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Season 35 Sport Cars Extra Cup – Round 8 – Brands Hatch
 

The 8th round of the Season 35 SCx races finds us at Brands Hatch in Kent, England. The full Grand Prix circuit was created in 1960. The British Grand Prix has been held at Brands Hatch on 12 occasions and the European Grand Prix has been held there twice.  The 1966 Grand Prix was won by Jack Brabham and the 1968 race by Jo Siffert driving a Brabham Repco BT19 and a Lotus-Cosworth 49B respectively.  There have also been numerous non-championship Formula 1 races most notably the Race of Champions in 1967 which was won by Dan Gurney in the Eagle-Weslake T1G..

The Sports Cars Extra mod is new for UKGPL this season.
Please check the Season 35 pages for details (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=689&theme=6) regarding rules and the Sports Cars Extra pages (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=693&theme=6) in particular.
Drivers must complete 50% of each race to score points.

Each driver must select two cars at the start of his season.
The choices must be declared in the race post for the first round you compete in.
- Professional drivers, the combined ranking points for the cars should amount to at least 6 points.
- Amateur drivers, the combined ranking points for the cars should amount to at least 5 points.
The car with the higher rank points must be used at least as many times as the car with the lower rank points.

Race List	=	IGOR
Server	=	UKGPL_8
IP Address	=	look at IGOR
Race date	=	10-11-2019
GPL mod	=	SCX
60fps patch used	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track directory	=	brands67 (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=6810)
Qualification	=	20:45  UK time -> 45min
Race	=	race starts at ~21:30 UK time
Race length	=	~50 min -> 34 laps
Damage Model	=	Int (Amateurs have 1x shift+r allowed, followed by a stop+go in the pits.)
Replay	=	here (https://www.sendspace.com/file/dgy432)

Car choices so far:

Driver	-  Car 1	+  Car 2
Ziu Bacubacu	-  Ferrari 330 P4	+ 1x Alfa Romeo T33
Tim Muttram	- 2x Lola T70 MK III	+ 3x Alfa Romeo T33
Axel Cookie	- 4x Ford GT40 MK IV	+ 4x Ford GT40 MK IIb
EvilClive	- 3x Ferrari 330 P4	+ 5x Porsche 910-8
francesco	- 5x Ferrari 330 P4	+ 3x Ford GT40 MK IV
Dave Rainier	- 1x  Ferrari 330 P4	+ Mirage M1
Fulvio Policardi	- 3x Ferrari 330 P4	+ 4x Porsche 910-8
Tristan Bot	- 4x Lola T70 MK III	+ 3x Porsche 910-8
Phil Thornton	- 3x  Ferrari 330 P4	+ 5x Ford GT40 MK IV
Gregory Taber	- 2xChaparral 2F	+ 4x Ford GT40 MK I
JonnyO	- 1x  Mirage M1	+ Alfa Romeo T33
Uli	- 3x Lola T70 MK III	+ 2x Porsche 910-8

GLA + FUN

Strange reactin of my wheel at lap 20,blocked on the right.

Unlucky Fran. We were having a good battle.

I feel that I must apologise to Uli for the contact at Clearways  :(  I saw a gap on the inside and had more momentum so I...……..

 Put in a report and let the moderators do their stuff.

Without my error was possible but you are stronger.

not finish the first lap !!..... got a freeze !...

Shame Tris, do you have the track fix?
 Look in thread link -> http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=6810

When you have the bump at pit exit = old unfixed track!!!

Great fun race here, but some mistakes and 0.1 litre left at the line...

Congrats Clive, Uli, and Fulvio!


That sucked! I got the same. :(

I'm fairly sure I got the right track installed. In my folder of saved tracks, I have the same file as in Axel's link.

That looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. I had three drivers I may have raced from start to finish. I'd have liked to seen what I could have done against Axel, Fulvio, or Phil.

I hope the next one is better.

No luck with the Porsche again :(
nP Evil, such things may happen, but we could have had much more fun, if not
For sure I‘m disappointed, as I am with the constant small grid here but my main prob was the low fps rate at the first three laps - sometimes only 43!  :-\

I was feeling quite good about this race as I had an old Porsche setup that felt absolutely solid and predictable, so I did quali on race fuel and squeezed onto the grid in 3rd place amongst all the other Porkers, knowing that I should be competitive.

But....there is always a "BUT" lol my old brain was struggling with learning a new skill. I have been using my G25 with the shifter set in sequential mode for several years, but last week it started showing signs of fatigue. I was getting missed gearchanges/double gearchanges/ false neutrals etc and things were just about undriveable. I could not revert to the paddle gearchange because one of those had failed in the past forcing me to use the sequential shifter  :-\. In desperation I switched things to "H" shift and discovered that, although it felt really odd, at least the gearchanges were reliable. I guess because the gear lever stayed in position against the micro switch?. It is not often that I practice for a race, but I did a couple of sessions trying to master the H shift for this event. I was probably about 85% competent with the gearchanges by the start of this race.

The plan was to stay with Uli and Tris for the first laps and see if the 3 of us could get away from the field. Then, once  there was a safety cushion behind me, I could look at making a challenge. That all changed when Tris disco'd on lap 2, that was really tough luck Tris as this track is usually very solid.
So, it was Uli and myself starting lap 3 and already there was a gap back to Axel in his Ford GT. Although we were in similar cars, there were a few areas where I felt I was quicker than Uli on a heavy fuel and thought I might get a chance to pass. Which is how things happened badly at Clearways.
I had a good exit from Stirling's and was close behind Uli as we braked for Clearways. Uli's appeared to take an early apex and that eased him wide on the exit, whereas I took a slightly later apex and carried a little more momentum to exit towards the inside. My extra speed was carrying me towards a gap that might leave me on the inside for Paddock Hill, so I nailed the gas. But just as I got my nose alongside Uli eased back across to hit that second apex by the pit entry and the rest is history  :-\
I was surprised to find myself on 4 wheels which were all still attached and facing more or less in the correct direction when things stopped spinning. I set off again with Axel and Fulvio now much closer.
The incident with Uli had upset my rhythm with the H shifter and I was snatching at the changes and missing gears (no fault of the hardware, 100% operator error!!). For the next few laps I was making mistake after mistake with the gears, especially at the end of the straight where I hit neutral instead of 3rd on 3 or 4 consecutive laps. On one occasion the car was launched onto the grass bank and I thought that I was stranded and my race was over  :( but I managed to wriggle the car off and rejoin the race having lost a few places.
Prib was now showing Axel and Fulvio ahead and I was relieved to see that Uli was still in the race just a few places behind. I realised that I had to focus on my gearshifts or it was going to end my race, so the next few laps were very controlled until I got my rhythm back. Then I closed the gap to Fulvio and Axel much more quickly than I had expected.
I expected there to be a prolonged battle to get past the pair of cars but I found myself an inside line into Druids? against Fulvio and stole 2nd spot and a lap later Axel ran wide at Surtees gifting me the lead again.
Interestingly, when I was running behind other cars, my engine temp went into the red??? but once in clear air my laptimes were quicker but the temp dropped again. Not sure if this is something that the modders have done with this new Sports Car mod...probably just me ::)

From that moment I was able to ease away with the occasional gearchange glitch and manage the race to the end without really pushing too hard, except for a few laps where I though that I had eased off too much and Uli started to close from his 2nd place.

Grats to all finishers and commiserations to those who had freezes or mishaps. I think Brands Hatch is simply Porsche heaven and where it suits the Porker it does not suit any other car quite as well, except maybe the Lola?

Axel, did you think about using the Pit Stop Patch? It is one of the allowable patches (see rules (https://www.ukgpl.com/index.php/rules/game) page). Although you didn't run completely dry I know you were struggling for a few laps. It was probably the right decision to carry on but you wouldn't have got another lap in.

Would there be any interest in a Sports Cars race with a mandatory fuel stop? It could be very interesting and authentic!

Yes Phil,
the pit stop patch is allready included in the SCX mod!

I have no mod specific files in my race install, so the general fuel consumption was too low calculated for BH.
The laps fighting with some Porkies did not help, as I used the engine to its limits...

I would certainly be interested in a race with mandatory pitstops. Maybe there is an excuse to try this over the Christmas break with a proper endurance race???

1000km of Spa!
full GP length!

LOL 71 laps? That would be about 5 hours judging by the original race pace (https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/database/races/1967-spa-1000kms).  I'd need several comfort breaks!!!

I think a one hour race would be my limit  ;)

A Spa67 GP has 27 laps
and needs ~ 1:35 hours

but we should allow resets...
GeLi did it: http://www.ferdischulze.de/2019_geli/reports/geli_spa67_2019-06-28/Race.html

We'd have to think carefully about the rules. A shift-R results in an immediate complete refuel (no refuelling time).

Just a thought here Phil....with me involved that could be dangerous  ::). I can see problems with allowing a Shift-R and drivers getting a free refuel, but equally if we don't allow a reset there might be a lot of cars missing by half distance??? and a lonely race for those who are left??

Phil, can we not adapt your old and trusty, Pit Stop Spreadsheet to calculate the time required in the pits and then set out a list of mandatory pit stop times for all of the cars?? Then if someone does a S/R, that is OK, but they still have to complete a timed stop.

I am wondering if by having the "Pit stop Patch" activated in the game, it solves the problem of the 30 second automatic disco, which was the problem in the past, or will it simply force an automatic pitstop upon any car entering the pitlane?

Clive if you stop your car on your pit stall you can stay there in ethernum. That's why with Pit Patch you can refuel.
Anyway about my race, I had to set the Porsche with  a 4 gears setup for the race cause 5th on my shifter doesn't hold in place and I blew a pair of engines in qualy, same fault at Road America while I was  third...and bye bye champ standing  :'(
I have tried to disable shifter at Le Mans to operate with paddles but that disabled also Pribluda, any suggest to solve that?  ???
Ciao