SimRacing.org.uk

Season 37 – 1955 Grand Prix – Round 8 – Roy Hesketh

After a stint on a large flat out oval in the USA, the eighth race in the 1955 Grand Prix series sees us taking a boat back across the Atlantic Ocean to the comparatively tiny Roy Hesketh circuit in South Africa. Located on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, the circuit was named after a South African racing driver, the late Roy Hesketh who died in in an aircraft collision 1944. Doug Aldridge, Colin Dove, Ossie Fisher, George Finch and George Shrives got together as a Consortium from Pietermaritzburg in the early nineteen fifties to first build and then maintain and improve the circuit.

During its period of operation (1953-1981) the circuit hosted rounds of the South African National Drivers Championship, and national Formula Atlantic races. The South African National Drivers Championship was a Formula One motor racing championship which generally fielded cars recently retired from the world championship although there was also a healthy selection of locally built or modified machines, and from the late 60s Formula 5000 was added to grids with Formula Two cars joining in 1973.

The circuit also hosted the Easter races - a festival of motorcycle racing over three days. Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Barry Sheene, Kork Ballington, Jim Redman, Paddy Driver, Mike Grant, Rod Gray and Syd Stacy were regular competitors at the circuit.
 
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	15-11-2020
Track	rhesketh (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=6884%20%20http://gpltom.libertux.org/datas/Roy_Hesketh_v1.0.exe)
Mod	55GP with 60fpsV2newmod
Damage	PRO long
Race time	~ 21:30 UK time
Qualifying	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race length	35 laps
Replay	here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iDxOtM4OEB5qksQ7U0eNL5RIwHketdC1/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	6	Works
bagrupp	1	Works
Clive Loynes	7	Works
Cookie	0	Works
Doni Yourth	27	Works
Dulima	17	Works
Enrique Farina	15	Works
EvilClive	10	Works
fpolicardi	2	Works
Gareth	0	Works
GrandPrixYannick	5	Works
JonnyO	20	Works
Phil Thornton	8	Works
Raoni Frizzo	20	Works
Albert Hallu	2	Privateer
bernie	5	Privateer
covisi2016	2	Privateer
Daniel_San	10	Privateer
francesco	0	Privateer
maddog	15	Privateer
maestro57	10	Privateer
PaulV	10	Privateer
Ricardo Valim da Silva	17	Privateer
tagomago	20	Privateer

I could put some of Doni's tokens to good use!

Hands off!  Doni is MY Blue Moose teammate and we are the best of buddies. Ain't that the truth Doni :winkiss:

Perhaps we should let team members donate tokens? After all they effectively did that in the 50's (e.g. German GP 1953 Ascari and Villoresi switched cars).





(only joking - runs away after lighting blue touch paper  :o)

 :nono:

Ooooooooo Phil !!!  now there's an idea for next season  :shifty:

I'd be happy to loan some tokens to whomever.

The interest terms would be quite reasonable.

100%/lap, all sessions.  Takers?  :)

I think that Evil should take up that offer.

He would be skint by the end of qually!

Oooh! but Clive, I only just noticed that you have fewer tokens than my own poor self.

So, I will, if you will   :shifty:  muhahahahaha.

Hmmm, just took a long, close look at the points table and my chances do not look good, with only 3 races left. Can we add a couple of races to the calendar because of Covid??? ( it seems that everyone else is using that excuse, so thought it was worth a try??!!   ::) ;))

I might have to do some proper homework/practice and actually plan cars/circuits/tokens if I want to bother Mr Loynes, Dulima. JonnyO, Fran or Phil.

Arnold!!, Mabel!!  get off your fat a**s and roll the cars out of the garage. We have work to do!! But put the kettle on first for a brew and a Hobnob  ;)

This really is a difficult circuit.

Just when I thought that I had sorted a setup for the race I realised that my downshifts were a tad aggressive and likely to blow the engine before the end of the race.   :-\

Ive  knocked 3 secs per off my PB by raising the ride hiegth to 5 inch allround . This effectively  puts the Maseratti into "off road " mode , allowing it to cut across the grass , escp. going into the esses .

Top Tip . 
Aim directly for the "keep off the grass" sign  ;)

Works for me  ;D

Sorry I was a bit late starting the server gents. I need to reset my computer clock it is 5 mins slow!

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.

Unfortunately Albert didn't have enough tokens for the Mercedes W196 so he overspent and consequently is disqualified.

Albert please have another look at the rules on the championship page. If you want me to translate them for you (into Portuguese?) I can do that with an internet translator but I won't be able to verify the translation, I'll have to trust the translator.

Driver	Tokens	Status
Alain Maurice	11	Works
bagrupp	11	Works
Clive Loynes	12	Works
Cookie	0	Works
Doni Yourth	22	Works
Dulima	15	Works
Enrique Farina	20	Works
EvilClive	8	Works
fpolicardi	7	Works
Gareth	0	Works
GrandPrixYannick	10	Works
JonnyO	15	Works
Phil Thornton	6	Works
Raoni Frizzo	20	Works
Albert Hallu	0	Privateer
bernie	3	Privateer
covisi2016	2	Privateer
Daniel_San	10	Privateer
francesco	5	Privateer
maddog	10	Privateer
maestro57	8	Privateer
PaulV	10	Privateer
Ricardo Valim da Silva	15	Privateer
tagomago	25	Privateer

Save accelerated

Unfortunately I had problems with the frames again, this makes it difficult to guide.

I went to the end of the grid and I've been doing my recovery run.

There were many good battles, but unfortunately I ended up playing Phill.

I ask forgiveness Phill, the time you missed and ran, i thought you would make the line out of the curve, at these times, we came back a little scared for the race.

And the pribluda goes unnoticed

When I saw it, you were already on top, I braked

But I couldn't avoid the touch.  I'm glad you stayed in the race.

I was wrong for not returning the position, but in the heat of the race, hallucinated to get to Alain , I just thought about returning the position, down there in the brakes

Then it was too late.

Again, I'm sorry Phill, I try to be as clean as possible.

Congratulations Clive, for the victory and congratulations to the podium!

Really, using the translator, it looks awful

I'll warn Albert

Have you tried https://www.deepl.com/translator  ?

Este programa de traducción hace muy buenas traducciones del alemán al inglés o a todos los demás idiomas del mundo.

Este programa de tradução faz traduções muito boas do alemão para o inglês ou todas as outras línguas do mundo

Questo programma di traduzione realizza ottime traduzioni dal tedesco all'inglese o a tutte le altre lingue del mondo

Ce programme de traduction fait de très bonnes traductions de l'allemand vers l'anglais ou toutes les autres langues du monde

Dieses Übersetzungsprogramm macht sehr gute Übersetzungen vom Deutschen ins Englische oder in alle anderen Sprachen der Welt

This translation programme makes very good translations from German into English or into all other languages of the world

No problem Dulima, there was nothing you could do. It is the one issue with this mod that I don't like. If someone has an incident ahead, it is very difficult for the following drivers to avoid contact. The brakes are simply not good enough for an emergency stop. No harm done, I'm pleased you had a good race.

I would use the translator Axel has suggested, it is the best one I am aware of.

Returned to the track ready for action, equipped with a new wheel, and especially tuned racing socks, to continue the quest for the right-side floorboards.  I don't get paid for this stuff! :-*

My race started rusty, with some narrow squeeks, and paintwork problems early on.  A scrappy start, and poor colour match when booted twice in tight quarters.

Mid-race became a long chase behind Fulvio, who didn't seem to want to get caught.  Final few laps then became a tussle with Tago, complicated by the late appearance of a twin Connaught.  I knew one of them had the 2nd placed car, but it was Tago who waved bye 1st.  Nice to be racing again, with some of the best drivers 1955 has to offer. ;)

Saw I was a tad short of tokens so I went for the Connaught.
Tried my best in qualifying but 3rd was all I could do.

For the first number of laps I could keep up with E. Vil until I got screwed over lapping the first car we encountered.
At that point he got out of reach. I had trouble getting to grips with a overheating RR tyre and lost 20 seconds.

Once I got it resolved I drove my pace and got to 2nd.

See you next race.

Martin I don't want to be nasty but I was in trouble with you twice in the last turn when you passed me inside as a bomb and then got sideways  locking the track with unavoidable contact with these cars with no brakes. I can understand in the race when you're battling for position, but in Q you can't hope for a better time.
Anyway thx for racing  :)

It's already in the favorites, thanks my friend

Thanks for the words Phill, I’m more relaxed to see them

After 67, the mod I like the most is 55, sad are my starts, this problem I'm having, it's only with 55

Hug brother, a good week to all of us!

My move was aggressive, but I kept to the inside.  We had similar pace for the middle of the race, so a close pass was necessary.
Watch Tagomago at lap 31 to see how polite a racer can be.

Grats to all those who finished, always a triumph with the 55's and those unreliable brakes  ;).

Well, the race went better than I expected and it was a relief to score top points and close the gap to the top of the table guys.

Yannick and Jonny showed that they had some serious pace during qualification, so I knew there would be a battle. From the start, I just managed to hold my 2nd place into T1 behind Jonny's Lancia and followed him for the 1st lap. I have to confess that I almost ended Jonny's race and mine during the first lap   :scared: :scared: when he slowed more than I expected at 2 corners. I had to use 100% of the brakes to avoid his tailpipes and that left me in the red going into the last corner. I was forced to take that without brakes, which actually did me a favour as the brakes were able to recover before T1.

I think it must have been the slipstream behind the Lancia down the straight that kept me close, and I saw a chance to pass JJ. Trying to outbrake cars in the 55's is a huge risk, but I was at 99.5% of the limit into T1 and just held the slide, before nailing the gas down to T2. Once I had a clear track ahead of me I just tried to pump in quick laps.
Jonny dropped back to be replaced by Yannick who must have had a tow rope tied to my back axle...I just could not shake him off without risking a major accident for myself, but I don't think he had the pace in the mighty Connaught to actually try a pass if I did not make a mistake. Then, we caught some backmarkers and I took a risk by going around the outside into the final corner. I think Yannick was caught behind the backmarker (?) and I finally had a 100mtr gap behind me.
Without the pressure from Yannick I was able to slowly stretch the lead and concentrate on the braking points and smooth fast laps.

There was a scare with 15 laps to go  when I glanced at the fuel  :o. Maybe it was the hard driving in the early laps , but I was a lap short of fuel to reach the chequered flag!!?? Fortunately I could use my lead over Yannick and short shift, plus I found that I could take the final corner a gear higher and keep the revs down. By the end of the race I had enough fuel to do an extra lap, so the fuel saving worked well.

The last 2 races are going to see some very close and serious racing I think. It has not gone unnoticed that Clive Loynes saved his tokens in this race, so the championship leader will be running some heavy machinery for the last rounds. JJ has a bank account full of tokens to burn  :-\ and Yannick is quick in whatever he drives.    Dulima and Phil are not out of contention if there are some DNF's ahead.

See you all at East London  ;)

A reasonable result pour moi.  Start P4 and finish P4.  Hounded mercilessly in the latter stages by Clive Loynes doing a standout job in the inferior Connaught and I only just managed to prevail by a tick.  Good show for a decent P5 placing, Clive.

That other Clive owned this one.  Taking the point in Lap02, he never looked back.  Great drive, Evil!

Yannick comes through for P2 with some...uhhh...creative lines at times that aren't in my playbook.  :)  In fact, after an excursion into the bales and a spin, he was actually behind me for a time til mounting a challenge.  Being almost thrice his age and mindful of the consequences of even a minor shunt, I didn't put up much a fight.

Jonny scores a useful P3 and for a a time, had to suck down my exhaust fumes for a bit after he went for a loop.  I was having to work pretty hard to keep my Brazilian amigo in my mirrors and that was great fun but a tangle with Fran while braking for T1 gave JJ his chance to scamper by for the place.  Apologies to Fran for the shunt.  Good to see that you could continue.

Got a fright in lapping Albert in the Merc when his signal dropped and he completely disappeared for a time at a crucial moment when I was making to pass.  Held my breath and hoped I didn't get shunted.  PHEW!  Made it!

I haven't been keeping very close tabs on the championship title standings but see as of yesterday's round that it's going to boil down to a scintillating finale with at least four pilots in the running.  May the best man win!  :)

Hey Yannick take care of this old bunch of drivers, we have an age!  :laugh:
I don't know if laugh or cry thinking that when I bought GPL in '98 Yannick was only three  :o

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: THREE???!!!  ....................THREE!!

No wonder Yannick had the energy to push that Connaught so quickly. These youngsters have no respect for us old timers with all of our infirmities!! I was already OLD when GPL was released  :-\

Also, I forgot to give a shout for my Blue Moose teammate  Doni for a great points score.  :clap:

Congratulations to Evil, Yannick, Jonny and Doni.

That was just about what I was expecting, although Doni's sterling efforts with the Lancia were not in my original script!

I had tried the Lancia and didn't find it to be as effective as the Maserati around this place.  Since this was the most risky place to spend my tokens I refrained from using the Maserati but thanks to Evil for handicapping himself in the next races.   ;D

As has been pointed out, the championship is going to be tight.

   It was a fun race, and Lancia really let me down a little bit, maybe Maserati was better, but I wouldn't know anyway because I couldn't test before, I don't even text, I sleep, I have no motivation for tests, ever.
So I went with the default Lancia, put the steering in 10: 1 and took some gas and wire for the qualy, I was very surprised to make the pole, really !!!!
  In the race it was clear that I could not resist the rhythm of Evil, in T2 I missed the gear, engaged 1st there ... sorry for the scare !!! And Yannick can only be a wizard, like Conaught, congratulations guys !!!!
   In the middle of the race I made a mistake and stopped in the hays, and Doni passed, then there were good laps behind my friend who lives in the cold lands of Canada. But he had a problem with a double driver, I couldn't pass it, only this error gave me the exact chance.

Yes i was able to continue.In this situation i tought to give you road after the curve.To difficult before commited with the brake and the curve.
Anyway this shunt have changed nothing on my race,i'm not able to be fast on this track.

Ha ha! That is something I forget myself sometimes!  ;D
I played racing games since back when I was a toddler, though GPL was one I never touched because of the difficulty (and poor performance on our PC).
It wasn't until 2010 or so my dad found out there was a following for this game which brought us to drive it. What then began as trying to get a sub-1:10 at The Glen, and now I'm here, and my dad... well, he has no time at all, but I hope he'll get to that point someday he finds the time to invest in it while we're still at large.

I bought GPL when it was first released after trying it out on a P.C. where I worked ,

Just the sound of the Brabham sold it for me after having suffered Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix pathetic sound track for years . That + the Nurburgring ,

What more could you want ?  ( apart from a PC that would run the game )  :-\

I was a young 57 yr old at the time  ::)

So that makes you a young 79 yr old now ;D, unless this confused 60 yr old can't count anymore  ::). You are in good company Bernie, the average age of the UKGPL membership must be pretty high.  :wheelchair:

I wonder how many seriously good GPL'ers are younger than the game itself? Let's hope there are a lot more Yannicks out there.

Good on ya, Bernie.  Gives us hope to continue for a few more years yet.

We should post our ages here just for reference.  I'm 71-1/2 years old.  (When I was a wee lad, I would come across kids my age who would say they were 6-1/2 or 7-1/2 or 8-1/2; always wondered when I could say that but never got the go ahead; stilted my youth years being just 6 or 7 or 8 years old)

I know that Evil Clive is at least my age if not older.  Clive Loynes is no Spring Chicken either.

How 'bout a series for Seniors only.  :)

LOL

You have to be around 70 to have been christened Clive!

Clive we are both the same year, the Evil is 2 years younger - get the data in GPLRank...

Not a bad Idea for a series - handicaps for the youngsters

So at 64 I can hope in some performance improvements till 70, if I don't get blind before... :rockon: :wheelchair:  ;D

Think we all have to give Bernie a one lap start!

Someone once said that "youth is wasted on the young", I sometimes think he might have been right!! If only I had the energy to go with a lifetime of learning  :-\.

It also occurs to me that those of us of a certain age remember the 50's and 60's, and saw the cars that we simrace today being used in anger. Strangely enough the brake fade in the 55's reminds me of my first car, a 1956 Ford Prefect 100E. 1172cc of pure 60hp power, 3 speed gearbox, 4 door, leather seats that were so hard and slippery you could jump in one side and slide right across the car, and no seatbelts!!
But the brakes, ah yes the brakes drum brakes all round ( and probably not in mint condition  ::) ).
Well of course my car was actually the fastest car on the road and when I had it sprayed Aubergine with a black leather effect roof, it went even faster  ;). Stopping it was sometimes an adventure and I can still vividly recall a couple of occasions after several miles of hard driving when the next corner was approaching a little too quickly for comfort, pressing harder on the brake pedal had zero effect, and I was fortunate that there was no traffic and I could use every inch of the road, a little opposite lock ( and some grass  :scared: ). I think I kept a toilet roll in the fridge for these incidents.

There is a steep hill in Somerset at a place called Porlock. The public route up onto the moorland is famous for a hairpin bend. you might think that you have been driving up a steep hill for the previous half mile, but as you turn the corner you discover that someone has built a tarmac covered wall across the road!!! My mighty Ford just about crawled to the top in 1st gear and it almost stalled the engine trying to negotiate the hairpin.
Being smarter than the average bear, I reasoned that going back down was likely to be "interesting". But, there was a private toll road that claimed to offer a less perilous descent for around 2/6d ( if you understand that currency you ARE old!! lol).
It was a very scenic road to start with and we were enjoying the drive, but of course we still had to drop from the same altitude. The road was longer and the gradient was on average less than the public road, but there were a lot of bends as it descended through the woods. About half way down I could smell my brake shoes burning. Then the brakes became less and less effective ( just like a Lancia at Monaco). I pulled on the handbrake and pressed as hard as I could on the brake pedal and managed to slow the car enough to double declutch down to 1st gear ( no fancy synchromesh gearboxes in those days!). I don't think that engine had ever revved that high before, or after, but the engine braking was enough to bring the speed down and although we passed the exit toll gate at a less than prudent speed, we survived. It seems humorous now, but at the time I think I had cramp in my ass from all the buttock clenching!!

LOL  Sounds like good training for 55mod.

The calendar tab near the top of this page reveals birthdays and ages of those who have admitted them.
Interesting that Tris and Fulvio were born two days apart. Iestyn, Tommie and Joe Shaw, all UKGPL champions, were under 10 when GPL came out.
I'm younger than Enrique and older than Billy, just about in the same positons as our talent.

LOL EvilClive, interesting reading  :laugh:
Remember me the first 1975 AlfaSud 1.2 4 gear StationWagon second hand I had as first car in '79, bought for a 11.000 km trip to Nordkapp from Italy in that summer. For the stats they sold only few car SW model and I bought two of them  :D, two doors like a coupè and more hard rear setup for more load that made it driving like a kart with light load, but the interesting thing were the 4 disc brakes, with the front placed inside on the gear-box. This was a technical solution similar to formula cars to have less weight not suspended on the wheel, but...the first braking on wet roads was hairy cause the discs were not air dried as on the wheel and they didn't work until some heat does not develop to dry the discs, naturally rear discs were on the wheel and they worked well so the balance was...  :o
After only five years the chassis was rusty cause the factory near Napoli was also near the sea and on the first series they didn't make any rusty treatment on laminates... ::)
The second was a 1979 1.3 5 gears bought in '83 was better and survived till '91. Anyway the 4 cyl boxer was the best thing of the car, when you were stopped at light you couldn't say if it was running cause no vibration, at least till the exaust didn't become rusty  ;D

Thanks Clive great story.

My first brakes adventure was about 1966 as a boy scout.
We had a large fenced area with roads where we could unfold.
There was a garage with a VW Beetle from 1949.  The VW was the fun vehicle with 23HP.
The drum cable brake was worse than the 55s, and the throttle had a pedal that was a wooden roller running under the shoe. (edit!)

The longest road was about 500m long and led downhill to the gate, which we were not allowed to leave.
So I pushed the pedal to test how fast the Beetle could go. About 50m in front of the gate I had to brake fully - which went well several times.
But as a prospective racer you have to test the limits, so the stop became more and more difficult.

The last ride ended of course when the beetle kissed a thick fence post and the front bumper folded in the middle.
The body was not damaged so we could straighten it out and put the car back in the garage!

(https://i.ibb.co/NxWkDCh/VW-Standard-Bj-1950-2009-05-01-Sp.jpg) (https://ibb.co/LS9qjRw)

My first entry was a Standard 8 from around 1950.  My Father had helped rebuild it with a mildly tuned Standard 10 motor, so perhaps 50bhp.  Drove it from my Grandmother's in North London Southwards, and only 2 weeks with a license.  London traffic, winter weather, no problem!  2 miles from home, now dark and icy, and learning how to opposite lock on narrow roads, I overcorrected, and the car took to it's roof!  Soon realised handling takes a turn for the worse when that happens . . . my Father was passenger and not amused. >:(

Good side to the story, is the improvement to the cars appearance.  We hacksawed a junkyard roof and had it welded on, to replace the roller skates.  I was then able to drive the only 2-tone Standard 8 in town. :angel:

I'm feeling really old with 36 :)
Hope to become as fast as you when i get a little bit older:)

Ok, we see us in 30 years  ;D

Not quite (yet)  Phil , I have the misfortune of being born on 24/12 as anyone with a birthday around that date will tell you its not the best time to have a birthday .

Clive , I also had the ford 100E experience , though mine was a van supplied by the company I worked for . a delight to drive 3 speed box with no synchro on 1st gear , amongst the finer points was the windscreen wipers being powered by a vacuum from intake off the inlet manifold , a joy to use when overtaking HGV,s in the rain as they would die when you used the accelerator to overtake .
No MOT in those days but we did have annual  fleet inspections , on one occasion the inspector told me to change a rear wheel as the tyre was bald . out came the jack , fitted to the jacking point and began pumping only to to see the jack moving upwards but the car (van ) still having 4 wheels firmly planted on the road , the inspector was a bit surprised to find the jack poking through to the inside of the vehicle . Most of the fleet had to be written off when checked .

My 1st car was an Austin A35 van bought for £15 from the car auctions , I drove it home with no tax no insurance and no brakes . You had to go down through the gears to 1st then switch off to stop , It taught me a lot about antisipation I had the most fun ever learning to drive in it .  ::)