SimRacing.org.uk

Season 27 Works Trophy - Round 7 - Road Atlanta

Welcome to Round 7 for the Season 27 Graduates Works Trophy! After the glamour of Monaco we're heading to Georgia in the USA.

Road Atlanta is a 2.54-mile (4.088 km) road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur sports car and motorcycle races, racing and driving schools, corporate programs and testing for motorsports teams. The track has 12 turns, including the famous "esses" between turns three and five; and Turn 12, a downhill, diving turn. The track is owned by NASCAR through its subsidiary Panoz Motorsports, and is the home to the Petit Le Mans, as well as AMA motorcycle racing, and smaller events throughout the year.

We are using the new Road Atlanta '71 track! Note that the above lap records are still for the older GPL version of the track. I recommend GPLRank (http://gplrank.schuerkamp.de/php-pub/gplrank.php) for laptime pointers.

Race List = iGOR
Server = UKGPL_8
IP address = tbc
Race date = Sunday 9-11-2014
Race Time = race starts at 21:30 UK time (21:30 GMT)
Qualifying Time = Between 30 and 60 minutes, starting no later than 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = Road Atlanta '71 (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/RoadAtlanta71/road_atlanta_71v1.1.zip)
Variant = 67F1
Damage Model = Pro
Race length = 35 Laps (50 minutes)
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Replays Available here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season27/Grads_Works/)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=453&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 from the start to the exit of T7 on Lap 1. 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=453&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.

Please Note:
The kerbs on this track are very low and can easily be ridden in order to improve laps times.  Drivers are reminded that riding the kerbs is permitted but there must always be at least two wheels within the track boundary at any one time.  If three or four wheels have been placed outside the track boundary then a driver is deemed to have left the track and will subsequently have to perform a rejoin with the necessary caution this dictates.  If you have knowingly overdone the kerb riding or left the track for any othe reason in practice, please abort the lap in order to not post an illegal lap time.

The only exception is Turn 11, Bridge Corner.  It is possible to run wide here and use the pit lane entry to recover to the track without loosing momentum.  However it is not clear if this line is any quicker than maintaining the racing line within the track boundary.  Consequently drivers will not be penalised for running wide here and any affected practice lap times will be allowed to stand.  However the wide line will technically involve a rejoin and consequently any contact incurred will be the responsibility of the rejoining driver.

D'oh, just missed the start, went for dinner with my mum, got back just in time, but my PC was too slow to get race ready... ::)

I see Col raced today.. can I nominate him as my replacement? :angel:

My strategy is royally screwed.. I had 2 Ferrari, 2 Lotus.. now I have 3 Lotus? :-X

Grats guys!

Happy to survive. I had one grasstrip that cost me 5 secs apart from that I was way to early lifting to let lappers come by on straights. 3-4 secs behind means I could go for another half lap. should have managed 6 th but I enjpyed chasing Evil who obviously was arguing a bit with his Honda .Big gz to Podium..Robert, Jethro and Tim.

What did you eat?

Sorry to hear Iestyn. Yes asked Col to run with us, and of course he did splendidly well. :) I'm next 3 races probably in the Eagle ;)

Quali was tough with a lot of Yellows and traffic, but finally pulled off a sub22 which was good enough for Pole, but it was close.

Start was OK, but first few laps were really slippery on cold tires, with Jethro on my tail. When the tires came in, I was able to push a bit more and was able to create a gap that I could gradually increase. Last 10 laps took it more easy, didn't want to throw the race away.

Great track, yet challenging, happy to have pulled off a consistent race without major errors. Great job Jethro and Tim, and finishers! Great job Col with P4 in the Cooper and Tommie in the BRM for 5th! :) Thanks to the lapped cars for room

Commiserations to all the early retirements...

Sigh.

Congrats Rob, Jethro, and Tim! Well done.

Never change your shifting patterns just before qualifying starts. Thought I found a new pattern that might make me more consistent without losing any time. Apparently the engine didn't care much for it. Identical explosions in practice and the race ruined any chance of me scoring some points. Oh well. The season started lousy for me and now I don't think it can go much further down hill. Rob said he thought I had a chance to win. Luckily I never deluded myself in such a way. I thought I might get lucky and make the podium but I no real confidence in doing that.

Now that I have little chance of a nice point total for the season, I can do some experimenting. I'll give the Lotus a try soon and see if I can keep the DFV in one piece. My expectations aren't high but it's something I need to learn.

Thanks guys. See you next time.

Was very surprised when i tried to join the race and couldn't because i didn't have new Road Atlanta version on my gpl.

Tried to figure it out in the 10 mins of qualy i had left, but didn't manage to decode last turn and the dip before it.
I guess i had far too low ride height and was losing lots of time there.

Had a bit of a race with AG until i went off twice at, yes, last turn.
Plodded to the finish, while being lapped by the world and his dog.
Not exactly to the finish, as i blew the engine 2 laps from the end.

Congrats to the podium and to smoky braby for perseverance.
In the end he didn't catch me by just 2 laps.

Lets see if 20 tokens and Watkins Glen bring any difference  ;)

I struggled to set the car up adequately so that it didn't bottom through the dip and in the end that was my downfall.  After practicing earlier in the day I successively tried to raise and firm-up (ooo errr) the rear of the fezza and eventually seemed to achieve this on full fuel, but depending upon my line I still managed to ground it.  I'm curious as to the settings of the other drivers, I raised the rear wheel rates to around 150lbs, rear roll bar 200lbs, ride hight 3.6", rear bump rubbers >2", bump = 4, but still this was marginal.  It also took me an age to get to this after making changes incrementally from a Silv setup, perhaps I need to be more patient.


For some reason I also had connection issues...other cars appearing to jump across the screen = I HAVE WARP.  Not sure why, I plugged in.

WD all finishers, c u next time,


Bob.

95/115 springs front/rear
1.5 inch bump rubbers
3.5 inch ride height
3/4 bump/rebound

In the Brab, which is light so doesn't bottom out as soon as other cars. Also I lifted early to have less compression. With these settings I never bottomed out, starting on racefuel.

Your front end might have been too soft? I always try to keep about the same ratio front/rear.

Bob, I'm not as fast as the works drivers but I didn't have any bottoming problems with my setup:

Wheel rate 110 F 115 R
Ride height 3.2 F 3.3 R

I needed to lift slightly once the track start descending steeply before the big compression.

I saved a nice replay of the Eagle fully compressing, throwing the car into a slide. Then I did a nice 360 and brought the car out of the slide in the middle of the bridge turn to cleanly drive away without a bit of trouble. :)

2.5 ride height  :'(

And that was meant for former Road Atlanta without the compression.

Happy with second place, but this is a hard track to get right, so easy to go off.

Nothing special, in fact the pub/restaurant was out of Beef and ale pie.. hence trying to eat a half chicken quickly, obviously not quickly enough! More so it's that I only see my mum every 3 or 4 months or so.

Did someone mention Pie  :taz:

oh I see . visit foremost, but with some food involved :)

Thanks for the feedback via the court system gents.  Very helpful and most appreciated  :thumbup2:

Mod report published

Thanks, hope to learn from it for the future.