SimRacing.org.uk

Grid/server capacity: 15

Track: Spa-Francorchamps  

Cars allowed: 3 No. in each of the five car groups.

Cars not allocated:0 (Further entries will still be accepted if made before Dec. 22nd)

Practice: ~18:00 GMT (60 mins)
Qualifying: 19:00 GMT (15 mins) One attempt at a timed lap only
Race: 19:15 GMT (36 laps)

All times are GMT

Time of Day Setting: 15:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: x2
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit stops: Required

Server: simracing.org.uk XMAS
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: The flag man is full of Christmas good cheer and drops the flag too early. To avoid a DQ for false start please make sure you have auto countdown on.

Car Group choice

Each Car Group has been assigned four random number's (between 01-20) which will not change and are known only to myself.

Beginning at 14:00 (GMT) on Sunday, November 1st, drivers wishing to take part, will send me a pm containing one number (01-20). Pm's received will be dealt with on a strict, first come, first served, basis. Pm's received before 14:00 (GMT) on November 1st will be ignored.

On receipt of your number, I will assign you your Car Group. If the chosen Car Group is full, you will be placed in the next available Car Group determined by adding 1 to your given number (and repeated until a free Car Group space is able to be allocated).

This process will repeat until Fourteen Car Group places have been allocated or we reach December 23rd (whichever occurs soonest).

I will take my choice from any un-allocated Car Group places

I will release the Car/Track pack and the Driver's Car Group roster detailing which driver's are in each Car Group, by December 23rd (or sooner, if possible).

You are basically racing against the other driver's in your Car Group but obviously there will be an overall results table as well.

Entries for the Christmas Special now being accepted.

One Car Group now filled and it's an epic trio of drivers  :o

We now have a full grid but late entries will be accepted if made before December 22nd.

Still not too late to enter this epic event, but hurry.

I can hardly think of any good reason why any of the other competitors would invest time in preparing for this race in their pathetic  limping machinery as I clearly foresee a glorious 1, 2, 3 for Clive , Andy and myself in our brilliant Capris !

Merry Christmas everyone,
                                          Dan

Pah, hardly worth turning up if I'm only racing for 4th place.  ::)

I fear that my involvement has been sabotaged even before it starts Dan!!
Currently downloading the car/track pack on a high spec PC with 500mb internet connection and I am being told that it will take 2hrs+??!! Surely the file isn't that big??

As for posting about any probs this PM, as requested by his lordship Mr Tony, I shall be lucky to try it out before Boxing Day  :-\

Download should take about 5mins. Try it at another time of day.

There is definitely something amiss. Been running for over 30 mins and not even 30% d/loaded!!! Will call back later  :-\

Took me around 7-8 mins to download.

This is going to be proper endurance racing, taking care of the car. The BMW engine won't last if driven flat out, need to change up early & not take it to the limiter all the time.  :o

Alternate D/L if anyone needs it:

Please pm phspok for quicker download link

Matt, YGM

Rog is having some problems with the Ford Capri.

Anyone else having a problem if they try to drive it?

My Capri no.29 is ok but it takes a while before it is loaded into the game. so patience's the word.

Thanks Dan. He doesn't see any of the Capri's in the spinning showroom, so I think it's problem unique to him.

Got Matt's d/load link and a distinct improvement  :).
Zip file downloaded in about 10 secs, extracted in 20 secs. Just need to create a virgin GTL copy and install new GAMEDATA folder. Will report back if there are any issues with Capri here.

After waiting for the car to appear in the showroom (it doesn't, but the little timer goes away), I click to go to track and CTD. Tried with fresh install with the new GameData folder and does it again with both my #30 and #29. I see that #30 is a 2600GT and the other Capris are 2300GT. Is that ok?

That is what I have for the Capris, Andy. 2 x 2300 and 1x2600 ( Dan obviously has a VIP pass  ::) ).

As this is a dedicated car set and I have created a stand alone GTL install to run it, I allowed the new GAMEDATA to overwrite everything. Then, I deleted the original GTC-TC-76 folder and replaced it with the one in the download. So, now my GTC-TC-76 only has the cars for this event. Simply bought the cars and tried a few hundred metres up through Eau Rouge.


Just did a quick test and all appears to be fine.

There is an error with the Capri classification. I will send out a patch tomorrow. They should all be 2600GT's

Like my Vauxhall, a Parisian one as well  ;D

This reads just like Rog's problem.

Andy, would you be able to pm a trace file to me please?

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=13381.msg241379#msg241379

The server will have Mechanical Failures turned off so all cars will have 100% engine health which will never change. You can still damage suspension and lose wheels though. So the cars won't be totally bomb proof.

We are still having a problem with two of the Capri driver's being unable to run their cars.

If this cannot be resolved expediently, I will remove the Capri's from the competition.

The three driver's affected will be assigned new drives by adding +1 to their original lottery number.

This will mean that some car groups will have more than three drivers.

I hope that you agree that this is the best solution that can be achieved in the short time remaining before the race.

I will keep you updated.

Oh, shame. Added an extra dynamic to the event.

Have to agree with Geoffers here, unless it's completely hopeless to run the cars without this ?

I am not experienced enough with GTL stuff to know how draconian the random mechanical failures might be. But, I was kind of expecting an endurance event to require that the drivers "look after" their cars and don't simply hot lap for 2.5hrs?

I will try the Capri update in a short while and report back. If anyone was going to have an issue I expected it to be me  ::), does this mean that I am becoming computer literate??

In it's strongest setting, Mechanical Failures provides a "random failure" to any number of driver's during an event. This could mean an engine blow up, brake failure, suspension failure, clutch, electronics etc etc.

We (to the best of my knowledge) have never used it. I did raise the possibility of trying it for a distant series, but was shouted down. Driver's were of the opinion that they didn't spend time practicing for an event just to be knocked out of a race for no fault of there own. I argued that it did make the sim more "real" but left it that.

We currently use a more moderate setting that takes into account engine abuse only. But most drivers flip in and out of the pits (at the start line) until their engine health is at 100% or thereabouts.

I will be turning it off for this event as not all of the makes have the same engine health issues and I want drivers to be going as fast as they can without having to consider whether their engines are about to expire or not.

Sorry if that's not popular with everyone but I think it's fairer that way.

 :thumbup1:

No probs here either.
Like I said, I don't know enough about the GTL damage model to make any sort of comment/judgement.


[/size]


P.S. A simple solution to not wasting time practising for an event and then get a random failure??.........Be like me and   Don't practice  ;D

I found the Big Vauxhall took some engine damage in manual clutch without a lot of care
Running with auto clutch was no problem

IMPORTANT

After some online testing, we have found an unsolvable issue with the Ford Capri and therefore it is to be withdrawn from this competition.

Would everyone please delete their Ford 2020CS folder please.

I will be pm'ing the Driver's due to take the Ford Capri to assign them other drives.

The Driver roster will be updated in due course to reflect this change.

Doh!!! Just spent an hour practising and getting the beast down to 3:53secs on full tanks.


Didn't someone say something about wasting time practising for these events!!  lol

What was the problem Tony? From my end the car was OK, the brakes were of less use than a wet noodle, but it appeared to be fine.

We found that anyone who could not see the Capri in the spinning showroom could also not join online if a Capri was already on track running or turned up after they had joined. They would get a CTD.

Ah! Now I understand the problem.

I was thinking that there was a problem with the car physics on track, but could not quite fathom how that could be if my Capri was driving OK.   Not that you would expect me to fathom anything computer related  ::)

I have installed my G25/G27 and I am all set to go on my old PC but when I try to download the car/track files for the Christmas Special the web site says “something appears to be missing” (the key provided...) and I see that Norton has blocked it as “Dangerous Website Blocked”  ??? so not having much luck with this one. I have to save the files on my new PC and transfer them on a memory stick to my old one. However I did manage to download the Capri update.

BTW I hope all had a good Christmas Day despite COVID19.

Mike

Mike, I have already replied to this via pm. Please don't duplicate messages sent in pm's to the forum.

hiho

Can I see somewhere the best times of each car on this track?

cheers

Unfortunately we don't have a feature like that here  :no:

But we could ask drivers to post their bestest times  :yes:

Well my best time at this track is 3:17.

But that was in UKGPL and using a '67 Ferrari 312, so maybe not really relevant.  Now I have to forget my practice with the dodgy Capri and start again with the somewhat different Alfa  :-\.

Well I haven't yet matched Clive's Capri time in the BMW, best I have so far is 3.55.0.

I managed a 3:57 once in the Opel

(https://phspok1.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Race/MatMasta1.jpg)
(https://phspok1.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Race/MattBurneville2.jpg)

Great snaps Matt  :thumbup1:

Tomorrow I'll post the times I have in all cars throughout testing.

Be nice if Micha posted a time (hint, hint)

hmm, ok, then my 3:56 in the Alfa looks pretty good.... :)

cheers

In testing (with full fuel) I recorded the following times

Opel - 3:56
Chevrolet - 3:57
BMW - 3:58
Alfa - 3:58

I dare say that faster drivers will shave 3 to 4 secs of these times.

Remember that time can be lost with clumsy pit stops so practice those.

Also need to remind drivers that they only get to do one hot lap in qualifying!

@Ziu That's because you are in sunny Sardinia, and I am in cold and damp Rochdale
And, there may be an element of  :alien: in the mix....

You sure that here are sunny ? Go to see weather Capoterra and you will see how is bad here.

PS:
Matt are you sure that you got your lap with an Opel ? On your pictures i see you with a Fiat Brava ::)

Hehe

The Fiat was a Dutch hire car 15 years ago..... and I got stuck in the snow at Stavelot, and some kind Belgian guys dragged me out
with their 4WD. Not my best lap I must say  ::)

3:59.4 for me in the Alfa so far.

If anyone fancies some pre Wednesday testing, I’ll be on the server at about 8.00 for some practice and to see how the connection holds

Dan

I think I'll come, to try the car and learn the track.  :P

After long 40 laps driving, and driving, and changing the setup i was able to finally make 3:55.4 with the BMW with full tank. Consistency will be the key here.

I'm into the 54s with the Opel; not with a full tank though.

I expect 1.58 laps will be good for the win. As Dimitar said: consistency is the word and there a so many spots to ruin your race in a split second. I doubt if I’ll see the finish line myself.
Oh, I touched 1.55 on a full tank.

Ps.in case of an off into the green world, keep looking for an opening, there are some like the one at the hairpin.

Guy's

Remember to have auto countdown turned ON and ignore the flag man.

No silliness for the first lap please. It's a long race.

Enjoy  :thumbup2:

........ and don't forget the earlier start times. You don't want to miss the fun  ::)

Problem here, BMW does not show up when I try to join the server, Alfa, Camaro & Opel do, but no BMW. Tried reinstalling the cars but makes no difference!

two beemers on the server now, try using Dimi's or Ziu's

No BMWs at all show up.

can you use another car?

I'll delay qualy for 15 mins

Yes I can choose any of the others, just not the BMW. It works offline fine but not online. ???

Can you take the Opel?

I'll give it a miss, cya all on Monday, have a good one.

Lost connection near end of lap1. I was still driving, but all other cars disappeared.

I lost connection on about lap 19, but I had been lapped by everyone  ::)

lost connection with the host lap 20.

Everyone dissapear on Lap 19, appear again and dissapear again

Maybe we can have restart with 17 laps to go?

Lost connection here too

It kept 4 on the server by the looks of it in lobby. But a few of us went at the same time unfortunately.

Yep, lap 20/21 all the gaps on my readout went crazy and 20secs later "lost connection with server".

good fun whilst it lasted , thanks guys. maybe we run it again next week?  lol  ::)

Lost Connection in Lap 20   :o

Glück auf!

I suppose the server felt sorry that Geoffers couldn't join and now there will be a rerun soon ?

Re-run in the future sounds great.

Guys, that was really fun, even if the Alfa and I are not becoming friends anymore.
A stupid little mistake and flew off badly, dragging someone with me into the disaster,  :oops: sorry for that.
And to top it all, I pressed the wrong button for the limiter at the pit stop and got a stop and go, I guess it wasn't my race.
Come all well into the new year and stay healthy

Glück auf!  :sorcerer:

In retrospect Andy, maybe you and Geoffers were the lucky ones. Most of us battled for 90minutes and completed stressful pitstops to get to lap 20, only to suffer the same fate when the server decided to throw a fit and dump us back to the lobby  :-\

Well I never got any disconnect messages; just suspected I was  alone by lap 21/22, but didn't dare stop, so completed the race.  All other drivers were still listed, but they were not to be seen on track.  Weird indeed and quite a disappointment, as I seemed to be in a good position when it happened  :'(

Yeah, same here. I didn't left the server but all the cars disappear.  :-\

I saw all the disco messages and then only Matt, Ziu and me were on standing. Then I stopped my car at pit and leave cause almost half race with only three cars alone wasn't the case. Erling on what server had you continued the race?  ??? ;D
Watching my replay spotted the Tony and Misnoimis pantomine at Radillon  :laugh:

Seems I did not miss too much!  Shame you guys had problems, very frustrating.

Totally baffled by my problem, the BMW 2800 was completely absent from the car choice menu when I tried to join the server. The other 3 cars were there & I could join with both the Alfa & the Opel & I could see both of the other two BMWs. The BMW works perfectly offline.

I tried reinstalling overwriting the files, deleting the 4 cars & reinstalling & even tried deleting the default BMW in case it was causing a conflict, but nothing made the 2800 show up.  ???

Thanks Tony for allowing me to take an alternative car, but as I had not practiced with any of the others I would not have been comfortable driving them & would probably have got in the way & caused an accident. Didn't want to spoil someone else's race.

You would have had no trouble with the Opel Geoff, default settings were the easiest drive of all the cars
very stable, but the slowest car on the straights. Did corners easier than the others though.

When everyone left I was still trying to pace Fulvio. Ziu seemed to be a long way behind, can't remember
whether he stopped or not. Then Fulvio went off to the little boys room, and left Ziu and I to see if we could
complete 36 laps at race speed, which for me was part of the challenge. Some brilliant racing up to the
mass exodus, real shame that it ended as it did. My replay has all the cars, but they are invisible
Is there a server replay? WOuld be good to watch the story as far as it went.

Love the track, had a good start but already damaged my suspension during the first two laps and fell way back.

Shame that the season 2020 ended like this  :wacko:

Would like to thank Tony and all involved for all their work during another great season at UKGTL.  :thumbup1: :punk: :rockon:

See you next year !

A very poor reintroduction to sim-racing after a long lay off for me. I was so far off the pace and even my attempts to use the race for practice failed miserably. My car seemed to pick up speed more slowly than most others I observed and when I tried to match their cornering speeds the car tended to drift wide sliding up banks or smiting fences and spinning round blocking the track (sorry to Tony). Although I did not really know the track it was obvious that my driving wasn't up to it so after about my sixth spin and stall I hit the escape key to get out off the way of a fast approaching car and avoid causing further havoc.

I think I would have really enjoyed the experience if I was up to speed and could have raced with someone  but I guess I have to do a lot more practice.

I will revisit GTL and find a track where one of my old timed laps is recorded from some years ago and using the same car see how I do now. Hopefully I can close the gap with practice and make it worth me sim-racing online again.

Sorry to hear the race crashed and was not finished but it sounds like most drivers had fun while it lasted.

Matt if you reopen your replay after have completely closed GTL after the race, you can see all the cars.
We had some laps together till my first pit after 12 laps, I had planned two pit stops to refuel 120 litre. Camaro needs almost 10 litre for lap, so 360 for the race, but I spun braking to enter pit and hit the wall inside so upset for the time wasted I forgot to disable change tires and lost contact with Matt. I had planned to change tires in the second pit if needed and in the meantime run in the bath  ;D, but  at 20 lap when almost all were discoed I had to stop and run in the bath  :wheelchair:

Opel was 5.3 litres/lap acording to XD. My Fuel gauge at max only read 1/2, so not sure why that was.
Some good tussles with MichaW, then a bit with Clive who was faster, and Ziu had an unfortunate off
though Micha's was more spectacular..  ::)

Thanks Fulvio, I have seen that before, but I'm not at that house today

Well, what can I say  :cursing:

Just when I thought 2020 couldn't get any worse, my beloved GTL decides to kick me in the  :censored:

The results are pending, please be patient.

Dimi, the replay shows you creeping forward at the start so I guess that is why you gained a stop/go.

Misnoimis, no worries at all mate, I've done worse (ask Erling). Yes, I was hacked at the time but these things happen. What I would say is when your stranded mid track don't try to get out of the way. Stay put until approaching traffic has passed, then recover your car. But please join us again soon.

More from me when I get the results finished.

Yes Tony, i saw the replay and that the car was moving slowly forward. So unlucky there but it happens.

It was a great race though. Even though the Stop/Go penalty i had good chases with Dan at the beginning and with Micha after the pit stop. I was gaining few positions and even though i was slow meybe i had a chance for top 7 finish.

See you guys in i hope wonderful 2021! :)

Your car go slowly forward since you decided to start with gear 1 on, if you started from Neutral your car was stopped on start line

Great race for me as long as it lasted.  Qual hotlap was a new pb, which was fortunate, as I wouldn't have secured pole otherwise - not that starting position meant much in a race like this. 

Daz was soon through the field, and we had a great tussle over the early laps. Just as it seemed he was getting decisively away, he got out of shape leaving the hairpin, allowing me to catch up and pass, starting the slipstreaming battle all over again. A few laps later, he put a rear paw outside the track at Stavelot, lost the rear and crashed, regrettably ending our duel. Surprised his car survived, as it looked a bad shunt.

Pit plan was fuel + tyres on lap 13, and fuel only on lap 26.  Rejoined in 5th after the first stop, regaining places as those in front did their stops. Eventually back in the lead, with a 30-40 sec. lead. Things looking promising then, when on lap 21 or 22, the pit board suddenly showed '+1LAP'.  Puzzled, as this could hardly be right.  Next lap it was '+2LAPS', and I got the sinking feeling I had lost connection.  Didn't see any other cars, no messages were posted, and I got no reply to a question I typed myself, all confirming I was alone. Still, as long as I didn't get any disconnect messages, I didn't dare stop, so went on and completed all 36 laps.  In the results, all drivers were still listed, with their fastest laps, but I couldn't view their cars on track.  In the replay, all disappears t the same time. Just strange I didn't get any disconnect messages.

Dimitar, as Ziu suggests, when starting on an incline, wait until the countdown is almost ended before pressing the clutch & shifting into 1st - that way the car won't creep enough forward for you to get a jump start penalty.

Results and replay now posted.

Happy New Year all  :balloon: :balloon: :balloon:

Yes, Happy New Year to everyone - and big thanks to Tony and anyone else involved in organizing this!  :balloon:

Happy New Year all.
Thanks for all the work Tony.  ;)

Happy New Year and happy races to all

Matt i hope that 2021 bring to you many fat rabbits !

Better than Fat Rabbis  :clown:

 :thumbup1:

Result (https://www.avonrise.co.uk/srou/kurts/_2020//30122020_70Spa)

8)

Results are wrong as the whole distance is shown.

But when you look at lap 19 or 20, the graph shows the correct one.

Happy new year.

As a new years gift - due to a self caused mistake - I have to try to repair my Linux install ...  :P

Clive,
         Did you accidentally check the "combined pedals" box instead of  separate pedals. in the control centre or in game?