SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 22 GT Teams Championship
Race 9 Reims

 Race number 9 in this series takes us to the Reims circuit where the bigger cars can stretch their legs and test their brakes.
The Porsches and Mk1 Fords might be looking for a good draft around here but there could be a few of the muscle cars that outbrake themselves if their drivers are not concentrating.


The point at which the racing will start on the rolling lap will be as cars exit the last corner which will mean that there is a long run to the start line

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 = 25/03/2011
Time = 21:00 UK time
Track = Reims
Variant = GT mod
Damage Model = Int
Qualifying time = 30 minutes
Race length = 25 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, Geoff Heard
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)

Although I would want to take part in this race as I am due to use the monster Mk4 Ford, it just so happens that Sunday 22nd is my 60th birthday.

I fully suspect that my family have "plans" for me and  I don't know if I will be:-


a) at home

b) sober

c) awake

d) even allowed to "play" GPL!!!

or any combination of the above.!!! ::)

So I may or I may not see you at Reims. ;)

Many happy returns, venerable one.

Enjoy yourself Clive - I will look after the server and import so no worries there.

Goody, one less opponent maybe.
Seriously Clive, have a good one!

happy 40th clive ;)
GT40 MkIV you say?
I am penciled in for a porker........
soooo....
Can I borrow the car please dad?
Please?
Pretty please?
I promise I wont scratch it :D

NO! Have you seen the Insurance Rates lately son?...  ;D

T7 server is set to 25 laps Long race and listening in Console session.
Ciao

Thanks FP.

                            :jumpjoy:         :wheelchair:




              Many Happy Returns Clive!!

I just see server UKGPL_8 on IGOR ...with mod65 :)

Wishing you a Very Happy Birthday on the 22nd, Clive!  A milestone @ 60.

Looking forward to running the 330/P4 for Team Green.

:punk: Happy Birthday Clive :punk:

Happy Birthday Venerable!!! I thought to be one of the olders drivers here. Fortunately I'm not! LOL. Have a nice Birthday Clive! YahoooOOooOo...

 :rockon: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLIVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a nice party !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday Mr Evil

Guys,

I will be starting the server VERY early as I have to go out tonight (probably). Enjoy it.

Happy Birthday Clive :)

Any chance you'll be slowing down a bit now? :wheelchair:

And in case you do turn up tonight... no, we WON'T be letting you win ;)

I'll let you beat me Clive (just this once, mind ;))

Many happy returns.

Practice in both cars mate - If Clive can't make it then I see no reason why you can't take the MkIV.
I shall send Clive a text to check on him :)

Clive informs me he WILL be attending tonight so I'm afraid it's the 910 for you then Jason!

Many thanks for all the good wishes guys ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I will be at Reims this evening after my family and friends took pity on ( now officially) an old guy and left us alone early evening. I had been subjected to surprise meetings with old friends for Saturday lunch a a local pub....  More friends and family surprised me at a restuarant Saturday evening.  Then I was hauled out for Sunday Lunch with grandchildren family AND friends.

The result is that my weight is now approaching that of the Mk4 Ford!!!

But on the up side....

My work colleagues gave me a track day for some Formula Ford fun  ;D
My family gave me a ticket for 2 to the British GP at Silverstone   ;D ;D ;D ;D
and my wife has already sanctioned my Goodwood weekend.   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Plus several other motor racing related gifts as well.

I think I detect a theme , but I never thought I was so obvious  lol.

Its up and I've set pole... <ahem> sad to miss it. Enjoy boys.

Well that was a shame. The joys of sharing accommodation bared fruit once again as my internet latency was simply appaling throughout qualifying. Then to put me out of me misery, it conked out all together just before the start, putting me out of the race.

Bloody shame that, as I was looking forward to having slipstreaming battles throughout this race. Hope you all had a good one, and belated birthday wishes to Clive  :).

Stupid Lola reliability...   ::)

Purposely made a safe setup for the T77 (6,500rpm @ 200mph) to keep it cool and look after it - and the bleedin' camshaft snapped just before crossing the line for lap 5  :(
Really annoying as I could hear from my fellow Lola drivers that they were deffinatly revving higher (Tom was visibly gaining on me out of the slow corners).

Camshaft is an unusual one though so it looks like it was just one of those random GPL engine failures as opposed to my driving - still annoying as I felt I could hold onto 4th or at least put up a bloody good fight till someone else blew up trying to stay ahead of me ;)

Hard luck Tim.
But you were entitled to a Shift R  and could have S n G'd to continue the race  :-\

Arggg!!!! I forgot!!!!

Silly rules....

So sorry for your misfortune Tim .
 I couldn t resist check my own rpm at 200 mph. it was beneath 6200 and I rolled through the slow parts with less than 3000 rpm ;)
anyways the slow part was where I blew it "forgetting" the low rev torque as I wanted a good slip. span with no warning and brought al with me. sorry for whoever else behind me that got slowed. Hazardous to reenter since I could only use my ears, but I went on fine. somewhere after midrace I caught up Fulvio and we swapped positions several times. I had a feeling we both actually gained, but I didn t check laptimes. I tended to get too close too early before the long straight and didn t get a good slip. We ended up in the last turn almost together. I thought it was clean and exciting anyways and I think the others were to far up front to catch.
sloppy performance and sloppy result. Brought the Lola in to an 8 th position.
Gz to Juha for win, Baresi for second and Evil who got a third even though he was celebrating heavily :)

sorry I couldn't take part in this one. For the first time ever, my Virgin went down on me  ;D Connection that is, usually 100% reliable must take them to task about it, but after punching 15 options then being told calls were presently waiting half an hour, what could a a man do.
Doubly annoying because I'd been working hard in offline practice to increase the draft top speed of the porker and felt I could stay in touch (or within a country mile anyway).
Service was resumed at 21:45  :'( hope you all enjoyed it.

Replays and analysis are in the usual place. Sad to miss the race and I can't make round 10 either. Practised quite hard for this and was hoping for about 2:07 but I only had time for one lap to test the server.

Should be fun in the 65's in the final Specs race...

I think I can be proud of my performance last night. I knew the Porsche would be a outclassed and that I would be last by a long way so I just concentrated on running a nice steady pace and not making mistakes.... and apart from a few missed apexes  and the odd locked wheel under braking that was exactly what I achieved. I worked hard at making myself as easy as possible for the others to pass and basically enjoyed a pleasant ride in some lovely french countryside. I think that being only 2 laps down is a good result for the car :)

Yes you did well Jason and scored some good points for the team.  Notwithstanding our individual finishing positions we were the third highest points scoring team ;D  I'm glad you enjoyed the French countryside, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, I had to have a couple of closer looks ::). 

I didn't suffer from the "brake issue" this time.  I'm coming to the conclusion it is caused by the front being too soft.

Congratulations to Juha and Axel ! Now our GT International team is the new leader of the championship !

Champagne for you (By the way, Reims is the main city for this beverage :) ) 

good race for me and the team  , good work Rainier and Cookie !!  

Mark did very good qualifying time and i thought i wasn't able to beat it even with the kind help of Evil gave me tow on backstraight, that helped me to take 2nd spot to the grid. I was too lazy try another hot lap to beat Mark's time.  

i did follow Mark very close through the race distance, several leader changes we did, after 20 laps Mark did small mistake and slides to the cornfields , i was able to take lead and cross the finish line as a winner  .

seems that Mark is taking GT championship this year.

Hi guys, but...does the Porsche the only one car having this brake bug ?
That bug makes Porsches very unreliable under braking, otherwise it would have been a very pleasant car to drive.
I still didn't understand why sometimes it does happens and some others it does not !

No Sergio, all the GTs do have that bug sometimes.

But I did the 25 laps with heavy braking into 2 turns without any lock.
IMO it has to do with stiffer front springs and shocks and controlled not too hard braking...

This was my first race where I made a special quali setup to have a higher speed on the straights without tow -> 350 kmh!

The race start was good as I was able to keep in the tow of Juha and Mark,
 but in lap 3 my engine blew on the long straight and with the s+g I fell back to 12th. 
I had some laps left and was able to find my way back through the field to the 4th place, but Doni could keep in my tow the last laps...
Into the last turn my car got a little instable under braking and we had our touch and spin...
Doni recovered first and was away for the SF-line but under full accelleration I saw he was slower so I could pass the line with 0,15 sec in front.
Sorry Doni!

 After Axel blew his engine and allowed me to take 3rd spot I had quite a lonely race in my Mk4 and I was able to enjoy my birthday drive through the French countryside. Once or twice my lack of concentration forced me to take the escape road at the end of the straight to avoid running into the barriers. From prib I could see that Doni was a little way behind but no threat even if I did run wide occasionally  ::)

I was able to put in a couple of quicker laps and regain the safety margin, but I could not match the pace of Mark and Juha up front, so unless they took each other off the track 3rd was as good as it was going to get for me.

Towards the end Axel showed up on prib and his battle with Doni was bringing them closer, but I calculated that I was safe until the chequered flag and cruised home in the Mk4 tank.  I have to say it was awesome nailing the gas down the long straight and watching the speed build even without a draft  ;D.

It seems that other drivers have come to the same conclusion as I have, in that the "braking bug" can be overcome by making the front end far stiffer than we do with the open wheeled cars and upping the bump and rebound as well. Then it requires some delicate balancing of the brakes to avoid locking the wheels, rather than stomping on the brakes at the end of the straight. When you get it right these cars slow down very quickly and without any of the problems that everyone complained about when the GT mod first emerged.
Actually I think it is quite realistic, a bit like driving without anti-lock brakes?   just as it might have been back in 1967. I now run these GT's far stiffer than anything else in GPL ( the Porsche benefits from the stiffer settings too IMHO) and I rarely get a problem unless I leave my braking far too late and panic........ so actually quite often  :-\

Sorry for the late report, gents.  Seems that only Thursday evenings I'm free to catch up on a lot of things.

Grats to Juha for a fine victory!  Great job...but some bad luck, too...by Mark to score P2.  A fine run by Clive to make it a Ford sweep of the top three.  Well done all.

I got in a good solo lap in my P4 but could kick myself in the butt for not going out to try and get a tow so I could start closer to the Fords.  I just knew that they'd fly and I wanted to try and tag along.

On the first flying lap, I was surprised and delighted to be able to gun down Al's Mirage on the home straight and gain a slot going into T1.  Comes T2 and I really blow it coming within an ace of losing the Ferrari in a tank-slapper.  I managed to just save the slides and saw Al lining me up for T3 and yielded.

On the back straight, both Al and I whistled by Thom's Lola but I'm afraid that I let my obstinance win out over sense and pushed it way too deep into Thillios.  Both Al and I rocketed off and had to take the escape road.  Luckily, I recovered and took off after Fulvio's Lola.  I was surprised to push by easily on the pit straight and pick up P7.  At Muzon, lining up just behind Tim's Lola, I saw Fulvio roaring up like the wind on my inside.  I braked hard and early thinking that, surely, he was not going to make the corner and go streaming across my bow at speed.  Judging by what I saw from Tim, he saw it coming, too.  He braked hard and early as well and delayed his corner turn-in.  Fulvio did, indeed, go blasting by both of us, all crossed up and on his way to the haybales.  Bad luck, FP.  Pretty headsup driving from Tim considering how far back Fulvio was.

Cookie blew up on the back straight and we all jumped a slot but I thought that at this early phase, there was every chance that we'd be hearing from him again later on.  Truer words were never spoken!   :laugh:

I hooked up with Tim and Thom along the back straight but then got a shock when Al came blistering in on braking for Thillios and just blew past me with ease.  Clearly, I was being to cautious on the brakes.  L4 and from P7, I had Tim, Thom and Al directly ahead with Dave not far behind and having a fine race.  Disaster at Muzon!  Thom got loose on throttle and collected Al in a spin.  I squirted through to follow Tim with Dave making it as well.

Coming up to finish L4 and Tim had the Lola motor go South despite babying it.  Bad luck, TM.

This left me in P4 with a long, long way to go but out of the hunt with the Fords long gone.  Dave was stickying to me like glue and I couldn't shake him.  For a couple of laps, I just drove the line but then started to weave in hopes of breaking the slight tow he was receiving.  It took many, many laps but I finally broke free.  All the while, Cookie was making inroads.

On L17, I got the news from the pitgy.  Cookie next behind and by only about six seconds.  Here we go!  Evil was just out of reach about nine seconds up the road.  The cost of that L2 off was now becoming apparent.

It was ineviatble that Axel was going to gun me down and on L20, he surged by for P4 on the way to Thillois.  Dave had tagged along with Cookie and wasn't far behind either til a late-race off set him back.

In fact, I was rather hoping that Axel would tow me along and we could get a shot at Clive but no, time ran out.  On the last lap, I got a nice pass through Muzon to follow Axel closely along the back straight.  It was my last chance to shine so decided to make a bit of a go of it on the run into Thillois.  I pulled out of Cookie's slipstream as we braked for Thillois and moved right.  So did he.  A little waver under braking, apparently.  I couldn't avoid the big Mk2 and we collided.  From my view and in my replay cap, Axel's car burst into flames and spun across my bow.  I recovered first and took off for the S/F line just up the road.  HUH?  My V-12 was just puttering along.  Seemed way down on power.  Axel got going again to just...and only just...pip me at the line.  I would have been lucky in the first place to get by Cookie so it all ended fairly in the end.

This may have been my Swan Song for Team Green in the S22GT series.  While I've made every race thus far, our season closer is on May 06.  This just happens to be the season-opening club race at Mosport.  Of course, I love the clubbies and am keen to go and it's only about a 1-1/2 hour drive.  Also, under new ownership, I understand that millions have been sunk into the facility in the last few months.  I'm keen to see.

It may come down to a coin toss.   :)

a question: the last circuit of the GT championship is tripoli as written in the early-season schedule, or Carthage as reported in the standings?

I think it is Carthage, Mark because Tripoli is not supported by the import system so we couldn't process the race.

Ok Paul, thanks... ;)