SimRacing.org.uk

This is the post for the results of the Privateers race.
To see your current tokens hover your mouse over your total points on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=225;theme=6).
Looks like the server results are correct so could you submit any incident reports by close of play Friday 20 November.

Notwithstanding the above my placement in last is correct unfortunately.
Grats to team-mates Al and Bartosz for their one-two. Looks like they were the only finishers unless the report is wrong.

I knew this would be the toughest race for me this season, made the right choice picking the BRM.
Quallied near the back end of the field as expected. Apologies for knocking out Rick in qually - I knew you were loads quicker and completely fluffed my attempt to let you through. Got through some mayhem ahead at the start and decided to just try to survive. Had a solo spin and let a couple through expecting to be able to slot back in at the rear. It was only then I found I'd beached the car - no amount of wheelspins would do it so I ungracefully retired without even doing one lap.

Oh well, glad this one is over with - the remaining races look more promising for me.

Once again I had a hard time joining the server , repeatedly getting the " timed out "  message.  ::)

I decided on the BRM as I expected the worst from this race so didnt want to squander any points (though it seems the car of choice for this series is a well driven brabby). Managed a scintilating lap in qually which put me on the last row alongside but in front of Vos the Impaler , scrabbled through the T1 carnage (when will you guys learn, you cant win the race on Lap1 but you sure can lose it)  ::) and passed a few wrecked cars along the route and was suprised to see myself in P6 at the end of the lap .

I had set the BRM up to give me an easy ride with nice high suspension for the bumps and a none agressive clutch and brakes , after a couple of laps I got snugged down in the cockpit and was suprised to find myself in P4 and getting into the rythm of this track, what's more I was actually begining to enjoying it :o
Maybe I could even get to the finish line , so I decided to press on  , but at the end of lap 4 ? the internals of the BRM engine  decided otherwise and I was retired.

looking at the replay for some clue why the mill had expired  I noted for the first time ever in over 10 years of GPL that the Oil temp gauge ? had climbed all the way to the end stop , probably cause i was revving the backside out of it , lesson learned here for the future ?

Congrtats to Al and the podium guys , hope the champers tasted sweet ,  cos I'm coming for my share in part 2  ;D

Cu guys soon in the zandunes (dont forget the bucket and spade)

 :D

   


 

Felt a bit like James Caan at the end of Rollerball in the closing laps driving around that deserted track ;). What a tricky circuit - a real challenge to keep it pointing the right way with all the dark bits, weird cambers & trees.. & if that wasn't enough it's tough on engines too. Despite the lack of finishers, I was delighted to grab my first ever hat-trick of pole, FL & win :).

Bremgarten was the first add-on track I ever downloaded so I probably knew it better than most & it also seems to suit my driving style. Decided to fork out some extra tokens on the Brabham as my base setup felt terrific & was very quick compared to the other chassis I tried. Managed to get some clear laps in qually (thanks to everyone who let me past btw) to grab pole - was a little surprised by the gap but I guess not everyone was so lucky with traffic plus the Brab was a quicker chassis than the BRMs & Coops.

Didn't get a great start but luckily neither did Rick alongside (for once!) so I made it to T1 in front. After having blown another engine in qually, I decided to take it very easy on revs in the race & was changing up well before the red line. Got horribly sideways at the dreaded 4th gear downhill left-hander & very nearly ended my race on lap 1 - but once my tyres were warmed up the car handled perfectly. Rick pushed me hard for the first 10 laps or so but then dropped back so I guess he had a problem - was concentrating hard so I didn't dare glance up at prib but I could see out of the corner of my eye that a lot of people were disconnecting. About midway through I suddenly realised that only me & Bartosz were left running but I kept my pace up as I had a decent rhythm going & I suspected I might come a cropper if I started easing off. Was really pleased to get to the end & rather chuffed not to thump any barriers all race. Congrats to Bartosz & Rick for the podium - plus special mention to Rogster for a good debut.

A stupid error running wide on lap 1 saw my front left disappear and and early trip to the forest, thankfully not trashing anyone else’s race.  Shame as in practice over the week I managed to stay on track fairly well and was hoping for a finish even if a bit slow, a lowly 2:17 was about as quick as I got in the BRM.  No where near Al's 2:08! Getting into spaceship owning territory that one!  WD podium.

Bernie - I too am suffering from time outs trying to join, which seems to get resolved by turning of the windows firewall.  Even though I have all the relevant ports open it still blocks out for some reason.  It's only been happening over the last few weeks so not sure what’s changed.  Seems to have coincided with a few other issues too that have come up. May be its related to some sort of update that Microsoft have put out, but I would think it would affect everyone, so all a bit strange really.

John R kindly sent me another firewall program that I will try out soon, see if that works any better.

Steve , the firewall is one of the first suspects I try when I cant join a race , but its not ideal connecting without it , I'm starting to think its more to do with our local bandwidth here , always seem to suffer on sunday race nights,  particularly these dark nights when the weather is shite and all the window shoppers are out in force .

Unfortunatley its suck and see, its not something we can replicate and try out beforhand , feels a bit like playing russian roulette atm   :-\

Gulp ! just took a look at Hristo and Lorenzo's FL,  make me wanna cry  :tt1:

Probably my worst quallifying yet, had a gap of almost 4 seconds between actual and Prib. Also the internet connection was eratic - Bernie mentioned bandwidth & I suspect two daughters with wireless lap tops may have been the culprit. Started at the back which wasn't a bad thing, as the flag went down the whole grid disappeared. Took a very cautious run down to T1, turned the corner & the cars had reappeared but sideways across track. Only way round was the steep banking where the poor old BT24 took a clatering but emerged from the other side. Saw Vos's BRM beached on a banking about 10ft up - thought wow how did he get up there. Anyhow settled for survival mode - slow & steady - and that seemed like an excellent strategy. Only problem was I'd found a new way to drop out of races. I've tried blowing and engine, blowing a valve, shearing off a wheel & an accident on the start grid but this is new. The crash must ruptured the fuel supply & I was losing fule faster than a barrel of guiness on St Patricks day. One and a half laps I was empty = race over.
Well done Al - blistering run. Also may team mate Graham for picking up a few points.

Congrats to Al for a great victory regardless of the number of drivers running at the end.  Your lap times and awesome qualy show you owned this track.  Grats also to Bartosz for your P2 finish.

I thought I might be equal or close to a P1 qualy speed with a Cooper PB of 10.5 but was humbled to see the times Al put it.  Halfway thru qualy I could see he was .5 seconds faster than my PB and it only kept getting worse.  I surrendered and loaded race fuel to get that feel.

With Al's blistering 2:08 qualy speed I didn't care to be ahead of him and so didn't really try to out jump him at the start.  The first 5 laps or so were fun and I was very focused.  I was able to keep Al fairly close in sight, I'm sure because he was just cruising.  But then a small bobble on my part opened the gap and Al was no longer close.  As I began racing alone my concentration began to sag (a very dangerous thing at this track) and I brushed a few guard rails in the woods.  Nothing hard enough to bend anything but a warning to me to stay focused.  Then I actually spun it at the first of the two righthanders before you enter the woods.  So much for staying focused.  All these incidents were just a prelude to the big one, a guard rail bash that took a wheel off a couple of laps later.

When I punched out I was very surprised to see the long list of discos that occurred before mine.  Holy Cow!  I figured I might get P4 but I'm totally happy to back onto the podium's lowest step.  Have I no dignity?

Vos, NP with the qualy incident.  I could see it was an attempt to let me by.  And as it turned out P2 was all I could have hoped for anyway.

I'm still having problems getting GPL to run properly in Windows 7 so I decided to swap hardrives and bootup in XP. This worked fine and having survived the carnage on the grid surprisingly found myself in P4 at the end of lap one. A reasonable result looked possible. Unfortunately a momentary lapse of concentration when under no pressure on L2 saw the end of my race. On to the next one.