SimRacing.org.uk

Season 27 Professionals Trophy - Round 4 – East London

Round 5 of the Pro’s championship is being re-run as over half the cars were disconnected first time out. The track was historically the season opener before the South African Grand Prix was moved to Kyalami). East London is almost flat but still has a several challenging corners. Not a Papyrus original but one of our regular add on tracks.

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.  

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

Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_8
IP address = TBA
Race date = Tuesday 23-12-2014
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = eastlndn (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/tracks/EastLondon)
Race length = 34 laps
Variant = 1965
Damage Model = Pro
Qualifying time = minimum of 30 minutes

Password see above (#post_event_password)
Replay will be here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season27/Pros/)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page
The red zone will be fully moderated for lap 1 only. For this race, the red zone will be until the exit of the Essess.
 Other moderation will be on reported incidents only.

Too bad Uli and Tristan couldn't make it, but I'm happy with the win, and championship! Set a PR in quali without a tow, and came close to better it twice. In hotlap mode with more tirepressure, and using 1st gear, I should be able to do sub25. Preferred to setup 1st for start, and quali setup was just a racesetup with less fuel and 1% less brakebias.

Setup was just great, sacrificed some topspeed for better grip and handling, never overheated the tires. Really like this track. It has a simple layout but it's great for close racing. However did another Vettel. Still got a bit nervous towards halfway, as I also discoed last time out.

Uneventful race most of the time, had the right mindset, and learnt from the Works debacle. In the end had a mini-race with Arf, not sure if he knew I was lapping him, and then I outbraked myself a bit. But it all went OK. :) Good job Clive and Axel, and finishers ;) Commiserations to Ray and Andy...

Congrats Rob, Clive, Axel! Congrats on another championship Rob! It's a shame Uli wasn't here to try to defend his lead. Congrats Uli and Clive on your season standings!

That was a fun race! I thought about disqualifying myself in practice. Something had me thinking there was going to be heavy drivers in the race plus I didn't want to start behind Ray's BT7. With my lack of practice and my lack of experience with these cars I didn't want to start too high on the grid. I think that's the first time I didn't try to qualify as high as possible or start at the back. I ran one qualifying stint and then started practicing my race setup. It wasn't revealed to me until around lap 20 of the race that my left side camber settings need some adjustment and my LF tire was slightly over inflated.

It was a bit of a shame I lost any slipstream from the faster guys after the T2 melee. I was hoping to get behind Jethro or Dean and use the slipstream to lower my lap times. Early I had a good race going with Donnie. He was holding me back a bit but there wasn't any real way for me to attempt a pass. Just as I was starting to get some ideas of where I might pass, Donnie spun in front of me. Close call Donnie! I barely missed you. Things were going well until lap 20 and the LF started overheating. I couldn't get the front to grip so I ran wide. Once in the grass, I didn't want to lift and ended up spinning. Up to that point I had been consistent and after the spin I finished off the race consistently. It was an enjoyable drive and some real good practice.

Take care guys! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Robert I was only too aware that you were there. Were you aware that you had a 30 second lead with 2 laps to go, and I was trying to chase someone for position? Admittedly the gap was large but there had been an incident at some stage and instead of chasing down Greg, it was now Doni that was there. Don't get me wrong, you were the leader, you are entitled to pass back markers. I did move over at one stage to signal you should go past, which you didn't/weren't able to do - before that I had done the recommended thing of remaining on the racing line and waiting for the overtake which never came. Did I come off the gas - maybe not as much as you'd hope, but I could see your lead, and the gap to Greg/Doni, and wasn't really up for compromising my chances of catching them. I really do feel that it was your decision to mix it with the back markers for absolutely no gain in position/threat of loss of position.

The carnage at the start of the race started with contact between myself and Ronnie as we left T2 - shame for those that got affected at T3. I believe Ronnie has a policy of not discussing incidents in race threads, so I shall say no more than that. Just sent my version of events to mods as I am away for Xmas.

Oh, and just in case anyone missed it on the other forums, it looks like Spa67 will be released imminently!! Looking forward to that next season.

Bah Humbug / Merry Xmas (delete as appropriate)

Arf

Congratulations, Robert!  A comprehensive race win and taking the Championship laurels to boot!  Splendid job.

Great runs by both Evil and Alex to score podiums!  A nice way to round out the season.

A bit of a grim meeting for me.  No pre-race trials to warmup.  Extraordinary distractions leading up to the start(only threw in a few laps late in qualifying)and during the event were working against me.  Still...  A bad day in GPL is better than a good day at work, right?  :)  Based on my BT11 PB, I could have started as high as P5.  Just not to be today.

Re the Lap01 business culminating in a major shunt, I think that I contributed somewhat to it by lifting for T2 a bit early expecting the funneling to affect the push & shove.  This undoubtedly caught out anyone directly behind so it may well have been the catalyst for the whole thing starting in the first place.  Moderators please take note.

Once back on track, I had fun dicing with Greg and KH.  We each swapped about positions over the course of the race.  Good fun!  My driving was a little off thanks to the distractions but I took the time to experiment with a couple of things during the race and am encouraged by the indications.

Have a fine Holiday, chaps!  Have a Great 2015!  :)

I see, Frank Colin.

Actually when you would have let me by (I had to pass you on merit being almost lap behind you), then I would have considered letting you unlap, like I did with Jethro at Zandvoort. Greg and Doni were way up the track still, didn't see them, you would only pass them with offs for them, so that's no excuse.

It is not my aim to lap as many cars I can, in contrary, it happens mostly because of wrecks and offs, especially in the mods. My aim is also to run as consistent as possible, and to set fast laps towards the end. But I would for sure have lifted off if you were in a fight with Greg and Doni towards the end, and coasted behind you guys...but that wasn't the case...

Thanks Doni, buddy :)

In general this season the Brabham lacked topspeed (compared to last season's Ferrari), but the car handles great, good drivability, and you can push it well.

At many tracks seemed to run lower tirepressures than most, as I experience often others being faster on the straights, even in same equipment (yesterday Arf was faster on the straights for instance). I do this because that way I can handle the tiretemps better and push more without losing grip. But the rolling resistance is higher. At faster tracks I will pump up the tires as far the tiretemps will allow it (not losing grip by overheating) though. Each track has it's own characteristic, and sometimes I choose straight line speed over grip.

Also stretching the gearings, by sacrificing 1st gear mostly for starts, doesn't help for staying in the effective region of the powerband. So basically from a race strategy point of view I was vulnerable in close racing most of the times, even when my laptimes would be competitive. Reliability was great, apart from my engine blown at Monaco, that prolly was induced by my first lap spin/crash at the chicane.

It's a shame Uli had to miss two races this season, I had to miss one. My four wins were all in a dominating fashion, with or without the likes of Uli and Tristan. And had some podiums and laprecords at races I could/should have contended for the win.

Still a great job Uli this season, you had your share of bad luck, but also some great wins! Also grats to Clive for ending up 3rd in the championship with some nice podium finishes. Together with Axel we just missed out the team championship, congrats Blue Moose Racing!

Thanks all for racing this season, thanks to Axel for hosting, and Billy for moderating!

Hi guys my policy is that I rarely if ever submit incident reports but I'm always happy to comment here and in reports submitted by others if I think it will help.

My take on the incident in question and what I will submit in a minute; Doni was ahead and on the line I wanted. Arf was behind and wanted the line I changed onto. The unfortunate contact from behind (warp or physical) with my rear tyre propelled me at an alarming rate into the back of Doni. I don't blame myself and I don't blame either of you guys either. For me it was just one of those unfortunate mix ups that can happen. Apologies to you both and anyone else if it spoilt your race in anyway. My engine went bang when I tried to get going so race over for me before it had even started.

Grats to the podium and Robert on the Pro title. Yes it was a shame Uli could not race but that's not your fault and the title is well deserved. 

Merry Xmas to you both and everyone else at UKGPL

Had to miss this one. Well done to Robert as champion, Uli, & Clive. Its a bit late I know.

Norm H

Erm, I might have only just remembered this  :-[

CONGRATIOLATION ROBERT!
well done, fantastic season you had and sovereign win in the end
Happy new year to you all
uli

Outstanding mod report now finalised.

Thanks for modding last season, Billy!

It looks though like the original event (this was a re-run) still has to be "modded" -as it's still in LM2/court- for Season 27 to be completed. Right now it's still under Current Standings rather than Championship Results on my driver page.