SimRacing.org.uk

Season 31 Works Trophy – Round 4 –  Spa 67

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1967 season, the UKGPL season will take place on 10 of the 11 original circuits. For the fourth round of the season we continue the European leg at Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgium.
Designed in 1920 the original triangle-shaped course used public roads between the Belgian towns of Francorchamps, Malmedy, and Stavelot. The track was intended to have hosted its inaugural race in August 1921, however the first car race was held at the circuit in 1922.
Spa was the fastest road circuit in Europe at the time, and it had a nasty reputation for being dangerous and very fast- it was a circuit known to be one for the brave, and most drivers were frightened of it. The old Spa circuit was unique in that speeds were consistently high with hardly any let-up at all for 3–4 minutes. This made it an extraordinarily difficult mental challenge (& ridiculously easy to crash).
This is the only race in Season 31 where we don’t use am original Papyrus track, but the beautifully crafted Spa 67.

Race List = iGOR
Server = UKGPL_9
IP = see iGOR
Race date = Sunday262-03-2017
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT+1)
Track= Spa`67 (http://srmz.net/index.php?s=448c71de31d5af327ee46f7dfc1fde15&showtopic=10443)
Race length = 15 laps (50 minutes)
Variant = 1967
60fps patch used   = 60fpsV2newmod
Damage Model =  Pro
Qualifying time = 30-45 minutes

Replays Available here (ftp://://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Replays/Archive/Season31/Grads_Works/)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (http://simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=589&theme=6)

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.  

This Season we don't have a Red Zone. Moderating will be on reported incidents only. If you haven't received a PM about an incident before the link below the results table is removed, you can be sure that you will not appear in the moderator's report.

The chassis token system is explained on the Works 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.

As noted by Steve, just a reminder to our racers from overseas: the clocks in the UK have gone forward an hour as of today, so the race will start at 21.00 GMT+1. First post updated  :).

Not only in the UK but also in almost all the Western Europe.
so nothing change for UK, Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands ...  ?

Yes I confirm ;)

It's like this track has something against me. Just as q ended GPL froze and by the time I restarted, race had already started.

Complete freeze before start...no time to rejoin :'(

Have fun  8)

For what it's worth, my client did the same. Server's still going mind.

Sorry to Roo - My monitor blanked out for a second approaching La Carriere.
I put a wheel in the dirt at the turn in point and was a passenger for the rest.

Gutted with that as a result as it should have been a podium with the last second drop outs  :(

I had another monitor signal loss and crashed...have to go back to single screen without display port adapter in order to finish races...not much fun racing recently...

Really gutted :(
Had a screen freeze at end of quali too but an ctrl-alt-del & end papy window allowed me to rejoin before the start. Felt really lucky about that & set off to get to the end but chose the wrong side to pass the stricken Tim. It looked like he had stopped on the lefthand side of the track but then slid across to the right & I could do nothing. Shoulda/coulda slowed more etc etc ... but  :censored:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Screen freeze here...  :(

Same :( Lap 6 at Stavelot.

I had done everything I wanted except a lap in the 17s. It's a shame I didn't get 10 more chances.

My screen was fine, so my novel excuse is... came back from holiday this morning, and slept most of the day. If Baab hadn't emailed me about the race I think I'd have forgotten about it, but I managed to join:
1. Forgetting it was the new Spa67 track, not the original
2. As I hadn't done any practice, I wasn't expecting to do well/anything, so I thought I'd try and improve my monster rank in the Honda...which is of course impossible (see #1)
3. I have 2 broken ribs from an accident last week

Ignoring that the modified setup I threw together was difficult to control, #3 made it stupid. I think I only did 1 clean lap and if more tree objects around the track were solid, I'd have been in pieces on L2 - at one point near Masta I was driving along some rail tracks!

Damnit!

Greg, I was going to finish my last post with something like 'at least Greg was in the lead when I left, hope he stays there', but didn't want to curse you!

Looks like all Baarfers are out the race.....

A race of attrition. Hard luck to those that suffered a freeze. After a disastrous qualifying, my race was over when I spun the car attempting to avoid Bob's 3-wheeled Ferrari. Gave one of the houses an almighty bang, but with the BRM being a tank n' all, all four wheels were still attached.

I said all four wheels were attached, what they were attached with I'm not quite sure  ;). The damage to the suspension was very substantial and I didn't dare drive the car at full speed. It was hard enough keeping it going at a snail's pace! Still, I figured Spa would claim a few more victims so decided to soldier on.

True to form people were dropping out which promoted me to an undeserved 4th. Eventually I got too cocky approaching Blanchimont and lost the back end. This time I fell into the trees, a wheel missing and no way of getting out. Just noticed Clive fell victim to the circuit not long after which meant only two runners were remaining  :(.

Congrats to Tris, Dean and Clive for lasting the longest. It will be a satisfying day when I finally conquer this circuit.

I would like to claim that my DNF was because of technical issues with the Interweb. But I can't.  :(

The BRM was ( and is!!) a mystery to me and all I was hoping for was to get past 50% distance. So, I did not contest any passes as cars overtook focusing purely on survival, but people kept vanishing from the leaderboard until I was running 3rd...but also last!! lol . I could see Dean's car ahead and wondered if I might, just might, catch him in the last 5 laps......................

Nope! I just screwed up on the driving front after surviving 10 laps, getting a little over confident and pushing too hard  ::)

tough luck for all those who had screen freezes. Rather strange as this track is generally considered bug free, unlike the original Pappy circuit that often threw  in a few discos and screen freezes.

freeze at the end of quali but I can rejoint just for the start.....but I have to stop quickely because my wheel is no calibrate.....I restart dead last and I just try to drive as fast as I can ..... too bad for the DNF !....lucky victory ( but not very glorious ;)
thx org. & all.....see you soon :)

The last Works race I remember driving, I had a screen freeze on lap 6. :( We had trouble with the Can Am 66s too. Most froze/discoed and I ran the 2nd half of the race alone.

Seeing the results is a little gut wrenching. I was cruising towards a win. The car was working well. I was a little cautious and getting in a good rhythm. Practicing against Axel I opened with a 3:25 and did an 3:19.8 on lap 2. I'm glad I didn't need that with Rob. I was just fast enough to slowly open a lead without pushing the car much.

17 tokens pissed away for 0 points. I looked forward to racing the Eagle here and having a very good chance for the podium. No way I would have ruined it until at least lap 14 or 15.

It's also sad to see others suffer from circumstances beyond their control too. If I do this again, I should try joining through directIP. I hope Tim and Rob get their problems fixed.

If this happens again at Spa67, I'll have to start any later Works races in a BRM. That's sad.

See you next time.

For a stupid my foult, My race ended at the eighth round(lap 8 Stavelot).Just few kilometers(maybe 1000 m) I passed the half race, I can hope for points in the standing?, or I would have to finish the round 8.......TY

Greg's point about joining via IP might be worth investigating with reference to freezes etc. I joined via IP as is usual for most races these days, because for some reason IGOR will not allow me to join directly.
My connection was solid with no glitches other than Dean blinking out a couple of times when he was just ahead of me.

Ithink this track is more stable whith 36 fps........!?!? :-X

There are certianly areas where the draw on the graphics card seesm huge. The S/F straight, as soon as you are out of La Source, and the approach to Stavelot are where my frame rate drops to 30, and looks pretty shaky - I have a solid 60fps elsewhere. If I had more time I would investigate whether my graphics card can overcome some of this - i think Cookie did a post in the UKGPL Forum about this recently.

Yes this track is a benchmark for your GPL setup just by the high number of trackside objects,
you must have the CPU - GPU connection optimized.

As soon as you prevent the CPU from throttling down, you will have constant 60fps!

AMD CPU user have to shut off C+Q, C1E and C6 in bios, intel CPU user have to check "disable intel speedstep" in GEM+  

Sadly my BIOS doesn't allow the AMD tweaks  :-\

However with better Nvidia settings I managed to achieve much better, or to be more accurate, better stability in FPS

I used this link (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=10363&#entry122269) from post #13 on SRMZ as the base settings.  I think I only ended up changing one thing from it.

Hope it helps someone.

Sadly my screen issue isn't at the PC end.
It's the result of having paid about £150 for a re-furbed £600 monitor 6 years ago  :ninja:

Needs replacing really but I have far more important things to spend my cash on - not least the gaping hole in the Nissan that appeared at this years MOT  >:(

I have had a quick look through this thread
 Whilst highly unusual to get just 2 finishers from a full grid, the number of screen freezes is not at a level to warrant a rerun. So the result stands. Next time Spa is on the calendar we might consider using the Pappy one.

Tim, I have a 19 inch monitor sitting here doing nothing.  I have even tried offering it for free on the local sale sites and no one wants it.  If its any use at all you are welcome to it.  I'm now living in Portishead, if thats within reach.

I also had a screen freeze on my final flying lap.  Like Roo I then had a mad scramble to exit and rejoin as GPL was mutating, and what a beast it turned into!!  Spa 67 must be one of the most treacherous circuits, barriers that pitch you into trees, drops off the side, etc.  I've never made the distance here...need to work on that.

I quite enjoyed the almost 4 laps of racing, started 16th, overtook a few BRMs then was in 4th, unbelievable.  I was taking my time to pass Doni, who was quicker than I expected down the straights, when I put my left rear on the dirt as I flicked the car in and I knew it wasn't going to end well.  Sorry for stuffing your race Sam, I tried to ensure the car went onto the banking then saw you'd opted for that route too, bad luck.

Thanks for hosting, c u next time.

Bob

 

That's bad luck. It makes my Spa67 luck look great. I hope you're feeling better soon. You probably should have taken the BRM and made it a sightseeing trip. I damaged my 71 Ferrari engine in a Friday race. I cruised around for two laps trailing smoke while checking out the scenery. :)

Nice job keeping your cool in qualifying when I flew by you at Malmedy. I was on my last lap of fuel and didn't want to slow down. At the point I realized I had to slow down, I thought, "if Colin does any unusual, we're doomed!" If Clive had doors, I blew his doors off leaving Stavelot. I wasn't in a hurry then I just figured he could get back to concentrating on that beast the sooner I passed. Same situation as with Colin, had he done anything unusual we'd have been screwed.

I love this track but it looks it might be futile for me to try to race the Eagle here.


I had no idea what was happening. Discoes left and right as qualifying was ending. I tried to jump in my car and sit in the pits but it was too late.

I have no idea what's going on with me and Spa67 in the Eagle. Two tries in a row, and I'm out on lap 6. John in Privateers suffered the same thing, a screen freeze in the Eagle on lap 6. I've driven long races here in the Lotus, Ferrari, Cooper, and Honda plus some of the mods. Other than two Works races, a Can Am 66 race, and the recent anomalies with the 66s, this track has worked well from all I've seen.

This one needs some sanding and painting or it will have holes in it within the next few years. I'm guessing yours are under the hood? or is that bonnet?

(https://s14.postimg.org/t7pxtoiup/240sx.jpg)

Well done Tris and Dean for finishing, and Clive snatching a podium ;)

It's a shame so many had bad luck with the freezes, in particular Greg who normally would have won. Commiserations! There was absolutely no way I could follow him, even when he took it easy. Greg is a master of this track. :)

I'm looking to fix my monitor signal loss (in triple screen mode), but I'm not looking forward to go back to single screen if only that fixes the current problem...to add more pain I might miss next race as well making this another half season after last year...it is what it is...just looking for some fun for the rest of the season...

PS: Get well Colin, motorbike I presume? Stay in one piece mate! ;)

Robert - one method might be to buy an expander box and use that for GPL?
That way your PC is only sending to '1' monitor at a very large and odd resolution  ;D

Thanks Tim, currently using eyefinity with an active displayport adapter. Will look into it. Have made a few tweaks to the system concerning power usage and cabling, and removed hardware. So far it's holding, touch wood  ;)

Only just seen this for some reason - Is that your S13 Greg?
If so is it an imported onevia or the US spec model?

My hole is where the passenger side sill should be...

Mod report published.