Open GT 2018

Our first open GT night took place yesterday and it was a race night with lots of different cars and colours. And what an eventful night it was..

The starting grid: (photo by Rick Sirrom, thank you)



Drivers from left to right to back: Rick, Sebastian, Alan, Mike and Sandra.

Qualifying was quite uneventful, but the main race made up for it . Fast and furious is the best word to describe the main race. 50 laps a heat was almost going down as an endurance race.

Sebastian and Sandra started in the first heat and Sandra had difficulties with the blue lane which is very unusual, but the Mock Gulf Mosler just didn't do what Sandra wanted it to do...hopping out of the slot on a straight and fishtailing were high on the agenda, whereas Sebastian roamed on the track like the devil in disguise beating Sandra by an equivalent of 3 laps and a bit. Sebastian said after that Sandra's car had quite an adventurous race. Indeed that is a good description.

The furious 3 attended the race line and Mike took off in style leading the race for 45 laps in total whereas Alan was fighting a bit with the red lane and some deslots. Rick cruised in blue with one or 2 deslots and took even the lead for 5 laps. Winner was Mike though, who had a great race on green followed by Rick. It is worth mentioning that the fastest lap in that race went to Alan with a 5.141, but he couldn't maintain a high speed throughout.

The next heat saw Sebastian loosing the battle with yellow lane whereas it was Sandra's turn to cruise happily in green. Sebastians frustration was clearly noticeable and he lost by almost 9 laps. Perhaps we should call yellow the devil's lane? Sebastian however had the fastest lap in yellow with 5.246 in that heat.

Rick won the following heat in green with one off and a fastest lap of 5.1.....will anyone scratch the below 5 mark that evening?? A close race between Sebastian and Sandra with a win for Sebastian made that tie close. By then Sandra realised that she has a guide which is too big for the ASR track and she awaited anxiously the devil's (yellow ) lane. Rick won the next race between the furious 3 with a fastest lap of 5.041 !! We are getting closer.

The devil's lane arrived for Sandra and boyo what a frustrating heat. 2 corners where the Mosler's guide just didn't make it and got stuck. It wiggled itself free after a such a show a rattle snake would be proud of. Precious seconds were lost. Sebastian raced comfortably to victory with a best lap of 5.118 on green.

The last heat seemed to be a decider who will be on top podium. Sandra felt that all were good candidates with Rick and Mike having a slight advantage over Alan, but wait...Rick was in the devil's lane, Mike in the cruiser blue lane and Alan in green which is the best lane to race in between the 3. Will Alan race like the devil and make it? Alan had a good start, but Rick was clearly having a bad day in yellow, he deslotted a few times and mostly on the straight !!! He lost 4 laps in all de slotting on the straight. What a disaster! Rick kept it together though and despite the anger and frustration coming out he kept going. Alan had a few de slots in green while Mike cruised happily and patiently in blue. But wait !!!!! There was the fastest lap of the night !! A 4.949 by Alan in green !! Sadly it wasn't good enough. He lost to Mike by 7 seconds, followed by Rick who lost valuable time in yellow. Interestingly, despite Sandra's rattling along in yellow, she was the fastest in yellow that night .....

Here the results :

That makes Alan the second fastest lap record holder since track opening in 2017. Record holder is still Tom with 4.856 sec. But records are there to be broken, who will be the one throwing Tom off his throne? Wait and see.....