SimRacing.org.uk

THIS POST IS FOR THE LIGHT & HEAVY RACES

Round VII of the Formula 2 Trophy journeys to the motor racing circuit at Aintree in England. Slightly more famous for it’s horse racing, Aintree hosted a number of F1 Grand Prix in the 1950’s & 60’s. It was particularly noted for Stirling Moss’ first GP win in 1955 & in ’57 when the Vanwall was the first British car to win a British Grand Prix. Please endeavour to keep two wheels on the tarmac in the section approaching the stadium section.

The series will run on two separate grids ~ The Lights will run 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 Trophy  (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=389&theme=6)
Handicaps will apply – please observe this rule as a failure to take the correct car will result in an exclusion.
In the Lights Hristo – Group II (BT14, Ferrari or Cooper). Dean Logan & Evil Clive Group III – any of the Group II cars or either Lola or either Lotus.
In the Heavys – Rainier – Group II, RogUk & Ed76 – Group III.  
(Jonny O is placed 3rd in the Division is moving to the Lights. Jonny really has been the class of the field & would likely have won the Championship but has volunteered to step up mid-season).

A maximum of one reset is allowed per race & must be followed by a compulsory Stop & Go in the pit lane within two laps of the Reset. 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 exit of Country Corner. The Moderator may chose to investigate any other incident, in addition to reported incidents & red zone incidents.

Please note that for 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
Arf Arf	Badblood
Cookie	Bernie
Evil Clive	Billy Nobtrakes
Fulvio	Bilto
Hristo	Dave Curtis
King Hiro	Geoff
Magic Arisoulle	Giovanni
Natan	Il Lupo
Phil Thornton
Bartosz	Nigel Smith
Raoni Frizzo	Paul Villers
Ronnie Peterson	Rainier
FMG	Boggy
Skymole	Francesco
Al Hellar	Pierre D
Doni Yourth	Vosblod
Dean Logan	Adam Cooper
Dean 0	Ed76
Robert John	Tin Tin
Uli	Du Fossa
Jonny O	RogUK
	Maddog

Race List = IGOR Server = UKGPL3 & T7 Race date = Sunday 12-05-2013 Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT) Track = aintree (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=1284#entry8476) Race length = 22 Laps Variant = 1967 Formula 2 Damage Model = Intermediate Qualifying time = minimum of 30 minutes

T7 server is set for 22 laps Long race and listening on Igor in Consolle session with OpenGL_V2
Ciao

I might make tonight.....  :o

Hope so...

Sorry Badblod but i forgot the penalty in the qualy.For me ,i think,the races are finished.

No problem Fran, I think I made up for that by bashing you twice :(

Sorry mate.

Couldn't hook up qually and was about 3 secs down on what I would like but made an awesome start and then the wheels fell off (literally). I lost it at the chicane and in trying to recover ended up scaring Boggy and then joining in front of Paul. I was trying to be careful but I think I got it wrong. Sorry boys.

Then second time round, Fran lost it at the chicane and so did I. Smash #2 and then my steering wheel fell off my desk. Smash #3. Reset and frantically put back wheel but now my sound was cutting in and out - headphones had been caught up and I didn't know whether the engine had gone or just the sound. That led to me being lapped and I kept pace with the boys for a few laps but in trying to let people past managed to spin and then over drove round the last corner and went off track. Just one of those nights. I gave up!

Very frustrating race. Didn't have time for much praccy, and didn't have a setup going into qually. Tried a few, settled on one...and then selected a totally different one by accident. Thankfully it had enough fuel, but I spent most of the race trying to work out how to take the fast chicane...and frequently failing. I knew something was wrong on L1 when the car flipped out, and put me to the back...or so I thought, nearly rejoined in front of someone. sorry about that.

Then I was in a chase against the heavily warping Phil - very scared to get close, took a few risks getting past, and then I was terrified he'd get back past me, and I'd have to do it again. Dean joined in for a lap or two, and then fell away, although you probably got a fright when you nearly got past me - I didn't intentionally change direction so violently (it put me on the grass way befpre the corner), I just had a second and third gear that didn't belong on the same car, and it caused me lots of problems getting the timing of change down right. I managed to keep Phil in check for a while, but eventually I went off at the chicane again, and he was through. I was closing the gap a little, but I'd have needed a lot of laps to close then get past, although to be fair the warp wasn't as bad second time round.

All in all, I was never competitive, and a challenging evening keeping the ****** on track.....

wd to anyone who selected the setup they meant to use!!  ;D

Well that was full of surprises!

I took a look at my history,  looks as though my previous/only turn round here in a F2 was the (apparently) long fun race connected to the end of Season23.   I don't even remember it!   Took a spin round here yesterday,  but could not match my 1:48.8 PB from that fun event [1:50 was more like it]. 

Practice/qually was looking ok-ish,  although I was basically 3 seconds adrift of the top time. eek!   I was then doing PB after PB trying to trying to chase down kinghero's pole time,  but still ended up about 1.5 seconds down.   Hadn't occurred to me that was in a different bracket altogether - but I would not have set such a (on 'paper' anyway) competitive time otherwise!



ok - so I know that was probably directed to members of the more-accomplished brigade;  personally it turned out to be a great setup - straight from the factory!  as usual :)



Mr Blito was there the entire time.  He'd have romped over the line in 1st for sure (although when I was follower,  he/the red-tinted mist were both pulling me along somewhat).   As mentioned,  unlucky!    I honestly did feel sorry for you,   but seeing as there was still plenty of laps for me to screw things up - I forced an imaginary slight wry smile & pressed on.     At the end, a couple of very sedate laps,   just to be on the safe side.  Phew!

The GPLRA race history & graphical race reports may be technically correct with the underlying data - but they really show nothing at all of what actually was happening from end to end.


Aha - the LIGHTS details are now up.  Totally a different class altogether!


I suppose it's only fair to mention that without the handicaps in place & the fact that big-hitter Jonny0 was not there;  the result would probably have been different otherwise.    But good provisional points for the team all the same.

Cheers all,
Dave.

That was a great race we had there DC, It almost went to the flag! I couldn't quite match your pace but I was close enough to be able to shadow you the whole way through, waiting for you to make a mistake, offer me a chance to nip through. Its just unfortunate that when you you did gift me the lead, I gifted it straight back to you! My first spell in the lead only lasted half a lap! The second spell in the lead was much better for me and I really thought, with just 3 laps to go, that I had the win in the bag... but.... BUT... *sigh* There was no way I was going to be able to miss the spinning back-marker!... If I had lifted, you would have been through so I had to try keeping the throttle in praying that there would be room.... I knew it was going to be tight... too tight as it turned out :( There wasn't the room and contact was made and I did a wonderful 360! I caught the spin but the damage was done.. the car was ok but with just 2 to go I was 3s down.
So congrats to DC for the win, lucky sod!

Don't ask me why, but I have a strange affinity for the Lola BMW.
 It must be masochism because it is heavier than a heavy thing with an obesity problem when compared to the other cars and that German engine just lacks the low down grunt out of the corners that the FVA cars have. But, I seem to have found the sweet spot in the setup that allows me to extract the maximum from its handling. So I find myself wringing the neck of the car and enjoying every moment.  ;D

I knew I had good race pace, but was more than surprised when I popped in a pole position time on race fuel which was beaten in the last moments by Hristo ( who else??!!). My next problem would be getting the white whale ( where have I heard that before??) off the line without being swamped by the FVA's.
Fortunately, Hristo's Cooper was a little sluggish and I got it just about right, so by keeping to our own sides of the circuit we effectively blocked any passing attempt down to T1....sneaky but fair?? ::).
Once T1 and the braking zone for T2 were negotiated safely it was down to business. Aintree is one of those circuits where a passing opportunity is like a duck with a degree...rare.
 Hristo's race pace was slightly slower than mine but crucially he had better drive out of the critical corners, especially onto the straight where the FVA pulled an extra 25-30 mtrs which I could only catch up with slipstream as we approached the chicane, but too late to attempt a pass  :-\
As usual in the early laps I was not too bothered about getting past him, although I was checking where I had any advantage , because our combined pace was pulling us clear of the pack and leaving my mirrors nice and empty ... always a good feeling early in a race. By half distance we were out of sight of 3rd place and it was clear that it would be between the 2 of us for the win, although I still could not hook up the turn onto the straight to be close enough for a pass into the chicane. As you all know that chicane is marginal at full race pace, so I needed to make the pass early and get back onto the full racing line before attempting to thread the car through the hedges!!  not easy.
I was hoping that H would make a mistake just big enough to let me through, because I felt I had a little lap pace in hand that might give me the edge with a clear track. But instead, I missed a downshift into T2 and slithered wide to rest against the haybales  :cursing:
Hristo took his chance to escape my attentions and pulled a 300mtr lead. I think we still had about 15 laps to go, but it was difficult to see through the thick red mist that descended.
The rest of the race was a blast as I hunted down Hristo metre by metre, lap by lap, until I picked up the draft and was on his tail with about 3 laps to go. Any attempt to take the win from Hristo would have to be on the last lap and involve some seriously edge of the seat driving.
Unfortunately my fuel calculations had been compromised by the chasing of Hristo and running the engine at max revs, instead of short shifting for 20 laps in the slipstream had used more fuel than I had in the tank and as we started the last lap the engine coughed........rats!! 
It had been an epic chase and great fun, but without everything that the BMW engine could provide I was never going to make a pass on Hristo on the last lap. I think I had him a little worried in the last 5 laps  :devil:

Grats to Hristo for a faultless race which gave me no chance to make a pass despite my slight pace advantage.  :-\

Being chased down by Evil for the whole race was very tough to handle! I could sense the scheming mind of the predator planning patiently to attack in the last few laps, and it was obvious that with the slipstream these cars provide, I wouldn't stand a chance if he got too close on one of those longer straights.

I was surprised to take pole in Q, but the lap was particularly on the edge in the final sector, so that helped pull it off. The start was OK and I just managed to hold onto 1st, then as Evil explained, we just pulled away from the rest. He was closing in at some places, but I was managing better exits onto the two main straights, so that kept me safe for most part of the race. It was still very difficult to maintain composure, as I had to make no mistakes at all. The hedge chicane was particularly tricky because you can't really take too much of a risk there, but you can lose a lot of time if you're too cautious. I even hit the outside concrete wall once in my attempt to carry a lot of speed through.

Fortunately for me Evil had an off and I could take it easy for a few laps, but once he caught my slipstream again, it was obvious that the fight will go down to the wire. This time Evil didn't fool around and he really had a run on me going onto the s/f and into the final lap, but then he braked too late for T1 and went wide, so that was it - I could breathe a sigh of relief!

Very satisfactory win and thanks to Evil for the great fight, even if there was no actual overtaking taking place! Grats to all other finishers.

Sorry about that Arf.  I wasn't sure if it was my connection because Tim was bouncing about like a jack rabbit and everyone else was stable.  So I thought mine was OK, obviously not.  I did have a spin at Canal when a massive lag spike caught me out.  I lost the slipstream and it would have been a lonely race if you and Dean hadn't had problems of your own which enabled me to catch up.

Dave, you are right; the Lights are very fast!  I need a few of the heavies to graduate to this division so I will have someone to battle with on a regular basis :). 

It was good to be back behind the wheel, I had a massively enjoyable race with Fulvio up until he passed Al after a good 17 laps or so. I tried to pass in the same way but Al didn't see me (my replay suggests I was 4/5ths along side) however as I got there just before the turn in point I was probably in Al's blind spot when he checked so the onus might be on me - happy to submit my replay if you want Al :)
I must admit I found the lag a bit odd too. Fulvio was rock solid for me so I felt safe to get really quite close in places, yet he said I was warping a lot, Al would even vanish from time to time though for me so I thought it was him with the dodgy connection.
Something strange must be going on as so many people reported seeing random others warping who plenty of different people found to be fine  ???

Looking forward to making a race on a track I know so I can try to hassle the front runners again!

I'm wondering if something was a little screwy too. Tim's car was hopping about all over the place for me all race - most other drivers seemed stable but having said that I also remember seeing someone else ahead of me disappear briefly a couple of times too.

First half of the race went OK staying on the tail of Axel's car but I was struggling on the crucial corner that leads onto the long straight & that ultimately helped me progress backwards through the field... desite that it was good fun racing with King, Fulvio & Tim. Mind you, those chicane passes are a bit of a game of 'chicken' - going in two abreast, you're relying on the other guy to back out of the move before you, which neither me or Tim did! You were in my blind spot Tim, but with my experience I should've known you were there or thereabouts so no complaints from me. Shame though as it allowed Fulvio to get away & I think all 3 of us together would've made the final laps interesting.     

Mod report published - it's very boring.