SimRacing.org.uk

THIS POST IS FOR THE LIGHT & HEAVY RACES

The Formula 2 European Tour reaches the half-way point with a trip to familiar territory, with Silverstone hosting the Britsh leg of the series.
 
Handicapping applies to the top three drivers in each Division.
LIGHTS Hristo – Ferrari or Brabham BT14. Evil Clive & Al Hellar -  Ferrari, Brabham BT14 or Cooper.
HEAVY Rog UK – Ferrari or Brabham BT14. Rainier  & Phil Thornton -  Ferrari, Brabham BT14 or Cooper.

The series will be run on two separate grids; The Lights (on T7) & the Heavys (on UKGPL 3). Please ensure you join the correct race. The Driver list is shown below & the Championship Table can be found here F2 European Tour (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=366&theme=6)

Unlimited resets are allowed but every Shift R must be followed by a Stop & Go in the pit lane. If you Reset on the last lap a 30 second time penalty will be awarded.
Incidents should be reported in the usual way.

In line with other divisions the races will be subject to full moderation  in the red zone which will be to the entry into Stowe corner. The Moderator may chose to investigate any other incident, in addition to reported incidents & red zone incidents.

Please note that for Season 23 UKGPL has introduced a system of penalties within each series  for drivers accumulating yellow cards – see here
Penalty Points (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=10879.0). Drivers incurring these penalties will receive a PM advising when a penalty has been applied & what race it should served.

LIGHT	HEAVY
Al Hellar	Badblood
Alex Barresi	Bernie
Cookie	Billy Nobtrakes
Evil Clive	Dave Curtis
Fulvio	Francesco
Goran	Geoff
John Roberts	Giovanni
Mark Barresi	Il Lupo
Nicky Ickx	Jonny O
Ron C	Phil Thornton
Robert John	Rainier
Magic Arisoulle	Jonny
Clutch	xxxxx
Blito	xxxxx
Hristo	Paul Bird
Arf Arf	Rog UK
Natan	Derek Flint
Skymole	Miniblood / the Mayor
Raoni Frizzo	xxxxx

Race List = IGOR Server = UKGPL3 & T7 IP address = TBA Race date = Friday 21-09-2012 Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT) Track = Silverstone (Papyrus original) Race length = 27 Laps Variant = 1967 Formula 2 Damage Model = Intermediate Qualifying time = max. 30 minutes

This is a nightmare... I missed the last Silverstone race because I was away and this is my wife's birthday. I'll have to get her REALLY drunk at lunchtime ;)

Hope you all enjoy it. I'll miss you :(

 ;D :o damned , just realised my girlfriend`s birthday is on fryday too .
no chance , I will not be there at silver .gla

Bloody women, ruining our racing....  >:( ;D

Paul,
Whilst I appreaciate marital duties must (on occasion) take precedent - can you or someone (Rainier?) who understand UKGPL3 better than me start the server. I can manage T7.

T7 server is set to 27 laps Long race and listening on Igor on Console session with OpenGL_V2.
Ciao

Yep.

Hi all , i've juste vote in the registration F2 pool ,

can i join you tonight for the race ?

Thanks guys

Strange race. Pleased with pole and lead till 5 laps left.
Can't say I had it in the bag entirely as Fran had kept a steady 200-160 yards the whole race to keep me decent. I was expecting him to go for a final push as we were heading into traffic so it may have gone down to a close finish. Anyway the finale was not to be. I struggled to pass the first backmarker, and at one point I even thought he was aiming to do a retake - to be fair he was probably running around my pace as it took a long time to catch him.
So onwards and upwards - could see there were two ahead with a gap and I had buffered Fran but that wouldn't last so the pressure was still on but keep calm and get past them and I was in with a win. Passing the pit exit the first car stayed left so I took it he was slowing to let me by so I pushed on then aarrghhhhh we turned in together... To be honest with no points in it for me I took the emergency exit.

To be fair we were running close times as it took a long time to catch up and, probably down to my rustiness, I did hesitate for a split second thinking 'is he going to let me by or isn't he'. Actually technically I am probably at fault as I shouldn't have assumed the guy in front was off the line to let me by. That will be fun - "gutted and penalised" :wetfish:

Anyway I hope none of that deflects from Fran's first win :clap: You were edging up and I think it could have come down to a last minute battle. That's racing and you won fair and square and deserve it so enjoy.

Sorry Tim that was me.  I saw you catching up so I stayed left at the exit of Copse to let you past on the approach to Maggotts but you hadn't actually got past by the time I got there.  I could have braked harder but that might have caused you to rear end me so I decided to keep going and keep well into the kerb to give you plenty of room to go around the outside.  Unfortunately we touched, sorry about that.

The BT14 I had to drive was a total snail.  I tried my absolute hardest in qually but I was still 3.5 seconds off the pace, nevertheless I was surprised how eventful the race was.  I had several battles throughout the race but they all ended up the same way, people just drove away from me.  Even with a perfect tow the BT14 couldn't hang on to anything.  I had to stay close to maximize any tow I could get but on lap 11 I rear ended Billy at Becketts, sorry Bill I braked at my usual spot but it is no excuse, I'll submit an incident report.

Grats to Fran on his first win!!!!  more points for Antipasti  :jumpjoy:

oops!!!  looks like I should have read the race post properly when I realised at about 8:50 p.m. om Friday that I was involved in a F2 race :-\ . I grabbed the Lola BMW, which was the only F2 car I had ever tried at Silvy and took to the track with the only setup that I had on file.

It never occured to me that I was in the "handicap" section of the championship after a DNF at Snetterton and a couple of average finishes elsewhere.

Looks like I might be out of the handicap section next time  ::)

I am away for some Cornish R&R for the next 2 weeks so will miss quite a few races, but I'm sure that you will all manage to have fun without me...maybe even more fun?

The Cooper was not so bad in Silverstone, but I made a catastrophic start and then made a mistake when trying to overtake Johnny on 1st or 2nd lap.
After that mistake, I rejoined the track on the last position.

I finished 4th which is a good result as RogUK and Phil were far behind !
And now I am the new leader of HEAVY Championship.
So I will have to drive the Ferrari (or the BT14, but I don't think it will be my choice) on the Bugatti track in Le Mans ...so it will be difficult to stay championship leader when leaving Le Mans ! 
It will be a nice challenge.
 

Grats to Fran on win and Grats to podium.
This is the 2nd worse race for me after Spa 65 (i should not have started) just hope i didnt spoil any ones race, will drop out for a couple of races and then see if i can get back into GPL.

Most of us have a bad patch every now & again Rog. Seeing as you are 2nd in the Championship Table I'd encorage you to stick with it. Final results are decided on the best 8 finishes so you can have a breather if you want.
Has anyone noticed GPL is a bit like alcohol - wake up with a awful hangover & vow never to do that again - well not until the next race.

My fastest lap in qualifying was my last one and I was running out of fuel so I was optimistic for the race....but.... Lately I have been plagued with computer trouble and as soon as I entered the race my resolution changed and my frame rate was stuck at 20 fps which was manageable but awkward. I hit some bails after about 6 laps and had to do a stop and go. I ran on my own for some time and eventually saw someone in the distance but also the leader was coming into my mirrors. Mr Vosblod  passed me and I decided I would try and tail him and hopefully he would pull me along to the cars in front. Somewhere in front two cars collided going for the same corner which helped me and I caught billy on the last lap I think. Well done to the podium.

Well, that turned out to be more interesting than I expected it to be!
Late in, so only time for a couple of qually laps;  but luckily I've been to this track before :)

I had a cunning plan as I picked the same chassis (again) as UKGPL3  - surely the server knows best, right?!  I assumed UKGPL3 would also be running default, so another cunning plan there then :)

For me, a good start.  Followed with no contact/near misses  ("nearly missed him!")  & others dropping back/out.

Billy/Phil/Dave R seemed to be keeping each other busy a little way behind for quite a while.

In the later stages,  I really was being hunted down by professional teamie Dave R.  I was sure it was a 600+ yard gap;  but he was reeling me in at a fantastic rate.  He'd have got me on the last couple of corners/straights too had it not have been for the slight spin.  Unlucky fella!

Compared to others, my pace was nothing special. But,  I'm well satisfied with the overall consistency.

So I've provisionally got a 2nd podium in my time here.  Well chuffed at that!  Yes,  was due to misfortune elsewhere in the field (particularly up front);  but that is what spices up this stuff even more and gives us usual back-runners hope!

Looks like the rest of the season is on brand new tracks;  so I'd better get them installed & some time in...
 
Anyway, as ever - cheers for the run.
Dave.

It certainly seemed better than the BT14.  In hindsight I should have taken it, it was an option for me.

Yes we were LOL.  There was no way we could do anything with the BT14 or Ferrari on a power circuit like Silverstone.

That's the spirit David.  You'll need to stay positive when everyone drives away from you ;)

On a serious point I've been looking at the race schedule.  The last round is at Hockenheim which will be a serious disadvantage for the championship leader which could be a problem because there is a minor flaw in the handicapping system.  Because we drop the lowest 2 scores at the end of the season, the person at the top of the championship might not be the true leader.  The handicapping system tends to favour drivers with lots of wins and a couple of no shows (i.e 2 zero scoring rounds) rather than a driver with 10 good points scoring finishes.  So it is entirely possible for someone to be leading the championship after round 9 (when the points calculation only drops 1 score) but be in a weaker position than the person in second place. 

For example consider these scores:

Driver A  43, 43, 43, 43, 43, 43, 43, 50, 50    Total after 9 races 358 (1 dropped score of 43)
Driver B  50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50,  0,  0    Total after 9 races 350 (1 dropped score of zero)

Driver A has to take the slow car at Hockenheim but clearly Driver B is the faster man. 

Obviously Driver B deserves to win the title but Driver A should be given a fighting chance.  However with the BT14 or Ferrari at Hockenheim it would be hopeless.  It would probably be better to bring the Hockenheim round forward and make the last round a twisty track where the BT14 and Ferrari could be a little more competitive.  That way the season finale wouldn't be so one sided.

I'd be interested to know what the Lights drivers think.  Especially Hristo who didn't start the Silverstone race.  Why was that? Was it because you were so far off the pace in the BT14 and decided it wasn't worth the effort or was there another reason?

Result - very mediocre but an entertaining race nevertheless.
For the first few laps I followed Dave C until I missed the apex at Abbey.
About midrace I was really rather sorry for Phil. I passed him on three separate occasions as his BT14 proved to be the car to not to have on this circuit.
A stop & go had put me near the back & as the race entered its closing stages I was in danger of a) getting lapped by the leader & b) being caught by the flying  Johnny. On the last lap Geoffs car took a massive spin, I eased off the pedal to work out which side was best to pass & Johnny nipped past. Similar to the 65's at Spa but with positions reversed.
Bad luck to Vos who should have won but well done to Fran who did.
The pack has been reshuffled with Dave Rainier topping the table going into his "home" race in France - but he has the handicap of the slower car.
The handicapping is certainly making the championship interesting.

I did start at Silverstone, but switched from the extremely slow BT14 to the quite slow Ferrari. IMO some cars should simply be dropped from the handicap because it's just too much of a gap between them and the other cars. It's not a handicap, it's completely taking away any chances from whoever is driving it. And Silverstone isn't even a very fast track... so please, consider that. It's almost like handicapping a driver to a 2L car amongst 3L in 66s.

Looks like you agree that the BT14 is just too slow.  I don't think we can change the rules at this stage, anyway nobody HAS to take the BT14.  The championship leader still has the option of the Ferrari.  It was my own stupid fault for taking the BT14; I could have used the Ferrari or the Cooper.

What we could do is move the Hockenheim round.  Whoever has to take the Ferrari there will be at a serious disadvantage.  It would make the end of the season an anticlimax for the championship leader if we ran the last round at Hockenheim.

Could not the CL "BUY" a car for the Hockie round , the price to be paid in No. of points (TBA) deducted from his final tally  ???

Just an Idea  :)

Stupid one at that  ::)

The mod team always maintained that the Ferrari was slow but that the others were relatively well matched.

Thanks for your various comments.
This is the first season we have run F2's so the effect of the handicap system was a bit of an unkown quantity. The idea of the handicap is to even up the competition - but this should be proportionate & the BT14 & Ferrari did look very outclassed at Silverstone.
Let me have a think about whether we can make some minor changes.
Similarly I don't have any objections to changing the running order by swapping Hockenheim to Round 9 & finishing at Jops.
I think GPL has been successful over the years because the league has been run consistently within its rules - but the main attraction is to go racing & have some fun. If the rules are getting in the way then a change would be the right thing to do.
 

Its acceleration and top speed are much much lower than other cars. It handles OK, but with most tracks we run, engine power is much more important. The BT14 is obviously even slower, but I don't think it is by much. I'm not sure I'd enjoy trundling around another time in either of the two cars, it's a complete motivation killer and it shuffles the championship too much IMO. It's not even comparable to when I was in BT7, lol.

Hello

Nice and very fun race with my friend Tristan :)

A lot of laught duing the race especially at the end ! ;D


See you in other F2 race if I have time.

ToM

Moderation now published.

Thanks Bill

A couple of important additions to the mod report for the Lights!

I wasn't aware of that regulation. The only reason I switched chassis during Qualifying is because I had no time to practice prior to the race. I've also never driven either of those slow cars, so I never expected that Brabham would be so much slower than anything else, lol. Will know for the future though.