SimRacing.org.uk

All members welcome.

Practice 1:	19:30	(30 mins)
Qual 2:	20:00	(30 mins)
Race:	20:30	(120 mins)	note: no warmup!

Cars allowed: any car from the UKGTR Skin Pack v2.2 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=27)
Weather: Changeable, based on real-world weather.
Track: UKGTR Spa GP 04 (download UKGTR Track Pack v1.0 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=27))
Race Time Of Day Setting: 16:00
Pit Stops: There is no mandatory stop for fuel or tyres (but it is unlikely that any car could finish without at least one stop). However, all drivers must make a timed rest stop - see details below.

Server: UKGTR Super Endurance
Password: here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2522)

Notes:
(1) Please make sure you are fully aware of the UKGTR Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=7) - especially the speed limiter starting procedure and the rules about in-game chat messages.
(2) The event is open to all registered forum users.
(3) You will not be able to join the server without the skin and ballast pack (see link above).
(4) Frame rates - Please test out your frame rate in dusk conditions before hand. You will be required to run with lights on when it starts to get dark. Advice on increasing frame rates with headlights on is to reduce Headlight Effects in graphics options to Low and turn down the Shadows setting (in that order of preference for highest FPS increase). If you're frame rate is too low your car will be laggy and cause problems. Please ensure you have a good frame rate before joining.

Mandatory Timed Rest Stop

Your mandatory stop must be made in the pits as a normal pit stop, but you must be stationary for at least five minutes. Time spent refuelling or changing tyres does count towards the stop, so be sure to factor that into your stop. The car will roll forward after the stop is complete so don't hit Enter (or whatever you've got mapped) to acknowledge the pit actions until you are actually ready for the crew to go to work, because otherwise you will have to sit with your foot on the brake (or find a brick) until the five minutes are up at the end of the stop.

If another car is in your pit box when you stop, you may pull in behind them and move into the box when they leave as part of the stop.  Likewise, if another car is waiting behind you when your crew have completed the stop but you are waiting for the five minutes to be up, you may roll forward just far enough to let them into their box.

You cannot take your mandatory timed rest stop at the end of the pace lap, or with less than 1 lap to go.

You using a weatherfile for this one? If so, it's gonna be one hell of a ride  ;D

Hope so.  ;D

I'll pack the waterproofs!

Colin

Atleast it's Spa, so there are a few weathertypes. Not like Dubai where it's.....HOT, all the time  ;D

Like the sound of this, whats a weather-file? Not heard of it.

Isnt the problem with fridays that the turn out is traditionally low? Wouldnt that make a Spa super endurance event kinda dull? Not trying to poo-poo it but wonder if special events like this should be held on better attending nights for a great racing experience ?
Changeable weather enduro at Spa is like a 7th heaven to my senses 8)

Magic.  :sorcerer:


Monday is between two GTR 2 races so not really very good. Wednesday has always been very poorly supported, which leaves only Fridays and Saturdays. Saturdays is not a good idea and the main reason these are on Friday is cause I offered to organise them and gaurantee my availability for the dates to start the server.  :P Unfortunately we can't please everyone all the time. :-* It's only you young folk that go out on a Friday night anyway.  :P  ;)

Hey Mark, I didn't realise sitting on the park bench muttering to yourself with 6 cans of White Lightning counted as "going out" ;D

 :lol:

Moved to Sunday 4th March due to Season 4 finishing.

Dang...busted ! :clown:

whoohoo, its on a sunday now, sweet, i can hopefully make it then.  8)

I'll be making this one.

I'm curious about the weather side of things though, will a "forecast" be available prior to the event, or is that a Sharks only privilege?  :P

Hurrah! Looks like I should be able to make this as well with the move to the Sunday. Excellent.

Dunno what to take though. I fancy another outing in the Vertigo but it only seems to last about 40 minutes in my hands before blowing up :-\

Maybe it's time for the GTC.

I'm relying on Gizmo to have his magical weather generation thing working and available by then. :)
*nudge* *nudge*

It'll be based on the conditions on Weather Underground so you can keep an eye on that. I don't know how much randomness and changeability I'll introduce - assuming I have the time to actually finish the thing!

Damn, this was the race I was really looking forward to, but I am in Paris that weekend  >:(

Boy, that's tough!!!

TC

First post update with mandatory stop location and instructions.

Is the dark area mentioned on a hill? If so, drivers might want to find out where their handbrake button is before leaving their car unattended. ;D

 :o

TT

Good point. Brick on the brake? Does anybody have any other suggestions? I struggled to find anywhere else suitable that wasn't on the outside of a fast corner (this area is too but at least it's next to the pit lane) and not on a hill. ???

I think the old pit entrance (parralel to the bus stop) might be the only other suitable place. Does the hand brake key toggle the brake? If it does I don't see any problem to have timed stop on top of the hill.  ???

TT

Handbrake's not a toggle. :(

I looked at the track near the pit entrance but couldn't find anywhere I thought was safely seperated from both the track and the pit entrance (through the red/white 'bails'). The outside of Blanchimont (and the fast left hand kink before) doesn't afford anywhere safe to rejoin. I also looked at the loop of tarmac between Les Combes and Malmedy but it's very narrow and the entry to it is extremely tight.

What about on the outside of the hairpin - before the s/f straight?  :)

TT

At the end of the long straight (name?) after Eau Rouge, there is a load of tarmac if you miss your braking, perhaps there is enough room there maybe?

I can't believe the handbrake is not a toggle! The only really flat areas I can think of are before the pits, but there's not much room there.

What happens if you were to turn the engine off with the car still in gear?  Would it stop it rolling back (if in 1st-6th) or forward (if in reverse) as in real life, or doesn't that work at all/only if the clutch is manual?

End of the Kemmel Straight - I looked there but there's nowhere to rejoin which doesn't involve either reversing or driving back onto the track in a dangerous way.

Is somebody in a position to try that before I get home?

Nothing short of resting the front tyres against the left hand curb can stop the car rolling forward very slowly down the hill - turning the ignition off, putting it in reverse, using the handbrake (this made no difference at all to me - not sure if I was doing something wrong) and with or without manual clutch.

Ah well, didn't know if that would work or not.

Given all these problems, would it be better/more popular to reduce the race length (but still making it longer than the "normal" edurance events) to something like 90 mins (or to a point where the NGT's are going to have to refuel to a certain extent)?

[EDIT] Clearly I was meaning losing the 5 min stop for this .....  ::) [EDIT]

Heavy object on the brake should do the trick as per handbrake goes. ;)

I find it very scary to park the car on what is essentialy Eau Rouge's "oooops, I'm in a slide now" safety-zone.

Anyway, how many pit lane spots are there in Spa? Plenty, right? If (just thinking out loud) number of drivers in the race is less then the number of pit-stop spaces, we could simply park in the pitlane? Or am I missing something? Are those "F1 - pitstops", the ones BEFORE the hairpin occupied or not?

Pit lane is also on a slope (well the main bit is)

Yep, they're on a slope anyway and we can't predict which ones the game will allocate - they're all potentially used spots.


The problem is that if we can't solve this for Spa, we can't do Super Endurance at anything other than flat tracks. :sleep1:

Later I'll see what happens if you leave the pit board up and don't confirm selections for 5 minutes. Won't solve the problem at tracks with too few pits for one each but possibly we could add more pit stalls to solve that.

Okay, the good news for this race at least is that if you leave the pit board up it will stay put in the pits. I believe there are enough pit boxes that nobody will be sharing with anyone else.

I'll update the first post accordingly in a moment.

I'd like to know more about this "clever weather" file - is this known any better now? Will there be several changes of the weather or just dry->wet or wet->dry? What will be the rain margin - 30, 50, 100%? Will the server be set to reflect the race conditions - once its set up for this event?  :)  Is there any special setting off-line that (soon) triggers the weather change effect - whenever I set the race to have changeable weather I got "Sahara conditions".  :no:

About pitstops: can you change rear wing in the pits once you come for wets/slicks?

TT

There may be no, one, some, or many changes, during all sessions. It's generated at random (within certain limits to try and prevent ridiculous changes) and the weather may (and probably will) change during the race. The initial settings will be taken from the actual current conditions reported by Weather Underground at the nearest reporting station to the track just before the race (when the file is generated). Unless the server starter peeks at it beforehand, even they won't actually know what will happen.

Rain could be anything but the code is biased against staying at extreme conditions for long periods. Temperatures are limited to between 1 and 40 degress Celcius and again the rate of change is limited.

Conditions won't change drastically between the end of one session and the next but it may start or stop raining.


Don't think GTR2 has that option. You'll want to look at the forecast during the two minutes before the green lights and adjust your setup according to the likely conditions.

First post now updated with stop instructions. If it works out and we don't have any pit box sharing issues we can look at adding more boxes to other tracks to eliminate the sharing issue.

do u have to put ur name down or is it a first come first served basis?

First come first served.

Would be cool to know what cars are you guys using.. I'd prefer NGT's but I would not want to drive on my own  :-\

Corvette probably although the Saleen is also possible.

Now that helps me a lot  ;D

I'll probably take the 550, mainly 'cause I've already got a setup for it and I can handle it in the wet, but if few people go the GT route I'll jump in something else :D

I had the C5R last Super Endurance, and it went a bit sour ;D, so the Saleen for me....probably  :)

T'is a good point actually. Considering the time this event takes up in terms of practise and getting setups right for a) varying weather, b) time/distance, c) varying light conditions, whats the general view on choice of chariot class, ie GT or NGT ?

I dont want to waste my meagre practise time on a certain class/car only to find everyone has gone for something different.
Was intending to go GT for this despite being more of an NGT man. Any chance of a quick poll on who's driving what ?

Done.

Cheers Dave, makes sense to get a good even field for a long difficult event.  8) :angel:

Am aiming for either a Mc12, C5 or Saleen at present. But if balance shifts towards NGT, then either a 360 or RSR. Basically got about an hour to myself between now and the race to make a choice and get a setup :o :'(

Lister for me ;)

Doubting about the Saleen now :). I drive it at S.nl with 2 hour races, so I know the car. Might go for the Lister too, or maybe go bananas and take the MC12 ;D

back from a long time away from racing due to some upgrades and i decided to take part here :)

might go with a 360 :) or a 575

Saleen for me, obviously  8)

I'll be going for the trusty ole RSR  ;D

Anybody done any laps yet?

I've done lots of half laps in MC12 in the wet.  :D

TT

The track will be the original Spa GP 2004.

I haven't got the UKGTR version finished in time so that will have to wait for another time.

Decided, Lister for me too. Still a brilliant car to drive. What times are you getting here with the Lister, high 2:11's ?

I.....haven't driven it yet...don't even have a dry setup made  :-X
I'll have to jump in later tonight, otherwise I'll be doing 2:15's  8)

2.27's in the RSR for me :(

oooh a Shark!!!

Colin you are now a marked man  :P

What effect will that have on the weather?  will it just be steady throughout the race?

They are using a weather file. So before the race they program the weather based on real life conditions. It can change to anything, but it can also be the same throughout, Depends how they put it.

Are you guys gonna give a short weather forecast here (example I gave at out forum) or do you have to guess it from the website? Also in the future, when this file is gonna be used more often, it would be most fair if the file was made by somebody who is not racing in that race, as they have a big advantage knowing what the weather is gonna do.

If I have to check weather underground myself, where do I have to check in Belgium, as I don't know where it is  ;D?

[Edit] Found a place called "Spa" which I'm going for [Edit]  :lol:

[Edit2] What a crappy weather site :(. Doesn't show anything. I'd much prefer www.weather.com , they also give a description in words. Their forecast (http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/BEXX0031?from=search_city) for today is:

Today: "Rain showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High 56F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%."

Tonight: "Cloudy skies with periods of light rain late. Low 48F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%."

And now comes question 2. Do you use the weather of 2 pm (race time ingame) or 8 pm, the race time in real life of when the race is?

You can jump straight to the right reporting station using the links at the bottom of the event page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&event=343).


The live conditions when the weather file is generated, a few minutes before the race. But that will just set the initial conditions; after that the weather will change randomly. Even the admins won't know what it's going to do.

One day somebody will build a racing sim which takes a live weather feed like Flight Sim does.

 ;D Well I hope this wont stop us from having good battles like we have done in the past!

I'm glad we havent based this race on the weather here in Belfast, its absolutely throwing it down! ::)

questions: while driving F550 a solid race pace on full fuel load would be...? Also, what wing settings are you guys using?

I thought I'd check the Season 4 pace at Spa and almost fell over when I saw a 2:09 as the fastest race lap :o :o but thankfully that was around the 2003-version :D  I'm guessing that a good GT pace will be consistently in the 2:12's, maybe the 2:13's.  Alot depends on the weather really!  My PB so far with 50L onboard in a +17Kg 550 is a 2:11.4, but I wont be doing those in the race.  If it's wet then who knows... survival will be more important than times :D ;)

I've only managed a 2:16.5 in the 'Vette with wing 7. I just can't get my entry into the new Bus Stop right; I use a wide field of view and I just can't 'see' the line whilst braking.

If it looks like rain I will bump the wing up to 8 I think.

it's very bright and sunny here, as I'm 100 km from Spa only, I guess it's not gonna rain tonight  :) :laugh:

What times are peeps getting who drive NGT???

I was getting around 2.27's in the dry Reign Man. Just tried getting online there but cannot connect to the server :-\

Well im hoping to get on the srever now, I hope it aint down or nothin.

I had a bit of praccy yesturday and was getting 2:25.3's with meduim tyres and and 80L of fuel. The funny thing is with softs and very little fuel 15L - 20L I can only get 2:27's.

I dont know whats going on??? :-\

Yeah, I can't connect either. Hope it's fixed quickly

The lobby server seems to be down. Hopefully it will be back by the time the race comes round. Not much we can do till Blimey! / Simbin sort out their end.

I find that sometimes too. Either the softs are overheating or the balance of the car is better with fuel - somewhere like Spa with mostly medium to high speed corners balance is much more important than weight.

Will the practice server be running 'real time' weather or will that not happen until race time?

Colin 8)

Not until race time. There's no way to automate getting the generated weather onto the server just before each race unfortunately.

Hopefully the lobby will be up and running within the next hour or there will be no race at all! :-[

I'm getting worried now :( come on server gnomes!! :D

is it still the case that it stays down until monday when it goes at weekend?

It came back 10 mins before a race a few weeks back!

hmmm if this is true we're doomed i tell ya, doomed!

I've been putting in some offline practice in the mean time

I'm well off the pace for this one - in the 14's for race pace  :-\
Looks like it's midfield for me tonight  8)

If it's on I'll go for the TVR.

I missed the vote as I was away for the weekend but I'll be in the Vertigo if we're on.

Lobby still appears to be down. :'(

good show Simbin  >:(

Will the race be re-scheduled for another date?

 >:( >:( >:(

in theory we can just have a shorter practice/qual, that's if the server comes back atall :'( :'(

What's the plan then Dave? Give it 'til 8 or cancel it now so we get another 20 mins in the pub? ;)

Whats the helpdesk number!!!  ;D

seems as though GTL is down too

Your pub has a helpdesk?!?  :D

Give it till 8, then ill do sumat else

20 mins early = half a shandy for you young guys!! then you'll need help !!  ;D

Thats a fine excuse to me to go to RACE or rFactor :P

If the lobby server isn't back by 20:00 we'll postpone and I'll watch Top Gear instead.

Good idea, stretch limo's tonight

FFS >:( How many times has this happenend now? Worst part it, there is no alternative >:(

That's me out TG is on. night guys

Me too :(

Shame, I was looking forward to this one....

Will there be a new date for this?

Nightmare!  >:(

Please reschedule Dave, I was really looking forward to this one!?

Night all

M.

 ;)

Okay, race postponed. :'(  We'll announce a new date when we've figured one out. :laugh:

Real shame. Lets keep cool guys, chill out on Sunday night and we'll tear up Spa sometime real soon!

Colin 8)

bum :( will be along whenever it's resheduled anyway!

May I suggest that I re-schedule this for the same time next week and we move Monza one week on.

Hopefully the UKGTR version of Spa will have finished Beta testing in time and we can use that too. :)

Lobby is up, anyone still fancy this race now  ;) ;D

Bit late, plus the WSBK are are Eurosport. ;)

Race rescheduled for next Sunday, the 11th. The Monza has race been brought forward to Tuesday night.

I've also reset the class poll in case some people can now make the race and some can't.

So far 2:11.9 is my PB in the Lister. But I'm gonna try to go for a 1 stopper ;D.

B*m, just launched the practice server with tonights weather etc. bu tneed to change it to Monza now  ;)

 :o

Shame, I was gonna just bum around with you guys for prac/qual and leave when race came on for my usual Sunday commute. Instead I did a few rF races with the old Megane's, forgot how good they were!

If that's qualy pace then I'm not totally lost, if it's race pace I may as well be going backwards!  :-X

Qually. Might squeeze out a bit more, but not alot. Main goal will be trying a 1 stop strategy, cause the lane is very long and it will win me alot.

hope it rains

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/181500/181918hmPL_w.jpg

This race will be using the UKGTR version of Spa.

I will be releasing a UKGTR track pack soon (probably tomorrow (7th March 2007)) that includes Spa v1.0, Monza v1.1 and Imola v1.1 and will post again when it's available.

Great work Simon!

UKGTR Track Pack v1.0 has now been released. Official instructions thread here (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2822.msg45887#msg45887).

You will need to download and install this this to join this race.

cheers Simon, downloading now  8)

edit, forgot to say 'a big thankyou' for all your hard work too mate, cheers !  :angel:

Yes!  :)

TT

Your welcome.

I just hope they work well so that we get the cut policing we all desire. Spa was a real challenge to sort out cause Eau Rouge is a massive corner with a myriad of waypoints to edit, but the feedback I've had so far has been good so I'm quite happy with the changes to Spa that they won't need any more tweaking. :-\ ;)
 
From our discussions we reckon the other tracks that need some tweaking are Donington, Magny-Cours and Hockenheim and of those three Magny-Cours is the one I know is going to be a large amount of work so I'm going to leave that till last ;D.

FYI...

Spa 04 cut policing changes are only on one corner (the inside on the exit of Eau Rouge). It now prevents blatant cutting across the slippery grey stuff to the left of the curb on the left at the top of Eau Rouge.

Spa 03 cut policing are changes are on two corners, one is the same corner as 04 (left hand side of the exit of Eau Rouge) and the other is at the bus stop which is now very tightly policed.

I'm not sure which track we'll use in future (03 or 04) championship rounds, but they are both ready should one or the other to win any popularity contest.

Personally I much prefer 04. The Bus stop is just so much better. Its a legitimate place to overtake and a lot more challenging during braking (well it is for me)  ;D

I much prefer the 03 version.  The 04 version of the busstop is just,wel, wrong. ackward :(

this is gonna be my first on line race, its gonna be fun, but theres somethings i dint understand very well, but we`ll see....besides at what time does the race start? 16:00 or 20 ???  :-\

Ingame time is 16:00 and real time is 20:00. So join at 20:00 in real life  ;D

hahaaha  ;D OK thx no further questions my honor  :D

120 mins would amount to how many laps?

7200 seconds
minus 300 seconds for obligatory coffee brake
minus 2x pits for say... 120 seconds (2x60 due to long pitlane)

lead alien on 133 seconds per average lap time

= 51 laps.


right?  ??? ;D

Also a veeeery long warmup lap and I think pitstops will take longer. But I guess you are very close, just don't calculate with only 1 L spare fuel just incase you're wrong  ;D

I do endurance fuel calculations based on consumption per minute and not laps. Much easier that way and less dependent on variations in lap times caused by fuel load, tyre state, traffic and so on.

same method I use. And I also calculate the minutes in the pit as well. Then I'm sure of having a bit extra at the end

I'm from Colombia and we are like 5 hours behind on timing does the real time 20:00 is from your time right?? that means i should connect at 15:00 Colombian time???
thx
Ram ;)

Yes Ramiro. You've the same problem I have when racing with 'merrycans - I'm 6 hours ahead from the EASTERN boys.  ;D

TT

No worries, these here noob tends to finish races with 3-4 laps of fuel to spare  ::) Interestingly enough, fuel consumption in wet track conditions is identical...

Anyway, pit calculation included fuel&tyre change only. No idea how much time will be lost while crawling through pit lane. 2x30 secs? Another question: when does the race clock start? Start of warm-up lap, right?

Can't wait for the race, I love soft front - medium rear tracks.  ;D

A lot, as Spa has a ridiculously long pit lane. :P ;D


Correct.

I was really hoping to do this event but it looks like my internet connection is going to be down for another week at least bloody BT Grrrr

tried pit lane few times. 1 minute 50 seconds, give or take (60 secs or so for the pit-stop itself).

thought u should know  ;D


50 laps, no more imho.

yet another noob question: working temperatures for intermediates, hard wets and soft wets would be....?  ???

If it's raining they never seem to heat up that much, I don't think you can overheat them.

Intermediates seem useless. Whatever the conditions, there's a better choice!

You are kidding, right? Soft wets (rear) on f550 go up to 110 degrees in no time. Fronts are a different matter, hard to heat up. Although... I suspect wets operate at much higher temps... 100 deg. or so. Right? Aliens, do report, please  :P ;D

Thing that confuses me the most is that temperatures oscilate like... A LOT due to track conditions (huge difference in temps between "flooded" and "wet" conditions on same tyre and same initial tyre pressure.)

Tarzan confused.  ;D

Anyway, weather forecast is "scattered clouds, 11-12 degrees" (hence very low chance of showers). Then again, better safe then sorry.  :angel:

No, I'm  not kidding  :P If your soft wets are up to that temperature, it's not the right conditions to use them.

Soft wets are for VERY heavy rain, i.e. monsoon rain with a flooded track. The way the wet tyres are labelled (hard & soft) is a bit misleading.

thing is track was flooded  ???

now what?  ;D

Switch to the hard wet's I guess!

You have upgraded GTR2 to 1.1, right? :)

TT

actually i bought it like a few months ago, ::) and the only modifications a have made are the ones from the skin pack and the tracks, but not in the actual game i think my version is the 1.0.0., any way can you help me getting the latest version  ??? ;Dthx :D

go to
http://gtr-game.10tacle.com/index.php?id=246&L=1
Click on 'downloads'. On the left hand side of the screen there should be an 'update' text. click on here and then select the update you need. 1.1 in europe is different to america I believe. I dunno what the differences are though.

Hmm old habits...

Like trying to join a race and finding nobody there :-(

I'm gutted!!

The race was going really well, my car felt great and I was starting to enjoy myself!!!

I was just passing through Blanchimont when I quickly looked behind me to see which GT car was approaching.  I took my eyes off the road for a second, but that was enough for me to put a tyre slightly over the line.  There is absolutely no grip out there and I headed straight into the wall at 150mph.  1 mistake and RACE OVER!!!

Oh well, thanks for the race guys; while it lasted.  :P

First of all, thanks for this events organization, they are fantastic :clap:
When only left 50 mnts to the end, i was in 6th overall :whistling: and in 2nd
of NGT class :shifty: .......... CATRAPUMMMMMMMMMM :censored: :cursing:
My Vertigo engine blowed :death:
but at least, was very fun while it lasted.
thanks all, specially to the fair and pacience overtaking manouvres from GT boys :notworthy:

See you next race (maybe in  a Vertigo, but then with an English engine) ;D

Cheers

Pretty much the same story here. Had slipped to 8th but having made both stops was looking good for a reasonable finish when without warning the engine turned into a fireball. :'( More vent, less revs and longer ratios next time then. Might even make a one stopper like that.

Was hoping for some dampness but the fading light made for a very atmospheric setting anyway. 8)

 I'm having a little problem with the upgrades, i all ready download the upgrade form my grt2 but i don't know how to install or what should i do.. help me please ??  :'(

Looks like you do count time in the pits

A disaster of a race again for me. I choose to stick with my normal car, the lambo and need as much practice as I can get with it as don't really have enough time to try new things. Only had 12mins practice tonight then qualifying and that's not enough.

Thought I might be able to squeeze one stop as I did as Silverstone before. With the 5min stop I would heave been close. I was hard to tell after the shocking race I had.

Chasing Freq he ran wide and I made an effort to overtake. Taking a sharper exit from the corner I lost the back end, caught it but found myself behind the tyres for entry to the pit stop. Lost ages turning it around and to rejoin.

A few laps later bumped the car off the barrier on my own to cause heavy damage. Entered the pit to get it repaired and got a stop and go for speeding in the pits. I missed to line by a second. Lost ages for repair and stop and go.

Threw my strategy out the window. Filled up with 100l and just drove.

Pitted with 30mins to go with tank almost empty. Requested just enough to get me to end of the race but the car was filled to the brim again. My last stint was supposed to be quicker but not with 100l fuel on board.

Made another stupid mistake and gave up. I better get some serious practice in before the real season.

Wow, how good was that sunset?

Anyway, were do I start? Horrible horrible tyre choice for the first half. Went for medium fronts and hard backs. Had no grip at the back and was so slow. Had some great battles - Darren we almost had a great fight on our hands - but I was just to slow overall to compete lap after lap. Was ballting well when Claus nudged me into the last hairpin. Regained but never really got into again as the field opened up.

Made my stop - much needed. My backside was killing and nature was calling! Switched in mediums all round and the difference was evident. But unfortunately the field had been stretched and the gaps were big. So I decided to settle into a nice pace and enjoy that sunset :)

Hope I didnt get in too many folks way. Tried to stay out of trouble. Then I got a stop'n'go for 'cutting', more like messing up aue rouge :( That ruined my pace but went straight in and straight back out again. All in all I loved it all apart from the sore backside :laugh:

Colin 8)

I should have read the instructions too!!! I waited 5mins after pit stop :-[
I was two seconds in the door and straight on line to race. Need to make more time to prepare right

I only read it when I was looking for the password tonight

Awefull race for me.

My first stint I was pushing but never letting the revs get into red or half orange. At 1:06 I pitted in for a 1 stop and my reststop. So around 0:59 I came out of the pits to do my 2nd stint.
I had to shortshift so badly (revs never left green  :o) and drive like a granny (lapstimes in the 2:19's), but it still didn't help anything. Ran out of fuel 3 minutes before the end, 100m before my pitcrew. Which went back into the stall and took another cup of tea.

Driving economystyle is something I don't like at all, so next time a normal 2 stopper for me so I can just keep driving, instead of saving the environment :laugh:

Edit: I also misread the rules. I did my 5 minutes and then my stop. So I was stationary for around 6 minutes.

 :D Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What a mess! Rubbish set up, (nothing new  ;D) car bottomed out at Eau Rouge then had enough time to put head between legs and kiss my A**E goodbye!  :laugh: ended up in last so just tried to give it my best shot, just kept plugging away and miraculously finished 4th, all due to other people's misfortune.
I just don't know what I'm doing wrong with mt setups lately but I'm getting blurred vision! Its like driving a bouncy castle for God's sake  :lol:

That was hard, my arms are killing. My set up for the RSR sucked, and was way off the pace, managing a fastest lap of 2.28.xx.
At least i managed to finish though - i've never done a 2hr race before - i think i ended up taking about 8 mins for my break stop, but i knew it wouldn't make that much difference as i didn't get anywhere near 2:24.xx etc that the other NGT guys were setting.
Ah well, still enjoyed it, good to get some practice in.
 

Ah gutted, think I misread the rules aswell, anyhoo they arent very clearly formulated IMO since it looks like a lot of drivers did the "hard" time and then began work on car (damn button DONT REPLY now ffs  :P) That probably cost me the win.

Was cool race anyway I was trying hard to keep the 550s at bay in start but eventually my soft tires started to go off so I just let Zac past he pitted soon tho.
Sorry to Colin for the hit at La Source, I was busy overtaking another backmarker and misjudged it completely and with locked brakes trying to slow it down. Sorry for another hit too where I send you off again, but is never a good idea to change line with a faster car approaching, keep your line and let the other find away round, almost gave me a heartattack there, luckily car escaped pretty unharmed. 

Track conditions made this a very struggling event aswell since I couldnt see any choice but to go with the softest tires, and after 20-21 laps the warnings started to come in a steady stream for all the tires.
And the 5mins reststop spoils the illusion IMO plus you get out on track again and have absolutely no idea where the competetion is, NGTs getting thrown into the mix being a lap up lol
But I can see why some like it..but it's just not right for me  ;D

Race overall was really good, although long periods of it were lapping alone there was always a reason to push as hard as possible.

Qualified in 5th on my race setup (just with lower fuel), everything felt good and I was hopeful of being able to push hard in the race for a podium.  Decided to go for soft fronts and medium rears.  Start was great, followed TT in the MC12 but the top-end of the 550 got me past in a few laps.  Jeff then let me by knowing I was 2-stopping :thumbup1: then I was chasing down Eccles for 2nd.
It was much harder to get by without the grunt advantage, in the end it was backmarkers I think causing Eccles to spin and I started my persuit of CJ.  After a few laps I had a look up the inside after Eau Rouge but not for a pass, CJ broke early and we both kind of pootled into the next corner and I had the lead.  Really wasn't meaning that as an attempt at a pass, more peek-a-boo in your mirrors! ;)

Tried to push as hard as possible for a few laps until my first stop, then came out in 6th I think.  The second stint was the hardest, there was no direct racing with anyone because CJ and Eccles were attempting 1-stop (or just going very long into the race), by the time of my second stop I was a lap in the lead!

Stopped for my rest stop; 4:20 was rest stop, and the rest, (around 50sec), was the pitstop, just to be safely over the 5 mins.  Not sure where the confusion came from on that, but I'm glad I didn't do anything wrong :angel:

I came out in 3rd, with around 22 seconds to chase down Eccles in 2nd.  He was at the end of a long stint though, and with about 12 minutes of the race left I'd caught up, but couldn't find a way past.  I was very relieved when he peeled into the pits with around 7 minutes left, leaving me a full 35 seconds behind CJ.  The viper couldn't go the distance without 2 stops either though, so a lap later I had the lead.  On lap 49 I there was about 10 seconds on the clock as I exited the hairpin, so I lifted off the gas to let the time run out with a 40-odd second lead.

More than happy with the win, regardless of other people mis-reading the rules :P think I may have had enough in my pocket to pull it off anyhow.  Grats to all the finishers!  I now need a shower :D :sweatdrop:

I suppose it's our fault for not reading, but it was different from Silverstone and I stupidily assumed it would be the same

No worries for the touch there CJ, it was getting packed at times round there in the early stages!

And very sorry for geting in your way too. I didn't check behind to see what your position was so I do apologise. My fault :-[

Oh dear, im not the right guy to help you, but try to extract the patch to your GTR2 folder
Good luck, i understand what you feel, i even today have some dificult with this :cursing: :censored: :death: PC

Was surprised to get 3rd, felt miles off the pace for the whole race. :(

Decided to see how far I could get by short shifting and trying to do a 1 stopper, seeing the temp being 2 degrees before the start I stuck softs on, which seemed to be right for the first few laps. The temps were good, but after only half the stint I was getting worn tyres warnings. I pitted soon after when it was clear I wouldn't make the race on a one stopper and tried to limit the damage.

Agree with a few peeps here though, a 5 minute rest stop is too complicated when included in a pit stop time, they need to be completely separate. I totally cocked mine up and left (according to my replay) 17 seconds early. I knew I'd messed up and so stopped at the end of the pitlane for a further 14 seconds (had no idea how long I needed to wait), so think I stopped 3 seconds too short. I'll report myself when the replay is released  ::)

Lister was fun, but had big understeer problems that I couldn't cure, forgotton how I cured it with the Lambo now :(

I'm not really sure a rest stop is needed, not 5 minutes anyway.  other than having a quick drink (which takes about 10 seconds if that) and resting eyes briefly (with pit in/out and the stop that's over a minute to break focus on the screen normally) I don't think there needs to be time for anything else.  Surely people can go 2hrs without having to go to the little boys room :D  If it was 3 hours, maybe, but not for 2.

Having said that, I'm not sure what's complicated about the rest stop being part of the pitstop.  The time of the stop is given at the bottom of the clipboard, if it says 47 seconds then wait 4:13 before hitting enter.  Don't really see that as an issue, maybe hilighting it in red bold lettering in the main post would help.  I didn't do the Silverstone race so I didn't have the issue of thinking it would be the same as then.

It might be academic anyway because only 10 of 23/24 starters finished, if that trend continued the lack of close racing would probably put people off 2hr races.

"Never take your eyes off the road!" - thats what my instructor at driving school told me.  ;D  Well, I was to press "9" to make a reservation of a pitbox and it was too much. Off the road into the wall, ending in a fireball and pile of metal junk. And a meatloaf.  ;) Must have been a sight, eh Jure?  ;D

MC12 is not fast enough on the straight to keep F550 behind. Had to go at full speed through Eau Rouge to have enough room for late breaking. Managed that for three times then came a little slower on top of the hill, a little, mind you, and Zacari came through. Short of blocking, I was powerless and I didn't want to do that.  :)  Was folowing Ruskus at a gap of 5 to 7 seconds until I went wide and onto sand, then I was 20 seconds behind Ruskus and 30 in front of the guy behind - sorry, don't know who it was.  :-\

Then after 50 minutes, crash.  :(  Still, the time was not wasted, I learned a lot about MC12. Its fine through the corners, exit can be done at full throttle, it's just that its not enough.  :D  And the wet track means you can be a bit faster than NGTs.  ;D   

Another thing was a saw the GT side of mixed class racing and I must say NGT guys were most helpful.  :)

TT

I'm clearly going to have to change how the passwords are dished out next season because far too many people are just not bothering to read the announcements properly.

This race was slightly odd in that the stop was changed slightly from the original announcement but I did post in this thread to say so when I updated the announcement.

I can think of at least one other thing needed during the stop. ;) Seriously, it's okay for people like me racing on a wall screen at a sensible distance from my eyes, but for those sitting in front of a monitor, staring at it for 2 hours with no break just isn't healthy!

As for complicated, with just a little preparation and practice and a dollop of common sense, what we did last night was perfectly simple. I noted the time on the countdown as I stopped, subtracted five minutes from it, picked my stop options off the crew's board at leisure, visited the bog, had a drink and a stretch, did a merry jig, allowed the crew to go to work with a minute before I was due to exit, then held the car on the brakes for a few seconds after the stop until I reached the correct time on the countdown, and it was "Go! Go! Go!" again.

Large Replay (http://ukgtr.simracing.org.uk/UKGTR%20Spa-Francorchamps%20-%20Super%20Endurance%20070311.zip) and Provisional Results (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?ind=lm2&event=343)

But if everyone stops for five minutes aren't you removing one of the elements of pit strategy as you can't gain time by running a heavy car to start with?

Man, that was hard work but awesome fun!

Qualifying went reasonably well, I was pretty close to my PB but I had a horrible start to the race and was very lucky to survive a self-inflicted horrific mistake through Eau Rouge with just a cut track warning.

I'd set the Vertigo up for 'survival' mode so I didn't blow the damn engine up (I wondered if you'd suffer that fate PRibiero!), and coaxed it through the first 70 minutes picking up places as the inevitable attrition too effect.

One more cut track warning mean I had to be really careful through Eau Rouge for the last 10 mins before my pitstop, losing a fair bit of the time in the process.

I knew Mooman was on a decent pace and I expected to be a fair way behind when I completed my stop but as it turned out I was only 14s behind with 45 mins to go so I had to go for it.

A combination of my slightly quicker pace on soft tyres and Mooman making a couple of mistakes saw me close the gap to a car length with a couple of laps to go.

It would have been an awesome finish except that my Mrs decided to then plug her PDA into the USB to recharge it. I run a separate XP install for gaming and her PDA had never been installed and I was horrified to be dumped back to the desktop to see the "found new hardware" dialogue :'( GTR2 was unrecoverable :( I'm glad to see it looks like I didn't take Mooman out anway. Phew.

Well done to all the finishers, that's an achievement just in itself!

Had some good battles with Mooman and Darren. Jan pulled away in the early stages. I knew I would have been faster on softer tyres and I would have lasted judging by my second stint.

Not sure if I got my stop right or not. Had aero damage and took on a load of fuel for my one stopper. Somehow Mooman finished over a lap up.

Also got the front left onto the kerb ever so slightly - on the second of the long fast corners in the front half of the lap - pops took me for position. Going sideways down the following straight was just crazy! Managed only to nudge the barrier and got off lightly. Was just pushing a little too much.

I think the 5 minute reststop was fair enough. Dave is right, you need to take a break from the screen, well I do.

Looking forward to Donington now with a single class event and a 5am start! In game of course ;)

Colin 8)

To a certain extent, but this was only a fun race and we haven't decided what if anything we'll do for season 5, assuming that 2 hour races even get the go ahead. If you have to make 2 stops you can still benefit from starting on full fuel, like I did last night, then doing a short first stop to top up just enough to get to the second stop where you brim the tanks again as early as possible for a straight run to the end. Or you could take the rest stop in the first stop and then splash and dash near the end.

There is one other problem with the 5 minute rest stop in that you could take someone's pit box for 5 minutes on the circuits with fewer pit boxes.

I notice a few cut track warning posts, was the track cut policing ok (and therefore just you guys running where you shouldn't) or are there any serious problems?

I think the cutting track policy was working fine yesterday - good work, Shark, as far as I'm concerned.  :)

TT

To be honest I got it all wrong in my second stint at au rouge (I know i'm spelling that wrong lol) and slid out at nudged the barrier on the left going up the hill. Knocked me across track and lost some time, almost coming to a stop. Got a stop go for that which was a pain but on the whole the cutting policy was fine. I got a yellow at the bus stop every lap then down at the hairpin.

The only cut warning I got was when I got Eau Rouge all wrong too. So it worked perfectly from my point of view.

Yeah, me too, although I messed it up twice :-[ I definitely had to be a bit careful after that!

I think it worked perfectly. Good job :thumbup1:

Hmm, sounds like a multi-player bugette maybe, or were there always accidents at the bus stop? ;)

I haven't altered the 2004 bus stop at all, so these aren't down to the UKGTR track. 2003 on the other hand, people will find VERY tightly policed on Tuesday. 8) :ninja:

I tip toed through it anyway..... ::)

Are we getting a lapchart for this race? I'd be interested to see what my pace was like compared to everyone. Looking at the fastest lap times I was 1-2 seconds slower there. I'd put it down to tyre choice as I got a low 2.24 in quali on softs. Anyone use softs on a 1 or 2 stop strategy?

Yup. I used mediums for my first stint then had softs on for the rest of the race. I *think* might have got away with 2 sets of softs but it would have been a very close call so I decided not to risk it.

The Vertigo is very light on tyres though.

Well I went for hard rears simply because temps in practice and quali were high. Mediums all round worked very well in the second half of the race. The car was much nicer to drive, the way it was. Though I was only getting in the 29's second half, probably due to a cold track??? ???

The track did seem to have less grip towards the end of the race, I put that down to my concentration waning at that point! :D

You might well be right about the track cooling down though.

 ;D Yeah it was probably my imagination really ::)

It does give track temp but don't know if it actually has an affect in-game. Would be interested to know

The track temp definitely does affect tyre performance, I'm not sure you can monitor the track temp whilst on the track though.

You can if you use GTR2PD, it shows the temp at top of screen. Thats ambient temp though i presume, not literally track temperature like you get in real racing. :-\


ps gutted i missed this one but had a family birthday meal to attend and got back too late  :'(

You can with GTR2PD. The temperatures climbed a bit early in the race and then started to drop off again, though there wasn't a huge variation in track temperature.

It was me being slower then...  :P

GTR2PD has track AND ambient temperature shown.

Pffft! The Vertigo hasn't even got a MoTeC display, never mind you lot and yer fancy-schmancy GTR2PD!

Somebody else has done their own front end using the OCX from GTR2PD which you can use on a single display or dual monitors or on the network. It can overlay the info on the screen on a single display. (I think you have to run in Windowed mode, but not sure). Personally i don't like the graphics in this other tool as it's too small and hard to read, but anyhow if you wanna give it a go....
http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=280119 (http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=280119)

Unofficial Lapchart (http://www.lapcharts.teamshark.org.uk/Lapcharts/Spa Super enduro 11-03-2007/index.html)

You didn't take me out pops. Only a slight tap on the rear. Bit unfortunate with only 2 laps to go she couldn't have waited 5 mins.

Hi Moonman. Good race last night. That Mosser seemed a handfull at times in front of me ;D You mad a great move on me at the end of the top straight. Was going to close the door on you but thought no point that early in the race.

Right.

Had an awesome race (considering...  ::) ).

After terrrrrrrrrrrrrrible qualy session (11th, I think, simply didn't get a clean lap, 2.5 secs off my best time) I put some more pressure into the tyres (due to very cold track, but still not enough, was running soft front, medium rear, car was near perfect, except for 4kPa lower tyre pressure and too much radiator, 3 was too much, 2 would be enough imho) and brake duct to 2 (3 didn't heat them up enough). Started well, gained 2 places on top of l'eau rouge (2 cars playing very expensive pinball) then climbed up to 8th. Since I've calculated best option to do a 5 mins stop (messed it up as everyone else, btw, stationary for 6 minutes  ;D ) would be when rest of the pack is at the end of their tyre performance thus being slow, I went for light 1st stint to be stationary when rest of the guys were in tyre trouble, then planned to run heavy 2nd and 3rd stint, figuring I'd be on fresh rubber (last stint) when rest of the guys were in pits.

Or so I thought. We all know how battle plans work...

They don't.  ;D

3rd lap - touched rear right of a much slower black f550, he was clearly in trouble on very cold tyres and suffering understeer so he slowed down so much I could not avoid him entering the corner (although I was very early on brakes and extra carefull it's still my fault, I do apologise). Sent him of for a brief moment, managed to communicate a pass on our way toward bus stop, let him by, then chased him into hairpin and passed him although I had to exhale all the air from my lungs to squeeze in between himself and the wall on the right. Nice blocking.  ;D

Stormed into l'eau rouge, messed up (fronts still a bit cold), was all over the place, then guess who came to visit my rear end... Yup, black F550. In the moment I've managed to stabilise fishtailing he must have thought I'm faster then I realy was - he did brake at first, but then slammed on the throttle thinking it's OK to do it. Big mistake, I still wasn't up to speed. Got nudged into the wall, lost most of the car's front end and went "argh, not again...".

Crawled back to the pits, fixed the damage, changed tyres and made a huge mistake. It never occured to me I could finish the race with 100L+100L on last two stints. Which I could, but took 92L instead for 2nd stint. Moron (see below  ;D ).

Anyway, came back out right in front of the leaders. Alas, the irony, was running fast enough to stay in front for a bit (!), then decided it would be idiotic to stay in front and mess up the fight for podium. Since they were spread out well enough I tried to get out of the way by:
a ) enabling leaders to pass on throttle
b ) giving them a bit of draft while we're at it, hey, my mom tought me to share :)
c ) preventing to pack them up, i.e. I hope the initial difference stayed the same. Was a mess though, I had to back of the pace (mind you, that was at the time of my best tyre performance, very frustrating  ;D)

First 4 cars went by well enough, then started to wait for Truetom to catch up. Which he couldn't do, but I went "darn, I must make him nervous since he can still see me in front", so I backed off again to swap places. In retrospective - big mistake, was faster at them time, should have stayed in front. Same goes for car in P4 earlier, but somehow i didn't want to unlap myself just for the **** of it. Would make too big an impact on the podium battle imho. ;D Anyway, whole procedure cost me 30 secs or so. Argh.

Then the chase was on (see lapchart, made 20 overtakes for position  ;D ). Felt sorry for all the NGT I had to pass (especialy since we were, basicaly, racing for position) and they moved away way too politely (again, guys, stay on racing line, it's GTs job to figure out a way past you, not vice versa.) Same for GTs, I had an impression most of the guys had their brake ducts on 3, they were all over the place under braking and very early at it anyway.

Had a huge moment with a.. vertigo, I think. Went for a pass on the inside (u know, business as usual, looked safe enough, he stayed on racing groove), we braked simultaneously, side by side, unfortunately vertigo swerved to the right under braking and slammed into my car which sent him off (I think, was a bit too busy to check mirrors at the time).

Crawled back to 4th position then stopped for last time (although I didn't know it at the time...). Did my why-don't-you-read-the-rules-stupid-6 minute pit stop  ;D ::) , came out and off we went. Then the math started. Car was burning 4.45-4,50L per lap. In order to finish 48 laps (figured winner would run 49 laps although, as we now know, it could be 50 laps, thanks to Zacari's quick thinking that didn't happen, thx  ;D), I had to stay below 4.20L per lap. Short shifting 23 laps, here we come. Very annoying and tiresome since you have to do it on purpose, but still in 2.17-2.18 territory.

Last two laps were spent in 6th gear except for 1st and 2nd gear corners, checking mirrors if someone's catching me up on the straights while doing no more then 200km/h.  ;D

Crossed the finish line with 0.46L of fuel left, my girlfriend (i.e. race engineer, told me to back off or increase pace every lap due to fuel situation. Pocket calculator in her hands, of course,couldn't have done it without her) and myself were very happy with the result.

Conclusion: gotta make a plan for next endurance race, i.e. one must know POINT 1 and POINT 2 of the race (point 1 being: if you crash after lap xy, u can finish the race with 2x100L of fuel, point 2 being "after lap xyz, u can finish the race with 100L of fuel onboard). Could have kept the pressure up on Madd-RIP if only I took 100L at the time of my mishap (pit one). But I didn't, so... better luck next time.  ::)

All in all, Spa is still the best test for learning a new car. Now I know why everyone likes F550, great handling, good traction, very easy to buidl a setup, a proper GT, lambo's a pussy compared to it. Loved it, might try it in S5 (since, well, that's the only two GTs I've thoroughly tested so far  ::) )


--------------
As per track temp: 19 degrees were fine, the second track went back below 19, tyres went down 2-3 degrees. We all had to back off a bit, hence making tyres even colder, loosing pressure and, again, losing pace. Catch 22.

I love endurance racing, the longer it lasts, the more fun we get. :)

-------------

@ truetom: massa was NOT fast in corners (at least compared to my f550, but I was on wing 10, that could be the reason. No one could follow me, leaders included (see the above came-out-in-front-of-leaders), in the twisty section, so I'm wondering what wing were you guys running... anyone? do reply, one must learn ;) ), except for traction out of 2 corners of the whole track and was a bit understeery on corner entry and exit, wasn't it? And please, stop pushing buttons if not on pure straights (i know, i know, had a brainfart of my own, twice, i know how you feel), you scared me to death. :o

------------

Corner cutting policy was great, got 2 warnings in l'eau rouge, both times due to my mistake (messed up the entry and went wide on the exit) otherwise, if one kept the right 2 wheels on the inside of white lines, it was fine. Cool.


--------------

edit: air temp reached tropical 3 degrees max, track went up to 19, but came down to 17 in last 7-8 laps. GTPD is very cool tool.

If I asked my girlfriend to stay with me and calculate my fuel burn, i'd be wearing a calculator on the side of my face ::)

Excellent race report though Jure. Good to know I wasn't the only one who got things wrong. ish.  :P

Im pretty doubtfull if mine could use a calculator. ;D

Yike, sorry I hit you at all, glad you were OK.

Yeah, I'm disappointed we didn't get to see out our battle for the last lap or so, it was shaping up to be pretty interesting!

Yeah suprisingly interesting race for almost all of the time. Had a battle almost all the way through with someone except for after the pit stop when I was able to run about 1/2 an hour of fast laps.

The Mosler was actually pretty stable most of the time just a bit unpredictable when really pushing. I think you were a bit slow through Eu Rouge and I got in your slip stream giving me enough speed to get past. From what I saw most people were driving sensibly like yourself as we had a long way to go.

Jure: I was running 8 rear wing on MC12. Was practicing with 10, then 9 and the straight speed wasn't high enough, so I decided to run with 8... Hell, even that wasn't fast enough. Corner speed seems ok to me, was scary, but then I'm still an NGT guy deep inside.  ;D

TT

I would guess the yellow flag at the bus stop and for those at the hairpin would be down to dropping below 40mph, that seems how the game decides that it's a yellow flag situation.

@TT
And you were still slower then f550 running wing 10 :o ? F550 reached 280-285kmh at some 7350rpm on wing 10 (engine set to 7400rpm, it got a bit nasty during drafting  ::) ).

It's also true less rear wing through l'eau rouge gives you less stability, thus killing your exit speed - tried it on f550 and decided it's better to reach relatively high average speed fast (since gearing was shorter too, accel. was awesome up to 5th gear) instead of going for high top speed and lose on rest of the track, not to mention much bigger mental stress on low wing, being super endurance and all  ;D . Top speed @ wing 8 in MC12 would be...? How were your antiroll bars set? It seemed like it takes ages for MC12 to change direction, u know, supertanker kind of a thing  ;D
Mail me your setup, will ya? TY :)

Massa needs some weight reduction to become a serious contender imho. Plus it sounds and looks great, should be more of them on the grid. I'll practice it tonight, hey, it's Italian as any proper sports car should be. :P (said Jure while installing DBR9)

Let me correct that for you  :P    ;D

Whatever possible share holders are - Maseratti is Italian at heart.   :P

TT

massa's owned by ferrari which is owned by fiat which is owned by god knows who  ;D

cej was talking about british not-for-everyday-toys. cute statement, but wrong.  :P

btw, Dave Richard's consortium (helped by Kuwait or smthn) bought Aston Martin today. Ford sold it cheap, 479 milion or so.

But F*rd do get to retain some technology rights and a shareholding so for once they seem to have done something financially shrewd instead of simply selling off the family silver.

Should Spa 2003 and 2004 have different statistics seen as they're different tracks?

Wasn't Aston currently the most profitable part of that 'family'?

I'm surprised they got rid of the most "prestigious" brand they own. On the other hand, Aston Martin can only really make one car can't they? The Vantage, DB9 and Vanquish all look exactly the bloody same and the latter is twice the price of the former.
Hope they learn to differentiate between models under Prodrive's guidance.

Internally they do. But most tracks change a little year on year and I have to draw a line somewhere.

ford had to sell, they need every penny to keep on making... fiestas or whatever they produce

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6442101.stm

They need the money. The entire automotive industry is in a dire state (GM are in real danger of becoming bankrupt and Chrysler aren't far behind) and Aston have never really fitted into Ford's portfolio. It makes much more sense for them to be set free and provide an essentially risk-free investment income stream for Ford if they do well - and very limited exposure if it goes pear-shaped.

The Daimler-Chrysler divorce will be much bigger news... And somehow Porsche effectively acquiring VW went almost unreported in the mainstream press.

We are getting slightly off-topic mind... :D

Sorry I missed this one - just felt awful on Sunday night.

All being well I'll be racing tonight though, and get another Spa fix.

Just got the email about my infringement for this. Is it really worth bothering with reports when they take a year (!) to do?

I vaguely remember what I did here, was my fault so no problem....but yea.  ::)

You mean 2 years! Looks like a glitch in the system or finger trouble.

Oh my god you're right!  :wheelchair:

I implemented a change to the court system today which reveals events with incorrect statuses, one of which was this one. Moving it from "published" to "official" has triggered PMs. Hopefully events won't get into the wrong state in future after this change. ;)