SimRacing.org.uk

All members welcome.

Practice: 20:15 (10 mins)
Qualifying: 20:25 (25 mins)
Race: 20:50 (35 laps = ~40 mins)

Track: Donnington National.
Cars allowed: Austin Healey, Ferrari 250GT SWB and Aston Martin DB4 both available from downloads page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#msg54518).
Time of Day Setting: 10:00
Start: STANDING

Server: UKGTL Classics Cup
Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules (https://www.simracing.org.uk/index.php?pid=7).
(3) Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=187;theme=5)
(4) The season will be run using the UKGTL Skin Pack 1.6.5.0 which will need to be installed prior to racing; please get it from the downloads page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3358.msg54518#msg54518).

Is it right that both this event and the following one at Mallory Park have identical car choices?

Could be interesting that. Us mere mortals would effectively have two weeks practice with these cars. Giving a chance to develop the setup further etc. I also guess some drivers might change cars if the 2nd track is of a different nature or just because they can?

You can't have too many Healey races! :laugh: :wub: :tt1: :taz: :euro: :thumbup2: :clap: :w00t: :punk:

Lorry engine in a roller skate!? Nice!

Only one for me though. :thumbup1: :lol:

Bill

Moving house next week so will have to miss this one. Have fun.

Calling all late nighters
Online praccy @ 10:30(ish) tonight, highest standards of gentlemanly conduct expected (not).

Not sure I'm gonna make it tonight! off to see the mighty Quo! in concert!  ;D
( Probably not supposed to mention that out loud!  ;D)

Lol, you can even shout that, at least for us, 40ish y.o. lads  :whistling:

No seriously.... that should be kept to yourself... anyhow have you seen the weather, why not stay in and take out your own kidneys with a melon baller instead!!

Difficult choice for this one, they are all right up my street :) Prolly choose the Healey just to confirm my No.1 status  ;)  Just hope I get back from work in sunny Swindon in time. Don't start without me.

Wow, three great drivers in Wilts at one time. Tony, SBG, & Me.... eh Blunder  ;) ;D :-*

We need to meet up for a beer! :)

Isn't there more? That chap who has a land rover without fitted seat belts (sorry, useless at names), he came from Salisbury I think.

Idea Time  ::) Hold a inter-county team race

hoping to make my first GTL race this season  :o , not had the time nor inclination recently, but this is a great choice of cars on a great track  8)

Think i will be in one of Italys finest prancing horses for this one. I tried the Aston out as well but kept understeering off the track when accelerating out the corners. Sounds and looks great though.
With these 3 epic race cars lined up, the grid will look rather spanking  :tt1:

Healey appeals to me, like sbg.   :)  Hopefully be ragging the tractor round, providing the flippin' leg cramp that kept me up last night subsides.  >:( 

I'm from Salisbury. Think you are referring to Andy Eves, who is from Shaftesbury about 30 mins south from here. It's a small world really! Would love to meet up at some racing type of thing. How about a karting session at Thruxton?

Hehe that'd be wicked - make it a bit more central like Milton Keynes and I'm for representing the Manchester contingent, just need to ship these foringers over on Easyjet and we could have a full set  ;D

Damn,

Have it much too busy at work and have to miss the race tonight.  :'(
Hope you all have a good race tonight .

Brilliant timing!!
Got kicked from pole position with 1.40 to go. Got back in then it kept reloading the track. Didn't think I would have time to get out and in again so thought I would just hope that when the session moved to race it would load properly. Far from it!! I ended up on my own on the grid at Dijon!!!

Oh well - I was looking forward to racing from the back for a second but didn't even get that pleasure :(

Phoned ISP again and they said my downstream noise level is way too low (why didnt they look into that last time I phone I don't know) so they are going to get BT to do "Remote Stabilisation" by reducing the speed and upping the noise db. Hopefully that will sort it for good but I dunno. Ho hum... hope you all have fun at my favourite track!!

thanks for a good race.
congrats to podium.
sorry if got in anyones way i think you passed smoothly (fingers crossed) :-\

Gawd that had potential. I loved that car/track combo and all in all I had a blast driving the Aston. Brilliant moment when Spanner and I went through chicane two abreast only to find two spinners there  :o No idea how we both made it through, closed my eyes.

Sadly it could have been so much better without the incidents. Gotta say I saw too much overdriving there. Including me, sorry Ade. Still, we get to try them loverly motors again in two weeks ;D

My pit crew are fired!

After a monster start which got me from 1th to 7th off the line and then up to 4th after about two more laps, I'm sat there happily trying to stay ahead of 5th place when the fuel light came on! Had to pit and dropped back to 12th - fought to try and get back to my grid spot but I needed about 2 more laps. Gah!

The setup was from a previous race so I don't understand how I managed to run out of fuel. ??? :'(

Wow, don't know what happened there!?
Had a great set up for some reason and it really clicked. Could have done that all day!
although the tyre wear at the end made it interesting.
Thanks to Syd for keeping me honest all race!?
I was sweating! I hope you were too!  ;D
Made it home in 5th i think! Over the moon with that!?
I'm guessing the mighty gymer had a stop and go which gave some of us an extra place!
Bet your spitting Dave!

First race with my new shiny 'raceseat' !
It is awesome! Not sure that that is what made the difference but who knows!
I will reserve judgement for a few weeks!

Thanks all, grats to the podium!
Very bad luck Baracus! you need that sorting!

M.

Well..... got ridiculously high on the grid. 3rd in a David Brown tractor.
Ridiculous because my starting was rubbish, spun the wheels in 1st bogged down in 2nd
could NOT get the thing to pul that plough. Fortunately everyone ( and it seemed like "everyone")
got round me as i tried my best to keep it straight.

Set off with some work to do, made a couple of passes, spanner was very polite, either that
or the sound of the plough was enough to keep him wary  ;D
Caught up to Phil/Assasino followed for  a few laps, it was looking a bit busy in the final chicane
so I braked (err well used the brake pedal in the aston) much earlier than i had all race
but Phil had to make even more room. and I touched just hard enough to push him round
Desole! spun me ole mate at Donny!  :-[
Sigh
Anyways, waited while he got going, we lost a couple of places, then my rears were letting go
big time towards the end, I moved out of people's way, I let SBG through, as his Aston seemed
to have better tyres.. got caught by Steve Holmes on next to last lap, ah the ignominy of it
Lapped by a big Squealy,
Oh my name is Bond by the way,. Brooke Bond.

I wasn't sure about this race before it started, but wow. Loved it. Turned out to be a good match up of cars & I surprised myself at being more on pace than normal  8)

Was having a really good race & driving very well (for me) in the 1st half the race, managed to get as high as 7th or 8th for a bit. Then normality returned & I had a moment  :-[  Just about took Ginsters out as I badly rejoined having half gone off just after the Cranner curves. Hung around till SBG got in front which saw us both lose a couple of places. Sorry SBG  :(

Had another decent stint of pushing & times were coming down, then had a moment between API & me where I ended up nearly taking out 2nd place Pribero. Thankfully managed to miss eachother while I sailed into a wall. Thanks for waiting API, you're most generous as we had a similar moment on Sunday when you waited for me when maybe you didn't need to. Get this bloke API an award for courteous driving!  :thumbup1:

Anyway, enjoyably spent the rest of the race racing with API & managed to cling on down the home straight after further questionable driving from myself.  :-[

So some of my best & worst driving out there today. A big thanks & big sorry to all drivers!

replay and results available

Shame to win through dropouts, not quite as much fun as a long battle for position, was in good form last night, coulda been a massive humdinger between Bara, Dan and I.

Was on target for a 22.0 on my last qually lap, 0.6 up on my best time at the second split but closing on someone ending their outlap so hesitated entering the chicane and overdid it, lost 0.7s.  Fool.  :-[  Must jump in a practice session tonight and see if I can crack 22, that's getting damn close to the fastest laps at GTL Rank.  But knowing I had a 22.0 in the car gave me loads of confidence to be fighting for the win.  Then 30 seconds later Bara had another bout of terrible ISP luck.   :(

Got the jump on Dan at the start then ran a little wide from a narrow approach at T1 and Dan cut back.  We went side by side through the Craners, I was leaving as much room as I could mate, but it was really difficult to hold the car tight on the exit of the left hander.  I saw you run on the grass, replay needed to see if I did anything wrong, but I was doing my utmost not to.  I did want the corner though, I felt I might have a slight edge on race pace and wanted to get clear.

Then it was just pacing it to the end, consistent fast laps with a margin in reserve, not pushing the braking or kerbing very hard.  Still managed to overshoot the chicane 4-5 laps from the end, lost 4 seconds, but it didn't matter.  Then final lap I wasn't going to lap you Matt, but when you and Bill had a misunderstanding and lost momentum I just had to nip through on a very satisfying, but perhaps a little risky diagonal path.

Again, credit to the guys being lapped I think everyone managed to let me through without either one of us losing much time, very impressive when a couple of passes were down the Craners.

Congratulations on your win Steve, nice one  8)

I really wanted to make this race but a late notice surprise works drink up was thrust upon me and being a true 'Legend' i couldnt turn down free booze  :P

Looks like the Healeys were just a bit too good for the Fezzas and Astons here ?

That was really scaring and at the same time fun. Me and mr_oily overtook API and you, then when i was
braking for the chicane, i saw a car come very fast in my mirror flashing the headlights (btw, thanks for that,
helped me to understand that you couldnt break in  time). I almost stopped on the left side of the track,
leaving the inner way to you, and you got it (nice holding by the way, with your rear end sliding left and right),
ofcourse in the meantime mr_oily managed to sticked in my rear bumper and from there untill the end (5 or 6 laps)
i tried do hold the 2nd place, but before last lap i lost it in the downhill right corner loosing the place.
Congrats for your win Steve. Very good driving mr_oily, you deserved 2nd place because you were more
consistent than me.
Baracus, i hope next time you be able to finish the race (even if it means one less chance for me to win)  ;D

Cheers

Intense.  :o

Started reasonably well in 5th and managed to avoid a rallycrossing Minton at the apex of the old hairpin....was harrassed by Dave for a good few laps to begin with until veeeery slowly I managed to eek out a bit of a gap.

Was bugging the hell out of me that I couldn't get on the pace of the front runners so spent the opening period experimenting with lines but to no avail, just didn't seem to be able to get that extra chunk of time so drove as consistently as I could in the hope somehow I'd get near PR in fourth.

I'm guessing something happened ahead as the gap was closing and the rear of his Squealey was actually my view for pretty much the remainder of the race - must've been the best part of 20 laps!? Took a while to get in a position to make a move, backmarkers were great (many thanks!) but he seemed to get caught slightly in a gaggle and that helped me arrive on his boot. For a long while I didn't have the confidence I needed to make a lunge, PR was positioning the car nicely and I seemed to keep snatching wheels in the braking zones so just desperately tried to keep the pressure up and an eye on where we differed most in speed in the hope my moment would come.

Wasn't expecting it but as the tyres on the Healey went off I actually felt far more comfortable and feeling that I might have a tenth in hand, stepped up the pressure in the hope I'd get a chance to make move without taking us both out. Got lucky and with two to go we both went sideways through the Old Hairpin, PR unfortunately must've taken just a mm too much curb I guess and the Tra'or didn't like it, sending him spinnning off onto the grass....bad luck mate, really enjoyed the racing though.

Bara, I'm gonna stop saying unlucky, you're going to have lay your own copper to the Exchange if this continues! I hate inheriting places in that way  (although I can live with the points  ;D).

Grats Spanner for picking us up some team points and fair play Steve, awesome pace and a good win...well deserved.

Thanks organiser people, I actually really liked that combination...being a standard one it's a track I've driven a lot but those cars definitely kept it interesting.

Next!

I was going to race at this one but I couldn't connect to any of the servers (server is running a modified or updated game version). First time I tried since reinstalling it and I put the NoCD patch on it so it's probably that it doesn't like, so just wondering if anyone else has successfully joined online with the NoCD patch or whether I'm going to have to reinstall it again and follow the proper procedure for running it with the DVD in the drive (there are special instructions to get Starforce installed on Vista 64!).

I thought the Healeys were very well matched with the Fezza here, while SBG & Matt somehow did a stirling job to keep the DB4 competitive over race distance. I look forward to locking horns in this combo again in a couple of weeks  8)


It was one of those moments when time seems to standstill & everything is in slow-motion. As well as flashing my lights, I was jumping up & down waving my arms, my head out the window screaming shouting & tooting my horn in an attempt to try warn you I was on a runaway train! ;D  It was the most pleased I've ever been to hit a wall, knowing we'd avoided each other. Once again, very sorry. Last night I managed some of my finest driving but committed a couple of real beginner moments  :-[

Sorry about that Matt I was trying to stay in tight and give you both the racing line as I was a lap down on the car in front and well ahead of the car behind. 

Bill

No worries Bill. we were both tripping over each other trying to politely let Steve through!
This Aston is a curious experience, I offer it up it for those in need of character building.
My observations: It turns in better than the Ferri, but is well wobbly under power
I had tried low fuel running, and like the merc it is more stable with heavy fuel
It became so leery towards the end, I just tried to keep going without getting
in anyone's way. Brakes... now then, It's heard of those, but is having no truck with them
real men don't need brakes. Ummm, well I partially compensated with engine braking
but that seemed to do in my rear tyres, I had a couple of moments where I assumed
those in front would outbrake me in to the final chicane, and they didn't argghhhh
where is that anchor!!! some excellent driving from others saved potential incidents
I "think" life wil lbe easier at Mallory, had a couple of laps, and it seems more suited
to the big lump.

I didnt think you could use a no-cd patch for GTL because of starforce.

That was hard work :sweatdrop:

Felt like i could have gone quicker in qually but couldnt quite hook it all up but still after hardly any time practising was quite happy with my time. Managed a reasonable start for once, but it seemed everyone was being very cautious on the first lap, but I guess that was more the fact the Fezza isnt the best through the corners! It felt as though i was surrounded by Astons and Ferraris and it felt i was a sitting duck along the straights as a few times people came straight past me down the straights. Early on i was running on my own as the gap grew behind  but then after Matt and SBG went off i couldnt really keep them behind much but they seemed to be getting stuck in bit which dropped them back again. Towards the end i was trying to keep it smooth to keep the gap to Ade behind but the car was getting harder to drive and keep it on the track. Pretty much every lap i was struggling to get the power down and keep the back end in check coming on to the back straight! When SBG and Ade tripped each other up i had a relatively calm drive to the finish.

Managed to pick up a point for the team, though it felt as though it was because of others falling off, but congrats to Oily for the second place, just hope you dont drop too many points ofthe next few weeks. 

I think Spadowski is using it. A sort of no-starforce patch.
I could be wrong though.

Haha - yea well, I think a bit of wet string and couple of yoghurt pots would work better at the mo! Or maybe that's what they are using anyway?? If this stabilisation business doesn't work then I'm gonna have to ditch them and go with Virgin, eek :/

Unofficial Lapchart (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/steveh/DoningtonGTL/)

Off to Asda now!
Will get some yoghurts in for you now buddy  ;D

Self made?

Naturally!!!  ;)

Then don't eat spicy food the day before :P.

Just had a nice friendly call from my ISP (Fast.co.uk - must say I can see why they scored so highly for customer service they have been really excellent to speak to) and they say it looks like there have been no disconnects since yesterday but I have been away this weekend so its not a proper test.

Looking at my modem stats, I can see that the downstream noise is now between 3 and 8db (was previously 1db which they said was way too low) and the down speed is between 6000ish and 7584 (when I refresh the stats a few times) - which seems a bit too fluctuating to me. I would rather they cap it at 5000 and have a stable noise figure but I don't really know what i'm talking about. At least SOMETHING has changed.

Guess I will have to do some testing on public servers - omg!! Wish me luck!

LOL....if you want to test in some public servers, choose those with ~20 guys in  :devil: :scared: :taz: :tank:

Ahh Mr Jebstone, I remember you! Didn't you used to drive for us once upon a time?  ;D

We await your return  ;)

Won't see you at Glasto this year then, Goth lady?

Hell no way... its full of bloody hippies!! ;D