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Season 28 Works Trophy - Round 6 – Mexico

We are already into the second half of the Championship season. Round 6 takes place at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a 2.786 mile race track in Mexico City. It is named after the famous racing drivers Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez. The circuit got its name shortly after it opened when Ricardo Rodríguez died in practice for the non-Championship 1962 Mexican Grand Prix. Ricardo's brother Pedro also lost his life behind the wheel nine years later

Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_9
IP = 37.157.48.87
Race date = Sunday 24-05-2015
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = Mexico – Papyrus original.
Race length = 27 Laps (50 minutes)
Variant = 1967
60fps patch used = 60fpsV2newmod
Damage Model =  Pro
Qualifying time = 30 minutes

Replays Available here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season28/Grads_Works/)

Driver lists and token rules can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=474&theme=6)

Moderating The red zone will be fully moderated. For this event the red zone will be from the start to the exist of the hairpin on the first lap . Other moderation will be on reported incidents only.  However any incidents that occur in the red zone that are not reported by the drivers may 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

The chassis token system is explained on the Works (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=474&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.

Come on you lot, you know where the brake pedal is, right?

Not sure I even made it across the line this time. :(

Mexico is tricky enough with all those bends, but if you can't even drive in a straight line......  someone lost it and took me out on the s/f line..... glad I hadn't spent much time praticing for this..

It wasn't me.  :D

Managed to avoid T1 barrier first two laps, then a brush on lap 3, then scrreeeeee-clout lap 4.

"Skyrider, we have negative undercarriage on the port side, over".

Well the engine had to go eventually  :laugh:

Thanks for the racing Peter and Robert in particular. Good luck to everyone still running.

Gents, UKGPL9 appears to have lost its server replay, anybody with a full client replay whom could upload somewhere sensible so we can generate the results correctly would be much appreciated.

I can upload my client replay, and also generate the results for convenience. Stay tuned.

Results generated, (my client) replay is here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/replays/Archive/Season28/Grads_Works/S28_Works_R06_24_05_2015_Mexico.7z).

That was me. I lost the rear end on the start. I had to lift to keep from sliding even more to the right and into you. Thanks for giving me a little room for error. I wish Donnie had lifted some. Then the damage may have been limited to me scraping the wall on the left. My apologies Arf and Jethro. :(

Yea, sorry Greg and to all whom were caught up in that.  I expected to see you quickly gather up the Cooper in recovery but was shocked to see that it was just a wild thing.  I started to veer away too late.

Just for once I thought I would treat myself and spend some tokens for Mexico  ;).
I very rarely drive the Lotus, and to be quite honest, it took me about an hour of offline practice to re-learn and build a setup. This is a different challenge to the Honda or BRM that's for sure!!

Gradually I tweaked the setup, and more importantly my driving style, to make the Lotus work and shave time off the race setup.

Probably, with about another week of practice, I might have been knocking on WR lap times but once I could hit 1:46 on race fuel I figured that was as good as it was going to get.
I was still not expecting to walk away with this race, there is far too much talent running in Works 67 this season, and qually soon proved me correct as about 5 cars contesting that pole position. I actually used a low fuel setup for qually, instead of full race fuel which I prefer to do.

TBH when I was pushed back to about 4th on the grid I was tempted to accept that and do a last run on race fuel ready for the race itself. But, instead I thought I would give it one more qually run and totally messed up the first 2 laps. The next lap was clean, but actually I felt that it was just not fast enough as I approached the final turn and was resigned to starting 4th. When I popped up as pole, I thought how true it is that smooth and clean is always faster!!
I was hoping that the Lotus acceleration would get me off the grid and through T1 still in 1st place. But that group of Fezzas behind looked threatening, when I thought of who was driving them!!
Off line I had found that the Lotus needed about 2 laps to get the tyres warm, but more importantly I had to avoid sliding or spinning the rear wheels too much or the temps ( and grip) went stupid.
Pelle had his Fezza hooked up quickly and I had to push harder that I wanted to in the early laps to keep him away from my gearbox under braking. Slowly I eased out a little comfort gap and was able to concentrate on keeping it clean and tidy, using that Lotus grunt out of the corners to sneak away.
A quick glance at prib showed Iestyn close to Pelle and I was hoping that they might slow each other and allow me to get well away, but then Pelle dropped off the screen. I knew Iestyn was quick around Mexico from previous encounters and his pace in qually proved that he was a real threat.
I probably pushed a fraction too hard and slightly outbraked myself into the hairpin on a couple of laps which gave Iestyn the chance to close the gap.
Once on my tail, I watched to see where he was faster and where I could gain a few metres gap.
The Lotus definitely had the acceleration out of the slower corners and I was being very careful to keep the revs below 9k, even 8.5k where I could. Iestyn was later on the brakes and closed through T1 on every lap, but I was quicker off the Peralta and dragged enough of a gap to be safe.

I knew that I could push harder and deeper into T1 if I had to but that tended to super heat the rear left tyre and that compromised the rest of that lap as I tried to cool it again.
The pace was awesome as I defended against Iestyn's relentless pressure. I quickly realised that unless I made a mistake his Ferrari did not have the outright speed to make a pass ( that was a novel situation for me, usually I get mugged in the Honda lol).
Just as I had decided to drive a defensive race and fend off Iestyn for the next 20 laps, he made a small mistake and dropped back some 50 mtrs. I wondered if the pace was having an adverse affect on his tyres and I was suckered into trying to make a break.
I went into the Esses just a little too quickly and made a mess of my lines and as a result I was wrestling the Lotus through the corners which I suspect screwed my tyres, because on the run out of the Esses towards Peralta I got on the gas a little too soon and a little too hard.
The rear broke free and screwed the car around and Iestyn did not need a written invitation,.... he was gone.
That grass was very wet and slippery and I watched about 5 cars sweep past as I struggled to regain the tarmac. There was an element of "red mist" for the next few laps tempered with a need to cool the tyres and make no more mistakes.
Once everything was back under control I started closing on Tommi who conveniently ran wide, Ronnie who blew his engine, Robert who was having real probs with Peralta and I was able to easily pass him as he tested his paintwork against the armco.
That was 3rd place .............now for 2nd spot and another Fezza!  Gismo put up quite a fight and I had to use all of the speed in the Lotus to close the gap as the laps were running out. One small mistake was all it took and I was on his tail with about 4 laps to go.
Iestyn was out of sight and had maintained a superb pace, so the best on offer for me was 2nd if I could pass this awkward Ferrari in front of me. There was no point in trying anything too stupid  around the twisty bits, so I waited and lined him up off Peralta slotting into the slipstream which made the pass quite easy and I was comfortably ahead at T1. Much easier than I had expected, still not used to the sheer speed in that Lotus.
With no chance of catching Iestyn, unless he made a monumental mistake, I just had to ease it to the flag for 2nd place.

Grats to Iestyn and sorry for not sticking with you and making life a little more interesting  ;D
Quite enjoyed having a car with the perfomance of the Lotus for once, I could get addicted........................

Forgettable race from me. A distinct lack of practice showed as I was miles off the pace in quali and eventually binned it on the first corner not that far into the race......

I'll be off to sunny Scotland next weekend and will miss the next two races so you will all get a temporary reprieve from my shoddy driving  ;). See you all soon.

Me and Mexico have never been great friends, ehm, the track.. not the country ;-) combined with only a little practice last week and then maybe 1 hour of practice before the race I wasn't really expecting much..

In qual I discovered I had some frame-drops coming on to the straight (never had any offline) so I tried resetting my computer, tried changing the gfx-settings, nothing helped, so in the end I just thought fuck it and did my best.. Did a PB with my 1.46.9 which I was satisfied with, 4th on the grid, not bad!

Had a good start and it quickly became apparent that my race was going to happen in my mirrors and not ahead as the top-3 (Clive, Pelle and Iestyn) pulled away with ease and I could focus on settling in to a rythm early on.. Ronnie behind me, closely followed by Robert, was matching me lap for lap, gaining on me here and there with the gap around 1-2 seconds, I kept my head down and focused on keeping a steady pace without errors which seemed to work out.. Had a few scares in T1, but otherwise my pace was well above expectations..
Don't know when I realized I was 2nd, but at that time Clive was around 5 sec behind and I was wondering if I could reach the finish line before he would catch me.. as he got closer and closer I tried to find tenths here 'n' there but it did cost some small errors in the hairpin and when he lined me up onto the straight I knew he was going by, nice comeback Clive ;-)
Robert was also closing in on me in the end and I was having more and more trouble with T1 on light fuel and a nervous backend but luckily it held to the line..

Once again my race pace was quite stable but I'm frustrated at being so far off my qual pace in the races when the fuel is getting low.. not being able to extract enough at the end.. don't think it would have changed the result in this race but if you see me crashing out at the end of future races, you know why :-P

Was in doubt what car to take, and made a late decision to take the BT24, with a new setup, which was too loose in hindsight...

In a way it was fun being in traffic for once, but didn't have the car/setup/form to threaten Ray or Peter...struggled throughout the race, making too many mistakes and damaging the car...simply didn't have the speed and consistency to challenge for a podium, that I needed for the championship...in a way disappointing drive, hope to end the championship on form challenging for wins and giving Iestyn a run for his money...

Great pace and win Iestyn, also great recovery Clive, and good job Peter! :) Also good job finishers, and commiserations to the retirements, especially those suffering from the start incident...uncharacteristic mistake by Greg that triggered an unfortunate string of events...what first gear ratio/diff combo did you use Greg? Just for my own research...

I joined late due real life then my system crashed (again) during qual.  I see to be having win 7 issues at the mo and keep restoring to earlier points.  Anyways I didn't even set a lap time and started dead last.  I'll have to have a look at the replay but didn't see the flag and started from the last corner, however, this was a blessing with the ensuing carnage.

I made it around the first few laps without incident but after about 10 I clouted the T1 barrier fairly solidly but was surprised to find my steering heavily biased to the right.  I checked prib to see if I was around half dist and couldn't remember the race distance  ???  I was running penultimate and Doni (who probably also had damage) was catching me, but after a few laps I got used to the damaged steering and after a clout on the other side which lessened the bias, I was able to get back to 49s with occasional 48s.  I intended to stop after being sure of half dist but was actually enjoying the challenge and managed to hold Doni off.

In the end 6th was probably all I could hope for so pretty happy with that.

Cheers,

Bob

Thank you sir! Figured out that either size or quantity of files in the replay directory was likely the reason why it wasn't saving them. Moved some to the archives and all good so far. Tests to be run tomorrow to confirm!

Mod report now published.