UKGTL Season 17 Ford Asia Endurance Cup - Bahrain - Feb 27

[Wiltshire Tony]

Championship standings HERE

Grid/server capacity: 22

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (29 laps, 1 lap rolling, 28 laps racing)

Track: Bahrain International Circuit (Sakhir GP) Download this

Cars allowed: Ford Capri Mk3 Turbo Download this

Only the following cars are to be selected. CLASS A DIV 1 '81, CLASS B DIV 2 '81, DIV 2 '80 and DIV 2 '79.

Car restrictions: NONE

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: x2
Fuel consumption: Normal


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 at a slow pace.

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

4) The lead driver will increase speed as soon as it is safe to do so. The following drivers will match the speed of the car in front of them, whilst keeping a safe distance between them.

5) The lead driver will maintain slow/average speed for the duration of the lap until approaching the final corner when he will engage the speed limiter.

6) 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.

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above

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: None

[SpecialKS]

Will miss this one due to a prolonged weekend in German outback  (= Eifel mountains) without internet.
Escaping from carnival in the Cologne region 

[Wiltshire Tony]

Have a great time Kurt 

[Erling G-P]

Yes have a nice trip Kurt - and watch out for wild animals.. 

Cheers,
Erling

[Wiltshire Tony]

IMPORTANT

This race will have a rolling start. See race announcement for details.

[Wiltshire Tony]

IMPORTANT

Our server has had an "event" and poor old Pete (Picnic) is frantically getting it back to where it was at before the "event".

There is a possibility that we will not have GTL running before Monday night.

We will keep you updated so please keep checking this thread.

WT

[Wiltshire Tony]

Thanks to Picnic for rebuilding our server. Please, when you get a chance, check that you can join an online session.

[55steve55]

Thx Picnic. Joined online session and works perfectly

[Wiltshire Tony]

On pit exit there is a white line across the pit lane after the pit out lights. For safety I would recommend leaving the pit lane limiter on until after you cross the white line.

[55steve55]

Thx for the above info, Tony.

I thought I would break the silence on this post to just say I've decided on which car to run tonight and have hopefully correctly calculated how much pitting I'll need to avoid any embarrassments on the track 

[Geoffers]

I thought I would break the silence on this post to just say I've decided on which car to run tonight and have hopefully correctly calculated how much pitting I'll need to avoid any embarrassments on the track 

  Better prepared than me Steve, haven't done a lap yet!

[roguk]

Work hold up missed the start.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Well that sucked. Damaged car in rolling start when over vigorous tyre warming span me into the armco 

Car not to bad to drive tho so went on for 14/15 laps until pit stop. Car needed the full monty so spent an age in the pits. Left the pits and found my car to be almost undriveable. Steering weave and tendency to want to spin if any power applied thru a sweeping turn. Retired in shame/disgust. Hope you all have a better one.
Results will be delayed as I have to unblock a sink. Oh the glamour of motor sport eh?

[Geoffers]

Left the pits and found my car to be almost undriveable. Steering weave and tendency to want to spin if any power applied thru a sweeping turn. Retired in shame/disgust.

Exactly the problem I had at Istanbul Tony, after repairs in the pits the car is undriveable. It seems that repairs mess up the geometry leaving you with a car that wants to swap ends both into & out of corners.

[EvilClive]

Grats to the podium, that looked like quite a battle at the fast end. Bad luck Tony. But I have to confess to the merest snigger when your car shot off the track on the rolling lap. I just could not believe my eyes   I thought maybe they were giving away ice creams??

I had done no practice for this ( nothing new there!) so i copied the setup I used at the last track and just tweaked the gear ratios a little. I even opted for one of the slower Div 2 cars just so I could deal with all that turbo power etc.

Qually was on full tanks, so I was surprised to be front of the Div2 pack but was more concerned about the tyres and pitstops ( they never work well for me, in case you had not noticed) as the fuel indicator was only promising me 25 laps. What the heck! fill up and see how far you get on the first set of tyres. Mabel is on vacation and as you can see strategy is not my strong point!! lol

After a few laps I realised that although the Div 1 guys were off into the sunset I was slowly pulling away from oldgeezer. Now that worried me! I know that he has far more experience than I do in GTL so was he saving his tyres??
I decided to experiment with short shifting and discovered that I could ease out my fuel consumption. hmmm, if the fast boys lap me , which is pretty much for sure I might just be able to squeeze this without a refuel   But the tyres??  would they last at this pace??
For the next 10 laps I was like gossamer on the pedals until I was sure that I had rubber to spare. By that time the gap back to the next Div 2 car was 20+ seconds, so I just concentrated on keeping that cushion.
The biggest excitement was having the Div 1 brigade appear so quickly in the mirror, where the heck did they come from?? I hope that I did not hold anyone up.
The last few laps I backed right off ( just to be safe   ) and cruised to the flag with 0.5 laps of fuel left at the end.

I still cannot get my single brain cell around those Div 1 monsters, I might have to buy some thinner socks in order to drive them!!!