SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 22

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (10 mins)
Race 1: 20:30 (40 laps)

Track: Donington Park (National) Standard GTL track

Cars allowed: BMW M1 Procar  Download this (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#post_bmw_m1_procar), Required wheel fix Download this (http://www.mediafire.com/download/15g2qvay9m3fnb9/PROCAR_M1_WHEELS.GTL) and overwrite the original file found at GameData/Teams/GTC-TC-76/BMW M1 Procar.

Cars restrictions: None for this race but future races have handicapping.

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: Note early race start time.

These cars can damage engine health if driven too "enthusiastically". Be sure to get a high engine % on the start line.

Here is a top tip from Roguk

To be able to practise in the light go to Gamedata

Locations, Donington. Open .GDB file with notepad and

change line

Practice1start = 06:00 to 10:00 and save.

Thanks Roger  :thumbup1:

Why is this necessary Tony - can't you just set the desired time within the game ?

Are the cars exactly the same as those we used a couple of years ago ?

I do not think that you can adjust practice or qualy time of day within the game through the traditional user interface. Only race start time.

Yep, same cars as last time.

I think you can - if we're talking offline practice ?   There's a time of day setting, and that's what I've always used when we've had night races, and I wanted to practice under those conditions.  Have never had to change anything in files for that.

The time of day setting is for the race alone, and usually the corresponding praccy time of day is comparable. Donny is unique in that it is hard wired to produce a very early praccy time of day.

Ah..  that explains it - the race setting works for other tracks, but I've never set Donington up for praccy at night.

Any idea what a decent, non-alien, lap time is like?
Thanks

No idea. :laugh: I would think you should be aiming at laps in the 1.12s, suspect real alien pole (Ziu) will be under 1.10.

Just checking Tony, it is just the Procar for this race, not Gr4 or GTO?

For the first race only, it's any car you want. Further races have handicapping.

OK, I will stick with the Procar anyway.

Hey S.C.:
Don't let  those unworldly types scare you off.  I have run a few laps in the pro-car and my top time is a 1:41.5 and in runs with the AI you can add a few tens, I'm sure.  These are not my type of cars and not a favorite type of track.  Just come race with us, Enjoy!!!

Bob M.

You are on the wrong layout Bob if you are doing 1.41. The National layout is the short track without the Melbourne Loop.

OOOOOPS Sorry!!
I was on the wrong track...........

Bob M.

Thanks for the replies  :)
Still quite a bit of practice required for me: I'm at 1:15 / 1:14 at the moment with the odd 1:13 and the all too frequent 1:28 (or more)
1:12 seems out of my reach
I'll just try to limit the number of spins  ;D (which I did not really achive at Spa  :-[  )

if it helps Steve, I've managed 1:12.3 with a full tank but those laps are few and far between. For me it's all about getting the perfect line into most of the turns.

GTL noob's question: is a blue flag shown when you're about to be lapped in GTL? (I'm more used to GTR2 where blue flag is shown)
And with 40 laps to go I WILL be lapped  ;)

No, unfortunately there are no blue flags in GTL.  One way of checking that I use myself, is to turn on driver tags (have assigned a button on my wheel). It shows both the driver's name and his position, so will tell you if he's ahead or behind you (When looking behind you).  Dunno if XD might show it too, as I have turned off the driver list.

Sorry to contradict Erling but you do get a blue flag in GTL. Understandable actually; when did Erling last get lapped!

And it's not a blue flag as such, but a blue warning light on your dash, much like a fuel low warning light.

But I will have to double check this as I haven't seen it yet in the Beemer.

EDIT: To see a blue light in cockpit you need to have the HUD dials active which can be toggled by pressing the "2" key (not the "2" on the Numpad).

BTW I have seen marshals waving blue flags at some tracks in GTL.

Our rules about lapping state this............

Lapping And Being Lapped
The lapped driver should not change their line on a straight whilst being lapped.
A driver may elect to hold a tight line out of a corner and remain on the inside to allow a lapping driver to pass them using the normal racing line.
Drivers should not suddenly slow in the middle of a corner unless they are on the outside and the lapping car is clearly inside them.
The lapped driver should hold a predictable line and allow the lapping driver to move around them. The lapped driver may blend off the throttle slightly to help the lapping car past; drivers being lapped by cars in the same or slower classes are strongly encouraged to do so.
A driver should never lift off or brake on a straight with another driver right behind them.
The lapping driver should wherever possible prefer a pass under power to a pass on the brakes.
This frequently means being patient and going through at least one corner following the driver about to be lapped, setting the pass up.
A driver who is about to be passed by a car not on the same lap shall not unreasonably hold up the faster competitor.
This covers both being lapped, and being 'unlapped', that is, passed by a faster car that is one or more laps behind.

My bad; have been lapped, but never noticed any blue lights.   Do all cars have this Tony ?   It's not all that has a fuel warning light, so is the blue light universal ?

See my reply in the previous post

@ Steve - You may find this post usefull

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=13639.msg245804#msg245804

Incidentally, there is a server setting for "Full Flag Rules" which we have never used. We use the setting "Black Flag only" which effectively turns Cut warnings and penalties on and off.

I could turn on FFR for this race to see if there is any noticeable effect.

FWIW as a relative noobie to GTL and all of its mysterious ways.... ???

 I use the XHud and have the driver list showing at the top right of my screen. This gives me the gaps ( in time) to cars ahead and behind. So, using the approx. quali time as a benchmark and say the lap time is around 1:12, then a car showing as 1:08 ahead of you is probably the car that you are seeing in your mirrors?? :o :o

Plus, if that car is gaining on you quickly, then it probably is one of the resident aliens  :-\

Edit.... About to do my first laps around Donington in these horrible cars ( I have been putting off the inevitable for several days ), so I will post whatever dismal times I achieve later  :-\

Edit 2.... Just tried a few laps, ( and I was right these cars are horrible  :-\ ) Best was a 1:12.5 on race fuel, but I am far from comfortable with the setup or handling. I guess these cars do not suit my driving style.

BTW Ironically I appear to have lost XHUD for this install?? Or is there a key that activates the display, that I am missing?
 Would like to get it working because I recall from the last time we drove these beasts that the % health diminishes rapidly during a race. Almost all other cars I finish a race on 90%+, but these were down on the 20% area at the flag ???

The Tab key turns it on and off (Left, above Caps Lock).

Have to take task with Erling again, sorry.

Here's the relevant part of the XD.ini file

; Key to switch on/off
; Possible keyboard layouts:
; For DE: http://www.vitumo.de/files/XD/keyStroke.de.txt
; For EN: http://www.vitumo.de/files/XD/keyStroke.en.txt
; Default: 220 = Circumflex Symbol (Next to the '1' key on main-field)
; For English Keyboard layout please insert 192 here (the '`' key), or the key is mapped to the backslash-key
ToggleKey=220

Note Clive that you can adjust the rev limit on these cars, a lower setting will make the engine health last better & it makes little difference to the lap times.

It can have an effect on fuel burn though.

XHUD issue resolved  ;D

Checked against the other series specific installs and the d3d9.dll file was missing....simples sometimes

My "tab" key toggles the car labels "on" or "off", so maybe Erling has his configured differently?

From the little practice I have done...engine longevity will probably not be an important parameter. Some extra armour plating might be more useful to protect me against barrier impacts. lol

Looks like I'm back in the business  8) .

Hope to see you tomorrow in a guaranteed last place without any praccy in the M1 but I'll take
this one as an extended practice session only.

Great news Kurt  :thumbup1:

Assuming I'm Steve  ;) ... Thanks Tony !

In the end knowing if I am going to be lapped will be simple: Do I see someone in the mirror ? Yes => it has to be a lapping car !  ;D

Actually I use XD, and should be able to keep track of how far back I am (the blue flag would just be a convenient way to be "awaken" when needed)

Cheers
Patrick

Hi there,

I just tried to do some practise-laps, but somethings seem to be slightly wrong. I got a "n.donnington.gdb-mismatch"-Message when I entered the server. Do I have to change/rewrite/correct the gdb-file to take part tomorrow?

thanks for your support


Nobby

Hi Nobby, Donington is a standard GTL track and it's not called n.donnington.

Here is a download link for the correct track http://www.mediafire.com/file/0bhd8uoy4kl3kpu/Donington.zip/file

Put the track in your GTL locations folder and try it online please.

EDIT: sorry my bad, the .gdb file is called ndonnington. Please replace your .gdb file with this one http://www.mediafire.com/file/77n9te5zhmt01a7/nDonington.zip/file (although the previous link will also contain a correct .gdb file). My guess is it's something added when used at Altbierbude (it usually is  ::) )

Okay, that could well be, that Altbierbude did change the track.gdb.

I´ve downloaded the fresh and clean gdb-file and replaced the old one. Now I´ll try again and will report here if there are any issues left.

Huge thanks for your very, VERY fast response and help! That´s marvelous! *bigthumbsup*


Nobby

Actually now I've had time to think about it, the problem is probably with your .gdb having a different practice start time to the server version which I posted a note about earlier in this thread, so my bad (again).

So we may get more miss matches tomorrow night but it can be avoided if everyone sets their .gdb practice time from 06:00 to 10:00.

I was just passing

aha  ;)
That explains the mismatch that I was getting too.

off to hack around inside the .gdb file, this could be terminal if past episodes are anything to go by. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Okay, Problem is solved!

Indeed it was the "wrong" practise start time! Just changed it to 10:00am and everything´s fine now!  8)


I am really looking forward for tomorrows event, even when I am a bit afraid about the first corner(s). It´s allways very tricky in a bunch of evenly matched cars to stay calm and keep the "overview" on all cars around.


Nobby

All our drivers know better than to cause a first lap, first corner incident, don't you guy's  :nono:

As I see things ...I am always willing to help wherever I can with these issues, so if everyone waits and allows me to go first then I can confidently say that I will not be involved in any first corner incidents  ;D  I cannot however offer similar guarantees for all the other corners over 30+ laps  :-\

If happen which i touch someone (Geoffers or Clive) on the start i ask apologize since this moment but Donington not has a dangerous start.

After recent races it is more likely that we will hit you Ziu.  :D ::)

In fact for this occasion I covered the body of my car with lead also if my BMW is a little more heavy now but since you said that i can go under 1:10  ::) what problems i could have ?

I think Geoffers meant 1hr 10mins  ;)

 :lol: :lol: :lol:

No, 1 day 10 hours. ;)

sorry Geoffers, my bad  :oops:

You did a little confusion, it not is  my lap time, it s the gap between me and you when race finish

I’m sorry I won’t be able to make tonight’s race as my brain cell is required to help out our team of six in my Golf Clubs monthly Quiz Night  :smartass: + meal. Someone else will have to come last this week.

I will be OK for next Wednesday’s race and have downloaded the track ready for practice starting tomorrow. I should be super competitive by next Wednesday. The back markers may well see me in their mirrors, following that is, not lapping.  :scooter:

I hope all enjoy their race this evening. :)

Oh I don't think you will be that far behind me!  :laugh:

well, let´s hope you´re right! I am brandnew to your/our Grid and got NO experience on the personal preferences of each driver... some prefer a Drag-Race to the first apex, others (like me) prefer to have a loooooooong first gear and will start rather slowly. This could cause some issues before we even approach the first braking zone.

But let´s just wait and see... and hope for the best possible for each driver ;-)


Nobby

You not have hope that i m right but you have hope which someone not do any mistake for example push brake pedal too much late behind you . Anyway also if the start was on a straght long 2 Km suffice that one doesn t use is mirror to cause a big omelette with others cars

I'm sure that all drivers will be extra careful on the first lap due to cold tyres and unknown braking points of other drivers.

It is a 40 lap race which will not be won on the first lap.

You´re right, probably I am just to nervous and worried about my first appearance/premiere here at simracing.org.uk.
It´s kind of a big deal for me, because I heard that your overall driving-skills are very high here and it´s a tuff and close competition in your events.

My aim/goal is to deliver an acceptable performance and race with some of you guys, making no horrible mistakes and most important: I don´t want to spoil anybodys race ;-)


P.S.: I really can´t wait, got Goosebumps allready ;-)

P.P.S.: I am a bit surprised that not a single driver is practising allready. Could be a sign that all of you are very confidend... which scares me a bit, hehe

Not so true anymore since I am around  :-[

Don't worry too much  you'll be faster than me ;)

tiny fun-fact: the first two drivers to practise were KRAUTS! hehehe  The first to join me on the track had been "Eifelblitz" ;-)

Now I know what "german ANGST" means, muhahaha

I was just about to post almost the very same sentence! (About me, that is, obviously).

My only hope for tonight is that there are extra points for unintentionally-initiated-switching-to-intentionally-maintained drifts. If I get one point for each, I'll lead the championship tonight.
Donington and me, it'll never be a thing. In my list of most disliked corners Donington features twice, Redgate and Coppice (from Wiki). Never, in any car, in any sim, have I taken either with a good feeling. Let alone with a good pace.
Survival Strategy engaged.

Well that didn't go to plan. Clipped the grass at Craner on the right, then left the track at speed and on the grass so no longer in control. Car slammed into barriers miles from the track and the car explodes.

Sorry, Geoff and maybe others. Although I couldn't see anything abnormal on my side, something must've been wrong network wise. Cars jumped backed at me when I got close and others caught up in jumps and bounds. I decided to quit before more mayhem ensued.

Results and replay now posted.

Nobby, please fill out Country in your profile under Driver Details.

Finishing 8th with zero spin is a good result for me  :) (what could I expect with lap times in the 1:14 at best?)
The car is pleasant to drive in my opinion... at least at my "moderate" pace  ;)
Upon looking at the replay I see that I may have slowed the lapping cars a bit too long...  :-[
Sorry about that I will be more cautious (and used to the virtual mirror distortion)

Thanks all for a good evening !

DONE  ;)


First-Race-Summary: I am not to unhappy! Sure: I had been (like expected) way to nervous, couldn´t reach my own lap-times neither during practise nor race. And during the race a made several unneccessary mistakes... but never the less I had been able to go the pace of the midfield-runners, even when my car was damaged. Seniordan gave me a very good lesson (his Nickname is wisly choosen, I guess!), and I am thankfull for that! After a spin I was gaining on him, and on the Start-Finish-Straight I got very close to him, because he braked a bit to late for the Chikane and couldn´t accelerate as he wanted... so at the braking-point he left the door WIIIIIDE open for me and of course I did take this opportunity! But just to miss the apex and go straight over the outside-curbs into the gravel-bed, then over the green, back to the track and right back to the other side "lawnmoving" again! It really took a while to get back to the track AND to calm myself down, but after that the chase was on again. And it went well! I could gain on Seniordan and Fulvio as well as on evilclive2, but just when I caught Seniordan again he spun right in front of me. To sad! After that my race was rather, well not boring, but... there was no more close competition. So I tried to close the gap a bit to the guys in front of me, but gaining a position wasn´t realistic, due to gap of more than 15seconds and only 12laps left. So at some points I lost concentration again and spun, I think in Lap 37 or so... and got lapped by geoffrey. I looked into the mirror, saw Ziubacubacu and did let him pass as well on the long straight.
And then I got my second lesson, which I appreciate even more! Because I was able to stay with these guys for a while, but thankfully I saw where I lost most of my laptimes! It was simply amazing to see how much faster these guys went through the first corner after Start/finish, my racing-line was terribly wrong, as well as my braking-point has been.
In Lap 38 then came the big surprise for me: evilclive2 spun and lost a huge amount of time, so I was only meters behind him when he rejoined the track (approximatly 80-100m). A new Goal was set, 1,5Laps still to go! In the chikane I came very, very, veeeerry close to him and had the chance to PRESS him off the line... but I thought by myself: "NO! He really deserved to see the checkered flag in front of you, he was quicker during nearly the whole race! AND, it is your first race here... be gentle and kind: this is not ALTBIERBUDE!!!" ;-)

So, after all... it was a very nice expirience for me to race with you guys and I hope this series/league is able to find some more drivers to take part. It´s really worth it, the Cars are magnificent, the choosen tracks are awesome, the behavior of all drivers on the track is remarkably well ... everything´s perfect in my opinion!

Glad to found my way to simracing.org.uk


Nobby

Grats to Geoffers THE OLD FOSSIL for win

Grats to Erling THE PROFESSOR for podium

Grats to Ziu for Donkey Award

Well we are glad that you enjoyed your first event with us. Finding new drivers is as rare as hens teeth so we like it when new drivers have a positive experience with us. We cannot take credit for the track selection. These are the tracks actually used in the 1980's Procar competition, or as near as we can manage. We do like to think that the behaviour of our drivers is just a little bit better then found elsewhere.
It's a shame that you do not seem inclined to try our other racing series. Each has a unique format and I think if you gave them a go it would be a nice suprise to you.
Still glad you had a good time and perhaps we will see you again soon.

Grats to the podium regulars  ::) and welcome to Norbert.

Well, I am glad that someone likes these cars, coz I find them a total mystery  :-\. I spend all of my energy and concentration on just keeping the beasts on the grey stuff and pointing generally in the right direction, so I have no brain capacity left for actually racing  :wacko:

I somehow squeeked a PB in qualifying and found myself amongst the fast brigade at the front of the grid......not a good plan for me in these cars!! I was able to tail Geoffers and Ziu for a few laps because they were fighting over each corner. But, I had Erling behind and quite plainly he was much more comfortable in his car than I was in mine. So when he got close enough I intended to let him pass and try and tag along. As it happens, I managed to throw my car off the circuit at just the right moment to allow him to pass  ;) and give him a clear track to aim at. I'm generous like that  :angel:

I did my best to wrestle the car and almost stay with Erling for several laps but it soon became obvious that if I continued my wild driving I would run out of rubber way before the end of the race. So I attempted to ease off and protect the tyres a little and allowed Erling to pull away. Things were looking good for a possible 4th place, which was way better than I had hoped for before the race started.
Norbert and Fulvio were  having their own battle behind and I managed to build a comfortable safety cushion until...........about 5 laps from the end the tyres just gave up all grip and I was fighting a car that did not want to stop/slow down/turn in/ keep the tail behind the front/ accelerate without spearing off into the boondocks or travel in a straight line??!!!
Several spins and slides allowed Fulvio to catch and pass me easily and I almost lost 5th place to Norbert who was closing fast on the last lap. I was indeed fortunate to have been lapped, because it saved me from completing another lap where Norbert would have passed me easily.

Aaahhh, so good to be back in Clive's old favorites...  ;D - been looking forward to that since our first series with these back in 2016.

Didn't have a good qualifying; had done a couple of 10.9 laps offline, but those were not easy to come by for me.  Last lap was interesting however, as my fastest up to that was an 11.2, and the final split showed -0.500. Would have been enough to steal pole from the two aliens, but regrettably I screwed up the chicane and lost all the time gained.  Might've doesn't count, so 4th behind Clive it was.

Kept my position at the start and set about harassing Clive.  He braked earlier than I would do, so had to be real careful not to bump him off, while still staying close enough to make a move, should an opportunity arise - do like Donny Nat, but it's almost impossible to overtake on, unless the driver in front makes a mistake.  As Clive mentions, after several laps he eventually ran wide, letting me slip past.  Slowly stretched the gap over many following laps, and the race turned quite lonely.  Started lapping people sooner than expected; thanks for helping me past.

Late in the race, I lapped Dom.  He seemed to slipstream me down the straight, and I was alarmed to see his rate of closure in my mirrors under braking (Remove that snicker Clive..).  I veered right, to get out of harms way, although it cost me a cut warning. 

Grats to Geoffers on the win, and the donkey for taking second  ;)   Was surprised to find them only 12 secs ahead at the end; I thought they were much further ahead (Couldn't see the upper part of the pit board, as it was obscured by XD)

Big welcome to Norbert; sounds like you've found a home  :)

No need to apologise Dom, your car was running smoothly at my end, it was totally my mistake that I went off when I caught up with you, simply stood on the brakes too hard & locked up.

Honestly surprised that pole wasn't in the 1.09s, I had managed mid 1.10s in testing with the Procar with 20 laps of fuel & quite expected a Gr4 or GTO car to be faster with qually fuel. So getting pole was a bonus. :o

Got quite a decent start & led for a couple of laps but made a poor job of the chicane on the 2nd lap & Ziu got a good run on me into Redgate, he nipped through on the inside but went a bit too deep & I got him back on the exit. The next dozen or so laps saw the gap between us hover around 1s then Ziu had a moment at Redgate & the gap jumped to around 3.5s. Managed to open that to over 5s when I caught Dom as mentioned above, just regained the track before Ziu appeared & the gap was back to 1s. A few laps later Ziu repeated his Redgate error & the lead was back to 5s.

The remaining laps became more tricky as the brakes got more & more inclined to lock so I had to brake earlier & gentler, this allowed Ziu to get closer & I was rather relieved to see the finish with less than a second in hand. :sweatdrop:

Congrats to Ziu & Erling on the podium  :clap: :clap: & thanks to all who made room when being lapped.

Big welcome to Nobby, hope you will join us for the other races, not just the M1 series.  :thumbup1:

Result (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/Donington Park National_23012019)

8)

Thanks Kurt  :thumbup1:

Ouh, that's great!

Huge thanks dir this Service.

That was just the thing, from my perspective both these incidents or almost incidents looked quite different. I had the very same thing when I first attempted to overtake Bob and in lap 2 I went wide thrice for no reason whatsoever. The thing is that at times my visuals didn't depict where my car actually was. To me, Coyote (or Bob) was long gone and miles away until suddenly I was almost on top of either. Same thing in lap 2 when I was suddenly much deeper into a corner than a fraction earlier.

My penny dropped after the race. It's exactly the same issue I had a couple of years ago with GT Legends (and only GTL) which Geoffers might remember when I came damn near to dropping GTL forever. But with that memory at least I now know that this is an ISP issue. After some lenghty calls -try finding someone on what passes for service these days who understands how important strict signal continuity is for simracing- I've gotten through to someone who seemed to get it and I've gotten the assurance it'll be looked into promptly. Here's hoping this is a one off because otherwise it's just too dangerous to race.

One more dammit thus. I was in the 1.11 crowd (just barely, but still) and it looked like the race was going to be both great fun and relatively successful. Until life put its middle finger up to me for the 13,147,984th time and another opportunity went out of the window. It's almost funny....

Sorry to hear about your problems Dom.  One more thing worth checking is your connection speed setting in GTL (Found in the bottom of the server connection screen).  Someone here recently had lag-like issues, and found the connection speed setting was set too low. Upping it helped I believe.