SimRacing.org.uk

UKGPL Season 18 - Historic Division - Race 7 - 66 mod -Zandvoort

Race date = 08-12-2009
Server = 6.UKGPL
IP Address = 80.5.200.198
Time = 21:00
Track = Zandvoort
Variant = 66F1,  2L engines
Damage Model = PRO
Qually time = 30 minutes.
Race length = long

Group I
T1F Eagle Climax
Lotus 33 Climax                 

Group II
Brabham BT11 2.5lt       
Lotus 33 BRM       

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

Drivers Restricted to cars from Group I
Gerard Kayou
Hristo Itchov

Drivers Restricted to cars from Groups I or II
Dave Randall
Ken Murray


All other drivers have free chassis choice.

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=221&theme=6)

News

(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/5108/newsp.th.png) (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/newsp.png/)

Quite how I finished that, I'm not sure. I tried numerous times to throw it off the road, gifting Fulvio 5th place back that I took off the line into T1 and T2. Brought it home to finish 6th, last of the Wazas but not lapped by a dominant Hristo.

Do I get bonus points for not hitting anything this time? ;D

Well, anything I write here is going to be totally overshadowed by the news that Jethro allegedly,
   a) finished a race  
and  
 b) did not hit anyone in the process!!! ( subject to official confirmation by the moderators  ;) )

However.....

Contractural differences have been settled with the Glutbuckets, who have now resumed their pit crew/sabotage duties on my behalf. This long running dispute arose after I joined the Wazas and they did not consider the cleaning of my fundoshi, post race, to be related to their sphere of work.
I did have some sympathy for their position, when one considers what extreme excitement and sudden fright can do for one's bodily functions. But, considering that in return I often had to witness Mabel stripped to the waist, covered in grease and with her arms deep in the bowels of my engine on an almost daily basis I did not think that it was unfair.

My late arrival at Zandvoort was partly their fault ( well actually , entirely their fault!!) as Arnold Glutbucket had decided to make a detour via Amsterdam to see if he could get any "freelance" work for Mabel. That would not have been so bad ( as long as you were not the person being "freelanced" by Mabel) but whilst she was discussing terms he popped into a local cafe and bought some coffee and ( what he thought) fudge brownie. Things apparently got a little hazy from then on. Suffice it to say that, several Dutch law enforcement officers and several late night revellers are recovering in hospital after Arnold was apprehended for driving a Brabham through the red light district in his underpants and Mabel decided to liberate him from police custody.

It was remarkable that the car was in a fit state to drive but as always the Glutbuckets had used copious amounts of brown paper and string to patch things up away from the prying eyes of the scrutineers.
I certainly had no idea of the fragile state of the car as I set off for a warm up lap on full fuel!!!  All seemed well so I dumped a load of fuel all over the next pit box  ;D and set off to post a lap that put me in 3rd spot on the grid.
Meanwhile the Glutbuckets vanished only to reappear just as we were going to the grid saying " don't worry guv, everything is sorted" and Mabel was  tucking a bolt into her cleavage ...shudder!!!.

Such a comment coming from them is always worrying, but it was not until much later that I realised what those two had been up to.

The start went well and I held 3rd spot into Tarzan behind Hristo and Gerard. Slowly our trio edged away from the pack and although I felt I could go a fraction quicker, I could not see a ( safe) way past Gerard's Eagle. The only obvious passing place at Zandvoort is into Tarzan and it was here about halfway into the race that I got a run on Gerard and squeezed up the inside, only for him to pull a similar move around the outside on the following lap. Our battle slowed us both and Hristo edged away.

I decided to stick behind Gerard and hope that we could get back to H, but as the race went on it seemed that the Eagle was suffering from lack of grip as Gerard seemed ever more sideways at certain points on the circuit.

I was just wondering why that might be, when his car decided to become a dune buggy and ploughed off into the sand at Hozenpoppengrut, it was then that I realised that the bolt the Glutbuckets had been waving at me on the grid was not actually from my car  ::), but may have been from the rear suspension of an Eagle??
This left me in clear air but by now too far behind Hristo with too few laps left to even attempt to catch him. So, it was a case of maintaining concentration and short shifting to get the baby Brabham home (and with an unsoiled fundoshi).

Hahaha, that was a great read, Evil! Reminds me of Allegedly reports somewhat, lol.

I nearly missed the race as I was sleeping at the time and woke up randomly when there were about 15 minutes left of Qualifying. Still very unfocused and lacking awareness, I set off for a few laps but it was going all wrong. The car felt too fast, the handling felt odd, I couldn't take a single proper line or use the throttle the way I should. So I ended up spinning and making mistakes, then quit to the pits.

After taking a few deep breaths and collecting my thoughts and energy, I went for another go and this time it was better. Still, it wasn't until my final two laps that I managed to do a satisfactory time which put me on pole. From the looks of it all the rest were very fast and with the insane slipstream of the 66 mod I knew it'd be hard to stay ahead.

Everyone seemed to have a good start, myself included, so the positions remained the same through the first couple of turns. Gerard was immediately on attack mode and I was struggling to make the car go fast on cold tires. With the draft I was providing him he became a constant threat for many of the following laps.

I did my best to break off the tow, but it was nearly impossible even when (so I thought) my laps seemed perfect. Luckily for me our secret Evil weapon was harassing Gerard at the same time and when he attacked him for 2nd in T1, it was enough to create a bigger opening for me to break away from the slipstream I was providing them.

After that it was just a matter of trying to increase the gap and it worked fairly well, but I couldn't afford a split second distraction. The latter came when I was closing in on a backmarker towards T1 when I put a wheel on the grass in the braking zone while the backmarker had went off ahead on the outside of the track. Somehow I managed to slow down enough and make the car turn back in but not before losing a second or two.

This was a wake up call to focus just a tad more and from there on I managed to go into a good rhythm until the end, with the occasional passing of backmarkers, all of who behaved very well (thanks!).

It was important to win this after the fiasco at Road Atlanta and with Evil's clutches snatching 2nd it was a great success for Wazas! Looking forward to the next race!

-=Hristo=-

Results imported.