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Season 27 Works Trophy - Round 8 - Watkins Glen

Welcome to Round 8 for the Season 27 Graduates Works Trophy! We maintain our stay in the States and visit the Mecca of North American racing: Watkins Glen International, New York.

Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an automobile race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The sports car racing facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation. It was long known around the world as the home of the United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980), but since 1948 the site has been home to road racing of nearly every class, including Formula One, the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the IndyCar Series. Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course. In 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. In 1968 the race was extended to six hours, becoming the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The circuit's current layout has more or less been the same since 1971, although a chicane was installed at the uphill Esses in 1975 to slow cars through these corners, where there was a fatality during practice at the 1973 United States Grand Prix. The chicane was removed in 1985, but another chicane called the "Inner Loop" was installed in 1992 after a fatal accident during the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup event. The circuit is a very popular venue among fans and drivers.

Race List = iGOR
Server = UKGPL_8
IP address = 95.113.251.179
Race date = Sunday 23-11-2014
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 = Papyrus original
Variant = 67F1
Damage Model = Pro
Race length = 45 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 the Loop. 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.

i'll better join here for tonights race... :)

OK, I changed your division, so you can see Works PW ;)

There was some confusion, Bastian has joined Privateers after all, have changed the registration.

Quiet race for me, in a lonely 5th, after losing pace with Greg and Col with their quick pace. No chance of catching Iestyn and Robert, so settled for points. No chance of championship but a guy can dream, eh?

I do like Bremgarten, I seem to remember doing quite well here among good company!

A nice solid performance for a change. No spins, no moments. Not very quick, given the company, but I suppose i can't complain....well alright just the one....cheesed off i ended up lapped, but that's more to do with the amazing pace up front...

After the first couple of laps, I ended up following Dean round for a while, with other people in sight ahead of him. Didn't really feel i was racing any of them because I knew I couldn't catch them. Several fell of though, and I went from 14th to 6th without physically overtaking anyone. Tris and Tommie caght and passed me, although it was pleasing to see how long it took them :-) I then found out t the end of the race that I had 10/11 laps worth of fuel left, so only got myself to blame for making it more difficult for myself...

WD all finishers

Arf

Ripper of a race up front!  Iestyn and Robert cruising off into the distance and never far apart.  Izzy survived a brief off in the Loop mid-race.  Thought you were a goner there, ID.  Great drives from each of them.

Greg and Colin ditto!  The P3 and P4 slots were in doubt to the end with admirable drives from each.  Take a bow, chaps.

I should have known not have gone mano a mano with Tristan into the Loop.  He just got by but in doing so, stole the piece of road I needed.  Got X'd up and F'd up.  I haven't scored a single freakin' point in the Works Division for over two months!  Grrr...

An hour before the race was still doubting even attending the race, not being fully fit and fearing not having the focus, but glad I did in hindsight!

Didn't touch GPL since Tuesday, with little prep late afternoon, so was really surprised I was up to speed and consistent as well in the race. Didn't have pressure from behind, and Iestyn was just a tiny bit quicker. Got close when he had an off in the Loop, but decided not to force the issue, lifted and had to settle for second in the end.

I could push for 2-3 laps, but then left tires got too hot, and had to cool them a bit. Iestyn had the same issue and he could manage his racelead without too much problems.

Very happy with the race, just what the doctor ordered! :) Congrats Iestyn, and good job Greg for P3 holding off a fast driver as Col is. Well done finishers and commiserations as always to the retirements...the lapped cars were exemplary for me, great job...

Congrats Iestyn and Rob! Nice save in the Loop Iestyn. When I saw it, it made me wish I could have recovered so quickly with little to no damage. Rob was most consistent! Very impressive! I know I'll never be that good. It is very pleasing to only be .5 off you and Iestyn though.

That was an excellent opening lap by everybody but me! I bogged down on the start and bunched the cars far more than I liked.

Deja vu. Seems like I remember Colin giving me an almost identical challenge a year ago. We both upgraded our cars for this event. Luckily this one was only 48 minutes long. Another 15 minutes and Colin might have beaten me.

That was a very tense first 1/3 of the race for me. The Lotus was lousy on cold tires. I don't know if I could have taken the pressure had Tristan's pass on Colin not opened a gap for me. Great job Colin keeping your cool! Colin and Jethro gradually reeled me back in over the next several laps. But once I got my tires up to temperature on lap 10, I was able to open the gap again. Colin and I slowly left Jethro behind then. It was rather discomforting to look in the mirror to see where Colin was and see Jethro there too. I had to remind myself to breathe a few times! Luckily I kept telling myself, don't blow the engine and just make a good exit out of the loop and the esses and everything will be alright. I struggled with the last two turns many times and scared myself clipping the inside curb in the Loop twice. After the 1st lap or two, I don't think I made a single mistake that cost me more than a half a second.

Three engine failures in qualifying had me little worried too. I raised 4th gear after qualifying to eliminate most of the wheelspin exiting the Esses and raised 5th to keep the revs around 8500 at the end of the two straights. I sure wanted that added acceleration in first 1/3 of race but knew I likely blow the engine later in the race had used the gearset I initially planned.

This was a very pleasing event in several ways. It's the first time I've not blown the DFV on Pro damage! Once the tires were up to temp the car drove well. The Lotus was the only car I could have beaten Colin's Ferrari. I was not only consistent enough but fast enough to get Colin to make some mistakes in the 2nd half of the race. It's nice to see I can turn screws on somebody when they're trying to do the very same thing to me. :lol: I went for broke this time and didn't think it would work but with all my DNFs it didn't really matter. And most of all, that was my best drive in several weeks! Hopefully, I'm out of my slump for a while.

Thanks guys, that was a very good event by the entire field. It's a privilege to have been part of it.

Moderation published

Thanks Phil, and sorry Axel for the bump! Had a brainfart there.

NP Tommie  ;)