SimRacing.org.uk

Season 29 - CHAMPIONSHIP 69X  : ROUND 7 – REIMS

The 7th round of the season will be at Reims in France.  The circuit is basically several long straights with a couple of hairpins and a few cornfields. Catching a tow is what this track is about. It normally produces close racing. Reims-Gueux was first established in 1926 on the public roads between the small French villages of Thillois and Gueux. The circuit had two very long straights between the towns, and teams strove to maximize straight-line speed of their cars; many slipstream battles ensued. Race organizers actually felled trees and demolished old houses in order to make the circuit even quicker. International racing came with the first official Formula One event occurring in 1950, the inaugural year of the Formula One world championship. The circuit layout was shortened and changed in 1952 to bypass the town


After 6 races, Tim is leading the championship followed by Andreas and Doni.
The race will be run under INT rules and you can do one Shift+r  (only one) followed by a stop and go in the pits (Stop and Go must be taken within two laps of the incident unless on the last lap when a time penalty will be added).

We will use the patch : 60fpsV1 (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season27/60fps/).

Race List	=	IGOR
Server	=	UKGPL_8
IP Address	=	look at IGOR
Race date	=	06-12-2015
Qualification Time	=	~21:00  UK time -> 30min
Race Time	=	race starts at 21:30 UK time
Track	= reims (http://gpltd.bcsims.com/include/downloadtrack.php?&track=reims&track_link=/tracks/reims_gpl.zip)
Variant	=	69X
60fps patch used	=	60fpsV1
Damage Model	=	INT
Race length	=	24 laps
Replay	=	you will get here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season29/69Xtra/)

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

Password: see above (#post_event_password)
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=509&theme=6)

and remember :

Drivers will have a free car choice
BUT
Each car can be driven only once in this season!

Moderation : no more red zone, only reported incidents will be moderated.

Have FUN !

Bad race for me,2 incidents in the first lap.A problem with Cookie and a misunderstanding with Andreas G that stopped my poor race.Andreas i have gived you all the left side ,why you have sought an impossible way on the right?

My problem was you ignoring blue flags! No better place to lift a little and let the leaders pass...

And  my problem was you blocking always the middle of the track when a faster Car approaches. Then driving into me in the hairpin. Very nice. My race was already over in the hairpin.

Look the replay and you can see that i was on the left and was your car that go into my car.Enough is enough.

Sorry Cookie but i have realized to have car behind approaching the curve.At this point there was no other to do than to go into.

There are other lines to take that corner when you get blue flags and cars with +21kmh coming ;)
Just sit in my cockpit and watch the replay... 

But this gave me a nice opportunity to make my fastest lap  ;D

Shame Tommie we had a warp contact in last corner, would have been a nice drag race to the line :fencing:

Look the replay also you and you can see that there was no blue flags for me(2 time).There are 2 man on the straght and no one have waved the blue flag.Probably you was too fast compared to me(my top speed 312 your 335)and again too far for the blue flag man.When you arrived behind me was too late for any action.

Grats to Cookie, Tommie and Doni up on the podium.

I arrived late for qualifying and only had time for a single out lap and one qualifying time. That all fell apart when I got nerfed at the final corner on the out lap and there was no time for another attempt.

Started dead last and had to use binoculars to see the flag man  ::). This required a change of tactics, so I held back on the first few laps as various people made contact and dropped out. On more than one occassion I had to pick my way through stranded cars at various corners, but after 3 or 4 laps I was up from 17th place to about 10th without really trying.

Once I picked the pace up it became clear that I was running a little too much wing angle as I was gaining huge amounts of time through the corners but I needed a good tow truck on the straight. There were several laps running with Dean and Andreas who were both in the Mclaren flying tea trays. Their top speed was stunning down the long straight and all I could do was sit in the draft and back off to protect my engine.
But, I could make up plenty on braking and through the right hander to get back on their tails. Through turns 1,2,3 and 4 I was backing off to avoid rear ending them as they struggled for grip. Dean and Andreas both made mistakes and ran wide, but their top speed soon drew them back into the 3 way battle.
It was clear that I could not simply pass these two and outrun them. But with about 10 laps to go we were catching Francesco and I saw the chance of making a pass and still getting a tow. If I could pull a big enough gap, I might be able to keep myself out of reach of their top speed.

I pounced as Dean ran slightly wide at T2 and for the first time nailed the gas through the corner to get past Dean, I risked everything in getting onto the straight as fast as possible and getting the tow from Francesco. It almost went wrong when Fran backed off/braked for T1 and I had to wrench the wheel over and struggle to keep the car on track...but I survived and managed to get away from those 2 tea trays.
The rest of the race was a chase to catch Greg. I was reeling him in lap by lap, but I could tell that it was going to be very close on the last lap.
In the end it was my excess of wing that prevented me drafting past him on the run to the line and my extra 15 gallons of fuel that I had left in the tanks??!!

Grats Greg, just one small mistake would have gifted me that 4th place  ;)

Onc

got off the line well, got tagged by Bob at t2...last...put a few laps in and ran with Dave for a while catching the group in front but I could not get the car to stop, may be it was damaged or bad tyre temps. had 2 spins but was still with Dave then the third was a charm. I lost it at the big stop and got stuck in barrier.

Grats to Cookie and Tommie, dominant!

 I thing that,  sometimes blue flags are not clear or really their do not appear , however, with a pribluda you can see in advance who you behind

A total fluke for P3.  And I don't mean for the finish.  I mean for the grid.  For some unknown reason, my fastest Q lap featured a blip that shaved bags of time off my expected marker.  I should have started around P8.  Some 400m before the end of the best lap, the server replay shows a blip perhaps caused by someone joining or leaving the server or on a reset.  For whatever reason, the P3 grid start was totally unwarranted.  A gift.  What can I say?

Grats to Tommie on a fine win!  Super job by Axel to finish P2 after an incident with Fran.  Never thought in a million years you'd recover from that, bud.  From my lucky grid slot, I just managed to hang on to the above as others behind gradually faded.  Bad luck, gys.  Lap06 was keen as I got a splendid tow down the back straight to split Axel and TvO to make it three abreast at 190+mph.  Not the cleverest of moves I know but I just couldn't resist the buzz!  :)

I missed a brake marker going into Thillois after we'd dropped Axel to let Tommie scamper away.  Axel was on fire, tho, and rapidly reeled me in.  This was good for my fortunes as there was no way I was going pull back up to Tommie on my own.  We did catch up but in a late lap, I checked my fuel pressure by switching over to the F10 view and got a shocker!  40psi.  ???  Clearly, I'd buggered my consumption values and was coming up way short.  I held on to the Muzon hairpin where, with speeds way down, a reset wouldn't cost me a huge amount of time.  I pulled away from that gently so as not to blow the cold engine and pitted as per the GCR's.  Luckily, I was miles ahead of Greg and could afford to take it EZee over the next two laps to score the entirely lucky P3 finish.  Even without the reset and pit, I never figured I'd place any higher than that as both Axel and Tommie seemed to have me covered.

Some fine drives in the field!  Greg doing a fine job in the PD Lotus.  Tim simply a ripper in the old Brabham.  Clive hanging in there for a fine placing in the McLaren despite zero practice and penalizing aero. 

Yeah that was max fun  ;D
(https://picload.org/image/wapogar/gplx692016-02-0116-14-12-89.jpg)

I thought I drifted wide into you Gareth, but on the rpy it looks like you rear end me, leave it to the mods.  Regardless, that was both of us at the back and out of the tow, which was a shame.  I made a mess of the next turn and got bogged doon in the cereal, for which I needed a reset and  SnG, so even further adrift when I finally started racing.  I almost dropped out at that point but decided to carry-on to see what unfolded.

The M7 is pretty quick around here and on the rare occasions I could sniff a tow, I saw 205 mph down the back straight.  Had a few brief scraps generally with those in slower cars or drivers recovering after offs.  Caught Mr Rainier with about 5 to go and we circulated together until the flag, I guess you were running some wing Dave and couldn't get outta the slipstream?  I was slightly concerned you'd fly past me on the line...to bag 7th!!!!  Glad that didn't happen [sic]!

Cheers,

Bob.

I disagree, l backed off and gave you half the track, but I have not reported it, these things happen. if you want to report it feel free. See you at stardust  :thumbup2:

Sorry Bob I could not resist...

(https://picload.org/image/wapirap/mimou.png)

Congrats Tom, Axel, Doni! Nice job guys.

No real tow in qualifying. :( I don't even try to get any, anymore. It's more often than not, a wasted effort. A good tow in qualifying would have had me challenging Doni's time.

I hoped I could get lucky and get in behind the lead pack early in the race. If I was driving well, I didn't think anybody could get away from me with my high top speed. I had a chance until lap 2. At Virage de Muizon, one of the leaders must have layed down some oil. :lol: Andreas spun in 4th place, Piero ran wide in 5th, and I almost spun while in 6th. That was it. I knew any mistake would eliminate any chance to slipstream off the leaders. That's a shame. I wanted to see how fast the 49 would actually go. Within the first several laps my ideal lap was in the 58s with 3/4 of my fast sectors set in the first few laps of the race. After watching the replay though, I realize I had a second chance. The first time I tried to pass Andreas I was unsure if I could move left into Marco's tow. It was possible. That would have got me past Andreas with a chance to pass Marco at the end of the long straight. A good example of how ineffectively I could use the tow throughout the event was, I set my fast lap on lap 3. :lol:

Not too long after, I braked early at the end of the back straight but not as early as I needed to avoid locking my wheels. I bumped Andreas. :( There seemed to be a little warp involved too which made his car explode. I apologize Andreas. I just wanted to be close exiting Thillois, a place I was relatively slow.

I battled with Marco for a while. I hoped he'd work with me when I first started following him, so we could see if it was possible to gain on the lead pack. He tried to keep me out of his tow instead. I couldn't get a good enough exit out of the final turn to pass him on the front straight. I needed to lead through the first 3 turns. Marco was slower there, especially in T1.

Once Marco ran wide and spun, around lap 12, I was alone then. I kept thinking as long as I keep the guys behind me out my slipstream, I'll be hard to catch. Clive moved into 5th with about 10 laps to go. I knew that could be trouble. First thing I did was make a mistake again. I dropped the left rear tire off the track at T2 and got sideways. I kept from spinning but it took two or three seconds to get the car under control and back on the track. I sure didn't need that. I knew Clive would come up fast if he could get in my tow. I drove the heck out of the car the last 11 laps. Clive still caught me but he had too much wing to complete a pass on the last lap. I got lucky he didn't have more time to work on me. Excellent job Clive staying off my pathetically slow cornering car the last lap or two.

Those last 11 or 12 laps, I needed a lower 5th gear. That plus the 4 gallons of fuel I had when I finished made it impossible to keep Clive from catching me.

I was a bit surprised Tim's BT24 was as fast as it was. The only reason I thought it had any chance staying close to my 49 was who was driving it.

The only plan I had, try to be patient and careful, worked. I'm sorry it failed once when trailing Andreas.

Thanks guys.

It looks like I'm now a member of Team Baarf. Now Arf and Baab won't be so out manned on Sundays.

I hope I can stick with my usual name, Greg. I don't know if I wanted to be called, Graag. Don't worry guys. I'll lay off the grog as usual on race day. :)

Just passing through and overheard your chat.  That name should be Gag, as it usually comes before a Barf. :angel:

Woohoo, a win! I love Reims :D .

I picked the Lotus 49b and a 1967 Monza Greger Huttu setup for this one. I did an hours worth of praccy beforehand and found out the setup was way too understeery, but with more toe out at the rear and some more rear roll bar I got the car to come alive. Pumping up the tires did the rest. I then tried a few laps with some wing but quickly found out it was no faster, which was great as I now had a valid reason to use the wingless graphics :D .

Quali reminded me a bit of WTCC Salzburgring a couple of years back, with everybody just waiting on everybody else to get a tow. Meanwhile, I was just cracking on and got pole in clear air :D . Although Axel went even faster in the end with a cracking lap.

After suffering my inevitable 60 fps freeze 6 minutes before the end of quali, I rejoined with just enough time to give Tim a good tow in his Brabham BT24 to get him 10th on the grid :) .

After the race started it became clear no one could match the pace of me, Axel and Doni. The race became a three way fight right down to the flag. Axel and Doni encountered some obstacles on the way but I was never far enough to shake them off. I was trying to find a way to either get a good gap with Axel at the last corner of the race, or be placed behind him so I could slipstream past, when he hit my rear wheel and allowed me to shoot away and capture first :D .

Surprised to still kinda be in the championship hunt despite a dismal showing at Monza and missing two races :) . Let's see how it pans out.

Hehehe...  One to savour, Tommie!  :)  It was great fun with both you and Cookie.

Found where I bungled the fuel consumption value.  Typically, on any circuit, I will load 3-4 USG and see how far that will take me before the engine starts to splutter at the 16psi point.  I'll then ascribe that quantity of fuel to the laps run(including a portion of a lap).  With four gallons loaded in pre-race trials, I carelessly misread how far I got on that load.  I had noted 4.6 laps.  In reality, it was 3.6 laps.  Using the former figure to gas up for the race, small wonder that I ran short.  Grrr...

Take it for a spin here and I think you'll be surprised ;)

I could make the Lotus 49 about a second quicker if I had a tiny bit of front wing (2:02.10 full race fuel and no draft Vs 2:03.27 in the Brab). Take the wing off the Lotus however and it was within a tenth of the Brabham for most of my trials.
Brabham actually had the higher top speed and nicer handling but lacked badly under acceleration.

I only chose the BT24 in the end because it ran a lot cooler for similar pace and was easier to save when over-cooked, so should have been the safe option - If I hadn't made the mistakes I did then I think Marcos' pitstop would have put me in about 4th or 5th by the end of the race  ;D

edit: think the highest speed I saw in draft was about 207/208MPH, it was doing 196 out of the tow aswell!  :scooter: