SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22


Track: Early Brands Hatch GP Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg81636#post_earlybrands)

Cars allowed:

CLASS A (0-1000cc)

Mini Cooper 970S Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_mini_cooper_970_s)

CLASS B (1000-1300cc)

Mini Cooper 1275S Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_mini_cooper_1275s_1968)
Ford Escort 1300GT Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_escort_1300gt)

CLASS C (1300-2000cc)

Ford Escort 1600RS Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_escort_rs1600)
Ford Escort 1600TC (FVA) Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_escort_fva)

CLASS D (Over 2000cc)

Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (from the 1970's carpack) Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_american_v8)
Ford Capri 2600RS (requires skinpack) Download this (http://www.mediafire.com/file/nv4lxqiu7nhdcnc/Ford_Capri_RS_2600.zip)
Ford Mustang Boss 302 Download this (http://gizmo71.www.idnet.com/srou/ukgtl/cars/SRou_GTL_69Boss302Mustang_1.1.0.0.exe)

Drivers are limited to a maximum of FOUR drives per Class. For more information please click HERE (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I7egPwfJnD3svMwKxFhsK633XLm8BLocdNuofsj2VKg/edit?usp=sharing)

RACE ONE
Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (10 mins)
Race: 20:30 (12 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
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: Early race start time.

For this series I have attempted to stay true to the original real life series wherever possible. The original Hepolite-Glacier trophy meeting at Brands Hatch was a two round event with the results amalgamated into one set of results. I had originaly decided to make our event one long(ish) race. However I have now decided to make this a two race event with both results counting. This has the advantage of making the series sixteen races long which suits a four class championship structure much better e.g. four class x four results = sixteen.

Hi Tony,
 Is that race start time correct? Should it not be 20:30?

TTFN
John.

Good spot John. Thank goodness someone reads the race announcements  ;)

Now fixed.

Keep your eyes peeled for more deliberate errors

It's donation time again folk's. Please give whatever you can afford.

IMPORTANT

Once qualification has started drivers may not leave to change class/make/car. They may leave to change skins.

Just so I don't make a complete Ass of myself....

We are ok to change cars between races I presume, Just not after Qualy begins?

Also..... I don't see our server on-line.  ??? Can everyone else see it?

TTFN
John.

Yes you can either stay with your current car or choose to change it between races. The race announcement for Race 2 states this also  ;)

Thanks for the heads up about the server. Although everything looked normal at our end we had "lost" the lobby. This does happen from time to time. It is now up and running again.

Tony, how does the scoring work for this - if for example you get a class win, but only finish 5th overall, do you then get class points for 1st or 5th ?

Cheers,
Erling

In your example you would receive 10pts (1st) for your chosen class table and 4pts (5th) in the All classes table. In truth I only created an all class table for the sake of completeness. It's the individual Class tables that are crucial.

Crikey, this will be a tactical nightmare  :scared:   Potential for sandbagging is endless; just before qual starts, everyone scrambles out to pick another car/class...  :whistling: :lol:

Cheers,
Erling

:devil:

Ah I see, everyone sees what Ziu & Geoffers are driving, then picks something else!!!!!!!!!!! ::)

Actually may be an idea to make everyone leave at the end of practice & rejoin for qually.  :devil:

if anyone has had the time to prepare infinite options for each race then good luck to them.

 As for myself, I will be lucky to have just a single car sorted and if that has to be a Mini, the prospects are not good  :(

You have given me a better idea. Do away with praccy and everyone goes straight into a longer qualy session............Mhaa ha ha ha ha

Only joking

Nah, we wouldn't do that..  :whistling: :angel-wings:



 :lol: You do have the makings of an evil mastermind...

Cheers,
Erling

Hi Guys,
 I'm a bit confused regarding car eligibility..  ???

Looking at the Escorts... The heading for this event shows

CLASS C (1300-2000cc)

Ford Escort 1600RS
Ford Escort 1600TC (FVA)

On my system I have...
Ford Escort 1600TC (FVA)
Ford Escort Martin V8
Ford Escort RS1600
Ford Escort V6

I can enter the server with all of these. Are they all allowed?

Thanks in advance

TTFN
John.

Good spot John, thanks for the warning. Looks like I need to sort out the server. The only Ford Escort's for Class C are as stated in the race announcement (RS1600 & 1600TC).

Bogus Ford Escorts now removed from the server

I have been reminded to tell you that the Ford Capri's No. 9 & 10 (9MD & AZ10) should not be used. If you still have them in your Ford Capri folder please delete them. They are removed from the server so if you do try to run them online you will receive a "Car not found" warning and be booted.
The current Capri skins download no longer contains these cars.

I found time to try some of these cars AND also tried those infernal Minis this evening. :-\

Now, with the minis, I know that I need to keep some power on during corner entry, I really do KNOW that. But my automatic reflex is to lift when I get understeer!!! which is suicidal in these front engine sidewinders.............. as I repeatedly discover. :scared:

It takes a real concentrated effort to not get my right foot off the gas as I approach a corner. When I get it right the results are encouraging and the car comes alive. The problem is that by the time I get to the next corner, auto reflex takes over again!!!! :death:

Unless I can find  DIY lobotomy kit before Monday evening, there might well be a lot of grass cutting, or worse!!  :-\

Tony, Server is not showing this track in the Lobby - 60s Monza!  ::)

Odd, it was ok yesterday. I will not be able to fix until tonight. Anyone else able to access the server and fix?

Yep, the server was OK Sunday afternoon, even if I wasn't!!
I managed to depress myself further by trying the 1275 Mini against Ziu in his 1300 Escort!!  My best lap might have been only 4 tenths off of Ziu, but that was a flukey lap and generally I was more like 1 second+ adrift.
Plus , Ziu will be quicker when it really matters and he is under some proper pressure. :(

To complete my humiliation, I also tried the 970S Mini, or at least I attempted to run the 970S Mini.
 Each time I selected that car, and then whilst attempting to massage the setup, the server would throw me out and restart the loading of the circuit.
I tried re loading the cars from the race post, but that made no difference. So, I ventured straight on to the track WITHOUT changing the default setup and managed a lap or so before I got dumped once again?? This felt like a familiar problem that I have had before where it is almost a "time allowed" issue rather than anything else?

Just in case, are there any likely conflicts between the 970S Minis we are using in this series and the other variants within the GTL garage?

We have never run the 970S Mini before so I hope that this isn't a problem we are going to encounter tonight  :-\ You didn't say which version of the 970S Mini you were using but if you have used the SROUK installer correctly they should all be placed correctly within your GTL install. The '64, '65 & '68 Mini's should be in yout TC-65 folder whilst the 5 speed '69 Mini will be in a new TC-76 folder.
Has anyone else had problems with the 970S Mini online?

I think it was the 68 970S that I tried, it was the folder with just 2 pale blue 970S minis and they both had 4 speed boxes.

I am going to try again now and will report back with what exactly it was I used yesterday, and maybe give the other options a try in that class.

I would recommend trying the 5 speed Mini's  ;)

Indeed the 69 970 appears to be faster than the 68 car even though it has less power. In fact I am slightly faster around Brands in it than either the 1275 Mini or 1300 Escort!

Not been online with a Mini yet but we have not had any problems with the 970 in the NG 63WSC series, which I guess is the same one Tony is using. This one: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=43384.

Just remembered that Tony asked if I could supply setups for the Minis for people to try  ::). Unlikely to be able to do that before tonights races, but will endeavour to do so before the next BSCC event.

Yep, same one from Nogrip Geoffers  :thumbup1:

All cars tested and work fine here, Tony.

The great thing about this series is that one can go on the server with a Ford Escort 1300GT Sunday, and then can present itself with another car on Monday.....Who can know ?  Of course already i choose the car for today.......Ford Escort 1300GT ?  Maybe yes or maybe no ! (http://www.vocinelweb.it/faccine/speciali/27.gif)

Thanks Steve  :thumbup1:

I still have not decided what I will run with. But I will change Class for Race 2.

I tried the minis again Tony and all seemed to work OK.

It was the '68 minis that I had issues with yesterday, but I wonder if the probs were because I was trying to graft a setup from a different mini onto those 68's??  I cannot think that GTL would object to a stupid set of parameters, unless I was trying to squeeze a 5 speed setup onto a 4 speed car in error?


@ Ziu...

I can see that there will be a lot of mind games played out in this series!! lol  All you have to worry about from my end is " If Clive chooses a mini, how long will it stay on the track??"!!!!  

Even I cannot answer that question!!  :wacko: :scared: :sweatdrop:

Help! I  have a problem checked Local IP, that's OK. Check Locations Brands OK (works offline) and checked cars all there OK.  When I try both my SROU installations they show SimRacing Monday's Venue as 60s Monza.

Out of interest I used my 63WSC system and that showed the correct track - Brands.  Any suggestions? Don't want to fiddle with that as we have race Wednesday.

Will try and do new installation with correct track and cars but may not make it as I've got other jobs first.

Well our server is now running Early Brands. Hope you can make it Bill. Maybe download all the cars/skins to your 63WSC install?

Download cars and Brands onto a copy of 63WSC and renamed it but although it works it raises other queries! ::) ???

Will try and update tomorrow.

Replays now posted but, as expected, the results are throwing out some unforeseen problems. Bear with us.......... ::)

EDIT: This was a Championship race. Just have to tell the results program this  :taz:

Yesterday i was impressed from tactical maneuvers of Clive before beggining qualy1
i not could how many car he changed...(http://www.vocinelweb.it/faccine/biggrin/pag2/43.gif)..but this was helpful for my my mistake with keyboard when the race started (joking).
Seriously it s happened that when the race started i saw that it missed the virtual mirror on my screen so i looked 1 on my keyboard but i touched ESC and my race DNF. However i set on other way it so in future not possible i can have the same trouble.
At least i enjoyed the battle between Geoffers and John. Honestly I did not expect that Geoffers pick Escort RS1600, it s clear that he and i have read race 1 on the same way, while i was sure that he drove Class A or B both races.
About me i choose Escort RS1600 because i had great feeling on these track but i had some problem with my set up, it seems me to drive on the eggs every time i was on Striting' s bend...........about this problem i talk on race2 post.

Race results now finished  :sweatdrop:

NOTE: Drivers, please check the Car roster and let me know if you see an error please, thank you  :thumbup1:

LOL Ziu.

"Yesterday i was impressed from tactical maneuvers of Clive before beggining qualy1"

If only it was me trying to be clever!!

During practice I was getting disco'd from the server on a regular basis. I was wondering if it was related to which car I was using, so I tried a several different options. But from what I was experiencing, it seemed that I could only remain on the server before being booted. On each occasion I had about 2 minutes of action before the action froze and the track reloaded.
As quali started I selected the car that I wanted to use, ( the Escort 1300 GT )  but if I was too long in the pits checking my setup, the game froze, If I tried to set a quali time I would complete an out lap but a second flying lap ended in a dropped connection.
I therefore started at the back of the grid, but was getting quite excited as I picked off several cars on Lap1 and was feeling like this could be a good race for me.......until...........as I entered Paddock Hill bend to start lap 2 all the cars ahead froze and I knew what was coming!!!
Report for race 2 is better for me.......

Sorry to repeat this post but in case anyone hadn't seen it under R2, and has any ideas or suggestions:

Now that was really weird!  No problems at all this afternoon in open practice on the track, no problem signing in tonight, but when I pressed to enter the track, the monitor / results screen flashed on and off like a strobe, and the car loading messages flashed on and off. I could get onto the track, I discovered after several attempts, but had no sound from my own car, did a couple of laps to see if anyone else was actually visible, and yes, they were, then logged in again and had sound, just in time for Quali #1.  Every time I tried to leave the game, I just went back to the Monitor/results pages and had to ctrl/alt/esc to get out of GTL. I had a decent result in R1, almost got third  (some contact occurred Wink ) and the same PC capers went on for race two, which I took nice and steady throughout for third, which makes two of the best online race results I've had in some long while. Love the Mustang!    Anyway, I have no idea what my problem was, and couldn't even get into chat to see if anyone had a clue, though I could chat while actually in the car. More weirdness!  Will go over all settings and reboot the machine in the morning.  GTL perfect offline, and as I say, it was online until the actual race session. Couple of weeks to sort it I guess, maybe I'll reload from Steam if it persists, but I won't really find out if it's cured until we're online again.  Thanks for some good racing chaps, had fun.

I sometimes lose sound (except for the odd popping sound). I'm fine up to the point when I enter the lobby then I lose the mouse click "sound". Then I know that once in the sim I will have sporadic car sounds. Only a system reboot will fix it.

This race turned out to be almost a rerun of the real race back in 1971 which I attended as a 14-year old, support event for the F1 Race of Champions. Back then it was a battle between the big American V8 of Brian Muir & the nimble (then new) RS1600 Escort of John Fitzpatrick, only difference being back then the Escort won.

This time Jeep's Mustang was just good enough to pip the Escort. After a long chase I caught Jeep with a couple of laps to go & nearly got ahead at Bottom Bend but we had a slight disagreement over whose piece of tarmac it was which saw me take to the grass. Couldn't quite get back on terms & finished 0.5s behind.

Congrats to Jeep & Tony in 3rd.  :clap: :clap: Shame we lost Ziu at the start, may have been a three way battle, although I think Ziu would have been too fast.

Interesting to note that the fastest lap in the real event was 1.43.3!

All my current GTL installations (Season 17. new one, WSC and Season 17 CanAM) have now gone wonky, they all now show Monza GP for our Monday Event.  ??? Using Season 16 installation shows the correct track, Golden Valley but does not have the track installed.

I'm at a total loss as to why my current installations have gone t*tsup. No GTL for me unless anyone has a bright idea.

Also I always save my Car/Track downloads and install into the relevant GTL installation so last night was a relatively simple job except that it was a completely different version of Brands to the one I practiced on offline  with my original Season 17 using the same SROU installer - most peculiar it had no corner marker boards and I was just lost. To make maters worse I tried a new installation  using my Master GTL (basis of all my GTL installations and when it also showed the wrong Monday track I deleted it and lost all my settings.

Finally the icing on the cake was I had trouble joining with drivers on line loading OK until I had a flashing "Evil Clive" name tag and could not join (Huggy had the same problem) - this was the reason I couldn't race in the Christmas Special but with a different name.

With so many issues I'm not clear where to start looking - help.

Brands Hatch and I have never been friends.  Paddock Hill (T1) is one of my most hated curves on any track - always end up spinning here.  Tested all the cars (or so I thought)  Fastest for me was The Boss and I was sorely tempted to use it. With a 1:46.8 as my best time, it looks like I would have been competitive, but the most likely scenario would have been me throwing it all away at that confounded Paddock Hill  ::)

Thus decided early not to 'waste' any of the 'good' cars, and simply get two of my slow-Mini drives out to the way, no tactical BS at all  8)   Then come raceday, and suddenly there's mention of a 5-speed Mini in the forum :eek:   Thus had to try this and get a setup ready with not much time to go. Loaded the same Pelle Buchner based setup I had used for the 4-speed variants, only to find the car completely undriveable. Had to start from scratch with the default then, and eventually only changed minor details.  Discovered later that the undriveability was down to the tyre pressure being waaaay to high. Stuck with the default based one though, since the PB one with adjusted tyre pressure didn't make me quicker.  With this Mini. I was over 3 secs quicker than in the best 4-speed variant, so maybe not so much a throwaway option as I had thought.

Qual wasn't the best, as I was a bit off my pb. Start went quite ok - first time I haven't bogged down when starting in a Mini, so lost 'only' one place, to an Escort. Later on L1, Huggy squeezed past.  Bad news, as his car was warping all over the place, contributing to me hitting him at Sheene :oops:  Sorry about that.  Thankfully he didn't spin. Lost momentum myself, and a place to Clive, which he handed back at Paddock next lap, just before his disco.

Huggy would stretch the gap on the straights, while I reeled it back in through the curves, still being worried about his warping when I got close.  Had Bob looming in my mirror, so couldn't afford to back off too much.  Eventually Huggy solved my dilemma by slowly moving away.  At the same time, I slipped away from Bob.  Late in the race, I got close to Roger's Escort, but he of course had the edge on the straights, so little I could do unless he made a mistake in a corner.

Grats to the podium and commiserations to Ziu for his mishap.

Huggy: Racking my brain as to what may be the cause of your problems and the warping (visible in server replay too, if you want to check).  On the server connect page in GTL, there's a 'Data rate' setting. No idea if it might affect things, but possibly worth checking if your's is set correctly.

Cheers,
Erling

Erling: "later on L1, Huggy squeezed past.  Bad news, as his car was warping all over the place, contributing to me hitting him at Sheene oops  Sorry about that.  Thankfully he didn't spin. Lost momentum myself, and a place to Clive, which he handed back at Paddock next lap, just before his disco."

No problem Erling, I felt something, but couldn't see you in the mirror at that time, wondered where you got to!    Thanks for the tip re rate, will look at all settings. Interesting that Bill had a similar problem to me, i.e. flashing car loading messages. Bill : I found if you kept clicking on the "race" button, you eventually got in, if it happens again, but we could do with a solution.

Edit Just checked, and I had it on ISDN, and as I'm on a fibre broadband connection, I guess that should be cable/dsl ?   Will see how that works.

Mine's on cable/dsl as well.  Again, have no idea if it makes a difference, but probably can't hurt  :)  Maybe we can try to test it online before next Monday, if there's an evening it's convenient for you.

Cheers,
Erling

Not an issue I have come across before Bill. You could spend a load of time trying to find the answer and still be unable to race. I would consider starting over with a fresh install  :(

Bill:
I had issues simular to yours when I first came to race with you guys from GC.  I had a lot of GC /GTC and V8's when I loaded the SROUK cars and had problems on online test's only.  I just pulled the GC Gamedata folder and installed a new clean Gamedata folder and then reloaded it with only SROUK cars.  Worked like a champ!!!   I read your post on Nogrip also, I now have three complete GTL games, one for SROUK cars, one for CAN AM only and one for the Nogrip cars.  It seems that some cars are just not compatable with each other, also some versions of the same track but by different authors are not compatable.  By the way just to let everyone know we two old farts finished a long endurance race,  29 laps at LeMans!!!!  Neither had great finishes but we made in to the end.........

Bob M.

No errors for me as far as I can tell, but puzzled about the 'N/A' for some of the other drivers.  I thought the limitations were only based on class (with free car choice within the class), but it seems we must actually use all cars in a given class.  Is that correct ?

Cheers,
Erling

Results (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/EarlyBrandsR1_16012017)

8)

Unfortunately the chart does not mirror all details like position changes. It shows only the order at the end of a lap.  :(
I wished that could be modified.  :angel:

I decided early on to go for a Class One Mini, mainly because I've never felt comfortable on this track, and only chose the 68 970 because it had a slightly better power/weight ratio than the others.

My race was quite uneventful though, mainly down to my "safe/get you home" set-up, so I was never going to challenge anyone with my laptimes.

Finishing 10th out of 12 starters was nothing special either, but I was pleased with being awarded class points for coming 3rd/last in my class!

Well done to Jeep and Geoffers for your close finish.

Yep

Sorted using info from Cap7 on NoGrip 63WSC forum "There is a bug in GTL that if you do not have the correct track installed for the server, it shows a random track that you do have instead, and then tells you, you have the wrong track when you try to join."

Started with Bob's suggestion and installed virgin Gamedata file, then tried to logon but Golden Valley not shown. After I installed the track the lobby had Golden Valley available and I logged on successfully and ran the Alpine successfully.

Glad you said that Erling, I read it the same as you, that we had 4 drives in each class irrespective of which particular car we used. No problem though Tony, quite glad I swapped cars for race 2 now.

Just one thing, nothing personal against Ziu, but he did actually start both races in the RS1600 & it shows he only used it once. If you decided that because he did not complete a lap, that drive doesn't count, that's fine.

Guy's, sorry but I had no intention of misleading you. When you get involved in setting up a series, which can take weeks of prep, you can lose sight of what information won't be apparent to your potential audience. I assumed that folk would go to the spreadsheet as part of their prep so did not bother making a specific statement about car drive limitations. Obviously this is my bad.
I am now revising future race posts to state that there is a restriction.

Re: Ziu. My judgement is that if a car doesn't make the starting grid it doesn't count. Or if a car reaches the grid but doesn't move that also doesn't count. If a car is on the grid and it moves, that counts. I have not watched a replay but I did assume that one of the first two conditions applied. I can watch a replay tonight.

Although I do think this series will be a real blast I have to admit I don't have the free time to investigate any form of strategy regarding matching cars to tracks so I'll probably find myself severely outclassed later in the season as my choices become limited. For the opening round I simply put a few laps on everything. The Boss was by far my fastest car and I figured that not many other would make the same choice. A lap in the high 1:45's was managed once, never to be repeated and pushing it into the 1:46's indicated even a short 12 lapper was going to put me in deep doodoo regarding tyres later in the race. Given my lap times in the other cars I was surprised to find my American Iron out qualified by a small British Tin Top. (Although it did have Ziu at the wheel). I never expected to grab pole but did think it would be another of the muscle cars which took it.

Start went well, I figured if I could stay with Ziu until the exit of Surtees he would be easy meat on the run down to Hawthorn's (Exactly what I would do after that was still under discussion). Unfortunately he disappeared at T1 leaving me at the front with Geoffers up my a$$. Even on the opening laps I was conserving tyres and only burying my foot in the carpet on the straights. This must have been quite frustrating for Geoffers who was catching me on every lap until Surtees and then had to watch as I simply accelerated away down Pilgrims drop. This was repeated for around 7 laps or so until the inevitable tyre wear kicked in and he began to get ever closer every time a corner reared it's ugly head I did my best to keep it as clean as I could but once the Boss decided it wants to begin sliding there is nothing you can do except lose momentum and sure enough eventually on around Lap 10 I over cooked it into Druids and he got his nose in front but such is the oomph of the Boss I was back inside him at Graham Hill Bend although I felt nothing we touched forcing Geoffers off onto the grass so I slowed to allow him to recover and the battle began again. I was probably overly cautious for the remaining few laps safe in the knowledge I that as long as I was still in front by Striling there was little he could do as long as I kept all 4 wheels on the tarmac.

So really pleased to have won this one and not wasted one of my bigboy rides. Congrats to Geoffers for a very hard fought race, I was never able to relax at all knowing you were sitting there waiting for a mistake. Congrats to Tony as well, I have no clue in the Escort FVA as I discovered during race 2.

Thanks all, it was a pleasure as always, and thanks to those who were lapped, you made it very easy on quite a demanding track.

TTFN
John.