SimRacing.org.uk

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

British GT3 Series - Spa Francorchamps

Booking:7:45 (15mins)
Practise: 20:00 (30 mins)
Qual: 20:30 (15 mins)
Race: 20:45   (50 minutes)

Cars allowed:

BMW Z4 GT3
Ferrari 488 GT3
Mercedes AMG GT3
Maclaren 650 GT3
Nissan GTR GT3
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Porsche 911 GT3 R 2016
Audi R8 LMS 2016

In order to compete in the race you will need the following DLC's:

dream packs 1,2 & 3
Red pack
ready2race
Porsche pack 3

Track:
In game version

Lap times:

stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat? (http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat?)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Weather: Clear
Start: Rolling
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: x2.5
Pit-stops: mandatory pitstop to be completed between 20 mins and 30 mins into race. at least 1L of fuel to be added or tyres changed

Ballast:

100kg - Jeffrey
80kg - Alfrance
60kg - nfsw55
40kg - Felix
20kg - ChrisR
20kg - Mark J

Server track settings:
SESSION_START=100
RANDOMNESS=0
LAP_GAIN=0
SESSION_TRANSFER=N/a

Damage: 70%

PLP App - Not used in this series. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.

Notes:
(1)PLP App - Not used in this event. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.
(2)Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules especially the
rules about in-game chat messages.
(3) Please exercise caution when pitting as some tracks have a speed limit.
(4) Please follow the SROUK guidelines for using kerbs etc. Please keep 2 wheels on the track surface (kerbs do not count as track surface)
Excessive cutting of corners will seen as cheating and the results may be altered to reflect this.

(5) Start procedure
*It will be the pole sitter's responsibility to complete the first lap at a pace that allows the rest of the grid to follow comfortably
*There should be no overtaking or hard accelerating/braking
*Drivers should avoid getting too far behind or too close to the driver in front
*Approximately 20 seconds before crossing the start line the pole sitter should slow down to a speed of no more than 50mph (80km/h)
*Each following driver shall close up directly behind the driver in front also maintaining a speed of no more than 50mph (80km/h)
*The pole sitter should maintain that speed until they cross the start line and then accelerate away to start the race (lap2)
*Each following driver should only accelerate when the driver directly ahead does (they do not have to wait until crossing the start line)
*No overtaking is allowed before crossing the start line at the completion of the formation lap

(http://www.scuderiadelbiscione.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SpaFrancorchamps-circuit.jpg)[/quote][/quote]

The practice server is up for this weeks race.

Spa + GT3's.....what more do I need to say!

Err just practising on the server and it appears i have ballast!

Currently listed on my screen as people who have put laps on it recently:

Me - +60kg
Mark J - +20kg
Jeff -  +100kg

Looking above Mark and Jeff are both correct, but me?

I will check the server today

 ???

I have just looked on the RDP, your name or GUID is nowhere to be seen in the driver file. Maybe PICNIC will be able to shed some light?

My guess is Spanner joined in the Audi and the first entry in the ini file has 60kg of ballast. There are no 'free' Audis first, all free slots appear to be the Z4.

Have you never been on the list Spanner or have you been lost from the file as I see you've entered before was that during the booking period?

Nope not joined an event previously via booking, and seem to be on a list as my ingame name is my forum name, not my actual name. Thinking about it, i was listed as my real name yesterday so didnt associate me wit the named list. Assuming the named list was being read?

Just to be totally clear you're not in the entry list file now; not as Spanner, you're real name or your SteamID.

I'm sure SRW will rectify this shortly.

Just tried joining again. Normally on race events you can see everyone who is on the entry list when clicking on the server, falsly saying there are people on the server. When i just joined there was zero drivers on the server.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/lIQljpeeiQkQiBiE3 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/lIQljpeeiQkQiBiE3)


hmmm. does the forum no longer show pictures from links?


And there is no entry list file, as every car is listed as having 3 available

That picture shows 3 cars  :-\ All Audis and all with ballast.

Could we have a stracker link please? (I double checked this time!) :) as otherwise we have no idea if on the pace or not.

@ PICNIC

I have two entry lists:

race night list - with all the competitors GUID's & ballast(for use on race night with booking session enabled)

practice list - 3 types of each car with only the GUID's of ballasted drivers + ballast. (for use in the fortnight in between races)


That was my interpretation of your advice on how to do it?

P.S. Spanner's GUID is already on the race night list

The link is always the same Mark, Bookmark it like i have!

http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat

I see what you mean PICNIC, I will add a blank Audi to the list. MJ, Jeff and Alfrance should all have ballast, I will update the list

When i joined today i had no ballast, but when Felix joined i noitced i then had 60kg.

Struggling with the backend too loose into the faster corners, under braking.

On stracker, how come it doesn't know what tyres or fuel load Flavus has used? Some kind of cloaking device?  :shifty:

I think that happens when people don't have ptracker installed on their end.

ok I have it installed but did not know that's how the things get updated. I am sure I had tried it once and it didn't work, I'll try it again next time.
mediums best lap on approx 70 litres 2,20,200 and 3 lap race with low fuel 2,19,200 approx on softs.

Guess I am 2 seconds off pace  ;D

You will be up there for sure. That 2,20,2xx lap surprised me a bit as most of my others were low to mid 2,21's

My ballast is correct  :thumbup1:

seems like there was a bit of a problem with ballast/car choice during the race.

PICNIC checked my Car list on the server and confirmed that the car list/ballast is correct, we think it may of occured because people who are on the booking list joined the server during the booking session.

FYI

if you are not on the booking list you need to join the event during the booking session

If you are on the booking list you need to join after the booking session (either practice or qualifying)

If there is feedback in this thread of people feeling aggrieved by this matter I will raise a poll to decide if we re-run the Spa round


Pretty annoying race for me, the screen froze early in the race so I put the brakes on to stop the car going off the track, by the time the game started working again I had lost 18 seconds  >:(

The results on stracker are all to cock too.

That was a cracking race, (and qually!) really enjoyed it even though I ultimately lost 2 places at the end. I had no tyres left to fight with due to my own error of pitting one lap too early.
Spent the first half being stalked by Flavus in his nimble McLaren for 3rd place. After pitting from 3rd at mid race I saw Simon emerge from the pits a lap later and just got ahead. But within a few laps I could see he was now on a charge and he began to steadily close me down as my tyres got steadily worse (I didn’t change them). Despite his close attention I held him off until about 2 or 3 laps from the end. But he got up the inside of me down to Radillon and I had nowhere to go without having an accident, allowing him and a wily watching Flavus to steam past.  :( I had all 4 tyres very yellow by then and it was a struggle to stay with them. But they were fighting so it turned into a frantic 3 way fight that Jeff also joined at the end  :o
I swapped places with Flavus on the last lap but as I tried to turn into pouhon the car just understeered wide and he got back past up the inside.
All 4 cars crossed the line tenths apart. Great close clean racing  :thumbup1:

Congrats to Felix and nfsw up ahead too  :notworthy:

Had a good race, felt very comfortable in my car on this great track.
 
Unfortunately the ballast for one (or even more?) driver(s) were totally wrong, although Felix pointed that out very early ( hats off , very fair behaviour, didn't noticed that before you wrote it) nothing happened.
Probably lost some valuable points due to that...

Not sure if a re-run of the race is a good idea, that will probabbly cause even more chaos (for example what happens when someone who raced today can't attend the re-run?)

Good race tonight had good fun. I had a funny feeling I would get swamped along Kemmel on the first race lap and lost about 3 places I think.
Drove quite consistently while trying to keep Simon at bay for most of the first half of the race. I got held in my pit spot as Simon exited so lost a position in the pits >:(.
Second half was good and I was waiting to pounce on any mistakes from Mark or Simon and my eyes lit up when they went into Eau Rouge side by side so I pounced and nipped past both of them but the tables were turned a couple of laps later when both Mark and Simon whizzed past me on Kemmel. Got passed Mark into 4th on last lap when he ran wide at Pouhon. Well done to winner and podiums. Had a look at the replay and some of the camera angles and footage are spot on. If Kunos get ACC right then it will be an absolute Gem of a sim. One thing I always seem to get wrong is the fuel load. I go on the practice server and it tells me my fuel consumption so I work out the laps and fuel required. For some reason I am always about 20 to 25 litres too much  ???.
As for the car/ballast problems it is just the luck of the draw, I got a DSQ at Snetterton because the pit window was not correct so it is what it is and the result should stand.

There's something strange with these GT3 races because this one hasn't imported properly again, I see Spanner who left early beat several you didn't. I've not seen similar issues with Jeff's Wednesday night events.

You can see whether you're pre-booked or not as your name (and car choice) are listed in the server info.

I'm sure Felix was not intentionally cheating but I'm sure we've all now noticed that you can beat the ballast system by using the booking period to create a non ballasted entry. My personal view is that, now we discovered this, anyone who does this in future is excluded from the results.

I hope the system doesn't give me ballast now!!

My race was pretty boring. Had a pretty tough time keeping Alfrance behind me as I was afraid he would jump me at the stops again. I was hoping the 3 at the front would slow eachother down a bit more, but only at the last lap did I close up, but that was too late.


How did you calculate it? One thing to keep in mind, is the slow formation lap.


I've been booking in the whole season and I never had a problem, so I don't think that is it.

IMO, the race shouldn't have been started liek this as it's impossible to fix now and it clearly had an influence on the result (not for me, as I would have finished behind Felix anyway).

Couldn't the server have been restarted with just an entry list for the people on the server at that time? We could have even skipped qually and get into the formation during the outlap if we were short on time.

This sucks...

I was not aware I had to wait in order to join without booking. And I could swear I didn't see my name on the list when I requested booking. I even mentioned that with Sutol while I was waiting. Initially I didn't look and pressed the top button and only after I realised that I had requested booking. I canceled the booking and checked for my name and couldn't find it.

To make it fair to others, please exclude me from the results. It's far more important to me that people know I don't like getting unfair advantage then a race result.

@Jeffrey - I add half a lap of fuel for formation lap and race distance plus half a lap so I should finish with 1 lap of fuel not almost 3 laps of fuel. I ran out fuel at Shockingham before the pit stops and I was sure I had put in enough fuel  ???

@Felix even with 100 kg of ballast those Audis have a big top speed advantage over the rest, approx 7 kmh, which comes in very handy at Spa, so you would have been top 2 easily. If you feel guilty just swap 1st and second place around  :)

How many laps did you calculate?

I calculated 3000/140=21,4 laps, so 22 laps in worst case scenario even with a slow formation lap.

If both you and Felix booked in yet you got ballast and Felix didn't implies something else is wrong. The entry_list has the correct ballast so you've no guarantee a restart would have fixed Felix's ballast. You can't skip qually because that disadvantages those who do well at this, you're just penalising someone else.

I wonder if the fact the results get messed up and this are in anyway related  :-\ Mr Kunos says Booking Mode is deprecated but I've no idea how else you're meant to run races if you don't know who's turning up and in which car  ::)

The McLaren must be much better on fuel than the Ferrari if you finished with that much fuel  :o I filled the tank for both half’s of the race and finished with 0.35L ! That was with 6 wing (tried lower but kept oversteer spinning)  and +20kg ballast. Does that mean with any more ballast I would have had to 2-stop?  :-\

Ferrari is the most thirsty. What were you using per lap? Maybe add some oil  ::)

Come to think of it, it's probably wise for you to take so much fuel, gives the tyre guys some more time  :-X

Kind of wish I’d put new boots on now but I hadn’t planned on having Simon and Flavus all over me in the second half. How did Simon gain so much time in the pits? Does the Porsche need a lot less fuel? I was quite surprised to see him exit the pits as I completed my first lap after the pits. My outlap wasn’t as quick as it should have been though as I exited  behind Bobs Nissan on my worn cold mediums. He pitted end of the lap so maybe i was a bit hesitant at the bus stop.

The stops do add an extra element to the racing though, it was very exciting for many of us  :)

One session on the practice server told me 9.5 litres/lap and the next session I did told me 9.8 litres/lap so I took the latter. Maybe the difference was due to me running mostly on softs in the second session? So I did 21 X 9.8 plus half a lap to give me 210 and I finished with about 22 or 23 litres I think which is a fuel consumption of 8.9 litres/lap. That will be my base for the next race and I'll ignore the game calculation cos at Silverstone I finished with 28 litres  :-\ AC pit crew are now sacked especially as they let Simon get past in the pits >:(

Just for information, in my case I was on the booking list AND I joined during the booking session, but my ballast was ok ...

talking about the race .... with 80kg ballast on my Z4 no way to be competitive with Others without ...  I started in P5, but lost very soon 2 positions, I tried to close up the gap with Jeff, but our pace was very similar and the pit strategy this time was not perfect: I refuelled 85 litres and by mistake also changed tyres ...
I finished my race with a drive through penalty but I had safe gap from behind and didn't lose any position.

IMO we can keep this race results as they are, without making any other special action.

See you next race!
 

If you add more than roughly 100L of fuel, you get a free tyre change, as the fuel will take longer than the tyres at that point. Only way to make a 'no change' race work, is by starting with 120L and only needing around 60-70L. Anything more, and you'll probably lose more at the end, than you've gained at the stop, especially at Spa, where you need the grip for the corners leading onto the straight.

I guess Simon started with 120L and added less fuel, which made the tyre change the limiting factor, which could have explained the seconds gained. Just guessing  :D.


Maybe you use less fuel during the race,because often the pace is a bit slower than the all out practice laps?

I dont think anyone thinks you were cheating Felix.

We have just stumbled on a loophole/error in the games handling of the booking procedure/ballast.

After reading everyones comments i think the general concensus is to put this down to experience so i have decided to keep the finishing order as it is. I will check the results in this thread against what i jotted down on paper from the results screen after the race and make adjustments if needed

I have updated the results to reflect the correct finishing order