SimRacing.org.uk

The Novices Trophy comes back to Europe and the site of the 65 French Grand Prix. Built in 1958 around the sides of an extinct volcano, the originally 8.055 km (5.005-mi) long Charade was described as an even twistier and faster version of the Nürburgring. Some drivers like Jochen Rindt in the 1969 French Grand Prix complained of motion sickness, and wore open face helmets, just in case. But 1970 was no better for him - Rindt was hit in the face by a rock, something that the circuit was usually littered with, and often caused punctures on the track. Luckily we don't get the rocks but motion sickness is a possibility!

Turns and twists and then corners and then some turns and then some twists - ooh a straight... the Novices get 11 goes at getting it wrong.

In line with the new handicapping system, only Rob is handicapped - don't know why we bother really. Doesn't seem to make any difference!

Handicapped Driver(s)	Allowed Chassis
Rotaxmax125	BT7

Please check the Season 23 pages for details (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=359&theme=6) regarding rules and the Novices Trophy (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=364&theme=6) pages in particular.

Qualifying may start before 9pm, if so, Reserve drivers should leave the server when 35 minutes of qualifying remains and only rejoin when 30 minutes of qualifying is left. This is to ensure that Full Time drivers get priority in joining.

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 Novice Trophy races are run under Int Long rules and all incidents in the Lap 1 red zone will be moderated and reported incidents for the rest of the race, however the moderators reserve the right to review any incident. Drivers can take UNLIMITED Shift-R but MUST take a Stop n Go for each one. The Red Zone is start to the exit of turn 8 (see below).

Please ensure you are aware of the new in-series penalties for this season. Details are here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=10879.0). Drivers incurring a penalty will receive a PM informing them of this."

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 = UKGPL3
IP address = ping ukgpl3.dyndns.org
Race date = 09/10/2012
Time = no later then 9:00pm UK Time (30-60 mins practice, race starts at 9:30pm)
Track = Clermont Ferrand 65 (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/ClermontFerrand/clermontferrand.zip)
Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = Int
Qualifying time = 30 minutes
Race length = 11 laps
RED ZONE = Start of Lap 1 to the exit of the Belvedere hairpin (turn 8 million or so...)
Password: see above (#post_event_password)


65 Patch: The 2.02 Release of the 65mod can and should be used. You need a working installation of the 65 mod to install the 2.02 Update. All the 65 Mod files can be found here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Mods/1965)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=363;theme=6)

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Aha!  Here's the appropriate place to put the grumble-posts re: this track ;)

Actually, have taken in a few laps round here now & it seems tame enough at pottering speeds.  Which means I'm probably waaay off 2nd from last pace!

Hopefully the good weather will remain.  I expect this place would be treacherous in the wet...

Cheers,
Dave.

Pottering speed to you, ramming speed to me ;)

Hmmm...waaay off 2nd from last sounds to me like a rather large sand bag! I have managed a few decent laps but haven't managed more than 2 or 3 laps without sliding off onto the green stuff.

If you intrepid explorers are only sliding into the green stuff, you're not doing badly.  There's a dirty great chasm waiting out there for someone!   You might also find a tribute to the Beatles, and a shortcut through a mountain, if the lap seems too long. :smartass:

Have taken great chunks off my best and was feeling pretty chuffed until I found that HappyAl was sub 3:30 and some ten seconds better than my best :(

lol

If memory serves , the BRM is king here , no idea about setups though  :)

LOL, don't be too dishearten, as I'm still learning the track and get lost quite a bit. In fact in the practice race I did with Rob yesterday, I only managed 1 error free lap.

I do enjoy the track, the sense of speed for the first bit is great. My only wish is that we had another week to practice.

Quick question, does anyone here use GPLRank? I find it a great way to keep track of my scores and compare my times with other drivers here, I keep my rank up to date. If you do use it either add me on GPLRank or let me know your username so I can add you.

Sub 3.30? Oh dear.
I’ve done a couple of stints at Clermont with the sole purpose of being able to avoid the ditches, banks & various other obstacles & 3.35 is as fast as I dare to push it.
11 laps is going to require a lot of concentration &/or luck.

Quite!  I'm relying on luck...

Suffered several mini-freezes in the first laps then totally froze on lap 5. Not feeling the love. Hope you all had a good 'un.

Awful start with about a million crashes (none of them entirely my fault). Crashed into a stranded Dave because I couldn't see his green chassis under the trees - lol.

Had a fantastic battle with Billy but as soon as I got past lost concentration and went for a safari. After that I tried too hard and span more than Alistair Campbell.

Quite enjoyed it though although it was somewhat embarrassing that as I let Rob through I crashed....

Grats to podium. Grats to Rotaxmax on win, Grats to Al getting pole, Great track, lonely race for me, had a couple of offs. BUT 10 secs down on the fast guys.

I enjoyed the racing at Clermont, I qualified 2nd behind a flying al and for a change made a good start in the race. The first few laps were frantic with three cars really close together, but, I got all out of shape slowing for a hairpin and shunted al spinning him and letting Rob through into the lead. I am sorry for crashing into al but also a little disappointed as both myself and al both had enough pace to trouble Rob. After my altercation I drove alone as fast as I could with my computer trying to go asleep again and giving me a black screen- how do I stop windows from trying to go asleep? A great race from Rob as always and look forward to Silverstone.

Congrats to Rob for another fantastic and well deserved win, and also to Johnny for a well fought second place.

Fun race for me but lack of practice cost me the chance of a win. I was really happy with my pace, but I just couldn’t do a error free race. First time I’ve raced here at Clarmont, and I love the track, it’s really fun.

I set a PB in Quali quite early on, I knew that I couldn’t beat it so started to concentrate on race fuel with cold tyres. I had a bit of a scare when Johnny set a lap only 0.01 slower, and I watched his last try at Quali which was even faster, before he made a mistake.

I got a good start to the race, and retained my position. Johnny and Rob where very close behind, and I knew that they would both pounce on any mistake I made. All was going good for 3 laps, I got everything up to temp, and was starting to settle into my lines. There where 2 corners that I knew I was slow, as I couldn’t get the car to turn well at slow speed. Going into one of these on lap 3, Johnny was carrying more speed than me a gave me a little nudge, which span me around. Nothing much in it, it is just one of those racing accidents so I don’t give Johnny any blame.

After mine and Johnny’s spin, Rob took full advantage and disappeared up the road. I still had nice heat in my tyres and went after Rob to try and chase him down. Over driving doesn’t really work at Clarmont, and a minor lack of concentration is harshly punished here, as I learnt. I made a tiny mistake, where I misplaced my car but half a cars width and span again, this time all by myself. This released Johnny and left me third.

After my own spin I was a distant third, but had a nice gap over 4th. I tried to calm myself and get back into the rhythm. Once I was happy with everything again I was still adrift so I pushed it to try and get the fastest lap. Prib said that there was a mid 3:24 available, and that was my target. Again I learnt that this track does not reward aggressive driving, and another small mistake sent me tumbling and cart wheeling though the forest. I needed a shift and R, took my stop and go and decided to stop being silly. I calmed myself and drove for the finish. Looking forward to Silverstone, a track where I normally don’t do too well. I will need a lot of pratice at Silverstone before I think I’m ready for the challenge.

Johnny

What versions of Windows are you running? If it’s Windows 7, open the control panel, and type “power” in the search box. Power Options should be the first thing listed. Click Power Options, and then change plan settings on which ever power plan you have. Change the 2 options to Never, and save changes.

If you have a different versions of Windows, it’s fairly similar, i.e. power options in the control panel, but I can’t remember the except options.

My approach to learning a new track is generally to see how fast I can go through a corner without crashing & whether you can carry a higher gear / brake a bit later. A style which is poorly suited to tracks like Clermont & Nurburgring.
First clean lap was 3.40’s which I reduced to a 3.34. Based on qualifying times from the last Novs race that looked quite competitive. Last night was a bit of a reality check with Rob, Al & Johnny getting mid 3.20’s!
Lap 1 was a bit of a disaster – finding a ditch about 300ft deep that really need a Landrover to get out. Remaining laps were relatively clean & I had some great battles with Paul. He powered past me after a couple of laps but went mountaineering half a lap later. After that I had mirrors full of Dave C for virtually the rest of the race. I’m guessing he was a bit faster, but was really patient on a track which has very few places to pass.
Hopefully the grid will be a more competitive at Silverstone & we can give Rob a race. Also, I won’t need a route map to find my way back on track.

PS. Johnny - as Al says I think your PC problems are related to power saving settings.

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Grats to winner and the podium.
I'm not proud of myself, poor preparation, not had time to run for 15 days, I was really far away from you in my lap.
I promise you that it will be a different story silverstone!
I'm here and there, hang you!

Hi all
Couldn't make the race last night due to family commitments,though I did learn the circuit just in case, so maybe next time.
Congrats to all who participated and of course to the podium, your lap times amaze me.
Onwards to Silverstone
Cheers

Boggy

Hope you can make Silverstone Boggy. It usually has closeish racing and you can make your car WIDE there (although not down to Stowe...).

Practise hitting your apexes, particularly at Beckets, Club and Abbey. They really set the lap up.

Thanks Paul
Practice, practice and more practice
What sort of times should I be aiming for, I think I am doing fairly well then see the times of the other "novices"  :o

Cheers
Boggy

I'm sure that you will get advice from many sources and its all worth considering. Unless your a natural born alien then for sure there is little to better practice practice and more practice. Only by putting in the laps with a couple of varying setups on each track can you discover what suits your driving style and how to look for gains in time at different parts of a circuit by for example staying off the brakes, getting on the gas earlier etc).  But if you want a life as well as GPL my pearl of wisdom to you would be not to get too hung up about other peoples times. Turn up knowing that you can stay on track at your own pace and you will already have a major weapon in your armoury of race skills. But most importantly keep it fun. If you don't enjoy your practice time as well as the races it will always be hard to improve. Good luck.

Charade isn't the easiest of tracks for anyone let alone a novice , so take heart from what you have learned so far and enjoy the fun , the speed will come when you gain confidence in yourself the track and the car , GPL isnt something you can just jump into and be fast straight off like playstation stuff , it needs patience and practise as others have said  :)

Steady 1:35's or 1:36's would be very good at this stage of of your progress.

Steve Bird gave me some good advice: Drive within yourself. Explore the limits in practice but find your limits. Braking points for me at Silverstone in the 65's are, count to two/three after the bridge and take Copse (T1) in 2nd (3rd for the Honda). No brakes at all at Maggots (T2). Brake at the last lamppost on the left for Beckets and get nice and tight to the kerb for a good exit, accelerate all the way though Chapel and floor it down Hangar Straight. At the lampost past the end of the low wall on the left, brake hard for Stowe and get tight. Club I always find tricky and can spin but brake at the group of people on the left and drop down two gears and nibble the grass on the apex. Abbey, brake at the dark patch on the race line and turn in earlyish. You drift wide and it doesn't kill you if you put a wheel or two on the grass. At Woodcote, brake and drop a gear at the gate on the left and make sure you don't go on the pit lane entrance, it is slippy. Sometimes you need a bit more brake to get the nose turned in.

Practice turning the car and dabbing the brakes and see how much more it turns or lifting the throttle in a turn and seeing how much more it turns. You want to try and slide the car round the corner.

Mind you I am pretty crap and this is all probably rubbish but I can do a low 1:34!

Hope that helps. Cheers.

Lamposts ???

this is Silverstone NOT Monaco, lol ;D

Hi all
Thanks for the input.
Your feedback is just what I needed and your comments have confirmed that I am going in the right direction.I find practice good fun and seeing a sector go blue after trying something different is a great confidence booster.
Once again thanks to all
Cheers
Boggy

Well they look like lampposts and I am sure I have seen Maddog sniffing one once... :D


If you can get blue sectors you are doing well. I had been using Prob for six months before I realised the tyre temperatures were colour coded!!!

Boggy.     From my experience at gpl, track knowledge far exceeds any setup parameter. And as for setups I very rarely tinker with the spanners as I nearly always use default setup with the gearing changed for each track. Everyone is different but the one setting I have found that can assist you with a badly behaving car is the diff setting- I used to use 60-60 on everything but now use 60-30. I'm not saying that playing with the setups won't help but for me I don't get much time to play gpl so I try to learn the track and stick to what I know. I hope your enjoying your racing- I am.

Hi Johnny
I presumed you meant the ramp angles,something I know very little about, so had a play around trying 60/60 but then trying 60/30 and what a difference! I guess some of it must be psychological, giving me more confidence, but blue sectors on fairly cold tyres!! All I can say is cheers for your help and now back to practice practice practice
Thanks again for everyones help
Boggy

I just want to give another hint...

Try different setups!
At the Track Database (http://gpltd.bcsims.com/?ir=Setups) you get various setups for each track.

Just download some of them and try each of them, so you will find how the setups gearings and car balance works for you.
I found for myself the Masaki Asano setups fit best to my style of driving.
If I try one, I only change the steering bias to my standards without looking for the other data.

@Boggy

Once you have a base setup stick with it and then you can pretty much use it at every track with a change of gearing. The different ramp angles will have different effects dependent on how you drive. If you brake with your foot TOTALLY off the gas, the effect will be radically different than if you trail brake (i.e. bit of brake, bit of gas). I habitually leave some gas on and if you take it off the turning effect is much more pronounced.

The main thing is that setups give you confidence. What gives the time is line and getting the braking points right for your style. Setups might save you 0.1-0.2 (or tens of seconds if you can stop spinning!), line and track knowledge will give you 2-3 seconds...

Cheers.

It's really interesting to see that we all have our own way of getting that on screen car around the track and yet the lap times can be so close.

Hi all
I've tried downloading setups for various tracks but never found any that seem to suit my style of driving so prefer to develop my own setup. with the ramp angle changes and trail braking I've hit the 1.35s fairly consistently so back to getting those braking points and apexes sorted. All your help is very much appreciated and I like to think I wont be a rolling roadblock at Silverstone as I would hate to spoil anyones race.
Cheers
Boggy

Hmmm. Not that close....


Blast!  ;D

One thing I have found is that the speeds I can acheive in practice mysteriously melt away in a race :(

I was happily running mid 1:34's with the odd 1:34.1 thrown in and I thought - got this sorted...

Next day I was doing 1:37's - trying too hard and missing ALL the apexes...

One last thing - try braking earlier and you go quicker - it is all VERY mysterious.  :D

Good stuff Boggy I think you will learn more doing the diy approach. Have a read up on the ramp angles and clutches- the book that came with the game called 4 wheel drift is a really good read and good for refering to, i'm sure you can download it. ;)  There are some fast times being banded about for silverstone- I can do 1.35 but only the odd 34...I sounds like it will be a close race already :)

1:35 are really good that's what I'm expecting to do in the bt7

Hi all
Well practice practice practice ,read read read, brake brake brake apex apex apex OMG where has the time gone!!! Seriously thanks for the help and Johnny I have the original book and do refer to it a fair bit but until now never got my head round ramp angles and clutches. Its amazing how a bit of incentive makes things more interesting. A couple of days break now for a trip back to UK, hopefully returning fresh and ready to go
Cheers
Boggy

Me too, I'm really struggling to get a lap in the 34's at the moment, almost all of my laps are 35's and 36's. I'm hoping for the race I will be able to do a 33 lap in quali, but it's not possible for me at the moment but pratice makes perfect.

Once I am racing it will be 37's - it always is...

Single laps I can do but stringing them together without hitting anyone is a bit tougher. I will be disappointed if my average is not 1:36 or lower. I don't want to get lapped, I want to avoid a Shift-R and I would like a PB (a 1:33 something).

1 out of 4 probably. This is a very competitive championship this year and it is nice to be in the mix for once.

Moderation published...

Now go and watch Nigel's Red Zone. Awesome.

Are the replays working? I can't seem to get anywhere using the link.  ???