SimRacing.org.uk

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Track: Indianapolis Oval Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_IndyOval)

Cars allowed: Shelby Mustang Boss 302 Download this (http://gizmo71.www.idnet.com/srou/ukgtl/cars/SRou_GTL_69Boss302Mustang_1.1.0.0.exe)

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (44 laps, 1 rolling, 43 racing)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: ROLLING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: 2x

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.


Special Notes: Rolling start procedure will be implemented for this race. See below for details.

1) When qualifying ends drivers will join the grid as usual, before the timer countdown ends.

2) At the green light the pole position driver (lead driver) will be responsible for moving off with limiter ON.

3) The remaining drivers will follow the driver in front of them forming a SINGLE FILE formation.

4) The lead driver will maintain limiter speed (limiter may be switched off) until the start line is reached. Having crossed the start line the lead car will begin race speed.

7) Following drivers may not exceed limiter speed (lead drivers speed) or attempt any overtaking until the start line is crossed.

IMPORTANT

This event has been revised. Please read the race announcement for details.

IMPORTANT

This is a very fast track and in certain circumstances e.g. pitting in/pitting out, a bad scenario could happen.

To help prevent this drivers are asked to consider the following guidance.

PIT IN - You should enter the pit in lane after T4. You may message your intention to pit in before T3.

PIT OUT - You should leave the pits and follow the track around. Do not join the racing track until after T2. You may message your intention to pit out at T2.

I am grateful to Bob for passing on this useful information.  :thumbup1:

Probably a good idea to practice the above  :yes:

No Tony ! In real races the Pit in is on start straight after Turn4 and Pit out is on counter straight there is a natural line for do it. Please, you have put the right rule for safety or here become a mess ! If one no respect this rules it s right put a penalty. You need to be tough on this point. Entry or go out to the track between T1 T2 or T3 T4 is very dangerous. This operations on straights is OK.

Anyone else have a view on this?

With my ( very ) limited experience of ovals I am happy to abide by whatever you more experienced guys decide regarding pitstops. My pitstop will go horribly wrong as always, so I am quite likely to be emerging amongst the faster cars at some point.

But, I do have one question about the start .....

7) Following drivers may not exceed limiter speed (lead drivers speed) or attempt any overtaking until the start line is crossed.

 If one is at the rear of the grid, running in single file, when the lead car crosses the S/F line (and effectively starts racing) do we have to sit on our limiters until we get our cars to the line, whilst the leaders are running away full speed for several seconds?
or
are we allowed to "give it beans" as soon as the lead car crosses the S/F line and accelerates?

You go as fast as the car in front of you until you cross the line.
Pole sitter sets the pace and everyone else follows his lead.

The pole man has just a problem about rolling start, it s the start line because is not easy see well it.
I hope to not take the pole here for this reason, start second or third is better, also because I think that the pitstop will decide this race

As long as he's reasonably close to it, I don't see it as a problem if he doesn't hit the mark exact - the race is already on, so no false start and no S/G because of it.  The pole man (who will surely be you  ;)) just decides when & where the race starts.

Haven't looked at the track yet, so can't comment on the pit in/out procedure.  Do have a question though:  Is it clear cut which turns are T1, T2 etc ?   Remember being quite confused about this on our first oval outing.

Cheers,
Erling

Sorry I was wrong on the pit enter, It is as Ziu says after turn 4.   I ran a race last nite offline and fuel was very close with the PLR set up at 2X, and only 1 pit stop, or are we supposed to make 2 stops?  After 20 laps on the first tank, I filled and ran out just before the S/F at the end.  With the added lap at the start maybe not make it on 1 stop.  Sorry about giving Tony bad info, MY BAD!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVQah4oZYrU&t=26s
Bob M.

Indy is a bit different to other ovals because it has short straights between T1 & T2 & between T3 & T4 so should not be a problem.

Fuel sounds like it could be interesting, go flat out & make 2 stops or take it a little easier & only do one stop!

The starting line is that formed by bricks, the problem is that the line is very thin and the banner on the finish line is missing.

I raced only 2 times  at Indy in GCMCL, Race 1 in qualy i was third and i won the race with an overtake on opposite straight at last lap. Race 2 i start from last place on the grid becasue the rule was that pudium race1 not could join to qualy 2 and i won race 2 also. There was Bob also, i dont know if he remeber it.
But this story is just to say that at Indy the qualy position not is important.

At Darlington qualy was important because is a little complicated overtake, the straights are most short than Indy straight and mostly the Turn 2 not easy, you think that i had one setup for qualy, and one for race own because Turn2 was different too much different without fuel or with fuel.

Instead if you can have an output very fast from Turn 2 and Turn 4, you can overtake for sure.


Now the problem is that in GCMCL i was driving Barracuda and was very good the input on the corner, but Boss302 is more understeering so not is easy find a good setup. I m not still satisfied i have a goal on my time lap and it missing 0,2 seconds to get it.

IMPORTANT

Post regarding pit in/out procedure now revised.

Number of laps increased to 44 (1 rolling, 43 racing)

Did a few laps last night, biggest issue seems to be engne health. I was losing about 1% per lap or maybe two laps
Make sure you have a big number for health at the start, or you may not finish however well you drive.
Got down to 1:02.5 best efforts.

I have to disagree with this, the track map on the loading screen shows the pit entry lane starting just before T3 & running around the inside of Turns 3 & 4. Driving the track this is indeed the case, the pit entry lane starts before T3. Similarly the pit exit lane runs right around until after T2. So you both enter & leave the track on the back straight.

I m agree Geoffers, i said to you on PM Tony. Anyway i dont understood why in the reality the PIT IN is on the starting straight after Turn 4. I m thinking that is for a safety reason.

As I understand it it depends on who is useing the track and when.  Presently NASCAR is useing the system that we have posted,  I believe in the past they used the system that Geoff noted and also some other series use the enter/exit on the back straight.. 

Bob M.

As long as you give following drivers notice of your intentions via message "Pit In" then please use whichever pit in you want. I did notice that the AI pit in after T4. I also noted the lane off from the back straight before T3 which seems only to be for pitting in.
Like I say use whichever approach you want. At least it is agreed that pit out follows the track around and you rejoin the circuit after T2, which is also what the AI do.

Tony, I m not agree. It s clear that who PIT IN after T4 get a big advantage. Please take a decision for all. I think that s better not change because I sure that on practice all tested PIT IN after T4. Second point it s better for safety because not is nice cut the opposite straight with other cars at full speed. PIT IN on T4 not is difficult because the line is very closed for who is going to pitstop.   

Just returned from a weekend at Brands Hatch ( with evidence of over exposure to the sun, but we won't talk about that ok!!??) and have caught up on this debate.

For me the solution might be simple...avoid making a pitstop if I can make the fuel last for the whole race.  ;)


 But, just in case I need to make a stop, I might try a few off-line practice laps later today and take a look at the pit in/out options. I will not be offering an opinion on this ( even after I take a look) as I don't have a enough experience of ovals or pitstops to make an informed judgement.

OK Tony.

I will be using the back straight entry as I think it is safer, although as Ziu said it will lose time, probably 5s or so each stop.

If you can, you're either a magician, or not competing with the rest of us - you need two stops to complete this..  ;) (Fuel is 2x, in case you haven't noticed - and (some of) your tyres will have melted by half distance..)

Cheers,
Erling

OK so that is Plan A screwed!!!

Looks like I am going to have to take a look at the pitstop procedure, and issue a warning to everyone to avoid making their stops whilst I have my car in the pitlane!!  lol

Basic error in one too many laps before pitting so ran out of fuel. Very embarrassing  >:(

ctd again around lap 20 just before I intended to pit  ???

No idea why my system leads to ctd's on highspeed tracks without any gear changes like Brooklands, Daytona or Indy.

Anyway - fun as long as it lasted

I arrived home from Golf just in time for qualifying  All was going surprisingly well considering I had done virtually no practice. At least ovals are easy to remember. Pulled in for my pit stop late and selected tyres and fuel.  On my way out I noticed I had not been refuelled in my 36 second pit stop and ran out of fuel just before I managed to reach my pit again after my enforced extra lap.

Something went wrong, I expect it was called misnoimis. Frustrating  :cursing: but at least I had half a race.

Grats winner and podiums.  :clap:

Replay and results now posted.

Grotty night for me. Drove into the back of a sporadically lagging Huggy, car flipped over and I slid along the track on my roof for ages. Then after my first pit stop I received a pit lane speeding penalty  :taz:
 After that my race was over as every man and his dog had lapped me. Kept going as I do like these big oval tracks, even though I cannot setup my car to get the best speed through the turns.

Bit of a kerfuffle during the rolling lap but fortunately at low speed I think only pride was dented.

Thanks to everyone who turned up, hope you had a better night than me  ::)

That was quite an unexpected win for me, but I'll take what I can get  :)

In qual, Ziu was of course fastest, with Geoffers 2nd. I kept lapping, chipping away at my laptimes, and much to my surprise, it was enough to pip Geoffers for 2nd.  As Tony mentions, there were some confusion on the warm up lap, when Ziu slowed in the final turns.  Caught out Geoff, who hit my car and spun out. Luckily there was plenty of time to straighten out things before the start.

Couldn't live with Ziu's speed, so he quickly opened up a gap.  Geoffers had no problem staying with me on the other hand, the gap being a mere 0.5 secs at best.  Started dropping when tyre wear was sneaking in, but just as the pressure mounted on me, he suddenly vanished. Happened so abruptly that I feared he had disconnected, but fortunately he just went for an early pitstop.

Gave me a little breather, as the gap to the next car down the line was about 5 secs.  Couldn't relax though, as it was obvious every second would count.  Ziu did an early stop too, and I inherited the lead.   In pre-race praccy & qual, I had scratched my head over how well the tyres held up. First stint of the race confirmed my suspicions.  I had apparently forgotten to reset the 2x tyre wear from last week's race, and thus done all my practice with this.  Quick modification of pit strategy needed then. Original plan was to pit at the end of L19, fill up & change tyres. Then pit again at the end of L38, for a splash'n'dash only.  Had tested that the tyres would hold.  With wear halved, it meant I didn't need to change them at all, but still stuck to the planned laps - didn't want to screw up by changing too much..  :)

Rejoined 5th and soon back in 2nd after my 1st stop.  Gap to car behind had dropped to just under 10 secs, but if I did flying laps, it was just about holding, so much concentration required.  Early stop from Ziu again put me in the lead.  Puzzled about seeing him in the pits for a 3rd time, when I later passed with driver tags on. Did he have trouble ?  And did that mean I had a shot at winning, if I could stay ahead of Geoff ? In the laps up to my final stop, I had 1 lap lead to the next car, but with the infinitely long pit lane, my stop would surely take more than 1 minute.  Could I possibly stay in the lead ?  Relieved to find myself still in 1st after the stop, with 20 secs to 2nd place. With 6 laps to go, I could cruise home, trying to make the tortured right front tyre last.

Grats to Geoffers & Ziu for the other podiums, but commiserations to Ziu for losing the lead, and to all those who ran out of fuel or suffered other problems.  Thanks to the few I lapped for helping me past.

Cheers,
Erling

Ooo-er wasn't aware of my lagging Tony, sorry. Weirdly, your flip was visible in my mirror, about half a straight back, and was puzzled as to what happened! How the heck does that work? ????.   As to my race, would have finished one place up, but for putting too little fuel in on my second pit stop, otherwise I thought it went pretty well.

Well, I have to be happy with 5th.

It looks like my attendance may be a bit sporadic for the remainder of the season as my time both to race and practice has become somewhat restricted due to work. Tonight in qualy was the 1st time I had driven the track in anger and even then I only managed to join with about 8 minutes to go so was very surprised not to line up at the rear of the grid.

About all I knew was I was going to need 2 pit stops (I assumed for both fuel and tyres). As the race progressed but unfortunately after my 1st stop it became apparent that a full race on a single set of tyres just might be possible so just took fuel at the 2nd stop which saved me a bit of time. Had a good tussle with Clive early on but was caught out by his entry into 1 of the turns and swiped the barrier quite hard taking evasive action and the steering was never quite right after that going from slight under steer to over steer with little warning, but nothing I couldn't live with so pressed on. Jumped Clive at the pit stop and had quite a lonely race for the last 3rd of the race lapping a few and also being lapped myself. Only positions gained were due to passing people when they pitted. But for all of that I do like ovals, I try not to but have to admit I've had some of my best races on them.

TTFN
John.

Yes I too noticed a large lag once huggy!

I too had an over speed in the pit stop but on my first attempt to carry it out my pit crew were either asleep or hidden behind Geoff's car, so I had to go around once more to make a successful penalty stop at the second attempt. ???

I have never had a great deal of experience on Ovals, so I struggle to find get setups to work.  During qually, and even through the race, I was discovering ways to chip tenths off of my time as I experimented with rolling off and on to the gas pedal and various turn in points.

Before the race started I knew that pitstops would be the low point. I had done zero research or planning on what would be required, relying on Erling's warning that it was impossible to complete the race without a stop. It was obvious during qually that the front right tyre was going to be subject to a lot of abuse and might need some attention, but the rears? hmmmm maybe they might survive?

So I started the race with a full tank and planned to "wait and see" what was needed. The rolling start was eventful and a few cars ahead lost tail lights and a layer of paint, it was all quite confusing to those of us a little further back in the field. But as we crossed the strip normal service was resumed and for the first laps I was able to tag along behind oldgeezer until I missed my turn in at T1 and performed a safety test on the concrete wall at the exit. The rebound sent me onto the pit exit lane road and lost me some ground.
All went well until lap 19 when I had to make my first stop. Fumbled over the pit board and wasted precious seconds as I opted for safety and changed the front tyres, along with another full tank.
The next stint was quite lonely but I was able to improve my line at various corners, although I was frustrated that I seemed unable to stitch a full lap together. After all, there are only 4 corners and they are all left handers!!!. how difficult can that be???

Another 19 laps and a moment of indecision at the pit entry ( I wondered if I could squeeze another lap) and some over heavy braking caused me to lose the rear end and hit the inner pit wall and stall the engine. The frantic pit stop that followed highlighted my lack of preparation. I loaded far too much fuel and managed to fit new front tyres even though I felt that I had enough rubber to get to the flag.

Far too long in the pits on both stops dropped me back, but my result was probably better than I was expecting before the race as I was not confident of even finishing.
Grats to Erling and the usual 3 front runners. The pace you guys were posting is a total mystery to me. A second a lap does not sound like much. but on these ovals that is a lifetime. I felt that on many laps I was on the very limit of what I could achieve with the setup I was running.

So if we are going to run more ovals I might need to do some serious homework!!!

After the pre-race discussion about fuel, this ended up being a race about tyres. I had several tactics in mind, even thought about how slow I would have to go to save enough fuel to make only one stop, but didn't have time to try them out.

The rolling start saw a slight altercation as Ziu slowed to engage speed-limiter I got caught out & bumped Erling & then Matt bumped me & I nearly spun. Fortunately I was able to regain my place in the line & set off after Ziu & Erling. Plan was to stop early & top off the fuel avoiding any mid-race rush for the pits & then fill up & change tyres at the second stop. Plan worked great except Erling out-thought all of us & didn't change tyres  ::).

Nearly had one nasty moment when Huggy's car froze & I hit it, luckily it vanished at that moment too so just had a slight jolt. Caught Huggy again near the end so eased the pace the last 3 laps & drove on the parts of the track Huggy wasn't using in case it happened again.

Congrats to Erling & Ziu & all finishers.  :clap: :clap: :clap:

I'm going to miss the next 3 races, so see you all again for Capris at Sepang, have fun.  :thumbup2:

Was rather enjoying that one. it looked like it would just do 22 laps, but at lap20 the fuel light started flashing
but I thought "Oh Tony will have planned it so it just works out at a one stopper.... wrong
car cuts out on the lap I was going to pit..  :taz:

Clive, if you change tyres, you might as well change all 4.  I timed pitstops in earlier events, and there's no time saved by only changing one axle - in fact, it may take longer, since you have to actively deselect those you won't have changed.

Setup wise, my setup here differed greatly from the one used for our first oval race. For that I did all sorts of experiments with asymmetrical setups, with firmer righthand side settings, but eventually only the tyre pressures were asymmetrical - all suspension settings were set as soft as possible, as that was quickest for me.

Used that as a base for this race, but quickly discovered that firming up the righthand side settings made me faster, so ended up with very soft left side and very hard right side.  When driving, I braked lightly, very deep into the corners, when coming from the long straights.  No other 'secrets' to my laptimes, but you're probably better off asking Ziu how he achieved his times..  ;)

Cheers,
Erling

Results (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/Indy_03072017)

8)

Good race for me, ran a few  full races before hand and set up a strategy and stuck to it.  Ran the same setup as Dartlington with 1 click stiffer springs on the right side.  More tinkering didn't produce anything for me so that was that.  When Tony decided on this track he ask me to test for him and I found the tires would run the whole race without a blowout no problem with my setup.  Lost about a second a lap as the race wore on towards the end, but I never have any luck with full service pitstops so decided to run the race from start to finish on the one set and just add fuel when I had to. Only excitement for me was the start when we had the accordian effect before the line and I got bumped a little and jerked the wheel a little off center causing me to bump the T1 curb a little too much.  Clive got past me when I was straightning out the wheel and tightening the clamps, but latter repast him.  Other than that just focused on hitting my marks and getting through the pitstops without any snaggs.  Grats to the podium and all that finished....  Next week is Can Ams, these cars are a little too twitchy for me and I'm always a little behind in the reflex department. 

Bob M.

Thank you Kurt  :thumbup1: