UKGPL Season 44 (Spring 2024) 1955 GP (Works) - Hockenheim - Feb 18

[Pete Bennett]

Be careful in that section. I had a CTD when I had a spin there. Just bad luck.

[phspok]

Where do the .3do and extra mips go?

I get CTD most of the time when entering the stadium, not in a replay, but on track

[Phil Thornton]

Where do the .3do and extra mips go?

I get CTD most of the time when entering the stadium, not in a replay, but on track

In the hockenhm directory (no subdirectories in track directories)

[Cookie]

For the upcoming 67 race, again my track folder, no more problems online

https://www.mediafire.com/file/gihsz9huimbwf3p/hockenhm.7z/file

[JonathanStiener76]

I am GUTTED.

I had an amazing qualifying, grabbing 2nd on the Grid. Beating my favorite Alien and friend, Hristo, which was already a victory for me!

Start of the race for some reason my car didn't shift into gear, which got me a slow takeoff, but I settled in behind the top 2. My car was the slowest of the top runners, so I lived and died by the draft.

Me and Enrique armanaged to break away from the rest of the field and had our own private battle for 2nd. We must have passed each other at least 20 times! Totally Epic and some of the best wheel-to-wheel action I have had in GPL. Sadly, going into the stadium section side by side with 5 to go, we just barely clipped wheels (MY FAULT) and it instantly crashed me to desktop   I had no idea this track had a bug where you needed to replace files.. Damn. I am so sorry Enrique, I hope you were able to continue with relatively minor damage.

Jonathan

[Phil Thornton]

There were some very quick drivers out there tonight. The first few laps were a freight train and I was managing to stay with the pack until I made contact with someone at Ostkurve. We were side by side but I was on the outside so I lost out. I managed to get going again without any damage and I was able to latch onto the back of the pack. Before long I found myself behind Alain in his big W196SL. I tried to stay behind him in the hope that he would tow me back up the field but I got too close in the stadium section. Despite standing on the brakes at Sachs Kurve, I nudged his rear bumper and he sailed off onto the grass. Sorry Alain, my fault entirely. I waited for you to recover but you didn't appear so I carried on. Several drivers passed me as I waited so at this point I was dead last. There were obviously several drivers who had been off too because I wasn't alone and I had good battles with Claudio, Leo and Clive. The fight with Clive was a cat and mouse tussle over several laps. In the end it boiled down to an out-braking manoeuvre into the Stadium section on the last lap or rather who had the most brakes left. A bit of a "last of the late no brakers". Anyway when I saw Clive slide off onto the grass I knew all I had to do was to negotiate the last few corners without crashing and the place was mine.

Congratulations to JonnyO for the win. It looks like the fight for the other podium places was epic with Hristo and Evil separated by just a second in the end.

[Enrique Farina]

I am GUTTED.

I had an amazing qualifying, grabbing 2nd on the Grid. Beating my favorite Alien and friend, Hristo, which was already a victory for me!

Start of the race for some reason my car didn't shift into gear, which got me a slow takeoff, but I settled in behind the top 2. My car was the slowest of the top runners, so I lived and died by the draft.

Me and Enrique armanaged to break away from the rest of the field and had our own private battle for 2nd. We must have passed each other at least 20 times! Totally Epic and some of the best wheel-to-wheel action I have had in GPL. Sadly, going into the stadium section side by side with 5 to go, we just barely clipped wheels (MY FAULT) and it instantly crashed me to desktop   I had no idea this track had a bug where you needed to replace files.. Damn. I am so sorry Enrique, I hope you were able to continue with relatively minor damage.

Jonathan
  No Jonathan, I couldn't continue, the same thing happened to me as you, it sent me to the desktop too, I don't know if there is a patch for that, since in qualy it also sent me to the desktop twice.....
   It's a shame we came very, very beautifully so to speak with the vanwall, we already had a good separation from those who were 4 coming and the fight was for 2nd place. As you say, an epic race with a lot of respect between the two, and that makes it masterful, I had a great race, I had a lot of fun and that's what I want when I run, to have a good and clean battle, and today it was achieved. .....
    I had contact with a Lancia in turn 3 and I think it was due to the very early braking of this Lancia, but anyway, I feel like I was at fault and I apologize for that.
   Jonnie's majestic race, congratulations my great Brazilian friend, untouchable, we were behind with Jonathan but we didn't close the distance, and I think he was thinking the same thing, very strong Jonnie and without any mistakes, congratulations.
   We missed a podium, which is a shame, but the fight was great. formidable... congratulations and if you don't worry, it's the simmers thing hehehehe
  P.D maybe i'm the guilty of your "knock" phil ?  
  

[JonnyO]

I can hardly believe that I won a race in the UKGPL with Hristo on the track for me a huge achievement, a great honor to have him on the track .
  The race was truly crazy in the first 4 laps, lots of disputes, cars side by side in the stadium....my god!!!!!

  In a moment Alain came recovering on the straight and we were 3 cars side by side...... everything was breathtaking, together were Farina and Steiner in this pile of 5 to 6 cars frantically changing positions!!!

  Until on lap 4 or 5, Alain entered the stadium wrong and that gave me a lead of 340 meters over the others! That was enough to keep me away from my pursuers and gradually open up with each lap and remain isolated in the lead until the end, thanks of course to the Mercedes that had a substantial advantage over the other cars on this type of track.

  Unfortunately, I noticed that my friend Farina and Steiner fell out of the race at the same moment, so I thought they had an accident, perhaps.

  Congratulations to podium winner Hristoe Evil, who also ran a race together the entire time!!!!
  I wonder what happened to Doni

[Hristo Itchov]

Congrats to Jonny for the victory, it was well deserved after being not only so fast, but making almost no mistakes and being so consistent through the whole race!

I was a bit disappointed in qualifying as I couldn't improve on my PB from testing, but even if I did, it wouldn't have been enough to challenge Jonny for pole. Just before the race start I made some changes to the setup, but as I soon found out they didn't work as expected and made the handling of the car worse.

I had an OK start and even though the revs dropped too much, I managed to stay in 2nd through T1. From then on it was a continuous slipstream battle with everyone, as well as desperately trying to slow down the car with fading brakes and avoiding accidents. The slipstream in particular was so strong that some people who started further back were suddenly making their way towards the top 2 positions, so it was difficult to navigate the traffic, especially in the stadium sections. I saw some contacts, cars spinning around or going off, going side by side into slow corners, etc., which combined with my own misjudged braking points and taking it to the grass dropped me away from Jonny and after that away from Jon and Enrique too.

T1 was particularly problematic and took me a while to figure out, but then I also had very bad understeer combined with a snapping rear end whenever I put the power down, even at the fast T2. Evil eventually appeared in my mirrors and was trailing along, even trying to overtake here and there, but I had decent top speed to stay ahead plus he was sensible and slotted behind before corners.

After half race distance I was finally able to go more consistently and the gap to 3rd was slowly coming down. Just when it was looking good for a 3 or 4 way battle for 2nd place, Jon and Enrique made contact at the stadium section and suddenly disappeared! For a moment I thought it was my connection, but then realized they must have CTDed, for not installing the track fix. I was disappointed to see them retire like that as I was looking forward to that fight, but also relieved as now I just needed to bring it home. Shockingly, Jonny was already 12 seconds into the lead at this point!  

Evil apparently had other ideas though and the slipstream (which I noticed still worked somewhat even when I was over 2 seconds behind another car) helped him recover the gap that I had opened before that. I noticed he was getting very close on each lap before the stadium, but not attacking, so I suspected he's preparing something for the last lap. Fortunately on that final lap I managed to take T2 really well and increase the gap on the following straight, but once we entered the stadium he was right behind again and this time I had to just drive defensively to stay ahead. I think we almost made contact under braking for the penultimate corner, but got away with it and so I finished 2nd. Congrats to Evil for 3rd!

All in all a fun and unusual race, especially the first 1/3rd of the race distance. I imagine the next race at East London is going to be more similar to Brands with constantly faded brakes. See you all then!

[Alain Maurice]

Hello pilots. 

Well done JonnyO, Hristo and Evil.

No problem Phil  , brake management is really hard to manage.
After leaving the track I got a Windows desktop, that's why I gave up.
My big Mercedes had a good V max but my driving was not good.

Well done everyone, thank you for the organization and see you Tuesday for the CanAm.

[EvilClive]

Congratulations to Jonny for a dominating race.  

Commiserations to those who suffered CTD's and accidents. I sort of take the view that the fading brakes and the inevitable fractional misjudgements make these 55 races more realistic. Of course no-one wants to rear end another driver but the peril adds another dimension to the competition. I was lucky on a couple of occasions last night when fractionally late braking sent me wide and onto the grass, back to last place on lap 2!!
There was also a moment following Hristo into the stadium, when I was hypnotised by his exhaust pipes and totally missed my braking point,.It was clear that I was going to take both of us out of the race so I swung the car onto the inner grass and shot across the track at the corner exit. I will have to watch the replay to see how Hristo avoided my green missile!!!
Like Hristo I had made a few tweaks to the setup just before the start, but mine worked well especially lengthening 4th gear. That became clear when I got sucked along by the Mercedes/Lancia express train and started seeing 170mph   fortunately the revs were just on max at that speed. Without a tow I was a sitting duck and a top speed of 160.
 My game plan was simple, get my little Vanwall into the slipstream and sit there whilst the big guns fought it out. Dropping to last on lap2 was not in the script, but I was extremely fortunate because the field had strung out very nicely and I could draft past cars and still pick up the tow from the next car ahead. Then I passed Clive Loynes and Leo ( and Phil?) who were on the grass in the stadium. Fulvio was just ahead as the last car in the Alain/Enrique/John/Hristo/Fulvio group.
I worked the Vanwall VERY hard for 2-3 laps to get into the slipstream and waited. Then Fulvio had a wobble out of T1 and I took the chance to pass and pick up the tow from Hristo putting me in 5th. Against the more powerful cars I was happy to be that high up the field. I knew that I was faster through the SudKurve and the stadium, but I had no answer for his higher top speed on the straights....so I waited...and waited for a mistake . When it happened it was not Hristo, but John and Enrique and suddenly I was 3rd!!!
All I had to do was hang on to Hristo's slipstream for the remaining laps and I could collect some useful points. So I immediately put it on the grass at the hairpin   . Exactly how I caught Hristo again I am not sure, but I think the long range slipstream must have helped. Once I caught him it was a case of sitting and waiting....and braking extra early into the stadium and yes, trying to decide if I could steal 2nd spot on the last lap  .
But I decided that it was too risky to force a pass and risk losing everything, unless H made a mistake (  like that was ever going to happen!!!) and 3rd spot in the Vanwall was  dreamland for Hockenheim, so I sat back and got my champagne.

On to East London......

PS what happened to Dimitar?

[Phil Thornton]

P.D maybe i'm the guilty of your "knock" phil ?  

I've had a look at the replay, yes it was you Enrique. You were alongside when we entered the corner so it was a racing incident IMO. I was focussed on getting the corner entry right and notwithstanding that I use "Blind Spot" Pribulda, I didn't notice the flashing icons, there was too much going on with 5 or 6 cars in close formation. I tried to stay wide just in case someone was on my inside but I didn't do a good enough job. Having said that, staying on a wide line is difficult. I had to do that on the penultimate lap when Clive Loynes was on my inside. I gave him so much room I ran off the track!

[Clive Loynes]

Another storming 6th for me.

Great battle with Phil.

I don't get the chance to watch the replay until tonight but I may owe Leo an apology.

We look after our granddaughter on Mondays so I am just snatching a few minutes to post this.  And my phone is taken over to watch her stuff all day too!

[Hristo Itchov]

There was also a moment following Hristo into the stadium, when I was hypnotised by his exhaust pipes and totally missed my braking point,.It was clear that I was going to take both of us out of the race so I swung the car onto the inner grass and shot across the track at the corner exit. I will have to watch the replay to see how Hristo avoided my green missile!!!

I think that happened twice, though the first time was more dramatic, when you lost the brakes entering the stadium. I saw it happen in my mirrors though, so I slowed down more and stayed around the outside, waiting for you to drift through.   Then on the very last lap going into the penultimate corner I saw you carrying more speed so I intuitively turned more to the inside and I think you at the same time straightened it a bit more, so contact was avoided. (You can see both situations on my stream recording)

In these cars it seems 30-40% of the equation is the driver in front paying attention to the mirrors and trying to give room if possible whenever someone behind misjudges their braking, otherwise it's almost impossible to avoid contact in certain situations.

PS what happened to Dimitar?

He had to skip this one.

[EvilClive]

A shame that Dimi was not in the mix. see you next round DD.
 
The brakes in these cars are usually what decides the race, by avoiding excursions and mistakes.
 I have come to the conclusion that you are partially correct 30-40% is down to the guy in front seeing you coming and taking whatever avoiding action he can. But, I think it is a little more complicated.
 At any corner there are ( at least) 2 cars involved and either car may have more, or less, brake capacity available and we cannot know what our opponent has.
 
So, if the car behind has more brake available he might intend to go deeper into the corner than on the last lap, but the car ahead has used up his brakes and slows earlier. Now the car behind suddenly needs extra braking to avoid running into the car ahead and he can forget about hitting the apex at the best speed !!! As we know the braking effect is on a knife edge, there is no "extra" stopping power in the 55's.
Or, the car behind has used his brakes earlier in the lap and is now gauging his braking point by the gap to the car ahead. Not a problem if the car ahead has also used up his brakes, but if he has saved some brakes he will go deeper and slow down much quicker..................with predictable results.

So I now try to be ultra careful in the braking areas ( As you spotted last night I can still get it wrong  ) Outbraking someone in these cars is a very risky business!!!