[FIA GT Race] 2009 Round One, Silverstone, May 1-3.

[15 Seconds]

The Astons ride height was too low in qualifying if thats what you are talking about.

Dani how did you use which standalone player? The feed was very good for me on the website. didnt stutter at all and I only have 2mb download speed. Just a pain having to watch that small window.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by cg7aa

No live coverage in the UK by the looks of things and I can't really justify subscribing to Setanta purely for FIA GT delayed coverage. Sigh

No live TV coverage and apparently few through the gates, weren't the shorter race distances meant to address this?

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by 15 Seconds

The Astons ride height was too low in qualifying if thats what you are talking about.

Off dsc:

And sure enough – at 08:15 the #80 Vantage is confirmed as starting from the back of the grid after failing the ride height test and having “incorrect size components on the car.”

Tom.

[Gil Abobeleira]

Originally Posted by JAG

No live TV coverage and apparently few through the gates, weren't the shorter race distances meant to address this?

Wasn't there a race as well at Brands Hatch (A1GP).

I have no idea if that one was packed or not...

Frankly, it would have been better to have the GTs and the A1GP on the same bill... But I guess neither of them would want to share the spot light!

[geeteeone]

Originally Posted by JAG

apparently few through the gates

Says who? I was there today and there seemed to be a fair crowd on hand - the paddock was particularly busy.

[geeteeone]

Originally Posted by Duffers917K

I love look of it, but after seeing it the first time alongside other GT1's does anybody else not think the GT-R looks like a bus? It's HUGE.

I was watching on the outside of Bridge today during the warmup, and the GT-R looked particularly evil handling through there, the Ford GT was much more settled. I think the GT-R has the edge on power, the Fords seemed a little bit lethargic in a straight line. They do look the part though!

[Rod Birley]

Crowd at Brands today was smaller than previous A1GP last year. Big crash in GT race halted things and circuit had to be repaired. A Viper had crashed going onto the GP loop, then after the safety car period a Lambo did the same thing only a bit harder at the same place.

[Steven Humphrey]

Originally Posted by JAG

apparently few through the gates

There was a sizeable crowd (I was marshalling) - the thing with Silverstone is that it's a sprawling circuit with thousands of grandstand seats so, apart from GP weekend, it never looks busy.

[wekatz]

What did the guys in race control think to restart the race with only half the field closed up behind the safety car?
From the leading group there were only Bartels and Sharp. The rest of the GT1 cars together with a few of GT2s were just on their way around the circuit after they were allowed to pass the safety car.
A really remarkable achievement by the officials.

[Dani Filth]

Originally Posted by 15 Seconds

The Astons ride height was too low in qualifying if thats what you are talking about.

Dani how did you use which standalone player? The feed was very good for me on the website. didnt stutter at all and I only have 2mb download speed. Just a pain having to watch that small window.

I managed to save the .swf file from the stream with another program .. and opened it with GOM Player ..

[geeteeone]

Originally Posted by wekatz

What did the guys in race control think to restart the race with only half the field closed up behind the safety car?

It was bizarre to say the least, they managed to put the safety car out at exactly the wrong moment with the leader ahead of it on track, which meant they had to basically give the entire field a wave-by. That's always a bit dodgy in multi-class racing as with the no overtaking you had faster GT1s struggling to catch up the field as they were being held up by the slower GT2s. I felt sorry for the two Corvettes, they weren't given enough time to catch up to the train behind the safety car, and we were robbed of a four-way fight for the win.

[AndrewF31]

Originally Posted by arnage arnie

There was a sizeable crowd (I was marshalling) - the thing with Silverstone is that it's a sprawling circuit with thousands of grandstand seats so, apart from GP weekend, it never looks busy.

That is good news. On screen the grandstands looked pretty scarce.

[AndrewF31]

Originally Posted by geeteeone

It was bizarre to say the least, they managed to put the safety car out at exactly the wrong moment with the leader ahead of it on track, which meant they had to basically give the entire field a wave-by. That's always a bit dodgy in multi-class racing as with the no overtaking you had faster GT1s struggling to catch up the field as they were being held up by the slower GT2s. I felt sorry for the two Corvettes, they weren't given enough time to catch up to the train behind the safety car, and we were robbed of a four-way fight for the win.

Between jittery transmissions it looked at first the pace car held in front of the Saleen but then later that was waved and ended up being the Maserati. Was there confusion on who was in the lead, either from the officials or K Plus K?
I kind of gave up following at that point as the pauses were so frequent but it did look as they reached the paddock that there was the Maserati and the Ford GT, and a Ferrari, etc. just attaching themselves to the 'group'.

[geeteeone]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Was there confusion on who was in the lead, either from the officials or K Plus K?

No confusion from either, it was obvious straight away that it was the Vitaphone Maserati that had just exited the pits that was the leader. The only confusion was that the Alphand Corvette was a little reluctant to pass the safety car when it got waved by, which probably didn't help its cause to catch up the field. The main problem was simply that they brought the safety car in before all the waved cars had caught up again.

[Steven Humphrey]

Think the problem was the efficient way the cause of the safety car (the #2 Maserati) was removed by my fellow marshals! It wouldn't normally have been a problem but because most of the field used the opportunity to pit it caused a hugely spread out and mixed up field. It's quite a common problem in this type of racing and apart from extending the safety car period until everyone has pitted and caught back up with the train, there's not a lot that can be done.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Official attendance number is 25,000 for the weekend.

[Speedblood]

Originally Posted by NightStalk3r

Have Saleen developed a diesel engine over the winter

Thought that or they actually have a twin turbo edition they snuck into the race.

[Osella]

Originally Posted by Stranger

Official attendance number is 25,000 for the weekend.

Which isn't bad, I'd say. Paddock was busy.

When wast the last time 4 Saleen S7s started a race?

thoroughly enjoyed yesterday - I just wish I could remember to bring an MW radio grrrr..!

oh... and can someone clear up the 'Twin turbo' designation that follows one of the S7s??

[The Badger]

Yeah , its a misprint .

[Tom87]

Enjoyed the race but can't help but feel that whatever rule breaks the Saleen is enjoying is a little outside the spirit of the rules - to see the Maserati with 10 or 12 car lengths down the hangar straight, defend to the inside and STILL be passed clean around the outside seemed a little daft, it looked more like P1 vs GT1 than GT1 vs GT1! Even in their heyday the diesels didn't have that kind of straight line advantage.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Tom87

Enjoyed the race but can't help but feel that whatever rule breaks the Saleen is enjoying is a little outside the spirit of the rules - to see the Maserati with 10 or 12 car lengths down the hangar straight, defend to the inside and STILL be passed clean around the outside seemed a little daft, it looked more like P1 vs GT1 than GT1 vs GT1! Even in their heyday the diesels didn't have that kind of straight line advantage.

Thats strange, I haven't been able to attend the past two years, but in 2007 the Maserati had the legs on the Hangar straight, followed closely by the Astons.

[Rodger Davies]

The Saleen was candy-baby easily passing down the straight and the Corvette's also looked hindered by these rules.

The worst thing about the safety car wasn't the GT1 battle, which was always going to be #14 vs #1, but the fact that it ruined an excellent battle in GT2 which involved several cars including a charging Aston Martin. However, because of endurance racing's multi-class format this is always likely to be the case: My idea would be to use two different safety cars, one for each class leader.

The one thing I'm taking away from the weekend is an immense amount of disappointment about the series' future. Not about the cars (although heck, I'd rather there were no new GT1s at all) but at the fact that the highlight of the weekend, the feature race, is going to become two one hour races. What a joke, two hours was hardly enough and now they'll be awarding the Tourist Trophy to the winner of the second of two hour races?

[chunterer]

Thoroughly enjoyable 2 days for me, cracking weather on Saturday (no wind and lovely warm sunshine at Silverstone?!!!) followed by a more usual windy day yesterday!

The GT3 series really is a great little championship, I think they could be in danger of massive oversubscription so it is sensible to limit it to 6 or so cars per make, for the moment!!! It was great to see the little Morgan's romping home in both races - methinks they'll be ballasted a bit more shortly!!! The R8's looked strong on their debut but did they sufer from brake problems towards the end of both races?

Oh and the shunt between Bert and Mutsch seemed an inevitable conclusion to a great battle in race 2; The Viper held him off for ages, but finally frustration told on the part of the Ford GT man as he could see the #100 Morgan closing in rapidly and needed to get on with things!!

The main race was not bad, but like others who've already posted I couldn't quite understand how the Saleen which was last competitive in Zakspeeds's hands was going so well even if Wendlinger is a fantastic driver as we all know! Combinatioj of extra weight for the MC12's and less restriction on the S7's perhaps?

For me #14 was well clear all race, the only doubts surfacing after that dodgy safety car period. I think the #18 car would've been in contention for a 2nd or 3rd because it was held up by the 2 Vette's eartly on and pitted early it seemed to try and get track position. It was clearly making up ground in Dominguez's hands, as Wendlinger in the lead car seemed as though he was falling away from it when #18 rejoined not far in front, albeit nearly a lap down?

However when 18 should've been able to close up or get ahead of the 2 Vette's around the SC period it got bottled up behind a few GT2's in the '3rd' group of cars I think and that was that!

I still think it was a shame there were no DBR9's there, or a Murcialago, just to add a little more dimension to the GT1 field in the last year for these cars. Just didn't seem right? I guess Prodrive must've put up the price for Aston spares or something!!!!!

Dunno what happened to the Skyline? It went past me with near side rear tyre off the rim and then never seen again? I thought they'd have put it out again for more mileage but must've been damaged?

[rich07]

Rear suspension failure on the GT-R is what I heard.

[NightStalk3r]

Originally Posted by rich07

Rear suspension failure on the GT-R is what I heard.

a few corners before the tire let go the rear did seem to be unaturally bouncy, so mabe the damper failed?