SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 17 - Historic Division - Race 8 - 66 mod - Road Atlanta


Race date = 16-06-2009
Server IP Address 80.5.200.198
Time = 21:00
Track = Road Atlanta
Variant = 66F1,  2L engines
Damage Model = PRO
Qually time = 30 minutes.
Race length = long

Group I
T1F Eagle Climax
Lotus 33 Climax
Brabham BT11 2.5lt
Lotus 33 BRM   


Group II
Ferrari 246
Brabham BT11 BRM   
BRM P261
Brabham BT11 2.7lt

Drivers restricted to Group I:Hristo Itchov, Dave Randall, Tim Muttram and Clive Gardner,


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=205&theme=6)

Joy - screen freeze again  >:(
By the time I'd reset and tinkered with everything that could have caused it the race had started  :censored:

I had been intending to challange Mike for 2nd in the championship (Hristo seems a little out of reach!) but it apears he's safe from me at least now  :(

A rather short Historics race for me, managed all of 3 laps, and they were marred by a collision with the barrier on the exit of the last corner, which ripped a wheel off. Good fun while it lasted though.

News page:

 (http://img256.imagevenue.com/loc420/th_90193_news_122_420lo.JPG) (http://img256.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=90193_news_122_420lo.JPG)

Happy to get 3rd on the grid, the Brab 2.7 certainly handles well, though I knew the BRM have more speed, I kept with the 4 pot.

Off the line I got the drag on Hristo and closed in on Evil's tail, but trying to keep tight in on T1 and avoid hitting H, I spun away my advantage and ended up about 2nd last. This was further compounded when I spun trying to avoid the mid field skittle match that was happening in the downhill Esse.

So it was get your head down and let it all hang out time. Had a bit of Too & Fro with Jethro, and had a scare coming over the hill into the last turn on one lap, when there was a spinner gyrating across the track. Had to take to the Pit Lane to avoid contact !!!  Eventually caught Syd & Fulvio, got a tow on Syd and I hope I didn't nudge your tail Syd, as the slipstream seemed to suddenly drag me close to your tail. Had to wait for Fulvio to over cook a corner exit to get by him ( We'd just done 30 laps nose to tail in an ADC race so I know his rear well :)  ) I had a couple of spins after passing Fulvio, but always kept ahead

By this point Hristo had spun his way out of the top 3 and was also making his recovery, and it took a string of PBs from me to keep a gap on him to the flag.
Grats to Ken & Evil on heading the field :)

What a crazy race!

I realized I didn't have the track, so I spent 10 minutes to find it and then to install it (it had an incredibly stupid installer that asked me the path to GPL 3 times!).

In the meantime I was hearing some noises in my room and it turned out to be a huge grasshopper on the wall. I went to find a jar and trap it, luckily succeed on first attempt.

By that time there were 10 or so minutes left in qualifying, but I thought it should be OK as I expected to have a fairly good setup from a similar track. Turned out to be quite the opposite, I only had a Kyalami setup (sorry, Evil, seems I was thinking of another Lotus, probably the 3L). It wasn't bad, but on more fuel would end up bottoming badly, plus the gearing was not good for some corners, especially T1.

Anyway, Qualifying was fun and Evil did an amazing lap to grab the pole while I pushed Ken back to 3rd. The start was fine, but Evil spun soon after and now I had Mike chasing me. I changed down to 3rd for T1 on the following lap but it proved to be too short geared and that spun me around as the diff opened too much.

Recovered quick enough at 7th or so, not too far back from the leaders. Went flat out from there on, but in the last corner I took a wider line and the car completely snapped as the suspension bottomed out. That dropped me some 20 seconds behind leader Ken and in last spot, just as Bernie passed by.

I noticed on Pribluda there was still some hope on making it to 3rd if I didn't make any more mistakes, so I took on that challenge. Passing was tricky, but somehow I got past Jethro and then reduced the gap to those ahead. Those ahead were Mike reeling in Syd and Fulvio who were involved in their own struggle. By the time I reached them, Mike had gone through both and was now pulling away, so I had to do the same as quick as possible.

It wasn't as easy though, they had very good straight line speed and could carry good speed into corners as well. We battled out for a few laps, exchanging places, running side by side, exciting stuff! Then at some point I attacked Fulvio on the outside but he entered a bit too quick and touched my front , which sent me spinning into the grass.

Mike had put too much of a distance by then, but I pushed hard to try and pass the Syd-Fulvio pair again. This time it worked and now I had Mike 6 seconds ahead with 5 laps to go. Did a string of 17s, but it was not enough to reduce the gap significantly. Great run, Mike.

And of course, great run Ken and Evil as well, grats!

-=Hristo=-

Did a couple of laps practise then realised I was in the wrong brabby with only the de fault setup   ::) quick pits exit to change the motor and i'm back out with the BRM powered BT11 but the set up I used for pre race pracky was strangely missing from the list so I loaded my Mexico set up,  tweeked it to its fullest extent , and ended up with a staggering quallifying lap which got me to the wrong end of the grid .

The race wasnt much better , dont know how you guys get around here so fast , i think my stumbling block was line and exit speed from the slow double righthand bit and the lefthand exit onto the straight after the chicane part.

Grats to Mr Murray Mint for his fine win.

I hope I didnt upset the progress of all the others who lapped me  :-\

Hristo ,

Was that Grasshopper telling you something ?

A message in a bottle ?

Gives you wings ?



As you read this I've got me Jamjar and am searching the garden  ;D


LOL   ;D



  

Grats to Ken for keeping it steady and taking the the win after a few "gifts" from the rest of us.  :-\

Qually was a surprise as I spent about 10 mins before the race trying out a couple of chassis, eventually settling on the Lotus BRM and that only because I had a half usuable setup from Brands hatch as a starting point.

The first 20 mins of qually was spent on race fuel tweaking the roll bar settings and toe in to get a car that went where I pointed it.
With 10 mins left I emptied the tanks and went out looking to move up from the lower reaches of the grid ..if I could.

I figured I would need a tow at least to drag the little Lotus up a few places. after several laps where prib indicated some good sector times, but where an error screwed up what could have been a good lap, I was about to settle for what I had. Then I noticed that Ken was just in front and if I could squeeze a little closer a tow might be on offer with about 2 mins to go.

I'm not convinced that I ever got close enough for the slipsteam to make any real difference, but the chase yielded a quicker lap and eased poor Ken off of pole. That was quickly followed by Hristo throwing his car into second place and demoting the hapless Ken to 3rd!!
We Wazas are sneaky buggers :o).

I got a good start and was pleased to get through T1 without being challenged by the more powerful cars on the grid...the Esees went well and I could see a small gap developing that might allow me to survive the long uphill straight and pull away a little ( some hope with Hristo and Ken in pursuit, but I can dream  ::) ).
I was so eager to nail it onto the straight that I was a fraction early with the right boot on cold tyres and the tail end came gracefully around allowing Hristo , Ken and Dave  to pass . Fortunately there was then a gap that allowed me to rejoin and give chase.

I closed on Dave Randall in his Eaglet and followed for a lap or so trying to find an opening, which he was kind enough to give me and that allowed me a shot at Ken in the distance, but I could not even see Hristo!! I did not realise until much later that he had spun as was behind me lol.

I got within about 5 secs of Ken but I think by then he had established a good race rhythm and the gap stabilised for many laps.
Then I got a bit over eager again at the same bend onto the straight and switched ends finishing any chance of catching Ken barring a mechanical prob or major error. So I cruised home to a better than expected 2nd place, just a little miffed that 2 simple errors had denied me a chance of a great dice with Ken and a shot at the top step of the podium for HER.

Another new circuit that I'm glad to have learned, though clearly not mastered!  Was surprised again to be in second place after a lap or two, as the front runners, Mike, Clive and Hristo all generously gave up their positions, at least on a short term loan basis.

I had no answer to Ken's consistently quick pace and Clive was first to call in his debt; I decided not to cause too much fuss as he made a clean move up the inside, but rather see if I could follow him up to Ken.  Plan didn't work and as I was pushing hard to stay on his tail I made a silly error to spin on the last corner but one, which left me having to let most of the field back through before I could safely rejoin.

Rest of the race was uneventfull with only Hristo falling back briefly to play for half a lap after an uncharacteristic off, until he easily left me in his wake for another comeback attempt.

Very well done to Ken, Clive and Mike
 

Clive has just burst my bubble regarding our qualifying "battle". Here's me thinking it was a great shoot out during those first 10 mins or so when the pole see-sawed between us. Now he tells me he was plodding around on race fuel!! Anyway when I still held pole going in to the final 5 mins I thought I was safe. Then suddenly I see on prib I'm 3rd as Clive and Hristo edged me out and before the chequered was shown Mike also sneaked in a faster time. So 1st to 4th in an instant!!!

Anyway as already documented the three ahead of me were all spinning like tops in the first couple of laps to gift me the lead. As Clive described for long enough I couldn't really relax as the gap stayed pretty constant at between 3-6 secs depending on what part of the track we were at. Then suddenly it grew and I assumed Clive had another incident. From then it was a little easier, but maybe harder in some ways, to run a steady pace. More opportinuity for the mind to wander but I managed to maintain concentration to the flag.

It would have been nice to have a close race on such a great track, but a comfortable win was nice too!! iRacing have recently added this one to there track list and it is very nicely done with their laser scanning technique!

Yeah, I saw a video of that, looks good. Shame the modern track layout has some silly chicanes after T1 and on the backstraight!

Sorry Hristo, after have seen replay I found we touched at the double hairpin and you ended off, I didn't hear anything the moment. I knew you were outside and I tried to keep inside as much as possible but honestly there wasn't enough room to pass outside there.
I was having a blast with Syd till I clipped the curb inside last turn and spun giving places to Syd and Hristo. Later I caught Syd again but I was caught twice by his slowdown/lag? on the double hairpin and lost the tow for the final straight were I could have done a move. Great battle!
Next one

You're right, although it looks wide, there's just 1 line through there. I guess I was asking for it.  ;D Was desperate to pass and chase after Mike who was getting away.  ::)