SimRacing.org.uk

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=1252)

(https://i.postimg.cc/wBnZyHKb/Round-5.png)

Welcome to Round 5 of the DTM season. As happens semi regularly DTM has popped over to Kent for a round at Brands.
Ballast will be applied to the following drivers as follows:

+20Kgs = Manteos
+15Kgs = FMG
+10Kgs = Fabri
+ 5Kgs  = Lokanas

Brands Hatch dates back to the 1940's, with various changes occurring up until the 1960's - the track layout has remained largely unchanged since then.
We will be using the full GP layout for this round.

When joining the server please ensure you select the correct car.


Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Practice: 19:30 (45 mins)
Qual: 20:15 (15 mins)
Race: 20:30  (2x 14 lap races)


Cars allowed:
Alfa 155 (+11Kg ballast, 10% (-42Hp) restrictor)
BMW M3 DTM (no handicap)
Ford Sierra R500 V3.03 (+20Kg Ballast, 45% restrictor (turbos don't respond the same as N/A before you ask!)
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/ford-sierra-cosworth-rs500-pack.24027/
Mercedes 190E DTM (+6Kg ballast, 1% (-6.3Hp) restrictor).


Track: Brands Hatch GP
Stock Kunos circuit - requires Dream Pack 3 DLC

The first lap of each race will be moderated as far as Hawthorns - any incidents that require moderation beyond that point will require a report to be raised in the normal fashion.

Live Timing: here (http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat) (Only available in the week up to the race)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Weather: Clear
Start: Standing
Tyre wear: Normal
Fuel consumption: Normal
Pit-stops: Not required

Server track settings:
SESSION_START=100
RANDOMNESS=0
LAP_GAIN=0
SESSION_TRANSFER=N/a

Damage: 70%

Server should now be running brands with the latest batch of weight penalties :)

wow i've managed 18 laps practise for this event v 94 laps by some drivers  :o  Really wanted to get more laps in here but a 'too' busy schedule mon-weds at the moment means i cant  :(
No wonder i've been on the back foot in this series so far  :'(  Will have to rely on tonights pre-race practise to somehow find the magic 1.1s deficit on a track i know inside out  :surrender:

I dont think i've had a round yet, where ive got the Beemers gearing ideal and this track has been no different, always feels like a compromised gearset for one corner or another. :-\

Looking forward to it though, great combo, cool cars on an amazing track  8)

Because its Brands i'll see about turning up.

More laps just means more laps where i'm not seeing the green delta times and getting more frustrated and gong round in circles on car setup to stop feeling like im fighting the car!

My replay https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZmllIhGwKwD-_6LJZnw0IOcJajEfrwU5/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZmllIhGwKwD-_6LJZnw0IOcJajEfrwU5/view?usp=sharing)

Well I have to say these were a couple of great races by my point of view.

First half of race 1 was a cracking battle between me Tim and Fabri. Than, suddently the Sierra duo emerged from nowhere and another race started. I fought tooth and nail to keep Jos behind ending up in overbraking myself with 3 laps to go. Then showed up Maxime possessed by the Holy Fire tearing the stickers off the body of my poor Alfa with only some corners to the checkered flag, so I had to raise the white flag and be happy with 3rd. Well done for your tenacious comeback chaps. That was an awsome race  ;)

In race 2 I could exploit my 4WD power just to keep behind Maxime for 7 or 8 laps, but it was hard work. Than my tire wear increased a bit and I overbraked myself again losing any chance to fight with the Sierra boys. So I gladly assisted to Maxime comeback on Jos and his really deserved win after another great fight. I knew you had the pace to take Jos, and your comeback during the last part of the race, considering the bit of time you've lost behind me during the first half of the race, simply adds value to you performance. Wd Maxime! And grats Jos!

I guess I collected the best result I could get, so I'm happy with my double podium. Let's see what happen to us in the next round, cause "Horsma" means nothing to me  ??? :D

The 'Sierra boys', commanded by the super-strong performance of teammate Maxime and his setup crafted to perfection, with the track matching H tyres, were unbeatable yesterday. I think Zeltweg showed us that the aliens are at reach under the right circumstances. The Sierras and their enduring H tyres in tracks like RedBull Ring and Brands Hatch have the magic potion to bring the Matteos and Tims to their human form and delivering great satisfaction along the way.

Race 1 (https://youtu.be/6DCsqHCL_38 (https://youtu.be/6DCsqHCL_38)) was a perfect driving act. Starting in 5th and 6th, the 'Sierra boys' hadn't shown enough speed in qualy with the M tyres. I had still a hunch that the Zeltweg effect with the H could happen again at Brands. I had a much better start than Maxime and managed to overtake Mark Johnson to 4th in the first turns. Fabri was struggling a bit with the brutal pressure Matteo can exert when charging with a fresh lot of tyres. Matteos wasn't only looking ahead as his mirror was full of Tim on the Merc. Both Matteo and Tim overtook Fabri and started to take a slight advantage. I managed to exploit Fabri's struggles soon enough to maintain a reasonable distance with the aliens in front. The H advantage wasn't yet showing and keeping the pace of those two was challenging but, as expected, Tim was in full attack mode and, even if they can seamlessly fight without losing time (generally), their fight allowed me to catch and in one failed attempt from Tim at Druids, I got enough momentum to get in front of him (still behind Matteos) at the end of the Cooper straight (always ecstatic when seeing the green Merc relatively moving in the wrong direction).
Now, it had to be proven that the red Alfa in front could be actually overtaken... This hasn't happened on many occasions during this series and only by the extraterrestrial powers of Mr Muttran. So the charge started and there we were, a couple of laps later, the same place, the red Alfa was moving backwards (more ecstasy delivered).
Teammate Maxime was on his own quest to P2 in what it must have been an epic come back from his early struggles. Well done Mate!

Race 2 (https://youtu.be/Nn0LsgCKl68 (https://youtu.be/Nn0LsgCKl68)) starting in 1st and 2nd would clearly be a 'Sierra boys' show. Tim was tempted to deliver a massive surprise shifting to H in the Merc but it seems it backfired heavily. The Hs are for the Sierra only. Matteo and his AWD got in front of Maxime and I could get a bit of a distance although was trapped on my mirrors and watching the formidable attack Maxime was launching on the Alfa. When, eventually, the unavoidable happened, I knew I had to push like mad to avoid Matteo's fate. And I kept Maxime at a reasonable distance for a little while. But some demonic spirit had possessed Maxime yesterday. Still with some stickers from the Alfa flying around, I could feel Maxime breathing on my neck too soon to be held... He was all over me. I think some times he was simultaneously trying to overtake me on both sides of the car and I would swear also over the top... That was uncontainable, off he went with a humbling overtaking at Howthorns (is that actually possible!?) to take the lead with one and a half laps to go. There was a thin possibility that the diabolic spirit possessing Maxime wouldn't know how to handle and empty track in front and could lose it with a bit of pressure from behind... But no, he was in full control. Monumental win. Well done mate!

Congrats to Matteos on his podiums and great post.
All the best.
Jos Ogos

What a rollercoaster of emotions i went through last night on home turf  :wacko:

Turned up with not enough practise. Had managed to sneak in 8 laps in my lunchbreak  ;D but still wasnt happy with my gearing, but studied the ratios for 3rd and 4th which seemed the most useful here and nailed it  :)
I had beaten myself up all week thinking i was yet again 6/10ths off the pace even on a track i know so well, but i hadnt done any light fuel runs or tried softs. Queue Qualifying and i was straight on the money pace wise and smashed all my previous times, which was very satisfying. I was 3rd fastest for nearly the whole session until Matteo demoted me to 4th in the dying seconds.  8)

Race start was good but Jos was even quicker and took my 4th before Paddock bend. I slotted in behind and battled upto Druids and then pressured him for quite a few laps sat right on his bumper. He then got past Fabri and i then sat glued to his bumper for many laps with Maxime nipping at my tail in his Sierra. We had a great 3 way battle but Max passed me cleanly into Clearways and was on his way with Jos. I continued fighting chasing Fabri and think i was actually losing time behind him as the Alfa seemed really sluggish in some corners and i kept losing my cornering speeds getting out of the throttle. I do think if i could have got past i would have pulled up to the front few but the Alfa was wide as a brick.
But it was amazing to be up front again in this series and within sight of the front 4 all having their own battles even so late in the race. Tims Merc started looking like a drunk driver up ahead with the car seemingly having lurid slides about the place and within a lap Fabri and i had caught him at Druids. This is where my beautiful race started to unravel...and then some  :(
Fabri took the inside line with Tim on the outside, i tried to follow Fabri through thinking that Tims tyres were totally shot and he was staying wide but he then naturally turned in and the space that was there disapeared. My own (yellow) tyres were too worn to stop in time and i gave Tim a healthy thump in the side quarter. I instantly got out the throttle and let him regain the track ahead of me, sorry for that, but this also allowed Kai to close the 2 secs deficit to me with only 2 laps remaining.  :( Following Tims wayward car around the rest of the lap with Kais buzzing beemer behind me i braked a tad too late for my worn boots at Clearways, had a huge wobble which i was just getting hold of, when Kai seemed to plow right through me and sent me spinning off into the pit entrance. I was understandably fuming at that point  :taz: all my hard work undone  :(
To add total insult to injury, i ran out of fuel within a few hundred metres of the finish line and no less than 4 cars past me before i could roll over the line  :gun_bandana: Evidently the fuel used trying to regain the track had robbed me of finishing. Ekins even crossed the line about 1m in front of me as i crawled over the line.
5th to 12th in one lap, gutted to say the least after driving my socks off  :'(

As if to rub salt in the wounds, i now lined up on the grid for race 2 behind Syd 'none shall pass' Drake  :wetfish: and just knew i was in for a torrid time on a track thats hard to pass without a good car advantage. And so it proved. I spent the entire race glued to his derrier trying left and right every lap to get past, losing 0.5 to 1 sec per lap to no avail.  :surrender: How i didnt thump him was un-real, i had to seriously hit the anchors in many corners to avoid contact. The Alfa seemed so ungainly in some corners almost coming to a halt and it was utterly frustrating. I kept willing him to make a mistake to give me a sniff but fair credit, he kept it on the tarmac despite intense pressure. I think if he'd let me past (not that you would) we could have closed on the cars fighting ahead rather than hold each other up all race but great defensive driving...again  ;)
Finally, on the very last lap, like a pitbull that wouldnt give up, i got him at Paddock bend and went side by side up to Druids and he finally conceded  :fencing:  7th? was mine. All that effort for 7th blinking place  ::)
I took hards for this race and they were definitely better over a race distance. My meds were fubared in race 1 by lap 11.

So yet again, no lucky break for me in this series, still languishing down the table.  :'(  Great racing and great combo, congrats to the podiums  :notworthy:
Great to see another car having an advantage at this track with the Cossies, been quite interesting to see different cars have different strengths.  :)

Good pace you where showing in qually MJ. I was a couple of cars behind on the grid and got mugged by Lorenzo's Merc and the Alfa of Syd rammed up my inside which also let the Alfa of Jari by. After some good scraps I managed to get in front. Those Alfa's are very hard to pass indeed. Then the gap to the guys in front was rather big at that point. Only to overtake my teammate after his spin in the penultimate lap, which was rather unfortuned. Great racing all around though.
Here is a clip of the first half of heat 1 from my perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj4zcQYKF78 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj4zcQYKF78)

For the second race my start was better and was fighting with Kai I think and with Fabri and was following FMG around. His harder compounds let him get away again in the closing stage. But happy with my pace and the excitement of the constant pressure during this race. I'll see if I can get a clip up from this race too.

nice vids Jos and Stefan, always love seeing the action next day  :thumbup1:  Brands looked pretty cool in the snow  :)

Might try connecting up my HD helmet cam from my trackdays to my VR headset and see if i can capture some footage. Last nights racing would have been a hum-dinger. Mind you i never have enough spare time for editing etc.

Good battles yesterday.

Race 1. I started from pole, during the first lap I saw that Matteo seemed to have more (I was struggling a lot with cold tires) and when he entered a bit on side in T1 I gave him the way, but Tim also took advantage of this. I lost two positions like that. Shortly after a furious Jos manages to pass me and moved up to attack the others. Same for Maxime.
Afterwards I had to suffer the pressure of Mark, under braking and entering corners I saw him very responsive. it is precisely in those points that my Alfa is really awkward, to hit the apex I have to slow down a lot. The exit instead is the strong point of our car.
In the final laps I managed to pass Tim because he ran out of tires. And then Mark was hit somewhere by someone.

Race 2. I fought for few laps with Tim. In a crossing of lines I found him rather slower than I expected and I had to brake a bit, Stefan rightly took advantage of the occasion and passed me. We were all 3 in a row for the rest of the race, difficult to overtake here, even if you have a slightly better pace. Stefan was a good ice man too.  :)

Fairly positive races in terms of the car feeling, but not overly good in terms of results.

Congratulations to the guys from the Sierra, fast and furious 2.

Results are up  :)

Race 1 was epic fun until my tires died - it was probably no co-incidence this was just after I tried passing Matteo by drifting the entirety of Paddock Hill bend (It nearly worked, I got to his inside way before he was able to cover me. Sadly 4WD won the day for him off the outside of Druids :cursing: and left me open to Jos' attack).
I think Marks suggestion that my car was drunk is probably spot on - that's how it increasingly felt as I got closer and closer to the end :D

For Race 2 I decided to try some strategy and opted for Hard compound tires as I was down the order. The plan was pretty simply, Matteo and Fabri would have to battle with the flying Fords which would (theoretically) eat his tires and slow him down enough to keep me near...
The flaw in my plan was the fact I hadn't even tried driving on the hards here due to a lack of practice time - I guessed my pressures well but think the rest of the setup would have needed further tuning to suit.
As a result I didn't have enough pace again (just like Nogaro).

Kai was attacking me hard in the opening stages, we made contact in either Sheene or Westfield I think when he was behind but alongside. I'm 99% sure I was leaving enough room but my 4 wheel drift makes it very hard to be sure when checking on the replay - apologies for that if they are needed.

A massive well done to Jos and Maxime for knocking Matteo of the top step ;D

That was decent races yesterday..  ;D

First of all thank you guys for your kind words. Still, if our Sierra S and M compounds suck as hell imho, we all know that our H can really shine in race. Then the race format allows us Sierra boys to capitalize during the 2nd race on our 1st race.

1st race was tough here as I was behind some battling cars most of the time from start untill quite late in the race. I was pretty much surprised to grab a 2nd position then. Clean race all over, only a couple of very slight contacts near the end, I think it was with Matteo, I don't have the replay (forgot to raise up this memory use limit  :wetfish:). I hope you didn't feel disadvantaged by that mate, but maybe I have to check the replay from someone else.

2nd race was more comfortable starting from 2nd, but Matteo managed a very good start/passing. I had to be patient as I would have been starting to make stupid mistakes otherwise. I finally could get him later in a T1 crossing. I then wasn't really expecting to close the gap with Jos, but his taste for nice, clean and passionate racing had made him to spend much time looking at his mirrors so that his pace probably was a tiny bit under his capabilities, leading to me eventually getting closer. Then we got a fantastic, super clean and intense friendly fight.. and I got more lucky.

Congrats to Matteo who did refuse that the Sierra rule the whole event, to Mark for an awesome qualif time, to Fabri for his great pole and to everybody for some clean driving !

Thank you all for racing ! On a sad side note it seems we lost our Bob buddy  :-[. I hope it's not because of his crash into the wall in Berlin after he punted my back in the chicane... Perhaps we should message him ? Also Vva never showed up in this series..  :'(

Here is the race 2 clip. I found the keys again to switch between drivers during replay, so this one should be a bit more varied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGQ92Pci0I&t=11s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGQ92Pci0I&t=11s)

Nice vid again Stefan, enjoyed watching that, shame you missed my last lap overtake of Syd, think i punched the air with delight at finally getting past him  ;D  i see you had the same battle with Fabri but with the all important factor of the Alfa behind you!  :)

I've finally had a chance to go through the replays for this.
For both races there are no penalties in the mandatory red zone - however there is an incident I'll have to cover in the system from race 2, about 4 drivers can expect an automatic PM about it shortly when I input it.
I won't have time to complete the job tonight so will try to do so tomorrow, if anyone still has an incident they wish to report please do so before 17:00GMT as the report function will stop working when I do.