SimRacing.org.uk

Round 7 of the Season 15 Div 1 championship is at Solitude.  Remember it is PRO rules for Div 1,  and there is ample opportunity to examine the undergrowth on this circuit.
Don't forget, incident reports should be entered on the SRou system following the link at the bottom of the results table when it appears.  Race details below.

Div 1 Season 15 Round 7 is this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. London UK time.
Please be in VROC UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.
VROC and Race passwords: see above

Server 1.ukgpl
IP address  194.105.176.22


Race date = 16-11-2008
Track = Solitude
Variant = 67F1
Damage Model = PRO
Qually time = 30 minutes.
Race length = 50 minutes (14 laps)

Password: see above
Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page


pit stop details will follow this evening





[

I be at work again :/

Oooooh this is gonna be a hard race  ;D

Hard ? Solitude ? 14 Laps ?


No Probs here Iestyn , Lap 1 The harpin after that loooong downhill fast bit , thats if I survive the trees on the way there  ;D

Nice place for a picknik though  :)


   

Clive is having PC problems so he wasn't able to include the Pit Stop Times in the race announcement.  So here they are:

Division 1 Pit Stop Times

	Single Stop Time		Double Stop Time
BRM	No Stop		N/A
Cooper	Stop and Go		N/A
Honda	Stop and Go		N/A
Ferrari	16		N/A
Brabham	17		N/A
Eagle	25		N/A
Lotus	33		11

 First Pit Window is: 12 (to go on your pit board) to 8 (to go on your pit board)
 Second Pit Window is: 10 (to go on your pit board) to 4 (to go on your pit board)

PS the date is wrong in the body of the message.  We are racing on the 30th as it states in the title ;)

Thanks Phil.

Up and running now, so should be ok to launch server tonight.
I will do a practice run this pm and unless it all goes t*ts up I will launch.

OK Clive.  I've just set race distance to 14 laps.  I've also set my server up (4.UKGPL) for some Open Praccy (int short) if anybody needs the practice (everyone does here LOL).

Password added (see above) and announcement published

Woo Hoo! Finished a lap!

Hehe we'll need chunks of practice for Soli  :P

Unfortunately.... My shifter is playing up  >:( N, 1, 3 and 5 are getting sketchy and 2 and 4 are getting prevalent.
Putting the stick into N and getting 4 or into 1 and getting 2 every lap is getting old, mega quick.  :-[

Now, how on earth do I get the paddles working !!  :angel:
Ugh, and the week we finally have soli....  ::)

2 laps without killing myself , so far so good , now if I can just get my eyeballs back in there sockets  :o

One of the worst corner's  on the track is called Schatten !

I sure did  ::)

Another DNF, but at least the engine lasted so I can't blame that this time round  :laugh:. I was rather pleased with my quali performance managing 4th and was determined not to blow up the engine this time round. I made a poor getaway as a result and lost about 2 or 3 places but managed to pass Clive, thanks to his sideways Honda, and Bernie by the end of lap 1 and was up to 4th again.

I then began chasing Phil but I got caught out by the the dust he kindly sprayed over my visor and as a result I smashed into the barrier and became beached. I tried in vain to get back on the track but it was no use. Will then decided to help me out by running wide at the same barrier and gave me an almighty clout which knocked us both out of the track, into the banking. I tried to get out but alas I had no traction and was stuck in the ditch. Ah well, maybe next time that golden finish will come.

I didn't manage a finish either.

Start was good from 5th into 3rd by T1 and seemed to be able to pull a couple of seconds a lap on PT but of course nowhere the front two. I started making little mistakes though and eventually was caught and passed by Clive. I took my stop after that but then the engine gave way.

Love the track though.

Luck is the handmaiden of fate...

The race began, as usual, I was again unable to get away quickly and was promptly last.  I was a little uncertain about following the pack too closely, which helped me avoid Will and Sam's accident.   Clive had passed after his spin, but then I began to catch Bernie.  I wasn't too worried about passing at first, as I feared I might have made a last minute adjustment back to qualifying fuel, which would have been especially ironic, as my race fuel lap had been faster.  The dreaded fifth lap having arrived, it was okay.  Then Bernie, who had defended stoutly, let me past at Schattengrund after he ran wide.

This was in time for me to pass Phil after his stop, I was able to hold him off for a lap, then I lost grip and went off- into the Glemstal car park.  I was shaken to say the least and was about to have a schnapps, until there was a familiar roar "If my drivers want drinks they'll have to bloody earn them, get back on there and drive O'Ferrall you idle blighter!"  Why hadn't Loot chosen a pub with a view of the race?

The car was ropey, but I set off anyway, with no great hopes of catching Phil's Ferrari.  There were more retirements leaving me fourth, and I somehow got Phil back in sight in the far distance.  Then he ditched it at Glemseck and I was leading him again.  Phil managed to both retrieve his car and catch me in one and a half laps, but those curves are very risky to try to pass on, especially with hot tyres, and he went off.

Congratulations to Ken and Clive, the real race 10s a lap ahead, and commiserations to Phil, and Sam who was again faster than me and deserved better.  Loot had made his way to the finish and nabbed my champagne- he said I hadn't won and owed him for spoiling a good lunch.  There must be a rule against that?

Congrats to Ken for a well deserved victory, I believe he had a good chance of winning even if I hadn't retired, great pace, Ken!
My mind was simply not in that race and I was also very sleepy, so much that I kept falling nearly asleep at some places and somehow get away with it, but not for long. Eventually swerved in one of those fast bends near the end of the lap, went wide, spun, clipped a tree with my front and flipped over. Game over.

Grats Ken, you do like those German rally courses.  ;D

Team pie eater arrived in germany full of confidence and sporting the latest upgrade ,  a complete set of brand new remoulds ! Confidence was boosted further after having completed 2 whole laps without incedent and acheiving a staggering last place on the starting grid .

Comes the race and for 8 laps we fought dammed hard to maintain the usual position in spite of JOF and PHL trying there best to snatch last place from me.

By the start of lap8 I was begining to feel super confident as I was now familiar with most of the trees, bumps and escape routes and was thinking about the pit stop when suddenly out of knowhere I stumbled over a rock which must have been disturbed by the spring thaw and rolled into my path , the resulting accident terminated all forward progress so retirement was imminent.

From here I watched the battle for podium honours betwixt Phil and JackO , very entertaining chaps , got to say I did cringe when Phil lost it on the last lap .

Grats to Ken on his runaway win,  as H says it would have taken a good man to beat him on the day .

As for me I think 8 laps completed of this mad circuit is more than enough excitment for one day.

Ain't it about time someone instigated the use of the "pause" button  ::)



     

Grats to Ken and commiserations to Hristo ( if being tired counts as an excuse ?)

I cobbled together a setup derived from the default and what little I could remember from my Honda base setup for this race and arrived at what at first seemed quite a good result.
A few gear tweaks in Quallifying, making sure that there was no redlining in 5th at the end of that gloooriiioouuusss straight and eventually managed a mid grid time.
Ken and Hristo were light years ahead ....just where the heck are they finding 10 secs?????? I need some serious practice at Solitude and might even resort to the Loynes' School of Telemetry Studies to see where I am going wrong!!!

The start was a little tentative as T1 got a little congested from my viewpoint, but exiting T2 I was quicker than Bernie who had audaciously slipped up my inside at T1 ( this man has no respect for age or beauty!!). I saw the opportunity to return the favour into the tight uphill right hander T3 but I closed too quickly on Bernie and was upon his tail pies before he made his anticipated move to the left of the track.  I took abort/evasive action and I'm not sure if it was warp or a slight nudge on Bernie's rear that sent me onto the grass whilst the whole field streamed through.

I thought that would be the end of my race and almost quit there and then but thought that I should at least see if there was any damage to the whale. But these Japanese tanks are made of very high grade tinfoil and we were good to go.

It took a couple of laps to close down on the three way battle between Jack, Phil and Bernie but at Solitude there are not that many passing places when you have a large anvil attached to the rear end of your car acting like a pendulum. That and the constant swapping of line and position of the three cars in front!!! Quite entertaining though.. ;D

Eventually got the run on JO onto the straight and closed up on Phil and Bernie through the twisty section where Will and Samb were laying an ambush. It seemed that the Fezzo magnetic ray atractor worked well on European machinery but left Japanese tinfoil unaffected as Bernie and Phil tried to join in the fun whilst I was allowed free passage?????

Stormy was next on my Prib list but was quite a long way in front until I came upon him in the woods ( not sure what he was doing but we'll gloss over that!)
It was getting near the time for my SnG stop and I wanted to be in front of stormy before then if I could. I knew I was faster and needed to get past and build enough cushion to see me through the stop. Once again the majestic power of the Honda V12 came to my aid down the straight and I breezed past.
At that moment the phone rang in my cockpit!! and I was forced to perform heroic car control, stuck in 4th gear, through the twisty bits whilst Stormy closed and threatened to regain his place and hold a sensible conversation at the same time . :o :-\

It was a very short conversation!!!

Stormy took his pitstop and I went for a quick lap to build a safety margin, turns out I need not have risked that as Stormy's engine through in the towel.

It was only then that I reralised that Hristo had vanished and there was only Ken in front ( a looooong way in front!!) So I settled for engine preservation mode to the flag. Not always a good idea to change your rhythm half way through a race as 2 or 3 graceful pirouettes at less than racing speed proved!!! Fortunately I had a large margin over any following cars and was able to steer the car through the spin and keep it on the tarmac ( mostly!!)

The last lap came not a moment too soon as I was beginning to lose concentration. Second spot was very satisfying given the poor 1st lap and a new setup.

Grats to JO and Phil for finishing and to Bernie for some spectacular mud slinging through the twisty bits.

I'm not so sure I would have got this win if Hristo had managed to stay awake, but as they say, never look a gift horse in the mouth!! As Clive mentioned, maintaining concentration while not racing in close company is a big problem, especially on those repeating curves back towards the start/finish. Thankfully my mind didn't wander too far away and I brought it home for a welcome victory.