experience of them before the race. Then, when qualifying began, I decided (foolishly) to opt for this less grippy tyre to begin the race with, and get those 6 laps out of the way....

Stupid me! I forgot all about the bug that has plagued GT6 when starting on the less grippy tyres! When I changed to the RH tyres, my car felt awful and I couldn't get within 4 seconds of the times I was posting in the practice sessions! I ended up being so frustrated, which resulted in more mistakes. The leaders came around to lap me like I was standing still, and this was a horrible feeling on a track where I had half decent pace but wasn't allowed to show it in the race...

Saying that, I had an exciting final two laps... I could see GC Gary ahead of me and I managed to hunt him down over those final two tours, and managed to overtake on the very last corner before the race ended! So, despite the tyre malody frustrations from the race, I did enjoy the conclusion to the race. But that tyre bug robbed me of potentially two or three more points , still perplexed as to why I chose the other strategy, I just assumed that the bug had been fixed.

Oh well, onto the next!

 

[jammyrex]

Any practice tonight guys? Doesn't appear to be a room at the mo...

 

[GTP_ADE]

Any practice tonight guys? Doesn't appear to be a room at the mo...

I opened one up at 8.00pm and ran a few laps. Only NOMAD was online, but didnt join. Im feeling the effects from a very long weekend, so decided to call it a night just before 9.00. Must be my age, and nothing at all to do with drinking lots of wine by the river in the Sun in the afternoon yesterday. .

I will get the fastest times posted up tomorrow, once Gary has sent me last nights info, and I will be back on most nights this week to get some additional practice before Sunday's finale.

 

[scholesy1899]

I opened one up at 8.00pm and ran a few laps. Only NOMAD was online, but didnt join. Im feeling the effects from a very long weekend, so decided to call it a night just before 9.00. Must be my age, and nothing at all to do with drinking lots of wine by the river in the Sun in the afternoon yesterday. .

I will get the fastest times posted up tomorrow, once Gary has sent me last nights info, and I will be back on most nights this week to get some additional practice before Sunday's finale.

That's pretty much what's happened to me this weekend. Only started tweaking the rough set up today. Be on as much as possible like ADE said this week.

@jammyrex , can you do that again, with the tyres. I hate silverstone's layout these days, I used to love the 'close your eyes and keep it buried' full tilt right hander just under the bridge (bridge corner?) but now it's just sterile and has no rhythm. Just my opinion mind. Sure I won't be saying this come July though. Woot woot.

 

[CTR Driver]

This layout?

 

[scholesy1899]

Yep Gary. The rhythm of becketts and the way bridge corner dragged you round alone is better than the whole new layout put together....I think at least.

 

[CTR Driver]

Yep Gary. The rhythm of becketts and the way bridge corner dragged you round alone is better than the whole new layout put together....I think at least.

Agreed.
But where would they have put the new pit complex???
Without closing the circuit of course.

 

[scholesy1899]

Good point, don't really know all the ins and outs of the whys and wherefores for the change of the track or complex (To meet FIA requirements?) but it feels like its a cross between a rent-a-track and top gear tt or be all things to all tiers, it's like it lost its soul in exchange for corporate days out money. I can see the blurb.....'we have a circuit to fit every budget', I know every circuit does this sort of thing (I've been in the Beemer with Tiff and taken an aventador round Thruxton) but ripping the heart out to do it. It's just lost all it's character to me. I'm not directing any of this at you Gaz by the way.

Haven't heard many F1 drivers big it up recently.

Now I've covered my arse in case of a bad performance come the last race, I'm off to bed and detox for the week.

 

[CTR Driver]

All I hope is they give us some historic layouts in dlc. I liked the old one better anyway 👍
I don't feel your directing anything at me. It's your view and your entitled to it. I do agree it lost something with the change.

 

[GTP_ADE]

Well guys, Ive finally caught up from the weekend. Sorry its taken me so long, but I did have to treat the Mrs this weekend, as it was our 18th wedding anniversary, and when all is said and done, she did deserve it as she does let me spend a lot of time organizing Sunday Cup. The times below are from practice sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Massive thanks also to GC Gary, for hosting on Sunday, and getting the times over to me last night.

Theewar is the pace setter after the first sessions, with championship leader Capt_D .5 of a second behind. Double points means double pressure, and this championship wont be called until the final chequered flag.

Racing hard.

THEEWAR...1:58.424
GTP_CAPT_D...1:58.985
WEESCOTMAN...1:59.083
DOWLIN39...2:00.325
ADE3210...2:00.813
GC255...2:02.640
NOMAD...2:03.318
JAMMY_REX...2:03.698
CANARY_WOOLF...2:08.119
COBANI...2:09.736

Please note.

The times above are those that have been set on track in a lobby and taken from the replays recorded from these races. Whilst I understand that some of you have achieved faster times, only those that have been recorded on a replay will be acceptable.

Now my busy weekend has passed, we are back on track. Official sessions will resume from tomorrow from 8.30pm and will be held every night until the season finale on Sunday.

I cant believe another season is coming to a close, and again I would like to thank each and every one of you for making it the success that it is. Cheers guys.

THE SUNDAY CUP......

ROCKS!​