SimRacing.org.uk

THIS POST IS FOR THE LIGHT & HEAVY RACES
Round 6, back on familiar ground for a race at Rouen. Some of you may have already seen this but the excellent footage of the 1962 French Formula 1 Grand Prix can be viewed on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7YpsWmsqVs

As we had an excellent turnout for the last race at Westwood the plan is to run 2 separate grids for Lights & Heavy. If you are not sure where you belong 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=405&theme=6).
 
For this round the handicap system will apply as follows;
Evil Clive & Ronnie Peterson – Group II = BT14, Ferrari or Cooper
Sam Blood – Group III – either Lotus, either Lola or any Group II car.
As the Heavy grid is still rather small & evenly contested there is no handicaps for this race.

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 15 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 up to the exit of the hair-pin (Nouveau Monde). 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.

Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL7 (Lights) & UKGPL 3 (Heavy)
Race date = Sunday 03-11-2013
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = Rouen
Race length = 19 Laps
Variant = 1967 Formula 2
Damage Model = Intermediate
Qualifying time = minimum of 30 minutes

Last minutes change of plan!

Looks like the turn out is back to the usual numbers.

We will all be racing on UKGP7

Woeful race. Slow but steady was the plan. I executed the first part perfectly  ;D

Found people tangling with each other and managed to avoid everyone until Arf^3 did a Vettel donut in my path. Unfortunately I am not good enough to avoid that kind of thing. T-bonedhim big syle. Sorry Colin. Wasn't much I could do. Set off with a reset and suddenly it was handling like a brick - possibly because I was trying too hard to catch up. Finally beached it on the polos at Nouveau Monde and that was that. Must have spun it six times after the reset. Disappointing. Hope it goes better on Tuesday.

Quick apologies to Natan, Marco and Dean O for some close racing which got a bit too close at times maybe.  Grats to Dean L, Sam and Dave R. Some very competitive racing tonight throughout the pack. Regardless I hope you had as much fun as I did. Thanks everyone and see you all at the next round.

 ON the 19° laps,  there was a serious error  about my counting positions.I was 8° and I found myself 11° and no one overtake me.So until the end.I hope the members check it .thx

Thanks Marco. I'll take a look and let you know.

I can confirm that Marco was dropped by the server and in the same process scared the s**t out of me!!
He blinked a couple of times as we we approached the S/F line, just as I picked up the slipstream and looked for a pass going to T1. Then he vanished completely about 100mtrs before the line and I thought that maybe he had been disco'd. Luckily experience has taught me to view these things with a degree of caution and it was lucky that I slowed  enough to hold a tight inside line aroundd T1 instead of keeping it flat in 5th and running out wide. Right on the apex of T1 Marco decided to return to the racing !!!!! :o luckily he was still out wide and we avoided any nasty incidents.
I suspect that his warp across the line meant that the server dropped him 1 lap? But I can assure you that he was giving me grief all the way to the finish!!! and was on the same lap.

Grats to Dean and Sam and ??  who came 3rd???
BTW. Does the Cooper ( or more specifically MY Cooper) have a large target painted upon it???  I don't think I have had a race where I have been punted around quite so much in years!!! I was amazed that each time the poor car got clobbered and it felt terminal, I was able to turn it around and drive away.
The first was Sam's spin on Lap1? That was a racing incident for me. I had commited the Cooper to the corner and there was no way I could have got it to turn any sharper at that velocity. Sam's car just happened to be occupying 10% of the track that my rear wheel wanted..............1st spin onto the grass.
As the race progressed I clawed my way up to 3rd place at 1/2 distance and was going quite nicely with Phil and Ronnie slowly closing me down, until Arf ( I think) decided to practice 3 point turns at Nouveau Monde  ::)

I guess the big problem was that the Cooper was just too slow on the long back straight and invited the faster cars to try and pass into the sharp right hander. I was trying to carry as much speed as possible through there and 2 or 3 times, although I took a wide line to leave room I found myself nudged off by a car that could not hold the inside of the bend.....!!??
No real complaints, as I half expected this race to highlight the handicap difference and it certainly made the race interesting.
I notice that Ronnie found himself a nice tow truck in Phil and recovered from an earlier off to pick up some handy points lol

Waited until 9pm & there were about half a dozen drivers on show. I decided to go to Plan B – & run a mixed grid.
The slots filled up quite quickly & we had an almost (but not quite) full grid.
Personally I prefer racing on full grid & the margin of difference between fastest & slowest is less extreme with the F2 mod. (Although Raoni’s pole time of 2.00.xx was impressive).
It did turn out to be a rather entertaining race – or at least the half of it until my internet connection failed.

Ditto Clive. Fortunately the Cooper seemed Captain Scarlett like. In particular I do not know how I survived a torpedo like hit at that right hander that had me hiding in the crowd until I realised I was still in one piece and could still move. I think it was a recovering Raoni who dealt me the blow but no problem mate and I hope you did not disconnect because of this. Later on I swear I had the Cooper upside down and it still managed to right itself and allow me to carry on. Crazy race and I still hate this track.

I had a hectic race, not quite sure how I managed 2nd  :). Spent most of qualifying getting to know the scenery of Rouen after trying to setup the Lotus. Managed 4th on the grid and had a great few laps dicing with the pack. That lasted until my customary spin early on and clouted Clive in the process (setting the scene for his Cooper's escapades that race  ;)). I am sorry Clive, but not sure if I could have done anything else other than not spin in the first place  ::).

That dropped me down the order but somehow got up to 2nd again in a couple of laps. From that point on it was a lonely drive to the finish. I was unable to catch Dean and my questionable setup skills came to the fore again this race. Wasn't really happy with how the car was behaving mid-corner. Congrats to all finishers  :).

Not sure if you have seen this thread Sam.    https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=11940.0   .

Hidden in there are some links to basic setup technology which you might find useful. Although why the heck I am telling you this when you are obviously an alien in sheeps clothing is beyond me !!!  :-\

Bad night for dropouts it seems. I too was forgotten by the server, as I lasted at least the same number of laps as Bad Blood - when I exited the race there was already a message in the chat that he'd disconnected. Mods, don't worry about elevating my result, it really doesn't matter.....

....this race was an experiment for me. I was visiting Baab in Germany, and took the chance to use his kit to see how a G27 compares to my G25...and truth is, I still don't know, cos everything went wrong. I had emailed my setup, but of course GPL wouldn't recognise it (made sure it wasn't write protected/hidden etc). Then I had to contend with all the weird error messages that come up when Baab starts his PC. Then his PC went really slow, running  some process or other....anyway...by the time I had a working PC qually had already started, and I had no setup. Qually was therefore trial and (mostly) error (never mind steering ratios, we have setup our wheels differently in Windows - I tend to use a steering ratio of 8/9:1, needed 17/18:1)...so sorry if anyone got scared/put off by my manic behaviour.....

My only disappointment with my qually position was that I wasn't dead last, and I was more worried for those around me as we started. Happily I extracted myself from the crowd when my brakes locked and I span (harmlessly for others I hope/think). Once I had some clear space I was able to get a rythymn, slow but reasonably reliable and managed some consistent laps. Then a trio of events ruined my mojo;
1. I was knocked off the circuit by another car, not sure if it was an inconsiderate rejoin or an incomplete spin
2. I could tell from the lap board that the server had lost me
3. The PC started to run another process and slowed down, putting some space between my steering inputs and the desired change in direction. At this point I decided enough was enough......

Think I mashed you at one point Colin but I'll check the replay...

It wasn't you, it was Natan. He span at the corner after hairpin, going into the fence. To right himself he span round and came to a halt on the racing line. I came round the corner effectively blind to where he was. I could probably have avoided him, but he span his rears up and his car kicked to the right forcing me to react, from which I span. Not sure he was patient enough overall, but in the heat of the moment we all do things like that....

Oops... that always makes you feel good knowing that you have helped anotherdriver on their way at the small price of a wheel or two ;)

Not sure how I missed that thread Clive. Thanks for the heads up  :). Throughout racing in UKGPL, I have been guilty of using other people's setups with minimal tweaks, primarily due to laziness on my part. That's fine for the 67s but can't quite get away with it for the F2s. Perhaps it's time I had a go at messing around with the bump/rebound settings, that's what I'm usually scared of changing. Cheat sheets at the ready  ;).

Some idea of the handicapping for the next race this Sunday will be greatly appreciated.

Ronnie,
Handicap for the Lights will be as per the series registration rules, but only for the top 3 drivers. As follows;

Handicaps will be limited to the top 3 drivers in the Championship.
Group I - Ferrari or BT14 = 1st place driver if 30 points ahead
Group II - Cooper = 1st place driver, less than 30 points ahead. Or 2nd place or 3rd place if 30 points ahead
Group III - Either Lotus or either Lola = 2nd & 3rd if less than 30 points ahead
Drivers below fifth place will not be handicapped.

For Vallelunga - Ronnie = Group II, Evil & Dean Logan = Group III
Vallelunga, Bikerneiki & Zandvoort the handicaps will not be so significant. Last race at Monza will be a free choice.

The Heavy division is quite small & as we are running on a mixed grid it will be a free choice of chassis.

Mod report published.
Sorry for the delay - there was much to look at.