SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 15 Clubmans Cup - Round 2 - Spa - Apr 13

Gentlemen, welcome to the round two of the championship. Chassis restrictions will apply for this race - see below.

I must say I was very pleased with driving standards in race 1 so keep up the good work. You are encouraged to report incidents to give your side of the story, which doesn't mean that penalty will be issued automatically. Major incidents will be investigated disregardless of the drivers reports. Start related incidents will be thoroughly investigated.

Wish you all good luck.

Kruger

Please be in the UKGPL IGOR chat-room by 20:25 BST.

Server 3.ukgpl
IP address 87.194.135.42
Race date = 13-04-2008, 20:30 BST
Track = Spa
Race length = 9 laps

Qualifying time = 35 minutes. Don't start until 30 mins left on clock to allow everyone to join.


CHASSIS RESTRICTIONS
The following groups of drivers are restricted to the cars shown
below unless they opt to carry out additional pit stops to equalise
the performance of the car that is chosen:-

Group 1 - 1st and 2nd - Limited to the BRM, Cooper or Honda
Artur Le Marquand
Will Tway

Group 2 - 3rd and 4th - Limited to the BRM, Cooper, Honda or Brabham
Chris Bull
Ian Docherty

Group 3 - 5th and 6th - Cannot take the Eagle or Lotus
Ben Summers
Phil Thronton

Group 4 - 7th and 8th - Cannot take the Eagle
Jack O'Ferral
Bernie Darwin

9th and below - Free choice of chassis.

PIT STOPS FOR DRIVERS OPTING TO USE FASTER CAR THAN ALLOWED ABOVE
Drivers wishing to take a chassis other than as specified above will
need to make the appropriate pit stop(s) as follows:

Group 1
Eagle 1 x 18 seconds
Lotus 1 x 15 seconds
Ferrari 1 x 2 seconds
Brabham Stop n Go

Group 2
Eagle 1 x 14 seconds
Lotus 1 x 11 seconds
Ferrari Stop n Go

Group 3
Eagle 1 x 7 seconds
Lotus 1 x 3 seconds

Group 4
Eagle Stop n Go

The pit window is as follows:

Pit stop to be taken between 7 to go and 4 to go on your pit board. If a second pit stop is required it cannot be taken on the lap
following your first stop and must be completed before your pit board says 2 laps to go.

Password: see above (#post_event_password)
(2) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=79&theme=6)

(http://i28.tinypic.com/28mdxk6.jpg)

Finally someone caught on camera  one of those aliens landing.  ;D

 :rockon: That's awesome Will.  :clap: Hope that flying machine isn't me tonight.  :oops:

Woohoo I finished work! I can race tonight :)

ONce again excellent pic will :D

See you all there...

Bully.

I enjoyed that on a track I'm not particularly good on.  Last lap battle with Burt was awesome, side by side round Stavelot :o.  I needed all 12 of those Ferrari cylinders to pull clear.  Thanks Burt, good clean racing :)

Well  my qually went ok in the Fezza. Couldn't come anywhere near Bernies time though and ended up in 3rd pretty much the same time as Wills.

As for the race well not a bad start and managed to hold 3rd spot with Will behind me. :) Not much to report up until my pit window with 5 to go. I was coming to the 3rd to last corner, I was trying to type PI and I didn't notice the right hander coming up and before I knew it I was on my roof.  :oops: I done a Shift-R and thought ok so I now gotta do my 2 sec regulation Pit plus another 15 secs stop for the Shift-R. Little did I know that all I had to do is 1 lap and then a S 'n' G.  :clown: Ah well serves me right for not reaidng the bloody rules. lol That was me in 7th. I managed to overtake Mr Summers for 5th in the end so not too displeased with the end result although could have been better.

Congrats to Bernie and podium. Great job by C 'n' B again. :)

C ya at Rouen. :)

REED, MARQUE, LEARN: THE JACK O’FERRALL STORY

Spa April 13

…. “How about a pre-race night out?” Ian asked.  “I’ve been in touch with the mags, you could meet April Bosoms.”  The mechanics were happy too, it’s become something of a tradition at REED that we stay at a ‘cheap hotel’ on the away trips.  He took me to see her manager, who seemed eager- he handed me a mask and asked me to stand behind a curtain.  
“Thrust it aside angrily on the cue,” he told me.  “What’s your name?”  “Bruce,” I told him, pleased with myself- quick thinking after a session with the larger glasses followed by a few Weslakes.  Best to draw a modest veil over next fifteen minutes, but afterwards her manager beckoned me over “We’ve got a Bruce, ‘Big Bruce’, so you’ll have to be ‘Jack’, if that’s okay.”
I was incredulous “You’re recording a fifteen minute session?”
“Everything Miss Bosoms does must be recorded for posterity!  She is a diva!”
First time I’ve ever been too swift.  I bumped into the enigmatic ronin, shiojiri-waza, on the way out, as well.  
“What’s he doing here?” I asked Ian.  
“There’s always a Japanese- you never seen Belle de Jour?”  

Rubber having entered the consciousness, as it were, next day I went to see Bell about tyres.  He looked tired.  “Hey Bell,” I said, “The organisers have got our tyres down as ‘unknown’, what’s up with that?”
“We use three types of tyres,” he said.  “Dunlops for the P83, Firestones for the P261, and Goodyears for the P115s, which is the vehicle you race.  You could have tried a more technical approach, the tyres are on the sides of your car.  They have a blue stripe.”
“So why three types of tyres?   Which is best in the wet?”
“An engineering question, Jack?  Dunlops won us a championship, the Firestones were on offer, and we save on the costs with Goodyear because the other teams use them.  None of them are any better than the others and you shouldn’t worry about the wet anyway, unless you mean your drinks parties, in which case whichever involves taking your clothes off quickest, presumably.  Jack, don’t worry about design.  Drive, write your autobiography ‘Enormous Big Jobs’ about how hard you are, and finish off by complaining about Italian drivers on the television coverage.”    

Loot likes to stand with his drivers before the race and survey the scene, glass in hand.  It’s when he gets his ‘atmosphere’.  “Dear boys,” he began “Danger.  Excitement.  Risk.  That’s what racing is about.  Boys, I fear for our future.  They want us to breathe into little plastic bags, to prove we are not drinking.   It should be the other way around!  The constables are decent enough these days, they recognise the privileges of the nobility, but in the decades to come!  The lawyers’ll have them scraping part of your tongues away!  Where will our motor industry be then?  British cars need British courts, damn them!”
I once claimed to be a descendant of Peter the Great, on Loot’s legal advice.  However, we were spared the rest of his mighty peroration, as he was distracted by the antics of the Crash’n’Burn mechanics practising pit stops with their limited pit space.  “More cars, more prize money,” he mused.  “I must have a word with Tom.”  Then he ambled off, boozily, past ‘Rusty McCluskey’s’ garage.  I was going to make an apposite remark on the marketing element of American-style saloon racing, but Ian was gazing over at the Phoenix pits.
“Look at that,” he murmured.  “Wouldn’t that be just the ticket?”
All I could see was last year’s champion, wearing his rather gaudy ‘Pro’ jacket, with the ‘Pro’ spelled out in gold lettering on the back.  Shit.  It was the jacket.
“No crashes, no overrevving, no points for a dodgy finish.  Respect.  Class.”  
Being last.  In a slow car.  Still, Ian had got me an invitation from the enchanting Miss Bosoms.  “Alright.”  Pro racing it was to be.  The genuine article.

Spa.  Speed.  The back of the grid. Somehow we had again contrived it so that I was in front of Ian, though this time I was certain that Eau Rouge was going to be the end of the ‘pro racers’, so what did it matter?  By some miracle I lasted a lap, and I still seemed to be in contact with the Ferraris ahead, until one of them decided on a quick stop in the middle of Masta, and I came into rather too much contact with it.  At least the car was upside down, so all the petrol drained out, and I was left with the flask I’d substituted for a heavy spanner that I’d found taped to the wheel.  So this was pro racing, cheers.  Ian made it to the finish line, he claimed to have a Steve Cloyd setup, as well as a self-imposed handicap.  Bernie won, champagne for him and the Soggies.

I was left alone at the track after dark when I heard one of our mechanics strumming a guitar.
“I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."  
I walked over, he was by a campfire, all the disappointment of the race seemed to return to me.  “Perhaps you might want to drop some, ah, £sd ?” he suggested.  I may have been overtired, between ourselves, even a little maudlin.  
“You know ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’" I asked.  “Was it me was it you, as we went warp factor Two?”[1]
“Ahem, no Jack, sorry,” he mumbled.  Then he brightened. “You know that new Soggies driver, Bernie’s teammate?  He uses a stick!!”
It’s always the low comedy with the mechanics.  Charlie Chaplin and his amusing… sticks…….

[1] I am aware of no such song.  Perhaps Jack was himself on a visit to the far future! - Ed.  

I was looking forward to this one, as I had the chassis advantage due to my poor (none) performance in the previous rounds

Practise sprang a suprise , I was struggling to find a decent time, I would have settled for any front row slot. It makes such a big difference being up front and I'm not very good at fast lapping , more of a plodder ( or should that read "plonker" )

After a banker lap I went light on gas, Put me cap on back to front ,fitted new tyres and then throwing caution to the wind chucked the car at the circuit  , It paid off remarkably, because I actually stuck it in the haybales at La Source on
the end of the lap but I still managed to recover for a new PB and claim the coveted pole position .

The race turned into a bit of a cakewalk really with the power and torque of the
Lotus giving me such a big advantage, I was able to take things easy and conserve the engine and tyres,  so much so,  that they should be good for the next round at Rouen .

Chris (Bully) drove well in the early laps , he got up real close a few times but I always knew my Lotus could win any drag race down Spa's long straights, after lap 4 (or was it 5 ?) he tried a bit too hard and had an off which meant I could then stroke it home.

All in all a satisfactory day out in the Ardenne and a good soggy score .

Looking forward to Rouen, I dont expect things will be so easy, but I do enjoy driving there and thats really what this championship should be all about.

Thanks for the accolades I always wanted to know what the champers tasted like .

Bernie .     

Sorry Jack, I was the Ferrari you found parked in the middle of Masta. :-[

I had turned too early into the first Masta bend, ate too much dirt which sent me into the fence and then got thrown back onto the racing line which I was desperately trying to get off when you hit....

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful race, qually was within 0.2s of a PB, and didn't see much action other than Burt slip-streaming past early on in a Cooper  :o

I always seem to lose my concentration at one point or another at Spa. Yesterday was no different. Qually went fine and the start was as good as it gets at Spa. Followed Phil for a few laps then took my pit but became very confused as Art pulled in at the same time and was still there when I left so I left wondering if I'd read the pit times correctly. :o

Eventually caught up to Ben and got by down the straight but thought for sure I caused him to crash as I entered Masta overly cautious and saw he was off a bit in the dirt but I see he carried on fine. Then with I think 2 to go, I was enjoying watching the Prib battle between Phil and Burt and caught a wheel in the dirt and crashed but didn't burn. ;D Art and Ben flew by and it took me to the end of the race to catch Ben but was too late.

Great fun as always.

Grats Bernie. Great drive.

Grats also to Bully & Phil for putting team Crash 'n' Burn on the podium. Well done.

And Art for a nice Top 5.

Cheers,

Will   

I've uploaded the results but they are all wrong, I made another newbie mistake but I'm sure we'll work it out. :) My apologies for the inconvenience and my intrusion upon your results :)

Grats to Bernie, Chris and Art. I'm looking forward to watching the replay.

Please report if you've been naughty or had a bad day in the office :)

Kruger

Hi Kruger

I can't see any links for submitting an incident report, it says moderation is currently underway.

I was doing the moderation so I closed the link, its re-opened now if you want to submit an incident report.

I closed it much too early anyway :)

Kruger

The race report is published. Well done everyone.

Kruger

What a race!, my chances were not looking good at spa in a cooper, was hoping maybe for a top 6 if i was lucky. Again as always in the cooper im slow off the line. I decide to take it easy 1st lap and tuck behind Tim Robey's Ferrari, also avoiding all the mayhem i thought would happen at Masta. After the 1st lap im up to 6th which is looking very good indeed. Lap 4 im coming up to last few corners of the lap and cut inside Artur to move up to 4th. Now i check Pribula and notice Phil is about 9secs ahead of me with 4 laps remaining. I try everything to try and catch him just to get a podium in a Cooper would look great for a track like Spa, and maybe a nice manager would be impressed ;)

2 laps remaining and im right on the tail of Phil, i can just about catch him but cant get past, as the ferrari is that much more powerful than my Cooper.
Last lap and im right there, just waiting for my moment. I drive the perfect line through Malmedy if its that what its called (flagpoles), then another good line through masta, down to Stavelot, i get alongside even clipping the grass a little, only to see that ferrari is still along side me!!!, i then let it give way as it had the inside corner and pushed hard till the last corner on which i had to settle for 4th.

Great race, Great result considering it was a cooper and only a ferrari, lotus and brabhams was quicker than me. Also to actually finish a race after having problems in my last 2 races with graphic driver problems. Roll on Div1 race!

Heres a link to the last lap battle with Phil:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjB6RuferV0

Thanks for a great Race Phil, grats Bernie and podium, Roll on whereever we are next!

I am - a Cooptastic result at Spa, superb!  ;D

I hope the other Men of Cooper can do well in the forthcoming D1 race.....

Oh the pressure of it all.......... :helpsmilie:

TBH I'd be delighted with 4th at Spa, well done Burt  :thumbup2:

It doesn't look as though the time penalties have been taken into account.

Strange, the time penalty has been applied but the system doesn`t update the finishing order. I`m sure I generated standings and did that just now once more to be sure but it still stays...

Have to consult Gyz on this

If it is still the same LEAGUEMAN software you do have to manually adjust the result on the basis of the added time.  Then any other penalties will work themselves out.
LOL
It took me ages to get the hang of it and I was still buggering it up when I finished with modding.  Losing the little flags was my usual trick. ::)

LM2 does this automatically Clive (I think it does). I didn't have to adjust anything manually for the last race where time penalty was applied, I'm not aware if other mods or Gyz did something.

Mind you, I did made a mistake back then by selecting penalty under drop down menu which resulted with penalty points but the race order was correct... (if you observe Bernie's time from Kyalami, you can see he received 30 seconds but in all honesty, I can't tell if the race order was updated as basically Bernie's time penalty made no difference anyway).

EDIT: Gyz fixed the results

hmm how did Ben get 5th, he was 6th on my report?, yet Will had no penalties and was ahead of him?

heres my gplra report of spa:-

http://www.burtoner.com/spaclubs

Art suffered a 30 seconds penalty. This only became aparent now once the time penalties applied to the results.

Great last lap, Burt! Side by side through Stavelot  :o

What software did you use to create the YouTube vids?

my own registered version of fraps :)