Get well soon Greg.
Grats to Tommie and the podium places
Without any practice for this race ( a bit of a lame excuse really, coz we have used this track often enough for me to know it!) I opted to use one of the non-winged cars and drove the Cooper for the first time ever. It took a while to get the setup sorted so that I could use that wonderful V12 Mazza engine, but giving away 6 seconds a lap to the quick cars was never going to be good was it?
I was basically dicing with the tail enders and their wings, but quite pleased not to finish dead last.
I think that there is only one overtaking spot on this track and that is into T2 hairpin, and even there you need to be very brave on the brakes, so defending a place is relatively easy if you have a fast enough car around the rest of the track.
I was quite surprised how quickly the front pack came around to lap us tail enders, you guys were really motoring. It was interesting to see just where the winged wonders were gaining so much time and it looked like it was under braking and initial grunt/grip out of the corners.
@ Tommie
In the guidelines for UKGPL regarding being lapped the advice is to STAY on the racing line and make no sudden moves to get out of the way, but ease off on the next available straight to allow the pass to take place smoothly. It is the passing cars responsibility to make a safe pass, but the driver being lapped has an obligation to make that pass as easy as is possible.
Having said that I do try to be aware of cars coming from behind, and Prib is invaluable for that if you are using it. Sometimes I find that it is actually easier to leave the apex of the corner clear for the passing car PROVIDED THAT YOU SEE THEM EARLY ENOUGH and make your intentions clear. If you are smooth enough to cruise around the outside of a corner and allow the leaders to slip through on the inside, no-one loses too much time.
The most important thing is that you let the lapping car know in plenty of time, that you have seen him and communicate this by where you position your car.
Whilst we are on the subject of etiquette, can I make a plea here for more consideration during qualifying. This applies to all of the various mods, not just 69x.
If you are leaving the pits on a qualifying run, please be aware of cars that are just starting a flying lap. YOUR FIRST LAP OUT OF THE PITS COUNTS FOR NOTHING!! so why jump straight onto the racing line and impede someone who is at 100%?? Keep off the racing line, even go onto the grass, but keep out of the way. The same applies if you have made a big mistake on your "fast lap", it is NOT going to be a good time, so get out of the way of other cars who are still trying.
Also, everyone is entitled to a qualifying lap however fast they may, or may not be. Provided that a driver is doing their best and they are on a clean quali lap, they are entitled to the racing line. This may be frustrating for someone who is much faster coming up behind, but that is the lottery of qualifying. You need to find that gap in the traffic if you are going for pole pos, that is part of the art of qualifying in my opinion.
We are lucky with our sim in that going off track or onto the grass does not mess up your tyres, or cause any problems provided that you do not hit anything. So just try and be aware of other cars and give each other room to enjoy the qualification and racing.
lecture over, lunch time over........back to work!!