SimRacing.org.uk

THIS POST IS FOR BOTH GRIDS

Round 3 of the Formula 2 series & we visit Zolder in Belgium. In the days before Spa became a permanent fixture on the F1 calendar , ten grand prix were run a Zolder. Most famously in 1982 when Gilles Villneuve tragically lost his life during qualifying. The new Zolder 67 version is a great piece of track building by Ginetto.

The series will be run on two separate grids;  Group A (on UKGPL3) & Group B(on T7). Please ensure you join the correct race.

Drivers have been allocated to the grids as below
Group A
Arf, Cookie, Dean Logan, Doni Yourth, Evil, Greg T, Marco, Natan, Fulvio, Badblood, Billy, Boggy, Il Lupo & Newblood.
RACE ON UKGPL3

Group B
Phil Thornton, Piero Mercaldo, Rainier, Raoni, Robert Fleurke, Roberto Teso, Ronnie, Samb, Turkey Machine, Iestyn, Dave Curtis, Rog, Maddog, Walter & Bernie
RACE ON UKGPL_T7


ONE reset is allowed but the Shift R must be followed by a Stop & Go in the pit lane within TWO laps. If you Reset on the last lap a 15 second time penalty will be awarded. Drivers must complete 50% of the race distance to score.

Handicaps will not apply until Round 4 at the earliest.

Race List = IGOR
Group A
Server = UKGPL3
IP = ukgpl3.dyndns.org
Group B
Server=UKGPL_T7_2
IP = 62.149.202.168
Race date = 16 February 2014
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = Zolder (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/Zolder67/)
Race length = 25 Laps
Variant = 1967 Formula 2
Damage Model = Intermediate
Qualifying time = max. 30 minutes
Password: see above (#post_event_password)
Replays available here (http://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/inc_replaysS26_js.aspx)

GPL F2 Mod: The initial release of the F2 mod will be used. The mod can be found here (http://http://www.f2legends.net/F2Downloads.htm)

The Driver list, Championship Table and series rules can be found here: Formula Two Trophy (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=425&theme=6)

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

Moderating The red zone will be fully moderated, the red zone will be from the start to the entry to Terlamenbocht. Other moderation will be on reported incidents only or at the Moderators discretion.

  I not see the password  :'(

Happy to qualify in p3, but made a mare of a start, and bogged down in 2nd gear, which let 2/3 drivers past. Particulalrly annoying as Doni was one of them and what looks very much like extreme warp of his car flicked me off at T1, and I entered T2 dead last. It was all a game of catch up after that. I think I need to say thanks to Billy for not contesting a corner with me on L2 when he maybe had right of way - I think I should have been more patient.

I soon joined a train with Natan, Dean, Marco and Doni in it, but left it almost as quickly when something happened up front, and Natan and I had to slam the brakes on - I locked up and they disappeared. By the time I caught them again it was just Marco and Doni having what looked like a great battle. Indeed the rest of my race was spent admiring this fight from varying distances behind them as I caught them, had a moment, fell away, then caught them again... Well done to the podium, but I don't think you had as much fun as Doni and Marco..

AAA

Whole bunch of unforced errors (including a rather inopportune passing attempt on Natan that really worked out badly; sorry :(  , I should have waited for a better spot).

Sometimes these cars work really nicely for me, other times not so much.  :-[

Thanks Clive! I don't think I could have done it if you had driven a Brabham or Matra.

It's funny that 2 hours before qualifying, I felt I was little better than dangerous and struggled to get near the 1:30's. The setup came together rather nicely during pre race practicing.

I couldn't ask for a better result. That's the best run I've had in a while. It was irritating me that I couldn't get into the 1:29's in qualifying. My final qualifying lap was going to be a real good one until I clipped the final curb and spun. I pushed pretty hard after the first lap of the race until I set fast lap and then the car started feeling a little strange. I also started worrying about the engine so I tried to be a little conservative but then Clive started cutting into my lead again. He still had a chance after cutting my lead to 4 seconds but then I put in a few laps in the low 1:30's. After that I knew only a mistake on my part would cost me the win.

Thanks for the racing guys!

Schoolboy error :)

[climbing back under my HEAVYWEIGHT rock now :) ]

Had a lot of traffic in quali, and to me some of it was unnesessary. Anyway, just couldn't put a real good clean lap together, and Piero got pole...

The race was very exciting, especially for the first 15 laps. Piero led the way but seemed to develop handling problems the longer the race went. This way we went nose to tail with the trio Piero, Roberto and me, in a Italian sandwich. Some very close racing, hard to pass here, but on Lap 13 I can pass Piero into Bolderbergbocht, the hairpin. Roberto goes loose out of the same turn. Piero follows closely but after a few laps he goes off at the Eerste Linkse, Turn 1.

After that it's a matter of managing my gap with Ronnie, who ran a very consistent race, and keeping focus and finishing. Great racing! :) Good job Ronnie and Roberto as well ;)

Grats to Greg on a fine victory!  You keep that up, bud, and we're going to have to call you 'Seb'.  :)

Great run by my Blue Moose TL, Clive, to score a fine P2 in the private Lotus.  Admirable job.

Cookie had a fine run, too, netting the final podium slot.  Well done.

A P4 pour moi!  Mon Dieu!  I'll take it, mes amis!  Quite lucky, though, in that I bounced both Marco and Arf off the start and on Lap03, Deaner looped it in T1 to promote me to P4.

I noticed in my replay cap that in T1 on Lap01, Arf seemed to catch the worst of a collision detection deal and got bumped off the road as he mentions above.  Bad luck there, A-A-A.  From what I can see, we weren't THAT close to one another but GPL thought otherwise.  Must see what the server version has to offer.

After Dean spun...and I came within an ace of performing a sympathy loop with him!..., I had 20 laps of fun(?)holding off Marco.  Holy Smokes!  What a duel!  He was my constant shadow.  A real nail-biter that had me on my best behavior as I knew full well that anything in the way of a significant error would have me fall down the order...FAST!  Marco was close enough to consider a bid up the inside going into the hairpin several times but he wasn't quite close enough to seal the deal.  I left the inside lane open to clear him and I had to hold my breath to see if I survived let alone maintained P4.  It's a marvelous testament to Marco's driving that he not once over-extended himself and put us each in jeopardy.  Well done, MM.  Fair and precise driving not frequently seen in online racing anywhere.

In the last five laps, I was starting to crumble a bit with fatigue.  I came OH SO CLOSE to spinning in the complex section and a couple of times in those last laps, I bungled the entry to the finishing chicane by striking the kerb on the left.  Lucky not to have gone plummeting off the road.  Breathed a sigh of relief at the checker.  Many more laps and I would have needed defibs!  :)

 good race Doni, at the end of the race I was more tired than real race.

We weren't close at all...you took a very tight line over the inside kerbing and because i knew you were there I took a wider line. The worst I got was mid track. It was pure warp. From my replay you just suddenly flickered, appeared on top of my front left, and that was it for me. Shame... I love this track, but last two races have been decided at T1.... both by warp...at least I got to T2 this time....25 times  :D

Arf

Thanks, Marco.  That was one to remember.  Can't bugger it up all the time.  :)  And take a bow yourself.  Great pace and judgement, amigo.

Arf: The server replay pretty much jives with my personal capture.  There appeared to be about two feet between us when suddenly you were sent off the road.  Effect?  Again, very bad luck.  I seem to recall seeing my 'Q' bar in the NET display jumping about a bit a couple of times during the race.  Not bad and not for long but...  While I can't say that I noticed it going into T1 on Lap01(who's got time for that?!?!), it may well have done so.  I noticed, too, that in my pass through T1 right behind Dean, I cut slightly too far to the left, mounting the kerb and causing some wheelspin.  This propelled me wide to the right a couple of feet more than I intended.  Cause?

I noted from the replay as well that you fought back hard from that early misfortune and in viewing from your cockpit, you were reeling in Marco and I at a fine rate.  But for a little slip with a handful of laps to go, it might have become...dare I say it?...a ménage à trois.  ;)

Doni

Yes a great race Greg and grats on a solid win. 

I almost went with my favourite underdog, the Lola BMW, but felt that it might be a touch too heavy around the rear end for this track. So, being the eternal optimist that I am I chose the privateer Lotus.

Looking through the specs of the various cars the Lotus comes out as the lightest, but with the same BHP as all the other cars on the FVA engine. One would have thought that it should make the Lotus the best handling car with marginally better brakes and acceleration, but not in my hands LOL!!!.
I had not tried it before so dragged the Lotus out of the transporter at the beginning of quali and set about sorting the setup.

As quali progressed I gradually eased the setup towards where I wanted it and squeezed into 3rd on the grid. I guess it is GPL but I just could not dial out the irritating tendency for the Lotus to oversteer just slightly into corners when pushing hard. Whatever I adjusted in the last few quali runs did not correct this tiny flaw and it was what cost me fractions of a second all through the race and allowed Greg to creep away.
Several times when chasing down Greg I closed the gap steadily and relentlessly only to get bitten by the oversteer and lose precious tenths in an opp lock slide  :taz:.

Axel was unlucky with his half spin out of the hairpin that allowed me to steal 2nd place early in the race, but he stayed within striking distance for the rest of the race, so I could not afford a major error.

Congrats Greg, Clive and Axel in division A. Seems like in contrary of last 2 rounds, the race pace was matching division B pretty much (judging on results from replay file).

Good to see both races were pretty good in general :)

Excellent job fellas. Congratulations Robert, Ray, and Roberto. You guys were very fast again. A little more fine tuning and practice I could come very close to matching your pace. I think Clive was slowed by his car choice.


Thanks Doni. That's a very nice compliment. That's the second time I've been accused of being Sebastion. But this old clock did miss a few beats. I actually thought about Vettel near the end of the race and tried to set fastest lap on the last lap. I wasn't able to do it though. I like to think I'm Michael. We're the same age. I watched most of his career while thinking, "I wish I had grown up getting all the karting experience that Schumacher got and getting an opportunity to drive F1." I also liked to think that Michael wouldn't have liked seeing me any better than Villenueve or Hakkinen. Present day F1 has left me behind so I feel no kinship towards Vettel. You could call me Jochen though, since I've spent so much time lately in the Cooper T81b and the BT23.


Yes Clive, it was a pretty solid drive. I only made two mistakes of any significance. Early I had to take a trip through the grass at the final turn. I clipped the preceding curb on the left. It was no problem to recover but I lost a lot of time. I thought I was going to give up the lead then but had enough cushion to keep it and enough distance to keep you from slipstreaming. I also had to run wide and slow through turn 1 once. The rest of my mistakes were tiny that cost me little to nothing. My memory about qualifying failed me. I actually ended qualifying stuck in the fence. I just wasn't able to run a mistake free lap in qualifying. The excellent lap I ruined on the final curb was in the last practice race I think. It was a real beauty up to that point.

The Lola BMW was the first F2 car I drove. I drive a white Nissan Silvia (s13) so I thought I'd drive a white 4-cylinder in the F2 mod like my road car. Soon after getting online I realized in the Lola I can't keep pace with most of the other cars. Then I thought I'd try the Lotus since I still haven't learned to drive a single Lotus. I struggled with it for a while. It was the UKGPL drivers that got me thinking about the BT23. Dean was so fast on the Groundhog server at Jarama in it. Then at Brands Hatch on the GH server where I saw other UKGPL drivers for the first time, I had had enough of the Lotus. I was happy to have finished on the lead lap there.

Near the end of qualifying I began feeling lucky. The times Clive posted in the 48 were very impressive. I kept thinking you'd do 1:29.5 or better in the Brabham, maybe much better. I know I can do it if I put together a good mistake free lap. Pribluda was showing an ideal lap of 1:29.27 with no benefit from a slipstream or luck. I also was struggling with oversteer in practice. I had got rid of most of it by the time qualifying started. I still had to be real careful on entering turn 1 though.

I never really thought a handicap might apply to me before the season started. It's a possibility now. Until getting online recently I had basically just tested to see that the mod actually worked. I was slow in the Lola and lousy in the Lotus 48 but the BT23 seems to like
me somewhat.

There's no need to be so kind Clive and self handicap yourself. Our positions would have likely been reversed with me trailing a few seconds waiting for a mistake or closer since I'm able to make some nice gains in time following faster drivers. Axel seems to be a rather fine driver too if he's not discoed or runs into trouble. I just seem to have a bit of an edge on him.

Great fun guys! It's nice to get a good win at least every couple of months. It keeps me happy.

Thanks, now I understand what you meant with 48 last night in chat, Roberto Teso thought it was Clive's age. :angel: We can be very happy Clive doesn't deliver his evil doings in division B  ;D I haven't ran the 48 yet, does it perform around the Cooper?

I'm with you Greg, it's good to win! But there's always the next race ;)

grumble grumble  I wish that I was 48 again!!! that seems a long, long time in the distant past  :-\

I can't tell you Robert. I've never driven the Cooper. All I know is I'm significantly slower and much less consistent in the Lotus 48 than I am in the BT23.

The Cooper is the worst Cosworth FVA car on the grid. I haven't driven the Cooper enough lately to comment much on it's handling (I remember a race at Enna where the Cooper felt fine, if quite understeery) but to reflect the fact the Cooper was rather ill prepared in 1967, being operated by Bob Gerard Racing on a tight budget, the car is missing a few horsepower the Cooper engineers couldn't squeeze out of the engine which the others could. The Lotus 48 should be well ahead of the Cooper, it's basically the 49 but with only half a Cosworth DFV at the back. Same as the Brabham BT23 really. The BT14 is a different beast, Ian Raby used the engine out of the Cortina as he too was on a budget but the engine was no match for the Cosworths or BMW's. The Ferrari was only used one time in a race in 1967, at Rouen, so we didn't have that much data on it other than the fact it was uncompetitive and unfinished when it ran it's sole 'test race', but it's a Fez so I wanted it in :D .

Shall I demoralize everyone even further by revealing that, in scoping Greg's FTD both in-game and verified with GPLRA, he never even used 1st gear in the hairpin?  2nd through 5th only.  MUMMA-MIA!

I am pretty sure that the Ferrari was running at the Goodwood Revival last year. It was difficult to tell in the rain, but it was certainly slow!!  but sounds like it is probably a somewhat unique car!!

They just published a book about Mr Bob , I believe it has a couple of my photo's of the Coopers in it, taken at Oulton Park

From what I remember of this race (will results be imported soon?) I managed to finish 4th, attempted an overtake at the hairpin on the inside of Ronnie which didn't work so well cos I humped the inside kerbing! Nice to keep it mostly on the black stuff.

Thanks Bill for the results, which can be a pain in F2 it seems. ;)

I've noticed Roberto is 31pts in front of Ronnie, does that mean both Roberto and me will be restricted to a slower chassis? That would have a major impact especially at Spa, but rules are rules...

Just to be sure I can prepare with the right chassis ;) Cheerio's :)

How great! I'm also planning on creating the John Pearce Cooper-Ferrari driven by Chris Lawrence (of Morgan fame) someday. It ran at Brands Hatch and the Nürburgring in 1966, and at the beginning of 1967 in the Oulton Park Gold Cup, and then at the Brands Hatch Race of Champions. Rumour has it Pearce thought he had a GTO engine, while in fact he had a GT engine, which had 50 bhp less! No wonder they could never get it up to speed very well, Did you happen to see it run Bernie?

Robert,
No handicaps for the next race. The difference in lap times for the leading drivers in very close &, as you say, it makes a big difference at Spa. Will review ahead of the following around.

Mod report published - well done to all concerned.