SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 15 Clubmans Cup - Round 7 - Monza - June 22

Gentlemen, welcome to the round seven of the championship, see race announcement below.

An exemplary driving standards in this season's Clubman Championship will be put to the test in this race in Monza, the racing equivalent of a bare-knuckle fight - no punches below the waist please :)

Phil has collected two centuries of points but lags a round behind as he has no no-shows to fill in for the dropped scores; he's almost leveled with Bernie in second with Chris and Art a 5^thth place worth points behind.

Will and Burt are only other two drivers in hundreds but having had two no-shows, all points scored will count.

Chassis restriction in Monza is all the more punishing as it gives less opportunities for driver input to make up for less power.

Be very cautious on lap 1 as Monza is tempting in gaining many places right from the start but going in two or three abreast into Curva Grande has more often than not ended in tears; at these speeds, its difficult to control the lateral slide and GPL seems not to know of any nudges and catapults cars in what looks like a projection of GPL car running onto a land mine.

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 = 22-06-2008, 20:30 BST
Track = Monza
Race length = Int Long (21 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 BRM, Cooper or Brabham (Please note the difference to usual restriction system)
Phil Thornton
Bernie Darwin

Group 2 - 3rd and 4th - Limited to BRM, Cooper, Honda or Brabham
Chris Bull
Artur Le Marquand

Group 3 - 5th and 6th - Cannot take Eagle or Lotus
Will Tway
Robert Burton

Group 4 - 7th and 8th - Cannot take Lotus
Ian Docherty
Ben Summers

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
Lotus 1 x 19
Eagle 1 x 15
Ferrari 1 x 2
Honda SnG

Group 2
Lotus 1 x 17
Eagle 1 x 13
Ferrari Stop n Go

Group 3
Lotus 1 x 7
Eagle 1 x 3

Group 4
Lotus Stop and Go

The pit window is as follows:

Pit stop is to be taken between 16 and 10 to go on your pit board.

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)

Can i just confirm that as not one of the drivers without car restriction, which ever car i take i DO NOT need to to stop ? Is this correct i dont want to run through and then get penalise lol, i will do that myself.

Pete

Yes Pete, 9th place and below has a free selection of chassis :)

Just curious why is the Brabham in group 1?, why unusual chassis restrictions?

Chassis resctriction is based on World Record times;

In Monza, the slowest three chassis are Cooper, BRM and Brabham hence they fall in the first group.

Got a great start and pick up a couple of places off the line.  Settled into 5th spot and tried to close up on Bully and Bernie.  Gap was pretty static so I tried to push a bit harder and spun at Lesmo 1 on lap 5.  This lost me a couple of places to Pete and Ian and I set off in pursuit.  Pete was pulling me up towards Ian when the reason for my lightening start became apparent; I’d only fuelled enough for practice.  I’ve never made that mistake before.  My car was spluttering badly over the finish line at the end of lap 8 so I decided to pull over after the Curva Grande.  I was off the racing line and tried to come to a stop ready to do a shift R.  I saw a car approaching fast in my mirrors and realised whoever it was hadn’t seen me.  I tried to get off the track quick but unfortunately I didn’t manage it and I was clipped by Mike Turner.  Sorry Mike.  I did a shift R and a stop and go at the end of the lap.  Had another spin at Lesmo 1 on lap 13 and I was collected by Mike again.  Nothing Mike could do, hope it didn’t damage your car too much Mike.  Fuel was getting low again so I stopped to top up the tank at the end of lap 15.  This lasted until the end of the race and I came in 11th. 

Grats to Will on another win for Crash and Burn.

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

Monza June 22

……….No-one seemed impressed that I had, retrospectively, crawled onto the podium by three-tenths of a second, and the flatness of the champagne was made more apparent when I failed to be named by noted correspondent ‘Burt’ as one of the top five drivers.  There were mutterings that one of a couple of drivers who'd used our cars in another series could be leading the team next season, as they'd become disaffected.  Or we could borrow some novice drivers....  I had my supporters, though.  When I was going to see Bell about racing at Monza, Jim came out of the garage and his expression made his attitude and his unhappiness with the situation very apparent to me.  
   I went into Bell's office.  He was fully occupied making holes in a small wooden car, probably a toy, made psychological sense.  If I made it clear that I knew what was going on I'd get no trouble out of him  ‘Hello Bell, Jim seems upset about something, anything I should be aware of?’
   He looked at me with some surprise.  ‘No.  Well, not unless you're fascinated by the Wild West, that is.  He's just moping about how the “coward Sheriff” Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid by aiming his gun into a dark house at the sound of Billy's voice.’  Bell seemed vaguely amused  ‘He told me that Billy had been promised a pardon by Lew Wallace, the governor of New Mexico, before he gave himself up, but Wallace was going to let Garrett hang him.’
   Damn.  
   ‘I don't suppose you recognise the name Lew Wallace, do you?  He was the author of Ben-Hur, the novel made into the Heston film.  Heston meets Jesus and ends up in a chariot race.’  This was getting smug.  ‘No one knows for certain what the name of the traitor disciple, Judas Iscariot, is supposed to mean, possibly that he was from the south.  Or what Wallace considered it to mean, or why he ignored Billy the Kid when he was in jail.’
  ‘There was something I wanted to talk to you about-‘
  ‘There was a struggle in America between a slave-holding aristocracy with designs on a southern empire and an industrial society, won by the industrialists.  Later the Americans came up against another feudal society armed with industrial weapons, the Japanese.  The Japanese considered that aircraft were divine weapons to be flown by samurai, a warrior elite, whereas the Americans filled the skies with armoured flying tractors flown by mechanics.  The mechanics won.  And the engineers, of course.’
  He must have copied this from Tom, he'd never have come up with it by himself.  'Tom's injured his leg.  Loot said that it was the same place that Hill got glass in his.’
    Bell smiled, truly a horrible sight.  ‘I heard about your drinks night.  I very much doubt that Loot even knows where Hill cut his leg.  He wasn't at the do, and Hill would never have told him.’
   Desperation.  ‘What’s that you've got, er, Bell, a toy car?  Have you been making a present for some kid?’
   He showed me the bottom, which he'd scooped holes out of.  ‘Just a little engineering concept of mine, nothing you racers would be much interested by.  By shaping the airflow under the car we'd get much better grip.  But it's hardly worth going far with, it'd just be banned in favour of flat bottoms, like if we suddenly began to hang odd gadgets off the sides to give the cars the effect of streamlining, despite the open wheels, than would be ruled out too.  Far better to spend the time producing more horsepower from the H-16.’
  Phew.  Bell had once claimed that if the H-16 had been made to his plans Hill would never have left, and we would have beaten Brabham in 66.  Except that Bell was obsessed with the notion that no engine with fewer than sixteen cylinders could be revved over 10,000.  Even had he been right, Loot would have handed our engine to Lotus while we were still parading the car around the track before races, and Clark would have won.
  ‘It was airflow I was told to speak to you about.’
  ‘Oh, draft.  It's not much good telling you here, if you talk to me at the track there's a chance you might take it on board long enough to last the race.’  Hell's teeth.

  So there it was.  Monza, the passionate heart of motor racing, a city full of glamorous Italian girls looking for handsome racing drivers, and I spent the time before the race with Bell.  Tom laughed as he went out ‘Jack, I got a fever, and that fever says-‘  ‘P*** off, Tom’.
 Monza made Bell even more earnest, for him it was crammed with guests to the contraption convention, who he just had to impress.  He had to give a lecture, on “Mechanics, Time Management and the Abysmally Conceived Engineering Project Which Was to be Cheap and No-Risk.”, probably.  Or his craze for invisible streamlining, as a change from non-apparent horsepower advantages.
  I found him in the garage.  ‘Oh, right, the Monza tow.  This circuit is enclosed, and you're at full throttle for enough of the distance that any advantage you can get from a reduction in air resistance will improve your lap times considerably.   That's why packs develop here.’
  ‘Loot wanted you to tell me how it worked for our cars,’ I interjected, somewhat resentfully.  This was novice stuff.
  ‘Ah.  Theoretically, because our cars are open-wheel, the effect on the air behind them should be much greater than that of a streamlined car, even if it was much taller.  The effect of the tyres biting into the air is to cause the cars draft as if they were considerably wider than they are, and also to create long-lasting vortices that further reduce the air pressure behind them.’  He paused and seemed a little wry.  ‘So you should begin to get an advantage some hundred, perhaps hundred-and-fifty yards back.  However, in our series a mysterious unreality caused by unknown limitations means the cars draft more like souped-up saloons.  So there'll be no effect at all on the air beyond about forty yards, perhaps less.’
  He hadn't deprived me completely of the excitement and ardour of Italy to tell me that something that I wasn't aware of didn't exist?
  ‘A pack, if one emerges anyway despite our minor differences with ordinary reality, should drastically decrease the air resistance behind it- the more cars, the slower the cars that are able to stay with the pack.  However it won't for you, there'll just be a slight increase in speed if you're running very close- which should be compensated for by the problems of running very close.  Perhaps you could add to top, very slightly.  But the top five drivers are still going to get away, you'll get no real advantage here.’
  A gun.  I could get a gun, shoot into the garage from distance amid the noise….

  I had expected a full grid at Monza, but I was sadly disappointed.  No Ferraris either, what could make the tifosi miss Monza?  A Lotus or two, a few Eagles, some more Eagles.  I suppose Monza must remind them of the ovals of home.  Reed were far behind in the team championship, so that even with hundreds of points left we could lose today if we weren't among the front-runners.  When Clark was leading the championship the Italian police arrested him.  I suppose I could ring up and inquire, but Clark was a one-man team, they'd have to bring a van for my competition, something with four-wheel drive if they wanted to recover the Eagle pilots.    
      
Qualification was okay, not fantastic but at least I had kept in on the track even if I was visiting the farthest reaches of the grid.  The first lap I just kept it quiet, Burt got past at Lesmo, there were no incidents and I was determined not to cause one, until Parabolica when I braked early and tried to take the outside line, but slowly, agonisingly, slid off into the gravel, not due to draft or for any reason than I hadn't the space to scrub off the extra speed on cold tyres after I'd begun to turn.  Then it got much worse as I made error after error, until the tyres finally forgave me after lap 3 and I began to race again, from very last.  Half the race later, I'd just caught Graham when he lost grip coming out of the Lesmos and I slowed down, which also brought the then race leader, Ian, up behind me.  Graham was swerving from side to side and I tried to get behind him to allow Ian space to pass, but Ian collided with him as he swerved one last time.  Will won, champagne for him and Crash’n’Burn.  I was lapped, no La Dolce Vita for me then.  “The most shocked about film of our years.”  Religious fervour, art and love. And a giant cold fish.  I wasn't sure what that was about, either.                      

Looking forward to watching this race ;)

Chris, would you please upload the replay and stuff as soon as possible, thx?

Kruger

Disappointing race for me overall.  :'(

I didn't manage a qually time due to the fact my brain wasn't functioning this Sunday and after watching Top Gear decided to start qually and to my shock I had 12 seconds to do a lap.  :oops: So in a panic got my Brab set up ready for the race without checking my pedals.

Start went ok even though the pedals were all over the place and I was wheel spinning like a mad man and going into a few turns she was locking up all over the place.  :( This made the Brab very difficult to control and I made mistake after mistake until coming down to the last turn she locked up and I went sliding into the hedge loosing a wheel. (1st Shift-R)  >:(

Got her going again and the pedals still weren't right and after just half a lap or maybe even a full lap got it stuck in some hay bails I believe so had to do another Shift-R.  :( Got totally P!*&ED off after the 2nd Shift-R and decided to give the pedals a work out while stationary and after that she came into life but alas it was too late to do anything about closing any gaps to anyone so just drove the crap out of it.

Very disappointed as my times in the Brab were were pretty good for possibly a mid-table to top 7 or 8 finish but lesson learnt.

Gartz to Will and podium.  :)

Not gonna be here a the next race as I'm away for work.

P.S. Does anyone know why GPL doesn't save my wheel and pedal settings? Every time I run GPL I have to go into settings and calibrate them as in move wheel from right to left and full motion of the pedals as well otherwise I wheel spin when accelerating and lock up when I brake? I gotta do this every time to make the car drivable.  :(

P.P.S. Kruger 2 Shift-R's without pit stops. Should have just given up really. Sorry m8.

Replay and results are up http://www.neurology-crew.com/gplserver

MONZA MONZA MONZA!!! Well I like it here and I had aced my setup for the brab :) I was consistently getting 129's here in practice.

Qually went ok, just managed to sneak in a 1.29.60 to get 5th on the grid. I made a good start and gained another place off the line. Bernie also had a lightning start and I was unable to take him aswell. So I was in 4th Place chasing Bernie. It seemed like I was chasing Bernie for at least half of the race, I was rarely more than 1sec behind him, I was really trying to pressure him into a mistake. Fair play to Bernie, he held it all together and just would not give.
 Then with about 7laps to go, just bombing down the straight to Parabolica and the dreaded Black smoke starts to pour from the exhaust! Bah! I fried the engine, even though prib said the engine/oil temp was 186 degrees :( Anyway I decide to try and pull up on the home straight, and somehow manage to end up spinning  ??? Fortunately the 3 cars behind (Rob, Pete and Ian) got past safely. I then did a Sng and carried on now in 7th place. thats how it stayed.

 I was pleased with the race as apart from the engine blowing I didnt make any other mistakes! (that I remember!) Grats to the Podiums and Thanks to Will for ensuring another CnB victory! :D

Unlucky Phil on the fuel, if it helps I have a post-it note on top of my monitor thats says CHECK RACE FUEL! and I still cock it up now and then ! :)

Commiserations Art who started at the back :(

See you all soon,
                       Bully.

For Monza , Team Pie Eater had come up with a few trick upgrades , one of which was a new set of castors for my chair and, amongst other remarkable feats of engineering, they had also designed and fitted a "twin cup holder" for extended use on those long Monza straigths, both of these innovations  worked perfectly .
I have to say that the "pringles dispenser" although a good idea in concept did not come up to the mark in practise, definately fits into the "needs more work" catagory.

Practise went well and above all expectations , I was promoted from 4th to 3rd on the grid due to the absense of Paul M's Lotus (sad to see , connection problem?  )

I was able to make a place up on lap uno ,(I think that is the only car I overtook,  most of the race I spent defending ) The Brabby was running fine and I settled down to the race , only to find Mr Bull was doing his utmost to take my 3rd place from me . I almost lost out in the struggle on one occasion with a big "moment" braking to deeply into Lesmo uno , but just managed to keep it together and avoid the dreaded Armco, I gathered it up ,took a long deep breath , gritted me teeth in the finest "Hill" tradition and soldered on .
I was running longer gears for this race, Monza is an engine eater,  as Bully was later to find out. ( Hard luck Chris I almost choked on me pringle when I saw you had gone up in smoke ) :)
Around Lap 4 my Pribluda went "tits up " and refused to update , but worse still I had no idea if my tyre temps needed attention other than by feel. The latency was hitting the roof and I had terrible eye stagma from a flickering screen , and thought I had been  "discoed" !

I was beginning to relax when "Bully attack" was replaced by "Twill attack" who had come back from a Pit stop to take my short lived P1 from me.
I was hoping for a tow from Will ,but it wasn't to be (he did'nt even have the good grace to wait for me or help my lap times in any way at all, most unfreindly) , after a futile attempt or two to defend my place I gave up the unequal struggle ( I mean , I almost spilled my orange juice)  and so Will breezed past me in a great whail of cosworth noise and dust going into the Parabolica .

Commiserations must go to Ian who I think fell foul of a tank slapper from the wayward graham just as he was lapping him. and congratulations to Will who proved that it IS possible to win with a faster chassis and a pit stop handicap albiet at the expence of Ians premature departure.

Sorry also to hear Phil had problems . 

quite a suprise in the end to find I was on the second step of the podium as I thought this one would have been a Lotus v Eagle demo race . The championship hots up , the tortoise moves on  ;)

cyas all soon

 
         

Cheers Chris, thanks for a quick upload  :thumbup1:

I was deprived of the modding action in Nurburgring so I'm eager to bounce back ;)

Please report your incidents and Shift Rs using the link below the race results.

Kruger

It has been a long time since this once Team Red Things driver has run in the clubmans race, now installed in a Team Blue thing lol.

Pleased to go into the 1.30s which lately has been a struggle to take 7th ? on the grid . Squirelled as i left the grid and lost several places, how ever i settled into a steady 1.30 pace , had Burt behind which does nothing for the nerves.
Managed to stretch out a small gap and passed  Bully after his spin and was in a tight battle following a BRM  which was getting a little slidy into Lesmos 1 and managed to slip past a few laps later but i had only .6 of a sec  for long periods.

Slipped by onother BRM on the s/f straight with the superior power of the Eagle , come the last lap the car was getting a bit leary so i slowed to avoid an off keeping the gap to 5th in check and was over the moon with 4th on my return.

3 races in a row now on one engine not normal for me , and no offs in fact Burt said i had 21/21 laps on track .

Pete

I was going to take the Fez but then double checked the pit times and opted for the Lotus and the 7 sec. stop. Struggled a bit in qually then finally managed to get a lucky lap. Was very cautious at the start as I didn't realize Paul had dropped out. I thought we were side by side heading into Para so I took the inside and Ian nearly got around on the outside. Ian was close for a good bit and I knew for sure I was going to be toast after my stop. I think by the time I did stop, Ian was only 4-5 seconds behind. As I regrouped in the pits, I heard the roar of an Eagle and 2 Brabs buzz by. As I exited I could still see Chris as I took off in pursuit. Took a while but I finally got past in L2 then tried to turn the heat up on Bernie. I think I burned him a few times but still couldn't get him to smoke. Finally snaked past on the inside heading into Para...(the exact same move I put on Kruger last week in the 65s but I burned on that one  :'( ) Now Ian was a good 10 seconds up the road and I knew there were not enough laps left so I really should have givin Bernie that tow and tried to better his PB.  ;)

When I came out of L2 and saw a few cars scattered about, I had no idea Ian was in the mix until I got down the straight a bit. What a tough break. I think we've all "been there and done that" and it always sucks. Thats what makes GPL, GPL. I certainly look forward to many more battles with Ian.

Grats to Bernie/Ian.

Great to see Pete in the mix and finish 4th on his return to UKGPL Very nice.

Oh yeah, impressive run in the Coop Bert.

Cheers,

Will

Apologies to Ian for ruining his race, Bernie was right I got into a tank slapper as I moved off the racing line at lesmo 2, trying to let Jack thro, who I thought was the reason for the blue flag. Didnt see Ian as I fought to regain control.

Is it just me that doesnt know there way around Lime Rock Mountain ? just had a peek at the track , looks like a load of fun  ;D

I would suggest a practise race or two would be in order so we can get some sort of familiarity .

what do you guys think ? all comments on a post card please  :)

Don't fret it Graham, I've been responsible for more than my fair share of mayhem. Thanx for a great race all. I've gotta miss the next one for holiday reasons but look forward to battling you all again soon.

Regards, "Redmist"

Lime Rock Mtn...hell I just downloaded Road Atlanta last night  :turned:

Give me a few days Bernie and I'll post it up on the Zappa server so we can rumble on the hills of Connecticut.

sounds like a plan  ::)

After a weekend of trying to get GPL to run properly online and asking as many people I could find for help, including Ian S and Dave (Jack O'F) who I caught online last night (thanks for your advice guys, if you read this), all following a windows restore on Friday night, I finally found out why my GPL was running at half clock speed. My power saving settings were set to 'energystar', after changing it to 'home/office desk' everything works as it should. Don't ask me why, but it does. It only took 26 hours, many GPL re-installs and much banging of my head against a brick wall to work it out. Finally getting it working at 3:15AM Sunday morning.

I had my best race so far. Now technically it's not my best finish, but it's the first finish I've felt like I earned properly and not gifted by discos etc.

I qualified 6th! At the start I was slow away (really must practice those, but not normally an issue from the back) and was in 8th pretty much by the s/f line. I took it easy'ish on the first few bends to bring everything, including me, up to temperature. My frame rate wasn't brilliant and was stuttering a bit around 17FPS. I span at Parabolica on lap 2 which was disappointing, although no excuse really, the FPS didn't help.

After the spin and most of the field went through I set off again in P10 with good FPS, back to 36. I had close company from Artur who also went off at Parabolica at the same time. Artur span again at Lesmo 1 and I was clear. Concentrating on trying to stay consistent and have no more silly spins, when I came across Phil and Mikes' incident just out of Curva Grande. Got through without any contact and into P8. I was expecting Phil and Mike to catch me but saw Phil drop right away after the pits and guessed he went straight for a S&G. After that I had a pretty lonely race, which is fine by me, for now. After following Bully for a few laps but couldn't close, not wanting to push the eagle's engine at the end of the race, I finished P8, nothing breathtaking for most but it was good to have completed the race staying on track, other than the lap 2 spin, and running at a reasonable pace to get a midfield finish, instead of in the last 2 or 3 of the finishing drivers. So I'm happy with it.

Back to a track I don't know and have no setup now with Lime Rock.

Cheers for now Guys.

Pleased to see you've sorted out your PC problems Steve.  However, your frame rate at the start is very bad, I get problems like that if I have the detail bias too high.  I find setting it mid way gives the best balance between nice sharp graphics and responsive controls.  If the frame rate is that bad there tends to be a lag in the controls which makes the car very hard to control.

On the subject of set ups.  Personally I'd go with a setup you're happy with on another similar track.  All you need to do is change the diff ratio to adjust the overall gearing.  I find that is good enough for me, I think it is important to be comfortable with the feel of the car and then learn the new track.  I wouldn't recommend having to get used to the feel of a new setup and on top of that learn a new track.

Thanks Phil.

I had my detail bias at full as I'd forgotton in the rush to get everything up and running to trun it down.  It only came to light when all the cars were close by at the start and as I was mid pack, stayed fairly poor until the spin.  I've ended up re-installing windows as I was getting alot of annoyances after the partial restore and have moved (promoted ;)) GPL to my c:\ drive so that should help even more, although to be honest everything was working well with it installed on my external drive when I had it setup properly.

I've not even seen the track at Lime Rock yet, so have no idea what other tracks are similar.  I'll get some practice in the next few days so hopefully have a better idea of what I need to do.  I've been trying several setups since I started with GPL earlier this year and think I have settled with one that I can work with now.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, and look forward to the practice server becoming available to get some time in on track, online.

  :)

A bit like Monaco run backwards with a touch of Monza thrown in, also with the added bonus of gradients that wouldn't be outside the scope of Mt Everest  :o


If you find any half decent set ups , please pass them over .

I will be visiting Chester Zoo this weekend , I hope to get some "set up" advice from the head keeper , he looks after a large flock of Hymalayan Mountain Goats  ::)

 

Hint: try your Glen setup as a starting point :)

Jeez Stephen , you know I'm crap at the Glenn , but thanks for the heads up m8 , it will be a pleasure trashing them Coops and who knows ,you might even get to see my exhaust pipes every few laps or so  ;D

Snow chains and a 4 wheel drive is in order then!   ;D

 :o  OMG! your havin' a giraffe surely! What is this Lime Rock place!

Have I got the right track download here, I see no track side markers for the corners! Where do I break? The 400th tree on the left!

 ;D

Use the force, Luke.

399 left now after I went by  ;D

Gentlemen, the report is up. Well done everybody.

Kruger

Once again Kruger , thanks for a clear and concise report  :)

Great race for me, only half sec off my personal best, qualifying was bad tho, 2nd last on grid, and I knew I could make up places at the start. In all I had set target of top 6 finish so it was looking bit glim at first. In race I was going well up to 6th place, then few laps left I got up to 5th after someone went off at parabolica, I didnt have an off lap, and the engine was good. I had the best consistancy too.

To sum up the Championship at moment im looking fairly good for top 6, my aim is top 5 finish, its very close and a Win can just make the different into a top 3, in the remaining races.