Moderator's Report

Congrats to everyone on a good clean start and a reasonably clean first lap. I may have more spare time than I thought this season.

Congratulations to Mike Ratcliffe for a faultless drive in his Eagle and what I think may be his first UKGPL win. Second place went to Chris Bull in a Lotus so both of these drivers will need to adapt to more modest machinery for the next round. Third was Bernie Darwin in a Cooper, who over the last lap just managed to shake off his perpetual shadow in the shape of Ian Stanley in his Honda. Bernie and Ian look well placed to do well this season on the basis of this result with the slower cars.

Lap 1 T8 : Artur Le Marquand and Taj Fangio
Taj goes down the inside of Art at the right-hander, turn eight, and Art pulls across into him. It was obvious from Art’s mirrors that Taj was likely to be there and thus Art should not have turned in at that point. We would normally look for the overtaking car achieving something like a half-car overlap at the point of turn-in for the overtaking driver to establish his right to the inside line at a corner. In this case Taj has actually become visible when Art reaches the turn-in point. The standard tariff is two places plus one for a lap one incident. I have reduced the penalty on the basis that Taj disappeared from Art’s mirrors quite early but this does not absolve Art from his responsibility to ensure that there is no-one substantially alongside before turning in.

• Art — penalty — Side by Side Contact — 2 places lost

Lap 1 T13 : Ed Harrison
Ed clips the Armco on the exit of turn 13, the last lefthander of The Esses. This puts him into a spin, which I have no trouble with but he then appears to deliberately steer his car to reverse across the track, knowing that he has cars following him. When you go off piste in this manner the best bet is to jump on the anchors and bring the car under control before venturing back onto the track. To deliberately steer the car to affect your fastest possible return to the fray, irrespective of what havoc you may cause to other drivers races is not on. Last season I tried to follow the practice of mitigation if the miscreant actually missed everyone and so I will reduce the penalty to one place, plus the additional place for a lap one incident.

• Ed Harrison — penalty — Bad Rejoin — 2 places lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

Following on from Ed’s antics, Dave Lawrence manages to miss him but the sight of Ed’s spinning Lotus causes Tim Robey to lift his foot off the go pedal and he starts to spin. Once his wheels find the grass he has no way back and this launches him across the front of Burt, who is hot on his heels. This pair go careering off the track to the left, where they swiftly sort themselves out and rejoin. Ed, following his earlier misdemeanour, then completed a textbook rejoin as a seemingly endless stream of cars appeared alongside him without ever appearing in his mirrors.

Tim Robey/Robert Burton Racing Incident

Lap 2 T5 (Hairpin) : Ed Harrison and Robert Burton
Ed follows Burt too closely through the hairpin and tags his rear wheel. Burt needs a Shift-R to recover and this is allowed on a no-fault basis. I have reduced the tariff from two places to one on the basis that this is just a minor error rather than an all out assault.

• Ed Harrison — penalty — Rear End Shunt — 1 place lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

Lap 2 T13 : Ed Harrison and Tim Robey
Ed’s second attempt at this corner isn’t a great deal better than the first and again he deliberately steers his car to reverse across the track in front of Tim. On the basis that he missed his target I have again reduced the penalty to one place.

• Ed Harrison — penalty — Bad Rejoin — 1 place lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

Lap 3 T9 : Ian Docherty
Ian needs a replacement Eagle on lap three and performs a reasonable SnG but too far away from the wall. The time taken to perform a SnG close to the pit wall can be greater than that taken if it is performed further away due to the increased caution needed when near the wall. You don’t want to wipe the wheels off and therefore you tend to approach with caution. Hence, an incorrect SnG carries a time penalty of 5 seconds.

• batestfastard — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 6 T1 : Dave Lawrence and Taj Fangio
Taj is ahead and loses control in T1, like so many before him. When Dave arrives he has had no yellow flags waved at him and thus with Taj coming to rest with his Eagle on a radial line and with his gearbox a good few feet from the Armco he is hard pressed to miss the stationary car. He almost made it but not quite.

Racing Incident

Lap 6 T5 : Ian Docherty
Ian needs another replacement Eagle on lap six and performs a reasonable SnG but too far away from the wall.

• batestfastard — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 6 T6 : Ian Stanley and Bernie Darwin
Bernie has 4th spot and Ian wants to take it. This situation persisted throughout the entire race and unfortunately for Ian, when Bernie made the only big mistake that I saw, by spinning at T6, Ian indulged in a spot of synchronised spinning and the order remained the same. When Bernie begins to lose it, he recovers the situation with a 360 degree spin. I would normally regard this as most unfriendly, knowing as he did, that Ian was very close behind and I would classify it as a bad rejoin. Two mitigating factors in this instance mean that I will just issue a caution for the benefit of anyone else that might be tempted to try this type of manoeuvre. Firstly, Ian had begun to lose control himself before Bernie had reacted in any way and secondly I cannot be sure that Bernie was not just reacting to the unforgiving wall on his right. Without the wall I would have expected Bernie to hit brakes and throttle simultaneously when he first felt that he was losing it. In GPL, this has the effect of making the front end slide to match the slide at the back and thus bring you back to face the right way. The back does not slide any more because by keeping some power on it stops the rears from locking. Apologies to those “old hands” who already know this but we have a few newbies in our midst and I think that it will be in everyone’s interest if you all know how to get out of these situations. (Very good at Parabolica when you think that you are going off gearbox first. ;-) )

• bernie — caution — Bad Rejoin

Lap 7 Esses : Artur Le Marquand and Taj Fangio
Art and Taj encounter each other in the Esses on lap seven. Taj has treated his Eagle to a bit of punishment over the laps prior to this encounter and it does not appear to be completely predicable as a result. Art seems to catch this malaise as he gets closer and as a result they touch. Neither car appeared to be entirely under control to start with and thus I believe that this is best classified as a racing incident.

Racing Incident

Lap 10 Pit Stop : Will Tway
Having just gained the lead, Will’s Ferrari starts to splutter as it nears the end of the lap and the end of the fuel that he has put in it. Will makes a “crash landing” in the pits and then does a Shift-R to take on more fuel and fresh boots. Sorry Will but that means that you need to do a separate SnG under Clubmans Cup rules. It is Div1 and Div2 that can make a pit stop in this way. As far as Clubmans Cup is concerned Will would have been better off to have pulled off the track and done a quick reset when it started to sputter as this would have allowed him to carry out a SnG at the end of the lap and then continue on his merry way.

• Will Tway — Missed SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 12 Pit Stop : Will Tway
Will doesn’t get far with his new Ferrari and needs a replacement on lap twelve due to some engine malaise. Will performs the requisite SnG but is a country mile from the pit wall. (See L3 Ian Docherty) In a similar vein, Will should be careful to ensure that he actually stops during a SnG, I had to faff with the replay for quite some time to find a frame where the speed was actually zero km/hr.

• Will Tway — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 13 T9 : Artur Le Marquand and Mike Ratcliffe
Art T-bones himself on the end of the Armco on the entrance to T9, with his gearbox sticking out onto the circuit. He quite rightly drives forward off the track and turns to face the traffic. With a good view of oncoming traffic he appears to wait for one car to pass but then pulls across in front of Mike, the race leader. I have followed my previous practice of reducing the penalty as there was no contact but this was a borderline full penalty as Mike did have to take avoiding action.

• Art — penalty — Bad Rejoin — 1 place lost

Moderator's Report

Lap 13 Clubhouse Bend : Ian Bassi and Chris Bull
Ian is leading at this point but with Chris “bothering” him he misses his braking point and goes wide at mid-corner. Ian gathers it all together but has lost a lot of speed and duly stays to the right, supposedly out of harms way. Chris sees the chance to pass and does so very cleanly up until the point, as they exit the corner, when he just sweeps across before giving Ian any clear water. As a result he bundles Ian off the track. There was no loss of control on Chris’ part and neither did it appear to be caused by Chris’ warpy connection which was once again a problem to the people that he was racing.

• Bully — penalty — Side contact — 2 places lost (plus 5 for penalty points)

Lap 14 Clubhouse Bend : Artur Le Marquand
On his previous lap, Art had the opportunity, when he left the track, to keep out of the way and allow the leading pack through. They were not close enough for blue flags to be shown but his pit board would have told him that he was last on the road and thus a pack of cars getting bigger and bigger in his mirrors could only have been the leaders. Instead he tried to stay ahead of them until they were breathing down his neck and ended up spinning right under their feet. No yellows are shown to Chris and Burt and whilst Chris manages to squeeze through without contact Burt is not so lucky.

• Art — caution — Obstructing leaders

Following this incident, Art then ignored blue flags for almost a lap as Ian Bassi tried to lap him, finally taking to the grass again but thankfully without taking Ian with him. It is vital in the Clubman’s races that the backmarkers do not hinder the cars that are attempting to lap them. The slower driver is often in a faster car making overtaking on the straights a problem and furthermore the faster driver is often not over keen to get too close in the corners, not knowing which way the car in front is likely to go. This was going to be a two place penalty but on the basis that Art did appear to get the message and allowed Ian Docherty and Ian Stanley through I have reduced it to just one place.

• Art — penalty — Ignoring blue flags — 1 place lost (plus 2 for penalty points)

Lap 17 Pit Stop : Art Le Marquand
Art appears to have fuelled for a two-stop-strategy and does another Shift-R in the pits. Unfortunately he does not carry out a separate Stop-n-Go within two laps and thus is penalised a further 30 seconds. It probably gave Graham Poole quite a shock when he materialised on the narrowest part of the main straight as well.

• Art — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Whilst this race did not have the blistering pace of the front end of the Masters battles, as a race, it was just about the best that I have ever seen. It was more like MotoGP than car racing. The fight for the lead was still being contested by six cars at half distance and there were still five of them at it at the 75% mark. It was great stuff to watch so congratulations to all concerned. Particular congratulations to Burt on a fine win, pushed all the way to the flag by Bernie. Just what happened to Chris with two laps to go I can only guess at but I suspect some real life distraction may have had something to do with it.

Dave Lawrence had a torrid time and after destroying one Eagle through iffy gear changes on lap one, hanging the next one on the end of the pit barrier as he tried to do his SnG and then missing the pit entry again on the next lap he said bugger it and wandered off.

Whilst modding the previous race at Mexico I was forced to ponder if Ian Docherty had hibernated between seasons and then found that someone had sold his wheel and left him to use the keyboard. I can safely report that Ian is back on form and put in a strong drive to finish sixth, just behind Ian Stanley who also had a good drive once he had dispensed with the first two laps. Ben saw the finish line, which is novel in itself. However, he also managed to claim the last step on the podium, a few seconds ahead of Tim Robey.

Lap 1 Barbeque Bend : Art Le Marquand and Ian Stanley
Art finds himself passing Ian Stanley on the approach to Barbeque. I say “finds himself” as I am not entirely convinced that it was entirely intentional. Ian gives him room but then Art spins and Ian is tagged by the rotating Eagle.

Racing Incident

Lap 2 Esses : Tim Robey, Bernie Darwin, Robert Burton and Ben Summers
Tim is following in Bernie’s wheel tracks and is too close to be able to avoid hitting him when their relative speeds do not match. I have looked at Bernie’s speed up to the point of contact and it would appear to be within practical limits of what Tim should have expected. Bernie is allowed a no-fault Shift-R.

• Tim Robey — penalty — Rear end shunt — 2 places lost

As a result of their avoidance measures due to the above incident, Burt and Ben (Flowerpot Men?) find themselves side-by-side into the right-handed part of the Esses. There is contact but this seems to be down to warp rather than anything else.

Warp incident

Lap 5 Esses : Artur Le Marquand, Ian Stanley and Graham Poole
Art spins in front of Ian Stanley and by luck or good judgment manages to give Ian enough room for the latter to miss him. Having almost come to rest at the beginning of the right-hander, Art then sets off and instead of staying wide, makes a bee-line for the racing line. When Graham appears Art twitches a little as though he is going to make room but as far as Graham is concerned the damage is already done as he takes to the grass on the inside of the corner. When Graham appears to have vanished, Art resumes his previous course. As the rejoining car, Art did not present Graham with enough track for his use. I have reduced the penalty by one place on the basis that no contact actually occurred but in truth that was more down to Graham’s extreme avoidance tactics.

• Art — penalty — Bad rejoin — 1 place lost (plus 2 for penalty points)

Lap 9 Pits : Art Le Marquand
Art does a Shift-R in the pits but under Clubman’s rules this still necessitates a separate Stop-n-Go to be carried out within the next two laps.

Art Le Marquand Missing SnG 30 seconds penalty

• Art — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 11 Crowthorne Corner : Ian Docherty, Ian Bassi and Ben Summers
At this point the scrap for the lead had been raging since the flag had dropped. Ian Docherty was demonstrating a high level of skill in the way that he was following Ian Bassi without knocking him off but at Crowthorne on lap eleven Ian Bassi tied his Ferrari in a knot at mid-corner and Ian Docherty had to jump on the brakes to avoid him. This he did but his reward was to be shunted up the gearbox by Ben Summers. Ben could do little to avoid him. He was not following so closely that he couldn’t respond but was already hard on the brakes by the time that it became apparent that that Ian was almost at a standstill and right on his line. Unfortunately, Ian was punted off but his second attempt at a rejoin was spot on. Ben was able to continue unabated.

Racing Incident

Moderator's Report

Firstly I must say congratulations to the whole Clubman’s field for an exemplary first lap, much better than Div 1’s attempt. Only Bernie came to grief but then as you will see from the following “Book of Bernie” he was having one of those days.

Despite a valiant attempt to chuck it all away, Will Tway was our Monaco winner, closely followed across the line by Ian Bassi, both in Ferraris. Third was Ian Stanley, with what must have been the most consistent drive of the race; in a Honda of all things. Congratulations to all three, although I would ask Will to lead with a little more conviction but then who am I to criticise? I don’t ever expect to win a race at Monaco.

Chris Bull’s connection was again very iffy and would ask him to investigate what he can do about it. Perhaps turning his server off if it is running on the same connection?

Lap 1 Mirabeau : Ian Stanley and Tim Robey
Tim gets a tad close to Ian on the approach to Mirabeau and gives him a playful nudge. Neither car is knocked out of position too badly and both continue unabated without loss of position.

• Tim Robey — caution — Rear end shunt

Lap 2 Mirabeau : Tim Robey and Graham Poole
Tim loses it and spins to the inside of the corner. He almost makes a reasonable recovery but does not get cleanly away as the Armco on the outside stops him completing his turn and presents him as an obvious target for Graham, who is scuffing around the Armco having lost control under braking. I’ve noticed that Clubman drivers frequently take the waived yellow as an instruction to have an accident and Graham has followed this trend. After the impact, Tim does a reset but does not do a subsequent Stop-n-Go. Although I must acknowledge Tim’s efforts to safely rejoin, he had, all by himself, presented himself as a stationary object on the track so I don’t think that I can consider him to be entirely blameless for the collision. I shall call this a racing incident.

• Tim Robey — Missing SnG — 15.000 seconds added

Lap 2 Chicane : Robert Burton
Hey! Get the flags out; Burt has done a Stop-n-Go for needing a new car! Who said it would never happen? He clips the bales at the chicane and causes all manner of mayhem to those following but there is no actual infringement. Stop-n-Go duly taken at the start of lap 3.

Burt incident

Lap 2 Tabac : Dave Lawrence and Bernie Darwin
Dave is recovering from finding Art up-side-down just after the chicane, courtesy of Burt’s indiscretion, when he as assailed by Bernie at Tabac. Bernie has arrived “hot”; has passed Art after the chicane and is probably surprised at the rate at which he has caught Dave. Bernie has no overlap at turn-in and if Dave actually spotted Bernie in his mirror he would have been quite justified in thinking that the latter was going to slow down enough to miss him. Dave took a wider line to give Bernie some room to extricate himself from his predicament but it was never going to be enough. Bernie just hadn’t reckoned on Dave still being there. It is a side contact penalty for Bernie but I have reduced the tariff from 2 places to one on the basis that by the time he realised that he was in trouble there wasn’t much he could do but knowing that some manner of incident had occurred it may have been prudent to approach with a little more caution.

• bernie — penalty — Side contact — 1 place lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

As a result of this incident, Dave was thrown against the Armco and Bernie spun. Art then came along and ran into Dave, having rounded the corner before the marshals had put the flags out. Tim Robey appears to have reacted to the yellow flag and was rewarded by being able to stop and then drive past as Dave shuffled out of the way. Likewise Graham Poole, although he had longer to wait as Bernie initially tried to turn around and then resorted to a reset. I’m not over keen on spin turns in these situations but Monaco doesn’t give much away when it comes to run-off areas. I will call this lot a racing incident although Bernie omitted to do a Stop-n-Go.

• bernie — Missing SnG — 15.000 seconds added

Lap 2 Gasworks : Dave Lawrence, Graham Poole and Bernie Darwin
Dave and Bernie have just extricated themselves from the incident at Tabac when they rush off to the Gasworks Hairpin and proceed to out brake themselves. They both manage to come to rest without contacting each other but then Graham arrives, having also missed his braking point, and clobbers the pair of them. Graham and Dave both need resets, for which they duly carry out their Stop-n-Gos.

Racing Incident

Lap 6 Casino: Ian Docherty and Ben Summers
Ben is following Ian as they exit Casino when, unfortunately, Ian hits the Armco and turns himself into an instant road block. Ben was following at a reasonable distance but was not able to avoid hitting Ian and with Ben’s self imposed PRO rules he was obliged to retire when his engine ignited.

Racing Incident

Lap 7 Gasworks : Mike Radcliffe and Robert Burton
Mike loses control at the hairpin and when trying to escape he loses control again. I think that his Brabham was probably bent in the first place. As a result he swings across and clobbers Burt but luckily Burt survives. This was just a Monaco incident brought on by the close proximity of the walls and Armco, ridiculously tight corners and no visibility. Mike needed a reset and immediately did his Stop-n-Go. No penalty is applied since Mike was not in control of the car at the time and was not attempting anything daft.

Monaco incident

Lap 11 Gasworks : Tim Robey and Bernie Darwin
Bernie runs straight into the side of Tim at the Gasworks Hairpin. It isn’t an intentional overtaking move and neither was he following too closely beforehand. It didn’t appear that he attempted to brake any later, he just gets the braking all wrong and fails to slow down enough.

• bernie — warning — Side contact — also, 6 places lost for penalty points

After this collision Bernie appears to run out of fuel. He pulls in to the pits to do his Stop-n-Go on the next lap but doesn’t actually stop. (Note to Bernie: If you send me a clip that shows that you did stop then you can have the 5 seconds back.)

• bernie — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 22 Tabac : Tim Robey and Bernie Darwin
Tim is obliged to take the chicane at reduced speed to avoid taking his wheels off and Bernie has a run at him. Bernie takes a lunge from a long way out but to be fair does achieve a reasonable overlap at turn-in. Tim plays his part and leaves some room on the inside. However, I have looked at this for a long time and have come to the conclusion that although the actual contact is a distant warp, this only pre-empted what was about to happen anyway. I have reduced the penalty to one place on the basis of the warp but I think that Bernie achieved the overlap by carrying too much speed into the corner. In so doing he missed his turn-in point and ran wide. When making a move such as this it is necessary to take account of the fact that there will be another car in the corner on the outside of you and that you must complete your turn without encroaching on their turf. To be safe, if you are on the inside, you should plan to keep it really tight at the apex because that is the point where the other car is going to be closest to you as well. It may mean that you do not make it past the car in front but at least if you hit each other it will be the other bloke who gets the penalty.

• bernie — penalty — Ambitious overtake — 1 place lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

After the above they both rush off to the Gasworks Hairpin and out brake themselves. (Sounds familiar!) Will Tway, the leader, who has been stalking them for some time but never pressing his demand to pass, also becomes embroiled. Bernie gets away first but obviously believed that his overtaking had been a bit on the rough side and as a result he pulls into the pit lane on the next lap and allows Tim back past. He also allows Will to lap him but when they reach the top of the hill at Massenet, Will pulls over and allows Bernie back through to renew his pursuit of Tim. For this reason I have not applied any penalty for ignoring blue flags in this group. Will started to follow Bernie from about lap 16 but seems to have been reluctant to make it clear that he wanted to pass. There were numerous opportunities for Bernie to have moved over after a flurry of blue flags but Will seemed happy where he was and Bernie seems to have picked up on this. I’m not happy about the situation but cannot penalise Bernie for not letting him through when Will made it clear that he wanted to follow.

Strange behaviour by leader

Lap 25 Gasworks(Again) : Bernie Darwin Will Tway and Tim Robey
I had to keep rechecking the replay to make sure that I wasn’t repeatedly looking at the same incident and giving it different lap numbers. However, I think that Bernie finally makes it past Tim at the end of lap 24 with a minor exchange of hubcaps and body trim. He then screws up the chicane on the following lap and lets Tim back through. At the Gasworks on lap 25, Tim then visits his favourite straw bale and Bernie follows him in, bouncing off the adjacent bale. Mesmerised by all this, Will follows suit and finds himself stuck on the outside of Bernie’s Cooper, which has seen fit to turn itself into a barbeque. The approaching Art then finds this all too much and wedges himself between the Armco and concrete on the inside of the corner. Bernie and Art complete their Stop-n-Go requirements immediately.

Racing incident

Lap 25 : Dave Lawrence
Dave requires a new Eagle on this lap but omits to carry out a Stop-n-Go.

• david lawrence — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 27 - 29 : Bernie Darwin and Ian Bassi
Unlike Will, Ian makes it abundantly clear that he wants to lap Bernie but the latter is having none of it. Considering that Will indulged in a premature victory celebration by spinning through 360 degrees at the chicane on the last lap this could well have cost Ian the win.

• bernie — penalty — Ignoring blue flags — 2 places lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

Lap 26 Portier : Bernie Darwin, Dave Lawrence and Ian Bassi
Dave does his level best to give way to Bernie as he heads towards the Mediterranean but an awkward piece of Monaco architecture catches him out and spits him back out into Bernie’s path. There was no one at fault here and at least it obliged Bernie to let Ian through. Bernie was a little late in bringing his car to a complete standstill and was in danger of blocking the track but did just respond in time to leave enough room for Ian to pass by the rear of his car.

Racing incident

Lap 30 Massenet : Robert Burton and Art Le Marquand
Burt spins at the top of the hill and, knowing that he is being followed by two cars, he lets one car through as he is slithering to a halt and pulls straight across in front of the second, who in this instance was Art.

Robert Burton Bad rejoin 2 place penalty

• Burtoner — penalty — Bad rejoin — 2 places lost (plus 4 for penalty points)

Moderator's Report

A great win for Ben Summers in his Cooper after a close battle with Chris Bull from flag to flag. Keeping his championship hopes alive, Robert Burton was third and Ian Bassi is promoted to fourth by virtue of Ian Docherty having, perhaps in a red mist moment, picked up a two place penalty for attempting to kill Burt.

I would be grateful if anyone taking a faster car than the one that they are allocated by the Clubman's system could take care to ensure that they complete their pit stop within the allowable window.

Lap 1 Hugenholtzbocht : Ed Harrison and Art Le Marquand
Ed spins on the exit of the hairpin and Art cannot avoid clipping him.

Racing incident

Lap 2 Tarzanbocht : Ed Harrison, Graham Poole and Art Le Marquand
Ed passes Graham down the straight and it appears that Graham makes no attempt to defend. Unfortunately, Graham then has to follow Ed into Tarzanbocht and gets suckered into braking too late. Realising that he is in trouble, Graham tries to scrub off some speed with a partially controlled slide down the inside of the track. Ed takes a wide line into the corner in anticipation but Graham cannot scrub off enough speed and clatters into Ed at mid-corner, sending Ed up the grassy bank. Art get sucked into the action and has his own private grassy excursion behind them. Graham's penalty is reduced on the basis of loss of control.

• G Poole — penalty — Side contact — 1 place lost

Lap 2 Tunnel Oost : Ian Stanley, Tim Robey and Dave Lawrence
Ian is following Dave and trying to apply pressure. However, Dave lifts off by more than I an expects because he can see Tim trundling back onto the track just before Tunnel Oost. As far as Tim's rejoin is concerned he gets everything spot on except the fact that he should not have rejoined just at that moment. Approaching as he was, from the right, no sooner was he on the tarmac than he was on the racing line at the apex of the corner. I would have preferred to see Tim take a little longer over the whole exercise either wait or run gently around the corner with at least two wheels on the grass. Anyway, Dave sees him and anticipating that Tim is going to be right in his way he backs off. Since Ian is sniffing around Dave's gearbox, the result is that Dave gets a hefty boot up the rear. Ian could see Tim but as he said in his report he had nodded off and didn't put two and two together soon enough. If you are following someone closely you have to be prepared to take avoiding action. I have reduced the penalty to one place on the basis that Dave's sudden loss of pace was not his normal practice, although I may be accused of being over generous here since Ian had a perfectly good view of what was going on ahead. Ian landed in the gully on the outside of Tunnel Oost and needed a reset. He completed his required Stop-n-Go at the end of the lap. I did take heart from the fact that Dave, the injured party, after being shunted and needing to rejoin, kept off the racing line and took the next right hander with two wheels on the grass to avoid taking up too much room as Art went past him.

• Ian Stanley — penalty — rear end shunt — 1 place lost (plus 1 for penalty points)
• Tim Robey — penalty — Bad rejoin — 1 place lost

Lap 6 Hondenvlak : Ian Docherty and Ian Bassi
Ian Docherty is trying to get back past Ian Bassi and when IanB gets on the curbs through Hondenvlak there appears to be an opening. IanB gets very sideways on the start of the short straight down to Tunnel Oost and as a result slows dramatically. IanD is running close behind as he is attempting to put pressure on IanB. IanD didn't appear to make much effort to miss IanB but he had already aimed himself down the right hand side and had been tight against the curb at the apex. IanB appears to move back across the path of IanD but that is probably accidental, indicating the point at which the grip came back to him. All in all I think that I will call it a racing incident.

Racing incident

Lap 11 Somewhere in the dunes : Bernie Darwin
Bernie has had a great drive up until this point but just puts a wheel on the wrong bit of sand and he is off the track before he knows what is happening. He then gets into a right paddy, trying to rejoin the circuit with too much power on and finishes three places down and stuffed up a sand dune with his back to the circuit. At this point he decides that a reset is his only chance of finding the tarmac. He performs a Stop-n-Go at the end of the lap but is a country mile from the pit wall.

• bernie — Incorrect snG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 17 Panoramabocht : Dave Lawrence
Dave needs a new Eagle towards the end of lap 17 and performs the required sng at the end of the lap. Unfortunately he did not stop within the required half a car's width of the pit wall.

• david lawrence — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 17 Start/Finish Straight : Ian Docherty and Robert Burton
Ian is challenging Burt for third spot and when Burt is slow onto the staright he thinks that he sees his chance. Burt drives a perfect defensive line, delaying his move to the right until the last possible moment but still before Ian makes a positive move in that direction. Burt effectively moves to within a car's width of the edge of the track and holds his line as they go down past the pits. Ian tries to use the pit apron to overtake but cannot get the job done before he is closing on the straw bales at the far end. When Ian moves back to the left he clobbers Burt and both cars are destroyed. Ian completes a sng at the end of the lap but Burt does not. Since Burt's robust defence was a contributory factor I will not allow a no-fault ShiftR. Ian should have baled out of the move once he found that he could not go alongside Burt all the way to Tarzanbocht.

• batestfastard — penalty — Side contact — 2 places lost (plus 1 for penalty points)
• Burtoner — Missing SnG — 15.000 seconds added

Lap 18 Pits : Bernie Darwin
Bernie is 2 seconds short of his required 10 second pit stop for taking the Lotus. It is also 4 laps late but I can see that he was absorbed in a good battle and missed his pit window. It does not appear to me that he gained any advantage from this late stop so I have not taken any action over it.

• bernie — Pit stop short by 2 sec — 6.000 seconds added

Lap 24 Tarzanbocht : Ian Stanley, Art Le Marquand and Bernie Darwin
Lap 23 gets a bit tight for this trio, with Ian catching Art and Bernie catching the pair of them. Just to make matters worse, Chris is cruising up behind them to lap all of them. It is difficult to determine if any blue flags were shown and Bernie probably didn't have much chance to spot them anyway. As they cross the line, Ian has wound his Honda up to a fair lick, thanks to the slipstream from Art's Eagle. Unfortunately, just as he wants to duck out to the right and chance his luck down the inside into Tarzanbocht, he finds that Bernie has done just the same to him. Ian has nowhere to go and is already hard on the brakes and closing in on Art's gearbox. Being in a Honda, Ian does the decent thing and falls on his sword, taking to the grass down the left, whereupon the kindly fence decides not to tear his wheels off. In Ian's report he was worried that he had tagged Art but I can see no evidence of such on the server replay.

Racing incident

Moderator's Report

Another great Clubman’s race and my shortest ever race report. I can see that I shall be redundant by the end of the season. As you would expect at Spa, the Eagles dominated the podium but the leading Championship contenders were not so far behind in their more modestly powered equipment. Art Le Marquand took his first win in his debut season and he was followed across the line by Ian Docherty and Andy Nevill. Bernie Darwin was looking good for fourth spot in his Brabham until he dropped it on lap eight and his subsequent Stop-n-Go dropped him behind Ian Bassi’s Ferrari. Burt, in a Cooper, had been giving Ian Bassi a hard time for the first five laps but then took to the air at L’Eau Rouge and then lost a place to Tim Robey in another Ferrari as he did his Stop-n-Go.

Lap 2 Les Combes : Dave Lawrence, Ian Bassi and Robert Burton
Dave puts a wheel on the dirt as he turns into the right hander and the next thing he knows he is being introduced to the catch fence on the left. The fence spins him around and spits him back out onto the track and into the path of Ian. Ian gets little warning and as a result of the collision he is thrown into the fencing on the opposite side of the track. By the time that Ian stops spinning, he is approaching the left-hand element of Les Combes and he has Burt breathing down his neck. When Ian gathers it all back together he is lucky enough to find himself on the right line for the lefthander and has already started to accelerate when Burt appears in his mirrors. I don’t think that Ian had any sensible option but to continue on his merry way and I also noted a “Grade A” careful reset/rejoin by Dave Lawrence and a perfect Stop-n-Go to follow it up.

Racing incident

Lap 8 Pits : Robert Burton
Burt takes flying lessons at L’Eau Rouge on lap six and destroys his Cooper. He delays his Stop-n-Go until the start of lap eight but unfortunately he stops a country mile from the pit wall.

• Burtoner — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Qualifying : Ed Harrison
Ed tried out the Eagle at the start of practice and completed enough laps to actually set a time before deciding to revert to his usual Lotus. Sadly, this contravenes the regulations and carries a penalty of 2 places. . I do not consider this infringement to warrant the addition of any YPC and with any luck I will manage to enter the data such that none are added.

• Ed Harrison — caution — Qualifying in two chassis — 2 places lost

Moderator's Report

Another excellent Clubman’s race and congratulations to Andy Nevill on his first win in UKGPL. Andy’s Eagle was around twenty seconds ahead of Will Tway’s Ferrari at the finish and Ian Stanley managed to frighten Ben Summers into a spin on the last lap at Scierie, to take the last spot on the podium.

Watching the replay I was forced to assume that driver fatigue was taking its toll over the last few laps. Apart from Ian Docherty that is, who took all of the first half of the race to come to terms with his Brabham and then piled in a string of laps to the finish that would suggest that he should have been staring down the barrel of a podium if the start of his race had been a little less “interesting”!

Lap 2 Nouveau Monde : Ed Harrison and Tim Robey
Ed out brakes himself and hits the polos which results in his being bounced across the track. Obviously he had little control over where the car was going at this point but when he regains control, instead of steering wide to keep out of the way, he carries on in the direction that the crash engine has chosen for him. This results in his tagging Tim as he tries to pass on the inside although no damage appears to have been done. Since he knew that Tim was close at hand he should have tried to keep out of the way instead of being in a rush to rejoin the fray but I have reduced the penalty to one place on the basis of lack of control immediately before the “rejoin”.

• Ed Harrison — penalty — Bad rejoin — 1 place lost (plus 6 for penalty points)

Lap 2 Sanson : Chris Bull, Will Tway and Andy Nevill
Chris is probably still kicking himself over this one. He had made a flying start from pole in his Brabham and had a nice cushion back to second place after just one corner. He managed to maintain this gap over lap one, despite some grassy moments and then gets a bit squiffy into Sanson, puts a wheel on the grass and is left with his gearbox buried in the straw bales and a clear view of the approaching pack. He then attempts a spin-turn with the entire field bearing down on him. As a result, Will has no option but to remove one of Chis’ wheels and Andy is sent off to scuff through the straw bales before resuming his battle with Will and Art.

• Bully — penalty — Bad rejoin — 2 places lost (plus 5 for penalty points)

Lap 2 Paradis : Ed Harrison and Art Le Marquand
Ed is following Art, who clips the curb at mid corner and slows dramatically. Ed was not too close on the way into the corner for normal racing purposes and what is more the car in front was someone who had qualified well up the field and would normally be expected to put some daylight between them in short order. I am not too sure what Art was up to as he appeared to slow, somewhat, even before clipping the curb and I have thus reduced the penalty for the rear ending to just a caution. I would have just called it a racing incident but for a nagging doubt that perhaps Ed could have done more to avoid contact. I’m sure he would have done had he been sat there for real and the less said about his subsequent trip to the pits the better.

• Ed Harrison — caution — Rear end shunt

Lap 7 Nouveau Monde : Robert Burton
Burt manages to climb to fourth by lap seven, despite having started from the pits. However, he tangles with the polos at Nouveau Monde and needs a reset to break loose. Unfortunately, there is no sign of a Stop-n-Go to compensate for this over the next two laps. I guess that Burt just forgot at the time since he did chuck in an extra Stop-n-Go on lap seventeen but this cannot count for this incident. If the penalty is not taken at the time then the driver is out of position on the road and able to interfere with cars that he should be trailing by some distance.

• Burtoner — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 18 Nouveau Monde : Ian Bassi and Tim Robey
I think that Tim was probably resigned to finishing sixth when his previous sparring partner, Ian, suddenly appeared on the grass during lap seventeen. Thus Tim climbed to fifth but the battle was back on. Sadly it only lasted as far as Nouveau Monde, where Ian could not slow down enough to avoid giving Tim a playful tap as the latter turned in. Ian had no overlap at turn in and thus Tim was fully within his rights to move across. I have reduced the penalty from 2 places to a warning on the basis that it was a very slight tap, Tim’s approach was a little leisurely and the fact that Ian had got himself in my good books with a very gentlemanly rejoin in exactly the same spot on lap six.

• IanBassi — warning — Side contact

Qualifying : Ian Docherty
Ian set qualifying times in both the Eagle and the Brabham. Sadly, this contravenes the regulations and carries a penalty of 2 places. I do not consider this infringement to warrant the addition of any YPC and with any luck I will manage to enter the data such that none are added.

• batestfastard — caution — Qualifying in two chassis — 2 places lost

Moderator's Report

It has become a pleasure to mod these races in this vintage Clubman’s Season. Whilst driver of the day has to be Ian Stanley for his impressive win in the Honda, Ian Docherty’s recovery to second spot after a moment of madness at the start was also a good solid drive. Tim Robey brought his Ferrari home in third after fighting off the attentions of Burt in his Honda. But these are not the only drivers who have improved their racing of late. I was particularly impressed with Dave Lawrence’s trip around the outside of T1 at the start of the race. Once upon a time you were all hacking about from one side of the track to the other but thankfully not in this race. Dave may not have been entirely happy with his driving, as he found that even Silverstone wasn’t wide enough for him but his racing was spot on.

Lap 3 Woodcote : Jack O’Ferrall
Jack kills a Honda engine by lap speed shifting and instead of doing a reset, followed by a swift Stop-n-Go, he splutters into the pits and hits the ShiftR buttons there. He has obviously read the rules as he does carry out a Stop-n-Go on his next lap but unfortunately he stops more that the requisite half car distance from the pit wall. Jack needed a total of four Honda engines to reach the end of the race and did not start to change gear properly until he had the fourth one fitted and this one he treated as though it were made of glass. Interestingly, if you look at the Numptygraph here: http://forum.rscnet.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=445063&d=1195543684 it is clear that his pace with this last engine was good enough to hypothesize a top four finish if the first three engines had been given as much TLC. ;-) His other Stop-n-Go attempts were spot on.

• Jack O'Ferrall — Incorrect SnG — 5.000 seconds added

Lap 15/16 : Taj Fangio and Ian Stanley
Ian is in the lead and has caught Taj, to lap him, by about Abbey on his lap 16. By the time that they reach Woodcote the blue flags were waiving but Taj did not allow Ian to pass until after Copse; and only then after some iffy moves that looked purpose made to divest Ian of his slender lead over Ian Docherty. However, I have reduced the incident to a caution on the basis that Taj would not have been able to distinguish between Ian’s Honda and that of Burt who was actually following him until the blue flags came out. I think that Taj responded soon enough to avoid a penalty but I would like to ask that people being lapped have a care for how their actions may appear to the fast bloke behind. Taj only did one more corner after the blue flags came out but going wide at Copse and then cutting back to the inside was asking for trouble. Full marks to Ian for avoiding contact but it would have been so much easier if Taj had just pulled out of the way and lifted as he went past the pits.

• Taj Johal — caution — Ignoring blue flags

Lap 23 : Taj Fangio
Taj needed a reset on his last lap but did not attempt a Stop-n-Go before crossing the line. Generally I believe that a driver should attempt to carry out a Stop-n-Go in these circumstances and I would have accepted his stopping on the approach to the pits. However, the finish line at Silverstone is particularly difficult in this respect and will make allowance on this occasion and only apply the 15 second penalty instead of the full 30 seconds.

• Taj Johal — Missing SnG — 15.000 seconds added

Lap 23 Copse : Robert Burton
Burt needed a reset at Copse on lap 23 but omitted to carry out a Stop-n-Go at the end of the lap or his next lap, his last.

• Burtoner — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Moderator's Report

Snetterton saw another good win for Ben Summers in his customary Cooper. Will Tway gave him a good battle until lap fourteen, when his Ferrari expired, with Will eventually coming home second. Burt crossed the line in third spot but failed to carry out a Stop-n-Go for his new car on lap 22. I understand that Ian Docherty has had counselling by his team after another first corner march to the back of the grid.

Good though it was, Ian Docherty’s start did not clinch the comedy spot of the race. That went to Ian Stanley’s premature crossing the finish line celebrations. He underestimated the distance from Russell through to the finish line and whilst he pirouetted his way past the pits it was none other than Ian Docherty who pipped him for fifth spot by just 0.35 seconds.

Very few real incidents in the race; just people reluctant to pay for their new cars by means of a Stop-n-Go, as reported below.

Lap 13 Hairpin : Ed Harrison and Bernie Darwin
Bernie lines up Ed to out brake him down the inside if Ed should be less than committed but Ed loses the back end under pressure and plants himself across Bernie’s nose. Bernie is already braking for all he is worth and cannot avoid hitting him. No damage appears to have been suffered and the incident is caused by loss of control rather than any daft move by either driver.

Racing Incident

Lap 19 Esses/Bombhole : Ed Harrison, Jack O’Ferrall and Bernie Ian Stanley
Ed starts to spin at the Esses and is going backwards by the time he reaches the Bombhole. At first I thought that he was going to keep things nice and tidy by keeping his car against the grass bank but instead of steering to keep out of the way he allows his car to reverse across the track. Obviously, lack of control comes into this but I don’t consider that Ed did enough to stay out of the way. I have reduced the penalty to one place instead of two but still consider this as a bad rejoin.

• Ed Harrison — penalty — Bad rejoin — 1 place lost (plus 5 for penalty points)

Lap 21 Sear : Taj Fangio
Taj beaches his Ferrari at T2 on lap 21 but fails to carry out a Stop-n-Go on either of his next two laps.

• Taj Johal — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 22 T2: Robert Burton
Burt needs a new Honda on lap 22 but fails to pay for it on either of the next two laps.

• Burtoner — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Lap 23 Coram : Dave Lawrence
Dave destroys his second Lotus engine on lap 23 but omits to atone for this with the required Stop-n-Go. He was only just gathering speed with his new engine at the end of the lap and could easily have saved himself about twenty seconds overall by pulling into the pits.

• david lawrence — Missing SnG — 30.000 seconds added

Moderator's Report

Congratulations to Ben Summers, Ian Bassi and Ian Stanley.

Will Tway got this one off to a dodgy start by attempting to kill everyone on the planet but after that, things settled down nicely. By the look of the race history graph, Ben won this one at a canter; backing off at three quarter distance and confidently easing across the line just fractions of a second ahead of Ian Bassi. I couldn’t detect anything wrong with his car but I can’t imagine how he managed to persuade Ian Bassi to slow up as well. Team orders? If there had been another lap they would both have been in big trouble from Ian Stanley. I’m also happy to report that I.S. managed to time his end of race celebrations a little better than at Snetterton. This time he managed to kill himself and Ben but only after the finish line had been crossed.

Newcomer, Jack O’Ferrall, had been running in a creditable sixth position on lap 23 when his engine blew. He coasted into the pits and tried all the gears but apparently never found the reset buttons before GPL kicked him out.

Start : William Tway, Bernie Darwin, Ian Stanley, et al.
Will didn’t exercise enough care off the line and as a result his Ferrari veered violently to the right and T-boned Bernie amidships. The ensuing carnage was “all his own work”. I would like to commend the mid field drivers who had the presence of mind to slow down and in some instances stop, thus preventing a bad situation from becoming a whole lot worse. Ian Stanley and Bernie were innocent victims and required no-fault ShiftRs to continue. This was particularly galling for Bernie who had just claimed his first UKGPL pole position. An additional one place penalty is applied for this being a lap one incident.

• Will Tway — penalty — Lack of caution at the start — 3 places lost

Lap 1 T1 : Taj Fangio, Dave Lawrence and Ian Bassi
Taj made a great start from the back row of the grid. Stunning, in fact, as he was the leader by T1, thanks to Will’s efforts. Unfortunately, that’s where things started to come unravelled. Perhaps it was a reaction to finding himself in the lead but Taj spun to the inside of the corner, causing Ben, Burt and Ed to take avoiding action. However, instead of keeping out of the way he allowed his car to reverse across the track and into the path of Dave and Ian. The latter managed to escape without damage but Dave found himself clattering into the Armco on the outside of the corner. Dave’s Eagle appeared to be damaged and was not steering too well resulting in his making a dodgy rejoin of his own which I will put down to lack of control. Since Dave’s injuries were caused by Taj I will also allow him a no-fault ShiftR. Knowing that you are at the head of the field one should not allow ones car to roll back into the path of the oncoming pack. He could have steered off of the track to the inside or just jumped on the brakes. The additional one place penalty has not been added to the tariff since I view this as a deterrent for drivers who might otherwise contemplate over ambitious moves on the opening lap. This was just a mistake in the first instance which was then turned into a penalty earning offence by not taking enough care to ensure that his error did not embroil other drivers.

• Taj Johal — penalty — Bad rejoin — 2 places lost

Lap 8 T1 : Dave Lawrence and Ian Docherty
Dave spins to the inside of the corner and rejoins at ninety degrees to the track and no chance of seeing who was approaching. In this instance it was Ian, who had already backed off due to a grassy moment and who then also backed off still further when he saw Dave or the yellow flags but when a car pulls straight across in front of you there isn’t much you can do but hit him.

• david lawrence — penalty — Bad rejoin — 2 places lost (plus 1 for penalty points)

Lap 16 T1 : Taj Fangio and Ian Bassi
Ian was obviously getting quite sharp at avoiding trouble in T1. This time Taj had executed a half spin to the outside and was left with his rear wheels just off the tarmac. In spite of being able to hear a car approaching he pulled straight out, causing Ian to take to the grass.

• Taj Johal — penalty — Bad rejoin — 2 places lost

Lap 21 T1 : Dave Lawrence and Taj Fangio
Dave moves to the inside of Taj to pass him and his move was clearly visible in Taj’s mirrors. Dave stays reasonably close to the inside but Taj doesn’t quite give him enough room and they touch. To give Taj his due he did take a wider line in an attempt to share the corner but just didn’t go wide enough. Long corners such as this are particularly tricky when the overtaking move starts within the corner. Normally one would look to establish overlap at turn-in but this corner is very long and has three apexes. This incident happened at the middle apex and as I have said above, Ian made it clear where he was going and had a significant speed advantage. It would be unreasonable to expect him to hang back.

• Taj Johal — caution — Side contact

Moderator's Report

Tricky place Mosport, the grass seems so attractive. Congratulations to William Tway on a convincing win that never looked in any doubt once Art Le Marquand and Ben Summers had committed lap one seppuku. Art actually crossed the line in second spot but will not keep this position due to his having roughed-up Ian Stanley at the start. Thus Ben is promoted to second spot and Tim Robey to third. Jack O'Ferral drove an excellent race in the Honda and Ian Docherty eventually made his way through the pack after his customary first few laps.

Congratulations to one and all on a great season's racing. Good luck in season 15.

Start : Art Le Marquand and Ian Stanley

Art claimed pole position with an impressive lap but when the flag dropped he took to the grass on the left. His first attempt to regain the tarmac resulted in a slow pirouette, still on the grass. His second attempt amounted to pulling slowly onto the track at ninety degrees to the direction of traffic. The sound of Ian's Honda could be clearly heard but he continued to pull out. Ian had started directly behind Burt, whose wheel had decided to play up and I was most impressed by the fact that he had managed to stop before hitting Burt, who did not budge when the flag dropped. When Burt reset, Ian was able to move and must have been somewhat taken aback to find anyone else still there. An additional place penalty has been applied for a lap 1 incident.

• Art — penalty — Bad Rejoin — 3 places lost (plus 4 for penalty points)

Start : Art Le Marquand

Following the incident with Ian, Art required a reset but did not perform the required Stop-n-Go.

• Art — Missing SnG — 15.000 seconds added

Lap 1 Moss1 : Ben Summers, Bernie Darwin, Ian Bassi and Jack O'Ferrall

With Art having taken to the grass at the start the way was clear for Ben to storm off into the distance but he obviously didn't want to do it the easy way. He led the field for the first half lap and promptly spun at Moss1 and was then clipped by Bernie as the latter tried to avoid him. Ben finished up facing the wrong way and parked against the inside curb. Bernie does not appear to have been entirely under control of the situation and did not receive much in the way of warning so no blame could be attached there. Ben waited for all to go quiet before attempting to spin his Cooper around to face the right direction but it was a close run thing as he was almost caught out by the late arrival of Ian Bassi.

Racing incident

Following this incident Bernie rejoined the track from the inside and at a reasonable angle, between Moss 1 & 2. Jack saw Bernie rejoining and took a wider than normal line into Moss2 but not quite wide enough. I believe that in this instance just about everyone was rejoining to a greater or lesser extent following whatever they had needed to do to avoid Ben. Bernie was not, therefore, rejoining in the path of anyone who was steaming into a corner with any conviction. Bernie was keeping well over to the right and Jack should have given him a little more room.

• Jack O'Ferrall — caution — Side Contact

Lap 3 T3 : Dave Lawrence, Tim Robey, Bernie Darwin, Ian Bassi and Ian Docherty

I enjoyed watching Dave's harassing of Tim at the start of this race. It was full of commitment and curbs but sadly the fun came to an end at T3 on lap three. He put a wheel on a slippery bit of Canada and lost I in a big way to the outside of the corner. He was completely out of control on the grass and thus I do not apportion any blame for his reappearance back on the track and into the path of Bernie and Ian Docherty. Bernie was able to miss him but Ian got him bang to rights.

Racing incident

Following this incident, Dave then pulled slowly onto the track at ninety degrees to the direction of play, causing Ian Bassi to take to the grass.

• david lawrence — warning — Bad Rejoin

Lap 5 T2 Art Le Marquand and Ian Bassi

Having spun at T2, Art rejoined on the outside of the curve and at such an angle that he could not see the approaching Ian. Ian's approach could be heard but after pulling straight across in front of him he then proceeded to race him to T3, having held him up in the first place. No contact was actually made but only thanks to Ian's action so I am therefore applying a one place penalty to reflect the place that Art was able to hang on to by dint of slowing down the car he should have given way to.

• Art — penalty — Bad Rejoin — 1 place lost (plus 4 for penalty points)

Lap 27 T2 : Art Le Marquand

Same rejoin as on lap 5 but this time there was nobody about.

• Art — caution — Bad Rejoin