SimRacing.org.uk

Season 37 – 1955 Grand Prix – Round 5 – Reims
The fifth race in the 1955 Grand Prix series finds us at Reims in France.  The circuit is basically several long straights with a couple of hairpins and a few cornfields. Catching a tow is what this track is about. It normally produces close racing. Reims-Gueux was first established in 1926 on the public roads between the small French villages of Thillois and Gueux. The circuit had two very long straights between the towns, and teams strove to maximize straight-line speed of their cars; many slipstream battles ensued. Race organizers actually felled trees and demolished old houses in order to make the circuit even quicker. International racing came with the first official Formula One event occurring in 1950, the inaugural year of the Formula One world championship. The circuit layout was shortened and changed in 1952 to bypass the town. In the 1954 race, the long-awaited Mercedes W196 with its straight-8 fuel-injection engine made its debut with Juan Manuel Fangio transferring from Maserati to join an otherwise all-German line-up of Hans Herrmann, Karl Kling and pre-war driver Hermann Lang. It was a dominant return with Fangio recording a practice lap of 124.31 mph. He and Kling led away and continued to race side by side around the Reims track. The Ferrari drivers simply couldn't cope with the pace. There was no race at Reims in 1955 and when the Grand Prix circus returned in 1956, it was without the silver arrows. Fangio dominated again but this time in a resurgent Ferrari team who's drivers also claimed the remaining podium places.
 
Please read the championship specific rules on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=1112&theme=6).

Race list	iGOR
Server	UKGPL_4
IP address	77.102.28.179
Date	04-10-2020
Track	reims (http://gpltd.bcsims.com/include/downloadtrack.php?&track=reims&track_link=/tracks/reims_gpl.zip)
Mod	55GP with 60fpsV2newmod
Damage	PRO long
Race time	~ 21:30 UK time
Qualifying	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race length	19 laps
Replay	here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qYndyXlADvqilYhcY3La1d-cPHAOcGKA/view?usp=sharing)

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=1112&theme=6)

Handicapping and chassis allocation.
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=1112&theme=6). Drivers classed as Privateers will be allocated an additional 10 tokens.  The tokens available to each driver 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
Alain Maurice	13	Works
bagrupp	13	Works
Clive Loynes	25	Works
Cookie	5	Works
Doni Yourth	25	Works
Dulima	25	Works
Enrique Farina	25	Works
EvilClive	23	Works
fpolicardi	2	Works
Gareth	5	Works
JonnyO	20	Works
Phil Thornton	20	Works
Raoni Frizzo	20	Works
Albert Hallu	20	Privateer
bernie	9	Privateer
covisi2016	10	Privateer
Daniel_San	20	Privateer
francesco	10	Privateer
maddog	15	Privateer
maestro57	18	Privateer
PaulV	10	Privateer
Ricardo Valim da Silva	15	Privateer
tagomago	20	Privateer

Note: In the last round JonnyO's Mercedes didn't get off the line so he didn't officially start the race, consequently he didn't loose the 20 tokens he spent on the W196 SL. By the same logic he doesn't receive the 10 tokens start money. In effect JonnyO starts this race with the same number of tokens he had after Round 3.

 WoW!!!!! Good news!!!!!

Hello friends

Phill, i will be absent for this race, vacancy :)

Have a good competition pilots :)

You must have friends in high places!

................or coincidentally, a large, bulky brown envelope dropped through Phil's letterbox this week??  ::)

Is it about the Dacia Sondero?

Hi guys wont be around for a while yet. Went into hospital the day after my last race for a pretty big op. Getting better. But not quite well enough to take up my, guardian of the rear slot yet.

Take care and enjoy.  See you all soon.

Paul.

Not seen anything yet....  but if JonnyO has sent some cash he's wasted his money  ;D

The simple answer is this is how the token system has always worked. For the 67F1 cars the race importer works out the cost in tokens and the start money automatically. The algorithm uses the car the driver started the race in, which effectively means crossing the start line and registering a time. Trying to do anything else would make the importer too complicated. It would have to take account of situations where a driver joins a server in the wrong car. Realises their mistake and re-joins in a different car but doesn't start the race in either car. All the 67F1 championship announcements (including Season 37 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=1152&theme=6)) make this clear. They include the statement:

I maintain the token count for the 55GP cars in a spreadsheet, simply because we wanted to be sure the cost in tokens for each chassis was set correctly before we ask our web master to go to the trouble of updating the import algorithm to cater for the 55 cars as well as the 67s.

All I have done in this case is apply the rule as it will be implemented in the importer when it is updated.

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Nice explanation of the rules Phil, I think that clears up everything.................all except where you are taking your wife for a luxury holiday??? ;)

Get well soon Paul. I've found some interesting videos on YouTube by Driver61 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJp_E2Jf_NdWTWAEHWiVTNQ). Some entertaining sim racing tips to keep you occupied while you recover  ;D

  GRRRRR.....I want my money back!!!! :o

Thanks mate

Paul,i wish you the best.

Take it easy Paul and give yourself time to regain strength.

Thanks boys. 

If I manage to get a couple of drains removed,  then I'm hoping in a few days to try to gently put myself behind the wheel and pedals for a couple of laps.

55's would be a good mod to ease your way back - you can rest your braking foot as the brakes never seem to do anything.
Get well soon Paul - we'll keep a slot on the grid with your name on it.

Glad to see Jonny didnt get charged for the merc as he didnt start the race, thanks for the clarification of the rules, im not sure what set of rules some people are reading  ???.
Get well soon Paul! ;)

Thanks Billy and Gareth

Appreciate the kind words from one and all.

clarification:I think to use again the Mercedes SL so i use all the point.The next time i think to use the Connaught(5 point).
It's correct or i must use the Gordini?

Using the SL at Reims will take your tokens down to zero.  This means that you are restricted to a 10 token car at Silverstone. 

Ferrari Tipo 625   
Vanwall VW55   
Connaught Type B   
Gordini Type 16   

Everyone is reading the same rules but it is a question of when the rule is applied.  I had always assumed (wrongly) that when I committed to a car for qualifying then I had spent my tokens at that point.  I think that that is as it should be but, as Phil has explained, the "point of sale" is actually at the point of crossing the start line for the race itself.  This is done to make the programmer's life a little easier, which I have to accept, since I don't want the job of changing it.  The rule only states that the driver has to cross the start line to gain his "start money" and makes to reference to the car that he is already sat in.

Clive, please, never take a job as a Magistrate, the prisons are too full as it is.  ;D
You'd make Judge Jeffreys look like the Dalai Lama.

LOL
Strange,I think I would be quite good at that!
Everything in black and white. None of this "I didn't mean it" nonsense.

If Mercedes have provided you with a car to trash in qually then sorry and all that but you have spent your money!  ::).  :devil:

" I didnt mean it" is a good defence. Their needs to be mens rea and actus rea to be guilty... lol
also...
"The chassis a driver uses in qualifying are disregarded when determining his token spend.
Note:  This is to cater for the instances when a driver either does not start or inadvertently joins with the wrong chassis and subsequently rejoins the server in another"

Although I do see, and somewhat agree, with your purist logic.  ;)

Sim Racing doesn't replicate real life in all respects, it remains a game and a bit of fun. The attraction for me is that it is as realistic as possible. We have to compromise in many areas and this is just one of those occasions. The practice server is up if anyone would like to try some slipstreaming practice.

Very sorry to Hallu.For caution i start to brake earlier than my usual and out of the slip stream but,in this way,i got the opposite.
My brake were red before the curve.What I'm sorry is that your race was finished,i have searced your car in my mirror to give you the position but don't more appear.

Results not up yet Phil?

Geeeez! these people who cannot wait to see their name up in lights??   ::)

Quite enjoyed that race, but I must apologise to Enrique for the nudge in the early laps  :( :-\, I just ran out of brakes   :-\

Grats to Yannick and his flying green Ferrari, and to Phil for many laps of slipstreaming fun. I had geared my Lancia to use the slipstream from the Merc SL's and reach 175mph+, so when they vanished I was struggling with a 5th gear that was too high  :-\

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.

Driver	Tokens	Status
Alain Maurice	13	Works
bagrupp	5	Works
Clive Loynes	20	Works
Cookie	5	Works
Doni Yourth	17	Works
Dulima	15	Works
Enrique Farina	15	Works
EvilClive	18	Works
fpolicardi	12	Works
Gareth	0	Works
GrandPrixYannick	10	Works
JonnyO	10	Works
Phil Thornton	15	Works
Raoni Frizzo	20	Works
Albert Hallu	10	Privateer
bernie	7	Privateer
covisi2016	0	Privateer
Daniel_San	10	Privateer
francesco	0	Privateer
maddog	15	Privateer
maestro57	10	Privateer
PaulV	10	Privateer
Ricardo Valim da Silva	15	Privateer
tagomago	15	Privateer

  I am stupid mystake!! :death:


 Congrats Clive!!!!!

That was a great race for me, it isn't often that I have the leader in sight when he crosses the finish line! I started carefully so I had to get a move on and pick my way past a few people before the leaders disappeared and the chance of a tow was gone. Thankfully I managed to latch onto the back of Evil and Yannick and we swapped places and slipstreamed for over a dozen laps. We were gradually reeling in JonnyO and Clive but they just remained out of slipstream distance. When JonnyO went off I thought we'd have a chance to catch Clive but he had too much of a gap and he held on for a well deserved win.

They are now ;). The Works Championship is tight at the top. Looks like Francesco is running away with the Privateers  :scooter:

Very exciting race for me, Reims always delivers.

Ferrari isn't very good but the best car for high speed tracks after Mercedes & Lancia.
I had a good qualifying but made it myself hard on lap 2.
The Ferrari massively understeered into the grass, at which a bump inconviniently made me spin back onto the tarmac.
I didn't feel any contact, but from what I gathered one person was not particularly happy with it.

A regained places pretty fast and spent much battling with Evil and Phil for 3rd.
They were better on the straights but I was strong in the corners and brakes.
I'd figure if we played our cards right we could catch Clive Loynes and Jonny for 1st.
And I think we did well together. We were almost there until I rid myself from brakes at the last turn and nullify the progress.

I could catch up with them, but Clive Loynes now on his own was too far ahead.
Evil eventually got the better of me on the last lap so I settled with 3rd.

Grats to Clive and Clive ;D ;D ;D for the podium.
See you next time :)

It happens, forget it.

Firstly, I must say a big thank-you to the Old Fella down in Bristol for knitting together my Lancia setup.  It's a little gem and whilst originally crafted for Spa, it seems to perform just about anywhere.  I had it in its unadulterated version for this race, with the exception of his mad 6:1 steering ratio, as it turned in a bit better than the tamed version that I usually use.  Cheers mate!    ;D

The race was hard work from beginning to end.  There were no less than seven Streamliners in that field, and in fields is where most of them ended up.  Did they ever make that many?
Jonny made a poor start and I was able to grab second spot off the line, behind Enrique in his SL.  The SL owned the straights but on the section from T1 to T4, the Lancia was king, so long as you had the correct 5th gear to stay with the SL down the straights.

The only hope for the Lancia was to harass the Merc from T1 to T4 and wait for a mistake.  This slowed us down a little and the chasing pack were right with us on lap two, when Evil ran out of brakes and fired his Lancia down the inside of me at T4, collecting Enrique at mid corner.  That put me in the lead but Jonny had recovered from his bad start and it didn't take long before he cruised past on the straight.  Thus began a battle that lasted until four laps from the end.

I got the feeling that Jonny had done this before.  He had taken pole position with a good lap but when it came to the end of the main straight he always guarded the inside line, leaving me with the uninviting prospect of trying to go around the outside, hoping that he had got his braking right.  This tactic ensured that he was always first across the line, so long as he didn't scrape the wall.  It also meant that the chasing pack were still close at hand because it compromised his lap time.  My throwing the Lancia up the inside at T2 didn't help matters either.

It was a great battle and I had just about given up on finding a way around the SL when he went very wide at T3 and the last I saw of him he was heading straight for the marshal's shed.

Many thanks to Enrique and Jonny for the good clean fun and many thanks to Evil for his attack on Enrique.  Just a shame that he recovered to take 2nd spot as I need him to finish further back than that!

Big congratulations to Fran and Tago, bringing home the points for SBRC.   :thumbup2:

Silverstone next.   

I Completly messed up the setup, my tires went red on the straights  :P

????!!!!  How on earth do you get your tyres into the red in a 55 car Bastian?? I have found the tyres on these cars to be just about bullet proof?? It would be interesting to see your setup and see what parameters were set.

As for Mr Loynes winning performance,
I have to say "well done at Reims and I am ( maybe ) pleased that his success was due to my gift of a setup when he first struggled with these 55's".
 ..............I won't make that mistake again  lol !!!!  ::)

As with any of these slipstreaming circuits, qualification is not as important as the first lap and the last lap. Provided that you are in the draft of the lead group the majority of the race is a question of survival? My slide into Enrique's SL probably had a big influence on the outcome of the race as it dropped the 2 of us out of the tow and allowed Clive L and Jonny to escape. Enrique was doing a grand job of pulling us back into contention until he ran wide and it was left to Yannick, Phil and myself to try and work ourselves back.
We were closing the gap very slowly, but Jonny's SL was just too fast on those long straights. When Jonny stopped for a beer with the marshalls, I thought that Clive's lone Lancia would be a sitting duck but he refused to wait for us !! The three of us did close the gap, but it was not until the final lap that I noticed the first signs that we were picking up the tow down the long straight and my top speed was 3-5 mph higher. (Phil had in explicably dropped back over the previous 2 laps?? He was still in slipstream range but appeared to be losing ground, did you have a problem Phil?.)

 In an earlier lap Yannick had followed me out of the final corner and still outdragged me to the S/F line in his rapid Fezza. I had slipstreamed past Yannick on the long straight and nailed the final corner, but I am sure that it was just the slight effect of the tow from Clive L's car 250 mtrs ahead that prevented Yannick from drafting back to take 2nd as we raced to the line.
There was a point in the race when Jonny and Clive were away in front and Phil, Yannick and myself were fighting for 3rd, that I wondered if 5th would be the best that I might get in the final lap lottery. So, to sneak second was a real bonus.

Just to add a little ray of sunshine to Clive's ( and everyone else's thoughts ) I will miss the next race at Silverstone  ;) ;) ;D ;D  But I will be back for the mayhem at Indy.

Thank you and sorry again.

i modified an indy oval setup and must have totaly confused the values, after 3 laps all went red, i was so late that i did not do more laps in Qualy....on the straigths red tires  :)

Had to join by IP as no iGOR race server , felt certain I had used the practice server password to join and was tooling around trying to find a set up when the race got flagged up , quickly dived into "set up" to fill the tank , tried to load my Avus set up as that seemed to work well previously . computer said NO , so got back out just in time to miss the start . joined from the pits so already a lap down and with the dammed default set up installed ! Rev meter was bouncing off the end stop down the straights with chunks of valve shooting out the exhaust , No worries as there are only 3 straights here , but then realised at the speed I was travelling down the straights I would be getting lapped every 5 rounds , feeling dejected I pulled over and parked it up to watch the race . good entertainment watching the leaders argue the toss .

Grats to the podium , Loynsey for the win , and the Soogyass boys and all the rest of the rank & file whoever you are that managed a finish .     

Cheers Bernie and thanks for the interesting race report.

Was this on Wine or the usual mixture of Win10 and Special Pile Cream?

Vin rouge avec crème veloutée   :ninja:

...and a one fingered glove. :cowboy: