SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 24 65 Novices Trophy
Race 10 East London

Welcome back for the final round in the Season 24 Novices Trophy. Our final race sees us move to East London in South Africa.

We will race on the 1960's layout of the Prince George circuit.

Opened in the 1930s, it hosted the South African Grand Prix in 1934, and 1936 to 1939 when racing was halted due to World War II. The original circuit was shortened to 17.7 kilometres in length in 1936. Modified to meet Formula One regulations in 1959, the track was built into a seaside amphitheatre. It hosted three rounds of the F1 South African Grand Prix in the 1960s until the increasing power and speed of the cars meant that it became too small for Formula One. The race was moved to Kyalami.

This is a course with a high speed start and then some tight twisty corners. The last corner, in particular can be tricky and is important to set up the next lap. The first lap will be fully moderated within the red zone. The red zone will extend to the whole of the first lap.

Please check the Season 24 pages for details (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=386&theme=6) regarding rules and the Novices Trophy (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=393&theme=6) pages in particular.

THERE IS NO HANDICAPPING FOR THIS ROUNDF. GOOD LUCK TO ALL CONTENDERS

Race List	IGOR
Server	UKGPL_3
IP Address	ping ukgpl3.dyndns.org
Race date	11-06-2013
Qualification Time	~20:45  UK time (minimum of 30 mins)
Race Time	race starts at 21:30 UK time
Track	East London (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/EastLondon/eastlndn_GPL.zip)
Variant	65F1 the 2.02 Release of the 65mod should be used
Damage Model	INT
Race length	27 laps
RED ZONE	Whole of Lap 1
Password	see above (#post_event_password)
Replay	available after the race here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season24/Novices/)

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 races are run under Int Long rules and all incidents in the red zone on Lap 1, at least, will be moderated. For this race, the red zone extends to the whole of Lap 1. There is no limit on the amount of resets but EACH Shift/R MUST be followed by a Stop n Go.

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)

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=393&theme=6)

I downloaded this track from one of the other pages on this site as I was keen to learn the circuit (it's a new one to me). Tried a race with the AI but they were all so slow they made me look like Hristo! (other aliens are available).
Is this a fault with the track or what?

LOL

The quality of AI on the GPL addon tracks is a bit mixed.

Some are suicidal, and I remember one lot who beat each other up in the pit lane and hardly ever made it out on track for qually.  At Bremgarten they under fuel them selves if I recall correctly.

How are you progressing with GPL then Tony?

You may find this useful, Tony:

http://gpl.lineage2universe.com/track-guides/east-london-track-guide-for-honda-ra272-gpl1965-mod/

Hi Tony,

I remember in the early "pre patched" days of GPL even the AI that came with the original game had their moments...

John Surtess in particular was a real crazy B*gg*r     

Paul V.

Erm........it's a learning curve

I read your track guide Hristo- it's very good- that itchi waza chap can certainly drive. I don't know how he brakes so late, it all looks so fluid and easy. But you only need to try to know otherwise. I've spent some time here recently but I'm fed up going into the same turn backwards- I haven't really got stability under braking.

I think that Tudor had a dabble at East London in the '65 cars when he was looking at GPL, before I discovered PnG.

You can share notes on the experience.  ;D

Do you always use the Honda?  Not sure that I will have any setups for that car.

It's because I use a more rearward brake bias (50-52% range) and always feather the throttle, even when I'm braking. You can hear me do that into every braking zone, trying to balance the car with the throttle and brakes, plus trying to keep the engine within certain revs by changing gears relatively quick, to avoid any sudden change in the differential lock amount. This also gives me more freedom in rotating the car on entry and setting it up for the apex, and then the exit. It depends on the setup of course, I prefer (especially in 65s) a pronounced oversteer, because the engines are weak vs. the amount of grip, and you can easily deal with instability when necessary by applying opposite lock and momentary throttle lift up.

I decided that I would stick to one car for the whole season rather than flit from one make to another. Next seasons car will be be chosen randomly.

Yipee! Very happy to have won my maiden championship here at UKGPL. It's been marvellous with some great dices along the way.

This race started off rather scarily for me. I just wanted to stay out of the way but in doing so i dropped to forth in the early stages. First JP got by at t3. I saw him approaching a bit quick in the braking zone, so i decided to leave plenty of room, to which he gladly took the lead. Then RogUK got by under braking a few turns later and again the honda of Tony (?) got by when i ran wide through t1 on the following lap.

I was then able to settle knowing there wasn't anyone else threatening behind me and began to ease into catching those that had got ahead. But still by no means was it easy. But eventually i worked my way back to 2nd. JP was some 7 seconds up the road by then but for some reason it never dawned on me that it was JohnnyP up ahead, in the lead and running away with the championship. I guess this helped me relax. I gained a second on him over a couple of laps until he had a spin near the end of the lap, t8 i think. From that i retook the lead.

But JP wasn't giving up. That meant it was going to be tough to stay composed and not be troubled by him in my mirrors. I took a few wide lines when he was close and i wasn't sure how close. And that helped him stay with me for a few repetitions of the track. But unfortunately he lost the rear in the middle of t3 (i think) and i was able to get some breathing space.

Finally, further bad luck came to JP and he dropped back further until he was down in 4th. From there I just stayed out of trouble and brought the old girl home.

Hats off to JP for a great finale and being such a gent. Same to everyone else and thanks to BadBlood for running the series. Definitely a place i'll be returning to!

Cheers all, chin chin!  :)

I had trouble in the braking zone all race which hampered me with the car being unstable, at T3 on lap one I struggled to slow the car down and thankfully Andy knew and went wide- I am sorry Andy I did not mean to bully my way through. I had a few laps of error free running but then it was spin city. A bit disappointed I couldn't give Andy more of a race. I did loads of practice for this race but mainly in the Ferrari- after one spin too many I abandoned it for the bt11. Congratulations to Rog for getting 2nd place and hats off to Andy- a worthy winner. The best man won today. :)

Big congrats Andy. Well deserved. But it was me that passed you and it was the only time this year!

Fun race. Spent most of it looking at Rog's exhaust pipes. He seemed to be quicker out of the last corner and I could drag him back in the rest of the lap... he FINALLY made a mistake on that last corner and I caught him up at the start of Lap 24. I outbraked him into the sharp left hander but I think I caught him by surprise as he turned in and tagged me. I span and then my engine let go. Felt like Oulton again but he was leading this time. Same outcome though :(  Not sure if the Engine failure was caused by the collision or it was a co-incidence or not but it meant that Ross passed me and I had to try and fight Johnny, Billy and Dave off on cold tyres with a full tank. Couldn't hold off Johnny and then ran wide to let Bill through but I still had a lead on Dave. I had to make my stop so I did and watched as the yards between us counted down... arrgggghhhh! Zoomed out of the pits without much regard for the track and span my way across the line killing the flag man...

Big fun, but feeling a bit deflated with the two low placings when I was 2nd and 3rd on those grids...

Still. BIG step forward for me this season and that fifth could have been third...

Great racing with you all and I look forward to seeing you in Season 25! Thanks to EVERYONE who took part.

Get your incidents in ASAP and I will confirm the results at the weekend.

Whilst the BT11 has served well for several seasons I felt the need for a change so took the BRM. Took a while to find a set up that accommodated my driving & I would probably have been a fraction quicker in the BT11.
I suspect GPL is so used to seeing the Brabham that completely ignored my P4 qualification & started me off at the back of the grid. Quite an entertaining scrap in the midfield. Johnny was very quick but error prone, I kept pace with Ross for a bit but he refused to make any mistakes. Andy was a class apart & will no doubt move up to the Pros. Commiserations to Paul who must have had the worst last lap in GPL history. Thanks to the other drivers for turning out to make UK GPL what it is.

Provided I don’t get anymore grid-drops I’ll use the preseason break to get to know the BRM.

LOL - I didn't think it was that bad

In terms of places lost it was a bit of a disater. But compared to your Watkins Glen performance it wasn't that bad!! 

Can't wait to see Paul's last lap on the replay- I can't imagine it's any worse than some of mine.

Grats to Andy on win and Champioship. Was going to use the brm here but at last min decided to go with coop, had some good racing trying to keep in front of Badblood then lap 24 Cocabana tagged him as he passed on inside BIG SORRY for that as up to then we had had some great racing. Thanks to W Tony for being so courteous in race and a BIG THANKS to the guys that organize and run these UKGPL races. 

Appropriate really, I got beached...  :D

It was great whilst it lasted Rog but I was REALLY disappointed with Tony...

Ahh, I thought, we are coming up behind a backmarker and I can close up... what! he's got out of the way... swiz.

Adrian Sutil he was not!   ::)

Just a note to Tony, enjoyed racing with you mate and if you feel a bit off the pace in the whale (BT11 is nice, if you want a change) take a look at some of my first races from S19. I was six seconds off the pace... hoping I can double up with some GTL action and improve there whilst you improve here.

Once again boys, if you get the chance, GTL on a Monday night is very GPL-like but you get the chance to drive Aston Martins, Jaguar D-Types, Minis, and Jaguar Mark 2's bashing wheels with Ford Anglias. There are some modern cars but we don't like to talk about them... :D

Congrats Andy, sorry I didn't race much this season but I will be back next :)

Jeez Andy, when I signed you up to CH this season...there was no expectations that you had to go out and nail a Title in your first season.    :eek:
Next season would have been fine I'm sure.   ;)

Great job at at Sth. Africa lads, and indeed for the entire season. Andy, Rog and Ross...I'm sure Jimmy and Graham approve.
I tips me lid,
Geoff.

......... guess who was asleep on the sofa when he should have been racing.... woke up at 9:30 :(

We've all been there  :sleep1: :yawn:

Just wanted to add my congratulations to Andy on his 1st Championship win, well done Sir  :clap:

Enjoyed my first season in GPL and hope to be there for the next one, whatever format it takes.

And finally thanks to the admins for treating us to all the GPL that's available and to all the friendly help I've received since undertaking these open wheeled beasts.

BTW if any of you fancy driving older cars in the our GTL 1950's series, or taking a 60's saloon car for a spin in our BSCC, or trying one of our other championships go to Steam and download GTL. Then pay us a visit and we'll sort you out with everything you'll need for some great racing (hopefully).

Cheers

WT

Hi
Would like to add my congratulations to everyone who took part this season, it was a great championship. Likewise to mods for making it possible.
See you all next season.

Cheers

Boggy

Well Done Andy and all the racers in this years series.

Great fun all round and I had loads of fun & some great races during the season.

Enjoyed it immensely

many, many thanks to Badblood for doing a great job.

see you all next season. hopefully be faster next time out too  :0)

Paul V.

I too would like to thank Paul for his time and effort which let us have some great racing.

To repeat the congratulations from all, well done Andy, a great 2nd half of the season, and the championship!

For me, given the calibre of the drivers in the novice class of racing, I was pleased to pick up 3 podiums through the season, and end up 4th in the championship.

I need to sort out my driving in the opening laps of races.

In the early rounds, I qualified intentionally at the back, so as to get a safe start. It soon became clear that with the overall pace of the field being as quick as it was, that I was losing too much time in the early laps of the races, and by the time the race had settled down, I had already lost considerable time on some competitors ahead.

By mid season, I'd started to push a bit in Qualifying, and ended up in the midfield (always dangerous) of the grid, and trying to be reactive to what was going on around me, got through a few lap 1 situations people were finding themselves in, to find myself in eventual podium positions.

Towards the end of the season, I tried to push a bit more, from the start, and found myself in the top 5 on the grid on occasion, but I need to be more confident with cars nearby early on in the race.  The last 3 races saw me drive off the track twice for fear of turning in on another car at T1.

Through the season, my fastest race lap compared to the overall fastest race lap, saw a gradual improvement, with the opening 2 races being 1 1/2+secs off the pace, and at the end of the season I was about 6/10ths from the fastest race lap.  Still need to fins 1/2 a second though, and retain the consistency.

Looking forward to future seasons, and I'll maybe have to take a look at some other GPL champs here.  But then, there's only so many hours in the week.

Well done to all involved in this season, some great driving race after race.  Thanks to UKGPL & Admin team for setting it all up.

That's the cart.


And that's the horse.

GJ on the improvements you've seen. Keep at it, more will come.

haha thanks Geoff ;)

Moderation published and updated - I omitted to add the penalty first time round. Apologies.

Many thanks to all of you for the close (and not-so-close) racing!

The image below relates to the incident at 35m33s and is meant to help drivers appreciate track position. I recommend that you all take a look at the replay as it is easy to think that there is no overlap - the overhead view shows the true position.

(http://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/images/S24_N_R10_pw_ruk_L24.jpg)