SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 22 GT Teams Championship
Race 2 Spa

 The second race in the GT team series brings us back to a well known Belgian track that requires speed, handling and reliability in equal measures. One mistake can end your race ( and maybe several other unfortunate drivers?) Although the modern Spa circuit only retains a few of the corners that we will negotiate, Spa has always been a venue for classic GT races.

 
Please check the Season 22 pages for details (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=335&theme=6) regarding rules and the GT Teams Championship (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=338&theme=6) pages in particular.

Reserve drivers should not join the server until there are only 30 minutes of qualifying left so as to give the FULL TIME drivers chance to join, and drivers are not to go out on track until there are 30 minutes of qualifying left as this helps all drivers join the server successfully.

Please restrict chat to pit messages if necessary, and this includes the end of the race, until all running drivers have completed the necessary laps.

The GT races are run under Int Long rules and there will be full moderation of lap one Red Zone and reported incidents for the rest of the race, however the moderators reserve the right to review any incident. Drivers are reminded that they are limited to ONE Shift-R

Please submit incident reports within a week after the race so that the moderators report may be out before the next race.

Race List = iGOR
Server = T7_2
IP address =62.149.202.168
Race date = 20/11/2011
Time = 21:00 UK time
Track = Spa
Variant = GT mod
Damage Model = Int
Qualifying time = 30 minutes
Race length = 15 laps
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

There will be rolling starts for all races with full moderation of both the warm-up and first lap.

Guidelines for rolling starts...

The car on pole will lead off the grid and maintain a steady pace for the 1st lap around 175kph
All drivers should form up in single file behind him leaving 3-4 car lengths between each car.
There is NO OVERTAKING on the 1st lap until the exit of the last corner.
It is the reponsibility of the lead car to ensure that all drivers are with him as he approaches the final corner.
Racing and overtaking begin AFTER the exit of the last corner, so you may overtake between the exit of the last corner and the S/F line.

Any driver who loses his position on the rolling lap, by going off, blowing his engine or through contact with another car ( regardless of fault) must rejoin at the back of the field.
Incidents on the rolling lap ( Lap 1) will be fully modded and anyone found to have caused another competitor to lose position through bad driving will be penalised appropriately.
Also, please make sure that you know which car you should be following on the rolling lap, so that you do NOT get out of position.

The teams have been chosen and the cars are polished and ready to go.

TEAMS

GT International Team
Juha Hallikainen, David Rainier, Axel "Cookie"   
Cars                     
Ford Mk2B, Ford Mk2B, Lola T70 MkIII


Team 7
Fulvio Policardi, S2173, Samb
Cars
Lola T70, Mirage M1, Porsche 910


Hiki Waza Racing
EvilClive, Nigel Smith, FMG?
Cars
Porsche 910, Lola, Ford GT40 Mk4


Clark Hill Racing
Al Heller, King Hiro, Bartosz/Vosblod
Cars
Mirage M1, Lola T70, Porsche 910


Team Green
Doni Yourth, Phil Thornton, Jason Blito
Cars
Ferrari, Ford GT40 Mk2B, Porsche 910


Team Godzilla
Alex Barresi, Mark75 Barresi, Badblood   
Cars                     
Ford Mk2B, Ford Mk2B, Ford Mk2B



Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=338;theme=6)

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

I think "Turbo" Thornton will be "Tortoise" Thornton for this one!  I'll be driving the Porsche so I can't see how I'll be able to keep up with the Mk4 Ford on these straights LOL. 

Hopefully it will be a case of the Tortoise and the Hare (http://www.aesops-fables.org.uk/aesop-fable-the-hare-and-the-tortoise.htm) ;)

 

Hmm well I have the Ford Mk2 and there is no way you are going to keep up down to the Masta kink. However, whilst I am spinning off just before Stavelot you will nip past....

I am finding it hard to complete one lap, let alone zoom past other racers... :(

Lots of power but not much 'turnability'.

TBH Spa isn't as much a GT40 track as you'd think - hence my using it when I made all those GT-Rank videos  :)
The straights arn't really long enough for it to properly stretch it's legs. I'd expect the MkIV to get a small speed advantage on a MkII up the hill maybe, but not on the Masta stretch   :ninja:

Reims and Tripoli on the other hand  ;)

Tripoli, yes I remember driving past those endless sand dunes.  I'm scheduled to take the Porsche there too ::)

Eat my dust perhaps?... lol

T7_2 server is set to 15 laps Long race and listening on Igor on Console session.
Ciao

Thanks Fulvio - might reset it to 1 lap then I might have a chance (Lap 1 is rolling LOL).

Looking forward to the dash to Eau Rouge. Can't see any problems there at all....

Poor Phil, in our Funliga race the gap to the Fords and Chaps was 14 - 16 sec per lap  :-[

I'm hoping to be closer to Phil than that...  ::)

youre not alone , mk2 feels absolute terrible there.  lol

After that comment Juha did a 3:24 min with this wonderfull car  :thumbup2:

hehe - probably felt terrible...  ;D

The Fezza, on the other hand, feels great around Spa .... pity I can't get the most from it! 3:37 on mid-race fuel....

.... and having said that I then went and did a 3:33  ----
Paul, have a look at my replay and see what I do different to you - this lap was done at a steady cruise, braking early to get a good line in each corner and thus benefitting from extra speed down the straights... no fuss, no drama, no rushing....
The fezza is setup with a 60:45+2 diff, 52% brake bias, rear shocks altered to 6/6 and the car geared for 195mph but only acheiving 190 (leaving some spare for drafting) and a starting load of 10 gallons of fuel.

http://www.freefilehosting.net/gtblitospap4
 

I have 3.38...I cant go any faster with porky. And the way its been going lately, I'll most definetly blow the engine... possibly on the starting grid even.

For those who like Lola T70, you can find beautiful pictures on this website (the best sport car french site from far !)

http://www.autodiva.fr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1932   

The dark blue Roger Penske Sunoco Lola is one of the more beautiful car I have ever seen  ! 

Drive the car?

 ;D

I end up overbraking and then lose all the speed... just can't seem to get that all importnat 'carry the speed'... ah well - others might crash...  ;)

Wonder how many will be out on the rolling lap....

I have rust appearing on my rust so was pleased I didn't embarrass myself in the Porka grouping, just need to find more time for GPL. Anyway I did struggle with the full lap rolling start - everything ahead sped up on a straight then seemed to suddenly slow for no explicable reason so I slid in my emergency braking but thankfully didn't take anyone with me. Nigel and Phil were gents and let me resume my spot - thanks guys, not sure of the rules on that but think OK as no reset.

Race - Phil got me early on, something went on ahead putting Sky back and found myself in a nice battle with Nigel. I had problems with Masta as it's do-able flat out in the Porsche but you have to get the turn ins just right and I hadn't put in enough time so that caused me a spin.

Anyway as I was looking to resume a contest with Nigel the whole screen started flashing and Windoze was trying to encroach on me. Turns out it was an annoying 'update' it trys to do, I keep thinking 'must stop that in start-up' then forget once I've cancelled it, kicked in. GRRR - no amount of mouse clicking in GPL would stop it so game over for me.

Shame, despite my Masta issues might have got a bit of fun out of it. Sorry to let my teamies down... Grats to winner/podium whoever they may be.

I was rammed two times, almost ended on my roof three times, my porky was slow all the times, my connection obviously was bad, to spice the things up... I only kept running because of these team stuff, not that they make any sence, these stuff... and...stuff.

I saw you go wide and clip the hedge which gave me the chance to get you around the outside.  I was trying to make sure I stayed wide enough not to clip you (especially if the hedge had spun you round) and avoid running off the track.  Thankfully I judged it right, if I crash at Spa it is almost always at Malmedy!

Yes I've been caught out by that.  My autoupdate is permanently switched off!!

Sky, just checked my replay.  Looks like warp to me, I was well to the right of the track.  I'll submit a report and replay clip for the mods to check.  Sorry M8, I was looking forward to a good dice; it would have been hard to shake each other off with the slipstream.  It was a bit of a lonely race once you dropped back.

Hmm - mine was lonely until I got lapped...

Kept it going for my 3.0 points... by the end of the season at this rate I might get into double figures... I HATE the Mk2.

Well done to my somewhat more talented team mates...

Replay is here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/replays/archive/season22/GTs/S22_GTs_R02_2011_11_20_Spa.rar) and analysis is here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/replays/archive/season22/Analysis/S22_GTs_R02_2011_11_20_Spa/index.html)

When I rammed you it was because you sat, sideways on, in the middle of the trck on the exit of Stavelot.. how my Fezza wasn't totalled by that I will never know!

Well... I had a crap race... I was slow (even by my standards) and could find little consistancy... Only the final two laps were done at a decent pace --- I was desparate to finish on the lead lap so got my foot down!
I made 3 unforced errors, each time ending in the car undamaged but facing the wrong way and that cost me masses of time, plus I had the misfortune to come across one of Skys little moments as detailed above! Bad race for me, and a bad result for Team Green :(

Unfortunately we are languishing at the bottom of the table :( but the season is till young, we can can catch up :wheelchair:.

To be honest I was quite pleased with my pace in the Porker.  My aim was to not get lapped.  To be the first Porsche over the line was as much as I could have hoped for.

Sorry Phil for my quick exit from pits after my S&G, when I watched replay I saw that you were more close than I had seen in my mirrors at the moment.  :angel:
Ciao

I didnt say it was your fault...but it wasnt my fault neither. First i see a ferrari spinning at the middle of that long  right hander after masta... then i avoid it barely, unsettling the car...then i clip the grass at the exit, which sends me spinning also at the middle of track...  Then another or the same ferrari comes and is not able to avoid me.... and then im back to spinning again, this time in the vertical plane....

GROOOAAARRR !!!
I'll give you as food to Godzy, if you say it again: our car is FANTASTIC, especially when her melt down nuclear reactor under the hood ...
Shame, you have been massacred by Porsche ... Godzy, come here, i have fresh meat for you ...

I think you are becoming familiar with the Badblood style Alex.

The mantra is "slow in fast out", but I have adapted this to be "slow in, slower out, with, perhaps, a cheeky little spin, mid-corner"  ;D

I am actually quicker in the Porsche at Spa than I am in the Mk.2!!!

I can promise to turn upthough and those twenty points might be vital in the end... ;)

I had the same experience with A.Barresi just restarting on the outside line after a reset out of Stavelot. I was battling behind Axel and saw Alex at the very last moment hitting him badly, sorry Alex.
Axel had the time to lift taking the inside line. Luckily no other cars were involved and neiither me and Alex had to reset, but my car wasn't the same and I went wide at Masta next lap ending to take a cup of cofee at the house on the right. Engine was badly damaged and had to reset loosing some more positions at the S&G.
Last two laps I was in pursuing of Alex that must have done a mistake and I almost caught him on the S&F line  :)
Ciao

i fail my qualifying time struggling with the car setup but managed to get 8th spot on the grid. Evil was behind all the race and we have some fight, my Ford did have plenty of good straight speed and i was easy to keep Evil back. Good racing anyway , MK2B feels terrible and was hard to get it to turn in corners and it was even worse in race. Straight line it was ok !  :laugh:
i understand  Badblood mk2b critisism.

looking result now i think i was able to get 2nd on race, but no.  :-\

bad luck for Cookie, but we did good race as a team . Grats also Rainier for a finishing and taking points.


grats Mark Barresi for taking Spa win!  you coming from bushes !   :D

Grats to Mark, Tom and Al for a great podium.

I think I was a little too careful with my Lola engine on the first few laps and that allowed the leaders to sneak away into the distance.

Looking at my best race lap I should have been able to give Tom a race in his Lola, if I had pushed harder in the early laps.
I was fortunate in avoiding several of the incidents that took out other drivers, particularly the crash fest coming out of Stavelot.

I had been slowly ( and very carefully) closing up on Fulvio and Axel over the previous 3 laps, and was just getting close enough to pick up the tow on the straights. Each lap through Stavelot I was taking another 50mtrs out of their lead and I reckoned that I would be perfect for a good slipstream back up to La Source. Then on the exit of Stavelot there was a car in the middle of the track. Cookie appeared to clip it ( or just miss) and poor Fulvio was unsighted and ploughed straight into it. I braked hard and swung my Lola onto the grass on the inside to avoid 2 spinning cars and was lucky to squeeze through without damage. That gave Axel the chance to open the gap again and use the speed of the Mk2 to get away.  :-\.

Juha appeared to have some problems in the early laps and dropped back, but never dropped off of Prib. I think that once he had used some of the fuel and got used to the handling ( or lack of it) in the Mk2 he used that awesome speed to start closing the gap.

It is so frustrating when your car takes the corners more quickly, especially through Malmedy and Masta only to look in your mirrors and see that damned Mk2 closing up on each straight section. :sweatdrop: Twice Juha passed me and twice he mad a small mistake that allowed me to re-take the position  ;D. But each time he closed up more quickly and eventually made the pass stick. I held onto Juha's Mk2 with the help of slipstream but I was worried about the fragility of the Lola engine at max revs.

Eventually with 3 laps to go I decided that I needed to finish this race for the TEAM so I limited my revs to 6.5k, but surprisingly I did not lose much on Juha. Maybe he slowed as well.  ;)

I was a bit sad to see that I still had enough fuel for another 6 laps when the race ended, maybe I could have been a little quicker if I had done a proper fuel check before the race? Next time..............

But, Hiki Waza Team scored some great points with all 3 cars finishing. Tim in the heavy metal Mk4, and a great drive from Nigel to get 2nd spot to Phil in the Porsche vs Porsche battle.

Great racing throughout the grid  and some very good individual PB times were clocked .

Great fun racing these beasts at Spa & really like the rolling starts which seem to reduce the L1 carnage (so far...)

I thought the Mirage wasn't too bad round Spa - for me it didn't handle as well as the Lola or Ferrari & was quite nervous on the limit at Stavelot & Malmedy, but still not as much as a handful as the GT40 MK2. Pushed really hard in qualifying to try & start behind my teammate King Hiro & just sneaked ahead of Axel on the final Q lap to line up 4th. That proved quite handy as the King provided a right royal tow in his Lola during the early laps & that helped pull me slightly clear of Axel, who also seemed pretty busy fighting with Sam & Fulvio. It was quite tough to hang onto King's tow & by half distance I had fallen behind a bit too far & was now being hotly pursued for 3rd by Juha. If Juha's GT40 got a sniff of my slipstream I knew I was toast but luckily King came to the rescue with his tow for the final laps & we managed to hold 2nd & 3rd to the flag - mind you, one more lap & it might have been a different story. Congrats to Mark on a well deserved win & of course to my teammate too :)     

My race?  There's only one fitting word to describe it.

GRIM.

In caps!  :(

Plaudits first, tho.  Grats to Mark, Tom and Al for taking the podium slots, gents.  Well done.

I was fully prepared for this round and do love Spa.  Racing cars should go fast and this circuit has speed to burn.  Based on pre-race trials, I fully expected to cut a 27 or even a 26 in qualifying but on my two attempts, after getting in a decent banker lap, I bungled the hot laps.  This turned out to be only a taste of what was to come.

The start went off well and I followed Tim's Mk4 til we got to the other side of Stavelot.  There, he got on the grass verge exiting the switchback and spun wildly.  Not far behind, I did a carbon-copy of same.  Good grief!  Mesmerized by Tim's off?  Perhaps but that's no excuse for a seasoned veteran.  Sigh...

I won't go into the details of other mistakes except to say that they were numerous and gross and put me miles behind.  The only bright spot of the entire drive was duking it out with Sam on the last lap for all of P11.  OH, WOW!  Sam dived underneath me going into the La Source hairpin but went in a little too deep to swing wide and I thought I was home free with the undercut in a classic 'give-n-go' scenario.  To my surprise, Sam powered up on the run down to flag and edged me by length.  That was the only fun I had the entire race even if it cost me a position.

Apologies to Team Green for such a mediocre performance.  And calling it 'mediocre' is being charitable.   :-[

No problem for the contact, my car has not suffered too much (although i had also damaged the engine).
After engine explosion at lap 5, my race was over, and i raised a lot the racing pace at the only purpose to achieve checkered flag.
Polemic mode on.
Over the last few laps, my problem was to survive to your team-mate: Sam, there is no reason to overtaking like the one you tried at "La Carriere", you have done same thing in Surfers (not with me, thankfully) and i meditate a claim against you.
I have fun yesterday, but if you had thrown me off the track i would have been not happy: classification is not important for me, but i want to be able to play quiet (you could easily overtake at next corner, you were definitely more faster than me, in that moment).
Polemic mode off.

Clive apart the wrong fuel math in setup screen, there is a huge difference of fuel consumption between shifting gears at 6500 and 7000 rpm by the Lola and so with the other cars.
Ciao

Thanks to all for the compliments ..
My race was perfect in every way (pole, fastest lap and first place) .. ;)
Team Godzilla was a good performance (apart from the explosion of the engine by Alex) ;D ;D

ciao..

First of all: Grats to Mark, Tom and Al for taking the podium!

Also grats to Juha and David, who did great racing for our team!

My race was intermingled...

The start after the rolling lap went fine and expecting a long 15 laps I wanted to keep cool an quiet. But Sam in my back seemed to have other plans ;)
He tried everything to push me to the limits, so we had a wonderfull battle and he could finaly pass me in la Source. I could easy follow him afterwards and expected  to get my 4th place back after my fuel load had been less.
But Sam disengaged me from that duty by running wide in Blanchimont...
So I was in a comfortable 4th position with 400m behind and 500m in front of my next opponents.
I was closing the gap to the podium guys in front when midst the race my engine suddenly exploded. >:(
After S+R and S+go, again with a 130 liter load, I had to keep my 7th position to the finish line...

Cheers
Axel

My apologies Alex; that move was far too rash in hindsight. My race was simply an awful effort and was letting my frustration get the better of me. I'll be attempting to drive in a calmer manner for the next one.

I'm happy to read your words, Sam, and sorry for my considerations too hard. :)

moderation published

I do not understand.
I have an advice for doing a shift-r (the rules allows me to do this) at a point that i cannot choose since i go off track at exit of Stavelot because engine failure (lack of engine braking prevent me to close the turn in normal way and the car has gone for tangent).
What else could i do ? ? ? ? ?

Alex advice vuol dire consiglio/raccomandazione, non è un avvertimento (warning) :)
Comunque dal mio replay avresti potuto aspettare di far passare le macchine che potevi vedere dato che eri rivolto verso le macchine in arrivo prima del reset. Probabilmente avrei tentato anch'io di ripartire in tempo.  :angel:
Ciao

I'm not agree with you, Fulvio.
GPL allows reset ONLY if other cars are not coming, which means that when i have pressed the keys nobody was near to me.
When a car goes off the track, yellow flags are used to warn drivers that there is an obstacle, and it's their job to slow down to avoid contacts (this software has many bugs, but in this occurences its behavior is good).
Who re-enter on track, with or without shift-r, has only the duty to remain out from best line as possible and resume a normal pace as soon as possible (and this is what i did).
My question to Clive remains valid : why, with many events that happen in the race, he has considered this one, when i could not do anything else to avoid trouble and nobody have claimed ?

Alex, the reason I made my comments was to absolve you of blame, not to say that you were at fault. ;) It was an attempt to make other drivers look for yellow flags and be ready for incidents like this in the future.

I quite agree that GPL allowed you to reset and that GPL decides where it will place your car. Because cars approach Stavelot at such high speed you had almost no-chance of getting out of the way in a Mk2 Ford.

Ok, now it's clear and i understand your intent, thanks for answer.

Actually that's not strictly true, sometimes GPL has a horrible habit of plonking you right back into traffic.
For reference the relevent rules regarding resets are here; https://www.ukgpl.com/index.php/rules/bad_shift_r (https://www.ukgpl.com/index.php/rules/bad_shift_r)

I had not read this part of the regulation, Vos, and now that i know i will set my behaviour consequently.