SimRacing.org.uk

THIS POST IS FOR BOTH GRIDS
Round 8 of the Formula 2 series will take place at Anderstorp, also known as the Scandinavian Raceway. The track was built on marshlands in 1968 and became an extremely popular venue in the 1970s, just as Swede Ronnie Peterson was at the height of his career. It had a long straight (called Flight Straight, which was also used as an aircraft runway), as well as several banked corners, making car setup an engineering compromise. Unusually, the pit lane was located halfway round the lap.
The raceway hosted six Formula One Swedish Grand Prix events in the '70s. When Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson died during the 1978 Formula One season, public support for the event dried up and the Swedish Grand Prix came to an end. The circuit is also noteworthy because it was the site of the first and only win of two unconventional F1 cars: the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 car in 1976 and the infamous Brabham 'fan car' in 1978.

We will maintain the Grid A & Grid B arrangement but both groups will race together on UKGPL8.

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, Bernie & Walter
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.

Due to the mixed grid handicaps are suspended for this race.

Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL8
IP = See IGOR for race list.
Race date = 11 May2014
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track =Anderstorp (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=4340), graphics update availablehere (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=7364)
Race length = 23 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 pit lane entrance. Other moderation will be on reported incidents only or at the Moderators discretion

Billy, I was thinking of joining this (as long as I'm back in time) but it looks like the grid will be pretty full with the grids combined, is it worth me registering or wait until next season? I certainly don't want to use a slot that's needed by another driver already involved in the series.

Steve,
First - welcome back to UKGPL.
Managing the grids & servers for this series has been very difficult this season. Best advice I can give is to register & see if there is a free slot. (Doesn't matter if you register Heavy or Light - I will allocate you to either Grid A or B). If we get a full house at Anderstorp then I will try & arrange the last races on two grids - subject to availability of servers.

Thanks Billy. I'll see if I can get back first, in time to at least get a few laps practise as I'm out for most of the day. I don't want to turn up 'cold' and risk messing up anyone's race.

Maybe catch you later.

Nice to see Steve back on the forum.  Hope that you can make the show, bud!

BTW, the forum pages are loading MUCH, MUCH BETTER the last couple of days.  Whatever's been done to tune things up, it's working!  :)

mmm..what to say. I went with the flag, Jethro ...didn't, and as he was right in front of me, and I had to yank the brakes on. Doni was unable to react in time, and on the otyher side of the grid there was another apparently unrelated incident, which caused a bit of carnage. That all left me well behind where I started. I soon found that either my setup was rubbish, I overfueled, or I got some damage because I simply couldn't compete with anyone on the straight, and had to be brave in the corners to manage any sort of pace.

That largely worked, as I was able to keep pace with Marco for many laps, albeit with little hope of passing him. Various people had incidents and rejoined behind us, and until I lost Marcos draft I was confident I'd keep them there. When Marco got away from me I started worrying that Phil and ...er someone else might pass me, but fate dealt them a bad hand and I got away.

On the last Lap Dave R had a moment/failing engine and I was catching him at a hell of a rate on the long straight. There could be no doubt that I was much faster then him, and I was confident I'd pass him on the approach to the corner. I feel Dave should have been looking in his mirrors or tried to move in way too late...whatever happened we made contact and I shall let the mods decide the right and wrong that one..

WD to podium, what a pace...

Arf

Had an off night, had the pace, but made many mistakes. Just didn't have the focus tonight...

Grats Roberto and podium :)

During the few laps I ran in practice/qualifying, my connection seemed fine.  A big improvement over the last time we were here in the GP66's.  The moment I joined the gird, my NET bars went haywire with the latency bar just out there.  I suspect that this precipitated the start line shunt.  Once I did get going, I got behind Phil at one point and it was hopeless to try to pass.  He was here, there then everywhere.  The lag did finally settle down around the mid distance, however.  Finally got a pass on David but over-extended it into Phil.  Sry.

Hadn't practiced, didn't have a setup and hate Anderstorp BUT... was missing the action.

The start was a bit odd. We all set off and there was an issue up ahead so I stopped... and then exploded. Forgot to save the client replay but I definitely had stopped and then a car warped into me.

Ah well. Wasn't dead last as Bill was behind me so I put that right and set off in hunt of some braking points... started to get confident, especially as Bernie was keeping me interested but three spins later at the end of the airstrip I got lapped and felt that as a danger to shipping I might be better off if I shipped out.

Finally have a setup I can drive so if I put a bit of practice in, I might even be midfield next season!

I'll import the results tonight.

On the last lap, I thought I had no reason to help anyone to overtake me (I write "help" and not "block") so I kept my line when you tried to overtake me, as I did during several laps with Phil T.
Looking at the replay, it seems our 2 wheels collided due to warps.

There were also some warps during the first turn and I don't know exactly what happened at the start but several cars collided together !
Then I had a very pleasant race and fight with Phil T. ...until Doni came ;)

The Cooper F2 was very nice to drive although it was slow ont the straight line.

I had no time for any offline practice or preparation for this race, but I figured that it might just be OK as I know the circuit well. Plus I had some setups from other tracks that might convert well to Anderstorp...or at least I hoped they would!!

Arrived on the server with less than 30 mins to sort things out and started lapping on race fuel whilst I did one or two minor tweaks to wheel camber etc.
With about 5 mins to go I was way down the grid and decided to do a banzai lap to get closer to Robert and friends on the front rows.  I managed to get as high as 5th but then was pipped by Ronnie I think and dropped to 6th.

The start was a bit chaotic and the latency bar was high enough to think about discos!! I had to pause on the gas when the cars in front did not immediately leap away and played safe by keeping to the outside lane around the outside at T1, losing another place in the process.
There were a couple of "offs" by cars in front in the early laps and I gained places and found that I easily closed up the gap to sit on Jethro's tail at the rear of the train.   He mad a small error exiting T1 and put a wheel on the grass which lost momentum, so i nailed the gas and stuck myself down the inside for T2 trying to hug the kerb. I thought I had completed a perfect pass and pressed on. I looked at the replay after the race and although I think I did make the overlap and a good pass, there was just the hint of a tail end whip that clipped Jethro  :angel:
Then I was chasing down Marco? I think, but when I caught him he defended the entry to each corner and I spent several laps looking for a passing chance. This allowed Ronnie and Robert to close up and I was then like a man with 2 heads, watching my mirrors and trying to pass Marco. Ronnie was obviously keen to pass me and eventually we had a minor skirmish at the ned of the straight when he tested the casing on my gearbox. I thought that I had just about saved the ensuing slide and prevented the spin, but a wheel onto the grass snapped things sideways and I hit the big hoarding there. By the time I had recovered, just ahead of Ronnie ( maybe he waited?? like the gent he is  ;) ) Robert had taken his chance and was scuttling away after Marco.
With Ronnie urging me on at every corner we chased down the leaders until I ran wide at the end of the straight and Ronnie slipped through. I had a big dose of "red mist syndrome " around that time and set about hunting down Ronnie and anyone else in front, determined to try and gain a podium place.
Ronnie was easy enough to catch, albeit slowly, but passing him was going to be another problem!! We had been joined together for most of the race and our pace was very similar. We both passed Robert who had gone grass cutting, which moved Ronnie to 3rd and me to 4th. A podium place was so close I could smell it...or was that Ronnie?  ::).
Then Ronnie made a small mistake out of the final corner and lost drive.... I nailed the exit and gas and got just ahead into T1, but I think we made contact? and Ronnie was nerfed.  So that was 3rd spot with 3 laps to go and I could see Marco ahead in 2nd place...but maybe just too far ahead to catch?  
Anyway, I thought I would just try and blitz the last laps and hope that Marco made a mistake or maybe I could apply some pressure. I closed up slowly but it looked at first as if Marco was just playing it cool and pacing himself to the line and a safe 2nd place, but as we passed the pits on the last lap the gap had shrunk.... onto the straight and I was definitely gaining.......he has to be low on fuel!!  ;D. But he was still in front at the end of the straight with just the last 2 corners to go.... this is going to be a last gasp dash on the S/F straight!!  
I actually dropped back slightly before the last corner and lined myself up for a fast exit and just speed shifted up through the gears to steal 2nd place in the last few metres.

Tough luck on Marco who had held that second spot for most of the race  :-\. Grats to Roberto on a flag to flag win.
Thanks to Ronnie for some great racing through the middle of the race  ;D

Respect David, and a respectable laptime as well ;) Thought about taking the Coop but was worried others would stick with MS7 and such...


...is Piero  ;D

??? where did I get the idea that it was Marco?????????? :blink:

Yes, that's the same feeling that made me choose the Mac, the MS7 is of course the best F2....  

Maybe for next season we should use the 67s token system ~ as Tommie proposed  ::)

I have little to say about the race,
after the first round Robert eliminated himself, with his own hands,
rest of the GP was a struggle with myself, not to lose focus.

Rather, as in Mexico even this time I had lag issues.

Robert start well keeping his position with me on his neck, during all
the first lap he magically disappear and reappear here and there,
then he finished behind and to me the problems have diminished
but not disappeared as him.

As in Mexico, even here every time I walked into portions of the
track where there's other cars passing in the vicinity, lag problems
become evident.

If there is one thing in common with Mexico, apart from adjacent
track areas, is that there was a full grid of drivers, so maximum
workload for server and line.

Roberto grats to the win!

But imho this warping is not a server issue ::)
My server is much over the minimum requirements, AthlonII X2 250 @ 3000MHz with 4GB RAM, it idles with ~12% load with a full grid.
A dedicated server has no load of any graphical requirement as there is nothing shown.
 
The server only has the single distance to each client, but each driver has the double net distance to the other drivers!
I just looked trough the server replay and there is only little warping visible!
Comparing you and Robert, you will see that it's you who is warping!

As for the tracks
- Mexico track folder has 708 files if you use all upgrades as I do :o
- Anderstorp seems also to be a challenging track for the PC... 

Maybe some drivers should first try a full grid AI race to test the load of a track with their PC ;)

I clouted somebodies rear end at the start ( maybe it was Billy )I had made a tardy start there was a lot of warp and he stopped suddenly just as my engine came on cam . no excuses sorry to whoever it was but have to blame warp lag whatever , after that I got taken out twice on consecutive laps , presume these were the fly boys trying to make up time after going off after the start fiasco . By this time the whole field had disapeared and I got fed up chasing my own shadow , lost complete interest in the race then started making silly errors , so many that the leaders soon came around to lap me , decided to pack it in after half the field went by ,
cant say I enjoy this track anyway , only thing to like about it from me is it was Ronnies one and only home GP. If memory serves the track surface broke up during the GP making it a skating rink which is pretty apt for my performance . Feel like maybe I should take up chicken farming instead off GPL or maybe golf ! Yea Golf,  crazy golf  , thats the game  ::)

Warping is the result of the conversation between Client and Server being less than perfect. The biggest component is the connection, not the PC's.

It may be that the Server has done a good job of predicting a position in the absence of information from one client whereas the client has to predict many positions whilst knowing its own. Much more likely that the client is not receiving timely updates due to prevailing Internet conditions than that the server cannot cope.

HTH.

Not before you have raced with us at Imola in the nice, predictable 65's....

AI races are fine because the positions are calculated properly by the game locally. I am happy to send you my client replay so you can see just how bad the warp was from a client who started near the front, then went mid-to-back of the grid thanks to a warpy collision. The latency bars were sky-high throughout, consistently half-full at over 200ms. Q bar was fine, so no packet loss, but it took a while for the packets to make it back. It only calmed down when I got in some clear air and with a gap to those in front.

Note: when racing with my server, even with 7 or 8 people in pre-race praccy, I had a delay of 10-30ms from an internet source, and that's going out and coming back in. I could cheat with allowing IPX connections but I don't because fair's fair and the experience should be good for all.

Arf: I went about a half-second after the flag dropped. Anderstorp has a narrow grid, but it's not impossible to overtake. I found that in 66s others had that same issue but it was still a clean getaway for the most part.

I did and I am :angel:

Grats again to the podium of Roberto, Clive, Piero; and thanks for the racing everyone.

PS the starting grid was ridiculously tight for this track, in my opinion.

@Paul or anyone with import capabilities, evilclive seems to know how to combine two grids on one result to make it split the grids properly on one result card. Just my two cents to sorting the problem.

I do know how to import the 2 Friday races and split them into 2x2 groups,
but here we have 1 race with 4 groups to be split in two races with 2 groups each... ::)

Are you trying to scare people!!!!  :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

Suggesting that I know anything about technical issues like that is likely to send Paul screaming for psychiatric help  ::)

for the record.....................assume I know nothing, and even that might be too high a score when it comes to computerwebnetstuff.  :-\

1/ Bernie - without checking the replay, fairly safe to say it was me you ran into the back of. Not a problem however, I was reacting to the car ahead of me slowing - there was a bit of a domino effect & not great surprise that it resulted in a collision i.e. not your fault.
2/ On reading the various posts it doesn't appear to be a server that is causing the lag problems. Personally I didn't find any major problems. Can't comment on the start but having spent half a race or so in very close competition with Dave Curtis my connection wasn't that bad.
3/ As there were a couple of empty slots I'm planning to stick with one grid for the next race.
4/ The very close competition with Dave C made for an eventful race.

As my computer skills are on a par with Evil's I'm waiting for Paul to split the results for Anderstorp & Mexico - or send me idiot proof instructions on how to do so.

Advance notice for the next round. Handicapping has been difficult to apply for this series  because of the various changes. The plan is to restrict the top three divers in each Group to anything from Lola, Lotus, Cooper, Ferrari or BT14.

Maybe there's hope for me in the divers competition then;  there sure isn't in the cars :)
Apologies again for the biff/biffs.  But it sure was fun for quite a lot of the race!

I find that Prib plays up sometimes & it can't decide who is nearest;   but it seemed that fellow BNR DaveR was jumping slightly at times (before he drove off!).  Others seemed ok,  apart from the start.  But generally there is a good view from the back...

Cheers,
Dave.

I host some races for UKGPL, Funliga and GPLR and have gained some experience out of this.
Maybe I should not have used the 384 packetsize ::)

But as my server seems a problem for this F2 series, I withdraw my offer to host future F2 races!

You have been kind to offer your Server Cookie.  Paul is our expert and has explained, a good Server is not usually the weakness. 

The situation is becoming worse, while our computers remain mostly the same.  So perhaps the high speed traffic is to blame?  No - I mean the fibre optic traffic! ::)  If DSL is becoming overcrowded, signals must travel further.  Add to this a full grid and the track becomes confused.  Maybe some Servers have better locations, for shorter signals, than others?

Axel, I acknowledge your kindness and willingness to provide your server in our favor, I wish to find a solution of the problem, nothing more.

I ran into other leagues, with full grids, the most complex cars and on circuits with high polygons level, I never had/have a problem.

The only problem I had was with circuits that are notorious for their geometric problems, like Assen, Monza 1000k and so on…

Handicapping will be good, I like it. To confirm, it's the Lola-BMW and the Lotus 41, right? Because Lola-FVA and Lotus 48 are pretty competitive cars. Will prolly take the Cooper anyway, depending on lay-out next track.

Axel's server is always very good to me, however other cars from England and Italy were blinking a bit this time, which made it hard to race close. But again, that does not have anything to do with Axel. I'm thankful for all the free servers.

CHANGES AGAIN????????I disagree, its  a injustice and unreal. .................no comment.............!!!!!!!!

Moderator's discretion Marco - simply trying to keep the series alive. As for being unreal take a look at my car exploding - sheesh.

Am I doing the maths improperly, or are we still on two grids per event but one-less race than the Friday series? Seems easier in my very humble opinion. I'd volunteer if there was a schema or template to go by....

I'm going to resist commenting on the confusion here regarding how many championships/grids we are still running and the flexible handicapping used.

But I cannot resist suggesting that this series, as a meaningful competitive championship/s, died a long time ago!

Robert,
the handicap is either Lola or either Lotus. The world records are very close & these cars are only marginally slower than the other FVA cars. The Matra's are a little quicker.

The handicaps are for two reasons - otherwise we have a Matra spec race. Using the original handicaps of Cooper, Ferrari or BT14 on a mixed grid seems like the wrong ting to do.

We'll keep this arrangement for the rest of the season.

Understood Billy, no problem ;) I tried this season to take different chassis', but most seem to take MS7, which I haven't raced yet, I think. Apart from fast tracks, or tracks with long straights, the Cooper is good as well.

From my perspective, not really racing for points, but to finish and try to win races, and to have fun, I like as well a tokens system or handicapping for more diverse grids and more exciting races.

I've been called to the tower to explain the goings-on re the grid smash-up.  Reference has been made to the server replay.  It's not even posted as yet for downloading.  Case dismissed due to false arrest/lack of evidence.

:)

Just kiddin'...  I'll respond when the cap becomes available.

I have uploaded the raw server files on UKGPL_3 (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season26/F2/)

Sorry to report, Axel, but that link is dying on me.  I'll try again later.

It just ended up a bit garbled; try this...
ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season26/F2/ (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season26/F2/)

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi, Dave.  TY for the link but when I first accessed it, the Anderstorp replay just wasn't there.  Then...  I noticed it...just by accident...at the top of the listing and that it didn't carry the usual and proper 'S26' prefix nomenclature.  Pulling it down now.  It may well have been there re Axel's post...just didn't see it.

Mod finally published. Sorry for the delay.