SimRacing.org.uk

Season 40 – 1955 Grand Prix – Round 1 – Works - Oakes Field

This race announcement is for the WORKS.

The first race in the 1955 Grand Prix series sees us taking a boat to Nassau in the Bahamas. The first Nassau Trophy Road Races meeting for Sports Cars was held in 1954 on the Windsor Field Course. For 1957, the meeting was moved to another airfield location, the 5 mile Oakes Course, which was closer to the main population areas on the island. The new course, despite being quite bumpy in places, was relatively well-received, though there were a number of close shaves near the pits as it was too close to the racing line. To combat this, the race direction of the track was changed to clockwise in 1958. The circuit was also shortened to 4.5 miles by cutting out the original Blackbeard's Bend and Ecky's Twist, whilst a new left-right-left corner combination was built to connect the Sassoon Straight and Bethell's Pass, cutting out the tight hairpin which had previously taken the cars off the runway. Due to much needed track repairs and the lack of additional funding by the Bahamian government, as well as competition from more races running in December, the event was discontinued after the 1966 meeting. It is the clockwise 4.5 mile Oakes Course that we will be using for tonight's race.

Race list	=	iGOR
Server	=	UKGPL05_60fps
IP address Server	=	86.6.125.152:32666
Password	=	see above (#post_event_password)
GPL Mod	=	55
60fps Patch	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track download	=	link (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=11166)
Track directory	=	nassau
Qualifying starts	=	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race starts	=	~ 21:30 UK time
Race length	=	16 laps
Replay	=	here (https://antipastiracing.org.uk/UKGPL_Replays/index.php)

Please restrict chat to emergency messages only including at the end of the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Driver lists and division specific rules can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=1721&theme=6).

Available Tokens:
Note: These are the tokens available to each driver before the 10 tokens are added for making the race start.

Driver	Tokens	Status
bagrupp	10	Works
Claudio Navonne	10	Works
Clive Loynes	10	Works
Doni Yourth	10	Works
Enrique Farina	10	Works
EvilClive	10	Works
fpolicardi	10	Works
Giovanni Centorame	10	Works
GrandPrixYannick	10	Works
JonnyO	10	Works
Leo Menegucci	10	Works
Pete Bennett	10	Works
Phil Thornton	10	Works
romanov	10	Works

I've sorted the registered drivers into Works and Privateers based on previous results. As Privateers Champion, Pete Bennett moves up to the Works. There is an even split of 14 Works drivers and 13 Privateer drivers. If anyone thinks they are in the wrong group please send me a PM.

Season now on Weekly. (http://formulado.hu/weekly/index.php?p:events/season/UKGPL2022-7/)

Welcome Pete.

Hope you enjoy the racing.

Thanks, Clive. The racing I'll love  ;D  just so long as I can get off the line. I still fiind it hard in the 55s. I either bog down like a whale or I buzz the valves into the pistons. More practice required before the trip to Nassau.

I'm at a loss to know just what is going on with the IP address.

The Privateers and Works servers both have the same port listed on the race announcements????

When I use the port specified, 32766, it takes me to the privateers server.

Opps sorry Clive, a typo on my part. Race post corrected now.

I popped my engine on Lap 5 so it's an early finish for me this evening. Thanks for letting me join the ranks of the 55 Works. As promised, I made a terrible start in a vain attempt to preserve the engine. I felt that I then owed Evil an apology for the crash on L2 as we entered the Esso Bend but, having looked the replay, it would appear that Evil was half-way through that accident before he arrived at the corner. I hope that the rest of the Gordinis made it to the chequered flag. They are such fun to drive.

Blown header with full throttle in the main straight. I wasn't even revving the engine too much, but probably I stressed it in the early laps fending off Enrique.  :taz:

You were very unlucky Leo, I think the Vanwalls are a little delicate. I felt like I was down on power for the last 6 laps (my lap times were a couple of seconds slower but there is nothing showing in the mechanical report by GPL Replay Analyser) but that might have been because I was trying to conserve fuel. I'd miscalculated and I only had 0.2 gall (0.9 Litres) in the tank when I crossed the line. Fulvio bested me and I was worried Bastian would overtake me too but the chequered flag came out just in time  :helpsmilie:

It was a good race from my perspective. Close racing in the early laps and at the end. Sorry to see Claudio's engine expire at the end of lap 1. We were having a good battle. I kept the leaders in sight for a few laps but they were too fast and gradually pulled away. Fulvio caught me and we had a great battle for the last 6 laps. Very fair driving Fulvio, well done on your 4th place. Grats to Clive on the win and the first step to reclaiming his title. Nice to see Petr on the podium on his return.

  Congrats Stirling Loynes for the wins!!!!

  Terrible race for me, after 200 mistakes on the second lap I spent most of the race alone and a little happy to just finish.

Hard race. i had a terrible headache and trying iracing at the moment. so i needed some time get comfortable with such a 55 car again.

But i was free of grave mistake and refound a good speed. there was the potential to challenge and battle fulvio/phil but the race was a little bit to short.
I would have done another lap and still 1.2 Liters at the line then :)

Grats to Clive and the podium and all finishers.

Quite right Pete, I am highly skilled and experienced in producing my own accidents..I need no help from anyone in that department  ::)
I was at fault for not expecting you to slow quite so much and had to aim at the open spaces  :-\

I think that this was the first time that I had actually got L'escargot hooked up and my only worry was blowing the engine by pushing it too hard. Getting the 4 geared slug off the grid was a real problem and I dipped the clutch about 3 times to get the car rolling.

I lost places to the Connaughts etc at the start but once the Gordini was up and running I found that I could stay with them, until I clipped some polos and flipped the car around. Apologies to Jonny who I think I hit during my spin. but I waited for cars to recover and set off again, only to throw it into the undergrowth half a lap later.
I swore at myself with a few well chosen, descriptive words and from almost last place began the comeback.
Slowly I chased down Doni and Jonny also picking up a few places as cars retired.
With around 5 laps to go I was catching Bastian and I could see Phil and Fulvio just ahead of him. But the difference between running on a clear track in a Gordini and trying to find a passing opportunity against a car with even 10bhp more grunt became clear.
In clear air I was around 0.5secs a lap faster, but that was due to my faster speed through the corners, With a car ahead on the apex  I had to back off and lost momentum which is a precious thing in a Gordini  ;)
More than pleased to get to the finish and score some points in the little blue car....I might even use it again  ::)

Great battle Phil! I was lucky to have a good start and pass you and Clive before T2, but soon you passed me at the long straight after T2. Then every time I passed you cause your gearing problem I binned it going wide at T2. You were too gentleman to slow down after  have passed me at last double left taking a very wide line in the field and avoiding that tyre of the devil  :notworthy:
In the end, as you said, I had more speed on the straights and could pass you cause your engine/fuel problems, but you scared me at last lap closing up on braking.
Next battle! :)

Bravo to our podium finishers!  Well done.

Some pretty nasty luck for some.  Clay and Leo suffering engine failures in what would normally be fairly stout rides.

A pretty conservative run to P9 for me.  You all know my philosophy.  Never take risks.  The last time we ran GP55's here, I ended up doing some sheet time.

A fairly lonely run save for giving Evil Clive and Jonny wave-bys.  No point in trying to battle faster runners.  Pleased at least to cut a new personal best by a couple of tenths.

CYA in Austria!  :)

I must apologize with Enrique for the accident. Enrique,i made my move on the straight but as i realized that my brakes were completely gone i coasted well before the turn and let you regain the position. Unfortunately i couldn't avoid you, sorry. :angel:
It was a crazy race for me, during qualy i haven't found a good lap and i was not very confident with the car, but in the race was like i had a completely different car and i could stay with the leaders. After the accident with Enrique i lost several places but i regained a lot of time and at 5 laps to the end i was well in sight of Clive. I really tought i could have won the race but i spun at Dolphin... Karma, as Fernando said  ;D.

Congratulations to Clive and Petr, see you in Austria.

I think you are talking about the end of lap 5. I wasn't happy with my driving there, I held onto the place unfairly by leaving my braking too late and running very wide (I had to avoid that nasty tyre as you noticed). So it was the right thing for me to concede the place and let you through.

I've had a look at the replay and there doesn't appear to have been anything mechanically wrong with my engine. At the end of the long straight I was topping out at 142and 144 mph on laps 4 and 5. On laps 13 and 14 I managed 140mph. But on the last lap I got to 145mph. So there cannot have been anything wrong with my engine, I was just preoccupied with my fuel gauge! You beat me fair and square but next time you might not be so lucky  :fencing:   See you in Austria ;D 

Well, that was a surprise!  I'm not used to winning the first round of the season it's usually a candidate for discard.

From the qually times it was going to be tough.  Thanks to Enrique for harrowing Leo enough to reveal a weak engine on the Vanwall.  Well done teamie!  :thumbup1:


I didn't make the best of starts and Petr was able to pass me on the way to T1.  After that it was a close call trying not to hit him and I had Fulvio all over my tailpipes.

Petr made a mistake at the awkward final turn and when Enrique and Giovani had a coming together I was up to second.

Thankfully, Leo's race pace was not so staggering as his qually performance and so he was not too far ahead.  Suddenly I found myself catching him and then I saw the smoke!

I took the demise of his engine as a warning and started to limit my revs and be very careful of my gear changes.  I had to pick up the pace when Giovani was coming at me at a rate but other than that it was an uneventful run to the finish.

I don't think that I have done Zeltweg in the 55s so it will probably be a disaster.

Well done Petr, Giovani and all finishers.

thats ok giovanni, that thiks of race,  :(  unfortunitly, my car got tangled in the fence and couldn't get back out, just bad luck :hang:
   From the beginning of the race, I saw that I had a good pace to be able to get to the podium and even win, but things didn't work out for me and I didn't even score points, anyway, according to Clive, I was a great help to the team by "annoy" leo a little..well thanks teamy and congrats for your victory.
  i hope, next race can end the race.
  cya