SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

Practice: ~19:20  (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins)
Race: 20:40 (18 laps)

Track: Imola, Italy. (Standard GTL Track)

Cars allowed: Any original GTC-65 class car
                    
Car restrictions: None

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Not required

Server: simracing.org.uk Wednesday
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

IMPORTANT

Sorry to report that our server has had a hard drive failure.

Tonight's race is cancelled. on

Will post more once we know something.

If Nappe can run this event on his server it would be appreciated.

Fortunately this event only uses standard stuff so no downloading is required.

Nappe has loaned us his server  :notworthy:

Bugger all, after 90 laps of practice and setup experimentation...  :'(

Hope you find an alternative solution Tony; was really looking forward to this race.

Keep an eye out for an update. We may be able to salvage this event  :-\

Sure thing my server can be backup. I am happy to help here.  what special settings you need and what I put as server name?

I most likely can't attend but you can use voting if needed to change sessions.

EDIT: ah... call me stupid. re-read the race invitation and almost everything is sorted now...

I have now set up the server as in Race invitation states,  :) but just few questions:
1. Server name: "simracing.org.uk Wednesd" is the maximum dedicated server allows as server name. Is it ok or shall I put something like "Simracing Wed. race backup"? 
2. Any disallowed assists; auto gears, auto clutch?
3. Failures Normal and Flag rules full?

...other than that I am ready to launch the server for you. Only original cars/skins available and GTC-65 class cars selected from Dedicated setup. :)

Bad news about the server, I hope Nappe can help us out.
But at least it relieves some tension here,  because I tried to access the practice server earlier and got nowhere.

Erling's practice is a bit worrying  :-\.  90 laps???!!! Seriously 90 laps??? :o....maybe that explains why he is successful.

I think I did about 10 offline this afternoon and thought "that'll do at least I can get the car around the track", after discovering that some sadistic b*****d had added some chicanes that do not exist on the GPL version....they came as quite a surprise I can tell you, when you have your foot hard on the floor!! lol

Yes seriously, but it's quite a bit more than normal :)  Mostly from working with the setups; just so many permutations to try (and I have just scratched the surface), so laps piled on quickly.

Big thanks to Nappe - your efforts are much appreciated!!

Thanks for your kind assistance Lasse.

Doesn't matter what you call the lobby, for ease just put UKGTL.

Please allow auto gears and auto clutch.

Failures normal and black flag only please.

If you can post when it's running I'll try to jump on.

Thanks again

Tony

No problem, This is how the community works: Tony provided us NoGrip refugees own forum section and of course I help with emergencys like this If I can. :)


...And it should be up now. :)
Just let me know any problems and I can fix them right away.

Just did a lap.  Works good for me, used the normal entry code word..  Thanks a bunch.

Bob M.

Just got on ok. I don't know what full flags does, we usually have it set to black only. Can practice session be set to 9999. We can change it online by voting.
Otherwise it's all good to go.

Results/replay will be delayed after this event.

Just double checked everything and It's up now. Practice is set to 9999 minutes.

Have fun. :)
And oh, if you need assistance, you can send me PM here, which pops me an email which again throws a notify to my cellphone and that's dispatched to my Suunto watch, so I should be reachable in few minutes if needed. :)

by the way, I thought that Black Only does not care about cut tracks, but I was wrong in that as in Nords race I had Black only and still got one cut track warning... So, honestly I have no idea how the full and black only differs. Most likely the difference is not big.

We use black to detect cuts only, but we have never used full flags so I do not know what they do. For no cut detection turn off flags all together

Lasse, can you set connection type to LAN please?

Thanks for the flag options info. It is good to know stuff.  :thumbup1:
I fixed the flag options to black only, so now it is exactly as ordered.

 

...Also connection type fixed to LAN. Not exactly sure what that setting does either other than peaks out the max. bandwidth

It should prevent lost/poor connections

Think that's everything sorted now

Thanks

tony

8:00pm and not working for me??  :-\

I join server and everything looks OK for about 5 secs and then it "saves hotlap" ( even though I have not turned a wheel!!?? and "loses connection to host"  I have tried multiple times but same result.  have fun guys.

Server says your in a wrong car. What car are you driving?

I have tried Elan, Mustang and one other...same result

I noticed that some of the cars have a "locked" icon against them??? never seen that before

Hmmm, don't think I can help then. Are you using a standalone GTL install?

yep stand alone GTL Originals install for this series....worked OK last time :o/

stumped. Try a full reboot?

You have to buy the car you want to drive.

Find the cars .car file, edit it with Notepad, sroll to bottom and set value=0 ;)

rebooted, same result, too late now, I will investigate further tomorrow. Thanks for your help

Provisional results posted.

Ok an update...
Perhaps someone can shed some light on this.
After multiple attempts to join the server with the dedicated "GTL Originals" install which all ended in the same way with a 5 second stay on the server before being booted back to the lobby, I tried another approach in desperation.
I knew that all of my other dedicated installs must have the original GTL cars installed, so I fired up my "American Iron" install and selected a car ( the Elan) that I had briefly seen on my visits to the server.

Which is how I appeared for the race.
BUT, I had used the GTL Originals install for the first race in the series without any probs ( other than crashing/spinning/burning my tyres etc etc. ).
So, I have looked at the Teams folder for both installs and compared them. For some reason  the folders in the "Teams" folder for the Originals install read "GTC-65red"  "GTC-TC-76" and "TC-65red" ????

In the American Iron install there is no "red" suffix?? I am guessing that is why the server booted me out and it showed as wrong car to you guys? I hope that I can simply rename the folders without the "red" in my GTL Originals install and all will be well?...……………..but I bet it ain't that simple!!  ::)

Off to bed now, so will look at the insightful replies in the morning  ;)

Beats me.  ???

It's as if a word edit search found every instance of "65" and added the word "red" to it?

My computer knowledge is legendary  ::) ::), but I am still totally baffled by this, and have been thinking about it overnight.

If I had been using some sort of text editing programme, then I could accept that I had somehow managed to modify multiple random files....but I haven't used anything like that on my race rig. I had tried to join the server through the lobby on Wed and came up against the failure problem, which Tony reported. So I tried about 10 laps offline to learn the track ( just as well because the chicanes came as big surprise lol ). But, in hindsiight I just grabbed the BMW CSL, which is a "GTC-TC-76" folder?? and that does not have the "red" suffix.

I am posting this from my laptop, but later I am going to examine all of the other separate installs for GTL on my PC and take a look through other programmes and folders to see if there are any other random suffixes. The nagging worry that I have been infected with a virus or been hacked is at the back of my mind, but I have Windows Defender and Firewall active and AVG AV is also installed, so I would be surprised if something slipped through without any alerts.

The race, when I eventually joined the server by firing up my American Iron install, was interesting. My prime objective was to simply find a way to get past the problems I was having. On my various short visits to the pits I had seen the cars on the timing board. Tony had tried to help on the forum and reported that the server was saying "wrong car", so I figured, quite simply, that if someone else had been there with an Elan, then that had to be a car worth selecting as a try.
It worked, and I was in the pits with a valid car so I was reluctant to quit and choose anything else. It did not take long for me to realise that the Elan was NOT the car of choice for the rest of the grid lol. But with only a few minutes of qually before the start, all I had time to do was a few small tweaks to the default setup, max out the steering ratio, add a click of rear roll bar and a click on power side diff. I suspect that it was fortunate that I had got the Elan, because of its low power it does not have any nasty surprises and is quite an easy drive when close to the limit.
I actually quite enjoyed the race and the better handling of the Elan against all those grumbling V8's, but I pushed the limits of the Elan too often and suffered a couple of excursions that dropped me down from the lofty heights of 3rd place.
Grats to the podium and to all those that I battled with, and especially to Tony for giving me a little "assistance" for being too slow at one point lol. The neck brace is easing the pain  ;)

FWIW an update on the weird file names that I encountered last night.


As the problem manifested itself in a GTL install, I have checked all of my 8 different GTL's.  The same strange folder name change has occured in about 50% of those, even in one that I kept as a "virgin" copy to use for future series. But in no cases was the 76 car file affected,  and not any of the Extra car folders...... only the 65's??

I am still looking through non GTL folders in case this is a more widespread issue.

bizzare, when I see "red" in names I assume "redistribution" no idea why your files have changed names

Just rename the folders then. It would be even odder if it manifested itself again.

 :whistling: (X-Files theme music) :whistling:

Re-naming of GTL folders is done, but I have left one install with the suffix still in place.

My theory ( which is most likely to be flawed  ;) ) is that I can try to join the server with that install, to see if I get the same negative result. Then, I can quit GTL and immediately correct the folder name and try again.
Assuming that I then join the server and all is OK, then for my befuddled mind it will prove what the problem was and that the solution is simple.

to Matt.
What sort of process would "redistribute" random folders and why might that need to happen???? Because I can assure you, there is no way that I have done anything that might have initiated that. You all know that I am techno-phobic and when a PC is working I leave things alone  ;). The most technical thing I have done on that PC over the past week is turn it on and turn it off. AFAIK there has not even been a Win 10  update!!
But the bigger question is "Why me again??  :-\"

Yay, GTC-65 meant GT40 time!!   With Ducfreak's glorious sound mod, this is and remains one of my all-time favorite GTL cars.  Could drive it all day just to listen to it  :wub:

Back in the days when I raced in GBGTL however, it was always banned from GTC-65 events, due to being faster than all the other cars in the class.  Thus kept a wary eye on the forum, in case anything similar should pop up here.  Could just have asked of course, but didn't dare - no need to give Tony ideas if he hadn't already  :whistling:   As the race drew closer and still no exclusion of the GT40, it dawned on me that maybe Tony planned on using it himself, with a cunning plan to upstage the usual fast brigade, in case they picked something different..  ;)

Clive was appalled by my number of practice laps.  I can now reveal that he's directly responsible for them  ;D  One of the last times we used the GT40, on Silverstone I believe, he had come up with a brilliant setup, giving him levels of grip I couldn't even dream of.  Have tried to improve my setup before, with limited luck, but gave it another go here.  Despite all the laps, I have to throw in the towel:  The secrets to the GT40's setup is a nut I can't crack, and in the end I did only minor tweaks to my existing one, the main improvement coming from a reduction of negative camber.  From GBGTL days, my best time was a 2:08.5.  Did manage to shave almost 2 secs off that, with a 2:06.6 being my best, so maybe not all wasted.  Have not been able to repeat it though, getting within 1/10 as the closest yet.

Pole was relatively easy to obtain, with most drivers in slower cars, most notably Geoffers & Clive. Had either of these gents picked a GT40, I'm sure it would have looked different!

In addition to setting it up, getting fast off the line is something else I haven't mastered with the GT40 (some would argue it's something I haven't mastered period..  ::))  Thus Geoffers grabbed the lead, and while he was in a slower car, he was by no means a pushover.  The straight bits on Imola are just a bit too short, if he got on the power sooner than me when exiting corners. It meant I was not quite there when the next one arrived, unless I had behaved like a bully and forced the issue, but with all the laps to go, that seemed unnecessary. As the GT40 is no braking wizard, I had to be careful not being caught out when he tossed out the anchors, accidentally bumping him off.  Got past on L2, only to run wide immediately after, handing the lead back to Geoffers. Took a few laps to work up to another attempt, but once more I screwed up - started fishtailing out of the hairpin, letting Geoffers roar past again.  After a few more laps, he for once had a squirrelly moment, allowing me to nip past and finally making it stick.  Built a gap of 6 secs over the following laps, but when it suddenly jumped to 17 secs, it was obvious Geoffers had gone off somewhere.  Quiet remainder of the race, with only spice being lapping the slowest cars.

Grats to Geoffers & Matt for completing the podium  :clap:

Clive's problems does sound strange indeed and I have no idea what could possibly have caused them.  Are any other folders beside GTL's suffixed with 'red' ?

Due to the server problem we will not be publishing Qualy times or a Replay for this event.

Thank you for your understanding and once again a big thanks to Lasse who stepped up and allowed us all to use his server.

Yes, I echo Tony's comments. Thankyou Lasse for the use of the server at such short notice.


Further digging through my PC has not yet unearthed any more rogue files or folders, but the search continues  :detective:

However, Erlings reminder about my succesful setup with a GT40 at Silverstone set me thinking, and I wondered if I could dig it out of the archives and try my luck at Imola. Just to compare times.
 But when I logged into my GTL originals install and went to the GT40, there is a padlock symbol against that car and I cannot select it. Further roaming through the other options reveals random cars with similar padlock icons against them? Anyone have any ideas?

When I look in "Car Dealer" I get P.O.A against the GT40.??? I have checked and the "unlock everything" tweak is there.

Typical; when you for once have pole position, something like this happens...  ;D

J/K of course; a very big thanks to Lasse (and Tony) for making this event possible despite the odds.

Will you have to rebuild the server install from scratch Tony ? - With all the add on tracks & cars, that must be a major task!

Find the GT40 .car file, open it with Notepad, scroll to the bottom, set Value to 0, restart GTL, buy car.

Did not really know what car to pick for this, was not really too bothered about running at the front so ruled out the GT40. Thought about the E-type & even considered the Lotus Elite just for a laugh but thought that would be a bit lonely. Finally decided on the TVR as I thought that it would get me in amongst the 'pack'.

As it turned out even that was too fast so probably would have had a more fun race with the E-type. Having said that the first few laps were good fun trying to keep Erling's GT40 behind, actually lasted longer than I expected as Erling twice got ahead & then obligingly drove off track to let me lead again :P. Eventually though he had enough of playing around & disappeared over the horizon. Had a lonely race after that only enlivened by losing it under braking for Rivazza & taking a trip through the kitty litter.

Congrats to Erling on a comfortable win & to Matt in 3rd.  :clap: :clap:

PS: Thanks to Lasse for stepping in & providing a server, would be good to see you join us for a few races.

I guess that I can do that Tony, and I will have to do that for every car that has the padlock. But do you have any idea what has happened that would cause these random issues?? It just seems odd that everything has been ( relatively ) hassle free, since I got my new rig and adopted the dedicated installs for each series. Then suddenly Folders change names and cars are unavailable???

No Clive, I have no idea why your getting these random issues.

Sorry Tony, it sounds like I expect you to have all the answers for anything related to GTL ::). That was most definitely not my intention.
My question was more of a broader computer/software based query to anyone with greater knowledge than me....so I guess that is everyone  :-\

I actually googled "GTC-65red" and the only result I had was relating to a Red Vauxhall Astra.

That particular site had at least 2 hits then  ;) lol

Completely forgot to apologise to Matt for the first lap tap at Tosa. Such a little hit but it span you around. Hope it didn't spoil your race too much. It was great racing Clive in the little Lotus. There was never enough straight to allow the full power of the GT40 to come into play, great fun nevertheless.

Was irritating at the time, but I finished where I likely would have anyway, so I ain't sendin the boys round yet govner  :ninja:

:sweatdrop: