SimRacing.org.uk

Season 40 – CanAM – Round 6 – Bottomless Lakes

For the next round we take the 1971 Can Am cars out of the garage and take them to the newest version of Bottomless Lakes (Roswell) in New Mexico.

STANDING START

This is a long flowing track with no immediate tight bends so we will have a STANDING START

Race list	=	igor
Server	=	UKGPL_8_60fps
IP Address	=	aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd
Password	=	see above (#post_event_password)
Damage Model	=	INT
GPL Mod	=	CA71
60fps Patch	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track download	=	link (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=14397)
Track directory	=	roswell
Qualifying Starts	=	20:45 UK Time  -  45min
Race Starts	=	~21:30 UK time
Race Length	=	16 laps
Replay	=	here (https://www.mediafire.com/file/pqbjokddr219nei/UKGPL_8__60fps.2022.03.25.23.28.rpy.7z/file)

Please, excepting emergencies, no chat until Session Completed in qualification. No chat in the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Driver lists and division specific rules can be found on the  Championships Stangings Page. (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=1751&theme=6) Please pay particular attention to the rules regarding ROLLING STARTS and chassis selection.

Only ONE Shift-R is allowed with NO need for a Stop and Go.

REMINDER: Drivers must choose 3 cars from the 1971 Can-Ams, drive each at least once but no more than twice.

This is now my home track. I´m a Nuevo Mexicano, home of the Unsers too.

Here´s a gallery of pictures I took at Bottomless Lakes last year. The sole mountain you can see in the haze is Capitan Peak. Roswell is small city in the Pecos River valley.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/3G7hZpg

Thanks for sharing!!

Greg, I love the penultimate picture. It even has GPL skid marks on it.

Cool pix, Greg!  TYVM for posting the link.

From Road & Track August 1967, well worth a read.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/RtsSJ43

Due to the lot of incident found in the first lap my car had a loss of power.After some lap i done a shift-r but before of the end of 8 lap i was out without a tire.

Freeze first, then disco for me at the begin of lap 3.

After some short, twisty tracks, it was good to give the CanAm cars somewhere to stretch their legs. I was happy with Q5 in the Ferrari and I narrowly missed the spins and  bumps on L1 which gave me the lead.

Surprisingly, I clung on for 11 laps but it was inevitable that Yannick, Tris or Greg would catch me. Yannick made a great move on the twistiest part of the track. I lost concentration and hit a barrier. This broke something on the car and my steering was awful for the next two laps. After another excursion through the sand, I took my shift-r as Doni was over a mile behind. Just a careful cruise to the flag on cold tyres and a full tank. Very happy with P2 against such a strong field.

Great track and car combo - I hope you enjoyed it.

Reminder of the rules regarding car choice.

REMINDER: Drivers must choose 3 cars from the 1971 Can-Ams, drive each at least once but no more than twice. Eg. 2 + 2 + 1. Drivers choosing an illegal car will be disqualified from that event.

A reminder of the Groups can be found on the Championships Standings Page. (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=1751&theme=6)

DRIVER		ROUND 1
MagicArsouille (FT)	Pro	Lola T222
GregT (R1)	Pro	McLaren M8B/C/E
fpolicardi (FT)	Int	McLaren M8D
Claudio Navonne (FT)	Int	Lola T222
Pete Bennett (FT)	Pro	Ferrari 712M
francesco (FT)	Int	Lola T260
Doni Yourth (FT)	Int	Lola T222
Rainier (R1)	Int	Lola T260
EvilClive (FT)	Int	Shadow MkII
Cookie (FT)	Int	Shadow MkII
GrandPrixYannick (FT)	Pro	Lola T222
PaulV (R1)	Am
Phil Thornton (R1)	Pro
Gareth (R1)	Int
Leo Menegucci (R1)	Pro
RBald (R1)	Am

Quite pleased to walk away from this challenging race with a podium.  It really is a unique and challenging venue.

Grats to Yannick on the victory and especially to Pete who did a fabulous job in the Ferrari to score P2.  Well done, gys.

Having said that, I can't help from feeling very sorry for Greg's misfortunes.  Based on qualifying performance, he was a lock for a walk-away win.  It just all seemed to slip away.  Greg recovered from the early dramas to march back up the order and looked like he might challenge for the lead when he suddenly parked the McLaren.  Dear me...  :(

Managing to slip through the Lap01 carnage down in the Lazy Lagoon section, I had to pinch myself to believe that I was actually up to P2 chasing Pete.  I had to wait for confirmation on that from my pitboard at the end of Lap02 as I don't use Pribluda for anything but the dashboard readouts.  It wasn't long, though, before those who'd fallen off the road on Lap01 started to reel me in and ultimately, fell to a worthwhile P5.  With assorted offs by Bot and Greg's retirement, that ended up to be a tasty P3 finish.  Fulvio was giving chase in his McLaren but apparently was coming up short on fuel and had to soft-pedal it home to avoid a costly stop.  I went to the line with 35 USG loaded.  That turned out to be somewhat more than was needed but I'd rather fuel too heavy than too light.

Congrats Yannick, Pete, and Doni! Excellent job guys.

Even though I didn´t get to finish and struggled with the weight of the fuel, it was fun. I think this is the first time I´ve ever driven a green car in 71 Can Am. I´ll call it British Racing Green and it was cool to run that rare for 71 color with a British racing league. That was a little special to me. I´ve never liked the black, orange, and white paint on the M8B. I obviously was going for the win by taking the fastest car available. I had a setup for the M8F that worked well on the M8B with some minor adjustments. It was an old setup dated from 2015, so it´s been a while since I drove the 71s here. I´ve driven at least a few of the mods here and run some good laps, so my experience likely gave me a good advantage.

Thanks for being careful at the first braking Tristan. We both appeared to make an effort to let each other in front. I wasn´t prepared for my car´s reaction over the little hill. That gave me a front row seat to all the carnage that would happen. By the time the track cleared, I was at the back. I got lucky that Tristan and Yannick made mistakes that quickly let me in front of them. I opened a quick gap but I was still struggling with the weight of the car. I kept running wide allowing them to stay close. Finally, somebody knocked on the door and I had to go. I hoped I might get back before I was removed from the car. I thought I could catch Pete once I started running consistent laps but the race was far from settled when I parked.

Having been to Bottomless Lakes, our version of the track is unrealistic in some areas. It´s not a bad guess by the track maker. The front straight is much narrower. We couldn´t carry the high speeds on the top of the ridge on the real track. And this new update has Saguaro cactii that should be replaced by prickly pears. I haven´t yet seen a Saguaro in New Mexico but I haven´t been to the southern most part of the state. Saguaros are common in southern Arizona, but they´re non existent in most of New Mexico.

They only raced cars at Bottomless Lakes for 3 years, but they´ve held bicycle races there for many years until the pandemic. If I get a bike rack for my car and a helmet, I might have to go down there sometime and run some laps on my bicycle. :)

Thanks for the fun. Hopefully some day, I´ll be able to concentrate on these races more. Life keeps getting in the way. 95% or more of my driving is done online with ADC and UKGPL. It´s rare I get any practice beforehand.

Sorry, I just see I was classified as "Intermediate" driver ...that's a great honour for me who didn't drive CanAm71 cars since several years !

By the way, as I retired on lap 3, it is a good lesson without bad consequences.