[FIA GT] '10 GT1 WC Round 2 • Silverstone • May 1st/2nd

[brands]

Some great racing, especially the Nissan and MC12 lap after lap.

[Harri Bear]

I did n't go to the race - looked good on the live streaming ..but Silverstone in May is always cold.....what have they done to the grandstands and the start /finish straight - it looks as though the concrete banking on the approach to Copse has goine and the whole lot moved back

[MikeH]

Back at the hotel - Silverstone is the coldest place on earth today I reckon, the stalls did a killing in tea and coffee. GT1 was fun. Loads of punctures today, probably from all the crap being dragged onto the track by the cars as the ground was all still stones and mud around the tarmac.

Racing was fun - an Aston lost a wheel just prior to the Corvette bursting into flames. Might have been a fuel leak, there was a mist behind it the lap before. GT3 was hilarious - cars kept getting beached in the mud at the stadium section (what a mess that area was). Daft idea to yellow flag the entire last couple of corners for 15 minutes while they destroyed the rear end of the Gallardo that was in the mud by dragging it so far into it that it dug in up to the rear axle rather than just using the safety car for a lap.

The new section of the track was pretty underwhelming all told. The rest of the track is a building site too - there was mud everywhere, dismantled grandstand pieces all over the place with chavs climbing them and stealing bits it seemed. The fences aren't finished so people were ducking under them and climbing down the sides of the bridges to take pictures hanging over the track.

[mirkob]

Seems that both AMR cars on the poduim are going to be excluded !
First win for the Nissan?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by mirkob

Seems that both AMR cars on the poduim are going to be excluded !

Reason?

[tux1234]

Excluded for what?

[dank]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83292

Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter have been declared the winners after the two cars that finished ahead of them in the one-hour 'championship' race received penalties.

The winning Young Driver AMR Aston Martin driven by Darren Turner and Tomas Enge was excluded because its mandatory underfloor skid plank was worn beyond the permitted tolerance.

The Hexis Aston shared by Frederic Makowiecki and Thomas Accary, which finished second, was given a 15-second penalty for not taking a drive-through penalty within three laps.

[neilwilson]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83292

Worn skid plank & not taking drive through within 3 laps.

[Victor_RO]

Perhaps they'll appeal and say that the plank was damaged when Enge powerslid the damn thing on the kerbs after the finish.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by mirkob

Seems that both AMR cars on the poduim are going to be excluded !
First win for the Nissan?

Tom.

[dj choc ice]

This smacks of trying to appease Nissan after they threw their toy's out of the pram a couple of week's ago regarding their car's performance. Regarding the race though, it was sodding freezing but I have to admit, the new track layout I actually really like. Bit too far from the action which is my gripe, but the new right hander at Abbey is great, kinda like Copse or Maggot's, fast sweeping corner and you can see the car's really working hard under load at speed through there. The new arena section is'nt too bad either, you can watch at Maggot's and turn round and watch the car's tackle the Arena and blast of down the straight leaving glorious exhaust notes.

They just need to finish the work ASAP now because there is mud and sh*t everywhere and it is generally quite a nasty looking place at the moment. I also have a message for all the people who constantly knock Ratel for this GT1 championship, do one. Today's race was absolutely brilliant, the car's were magnificent, earth shatteringly loud, flame spewing monster's. The GT2 car's are dull as ditch water compared to this, far too quiet and tame sounding and they look rubbish in comparison to the big banger GT1's, so what if they are quicker, these WGT1 car's are much much more entertaining. I am seriously considering getting media accredited for Spa and going for that round, I am that impressed.

On a final note, the Lamborghini's, wow just WOW, they sound even better than the old car and look better as well. Don't forget about the flame's either, it's like hell is trying to escape out of the exhaust's of that car.

[E-racer]

What a great race that was! Watched on TV as I just couldn't stomach windy silverstone at near winter temperatures but now really wish I had gone. This championship is off to a really good start. Super TV coverage for a change too with qualifying and races all on bloomberg.

All they need now is to sort out the performance balancing to make the corvettes on par with the rest and we can look forward to some great racing season long.

[dj choc ice]

Originally Posted by E-racer

What a great race that was! Watched on TV as I just couldn't stomach windy silverstone at near winter temperatures but now really wish I had gone. This championship is off to a really good start. Super TV coverage for a change too with qualifying and races all on bloomberg.

All they need now is to sort out the performance balancing to make the corvettes on par with the rest and we can look forward to some great racing season long.

It might help Corvette as well if they stop grenading their engine's constantly, I believe this is the second or third engine failure for Hezemans car in just 4 race's?

[JamesRamone]

I've only today found out that channel 502 Bloomberg (strange) shows coverage of this series.

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by MikeH

Daft idea to yellow flag the entire last couple of corners for 15 minutes while they destroyed the rear end of the Gallardo that was in the mud by dragging it so far into it that it dug in up to the rear axle rather than just using the safety car for a lap.

That was the first car we had in that area (I was at Luffield centre) so was a learning curve for all the marshals. In hindsight it wasn't the best thing to do but we had to try. The rear of the car wasn't damaged, just full of mud!! Unfortunately the driver had done a pretty good job of burying the car so we couldn't push him out, which we managed to do with the Audi a few laps later, and the Corvette, if the driver hadn't stalled the engine.. It would have taken much more than a lap of the SC to move it and would have put mud all over the racing line. I think all the marshals deserve a pat on the back for doing a great job in not ideal conditions today.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

That was the first car we had in that area (I was at Luffield centre) so was a learning curve for all the marshals. In hindsight it wasn't the best thing to do but we had to try. The rear of the car wasn't damaged, just full of mud!! Unfortunately the driver had done a pretty good job of burying the car so we couldn't push him out, which we managed to do with the Audi a few laps later, and the Corvette, if the driver hadn't stalled the engine.. It would have taken much more than a lap of the SC to move it and would have put mud all over the racing line. I think all the marshals deserve a pat on the back for doing a great job in not ideal conditions today.

I noticed when the Corvette went off, that there was no yellow flag being shown before the stopped car.

Tom.

[dxk1]

The racing was exciting, but all that good is taken away with the penalties and exclusions after the race. Some bologna about a skid plank too thin. I had predicted that Turner and Enge would win but Mackowieki and Accary deserved the win. Too bad about the penalty to Accary. I wonder if his helmet microphone wasn't out as his pit seemed to be frantically trying to signal him to stop using sign-boards. It seems this Championship has a long way to go with how they performance balance the cars as Kumpen put it best in his interview: "We're driving a truck and everyone else is driving racecars." Just watching anyone and everyone fly past the Corvettes was quite sad.

DK

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by airbusA346

I noticed when the Corvette went off, that there was no yellow flag being shown before the stopped car.

Tom.

It was bang in line with the post on the outside of the track so the flag was shown there. Think the lights at the end of the new straight were flashing aswell.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

It was bang in line with the post on the outside of the track so the flag was shown there. Think the lights at the end of the new straight were flashing aswell.

Oh right, the car looked as though it was before the flag post to me, from where I was standing.

Tom.

[Flat12-Aircool]

Moment of the race for me was Bartels shaking his fist out of the tiny Maseratti side window, when he got cutup by the Corvette through Abbey.

[WMUCarGuy]

Any word on whether the Corvette will be repairable? It looked like it burned for a long time before they got it out.

[Speedblood]

Originally Posted by dj choc ice

This smacks of trying to appease Nissan after they threw their toy's out of the pram a couple of week's ago regarding their car's performance. Regarding the race though, it was sodding freezing but I have to admit, the new track layout I actually really like. Bit too far from the action which is my gripe, but the new right hander at Abbey is great, kinda like Copse or Maggot's, fast sweeping corner and you can see the car's really working hard under load at speed through there. The new arena section is'nt too bad either, you can watch at Maggot's and turn round and watch the car's tackle the Arena and blast of down the straight leaving glorious exhaust notes.

They just need to finish the work ASAP now because there is mud and sh*t everywhere and it is generally quite a nasty looking place at the moment. I also have a message for all the people who constantly knock Ratel for this GT1 championship, do one. Today's race was absolutely brilliant, the car's were magnificent, earth shatteringly loud, flame spewing monster's. The GT2 car's are dull as ditch water compared to this, far too quiet and tame sounding and they look rubbish in comparison to the big banger GT1's, so what if they are quicker, these WGT1 car's are much much more entertaining. I am seriously considering getting media accredited for Spa and going for that round, I am that impressed.

On a final note, the Lamborghini's, wow just WOW, they sound even better than the old car and look better as well. Don't forget about the flame's either, it's like hell is trying to escape out of the exhaust's of that car.

+1

Nissan complained at Abu Dhabi and Corvette complain here, looks like everyone will have a turn.
The artificial performance factor is a little annoying but produces some fantastic racing.
I brought a friend along who has never been to a circuit race before, he was amazed and hooked instantly after warm up (yeh right was blinkin freezing!) session. The reason why? I told him that supercars were racing, and that they were big, fast, heavy, noisy cars. Exactly what he wanted to see. As did many other families around. The kids I saw around in particular could identify the supercars and were also as excited as me by the noise.
I told my friend about the GT1 and GT2 issue with Ratel and his reply was a simple "Good man, what fun is a few porsches and F430's compared to this lot! (The GT1 cars)" He was mildly impressed by the GT3's and I did tell him that GT2 weren't much different.

New track layout...meh. Arena section is very tedious but I see the vantage point worked well.

Oh and the Lambo...capable of bringing our conversations to a standstill...

[broadrun96]

Really making me hope SPEED picks up the delayed coverage of the races this winter, like they had been doing with the DTM and LMS the last couple years. Unless anyone knows of US coverage of the races on an obscure channel.

UPDATED--Apparently Bloomberg works for race coverage here too, they had the GT3 race on earlier today but I didn't see the GT1 coverage in the guide.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Flat12-Aircool

Moment of the race for me was Bartels shaking his fist out of the tiny Maseratti side window, when he got cutup by the Corvette through Abbey.

That indeed was hilarious!

[rich07]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Really making me hope SPEED picks up the delayed coverage of the races this winter, like they had been doing with the DTM and LMS the last couple years. Unless anyone knows of US coverage of the races on an obscure channel.

You can watch both races off the gt1world website if this helps.