SimRacing.org.uk

On to the 2nd circuit in the Friday Challenge and a return to Lime Rock Park 2002, somewhere UKGPL has not visited for quite some time. When the F2 mod was released this track featured in a short ( get to know the cars) event which some of you may remember.
This track has a lap time of under 60 secs but packs in a variety of features on a deceptively simple layout. Very easy to make a mistake and lose half a lap here, so learning to get your line right will be important in the F2's, because when the other mods take to the tarmac, things might get a little frantic.  ;)
Please try and be considerate when lapping or being lapped as this is sure to happen on such a short track, but it will ensure that there are very few dull moments for anyone.
 
I did warn you that the Lights might find things more of a challenge this season and for some races their car options will be limited, but I think that champagne is still available to the drivers who can lap consistently and quickly.
 

A single Shift R is allowed but no SnG is required.


Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_8
IP address =TBA
Race date = 31-1-2014
Race time =   Race 1 starts at 21:05 UK time
Qualifying time = minimum 15 minutes, starting no later than 20:45 UK time
Track = Lime Rock 2002 ( no chicane) (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/Lime/)
Variant = F2 (28 laps) and 69x (32 laps)
Damage Model = INT
Race length = see above
Password: see above
Replays Available here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season26/Friday/)


F2's               Heavies                                                     Lights
                   Free Choice                                          Ferrari and BT14

69x               Free Choice                                       Lot49, MS84, BT20, BT24, Cooper T86B, Eagle AAR101                          

Something is amiss with dates on the two lime rock posts??

Thanks Gareth. I have corrected that. Good spot.

My fault for letting Clive loose inside the system... ;)

And I thought something was amiss with me. Or should I say something new was amiss with me?

Grid penalty for him then?... I think so  ;D
considering he has the f2 record I think its only fair

;)

Thanks everyone for the race, that was lots of fun! I had a few close moments and some good battles. I can not help but smile after that race.

I'm taking a slight risk, posting before looking at replay - but thanks Dave R;  for not hitting me (or letting me collect you!)  when I *totally* screwed up T1 in the F2 race.

Super frustrating night. F2s was a disaster. Not sure why but the Matra's handling was awful but only in the race, it was fine in qually. Thought I might pick up a point or two if anyone fell off but nobody did.

Race 2, Took the MS84 and it was sweet. Unfortunately I had slightly wrong settings for the gears that meant I was maxxed out on the straight but the handling was a joy. Worked my way up to 7th or so and had Tommie behind me. Made a mistake and side swiped the barriers and Tommie swept past. After that it was several laps following him and assessing where I could be quicker to get close enough for the last straight. Finally got a chance and took a tight (too tight) line at T1 with two wheels on the grass. I had been a bit surprised at the extra speed created by the tow and I just prayed that Tommie would see it and leave some room. It was a bit more kamikaze than I meant it to be. He did leave room and then I could get away although I did think that keeping him back for 16 laps was going to be tough.

Just relaxing with an increasing lead when BANG. Engine gone. Shift R required but I had to let everyone past first  >:(

Got back past Clive and had Dean hassling me but I had the speed (even with cold tyres and heavier fuel) to take care of that thanks to the handicap. Dean tried an out-brake into T1 and went wide which let Clive through (I think). Then a couple of small mistakes let Clive past. We were battling through T1, T2 etc. when suddenly Clives engine popped up in my face - only a tiny warp but enough to let Clive away and Dean through.

I let Dave Curtis past only to find it was Walter! CURSES! and then I had to let Dave through. Rats!

Lots of fun for 12th though but it could have been so much better.

Hats off to Tommie - could only admire your handling of the Eagle. Enjoyed following you and enjoyed getting past even more  ;D

WD Podium.

 ;D :) :D
Both race big fun ! great racing..

Congratulations to winners and podium ones.

F2 race:  great racing over the whole race being in sandwich between Cookie in front and M.Jones in the neck, who finely managed to overtake me.


69x race :  great racing too. From the beginning G.Taber in the neck. L9 I mismanaged exit out of last turn, did draw couple of circles. Down to P5.
Lap9 backmarkers come into play, ( all did very well in moving their clearly inferior cars out of the way . thx for ! ).
L16 all ready could close up  again to G.Taber. L20 he slightly hit the green on exit out of last turn, enables me to pass. P4 then.  L23 very critical moment with P.Withfield been to be lapped, but didn’t realised at that moment. Thankful lucky turnout for all. But lost 2,2sec..
Still G.Taber in the neck. L28 M.Hunt (P3) hit Armco and I started to dream of become 3rd.
L31 Cookie ( P2 ) spun around…maybe P2 possible ?.
Last lap: got an good exit out of last turn, but even within slipstream of Martin and Cookie, finish line came to early. Thrilling finish !


Setup note:
Watching replay I noticed most of the Fezza 166 drivers did rev out to an  maximum of  10.800 U/min.
Did I wrong to go according to 10.000 U/min what GPL indicates for the 166 Ferrari ?
Especially on the long straight my top speed was sort of poor with that .

Yeah Nicky, great racing fun!

My left paddle made it a little difficult as it does sometimes unvoluntary downshifts in stupid situations :-[

In F2 it was very hard to drive with Mark who was extremely warping all the time, so better being carefull to gain some points...

Nicky I also tried to keep in the 10.000min, but the Fezza can do a little more for shifting points but it looses lots of power if too high.
I study the diagramm in the setup manager to set the gears right ;)

69X was a surprise that so much non winged cars were chosen, my admiration towards the spirited idealists!!!
Was it an accident to leave the M84 in the light car selection? But it was the only car to compete with the speed of a heavy mad Fezza ;D

In the beginning phase my shifting problems let me loose some ground to Andreas and made it possible that warpy Martin passed me ::)
We had a fair fight and a little wide line in the last turn let me regain 2nd place.

I left the M84 there to test who would take the "easy" option.  ::)  ;D 

If no-one had taken it, then I might have left it in for future races, but now that it has been proved to be fast enough to trouble the super cars it might vanish  ;)

How about restricting it to those who REALLY need it?  ::)

Grats again to Dean and Mark in the F2 race and Andreas, Axl and Martin in the 69x race.

I chose the BT route for both races. In the F2 race the BT14 did not seem such a big disadvantage although I suspect the heavy brigade had a bit of an off day? In the 69x race I was way out of my depth in the BT20 and blew the engine twice, maybe not the wisest choice. Having said that, using the default setups all the 69x light cars on offer don't seem to respond to steering inputs? Understeer I can cope with but they all seem to respond like oil tankers when you try and turn them! Pardon the pun but any pointers for these beasts would be helpful.

This series once again is proving great fun. See you next time.

I was too late at home from work to participate in the F2 race, but wanted to join the 69 race anyhow. And it was great fun! The field was very diverse, with a lot of wingless cars being chosen, great fun! Exactly what 69-Extra is all about and why I love that mod so much, thanks to the admis for excellent chassis handicap rules!

I tried the Eagle since, if it would ever be remotely competitive, it would have to be here. Trouble was, I didn't know the track (only Mountain Circuit) so I had 15 minutes to figure everything out, but set a decent quali lap regardless, just in front of Dean in his Brabham BT24.

Start was good, but in front of me some guys were rudely awakened by the sound of revving engines it seemed as they didn't get away very swiftly at all, and I had to tap the brakes in order not to hit the car in front. Still, clean start with no accidents and I managed to overtake some cars during the start phase as well. I had to drive the wheels off the Eagle in order to keep up but the pace was not too bad at all, and at one point I was even in P7 untill some faster guys overtook me again. Quite a hair raising moment when Paul decided he had seen enough of my gearbox and banzaïed past but he was too fast for me to follow once he did, even in the slipstream, only to find him stranded at s/f with a broken engine some laps later  ;D .

In the latter part of the race I think my tires were starting to become too hot and I had a couple of spins, which allowed Clive and Dean to close right up to me in the last laps. Thankfully the finish came too early for them and I saved 9th in the Eagle. Great fun, hope to do some more races with it :) .

Ronnie, for the non winged cars I just use my setups from other mods, with sometimes the extention changed. For instance, for the Eagle I took a 1967 Greger Huttu setup and changed the extention from .ea1 to .eb1 (.ea1 is used by the McLaren M7), adjusted the gearing and off we go. For your BT20 you can take 1966 BT19 setups or perhaps 1967 BT24 setups, and for the BT24, Lotus 49 and Cooper Maserati I just use the same setups as for GPL 1967.

Ooh BTW, I noticed that with the Formula 2 Brabham BT14, car class is classified as {unknown}. So, in the unlikely event you set a lap record with the car, it will not be registered in the system. In fact, everytime someone drives it he is setting lap records in the {unknown} class. Perhaps this could be fixed?

Same problem, but not as urgent, is the tire brand on some of the 1969 cars. For the cars that are missing tire brand indicators, here is what is missing:

Eagle AAR101 - Goodyear
Brabham BT20 - Dunlop

The tires have been no problem to fix,
but this unmapped BT14 has cost me allready some useless time last night...

The problem is the import of the _complete.txt file of GPLRA wich is not yet updated for the F2's. (It makes a "Lotus63" of it ::) )
I have a patched GPLRA for F2 and one for CanAm, but the F2 patch was not yet used for import. The CanAm patch is allways used by me.

Download the replay and you will find a second _complete.txt with the right cars ;)

I hope we can fix the problem with the BT14, because without giving too much away, it just might be a regular car option for the Lights  ::).

Last season the handicaps did not really give the Heavies a good shot at the podium in most races, but from what we saw at Slime Crock maybe things are a little closer this season, and the Lights will have to work for their podiums.

Needless to say, the M84 might not be available to the Lights in future races ( any other car that proves to be too fast might also suddenly develop terminal engine failure and not make the grid!)and non-winged cars will get to see some action. I think it is a shame that in any normal non handicapped 69x race, no-one in their right mind is going to select any of the non-winged chassis and because of that they are largely ignored and untried. I hope to see a few World Records recorded by the Lights this season at some of the tracks we are using for the 69x's.

I knew from past experience that Lime Rock always gives some good tight racing and although I was spitting nails after my screen freeze in the F2's, when 2nd just behind Dean's Ferrari, I have to confess that I had a horrible feeling about the 69x race.  If the F2's were that fast and furious, what on earth would the 69's be like when some had aero, and some did not??  :o

But, it seems that we can all be careful when we need to be and the racing was just awesome and insane for me. It did not matter where I finished , because I was having a blast trying to keep my unwinged Lotus49 (with a setup delivered directly from hell) in contention with the midfield contenders in both winged and unwinged formats.  If the racing and the 69x cars deliver this much fun when we handicap the faster drivers, I have  no interest in winning any championship I just want to battle things out in the lower places driving right on the limit for the whole race and only taking a breathe when the chequered flag drops.

Big grats to those who made the podium in both races and to Tommie who dragged the Eagle around at great pace. I almost caught and passed him to steal his success, but I felt he deserved to have 9th spot so I went easy on him...honest I did  ::). No but seriously, he was wringing the neck of that car around the back of the circuit and my car just refused to help by pointing in the right direction until we hit the straight and the Cosworth engine's power just really took chunks out of his lead, but never quite enough to make a passing attempt  :-\.

That is for Giz I think.

Race 1: Pole, fast lap, led all but a couple, won going away.
Race 2: qual 12th, 10th fastest lap, got lapped, finished 11th.

Race 2 was more fun. :D

F2s were great fun before Elvis "left the building" :( . I'd given E T1 (third lap iirc) because I hoped he'd just go through and get on with it, but waiting for him to tiptoe around the inside just let the following gang catch up  >:(  (I guess he didn't hear the "GO, GO, just GO already!!!1!" [quote has been edited for public broadcast]). Mostly really good job by backmarkers letting me through, but please try not to leave it to just at the end of the braking zone.

69s: Sorry to Walter for the bump into T1 lap 3 :( . From there on, great fun chasing/dicing with E, TvO, Paul, etc. (I'll even forgive those who passed me for position while I was letting leaders through  :angel: ).

I think the Lights should go wingless in 69X from here on.

NOOO!

This is a 69x race series, if you want wingless drive 67's 66's 65's, the fun of 69 are the wings!

Those cars are relics of former F1 seasons you can find in other mods...

But if the point is to handicap the Lights to the point where the Heavies can challenge for wins/podiums, then they have to go. The MS84 (and I expect the M9 as well) just don't do the job badly enough. I'm even looking askance at the winglets on the 49. :glare:

This is the point! The Heavies have their own wins/podiums!
You can't reduce the fun for Lights over a limit that even the best Lights have no chance to follow Walter Conn or Paul!

My M84 was just good enough to keep with a Heavy maddog!!!

Sorry for the faulty warp drive, it seems communications weren't all that terrific - it caused me to drop back to 6th when a phantom car appeared and knocked me into the grass.  Was lucky enough to get back to 3rd.  Had to skip the 69 race as I had to see a man about an engine.  Well done to all the podium guys.

Good to know you think so highly of us Cookie, lol  ;D

You should give Francesco my finishing position for the F2 race. First time I hit him wasn't too bad. He slowed more than I thought he would and I was little late on the brakes but the second time I got a bit greedy. I doubt he would have done any better than 6th whether I hit him or not. I apologize Francesco.

I didn't drive well at all in the F2 race. Went off in the first turn of the race and then spun a short time later trying to make up the time I'd already lost. I was down to 11th at one point. My pace was a bit slow through it all. I never could get all the turns right. Every lap I'd make at least one small mistake losing a few tenths. I had my ideal lap time in pribluda down to 54.1 during qualifying without doing anything spectacular.

The 69X race was actual work for me. I bet my arms did at least two if not three times as much movement as I was doing the in F2 race, may be even more than that. I didn't suffer as bad this time going from the F2s to the 69Xs as I did at Monza. Had a good race with Nick. We were in sight of each other most of the race. He lost it in the final turn giving me the position only to get it back shortly when I started struggling. You seemed to get through lapped traffic a bit faster than me Nick, even though you mentioned troubles.

I hope I can keep driving the MS84. I'm far from comfortable with it yet and can only imagine how I'd struggle with the wingless cars. I practiced in the Lotus 49 for Monza and was so slow and inconsistent that all I could think was, "this car is much slower than the 67 Ferrari 312."

I've been getting worse lately. I go through spells of lousy driving. If I were only driving offline, I'd stay off GPL for two or three weeks. That always helped in the past. I guess I get burnt out after a while and need a break. It's been a while since I've driven close to the best of my ability. Last time I can remember not choking under the pressure was when I took the pole position back from Mark on the Moon.

Thanks for the fun guys and congratulations to everybody. Lots of very fast times in both races.

Then why restrict the car choice at all?


Ask TvO or Evil how much the fun was "reduced".  ::)


Maddog ain't as heavy as he used to be (at least in 69s).  :thumbup1:

Thank you for your honesty Greg.In the first incident i was obliged to reduce a little the the speed because there was Curtis in front of me ,a little slower.The second was an your error in the breaking point.There is the problem that you are in the light and I are in the heavy,so a change in position change nothing in my rank. I would like to join the light because sometime i must fight with someone that i don't know if is my competitor in the rank or not.Since we was 4-5 cars in fight,was difficult to understand who have hitted me any time.During the race i was convinced that the perpetrator was Levin,but the replay says that Levin was absolutely clean :).
Anyway the race after this,the 69X,was my first race without suffering incidents.

I won't doubt their fun driving these cars, as you have fun driving any 67 or 66 car, but this is not the same fun driving a winged 69!
This series was invented to give the not in other championships represented GPL mods a home.

I have no problem to not get a drive in one of the real fast 69er, as I do it every Wednesday  ;)
The challenge to get the best out of every car is my greatest fun...

PS
I am not native english speaking, so there can be some unintended misunderstanding ::)

The cool part about 1969-Extra is you can take a knife to a gunfight... And win sometimes  ;D . I think the field will be as tightly bunched up as possible if the MS84 is removed, however I admire your motivations to win :) . A compromise I could think of would be to disallow the MS84 at some races, but not all. In any case, I think I will drive the Eagle at the twisty tracks (if I'm in the opportunityto join at all), which, looking at the calendar, should be at Le Mans Bugatti and perhaps Mosport as the real car ran there. For the other track I really need some horsepower not to be blown away on the straights, as the Eagle has almost half the horsepower of the Lotus 49b. So perhaps a Brabham BT20 or BT24 might be in order :) .

Perhaps next season there could be a 1969-Extra division with a Eagle Cup for the ones who like a challenge  ;D

No problem, My braking point is normally at the #4 sign, but I braked earlier than that. So it was more likely my fault. It was a funny moment for me because I almost saved it.

As for handicapping, I have sympathy for those that are asked to give up their "go to" car. As a reserve driver, I do not practice much. So it helps if I can drive something that I have already tamed. However, it was a lot of fun for me to race against a wingless Evil. I could stay with him, but I was not fast enough to overtake his car. I was only able to get past when he went wide in turn two (trying to let a leader through).

Dean does have some good points about the MS84. Monza may be the only track on the schedule that the wingless cars can actually compete with the MS84. I've been driving it because I figured it would be easiest and Stewart's Matra is the only 69 car I've got any experience. Thought I'd stick with the same make. I'm also a lazy whiner that doesn't want to take the time to try to get up to speed in one of the wingless cars.