SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 18 (2009) Amateurs Trophy (65) - Round 5 - Spa

Last season's opener is this season's race five, and it's back to more familiar ground for this one.

Spa is one of the finest racing venues in the world and has been since its inception in 1920. Look out for people throwing ballast from the car as top speed can be king here and people need to use care when taking advantage of the slipstream following the notorious incident last season. Remember, there may be more cars following you than you think.

Car needs to be taken at Eau Rouge on Lap 1 as the field will bunch up. This is not the place for making Lap 1 Turn 1 do or die manouevres. You cannot win the race in turn 1 but you can certainly lose it, and more importantly you can lose the race for those around you, beside you and on occasion under you.

Reserve drivers should not join the race server until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left.
No drivers should go out on track until there is 30 minutes of qualifying left as this helps all drivers join the server successfully.

Restrict chat to pit messages, and at the end of the race avoid chat until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Please be in the IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.
(You will need to set up a channel called #ukgpl if you haven't already done so)
IGOR and Race passwords: see above (#post_event_password)

Server = 5UKGPL
IP Address = TBC (ping myjamesonline.net)
Race Date = 03-11-2009
Time = 21:00
Track = Spa
Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = PRO
Qually Time = 30 minutes.
Race Length = 50% Grand Prix (16 laps)

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=222;theme=6)

Chassis allocations are below, and the same chassis will be used for all races this season unless there is an adjustment agreed by the moderator.  Good luck!

FULL TIME DRIVERS
Hristo Itchov - BT7
Evil Clive - Honda
Ken Murray - BT11
John Roberts - BT11
Samb - BRM
FullMetalGasket - Honda
MikeBeattie - Cooper
FPolicardi - BT11
TurkeyMachine - BT11
JamesRye - BRM
Natan - BRM
Miner2049er - Lotus
Clutch - BT11
Podkreceny - Lotus
Ruud Savelkoul - Lotus

RESERVE DRIVERS
Phil Thornton - Ferrari
Steve B_1_rd - Ferrari
Asbjeurn - Ferrari

Please use the updated 65 mod for this race.
If you have re-installed UKGPL over the summer break or are joining us for the first time, please don't forget to use the updated 65 mod which is available here: Jamesonline.net/UKGPL (http://www.jamesonline.net/ukgpl/1965mod_PATCH_v2.0.2_Setup.zip)

--

Just a little reminder: It's Asbjeurn, not Asbejurn, like typed above. :)

Done. ;)

Thanks! :)

Practiced offline tonight, against AI. Started from the back, just to practice slipstreaming. Noticed they had a tendency of pulling away from my fezza on the Masta straight, even the coops and brabs, and thought I might had geared it to high, on account of the acceleration. Took the three highest gears down a notch, and it seemed like I could follow them a bit easier, and I got my first lap time below 1:41!  :thumbup2:

Then I compared that lap with the previous PB, and it appeared that my top speed was noticably lower, and I'm not sure if the higher speed out of the curves was a result of the new gearing, or if I just drove better through the curves on this particular lap.

1:41? Mind telling me which track you're using? :D

The AI are always driving under the influence of full Draft Asb, that's why they always pull away - it's a known bug  :)

I find it very usefull for checking gearing though if I actually manage to hang on to one for long enough  ;D

I know a shortcut. ;)

Sorry, I meant 3:41, obviously. :D

Any chance of a tow from my team-mates in qualifying? I want that pole record!

I'm getting sick to the teeth at colliding with John Roberts every single fudging race! I'd got a great grid slot, made Natan work for his lead into Malmedy, just about kept John behind me on the exit of Stavelot, then on the run to Blanchimont he pulled alongside and into Natan's tow, at which point I slotted in behind. For the braking for La Source, all was well, and I'd taken an outside line and intended to stick to it, and it got me a great exit. What I didn't expect was John's Brabham to come broadsiding me as he drifted to the outside of the corner. Upside down, lap 1 not completed. Not impressed.

I sympathise with ya Turkey Machine  ::)

I qualified in 17th and was looking for a repeat of Kylami, where the tortoise beat the hares.

 It was looking good too! Plenty of over-ambitious overtakes and carnage saw P17 translate to P3 on lap 2 or 3.

Well chuffed (and keeping Evil at +3 secs)  ;D Was hoping to resume some of the close racing that I've enjoyed with this guy  :).

Anyway it was not to be. I was having a great dice with Mike Beattie who was slower on first half of the track but faster at the end of the lap. We were passing and re-passing and it seemed like we had an understanding - neither of us wanting to be put out of the race....there seemed to be a bit of respect with both of us conceding where appropriate.

Or maybe not. Mike was so close to me in the fast turns at the end of the track that I knew we'd have contact unless he backed out a bit. I was thinking that he'd surely back out of it...but he was commited. Rear ending me (ouch) I flew upside down and on the inside of the crash barriers. In an amusing fashion, I drove around for a bit looking for a way out...and tore my wheels off at the little house.

Shame cos a podium was on t' cards.

Jim

Ah well, another race.

A few comments:

1. I love Spa, i look forward to it each season.
2. My Driving was terrible
3. Massive apologies to FPolicardi. We were having a great battle and driving with respect giving each other room lap after lap. We were side by side into Blanchimont but i decided to back off, but then there was contact but i was sure we weren't touching. I'm putting this one down as a warp. I'm so disappointed that i effected his race. Really sorry.
4. So glad Mike Beatie got 3rd. We tapped each other going into Blanchimont. I've no idea if it was my fault or not, but i'd have hated to have ruined his race and taken him out of a third place.

I'm only ever disappionted in my driving if i jeapordise other peoples races and am quite happy to sit back during the first couple of laps (unlike the usual suspects who always pile in on the opening laps.. Is this the Amateurs??  ;) ), and although i think one of these was certainly a warp, i'll apologise anyway.  ;)

I had quite a good race until the last lap at Stavelot.  I had been chasing Mike Beattie for 10 laps and I finally got on his gearbox only to overcook it at Stavelot on the last lap and I ended up stuck in a hedge :(.  Pity I was hoping to challenge Mike for that last podium spot.  Wishful thinking on my part I suspect, Mike was very quick on the last part of the lap but I doubt I'll get a better chance of a podium in the Amateurs this season.

James

I'm sorry your race ended that way, we were having a great dice, but I'd urge you to compare your speed into that corner on that lap compared to other times. You really shaved off speed much sooner than I expected and to me the effect was like you jammed on the brakes, suddenly your car came rushing towards me, and I braked and tried to steer inside you, but to no avail.

You mention about me being close, well I'm afraid that if you are driving the Cooper (or the BT7) the only way you can stay in contact with the other cars at Spa is to get very close, otherwise you lose ground, big style. As you will have seen earlier, I can't even pass when I get a tow, as once the T77 pulls out of the slipstream, it just slows. So the only place I can regain ground lost is in the twisty bits, which is why I was trying to stay as close to you as possible, and it means if you make an error, no matter how small, I've very little room to manouvre.

As I said I'm sorry it ended your race, I would have like to have beaten you on the track.

Clutch, yeah when you passed on the outside and then swung over to take the racing line into the corner, your back wheel brushed my front and that started the wiggle, which then put Mr T within striking distance !! :)

Apologize taken Clutch, but in my replay you moved on the right as if I weren't there, no warp in my replay. Anyway a great battle till there.  :)

Now my turn to apologize for causing the retire of Hristo and a nice trip on the Belgian railway to Tim. :(
Luckily Tim had the chance to end the race.
When Jethro got wide exiting Malmedy, he turn on a lot of dust in front of me and I instictively went to right in case he got caught by the bushes and avoid him, but on the following left hander I found myself too wide and was caught by the outside bushes. Tim and H that were following me found me on their path and had the worst, sry guys :(

It's just not going well for me in most divisions this season and it's rarely anything of my doing. NP, Fulvio, it was just a bad coincidence that we were so close there and I got flipped over by your wheel. As Mike, I also have no option but to stay very close to the cars ahead, meaning if anything goes wrong there's no time to react. Next one, please...  ::)

I had a nightmare getting signed into the server, but with some frantic messing about with firewalls, rebooting the PC and the router I eventually got in with around 10 minutes left of qualifying and some work to do on a poor setup.

I was bottoming the car at Eau Rouge, but I had to be at full speed to get it, so had to complete a full lap to test the changes I was making.  Ride height was up already so in desperation I piled a bunch of Roll Bar and Wheel Rate on, both of which I knew were soft.  That worked but the setup was still unbalanced, and the gearing wasn't ideal, but went with what I had. 

Thankfully I managed to pick up a draft from Asbjeurn and got into a lap or so of a drafting battle with him and Phil who came to join us.  Asbjeurn had a spin at La Source which I just managed to avoid and am grateful to Phil for the room to do so, it must have been a bit close.

Phil got passed and I tucked in behind, in a hope that he could drag me around at a reasonable pace, I didn't challenge the position which would have only served to slow us both and undoubtedly would only result in Phil getting past again as he had much better pace than me.  Phil eventually broke the tow and pulled away.

Tim (FMG) was lurking with intent in in the background when I got gifted a place by Clutch, so then I had 2 fast drivers not very far behind.  I tried to make life a bit more intresting for them, but they got passed without too much difficulty, without a draft I seemed to be unable to hold anyone off, combined with a few mistakes I ended up sitting behind them both trying to cling on to their draft.  I did get a ring side seat of their duel which was fun to watch, but all I could hope for was an error by one, or both of them.  It was looking unlikely as we got to the final lap, I'd fallen too far back and lost the draft after another mistake but found Phil in the hedge at Stavelot and was again gifted a place.  I kept pushing as much as I could knowing Tim and Clutch were still fighting and maybe, just maybe will have a coming together in the final sector.

I'd all but given up hope as I approached La Source and, there they were! Something had happened........could I get past them to snatch a place......Tim got away quick, Clutch was nailing the throttle to get going too....I was there, nearly along side, pushing the throttle through the floor.....gaining, gaining, gaini...........finish line! Arrrgh! LOL! Never mind, it wasn't my place really, so well done to them both on a very quick recovery.

Good fun

Mike, I didn't save the replay but if braked a little early then that explains that and a podium from P17 would have been a little jammy anyhow.

No hard feelings, wheel to wheel action sometimes ends badly and there is always the next race  ;)

Jim

Good thing: I didn't crash, neither with anyone else nor with myself/the scenery, so that's a step forward from earlier.

Bad thing: The rest. I spun when fighting with Steve, and lost both him and Phil, who was the third in our group. Then Tim caught me in his Honda. He got past, but I managed to stay in his tow and thought I was able to pass approaching Blanchimont. Well, I was wrong. I got past him, but didn't slow down enough to get through the first curve, and ran off onto the skate ramp and spun it again. Tim got away untouched, luckily, but I got too far behind to catch him again, And spent the rest of the race lurking along further and further behind, wondering if I should quit or go on 'till the end. I stayed, and gained a few more or less undeserved points.

Asbjeurn, your points are NOT undeserved, you finished whilst faster drivers tripped over themselves and crashed. I had much the same experience at Oulton Park where I was way off the pace, but kept it on the Island. Being slower doesn't always equate to less points  ;D.

Jim

Yeah, but it's not much fun in earning them when you know that on a shorter track you'd be one or two laps behind the rest. Now, Spa is a bit special in that way that if you make a mistake, you end up way behind, and are in no way of catching up again if you're not faster than the others, which I'm not. Actually it demands even more concentration than many other tracks, even though it's not a very technically demanding track.

Grats to Natan for the win, although the cunning scheme that I had formulated halfway through this race, did not include that particular result ::)

Qually was just about ok for me as I never found an obliging tow truck to squeeze me up the grid which perhaps was a good thing in view of how the first few laps panned out.
I tried on a couple of occasions to give Hristo a tow, but on one occasion I made a mess of Malmedy and on the second I was on race fuel, so neither attemp was a roaring success :-\
I knew this race was going to be all about slipstream (so geared the waza very high in 6th to allow for that) and as long as the leaders were in sight they could be caught, although passing might be another issue.

Eau Rouge was negotiated carefully and I slotted smoothly into the train up and around Les Coombes. I had Hristo's screaming BT7 behind and about 5 cars in front all relatively close.
Things started happening at Malmedy, someone went into the hedge on the left...someone else dived into the undergrowth on the right and bounced back as I skipped through, but they collected poor Hristo who would have been unsighted being right up my exhaust pipes at that point. ::)
That moved me up to 4th I think, following Natan in the lead, Jethro and John directly in 3rd. It was relatively easy to use the slipstream and cruise up behind this leading pack without straining any of the whizzy bits and by the time we got to Blanchimont I was comfortably in the "Tow Zone" . I think Mike and his Cooper could be heard somewhere behind, but not close enough to worry me at that point.
On the approach to Blanchimont John made a text book slipstream pass on Jethro and moved into 2nd spot behind Natan's BRM.

As far as I was concerned, I still had 17 laps to consider passes and backed off to settle in 4th spot.
At La Source ( a bend which is infuriating! because when you get it right it is so smooth and you seem to gain whole minutes of time, but when its wrong it seems like driving in treacle!!) John took the inside line on the approach and Jethro went very wide and late on the brakes.
From what I could see from my safe vantage point, behind, both cars were in each others blind spots and I could have predicted the outcome.
John accelerated away from the apex towards the outside Armco, and Jethro having taken the outside line, looked to have got on the power a bit earlier and harder and was aiming for the same part of space and time. I'm guessing that the first that either knew of the others whereabouts was about 5 nano seconds before impact!!........2nd place from 6th in one lap and no overtaking??!!

I had a moments concern as there was now about 2+ secs to Natan up ahead and that is getting towards the limit of substantial towage, so I put the hammer down for the next lap and made sure that he did not escape my clutches. ;)

The next 15 laps were quite boring as the two of us pulled steadily away from the rest of the field. Once or twice I eased alongside Natan or made a pass just to avoid falling asleep. There was no way either of us would escape the other unless a mistake was made.
So I settled in to the slipstream, short shifting and backing off on the straights .

THE PLAN..was to wait until the last lap and make a pass (exactly as John had done on Jethro) on the run up to Blanchimont. I had done a dummy run on Natan earlier in the race and I was able to carry more speed onto the uphill straight and with my longer gearing easily drafted past. There was nowhere for anyone to re-pass until La source and an inside defensive line and a solid exit would let me see the chequered flag first. 
It was a perfect plan except for a tiny flaw in the execution :-\

Last lap, and I had positioned myself just far enough back to pick up the tow and maximise my speed. I dropped an extra gear as we took the right hander onto the straight up to Blanchimont and nailed the throttle........ and then my cunning plan misfired!! I put a rear wheel on the dirt and lost drive and direction just when I needed it most. That lost me about 20 metres which would prove critical. I still caught Natan and got alongside approaching Blanchimont , but he had covered the racing line and I was forced up the inside. I could not move back across because he had to be too close.
It was now the last chance to take the lead so I went for it, but just could not hold a tight enough line through the first left and ran wide onto the bank allowing Natan to sweep past as I performed a 360 spin.
Rats!!!
Fortunately I was far enough ahead of 3rd place to easily recover and cruise over the line in 2nd place...from 6th ...without actually making a single passing move that stuck lol. ;D
Thanks to Natan for towing my Honda for 16 laps, and to those who move out of the way for a Waza to take its rightful place on the podium.
She might only be slightly miffed at missing 1st...I hope

I had a terrible qually due to lack of tow - I also managed to tow Natan to his pole while on a Race fuel test run when he sneakily chased me up the hill  ;D

That didn't bother me too much as my race setups normally allow me to regain places once underway properly.
That of course came to naught when I clipped my rear wheel on Fulvio's spinning Brabham and pirouetted off to the railway at some pace - Don't know how the Honda survived unscathed as I hit the brick wall damn hard!

Rejoined dead last of the runners and set about canning the poor waza mobile to within an inch of it's life to retake what I could, Promptly span it at the top of the hill through too much throttle/speed and did a 360  ::)

After this mishap I put my concentration cap on and simply abused the poor car round for the next 8 laps on my own, caught and passed Asb without a prob, the following lap he made his move on me into Blanchimont way too late - luckily I saw him coming and slamed the anchors on so he'd miss me - I took the inside to avoid his beleagured Fez and soldiered on having only lost a second or so.

I now found myself some 8 seconds behind Steve with 9 laps on the board, and commenced reeling him in to the tune of a seconds a lap, hurrah! a chance of another place! (was in 7th by now I think)
About 4 from the finish Clutch joined us just before La Source, Steve got by while I found myself just over a second behind him.
Even better! I now had a faster BRM to tow me upto and past Steve and I could hopefully mug him on the final lap  :ninja:
I caught them both and had passed both in the next lap, then the fun began as Clutch simply would not let me get away..
All went well until I forgot what lap it was and simply let Clutch by approaching Blanchimont thinking I had another lap and not wanting to end it early.
Luckily for me he went mega defensive and took the inside line into La Source - then Span!
I just avoided T-boning him properly and floored it away hoping to get far enough ahead to avoid him catching my tow on the final lap.
I was mighty suprised to then spot the flag man furiously waving at me - I'd done it! Last to 4th!  :o  :angel:

And had even caught the lead pair by some 3 seconds in the latter third of the race  ;D

Great racing Clutch and Steve, bad luck on the spin - TBH you should have taken the normal line, I know I was out braking you there the previous 2 laps but was too far back to make a serious attempt on the inside  :)

Grats to Natan on the Win, Evil for at least mildly amusing HER, and all other finishers  :thumbup1:

I susccessfully managed to arrange last place on the grid and when some were admiring the scenery as the flag dropped I picked up a few places, and then a few more as I rounded Malmedy.

Got into some kind of rhythm and was chasing Asbjeurn but backed out of a move at Masta, again backed out at Stavelot and with Clutch now right behind me and also backing out of moves on me for the time being I had to pounce before he got me. I got better drive out of Stavelot and was going round the outside of Asbjeurn who defended the position and I had to lift or go on the grass so I waited until the run to Blanchimont where I was closing until somebody threw some iron filings into my inlet valves and my engine blew.

Disappointed as I have never blown an engine here and was confident of a bottom 2 finish.

Oh well.

Anybody able to download the server race replay?

I am having hosting gremlins today so it may be best to wait until tomorrow

please can someone confirm that:

Charade Clermont-Ferrand  1970      Charad70   #17

at the gpl track database is the right version to use?

Its just that i practiced at the wrong track for the Oulton race.


thanks...

should be this version , ( Vosblod said so at ukgpl/charade thread  ) .

It's Clermont-Ferrand, this one; http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=921&st=0&p=6104&#entry6104

The srou system has it listed as Charade but use the above link.

thanks Nicky  :)

OK, so I am resigned to being at the back of the grid for this one as I dont have much time these days to learn new tracks. Can anyone suggest what a reasonable lap time might be?

Currently I am 10 secs off the slowest AI driver!

These are the results of the Clermont fun race we had in August to give you an idea; https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6639#event1853 (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6639#event1853)

is a track released in 2004 really a new track ?

john

'tis if you haven't raced it at all. Ever. Ever ever!

Unless they are original Papy tracks then they are new to me.

great ! so you wouldn't mind racing at monaco and nurby :)

john

I can do a great laptime around Nurby....just not consecutive laps. So I'd be rubbish there.

Monaco on the other hand...I love it. Is a speciality   ;D