SimRacing.org.uk

1955 Grand Prix - Round 5 – Monza 10k

The fifth race in the 1955 Grand Prix series finds us in Italy at the Cathedral of Speed. The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is a race track located near the city of Monza, north of Milan.  Built in the Royal Villa of Monza park in a woodland setting, the circuit has gone through numerous changes over the years.  Perhaps the most striking feature in the park is the steep banked (sopraelevata) curves on the now defunct 10Km variant, first used in 1955.  The original circuit (used between 1922 and 1933) also had an oval section but the banked curves were not as wide or as steep as the later 1955 variant.  The banked circuit was used on four occasions for Formula 1 races; in 1955, 1956, 1960 and finally in 1961 when it was decided that Formula 1 cars were just too fast to be safe on the oval track.   The banked oval section was last used in any capacity in 1969.  From 1962 onwards, the Formula 1 Grand Prix was held on the "road circuit" which by the early 1970s was also deemed to be too fast for Formula 1 cars.  Two chicanes were introduced for 1972 Italian Grand Prix, one at the Ascari curve and another on the approach to the Curva Grande.  Tonight we will relive the dramatic race in 1955 on the full 10Km circuit complete with steep bankings and no chicanes.

Carefully read the rules on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=639&theme=6).

Race list	iGOR
Server	UKGPL_4
IP address	109.180.233.194
Date	15-07-2018
Track	monza10k (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=11806&#entry125103)
Mod	55F1 with 60fpsV2newmod
Damage	PRO long
Race time	~ 21:30 UK time
Qualifying	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race length	17 laps
Replay	here (ftp://ftp.ukgpl9.co.uk:32122/Season33/55GP)

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)
Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=639&theme=6)

Handicapping and chassis allocation.
This season the 1955 Grand Prix cars will be using a token system which allows drivers to purchase any chassis of their choice for a given number of tokens as published on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=639&theme=6). Drivers classed as Amateurs will be allocated an additional 10 tokens.  The token allocation will not be managed in SRou this season so (unlike the 67F1 Works and 67F1 Privateer divisions) the tokens available to each driver will not appear in the championship table (when the mouse pointer is hovered over the driver's total).  Rather, the available tokens will be published in the race announcement. See table below.

Available Tokens:
Note: These are the tokens available to each driver before the 10 tokens are added for making the race start.

Driver	Tokens	Status
bagrupp	17	Pro
Clive Loynes	20	Pro
Doni Yourth	30	Pro
EvilClive	13	Pro
fpolicardi	8	Am
francesco	15	Am
Phil Thornton	15	Am
DLogan	16	Am
Gareth	20	Am
Jeep	12	Am
Uli	8	Pro
FullMetalGasket	50	Pro
Will Tway	10	Pro
Baab	18	Am
Cookie	10	Pro
Samb	10	Pro

Hi Phil, Track shows turin55

Opps.  Thanks, I'll fix that.

I am not racing with mod55 this season but do you know there will be the World Cup final this day (...between England and France, of course  :D ) ?

LOL
A matter of little/no significance, no matter who is playing.

Please don't change the time/date of the race to something that I can't attend.

Ooo!  Spotted a test server.  Hope it's still there when I have finished my dinner!  ::)





Humph!  No it wasn't.  :-(

It is very difficult to run these cars close together and the only chance that we get is race day, which serves to increase the number of collisions. 

If the first time that you have slip-streamed someone towards Parabolica is lap one of the actual race, then chances are that you will wind up in the sand.  Hopefully on your own.

I can restart the server and set it to 55s at Monza10k ;)

Was just testing the servers RAM, 2x2GB 1066 or 1x4GB 1600...


PS

LOL I saw you in igor on Tim's server and started my race PC, just to see that igor is down now...

Cheers Axel.
That's my server but no point in doing anything if the racelist is down.

Ta

I am still testing my server at iGOR
running now 55s M10k

Yep, spotted it.  But if you could keep it going this evening when I can get to it that would be great.

Thanks for the practice yesterday Axel.  Very useful.

I can go around all day with little drama but put one other car on the track and things happen!   ;D

The race server (UKGPL_4) is up for testing. Please make sure you can connect and take Clive's advice and try to practice with some real opposition.

Well I can see it!  Just hope that it is still there by the time that I can get to it! 

Joined server ok but no one to play with. :-(

Practice server back up again. Hopefully someone will want to play today Clive  :D

Guess that I may have to wait for the footie to finish, before anyone appears.

Just had a praccy race with Axel and John Hammond. Should be a few more on the server soon.

Please put your server IP in the race thread, the iGOR racelist ist not steady atm!

Just had a nice practice session with Axel and Phil. Decided to run a few laps together and I got a screen freeze (Lap 2 I think) braking for the Parabolica.

Never had a freeze on this track before, hopefully it was a one off..

TTFN
John..

Hello, i can join ? i did registrtion now, i hope not is too late. I dont see password

You are in.  Good luck (not that you need it - you are already very fast  ;) ).

However please be careful with the brakes, they are rubbish (but consistent with the period). The draft is strong too, so be extra careful when braking behind someone. If you loose a few meters by being careful you will easily make them back again on the next straight.

Thanks so much Phil, I know the problem

Race Server up. IP amended in race post just in case anyone is having trouble with IGOR.

Well, I can't seem to buy a result in this series. :( Same as in the practice session earlier, screen freeze heading down to the Parabolica. I've done countless laps around here both alone and against a field full of AI and never had this happen before. That's twice in 2 attempts to race online.

Shame, it was looking like it was going to be a good battle at the front.

TTFN
John.

incident and freeze,thank you Ziu.

Screen freeze exiting Lesmos all on my very lonesome lap 7-ish. Maybe there's some soccer or something on tv.

Sorry,i was convinced to race against a GPL driver not against Hamilton.

I've loaded the chassis the drivers used into the token calculator spreadsheet.  For the next race the available tokens will be as declared in the table below (the table will also appear in the next race announcement).  The calculated values are automated but selecting the cars is a manual process so please check your tokens to make sure I haven't made a silly error.  There was no token overspend for this round so no one is disqualified.

Available Tokens:
Note: These are the tokens available to each driver before the 10 tokens are added for making the race start.

Driver	Tokens	Status
bagrupp	17	Pro
Clive Loynes	10	Pro
Doni Yourth	30	Pro
EvilClive	8	Pro
fpolicardi	6	Am
francesco	13	Am
Phil Thornton	5	Am
DLogan	14	Am
Gareth	10	Am
Jeep	2	Am
Uli	6	Pro
FullMetalGasket	60	Pro
Will Tway	5	Pro
Baab	18	Am
Cookie	5	Pro
Samb	10	Pro
Ziu Bacubacu	5	Pro

Ziu and Fran, please gentlemen can we have a little decorum?  This forum is just not the place for such outbursts.

I have looked at the replay and what neither of you seems to mention is that lap after lap there were four of you in a fantastic scrap for 4th place.  Everybody was giving everyone else the room to race.  It was great to watch.  ;D

If you have a grievance with regard to another driver then your race report on this forum should not get personal!  "I was knocked off at the first banking." will suffice, if you feel the need to say anything at all.

In your incident report to the moderator, then you can say what you like.  They are the soul of discretion. 

I thought that it was a crying shame that it ended as it did.

We have a court system here at UKGPL where incidents are reported (via the link under the race results). The reported incidents are reviewed by the moderating team in an effort to understand what went wrong, so that lessons can be learnt and the racing experience improved for the benefit of everyone. Normally the drivers involved report the incidents but anybody can report any incident. This simply helps the moderator identify incidents, otherwise the moderator would have a very time consuming job reviewing the replays over an over again from each drivers perspective looking for incidents.

The court system is private to reduce the risk of arguments breaking out on the public forums. Quite often drivers post something they shouldn't in the heat of the moment. It is far better to stay calm, report the incident and let the moderating team deal with it.

I witnessed the incident at replay time 0h14m08s so as the moderator I am already aware. Would the drivers involved please submit an incident report so that your version of events can be taken into account. This incident can be resolved quite amicably using the court system.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!
What an absolute belter of a race, and sorry to find out afterwards that a few had suffered a screen freeze.  That happened to me on the last visit here, in the previous season, but I'm happy to say that no such event has happened since transfering to my new race pc.

I had done the best part of qualy on race fuel, and had towed Ziu around for his best lap as well.  In the last ten minutes or so I went for a run on low fuel but couldn't find a tow, which I thought that I would need to better my original time.  I did manage to tow Evil for his lap that turned out faster than mine!!  Grrr.

I made a good start and passed Evil on the way to Curva Grande.  John held on around the outside and I then just tried to avoid contact with everyone.  As a result I arrived at Parabolica in 4th spot, not having contested a pass anywhere.

But that was all part of the plan.  In my test runs on the server with Axel it appeared that whilst he could make my life difficult through the slow stuff with his Lancia, there was no way, if we were close, that he could get across the line first unless it suited my plan.

Evil was also in the Lancia so the fly in the ointment was John in another SL.  The GPL gods took care of John for me.  Hard luck John, remind me to make a suitable offering.   ::)
After I had towed our group far enough away from the chasing pack, I really wanted to be in 3rd spot, so that I was safe from other's brake fade.  Evil obliged by passing me at Curva Grande and having achieved my aim I settled down to watch the Lancia Show.  ;D

With about six lap to go I decided to start stiring things up a bit and went back to the front and tried a few different lines to see what the other two did about it.  The gods came to my rescue again when I watched the two Lancias duking it out in Parabolica.  Evil took avoiding action due to what he later referred to as "Axel's wandering rear".  This dropped Evil out of the tow and at that point the odds were well in my favour.

I just had to make sure that I was within 100m of Axel as we exited Parabolica on the last lap and the race would be mine.

Thanks to Axel, Evil and John for some great racing.

What's the next one?

Yes, thanks for that tow at the end of qualifying Clive  ;). Up to that point I was beginning to think that my deodorant was not working, because I could not find anyone to slipstream  :o...something that is critical around here!

Monza 10k is a circuit where the race is decided on the last lap, provided you are in the leading group and stay out of trouble  ::)

So...getting 2nd spot on the grid was going to help me stay with the wild bunch at the front. Clive and John looked to be a big threat in those SL's and Axel had obviously done some serious practice in his Lancia. There were some fast cars behind who might have similar ambitions  :-\

Like Mr Loynes, I was not bothered about leading provided that that I was "in the tow" and in the leading group. There were a few nervous moments in the early laps as John and Axel set a punishing pace and looked like they might possibly escape. So I was relieved when Clive eased past in his SL and towed me back into contention  ;). John and Clive effectively towed Axel and myself away from the chasing group until we were a safe distance clear and I could relax and sit in 4th....until John vanished and Axel and Clive pushed the pace.
I suspect that my gearing was different to that which Axel was using, because he appeared to be able to run faster around the banked section but through Curve Grande and the Lesmos I could make up any lost ground.  It did occur to me that Clive must have been sick of pulling a gap around the high speed sections, only to see my Lancia sat on his a** exiting Lesmo 2 for lap after lap.
Then he dropped back and I suspected that he was just sandbagging in his silver machine, which gave me a dilemma. Should I stay with Axel at the front ? or drop back with Clive and rely on his slipstream to drag me back to the front in the final laps?
I opted to stay with Axel at the front, just in case I made a mistake later and lost the tow from Clive. This was OK for the next 10 laps and I was beginning to work out where I might gain an advantage in the final lap.
It was around this point that I realised I was carrying around 10 galls of extra fuel!!, which might explain my lack of top speed? but not how I was faster through the corners!!??
Then Clive decided to rejoin the action and cruised up behind us. I was watching him in my mirrors and Axel's tail pipes as we approached Parabolica. Axel was taking the inside line and Clive looked like he was just going to wait for the banked section to make his move. As I turned into Parabolica Axel's rear end twitched and I was obliged to take avoiding action to avoid any contact. The move to miss Axel unsettled the car and broke the adhesion ( what adhesion??!!) of the tyres and my Lancia slid towards that huge gravel trap  ::) I thought that i had almost caught the slide and might just get away with it..........but the tarmac was a few cms too narrow and I dropped two wheels into the gravel. By the time I had regained the tarmac and full control Axel and Clive were gone and beyond slipstream range.
I tried to close the gap, hoping for a mistake from the pair ahead, but eventually I had to accept that 3rd was my best hope. :-\
No probs with Axel's "twitch" that is what happens when you race at those speeds and that close.

Grats to Clive and Axel and to all those who finished.

Yeah,
that was Monza at it's best, thanks to the Clives and sorry for John who got lost early  :thumbup2:

I was not too much worried about the 5th position on the grid,
so I followed Johns tow and was in second position out of Lesmo2... Shame he got lost!

The rest was gaming around with this great feeling when you go through Lesmos or other "corners" side by side...
I overdid it into Para and Clive avoided contact with me, sacrificing his chance of a 2nd place, sorry and thanks  ::)

It was clear that our Lancias had not grunt enough to pass an SL, so Clive L won because he made all right.

It was a great race, Monza10k is huge fun. 

I had a bit of a bad start, for some reason my frame rate was dropping to 30FPS in the corners for the first couple of laps. So I had to drive very carefully and a I lost a few places before I actually went wide at Parabolica and ended up second last.  After that the framerate issue cleared up and I tried to catch up. My super fast Merc SL provided a bit of help to Dean but he was faster than me on the corners which I suspect caught him out at the Curva Grande (I saw him spin in my mirrors probably trying to avoid my cautious approach - sorry mate). After that I caught and passed the mid-field runners but I couldn't catch the first three. The gap stayed pretty constant so with a tow I might have been able to make it a four way fight. I saw Evil drop back and I thought I might have a chance to close in given he had lost the tow but I pushed too hard, made mistakes and dropped back. A good race for me, admittedly I had a massive car advantage but I needed it. You pay your tokens and you take your choice.

The next round at Aintree will be a completely different challenge. I won't be using the SL, I need a car with brakes????

Don't pick the Gordini then - I even ran out of brakes here!

I had hoped the Gordini would fare better here what with it's decent top speed and fairly good handling - but this actually seems to be the harshest track I've driven on yet for her :o
I had been hoping to hang in there and maybe even try to steal a place at the end, but after Phil blasted past and lift Fulvio from my clutches I was left lapping on my own at the back.
I stayed on track in the hope someone would suffer brake/brain fade, but no-one did :(

See you all at the next one, I'll mostly have flames coming from my wheels I suspect.

no luck this season
Engine trouble (piston) after only one lap :(
cu next

Hard luck Uli.  I think that Axel lost his engine at Indianapolis after two corners and many years ago I can recall some poor unfortunates having their engines expire on the grid. 

Mod report published.

Mod report revised on appeal.

Please note the declaration of a racing incident does not mean neither driver did anything wrong.  It simply means the margins are so tight it is difficult to apportion blame to one driver and one driver alone. In this case, as in all racing incidents, there are lessons to be learnt:

• Spacial Awareness - Always be aware of where other drivers are even if you cannot see them. It is not acceptable to move across into another driver just because they are not visible. To race GPL safely on-line you need to develop a 6th sense and know where the others cars are even if you cannot see them.  Whether you think you are right or not, in the interests of self preservation it is wise to be cognizant of your surroundings and avoid any contact.
• Patience - On some tracks passing opportunities may be few and far between, but at Monza the slipstreaming means it is quite feasible for two evenly matched drivers to exchange places several times a lap. Unless you are sure you can make a clean pass, back off and wait for a better opportunity. It WILL come.