SimRacing.org.uk

Season 18 Novices Trophy - Round 10 - Oulton Park

The last race of the season is at Oulton Park situated near the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire.  This is quite a narrow track with some long straights and difficult braking areas.  Turn 1 (Old Hall) will be busy on lap 1. There isn't a lot of room and anyone hitting the advertising hoardings on the outside will probably bounce back onto the track so please be careful.  The circuit occupies much of the area which was previously the Oulton Estate. The track is set in the grounds of Oulton Hall. The circuit was originally developed by the Mid-Cheshire Car Club, with the track attracting crowds of 40,000 during the 1950s. Oulton Park regularly hosted the International Gold Cup event which attracted many Formula One teams (Stirling Moss won it 5 times), but as the F1 calendar shrank to include only Grand Prix events, the Cup became less well-known.  The track is characterised by its rapidly changing gradients and blind crests leading into unforgiving corners. Among many British and foreign drivers it is considered one of the most challenging and thrilling circuits ever constructed.

The restriction that reserve drivers should not join the race server until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left is being relaxed for this race.  We have enough grid slots to accomodate all the full-time and reserve drivers so there is no risk of a reserve driver taking a full-time driver's grid slot.

No drivers should go out on track until there is 30 minutes of qualifying left - this helps to ensure all the drivers have joined the server successfully before qualifying begins.

Please restrict chat to "pit in" / "pit out"  messages, and at the end of the race avoid chat until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Please be in the IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.
(You will need to set up a channel called #ukgpl if you haven't already done so)
IGOR and Race passwords: see above (#post_event_password)

Server = UKGPL_T7_2
IP Address = 62.149.202.160
Race Date = 09-02-2009
Time = 21:00
Track = Oulton Park
Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = Intermediate
Qually Time = 30 minutes.
Race Length = Long
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=223;theme=6)

Chassis allocations are below, and the same chassis will be used for all races this season unless there is an adjustment agreed by the moderator.  Please note chassis adjustments can be made at any time not just at the mid season review.  Good luck!

FULL TIME DRIVERS
Burtoner - Brabham BT7
G Poole - Brabham BT11
Vosblod - Lotus
Happy Al - Lotus
Maestro - Brabham BT11
Nicky - Cooper
Bookie - Ferrari
Norbert - Ferrari
NHance - BRM
Al Heller - BRM
Il Lupo - Ferrari
RogUK - BRM
Mark65 - Brabham BT11
Barry De La Rosa - Ferrari
Billy Nobrakes - Brabham BT11
Bernie - Honda
Tussman - Cooper
Roberto Motta - Lotus

RESERVE DRIVERS
Viss - Ferrari
Karlisss - Honda

Please use the updated 65 mod for this race.
If you have re-installed UKGPL over the summer break or are joining us for the first time, please don't forget to use the updated 65 mod which is available here: Jamesonline.net/UKGPL (http://www.jamesonline.net/ukgpl/1965mod_PATCH_v2.0.2_Setup.zip)

I'm going to give this one a miss, haven't had time to learn the track.

As some of you know, the missus and I were expecting a baby, well it arrived on the 31st, a little boy who we have named Sam. As a result my time is somewhat taken over at the moment!

Anyway have a good race everyone and I will see you next season.


Ross

Congratulations Ross.  Hope to see you in Season 19 (if you manage to get some sleep ;))

grats Ross

Congratulations Ross - a future GPL racer...

good news chap , tell Sam he has a seat waiting at UKGPL for when he can reach the pedals  :)

hope to see you back racing  soon  :)

RACE REPORT :

Blimey!  Nail biting stuff here - not the race, the blasted wireless connection!  It's already made me miss out on Monza - the carnage, the accolades, the Spumante on the rostrum - one does get carried away . . .  (note:  must watch old Star Trek episodes, as Scotty seems a wizz at transporters)  I suspect a hard wired connection is the preferred option.   :hammer:

Finaly materialised at the track, and it was all downhill from there - which must be why I went so fast!  It's good to drive a car, where things seem to happen in slow motion.  I'd thrashed out the perfect setup online, in the days prior to the big race, and slowly learned that these cars go slower backwards.  :blink:

From third on the grid, my only challenge was to keep it on the track.  Uneventful, apart from minor detours while trying to beat my best laptime.  Finaly did so on the last lap!

Nice to finish one of these, and a lot of skill shown by all.  But just my luck - the champagne was English.                   :clap:

Nothing spectacular in qually for me but happy with my time bearing in mind I didn't do much practice.
Start was fine and holding my place with no mishaps then after a few laps the engine blew. Not sure how much was chance and how much was me being erratic on my changes re not having formulted a proper line (there not being one on the track).
Anyway had to let a string of cars through before the Sh/R then the pitstop put me right back.
A bit out of kilter after that but decided to chug on to the end anyway. Lapped by the two front runners but made it to the end.

A lacklustre end to the season but overall I have really enjoyed it. No wins yet but a few podiums. Think I'm definately still novice material for next season but feel I'm improving. Thanks all you guys for the fun racing...

First few laps enjoyable as I had a good clean race with Pete Maestro for 5th which became 4th but then we both made a mess of it & Bernie took 4th. Engine blew which was probably my fault as I was using a lot of revs downshifting in places where braking made the car unstable. Already blown one in qually so I should have known. Shift R & S&G dropped me down the field.
My last 3 races I have qually'd in top 5 but its no good being a "one lap wonder". Still I have scored more points than last season so its getting better.

Next season - tracks.  Drop Adelaide & Oulton please definitely. Bring in Zeltweg, Mosport, Imola or Hockenheim. Please keep Solitude, I know its wasn't popular but it will grow on you. I like the longer tracks with a gradient & a few blind corners/brows. Schottenring anybody?

PS well done Ross

Norm H

Oh dear, what a way to end my season - disqualified in my last ever Novices race  :-[.

Didn't practice this one as I didn't think I'd be able to make it having already agreed to do the 66 Interleague race which started earlier. After 40 laps of Nivelles, I returned to Igor & was surprised to see that there were still a couple of minutes of Oulton qualifying left so I decided to jump straight in. Probably wasn't a great idea - no practice, no setup, 2 laps to set a time & still driving in '66 mode left me pretty much at the back of the grid. In fact I was so far back that I couldn't see the flagman properly so when I caught a glimpse of something green being waved on the distant horizon I set off but immediately jammed on the brakes when nobody else moved. Turned out that was the green flag being raised - not dropped - oops. Waited for everyone ahead to go instead & set off rather gingerly this time but within a few laps found myself up in 7th place. Then suddenly Prib showed me down in 16th place & blue flags were being waved every time someone came up behind me - having forgotten all about my little startline misdemeanour I was slightly confused but after a few laps I suddenly realised that I must have been black-flagged. Seemed a bit extreme getting disqualified for a jumpstart considering I'd only crept a little forward of my grid position & had then stopped again. Sadly I hadn't noticed the guy with the black flag at the startline until it was too late - and even if I had seen him, I only found out after the race that I was supposed to pit for a time penalty (again my own fault for not knowing the rules properly). Spent the rest of the race wondering whether I could be reinstated or not, but that led to losing concentration & a few silly spins so after that let a few people past under the blue flags. Think I ended up 8th on the track so even if I hadn't been DQ'ed it would only count as a dropped score.

Congratulations to Goran on another win but I admit I felt rather gutted for Nicky as he's been in great form this season & really deserved the win - especially after grabbing pole & leading so long. You might have to change your name to Nicky Amon with the luck you've been getting ;) Well done to Maddog Martin for third too.

Anyway since I'm moving up for S19 I'd like to say thanks to everyone for all the great racing in Novs over the last season & a bit. I'd never raced online before so joining Novices really taught me a lot. I've really improved over these last 9 months or so & a lot of that is down to all the help & encouragement from my teammates at Clark-Hill so an extra special thanks is also due to those guys, especially Vos & John Roberts. Thank you & goodnight.     

Yesterday was simply not the right night for me to race.

I was thinking to something else than the race so, when I made a mistake, I decided to left.

Thx all mate for the wondeful season

CU soon on track.

PS
Grats Ross - I guess Gilles would suit better to your son, but maybe your wife didn't agree... Grats to her as well