SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 28

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (38 laps)

Track: Kyalami 79  Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg109873#post_kyalami_1979)

Cars allowed: Alfa Romeo Tipo 33-3 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_alfa_tipo_333), Ferrari 312P Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_ferrari312p), Ferrari 512S Code Lunga Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_ferrari512s), Lola T70 Mk3B/C Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_lolat70), Matra Simca MS650 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_matra_simca), Porsche 908/2 and 908/03 Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_porsche908), Porsche 917K Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54520#post_porsche917k).

Modern tyre fix must be applied to the relevant cars. Full details here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=12159.msg218178#msg218178)

Car restrictions: Two drives maximum per make *. Check your status here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuS59xI7-YTLdGl0aWt3YWM4dkdMZGZhQlFwaTBqcVE&usp=sharing). *Drivers may elect to drop one make entirely and add two bonus drives with one other make.

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not required

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None

Thanks Tony for your excellent selection of Series for Season 14, hopefully something to interest everybody and hope you get the support you deserve for your valiant efforts.  ;D :rockon:

Cheers Bill (cheque in the post)

Race announcement revised

Porsche 917L removed from series.

Race announcement revised

Rule change regarding No. of drives per make.

Thanks Tony, bought new base drum, the old one was worn out with all the banging it's been given over the years.  ;)  :devil: :rockon:

Race announcement revised

Message and link for Modern tyre fix added.

Goldtop and Erling have already secured the top two spots in this Championship but the battle for the remaining third place looks too close to call  :shifty:

geeez! I had not realised that I was that high in the rankings!!!!!  :o :o :o or that it was THAT close Tony. I knew that I had missed a couple of rounds and my early attempts were pretty pathetic so i had not bothered to even look at the points table.

I don't suppose there is any point in asking what would be a decent lap time in these cars??? given that the stakes are so high lol.

It all might be an anticlimax for me anyway as there is an outside chance of real life getting in the way on Monday, but here's hoping that I can join in the fun.

I'm doing 4:02's in my car  ;)

Wow Tony !! that's a good 5 secs a lap faster than I could manage when I did a few laps this morning with soft tyres and 5 litres of fuel.  ::)

I know the track well, as it is one of the original GPL circuits, but getting these GT cars to handle as I would like is proving tricky.

All this sandbagging   ;)

I'm at 1:18s in the Lola. Having to get used to stick shifting with my cwappy DFGT instead of the paddles which are playing up badly now. Quite enjoying it and thinking of getting a proper h shifter with some new pedals eventually, but in the meantime there's a lot of room for error in race mode.

For years I used the paddles on my G25 and then about 12 months ago I thought to myself, I have this shifter ( which I paid good money for!) why not use it??

OK, so I wimped out of the "H" shifter option and use it as a sequential shift most of the time, but it does feel a little more real having to at least move a gearstick to make a gear change.

I have opted for the Matra Simca howling banshee for this race and am around 1:20 at the moment, but far from happy with the setup or is it my driving? :-\

I had a quick run round in the matra, the big ferri and the Alfa, the Alfa is an easier drive
and I'm doing 19's, though that will come down a bit.

Just to summarise drivers remaining car availability

Goldtop - Must take Lola
Erling - Must take Porsche
WT - Must take Lola
Phspok - Any car but Lola
SpecialKS - Must take Porsche
Evil Clive & Postal - Have unused car group available so could elect to drop unused group to reinstate a used group. But best to let me know before tonight's race.

Alrighty, as i suspected i will go with the suggestion from Matt as the Alfa being being easiest to tame (well that is most relative ofcourse.. :P)
So i might try the Lola if i have some sparetime before qually, but could you drop my Matra's for more Alfa drives please Tony?

Sorted

Not too bad in the beginning. New PB but the 908/3 is a bit too slow and
I'm not able to master the 917.
But then I came a bit too rightwards, the game took control and forced me
to enter the pitlane with full speed. So I got a stop & go penalty and lost
motivation.

Good pace there on top. Curious who will win.

Thanks to all involved for organising this series.

Replay and results now posted

A second Championship of Season 14 draws to a close and we have our Champion

1st - Goldtop  :clap: :clap: :clap:

2nd - Erling  :clap: :clap:

3rd - EvilClive  :clap:

Well done guys and thanks to everyone who took part.

Tough race that  :sweatdrop: :sweatdrop:

Made a dreadful start and was in last place going into T1  ::) Managed to get up to 2nd quickly as others made mistakes but by that time Erling was well down the road and I was playing catch up. Got within 5 or 6 seconds at one point but pushing as hard as I could I wasn't able to bring him back. With around 12 laps to go my tyres were starting to suffer and I was having bad oversteer which just got worse towards the end to the point that it was all I could do to keep on track  :o

Was hoping to go out on a high with this one but Erling was jut too quick tonight....well done and congrats on a well deserved win  8) and well done also to Postal who almost had me at the end.

Thanks Tony for all your efforts in organising this series. The work you put into these events is much appreciated  8)

Grats to Goldtop on winning the Championship, with a - nearly - unbroken string of victories  ;)  I almost have conscience pangs about stealing that last one, but my darker side really, REALLY wanted to do that  ;D

Grats also to Clive, for snatching 3rd, with just ONE point  :o

About the race:
In offline praccy, I could routinely do 1:18s and 1:17s, with the fastest being 1:17.0.  Knew then from the pre-race posted laptimes that it would be close, and honestly expected GT to run away with it.  Qualy was hard, and only on the absolutely final lap did I manage to grab pole, with a new, first sub 1:17 lap.   Dreaded the first lap, as the 917 was an absolute bitch on cold tyres here. Had practiced hard for it, but have to give thanks to Clive, who drove like a gentleman - a more aggressive driver might have tried to take advantage of my wobbly, desperate struggle to keep the rear to the rear under power.. 8)

After the first couple of laps a small gap was opened, and the remainder of the race was a lonely one indeed.  Very intense though, and demanding my outmost concentration. For most of the race, the gap to GT was around 5-6 secs, so no room for errors.  Late in the race, the gap suddenly jumped to 10 secs, as GT obviously had a moment somewhere. From then on it kept growing a little lap by lap - guess his tyres were even worse than mine (I was on softs, with left front in the reds temperature wise, for most of a lap.  Wear was in the early-mid twenties on left side at the end).

Very chuffed with having won and with 2nd in the Championship.

Big thanks to Tony for his hard work in putting it all together.

Edit: Had another look at the replay.   The unofficial Drifting Award goes to Clive  8)   Seriously mate; much impressed by your car control skills..

Cheers,
Erling

Grats to GT on an (almost) 100% record and taking the title and to Erling for winning this race and taking 2nd.

Thanks to Tony for organising all of this and to the rest of you guys for putting up with me.

It was not until Tony raised the issue at the weekend that I became aware of how close the competition for bronze was going to be. I could have opted for another drive in the Alfa, which was my favourite car thus far in this group. But I figured that I really needed to try out the other options and see how they performed.

So, over the weekend I did a few laps around Kyalami ( same track that GPL uses  ;D) in the screamin' demon that is the Matra. At that point my PB was around 1:20 on race fuel.

I guessed that it would not be amongst the front runners, but I was looking for a race setup not qualifying. I did not get another chance to "play" until arriving on the server last night, where it was apparent that I was 3 secs off the pace.

A few tweaks to the diff and cambers improved the handling and I started to shave off time even on race fuel. I had soft fronts and hard rears and they seemed to holding up quite well even under extreme provocation  ::).

4th on the grid was a bonus and I actually thought I had jumped the start when I launched through the gap between GT and Postal and had to lift to avoid the fat a** of a large Porker that was blocking the way.
The same gearbox and rear axle were an obstruction all around lap 1 and I was constantly lifting or braking to avoid assisting Erling into the boondocks  :shifty: Some eager beaver also tried adjusting my rear camber at the hairpin  ;) and I think they might have succeeded in re-arranging some of the suspension parts as the car never felt quite so stable after that, but that is racing  ;)

It was only when we got to the main straight that the grunt of the big porker gave Erling a small gap, which I set about closing up around the twisty bits of lap 2.
Things were looking quite good until the end of lap 2 when I took too long a look in the mirror at the end of the straight and drifted a wheel onto the grass just when I needed to brake  :o.

Hero to Zero!!! about sums up what happened next, as I sat on the grass waving at all the cars passing me.

The rest of the race was good fun throwing that Matra at the corners and trying to hit the rev limiter in each gear  ;D Strangely at half distance the fuel looked to be about right and I stopped checking. But I now realise that in the last 20 laps or so I was really pushing as hard as I dared  on wearing tyres trying to close the gap to the 2 cars ahead. I suspect that I started using more fuel and eventually it coughed with 3 laps to go and I had to dive off the track to get out of Tony's way when it all went quiet.
I guess that the Alfa might have been more competitive, but the Matra was certainly fun to throw about last night. I doubt that I could stand that howl from the engine for a longer race as my ears were ringing by the end.

Looking forward to next season with you guys.  ;D

One of my favourite tracks and it was great fun trying to control the Lola. Knew I wasn't going to have the pace to match the faster guys but hoped to score enough points to overtake Clive in the Championship. Alas, even with him pulling of the track to let me pass I still failed to overtake him mathematically.
Thanks to everyone who took part and helped make this such a fun series.

Congratulations to Erling on his win in the crazy 917. Respect. And to GT for winning the title convincingly. It looks like this series needs a reappearance some time to give him some better competition  ;D

Was feeling for a Lola this race, but again lack of time put me in the Alfa Tipo, as i had some sort of a setup for it. Used qualy to get it dialed in and was happy with the position as it was done on race fuel. At the start i got a little boxed in and entered T1 in third. There was a lot of weaving going on in front of me and the early braking at the hairpin caught me out. Bumped Clive (sorry mate) a bit and slid off track. Then worked my way up again, but the two big engined cars where to far away already. Kept my head down hoping the better tire wear of the Alfa would give me some seconds back at the end. And indeed the gap to GT was starting to come down. One slight drop of concentration got me with two wheels in the grass and off i went. The car was still ok, but the gap to the front was about 20 seconds again. Darnit. With half a lap to go i got GT in my sights again, but he kept it in front to the flag.
I was hoping to give some better competition, still a nice race though.

With some pc malfunctions early in the year and having missed a couple of rounds i feel sad this series is already to an end. Truly great cars. During the season i started to read-up on the type of cars we where using and it made me appreciate this series even more.
So a big thanks to Tony for organising this series :thumbup2:

It's been a great series; love these cars.  The sheer speeds they get up to are exhilarating, especially on those old tracks with the fast sweeping curves.

Hope to see a return to this, in some form or other, next season  :)

Cheers,
Erling