SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (1 rolling, 27 racing)

Track: Sepang GP Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg187123#post_sepang)

Cars allowed: Ford Capri Mk3 Turbo Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_capri3t)

Only the following cars are to be selected. CLASS A DIV 1 '81, CLASS B DIV 2 '81, DIV 2 '80 and DIV 2 '79.

Car restrictions: None

1) When qualifying ends drivers will join the grid as usual, before the timer countdown ends.

2) At the green light the pole position driver (lead driver) will be responsible for moving off at a slow pace.

3) The remaining drivers will follow the driver in front of them forming a SINGLE LINE formation.

4) The lead driver will increase speed as soon as it is safe to do so. The following drivers will match the speed of the car in front of them, whilst keeping a safe distance between them.

5) The lead driver will maintain slow/average speed for the duration of the lap until approaching the final corner when he will engage the speed limiter.

6) The lead driver will maintain limiter speed (limiter may be switched off) until the start line is reached. Having crossed the start line the lead car will begin race speed.

7) Following drivers may not exceed limiter speed (lead drivers speed) or attempt any overtaking until the start line is crossed.

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: ROLLING
Tyre wear: x2
Fuel consumption: Normal

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: None

Hi everyone will be downloading current and future UKGTL races for praccy and getting ready to come back to race (well following you all around) left eye op successful so hope i will not spoil any ones race.

Wonderful news Rog, but don't overdo things ok?

Welcome back, roger  :)

Welcome back Roger; it's good to have you with us again!

Cheers,
Erling

Nice to see you back Roger (no pun intended).  :rockon:

Good news Rog, welcome back.  :thumbup2:

Good to hear that you are getting back to full racing fitness, and vision Roger, looking forward to seeing you on track soon.

.........and as we are talking about racing and perhaps Roger will be back for Sepang and those infernal Capris. I am trying to get some track time in these beasts before Monday in a desperate attempt to learn how to drive the ruddy things.

I notice that above this topic, the Ferrari GT has a lap time of 2:06, which I suspect will be close to what the Div 1 boys will be doing, but does anyone have any idea what might be competitive in the Div 2 cars.
I always find that I need a target when trying to get "up to speed" otherwise I can convince myself that I have already extracted the absolute max from a car/track  combo, only to discover on race day that I am 5 secs too slow.  :scared:

You are too pessimistic



Good news Roger  :D

Oh... I expect the Group 2 cars will be at least 10 secs slower than the Gr 1 cars  :whistling:
And squirter was unreasonably fast If I remember correctly  :alien:

You are too pessimistic

Indeed  :whistling:
Is why I am whistling  ;D
I hope for Clive to believe that 2:16 is fast.....

2:16 is rolling start lap

Full turkish

2:16 is rolling start lap
 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Clive:
Since you never got a answer about lap times, I checked my game log, and it says my top time is a  212.4 that would be with race fuel and setup.  Since you are always faster than I am you can work with that.  That is a Div 2/81 car,  most laps are + 1 or 2 seconds above that I think.
Glad to see you back in action Roger!!!

Bob M.

I am at Castle Coombe this Saturday competing in the Dick Mayo Sprint if anyone is around the area with nothing better to do  ::)

First....
@ Matt
Ironically my first attempts in the Div 2 cars last weekend were not far off 2:16!! But, TBH I knew that they were not fast enough. I was making too many errors and having to lift off the gas, and with these cars it seems to be about maintaining momentum and keeping that turbo in the sweet zone.

Second
@ Bob

Thanks for that info. In previous races I have tended to take the Div2  80 (or 79) cars simply because I found the turbo surge too much for my simple brain functions. So, over the last half hour, I started with what I know and have progressed to the awesome power that is the 81 Div 2 cars!!  :o

Best lap thus far is sub 2:10, maybe with a few tweaks to the setup and some smoother lines I might crack 2:09. or even dip into 2:08's. I suspect that tyre wear will play a big part in what my race pace might be, because at 100% attack rubber appears to evaporate from the rims!!!

third..
@all

I also tried a Div 1 car. Getting all cocky and confident with myself  ::)... after some very embarrassing laps testing armco and gravel traps, I finally hooked up a 2:05. So I am guessing that if a ham footed geriatric like me can wrestle one of these Div 1 monsters around in that time, then the "experts" at the front of the grid will be close to the 2:00 mark!!!


I am currently negotiating time off for good behaviour and might be able to get up to Castle Coombe Saturday. There are a couple of possible things that might sabotage my plans, but can I still use the same mob No that you gave me before Matt?. If I can get there I will text you on arrival and we can meet up. If you don't hear from me I was thwarted by a force far greater than me...my wife!!! ;)

In true tailender style, my early times are 2:08.6 and 2:13.8 for A and B. A good pitstop strategy looks all-important once again.

Big network problems with my main pc (not the one I'm racing with) - no internet-connection. Still searching for the bug-fix.
So I fear I'll have to miss this one, all the more I had no time at all over the weekend to do any practice.

Have fun guys.

Results and replay now posted.

How did the Sprint go on Saturday Matt?

Was a good day Bill.
Clive the non evil one came along for a couple of hours, which was well cool  :thumbup1: :thumbup1: :thumbup1:

Trouble with that was he could point out just how fast I was not going  :laugh:
In car from the run he watched from Quarry. Look carefully you might see him lurking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoknaYJE2qk

Easy race for me. Was never going to match the pace of Ziu and Erling and no-one else was in a Class A car so knew I had 3rd in the bag unless something bad happened. Soon had suitably large gaps between the fast top two and Geoffers who was the fastest of the cars following me. Perfect pit stop at Lap13/14. Managed to catch Geoffers, who had passed me when I pitted, when he pitted. With Ziu's departure I had an unexpected 2nd in class and also 2nd overall. Really enjoyed chucking the car around this circuit with most of it providing a good flow between turns.

Bill beat me to the punch on that question Matt.
It was good to meet and put a face to an online name, something I enjoy doing whenever I can.  Sorry that I had to scoot off before your second run on Saturday, but I trust that you at least maintained your 5th place, and maybe even improved??

Grats to Erling and Tony on last nights results in Div 1 and to Geoffers for some impressive pace in taking the Div 2 win. I'm not sure what Arnold did to my car between last week and Monday evening, but I was at least 1.5 secs off my PB through qually and struggled to get anywhere near 2:10 during the race. We won't talk about the fiasco around my pitstop...OK, maybe just to amuse those who missed the comic performance here is a quick resume.
I was only thinking about taking a pitstop during the next few laps at around half distance, no need for fuel I had plenty of that left. The Matt who was just ahead took a very strange line around the final hairpin and for some inexplicable reason my car decided to follow him onto the grass alongside the pit entry, where we performed a pas de deux with much spinning of wheels etc. I think Matt found the correct route to the pit entry, whilst I resumed my lap.
Next time around I went for my pitstop.....
Made a bit of a Horlicks of the approach to the limiter area, but got the speed down and hit the button.
Cruised down that unbelievably long pit lane to the lonely speck that was my pit manager.
Pulled up ( first time!!) in the correct place
Ran through the pit board and although I fumbled over which items to select, ignoring any repairs to bodywork or suspension ( not sure where I damaged the suspension??) just taking tyres.
Pit stop complete as Matt screamed down the S/F straight and remembered to hit the speed limiter as I pulled away from the pit box
waited and waited and waited for the end of the pit lane before punching the key to release the pit limiter
GO!! GO!! GO!!  foot down and the turbo spins up................................aaaarrrrgggghhh! "speeding in pitlane" penalty. I can only think that I was a fraction too eager on releasing the speed limiter??
One more lap and yet another chaotic entry to the pitlane, losing more time and the trip down what seemed to be an even longer pit lane. I'm sure that my pit manager has something against me, because he made me wait for around 30 minutes in my pit box!!
Crawled out of the pits and was a lap down on everyone. Geoffers appeared from the pits a lap or two later, and I apologise for hassling him to allow me to unlap myself.
The decision to not repair suspension was proving to be a mistake as there were some odd things happening on corner entry and eventually my suicidal pace pushed the car past the point where I could hold it on the road. The trip onto the grass and into the barriers signalled the end of my race. I was never going to be anywhere but last and with only 2 laps to go I parked it.

Believe it or not I feel that I am ( just ) about getting to grips with these horrible cars, now that the season is coming to an end??

The red mist descended and I just blitzed the next few laps setting my fastest

@ Clive - I think you did the right thing, ignoring that suspension damage and just getting new tyres and fuel. Unfortunately these cars do not handle well after a pit stop involving repairs to body or suspension so it's better to ignore the damage.

Sepang is one of the better Tilke tracks IMHO; some corners with a nice flow - especially the 2nd/3rd gear double righthander.  Still too many 1st gear corners though (6 in my case).

With both Geoffers & John deserting to Div.2 yesterday, Div.1 was severely amputated - all you had to do to secure a podium place, was completing the warmup lap..  ;)

Chuffed with knocking 1 sec off my pb in qual, but of course still behind Ziu.  After the race started, he quickly built a gap of 4-5 secs and then seemed to just maintain it for a few laps. Behind me, I was extending the gap to Tony.  Ziu apparently got bored with the slow pace and started stretching the gap.  Looking to become a lonely and boring race (if cars this intense can ever be boring..).  At the time he pitted, at the end of L13, the gap was around 11 secs.   Did one more lap myself, and to my surprise found Ziu still in the pits when I entered.

Ziu exited the pits and then shortly after disconnected.  Replay reveals a freak incident, where the rear kicks out as he brakes before the pits, and unfortunately hits the barrier. Seems he fell foul of the repair bug, ending up with a car with no rear grip at all.  Truly bad luck Ziu; you had the race firmly in your hand at the time.

With Ziu's exit, I could grab the win instead. Only excitement came from passing a few Div.2 cars - thanks all for not making it difficult.  Late in the race I caught Geoffers & John having a battle.  Hoped they could see on XD that I had plenty of time, and just continued their battle, as I could just pass on one of the straight sections.  Regrettably, I think John lifted off as I passed, and Geoffers seized the opportunity to slip past too.

Grats to the podium in both classes, and commiserations to those with bad luck - Ziu, Clive and Kurt for missing out entirely.

Cheers,
Erling

Echo that - If Div.2 cars are similar to Div.1, repairs gives you a car with no rear grip at all; simply impossible to drive.

Cheers,
Erling

@Clive:
I drove harder on 2nd timed run, but wasted time waggling the tail too much, and went a few tenths slower  :(
Roger was fastest raw time in our class, I was 3rd, Tim in the supercharged S2k was 7 tenths faster than me
but after handicap Roger was 2nd just a couple of tenths behind Howard in one of the MX5s
I was 5th or 6th, not sure.

I lost a lot of time last night having to stop carefully, each time my screen went black, and came back after a few
seconds, didn't seem to be the same issue I have on my other box which minimises to desktop. This "seemed" to
be graphics card related, so I stuck a big desk fan blowing at it for the race, it still froze 3 times I think in the race
but I just pulled left and slowed as there were no other cars within a few secs in any of the times it did it.
Lost me some time, that may have been one of the times I lost the pit entry, not sure. Was dependant on being
lapped, or would not have had quite enough fuel.  ::)

Good to be back after 3 weeks off.

Recent races in the Div1 cars had not been very exciting, so I decided to try Div2 for this race. Was intending to take the '79 car but did not get around to any testing so went with the '80 car as I had a setup for that from pre-season testing at Istanbul. In practice it felt pretty good, just needing tyre pressure & gearing adjustments to qualify fastest Div2 car in 4th, although I was expecting Clive & Matt to give me more trouble in the race.

Just one problem, I was a lap & a half short on fuel, so should I run a steady pace conserving fuel & hope to get lapped or go for it & make a pitstop. Was still deciding when the race started but could not resist giving it a blast & seeing how things went. Turned out to be a fairly lonely race, the Div1 cars disappeared into the distance & I eased away from John in the next Div2 car. When the Div1 cars pitted I actually led for a couple of laps until Erling cruised past to regain the lead.

With 5-6 laps left it was clear I would not be lapped if I kept going so I pitted for a splash & dash, came out just ahead of another Div2 car who I thought was John but actually turned out to be Clive who was a lap behind. He was clearly faster than me on my very slidey tyres so I let him past only to skate off the track half a lap later letting John overtake me. Caught back up to him & felt a little guilty when he slowed to let Erling lap him & I nipped past as well, but he also seemed to be struggling with his tyres & I thought he would have to pit too to get to the end so I pressed on. Turned out John made the distance without pitting, well done mate.

Congrats to Erling & Tony  :clap: :clap: & bad luck to Ziu.

Not much to report on this race.  Had decided to just run it in one stint as fuel didn't seem to be a problem offline.  Had a little challenge from Mat early but he was having some kind of trouble,he was faster and would have passed me I'm sure without his PC trouble.  Just drove the track and short shifted a lot and braked early to take it easy on the tires and fuel supply.  With about 5 left I was glad to see the orange car of Erling in my mirror so got lapped and had one less lap to fight the bad tyres and worry about the fuel.    On to the walls of Phoenix next week and a car I sorta enjoy..  See you there.

Bob M.

Results (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/Sepang_31072017)

8)

Glad to get sorted my computer problems yesterday evening (hardware issue). I think it was worth the work.

CU next week.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to miss a few races for the remainder of the season. It's not the Monday nights which are the problem it's the rest of the week leaving precious little time for any track time so I figure picking my races should give me time to at least find my way around the track and cobble together a reasonable set up.

I really like Sepang, feels like a proper track with a good mix of corners and doesn't have that "Built in a supermarket car park" feel like so many of the more modern circuits. Tried all the available versions and while obviously faster in the D1 cars I'm generally outclassed being the slowest of the entrants so decided to see if I could find a sparing partner in one of the D2 variants. After a few shortish runs It didn't matter how many times I did the maths 27.3 laps was all it would give me so it was one of the few times I was praying to be lapped. Tyres looked borderline as well but I was still sure a none stop race was on the cards with a splash and dash if all the D1 guys threw there cars at the scenery and I had to go full distance. Clive mentioning sub 2:10 had me worried as well and the possibility of being totally out performed with my low 2:11 leading up to qualy played on my mind.

I found another second though come race day and surprised myself by lining up sandwiched between Geoffers and Clive in 5th position. Start went well but it soon became obvious that Geoffers was on a different planet and Clive wasn't content to be held up by me for long. I somehow managed to stay ahead  for the 1st 7 laps with Clive over me like a rash. Me with my Stable and understeery setup and Clive with his tail happy configuration able to power through the turns on a much tighter line than me. Eventually a quick look at XD told me the tyres were not going to go the distance at this aggressive pace and when he showed his nose into the final turn on L7 I decided to allow him through and get back to the plan of a single stint and hope pit stops for others would come into play. Then 2 laps later found Clive had chucked his Capri at the Armco and I got the place back again. Noticed he steadily dropped down the order so figured his brush with the barrier was more serious than it looked, meanwhile Matt had closed within about 5s so pushed a little harder only to see him disappear presumably due to his black screen of death and he was replaced by Bob who was around 20s back. Meanwhile Ziu's unfortunate demise promoted me up to 4th and even the heady heights of 3rd when Tony pitted his D1 beasty. Somewhere around L18 though he breezed past putting me back to my now familiar 4th place. Then I found a hard charging Clive filling my mirrors. How the hell did that happen, where did he come from? A few corners of panic before checking XD and realising he was a lap down so waved him through. Then around L22 came across Geoffers facing the wrong way and I got the final podium spot back again. Problem was (A) I was still short of 0.75 of a laps worth of fuel to make the finish and (B) A quick check on Tyre health indicated I basically didn't have any.

Geoffers was soon back on my case and my Capri felt like a Cow on Rollerskates. Then Erling appeared and I slowed to let him through knowing Geoffers would seize the place back but equally I knew trying to keep my rollerskating cow ahead until the flag was futile so no complaints from me.

So 4th was better than I dared hope for. I think I'll be campaigning the D2 cars for the remaining races I can get to.

I hope we will see these again but I would prefer just the D2 cars. I think mixing the 2 classes makes for two distinct races which is fine if you have a 15 driver grid but our limited numbers result in a lot of driving alone which is a shame.

Thanks as always guys.

TTFN
John.

Thanks for the results Kurt and glad to hear that your PC woes are sorted.

My new toy   ;D - a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad X230 with 8gb main memory and a 180 gb ssd, W7 Pro and now also Linux Mint 18.2 (but not for online racing).
This little beast is so damned fast - faster than me on track  :o ::). And the solution eventually was so easy after I looked into deeper things over more than 2 days:
a loose contact on my router  ::)
On the other hand I installed all necessary software to post race results from my holiday resort  8) (Autosimanalyzer does not work hundred per cent on Linux (Wine) but on W7).