SimRacing.org.uk

Season 19 Amateurs Trophy - Round 7 - Sachsenring

Another long and terrifying street circuit that so epitomizes the 1960s Grand Prix scene.  This track is slightly wider than Schottenring but just as dangerous and no easier to pass on.  There are lots of undulations and slipstreaming straights so it is going to be tough on the low powered cars.  Please take your time trying to overtake, it will be very difficult for following drivers to avoid any wreckage that may be littering the track.

Reserve drivers should not join until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left and all drivers should not go out on track until there are 30 minutes of qualifying left as this helps all drivers join the server successfully.

Please restrict chat to pit messages only including at the end of the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Don't forget to use the updated 65 mod for this race.

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 = UKGPL_T7_2
IP address = 62.149.202.168
Race Date = 29-06-2010
Time = 21:00
Track = Sachsenring
Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = Pro
Qually Time = 30 minutes.
Race Length = 50 minutes (17 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=247&theme=6)

We have split the cars into groups based on average performance and split the drivers into groups based on average ability. The chassis numbers for Amateurs are as follows:

AMATEUR CHASSIS GROUPS
1 - Lotus, Ferrari
2 - BRM, Honda
3 - BT11
4 - Cooper
5 - BT7

Each driver has been given a seeding number and must pick a chassis with either an equal number or higher number but not a lower number. For example, if a driver is given a seeding of 2, he must pick one of the cars in group 2 (BRM or Honda) but if he would prefer to drive either the BT11, Cooper or BT7 he may do so. This means that a driver given a seeding of 1 can pick any chassis he prefers.

**NOTE**
Whichever chassis a driver begins his first race with is the chassis he must use for the remainder of the season unless a change has been agreed with the moderator.

The following drivers have made their chassis choice:

FULL TIME

Driver	Chassis
Phil	Ferrari 512
EvilClive	Cooper
Bernie	Lotus 33
John Roberts	Brabham BT11
FullMetal	Brabham BT7
b_1_rd	Lotus 33
policardi	Brabham BT11
al heller	BRM P261
Nicky	Brabham BT11
clutch	Lotus 33
kinghiro	BRM P261
g jonsson	Brabham BT11
Jimmy Rye	BRM P261
natan	BRM P261

RESERVES

Driver	Seeding
Hristo	Brabham BT7

The following drivers are still to make their chassis choice:

RESERVES

Driver	Seeding
Bartosz	1
Asbjeurn	1
Ruud	1
Bob Whitwell	3

Please use the updated 65 mod for this race which is available here:
Jamesonline.net/UKGPL (http://www.jamesonline.net/ukgpl/1965mod_PATCH_v2.0.2_Setup.zip)

Server running on IGOR for pre-race testing. 

Got to pop out now but should be back in time to start server.

Who's idea is the password then?  :D

 :-\ personaly I dont like that ...its too harsh , but maybe I am not used to all  attitudes of british humour . so I am getting it wrong ...

however , as Spain:Portugal still is on I am not sure if I will be at Sachsenring in time

My choice of password.  Not intended to be a joke or provocative, just trying to make sure everyone was aware of what has happened.  Not everyone reads the mod reports.  Sorry for any offence, definitely not intended.

arrrrrggghh  screen freeze on lap 1 T2 :(

Weird Al B and I just got the same at Wigram...

I had gremlins too but of an external type  :-\

2 power cuts during quali!!! house alarms going off everywhere..only managed a single lap and ended up 7th on grid....so the race did not look too promising  :-\

Jumped a couple of places at the start and just tried to feel my way in until Hristo came screaming past lol. Then Natan spun in front of Hristo and we had a road block whilst the leaders vanished over the horizon!!

Squeezed through and was running in a lonely 5th place until Goran and Al decided to go Rallycrossing together somewhere or perhaps they stopped at that Tavern at the back of the circuit?

So up to 3rd with 7 laps to go and no other car in sight  8) carry on cruising around and realise that I am slowly closing on Tom in 2nd spot  :o Then the server decides to ignore me and I am instantly a lap down :-\
The distraction of looking at prib and trying to work out why everything has gone red, causes the inevitable prang on the dip in the back straight and there is now a piece of that forest which is forever Cooper!!!

I could say that it was great fun......but I won't :-\

Couldnt get on terms with the track at all , esp the last sector , car was bottoming on the fast bit into the dip no matter what suspension settings I tried , gave me a fright or two as it hit off the bumpers and sent me wildly spinning . I was recovering from the  last dose of gyrations when Tim came along at full chat I tried to get outa the way but although the Lotus had stopped spinning my brains were still going round in circlees , unfortunately Tim tagged me and I was retired , thankfully he could carry on , Hope I didnt spoil your race to much Tim  ::)

Wasnt helped by my graphics which were still building the road up ahead as I drove along , the phenominum happened every lap but only on the last section between the big pine trees , really weird .

Massivley sorry for rear-ending you in the woods Bernie, If anything it was my fault as I didn't realise how slow you were still travelling as I approached.
I didn't know which side of the road you'd pick so chose the right just as you seemed to, I was a passenger from then on as I just couldn't shave off the speed.
Just watched the reply and you quite possibly hadn't even seen me as you pulled back onto the racing line I appeared that fast  :-[

To be honest taking you out has put a bit of a downer on an otherwise fantastic (and unexpected) victory as I feel very guilty.

Back to the race though:
Qually went well as I beat my previous PB in the BT7 (not hard as I kept going rambling throught the fields while practicing offline) and found myself in an unexpected 4th.
When the flag dropped my gamble with a slightly longer 1st payed off as I managed not to bog down and was close enough to pounce when Al went wide and slowed slightly through the first s bend, I was now in 3rd approaching the entry to the town and the first right hander put me right on Goran's exhaust. The entire run throught the town was a class in collision avoidance as the little BT7 was just so nimble and fast I couldn't help nearly getting alongside in inadvisable places simply because Tom and Goran's BT11/BRM were so slow on the entire run upto hairpin  :ninja:

Goran then made a mistake just inside the town on the 2nd lap allowing me to sneak through to 2nd, the exit to the Hairpin saw me right behind Tom where I ragged my poor little Climax something terrible trying to stay in the draft.
Tom then made a slight mistake entering the compress in the woods and so I pounced and went up the inside of him - It turns out that Tom only spotted me at the last minute so a close one for both of us!  :o

From then on I managed to slowly pull away and start eeking out a decent gap to the rest of the field, and all was going swimmingly until I rear-ended Bernie as he rejoined  :(
Sadly he ended up on his roof while my tortured little Brabham seemed totally unharmed?  :o

Spent the rest of the race re-building my lead and praying that I didn't hit anyone else in the woods......


Very well done to the finishers and podium - sorry I missed digging you out of the ditch on my inadvertant victory lap Al  :whistling:

Same for me Bernie but I found that if I straightlined the corner I could survive the car bottoming out and maintain control.  Didn't have time to fully sort the setup.

I didn t do a mistake Tim..easy and on the leftside is how I do that dangerous area :)

Anyway I did a very nice qual and got pole. My plan was to take it easy since I was afraid I wouldn t last 17 laps pushing on this track. I stuck with my plan and "cruised in to a second and I m very pleased.
Tim flew by me and gøran was pushing too and I let him through. he unfortunatly spun on that dangerous wood compress mentioned but I managed to slow down and avoid him with some luck. :)

It seems that dip caught out a lot of people and it's what caused my retirement eventually as well. I was very tired coming into the race, haven't had slept for a long time and I also didn't have a setup, so the whole Qualifying setup was spent testing out different settings and crashing/spinning off.

Ended up last on the grid, but quickly made up a couple of positions as cars in front of me bogged down. Then some BRM (I think) span at the left hand hairpin and hit me as I tried to avoid it on the inside. I had to wait for everyone to pass by until I could spin the car around at this narrow section.

I had nothing to lose from there on and so gave it all I had and began making up places even before the first lap ended. It was a bit hairy with some people as they weren't aware I was passing them, but somehow we avoided contact.

I did another lap without problems, making up another place or two, but I tried even harder the next lap in attempt to close up on the leaders as soon as possible. Then the dip caught me out, I entered it too fast and probably not through the best of lines, so the car just snapped and went into the trees who in return ripped its rear left wheel. Game Over.

Judging by Tim's laptimes I wouldn't have had a chance to catch him up, but perhaps 2nd was a possibility. The lack of setup and better understanding of the 65mod-to-track relationship worked against me though.

Grats Tim and all finishers!

Any small pace I did have seems to have disappeared, a bit like the engine internals!  The engine going is a bit of a mystery to me as I was not buzzing the it at all, but must be doing something wrong being this far off and wrecking the car too.

WD Podium.

No probs Tim , I "heard " you coming and Knew you would be flying , on a part of the track where control is dodgy , I was expecting you to pass on the LHS so decided to go for the ditch on the right , but my pace was still very slow and I couldnt begin to get out of your way fast enough , Not the best place to put a Lotus "chicane" in your way , the best I could do was crouch low in the cockpit with head between knees and pray  ::)

Interesting circuit though which makes me totally respect the RL guys who raced there and other road tracks like Pescara for e.g. wich I dont think is modelled for GPL but is claimed to be the scene of the last ever true road race for grand prix cars

BTW

Never been "rear ended in the woods" before  :D (perish the thought )  :o

 

That was an eventful race for me, if a little frustrating in the end. Was pleased to Q in 3rd & after my bitter Schottenring disappointment decided on a softly-softly-catchee-monkey approach to the first half of the race. Wasn't surprised to see Tim nip past off the line but was content to sit on the tail of the leading trio & see how the race panned out. Was promoted to 3rd after Goran had a big off at the dip which I thought would be terminal so I was surprised to see him appear in my mirrors after a few laps. Goran was much quicker than me over the lap but the BRM's better straightline speed removed a lot of the overtaking opportunities so we had an interesting battle for a few laps. Unfortunately it ended with a big accident at the penultimate corner - I made a slight error on entry (got distracted by a 'sorry' chat message!) so had to drop a gear in order to make the turn - just as Goran was closing fast for a pass attempt on the exit. To be fair to Goran, he'd followed me through there for several laps & would have expected me to be quicker so I would class that as more 'racing incident' than 'rear-end shunt'. After several barrel rolls we both ended up on the railway tracks, rather comically driving around in circles looking for a way back to the track.

Finally made it back on track & was amazed to find no damage (it seemed our cars were indestructible for this race ;)). Had dropped a place to Clive but after he retired I was back up to 3rd - could this finally be my first Am's podium? Goran caught me up again & that final podium place was looking very shaky but then he disappeared down the railway tunnel again with a couple of laps to go. One lap to go, podium place in the bag & fate struck again... arrived at the dip to see yellow flags - lifted slightly in case a someone ahead was blocking the track but that unsettled the car over the humps & I had a wobble that sent me down into the ditch at the side of the track. Got marooned alongside Fulvio & could only sit helplessly as Nicky nicked MY podium - aaaaaaaaargh :hang:

Congrats to Tim - amazing pace in the BT7, to my teammate Tom & Nicky for 3rd (:'(). Commiserations to Goran but WD on the fastest lap. 

Not even the ones on the East Lancs near Haydock?

Failure to prepare, is preparing to fail.

Have driven this track plenty of times and having a solid set up that'll get me a decent lap time and avoid any issues over 'the dip', i relaxed and watched the football and turned up 20minutes through qualifying

Oh dear... My set up was for my old favorite, the BT11, and i'm a Lotus man this season. With no set up i had 10 minutes to cobble something together which didn't really work. As a consequence i decided to sit at the back of the grid and see how things unfolded.

I knew if i held on, 'the dip' would catch out at least a Driver per lap, so decided to race round and not push too much, the same tactic that got me a 2nd at Schottenring.

After a few laps most people who were going to get caught out by the dip had done so and after watching Prib for a couple of minutes i knew i'd have to push to catch those in front.. I did this.. and the dip caught me out too after a couple of laps, not helped by my poor set up. The line is so important on this section and i just overcooked it and bottomed out, the car flipped, and another DNF.

As some other posters have commented in this thread, i also saw someone getting 'rear ended in the woods', so decided it was best to leave them to it and make my way back to the pits. Disgraceful behaviour and very off putting for the remaining Drivers.  ;)

So, I had the speed, second on the grid and fastest race lap, but not the race craft to go with it, P6.

When I failed to get poole, only due to nerves I found myself behind KH in second when the race got on it`s way. The speed up front was not so great and we kind of invited Tim, who took advantage and passed both of us. When I tried to follow by passing KH up to second my nerves played me and I took it "easy" in the dip before the forrest although I knew that the inside line would put me in the forrest which it did. At that time I thought that my race was over, but somehow I got the car back on the track in one piece. But while I was doing the forrest pirouettes other cars had passed and all I could do was to resume the chase.

The one in front was Al and I was like 4 sec faster over the lap but I could not pass. Al though it was because of the BRM`s better straightline speed, but I can assure you that It does not exist. The only problem was my lack of race craft, my lack of overtaking skill.

Well the chase ended as Al described on the railway. Well, for me, after I got back on his tail again, it really ended on the other side of the railway because this time I never got up again so finally another frustrating race experience was over.

To sum it up, I have problems with my race nerves, I did 2.44 laps just before the race, and maybe that is due to lack of race experience, after all this is my first full season with the UKGPL. The future will tell I guess.

I must say BTW that I am very impressed by the way Tim won this race, Grats Tim, He just passed KH and me and drove on and on, faster and faster. That is race craft to me.

Also grats to KH, your plan really worked, and to Nicky, 3rd again on a long and tricky track WD you two.

Göran

Goran , I think we all suffer GPL nerves to a lesser or greater extent , I know I do for sure escp during qually .

Race craft comes with experience , here's my take on racing,  for what its worth .

For me the nervous bit settles down during the race after a lap or two , I try to find a rythm , a speed that I'm happy driving at regardless of who I'm racing and stick to it .

Once you have settled down into the race you can try to push a bit harder to get the guy in front , but not too hard because thats when the mistakes happen .

Most important is to look for him to make an error in braking or running wide or slow corner exit , that will give you the overtake chance.

Of coarse if he'se very good ( and a lot of UKGPL guys are exceptional ) they may not present you with the oppertunity , then if your faster you will be able to make it happen , by outbraking , getting alongside and ahead into a corner or making a faster corner exit speed . Easier said than done.

Best advice is to settle yourself down and "enjoy" your racing , the experience will come with practise  :)


 

Bernie knows his stuff, no wonder he's a double UKGPL champion. I should actually follow your advice, Bernie, because I'm making terrible moves and decisions in recent races and robbing myself of a better finish. It's always nice and beneficial to return to the basics.

Maybe I should take a large dose of my own advice too, not been doing too well of late  ::) ::) ::)

A belated Statmeister post with the results from the last two Amateur races.

Round 6 was Mosport where a perfect consistency score would have been 170. Hristo took top spot in the consistency stakes while Fulvio's +6 (after penalties) won him the High Climber prize.

Round 7 was Sachsenring where a perfect score would have been 85. Nicky Ickx just pipped King Hiro & FMG to take the most consistent driver prize while Fulvio's 2nd successive High Climber award (+8) took him to the head of the overall table. 

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AwMtMND4F-o/TDIDUMBrsrI/AAAAAAAAAL4/ksfYer-hQLA/s1600/Ams06_07.png)

* (P) in the Climber-Meister table denotes adjustment due to Moderator Penalty
** 0.00 in Consistency table denotes average laptime deviation > 5 secs cutoff
*** 2 worst scores to be dropped
**** Drivers must complete at least 50% of the season to qualify for Climber-meister final table
***** What's this about? https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7653.msg135854#msg135854

Moderation complete.