SimRacing.org.uk

event password = see above (released 24hrs before the race)

(https://i.postimg.cc/ZqBhDF5X/Screenshot-ks-porsche-917-k-spa-9-11-121-8-16-57.jpg)

Prototype Potluck Round 1
The 250kms of Spa

Welcome to Round 1 of the Prototype Potluck series - and what better place to get familiar with these beasties than the relative safety of modern Spa.
The race length is 36 laps (252kms for the pedantic among you) and should take a little under 90 minutes based on the 917.
This means that most (If not all - I haven't done fuel calcs for them all myself even) will have to pit for fuel.

As we know that the cars have very different performance all drivers should take care when racing - especially in instances involving the 917 Vs 'normal' cars.
Non-917 are free to race each other normally - as they will actually have fairly similar pace - but need to be aware of the different strengths and weaknesses their cars have (I.e. GT40 drivers should not expect to match a 908 in braking!).
If being passed/lapped by a 917 however, drivers should just drive normally and follow the racing line (Standard being lapped procedure) - if you wish to take a late entry to a corner and leave the inside open to help the Porsche through then feel free. However, do not move, lift, or change lines in the middle of a corner or immediately after a corner to 'help' a fast car though - this is unpredictable for the car behind and will not only unsettle your own car but could also unsettle the driver of the following car when they are forced to react - and could even result in an incident.

Qualifying etiquette
To match most race events of the late 60's we are having a combined practice and qualifying as per the recent races at Bremgarten and Bridgehampton.
Due to this the track will contain drivers who are practising and setting up and also drivers who are running a qualifying lap.
If you are on a hot lap please turn your headlights on - and remember to turn them off again once finished.
If you are simply practising or working on setups please keep your headlights off and try not to hold up drivers who are on hot laps if you can avoid it - you'll want them out of your way when it's your own turn to try and qualify. ;)

Please note that the start time has been moved slightly forward from our traditional time - this is to allow the race to finish at a similar time to normal

Practice/Qualifying: 19:00 (60 mins)
Race                  :  20:00 (36 laps)

Cars allowed:

Drivers must either post their car choice here or PM it to me by 18:00(UK time) on Tuesday the 14th. This is so I can ensure the server has the correct numbers of cars available. You can inform me in advance if you wish to do so.
Drivers who have posted/sent their preference will get priority, so turning up without 'booking' your car could result in your being being removed from the server to make room for someone who has booked. You will then have to rejoin in something that is available whether you have practised in it or not.
You can see my own car choice listed in the Series announcement thread.

Ford GT40
Porsche 908LH
Ferrari 330 P4
Porsche 917k

Track:  Spa (Kunos Stock)


Live Timing: stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat (http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat)

Time of Day Setting: 14:30
Weather: Mid Clear
Start: Standing
Damage:   80%
Fuel use:  100%
Tire Wear: 100%
Pit-stops: Not mandatory - but you will probably need them ;)

Server track settings:
SESSION_START=96
RANDOMNESS=2
LAP_GAIN=0.035
SESSION_TRANSFER=80

PLP App - Not used in this series. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.

Notes:
(1)PLP App - Not used in this event. Cutting will be monitored on replay and penalties issued for excessive cutting.
(2)Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules especially the
rules about in-game chat messages.
(3) Please exercise caution when pitting as some tracks have a speed limit.
(4) Please follow the SROUK guidelines for using kerbs etc. Please keep 2 wheels on the track surface (kerbs do not count as track surface)
Excessive cutting of corners will seen as cheating and the results may be altered to reflect this.

And last but not least - Good luck ;)

I was feeling quite happy with a 2.41 lap in the GT40 until I saw that the best lap the last time you raced these at Spa was 2.36!!!!!!!!!!!!  :o  I expected maybe a couple of seconds but 5!

Ford for me, plz.

Can you switch the server to Spa?

That's really weird - it was set to Spa, and the ini was still the spa practice one too ???

Re-set and restarted, hopefully it'll stay this time

I read somewhere that if server is inactive certain time it drops it self off or something idk...

Following some comments in the season topic, as Spa is such a long lap I've increased the base grip slightly and nearly doubled the lap gain figure.
The server has been updated and restarted accordingly (Post one has been edited to show the new settings).

I've also recorded a demonstration lap in the 917 (at the old grip level) with the various driver apps turned on to help drivers understand how these cars need to be driven.
In a word: gently ;D

Link: https://youtu.be/yGR1WR9wBHg (https://youtu.be/yGR1WR9wBHg)

The lap in the video is approximately 1.2 seconds slower than my best lap on the same setup at 100% grip, throttle and brake application hardly change between the track settings - it's merely cornering speed and braking that is really noticeable, and in these cars grip level doesn't matter, if you're going fast you're going to be balancing on the knife-edge!

You'll notice that I rarely use full throttle in any corner where the car is loaded, these tires simply don't have the lateral grip to allow it (100% grip is the same). Double Droit is a perfect example as when carrying max speed through the corner I have to wait almost till the last couple of meters to actually apply full throttle.
The same applies to the brakes. You can nearly hit full pressure at one or two points around the track while at a high speed, but as soon as you drop below 3rd or start turning, the brake force has to be drastically dropped - you are no longer using the brakes from this point to slow the car, rather you are using them solely to balance it and help yourself turn.

The prototypes all have considerable understeer by design - so it is important to remember this when driving/racing other drivers. Fast in is almost never quicker (I trialled it a few times and would loose so much speed through Eau Rouge that just that one corner could add a second to my lap if entered fast), you want to slow almost to your required speed before the corner and then - using only gentle brake force - finish slowing while coaxing your car into the turn.

Once the car is settled and you have reached a point where you can start to accelerate you must do so gently, the 917 and GT40 both have ~5l engines so will both simply spit you out if you floor it. The P4 and 908 have far less torque but will also not take much abuse before also spinning you out so still require a fair degree of smoothness.

You need to remember Taledega Nights and drive like you have a Puma in the car  :D

I will take the GT40 too.

Thanks guys, the fun races were great
Would love to race here all the time but work will make midweek races impossible( lucky to have little work for few weeks but now getting back to normal)
Will practice for some races in case I get the chance to race
My brother hasn't registered yet but is even less likely to be able to race
Hope to see you again in some future races
Cheers Steve

Ferrari for me please

GT40 for me... :angel:

I'm training offline, I hope that the good choice my track of spa. The server is not open.

330 please.

Hi Phillipe - the server is definitely up as I've just checked.

Make sure you have all the relevant tick boxes selected in multiplayer like the 'show all empty servers' box  :)

 :thumbup1:

330 Thanks! :)

Will start with the Ferrari 330 thanks.

908 here please

Gt40 for me please!

Just tried the 908 & the 330, found the 908 just horrible on default setup so lots of work to do there but the Ferrari was brilliant & I instantly went faster than my best GT40 lap without doing anything to the setup.

Hi Geoffers - The Ferrari should be the fastest of the "Standard 3".
It's also the thirstiest though so I'm really interested to see how the race results go each round :)

As for your comment earlier about the previous laptimes - they were all set on a highly unrealistic server with 100% grip and I believe are qualifying laps.
If you set the dates in the S-tracker tab to start last month and end next week you'll only get the times done on the server this time.

*edit = this may work: http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat?track=spa&cars=ks_ford_gt40,ks_porsche_908_lh,ks_porsche_917_k,ks_ferrari_330_p4&valid=1,2&date_from=2021-11-28&date_to=2021-12-23 (http://stracker.simracing.org.uk:50041/lapstat?track=spa&cars=ks_ford_gt40,ks_porsche_908_lh,ks_porsche_917_k,ks_ferrari_330_p4&valid=1,2&date_from=2021-11-28&date_to=2021-12-23)

Thanks Tim. Yeh the GT40 lap was with 100% grip & I went faster in 3 laps with the Ferrari on 96%.

The sounds for these cars are a bit mixed, the Ferrari doesn't sound too bad, the GT40 a bit disappointing & the 908 truly terrible, sounds more like a two-stroke.

Mmm I still think the P330 is a horrible piece of equipment to go fast with. Sorry Enzo..  But as it is the only car I have tested on Spa and no time to do more praccy, I think I'll take the Fezza here too.

I use the original version of this for the GT40 - just noticed there are some updates so will try them too now...
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amplifiednl-ford-gt40-classic-racing-v8-sound-mod.17172/ (https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/amplifiednl-ford-gt40-classic-racing-v8-sound-mod.17172/)

The Porsche is a flat plane, flat 8 - so will basically sound like a speeded up 4 cylinder (or 2 stroke) meaning it's actually quite accurate. ;)

917 for me.

Actually, you are quite right Tim. This onboard sounds very similar to the car in game.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k93-k-GHmBg

Winner!  Syd is first man to go full send :gun_bandana:

/ throws xmas chocolates in Syds direction







=========================================================================



Also after giving it much thought, and despite the fact its already perhaps overly popular,  I will take the 330 P4 this time.  :)

908 for me.

hey all, good fun on the practise server last night, always nice to see other cars on track, especially these!

I think i am going to go P330 Ferrari for this one. Its a tough call, i genuinely love driving all these cars here. Even that boat of a GT40 had me smitten once i got used to dragging its lump around the corners and i was very tempted to take that. I didnt get enough time to try the 908 properly, nor even a lap with the 917 yet  :'(
 
Is there more chance of a race with others in the GT40 v 908 fight? Looks like P330 and 917s will be standalone classes. I'm in it for the sheer fun of racing this exotica as will miss some rounds due to other commitments.

See you on track later  :)

I had a half distance x2 fuel and tyres practice race with the AI yesterday in the 908 and finished 2nd behind the 917  :)

Strategy and setup seems good, now if you can all just drive at 90%  :thumbup2:

The limited use of chassis means they're all the same class from a results perspective. In UKGPL in events like this the trick was to find better than average results in the slow cars while maximising the fast ones - Given we've never had a long duration race in these, or even raced un-BOP'ed we don't actually know what the weakest link will be yet thanks to fuel and tire use ;D

I think there will always be overlap between the makes anyway, fast guys in slow chassis will probably end up fight slower drivers in the faster chassis... It should keep things interesting.

Can you please make sure you give your car choice by the date stated though, I made the server files after tea yesterday and now have to do it again and re-upload ready for tonight ;)

how was the tyre wear,  I've not had chance to test that properly yet  :o



Absolutely, then add in the "$!!# I broke my car" factor and who knows what could happen...

Yes, there was indeed tyre wear  ;D

Advatage of long races, tyre wear & fuel consumption really matters, I've try to tell this point for years and result was 2x15 minute races... ;)

yeah sorry about that, i literally read that sentence this morning, oops!  :P I didnt even discover this series until the weekend!  ;D

with regards tyre wear and fuel useage,  havent got a clue as not done any longer runs except with the GT40 last night. Tyres were okay on that after burning up 50L of fuel

 :wetfish:

 :o All that for gearbox to pack up lap 34, bugger........

Unlucky Bob  :(

I certainly made it harder than it needed to be, but joker still maximized.
An hour before the race I cut my right thumb. Not a good omen of things to come. I drove the race with a bandage on the thumb, but other then trying to come off while I was racing, it didn't bother me too much. Then while I was trying to join the server, my Quest 2 started to act, it was constantly losing tracking, I barely managed to click to switch to rift mode and get into AC. But since tracking wasn't working, if I moved in my chair, the world (car) was moving with me, not my head moving around the car as it normally would be.
On the server I saw I was the only 917, so the pressure was on to not make any mistakes and win, as the car is by far the best.
Qually went good and I was easily on pole.
Fuel calculations were showing me that I could do 20 laps on the full tank, so I thought I just needed another 15 laps of fuel, because the race was 35 laps, right? I could have sworn I read it was 35 laps. But after the start, I saw it was 36 laps! So when pitting I needed to figure out where my pit controls were to increase the fuel. Except I wasn't sure were they were? If they weren't mapped to the wheel buttons, I was screwed. I guess I'll find out when pitting. All that time Max was doing excellent job keeping the pressure on in the early laps, only 1 second or so off my times. As the laps counted up, I realized another mistake I made. When I set up my pit strategy, I only set the fuel. I set to change the tires, but forgot to change default pressures. And those were definitely too low. So now I was debating, if I found pit controls, do I turn off tire change? Or do I go with new but underinflated tires?
As fuel went down, I built a good cushion over Max, but range was even shorter, I barely made it to lap 19, and went into the pits. I was frantically pushing buttons on my wheel as I was rolling toward the pit stall, and luckily pit controls were there. I stopped just before the stall to adjust the fuel, adding 5 or so litters, and I went with new tires. I lost a few seconds while stopped there before pitting properly. And then proceeded to stay and stay in the pits. Afterwards I calculated I lost around a minute and a half in total for pitting. I exited in third behind Max and Mark J. Mark was close by and I almost caught him by the end of lap 20, but he went into pits. I wasn't sure how far ahead was Max, as there were several cars between us. But on lap 22 he stopped and exited around 8 seconds behind me. Despite my low pressured tires I was doing ok,  but then with 10 laps to go I noticed I had fuel for 9.6 more laps  :o I didn't put enough at the stop. Since I couldn't afford a quick splash of fuel pitstop, with Max being so close, I proceeded to short shift and save fuel. It wasn't until two laps to go when I finally saw 2 .1 laps of fuel left and knew I was safe.
Then on the last lap I stupidly thought let's try to set the fastest lap and almost went off at Eau Rouge  ;D So what looked fairly straight forward from the outside, was all drama  for me.
Congrats to Max who was really fast and made sure I couldn't afford any mistakes, and to vva for rounding out the podium.
Now back to earth for the next race  ;D

Bad luck Bob - that was a hell of a lot of pressure you put on me in the early stages, interesting that the Porsches strong points were enough to keep you at bay even while the weak points are trying to throw me at the scenery! I enjoyed that and have to admit I was somewhat rooting for you, but even though I was making a point of not covering lines you never quite got through far enough to pass.

Well done to Syd for playing the Joker successfully, and also to Max for staying closer to the 917 than I was expecting with VVA bringing home 3rd.
I didn't even see Mark pull off so am surprised and happy to have bagged 4th somehow.

Assuming the replay shows it I should be able to get some pretty good pictures of my formation flying from the final 2 laps after my 2nd miss-shift of the race - My engine builder was not happy with me when I finished :ninja:

Freakin benzina  ::) 6L short  :-X I blame Syd he should have finished a lap ahead  :laugh:

Good race other than that, certainly felt like an endurance race. I should have finished 4th where I spent almost the entire race. I enjoyed chasing vva early in the race but I couldn’t stay with him and Max after a while. Then it was pretty lonely for a long while and I was hoping vva had less fuel onboard. Annoyingly on the very last lap before my stop I got a half spin and loss 7 secs so that threw away any potential pit stop gain over him.
After the stop I had to catch Tim who’d passed me in the pits. I closed him down over several laps then had a really enjoyable scrap for several more laps, though it was costing me a chunk of time in some corners avoiding his wayward derrier, good scrap  :)
About 3 laps after that I started getting concerned about my fuel so began coasting and short shifting. It wasn’t enough, with 1 lap to go I had to pit  >:( I couldn’t remember how the heck you change pit strategy so had to take a full load and tyres …aarrgh!
Lost two places and felt grumpy.

Good event though  :thumbup1:

Quite enjoyed the GT40, even though it was the slowest car & I was pretty slow too. Had a bit of a battle with Kimi early on until he nearly lost it at Les Combes leaving me running the rest of the race on my own. My pit tactics were also wrong as I pitted at half distance instead of filling the car for the start & then just having a short stop late in the race.

Congrats to the podium guys, cya all next week.  :thumbup1:

Sorry for the tap at start of lap 2 FMG, was caught out with the back end of your car swinging about like a pendulum, very entertaining to follow, was expecting you off at any time but didn't happen, great driving. I made a mistake and lost two places which took several laps to get back then time to pit.  Been waiting for a knee replacement in left leg over two years and was proper struggling towards end of race. Well done all need to recover for next one. :sweatdrop: :sweatdrop:

I mentioned my engine builder was upset after last nights' race - well, looking at the replay I think I understand why now ;D
With 2 to go I caught sight of a GT40 and set myself the goal of lapping it before the end of the race, I may have changed down slightly 'early' into Les Combes while trying to brake as late as posible :whistling:
Needless to say the GT40 got away!

(https://i.postimg.cc/3Nw3GDkG/Screenshot-ks-ford-gt40-spa-16-11-121-10-37-50.jpg)

I really enjoed driving my Gt40, found a really nice setup, and had a great pace all race long. There was no chance to compete with other cars at Spa, also because too many has choosen the Ferrari.

Grats podium and see everybody at Brands.

can someone remind me how you alter your pit strategy 'in car' ? did we need an app? been so long i've forgotten  :-[
Still not figured out why i was 6L short, i used the fuel calc app from SRO.

Didnt get to sleep for ages last night, my eye-balls were still doing gymnastics from 2 hrs of intense simracing.  :blink: Did the race run 15minutes over time last night? thought it was supposed to finish at 8.30  ???

Cars looked awesome on track last night.  8) As ever, shame there were not more of them! and also a bit of a shame that some had a lonely race due to car choices but not much you can do about that without numbers of same car present.  :-\

I raced last night under my real name Paul Anstey. My alter ego SimMadPaul is indeed mad in fact totally insane.  :jumpjoy:. So 2 apologise to make, First off I thought the race was on Thursday so I came into the server thought I was all alone saw that the session was near to ending and tried to restart it as I wanted to do a long run. Hadn't noticed Tim was on the server. Thank god he was as I could have really screwed things up for everyone. Which would have made my first race here a real embarrassment and probably my last race here.  :oops: Sorry for that one I won't be doing that again. I'll come to the 2nd apology in a bit.

Next embarrassing bit. I was so focused in doing a long stint as I hadn't done one I spent the whole of qualifying trundling around with a high fuel load in total ignorance that everyone else was trying to do their fast laps. At this point I was in total ignorance that the race was today. Jeez real amateur newbie newb. I have by the way been online racing for over 10 years now. I know what I'm doing honestly I do. I did say I was mad.  :jumpjoy:. So by the time I came in to the pits I had no chance of setting a fast lap on low fuel but amazingly I was 7th probably wouldn't have done much more than that.

Next embarrassing bit. I am used to there being a warmup before the race starts although only in rF2 races. My mind has gone. So I decided to get up stretch my legs. I came back to see that everyone was lining up on the grid and I had 25 seconds to get ready. Mad scramble to get my gloves on and get focused.

So to that 2nd apology. The race. Lap 1 didn't go well. I didn't want to get involved in any racing until my tyres came up to temperature so I was letting a few people through. Stefan being one of them. I gave him enough gap to go through but he went wide after he past me and seemed to slow up. Think he had a car in front of him. I slammed the brakes on and locked them up and slid right underneath him. Stefan span out. I waited for him and gave the place back but by that time we were flat last so I could only give him back 13th or 14th place. Sorry Stefan. Not sure I could've done things differently. It was just one of those things but thought I better wait for you and let you past even if I couldn't give the place back we had before the incident.

Settled down to a good rhythm and started picking off a few cars. Tried to stay behind Stefan and follow him through the field. Apart from the first lap incident I didn't spin the car once. Drifting like mad at certain stages especially towards the end of the first stint but no spinning. Took too much fuel and a new pair of boots at the pit stop and tried in vain to catch the cars ahead. Tim before the stop and Stefan after the stop. Finished the race in 8th after passing a few late stoppers. So almost got back to where I was before lap 1.

These cars are awesome exactly what I like. No downforce. No grip. No brakes. Just what a sportscar should be. Progress in my opinion has killed motorsport. The introduction of downforce was the downfall of the sport. OK to begin with. The 70s, 80s and even the 90s were great but now there is no racing. Just cars going round tracks on rails. DRS in F1 is a great example of how downforce has killed the sport with cars unable to follow cars in front because of dirty air. They needed to introduce an artificial way to allow the cars to overtake. Lets hope the new cars are better. GT3 may have addressed some of the problems by taking off downforce and making the cars less grippy but for me there's nothing like the 50s to the 90s era of motorsport.

Well done to Syd for making the 917 work around here. :sorcerer: I will pick the race where everyone else will be in 917s.  :blink:
Well done to the other podiums and to everyone who finished and bad luck to those who didn't. :)

I suspect they won't allow me out of my padded cell for next time but if they do I'll be better prepared. Honest like. :)

Pit strategy is simply controlled by the HAT switch on your joystick (I think the arrow keys work too but can't reach them when driving to find out).
On my g25 this was great as the HAT is on the gear shifter. The Thrustmaster is quite annoying as it's on the wheel so is a right bugger to actually use while driving!

Race distance was chosen to be 'approximately' 90 minutes as per the series thread Mark, with the events rounded to the nearest handy number of miles or KMs. Brands will be maybe 5 minutes longer than the 90 (pace dependant of course) for the same reason, other rounds could be shorter..

(https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/559abfdd9093d1f3f2f55ea576d03903.jpg)



BTW if I don't grenade the 908 when I drive it, I will be most pleasantly surprised  :D

It was a bit lonely race for me, still long distances are quite great challenge, especially on these strict cars.
Started 3 rd, but after couple of laps understood clearly that Max wont leave me a chance.
On lap 13 or 14 hit wrong gear (3 instead of 5) => yellow engine gave me good experience: it costs about 1-1.5 seconds per lap.
Nice to see old friends here and grats to Syd, Max and all guys who survived it!

It took me some laps to get friends with the Fezza. In the end it was a good race. Nice to see a good grid again. Must be the right car/track combo...
Sitting on the grid with VR it was just as I was there. Just need to add some gasoline fumes to make the experience complete.

I had a look at the replay and it seems that the contact between us Paul was just unfortunate. I had to take a short line and that caused the rear to swing out a bit, just tapping each other. Had a nice time fighting back and just when I noticed we were gaining on Bob and FMG I had another spin. Pfff.
Congrats to the podium and nice to see my teamie back from his IceRacing adventures  ;)

Thanks  :)