Shark wins on Ford GT debut
@ iRacing.com, by Simon Gymer, Sunday, January 15, 2012
 With no other races on and at a loose end I dove in at the deep end by joining the Fixed Setup iRacing Prototype & GT Challenge series in the Ford GT, a car I've never driven with in a race before.
I had 2 laps to familiarise myself with the lardy beast, but even then I was fairly confident that if I drove sensibly I could finish the race. After all a car is a car. With so few qualifiers in any class I started mid-pack but in pole position for the GT2 class.
After the pack had disposed of the 2 GT2 drivers, Marco Di Fanti, the 2nd GT2 driver, closed in on me as I got a bit more up to speed with the car. However, the gods smiled on me as the LMP2 drivers came up to lap us quickly and whilst Marco lost lots of time I did not. This gave me a comfortable lead from which I never looked back to take my first Ford GT win in my first Ford GT race.
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Prof sneaks podium at Le Mans
@ SimRacing.org.uk, by Stephen Carr, Sunday, January 01, 2012
 A good start to the year. Not only have Bath finally won a game of rugby, but Prof gained an unlikely podium at the UKGTR special race at Le Mans in his new LMP2 Lola. With very few laps in preparation, Prof qualified in seventh place and had to hope that steady pace would gain places as others made mistakes on the high speed, low downforce circuit.
Prof had a steady first stint gaining just one place before all the LMP2 runners needed to stop for fuel. He decided not to take tyres which took him up to fifth, about a quarter of a minute ahead of ApexUSA. Prof lost ground to those ahead but kept the gap back to Apex roughly the same until the last 20 minutes when the tyres started to wear out. Fuel was also going to be critical. Once Jose dropped out, Prof gained fourth place and by short shifting on the last two laps time was lost to prevent the need for a splash and dash.
As Apex closed to within two seconds on the last lap, Roadrunner had an accident leaving a richly undeserved podium as a bonus result for a hard but fun night's work.
Happy New Year to all Team Shark members and I hope to be racing you regularly in 2012.
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Setup Added - iRacing, Williams-Toyota FW31, Indy (Road)
by Simon Gymer,Sunday, January 01, 2012
A new iRacing, Williams-Toyota FW31, Indy (Road) setup (1:08.6 -Q
1:09.2 - R) has been added by Simon Gymer. To download it, click here to go to the team's setup garage.
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Setup Added - iRacing, Dallara IndyCar, Okayama (Full)
by Simon Gymer,Saturday, December 31, 2011
A new iRacing, Dallara IndyCar, Okayama (Full) setup (1:18.9 - R) has been added by Simon Gymer. To download it, click here to go to the team's setup garage.
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A Shark Win In The Season Finale
@ SimRacing.org.uk, by Simon Gymer, Tuesday, November 15, 2011
 Team Shark owner and driver Simon 'Shark' Gymer secured a win in the LMP2 class at Daytona (Road Course) for the season finale of SimRacing.org.uk's UKiR Endurance Season 7.
After qualifying 4th Simon wasn't expecting too much from the race, but it was soon clear his low downforce setup was giving him an advantage over other drivers as he passed pole sitter Peter Ridley and Dmitry Sivkov. Dmitry gave chase to Simon for a long time, hanging onto his coat tails and managing to force Simon into a mistake before the 1st pit stops. However, quicker pit stops saw Simon move into 2nd with a 20 second cushion after the 2nd stop.
With James Hughes leading by a small but comfortable margin, Simon chased hard, finally getting rewarded as James spun off trying to maintain the gap with about 13 laps to go. With the lead Simon only had one minor wobble before stroking it home for the victory (his first and only of the season).
Simon finished 7th in the drivers championship, while the team's co-founder Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer missed out on 3rd position to finish 4th in the drivers championship having missed the final two rounds because of a 5 week trip to New Zealand. However it wasn't all a case of missing championship podiums as the team secured 2nd in the team championship behind TWFR.
Click here for the series final standings.
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Team Shark Victorious at Lime Rock
@ SimRacing.org.uk, by Jon Moore, Friday, November 11, 2011
Jon Moore won his 1st race of the UKGTR Season 15 Lower Endurance series at Lime Rock for Team Shark taking a comfortable victory by 43 seconds over nsfast and API.
Starting from Pole Position in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup the Team Shark driver established a healthy lead but pushed too hard and ended up spinning twice in the 1st half of the race.
After the pitstops Jon came out behind nsfast who had opted to not change his tyres in hope of jumping him in the pitstops, which he did but his tyres didn't have enough life left in them to keep a strong pace up. This left a quick overtake and a comfortable race to the finish.
Full results here. Setup posted in the Team Shark Setups Garage.
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Setup Added - GTR 2, Porsche 997 GT3-RSR, Lime Rock(chicane)
by Jon Moore,Friday, November 11, 2011
A new GTR 2, Porsche 997 GT3-RSR, Lime Rock(chicane) setup () has been added by Jon Moore. To download it, click here to go to the team's setup garage.
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UKiR S7 - Endurance Sundays - Okayama
@ SimRacing.org.uk, by Simon Gymer, Sunday, October 30, 2011
 After a month's abscence from racing Simon returned for the penultimate round of the SimRacing.org.uk's UKiR Season 7 Endurance Sundays championship.
Simon shocked the team by putting his HPD ARX-01c LMP2 car 3rd on the grid, albeit in a reduced field size of 5 LMP2s and 7 Ford GTs.
With the fuel knob set to maximum Simon's plan was to see how far it got him on a full tank and then adjust the fuel setting after the stop to try and make it to the end having stopped only once. Peter Ridley soon fell off leaving Simon in 2nd place and chasing Richard Walker.
As the clocked ticked half way down Simon pitted, but knew that he had to save some fuel in the second stint to make it to the end without another stop. He turned the fuel knob down to the lowest setting and stuck with it until 4 laps to go when it was apparent he might be able to make it with a higher setting. Indeed turning up the wick again at the end he set his fastest lap, but it was almost too early as he passed the chequered flag with only 0.7lbs of fuel left, whilst Richard Walker had taken the win 30 seconds earlier.
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End Of Season Awards
@ iRacing.com, by Simon Gymer, Wednesday, October 26, 2011
  Another season of racing over at iRacing.com and team owner and driver
Simon Gymer has been awarded 5 more awards.
First, the Rovaler award for participating in a full season of a Road and
Oval series in the same season. Second, 4 Full Season Competitor awards for participating in a full season
of an Oval Race series, an Oval Time Trial series, a Road Race series and
finally a Road Time Trial series.
This brings Simon's total award count to 31 of the 72 available.
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Setup Added - iRacing, Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, Watkins Glen (Classic Boot)
by Dave Gymer,Saturday, October 22, 2011
A new iRacing, Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, Watkins Glen (Classic Boot) setup (57s possible, 56s with low fuel and fresh tyres.) has been added by Dave Gymer. To download it, click here to go to the team's setup garage.
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