SimRacing.org.uk

Season 26 Works Trophy, Round 1, Brands Hatch

Welcome back to the senior division of UKGPL. The Works Trophy. The best cars, the best drivers.

We start at Brands Hatch. The British Grand Prix has been held at Brands Hatch on 12 occasions and the European Grand Prix has been held there twice.  The 1966 Grand Prix was won by Jack Brabham and the 1968 race by Jo Siffert driving a Brabham Repco BT19 and a Lotus-Cosworth 49B respectively.  There have also been numerous non-championship Formula 1 races most noteably the Race of Champions in 1967 which was won by Dan Gurney in the Eagle-Weslake T1G.  

The track is particularly appropriate for Grand Prix Legends as it was widely used by Formula 1 cars in the 1960s.

As always, we will run Pro Damage, so resets are not allowed.

Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_GPG
IP address = 62.195.2.111
Race date = 12-01-2014
Race Time = race starts at 21:30 UK time
Qualifying Time = Between 30 and 60 minutes, starting no later than 21:00 UK time
Track = Brands Hatch (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/tracks/Brands67/)
Variant = 67F1
Damage Model = PRO
Race length = 50 minutes (laps 32)
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Replays Available here (http://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/inc_replaysS26_js.aspx)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=427&theme=6)

The full time drivers can start to practice as soon as the server is available.  Reserve drivers can also join as soon as the server becomes available but must leave the server with 35 minutes of qualifying left, for a total of 5 minutes; this will allow any remaining full timers to join.  If there is enough space on the grid, the reserve drivers will be able to rejoin when there are 30 mins of qualifying left.  

Moderating The red zone will be fully moderated for lap 1 only. For this event the red zone will be from the start to the exit of Hawthorne. Other moderation will be on reported incidents only.  However any incidents that occur in the red zone that are not reported by the drivers will be reported by the moderator.  This will allow all affected drivers the opportunity to present their case before the incident is moderated.  This should ensure there are no surprises when the moderator's report is published and hence appeals will be less likely.  If you haven't received a PM about an incident before the link below the results table is removed, you can be sure that you will not appear in the moderator's report.

The chassis token system is explained on the Works (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=427&theme=6) standings page. Please ensure you choose a chassis that is within your budget, which can be seen by hovering the mouse over your points total in the standings.

Please restrict chat to pit messages including at the end of the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Just a heads up: Top Straight is banked, which will mean wheelspin will send you to the left at the start, the more so with loose diffs on the throttle, I guess. Try to prevent wheelspin during the start, also note to self.

Think I won a leaguerace here in NL.GPL in the Cooper, however with little competition and way back in 2005/2006. It's a track you hardly can relax for a while, so focus and concentration will be key. It's a nice fluent track with height difference, but I burn my tires soon here when I push, and still have to figure out how to take South Bank which tightens at the end, I use to take a late apex lifting in the middle of the corner to have a good exit. Also I recommend taking a wide line towards Dingle Bell, otherwise you might bottom out, even with higher ride height/stiffer springs/bump rubbers.

Looking for a clean start and a race without big mistakes (and without FPS drops), aiming to finish whatever position that might be...will start this season with the Cooper, have xp with that chassis here and will save me tokens for later in the season. Looking for a 1m34ish racepace initially when all goes well, but again, key will be consistency and managing tirestemps for me.  ;)

GPG server is set for 32 laps Long race.
Ciao

Sorry about the squeeze Doni and no problems with my demise Jethro. Good luck to both of you and everyone else for that matter.

Totally my fault for that. Consider myself well learnt in the art of incident reporting and not realising where other people's braking points are. Apologies for the tap. It would appear from my replay as though GPL rather took issue with that collision, as I saw a partially severed car next lap...

My race was done by the 9th lap, spun 4 times within two laps, 3 times in one lap, and called it quits. Was running 11th so out of the points.

Still having FPS-drops/shaky screen at points, mostly at straight, t2 and t3. Already in practise, but set a good lap early on and didn't bother to go for a high32. The start was very cautious, and the first two laps I ran very carefully because of a shaky screen. In clean air it was better, and had the pace for a podium getting into a rhythm, but again a massive FPS-drop towards T2 caught me out and I bent up the car, tried for half a lap but the left suspension was too bent...

Really have to figure out what's the problem, ran the light version with little detail, offline no problems. Only online...the local replay runs very smooth as well :(

Are you using any addons like Pribluda or Digital Display Modifier?  These can cause problems.  Also are the problems associated with the chat?  When chat messages or info about people disconnecting pop up it can affect the frame rate.

Yes, might have to disable Pribluda, but it's so handy for awareness on the track...also chat messages and (dis)connects give me stutters. I have a suspicion it's something with the bandwidth patch and or bandwidth settings. Have been tweaking around with them (like you said core.ini might have had 60FPS settings). But again, offline there seems to be no problem with more cars and more detail...

Next will be complete re-install of GPL. Thanks for thinking with me, Phil :)

PS: Congrats Artglietti for the win, and Tom and Clive for the podium, well done finishers!

The server allways overwrites the clients bandwidth settings! So all clients use the same!

When I had stutters, I found that I had made the GPU settings such low that the graphic card remained in powersaving mode ::)

If you're displaying the internet meters Robert, try disabling them.

Thanks all for thinking with me. Will also do the suggestions. But Axel was on to something, like Dean Logan was. Intalled new/other nVidia drivers, and then nVidia Sentinel reported my GPU didn't get sufficient power...changed the powercable (of the videocard), and now it doesn't report a problem, and my screen looks a bit better too, plus I get a lot of new settings to tweak for GPL running smoothly ;)

If it has solved my problem has yet to be seen, but I have a good feeling about this, so that I can enjoy a reliable "smooth" 36FPS screen :)

PS: DDR memory ran at almost half speed as well. Have optimized hardware (also overclocked videocard and set right memory timings) and software now, fingers crossed...

Excellent job Art, Tom, and Clive! Very impressive.

I sure got lucky today. I was hoping attrition might get me up to 6th but I never expected 4th against such high caliber talent. My plan worked great. Drive carefully and consistently and see what happens. Now you can call me the Tortoise, slow and steady. Too many of the hares took a nap today.

I was on pins and needles 2/3 of the the race. Will the engine make it? Will I miss a braking or turning point? Does Arf have enough time to catch me?

I hope I can pick up some speed in the Cooper soon. I could use more in all the 67's though, but the way the coins work I'll be getting real familiar with the Cooper.

Thanks guys for letting me race. It was a rather pleasant and rewarding drive.

Sadly Greg, you and I will both be dropping a position, I think. It appears from the post race chat that Samb finished ahead of us, but the server had lost him. It has happened to me a couple of times. It was fun chasing you down, just annoyed I had a completely avoidable spin early in the race, and I was disappointed with my lap times in the race.

I was involved in a couple of incidents in the race. I think it was Doni who lost the rear going through Druids, and I was too close behind to avoid tapping him...I think. The GPL crash model didn't detect anything at all at my end. I also contested a corner with someone going into Dingle Dell earlier in the race. I had got out the previous corner much quicker than them, and was side by side at worst when they turned into me, so was very glad that I managed to get through relatively unscathed.

Lastly a reminder to whoever congratulated (i suspect it was Flow/Doni, given they hit each other) another driver on their driving style mid race. Using chat during the race is against the rules.

WD to everyone that finished what appears to have been a very high attrition race.

Arf

Arriving 10 mm before the start, coming from Mexico ( just finnish the race of "Masters Planete gpl".....:))  so it's very short time to qualif....and a shorter time to race 'cause I lost a piston on lap 2........ggrrrrrr !

see you next one guys

Happy new year folks   ;)

Namasté

A reasonable race from me. Thought I'd have a second attempt at driving the Brabham for a season after a dismal showing in S21. Found it easy to drive so long as I drove smoothly and not with a lead foot. Posted a personal best in qualifying but that was still over a second off the pace and only good enough for 7th on the grid. Nevertheless, I drove a steady race and wound up 4th by the end of it all. Didn't really have any battles to report. It was mostly me driving my own race.

Unfortunately my connection is still being less-than-reliable. I disconnected during quali and about 10 laps in the whole grid vanished on pribula. I assumed I had disconnected for the 3rd race in a row but miraculously, everyone came back after 30 seconds. It did however, disconnect me from the server and consequently I wasn't 100% sure who I was racing. It cost me a podium a couple laps from the end. With a Brabham catching me at an alarming rate and with the marshalls waving blue flags I immediately thought it must have been Art lapping me and promptly moved over. It only dawned on me half a lap later that it could well have been Clive racing me for position. That turned out to be the case, but, better to be safe than sorry.

I'll post a report once I've had a look at the server replay. Looks as though this is going to be terrific season, see you all at Snetterton.

Although I benefitted from your problems Sam, it is never a good way to gain places when someone has been misled by the failure of technology.

I blew my chances of contesting the top places early in the race when after going from 6th to 3rd in the space of a few hundred metres I pushed just a little too hard through Dingle Dell on the wrong line and bottomed out the suspension...twice!!! that dropped me to about 95th I think ( well it seemed about that far back!! :( ).

Then i gave myself a good talking to and set about pumping in some steady laps to reel in the field. I think the retirements helped a lot and I was up to 4th by about half distance, but Sam was about 800mtrs ahead and I calculated that I was just not closing fast enough to catch him before the flag.  then suddenly the gap halved with about 5 laps to go and I upped my pace when I caught a whiff of blood.

TBH Sam I was closing so fast that I thought you must be running low on fuel, or have some sort of mechanical problem. That thought was confounded when you put up no resistance to my pass??!! but then proceeded to match my pace once I was in front!!!  That was something that I could not work out until your comments post race.

For the mods....I can confirm that Sam should be given 4th spot, as he was definitely in the race until the end and in front of me for most of it....except for the bit that counts  ;)

Grats to Art and to Tommi great pace and well deserved podium places.

Aye Clive; truth be told I did have a lazy spin 3 laps from the end and it took me two laps to regain my bearings. 32 laps at Brands without having at least one minor spin? That's a tall order knowing my track record  ;D.

That's still better than I had hoped. Were you one the guys that had to pass me after having trouble? At least 2 maybe 3 of the faster racers passed me after they had dropped back from some kind of trouble. It kept me on my toes the last dozen laps with you behind me. With 10 to go it appeared you still had time to catch me. It looked like you were taking about .9 secs off my lead each lap. That made me drive faster than I really wanted. I don't know if I'd have got into the 1:35's without you behind me. Be glad your times weren't as slow as mine. I wasn't too disappointed with mine though. I drove carefully. I was most concerned with being able to finish. I want to get a look at the GPLRA report. If I didn't slow a few times to let the faster cars by, my lap time deviation should be very low. Robert must be one heck of a driver to run in the low 1:03s with a Cooper. With more practice I think I could do 1:04.5 with realistic damage and possibly break 1:04 on Novice while speed shifting. But low 1:03's appear impossible for me at this point.

I'm looking forward to Snetterton. I should be able to get a little faster by then. I've only been driving the Cooper a few weeks now. It's a new track to me but I've got enough time to get in some good practice.

Take care fellas.

LOL, I think I caught you the first time you did it and then passed you the second time you did it. 95th? Geez, I wasn't that slow! If you'd have done that a few more times I could have picked up another position. :)

Not much to say about my race. I started cautiously, as this track is full of pitfalls that can easily catch out even the most experienced, as we have seen. Then I was able to use that handful of tenths I had over Tommie to slowly pull a gap, and we ended up as we started. I had to push all the way though, the race was quite fast paced I think.

Apart from the usual suspects, some new (to me..) names who seem to be really quick, although maybe tucked away in slow machineries this time around. Seems it is going to be a very closely matched championship, with many strong drivers, so I cherish this win even more as I suspect they wont come easy for anyone this season.

On a side note, I had a look at the (very odd looking..) points table, and it seems the little square with the number of the remaining tokens doesn't appear anymore. Maybe some technical glitch that needs to be solved?

Grats to Tommie, Clive, and finishers. Many thanks for the racing, and to the whole UKGPL bunch for organising yet one more great season (although don't get me started on the 50% scoring rule  ;D ;D). See you at the next one.

Well, a second failure to get past the start line for me. Learned the car and track in Q, and then in my haste to start on the grid, pumped the gas once or twice and the engine promptly blew. Sadly this means I don't earn the start tokens, and will probably be lumbered with the BRM once again somewhere in future!

I am also surprised by the change to 50% distance for points.. in this case only the top 6 scored. But, fair enough if it was voted through (when can we re-vote?  :laugh:)

Evening Mods, I don't seem to have been reinstated with 4th place. I'm sure I submitted a report (I'm hoping I did otherwise my memory is getting seriously cloudy!  :wheelchair:). Did my report get lost by the wayside or have I made an error of judgement?

Well I have seen your report Sam, no worries, I'm sure you will be reinstated in P4 by the Works moderator(s). Give it some time...

Mod published. Even for impatient Sam ;)

Thanks Paul  ;D.

 ;D