Sum up from Vaaler!
The first GT series weekend is history.
It unfolded from 10-12 of May, and was packed with action and tight racing.
Here's a sum up from the weekend.
Friday:
We came up on friday to get valuable practice on a circuit we hadn't been to before. The sun was shining and it was about 18 degrees celsius. We checked in, went through a technical inspection and got us rigged up. The practice went good, and I felt the corners started coming to me. I got help from a team called Ourum Racing to set up the alligment and corner weight. On friday practice I run 1,02,3. It's a decent time, but I knew I needed to shave a couple of seconds of my lap to be competitive the next day. Later that afternoon we discovered that one of the control arms was bent. The guys at Ourum racing had a shop nearby and was able to help me straighten the arm up, and reinforce it so it wouldn'y bend again during the weekend. Big thanks!
Saturday:
We installed the repaired control arm, and was ready for qualifying. The heart was beating, and the adrenalin was rising. I knew I had to perform. After running 1,02,03 the day befor I was able to cut one and a half second off that, and set a time of 1,00,8. That put me in P9 before the first race.
Here's a video of the qualifying.
Race 1
The first race was exciting. I had a bad start, and lost a couple of places during the two first corners. Later I passed a GTR and started to get a good rythm in my driving. Lap by lap I was closing in on a Porsche cup car in front, but with a few laps to go, I get caught up by the leaders and lost a couple of seconds to the Porsche while letting them by. Eager to catch up I made a mistake braking to late into a corner. I had to use the run off area and make a u turn. The fight with the Porsche was lost, and I crused in to P7.
Here you can see the whole first race.
Race 2
This race was a bit frustrating. In the first corner several cars came together, I got through without loosing too much. I was suffering with understeering and lost a couple of places. Then the safetycar came out to clear up the crash. I wasn't good enough to keep the temperature in the tires behind the safetycar, so when the restart went, I suffered from even worse understeering. I was lacking pace to keep up with the cars in front of me, and drove in to another P7.
Race 3
Befor the start of the third race, I had convinced my self to push harder. I knew I had to be faster to keep up.
The start went, and I had a good start. I passed a car going into the first corner and was fighting side by side with a Dodge
Viper during turn 2,3 and 4. After turn four a car hit the wall pretty hard. New safety car and restart. This time around I was better prepared for the restart, and was able out brake the Dodge Viper going into Turn 1. We had a good fight, but in the end I had to give in, and he passed me. My front tires was shot and my pace started to come down. All in all this was a better race, and I ended up in P6.
Here's the race from a onboard point of view.
Sum up:
I've got some distance to the race weekend, and it's time to sum things up.
This was my first three races in the GT series. It was a blast to finaly participate in the series I decided to buy a car to two years ago. I met alot of nice people, and a special thanks to Team Ourum Racing for helping me out during the weekend.
I need to be a second or two faster to be able to fight with the guys in front, but I belive it's possible.
I made it to the finish line in all three races, scoring some points to the championship. We hope for some hard fights on the Kinnekulle circuit 25-28 July.
Regards
Inge Hansesaetre
Here's a video with highlights from the weekend.