SimRacing.org.uk

So, after the "easy"/"boring" start of the season we now dive into the real thing when we for the second round of the Historic Trophy, (did I spell it right this time?), enter the really historic Brno49. It is not short nor is it that easy and it certainly is not boring, well not if you ask me anyway, so I believe it could host an interesting race. I hope so anyway and welcome all to this event.

There will be chassis restrictions for this one based on the championship standings. Se below.

Please restrict chat to a minimum, (or maybe none).

Moderating will be by reported incidents only, however the moderator reserve the right to review any incident with a particular emphasise on lap one. Please submit incident reports within a week after the race so that the moderators report may be out before the next race.

Best of luck.
 
Race List =         iGOR
Server =            UKGPL_T7_2
IP Address =       62.149.202.168
Race date =       02-11-2010
Time =              21.00 UK time
Track =             Brno49 1949 Masaryk Brno
Variant =           66F1 3L engines
Damage Model =  PRO
Qualifying time = 35 minutes. Do not start until 30 min left.
Race length =     Pro Long (6 laps)

The track can be downloaded from: http://gplmz.bcsims.net/sub/brno49/ (http://gplmz.bcsims.net/sub/brno49/)

And if you do not have the time to practice you can have a look at the track here:  http://www.volny.cz/m.svacha/brno/map.jpg (http://www.volny.cz/m.svacha/brno/map.jpg)


Group I
T1G Eagle Weslake
Mclaren M2B

Group II
BRM P83
Lotus 43 BRM

GroupIII
Honda RA273
Cooper T81
Brabham BT19
Ferrari 312

Drivers Restricted to cars from Group I
EvilClive
Al Heller

Drivers Restricted to cars form Group II
Hristo Itchov
Dave Randall

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=278;theme=6)

TEST NOTE:
Hi guys, trying not to usurp Goran's race post but we are due to run Thruxton on 14 December and, whilst all our S21 tracks have been reviewed for online compatibility, this one seems to have recently thrown up issues with our friends over at GPL Racer. The gist is Mr Track GPL 'wizard' Ginnetto (he of Targa fame) has done a 'fix' but it remains untested.
So if any of you guys are willing to hang around for a blast around with Goran after the Brno Historic it would be much appreciated. We'd like to test with 10+ drivers on the 66 mod, any chassis you like.

IMPORTANT: you need to download this fix thruxton_GINFIX_1027.7z (http://www.sendspace.com/file/pw9p5q) first. Some notes from Goran on installing; "the fix must be installed correctly. After you have extracted the fix into the Thruxton folder you should unzip the "thruxton_450x350_VIEW", to the Thruxton folder, C:\Sierra\GPL\tracks\thruxton so that the "thruxton.3DO" in the thruxton folder have the date 2010-10-27 13:10. I unzipped it to C:\Sierra\GPL\tracks\thruxton\thruxton_450x350_VIEW so the new thruxton.3DO did not get into the track folder but into a folder in the thruxton folder. Cristal clear right?" - any questions ask Goran not me  ;)

If we can get a decent test grid we can decide whether Ginetto's fix has done the trick  - knowing his perfection I'm sure it will but better safe then sorry.

Goran, you are so right!  When I saw that this track was 11 miles long, my heart sank.  A week and a half to learn about 65 corners and get up to speed seemed a bit daunting with limited spare time available, but who dares.. (will probably still lose in my case!)  Started making mental pace notes of the places that seemed most treacherous and a couple of days later can almost complete a lap without decapitation!  And what fun  :)  Some amazing parts to this track, especially love the fast sections after the first and second slow cobbly bits.  Relishing the challenge..

Thruxton and fix downloaded for the track test, although won't have time to learn this track too so will probably be a bit of a hazard to say the least

Woa!

I dont even have thruxton installed yet , dunno which one to install from the 2 avalable

Thruxton V1

Or

Thruxton 512 Mip Add on


Or am I being thick , do I install V1 then add the 512 thing ?


Confused of Wigan  :-\ :-\ :-\

Bernie - unless the 512 comes with a .dat file, it'll be a more detailed vision of Thruxton.  In which case, you'd install v1, and add on the add-on, for added effect.  Check your framerate on a busy track, in case it's adversely affected.  ;)   

Replaced my router and my internet connection is a lot better but not perfect.  It should be good enough for racing and maybe for a praccy server. 

If you want to do some praccy for Brno (you will need to - this track is a lot of fun but the straw bales are made of fly paper) it would be helpful if you could use the praccy server I've set up (UKGPL_4 on IGOR).  It will give me some valuable feedback on the quality of the connection.

2:10 UK time and I tried several times to get onto UKGPL4.

On each occasion I got the "connection timed out" message.  The only other server up on Igor at the time was GPL racer at Silvy and I could enter that one no probs.

I was getting timed out too, but joined GPLR's server ok then went back to _4 and joined ok!?!

I was getting a bit of spiking L bar but as I was the only one on server not sure if it had much effect on anything.

Seems to be stuck on 'mutating' now  :(

Hmm GPL locked up for some reason (did the same thing yesterday too) .  Maybe the server but it hasn't done this with other tracks.  Could be the length that is a factor?  Anyway I'll keep the server up for testing.  Let's hope it is the server and not the track at fault.

I did a lot of laps (though offline) in preparation (and I still can't get two consecutive laps without a crash), but no problems here.

Also I recall someone (Tim Mutram I think) mentioning he has raced the track in another league without any issues.

No probs joining UKGPL4 from sunny Wigan , although the Lats a tad high (could be my end ?) or just the pie factor  ;D

Must be the Pastie factor too.   ;)

I tried again 30 mins later and joined no prob. Steve Bird was there on his own and he left just after I joined ( something I said?? ). So I was on my own, but the latency bar was running very high.

I have yet to do a single lap without crashing. I am convinced that someone keeps changing the layout of the corners!!!!

Wasn't me H, but I've seen no issues mentioned anywhere re. this track  :) - havn't really started practicing yet myself  :-[

lol, I was getting screen stutter, Clive so left to check out if anything was running in the background.  I have managed a lap without crashing, but its probably much slower than you fast boys so you could afford probably 3 spins a lap!!

Like we are going to believe that !!!!  :lol: :thumbup1:

Havn't though  :-[ I'm not working tomorrow so will probably put some time in for Brno and the Ring instead  ;)

You better start! I have only really managed a single relatively clean and fast lap out of maybe 30-40 attempts...  ???

The grip seems to be different each lap around, lol, but it's a great track, I like the challenge.

Jumped on Phil's trial server yesterday and tried a couple of laps...emphasis on tried!!!

I think I have attempted about 7-8 laps of this circuit, none of which was clean. In fact, every one of those laps would have resulted in a retirement in Pro mode!! So, not enough laps to get the setup sorted and I still am not 100% sure what is around the next bend once we get through the first half of the lap. The first half is none too certain either!!! :-\

As Hristo has said , the grip level seems to vary throughout the lap, with some places feeling like the previous car has dropped a load of oil.

But it is a very nice track  ;D

I think that's because some parts of track have stone pavement(in villages), and on this surface you don't have as much grip as on asphalt.

I am glad you like the track  ;D

And just to put things in perspective I noticed that if you look at the Multiple Choice Hell at GPL rank you will find a 5.39.629 by someone named Hristo Itchov, hummm I wonder who that might be?

Btw, it happens to be the top time.

And the one with online experience from the track that might have been me, at least I have it from when I had a league race here with the AusGPL.

Göran

5:39!!!!!!!  I have yet to get sub 6:00mins.

That must be the single clean lap I managed a few days ago, lol. Don't let it fool you - it's one out of 50 other which ended up badly...  ::)

Thought I was doing well with a 7m 04s pb in the Lot BRM  ::)

lost count of the number of spectators and trees ive killed  :o

I'm restricted to either the Lotus BRM or BRM something, but why do you drive it when you can take much better cars? Initially I did a lot of practice with the Lotus, but eventually switched to the BRM - it's just much more predictable around this track, at least for me, and it's easier to setup.

5:39 in the BRM!  :o

Best laps for me so far are:

5:43 dead in the 312
5:46.7 in the Cooper
5:48.6 in the BT19

Admitedly none of them are completly clean but where are you getting the extra 4 seconds!?  :hammer:

Wish I knew. It's just a matter of pushing as much as you can without crashing and not thinking about lap times at all.

Hi Hristo

 I tried the BRM but found it difficult to control on the twizzy bits . Thought the Lotus BRM was faster , same engine , lighter chassis , better handling , aparently not so then ?

Not tried any others , imagined the coop was out due to the long straights , fezzer , cant stand the noise it makes (on my PC at least) Brabby cant find s set up that gives speed snd stability , Whale a nono for me  :-\

Praccy server up again.

I think I sorted the crash problem, it was our old favourite Automatic Updates!!! 

I've set a very loose grid (see below).  Hopefully the race server will have something similar - a crash in the first built up section could be a disaster.

^m 36 now but have made 27 pit stops , 1 for tyres , 26 for directions  :(

Think I need to get a satnav  ::)

Yes Phil, the loose grid on the server is just like that.

Göran

It was the opposite for me, I found the Lotus rather tricky in the slow corners in the middle and end of the lap, and the BRM a lot more predictable and smooth in its transitions. I haven't really tried most of the other cars, so I can't suggest anything, but given that these 2 are in Group 2, I would imagine the cars in Group 3 and beyond to be better.

When you get your satnav, can you come and find me please???  I cannot find my way around this maze

I've sort lf tamed the Brab but it's still fairly 'snappy' (not as bad as 67 version though) and doesn't have a great top end. While it not lightening fast the cooper is quite stable I found - I can email you the setup if you like :)
Today I quite fancy trying the BRM out of curiousity and maybe the Whale too......

Please remember to remember the Thuxton test after the Brno49 race tonight.

If you have not yet installed the track and fix this is what you do:

Download and install the Thuxton track http://dixierunners.speedgeezers.net/Thruxton68/ (http://dixierunners.speedgeezers.net/Thruxton68/)

Download the Ginetto fix 1027  http://www.sendspace.com/file/pw9p5q (http://www.sendspace.com/file/pw9p5q)

Extract the fix into the thruxton folder at X:\Sierra\GPL\tracks\thuxton,

Then extract the "thruxton_450x350_VIEW" inside the folder to X:\Sierra\GPL\tracks\thuxton

Done, welcome.

Göran

Did some testing and I really like the track.5:39 is an awsome time.However I put in my time at as well just to see myself a couple of spots above the Swede :D

More trials last night , got the Brab sort of sorted with a PB in low 6m30 s

That twisty downhill slalom section seems to be my achiles heel,  escp. the part were it straightens up to a fast bit alongside the wall , with LH kink all downhill , seems to me there's a man trap there waiting to spin the rear around unless I take it at a crawling pace  :-[

yes Bernie, another few attempts and I reckon that wall will give way and I can straighten out that section. ;D

Spent an hour on it today and have knocked a whole 1.5 seconds off my time in the fez!  :wacko:

Also gave the BRM 40 mins of attention and honestly can't see how Hristo got it to go so fast! It's more like a 911 than a 911 is in handling characteristists here!  ;D My best was something like a 5:47.5 (Indicated on Prib, I never managed a clean lap in it) so a 5:39 is epic work  :notworthy:

I'm absolutely loving the first village immediatly after the startline  ;D 160mph drifts through the high street FTW  :angel:

I didn't save the replay, but if I do another one before tonight I'll upload a video. In any case, this race is going to be about making as few mistakes as possible, so it doesn't really matter how fast you're going, it would be suicidal to drive on the limit all the time.

OK, did another few laps, managed a 5:37.31, but I think there's another second to be found if I clean up all those noticeable mistakes. Going to Fraps it now and upload it to Youtube afterwards.

 :'(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-wpeeOP0zI

SERVER STARTING PROBLEM!!!

I am sending this message trough a friend.
I have no electricity in my house.
If it has not come back in time for me to be in the chat room by 20.55 UK time, will someone please start the server?!

Thank You

Göran

You have 1 hour to install GPL on your friend's PC and go grab your wheel/pedals from your house.  ;D

Hi Goran

I would but I don't know the passwords for T7_2.  If one of the other mods doesn't answer before the race you'll have to PM the passwords to me.

Cheers

Phil

I'll be ok to start it.

Well, I've finally broken into the sub 5:40's now with a 5:39.4. Prib was indicating I was good for a 5:38.5 the following lap until I wrapped the Fez around a tree  ::)
I think that as Hristo says, Race speeds may prove somewhat slower than offline/practice speeds  ;D


lol  ;D

 :o

This is it, no more revelation videos for you!  ::)

 :-\ after a heartwarming PB in qually a full 4.5secs under the previously impenetrable 6:00 barrier, to elevate me to 4th on the grid :o  The race lasted all of 10 secs :'( and I did not get past T1.

Ah well that's racing I suppose  :-\

Firstly my compliments to Goran on choosing a great track :thumbup1: - was really enjoying it until my stupid error.

My 2nd place in the opening race meant I was in the Group 1 handicap car - I'd never driven the 66 Eagle in a race before so when everyone blew past me on the straights I was pretty shocked. Had no idea it was such a slug - Goran's Ferrari pulled away from me down the long straight like I was in reverse! My pace was academic anyway as I ended my race about halfway through while running 6th by getting snared by the weeds at the tricky slow L-R esses before the L-R-L-R-L-R etc section.

Congrats to the winner & finishers - whoever they may be...

My first lap was a real shocker.  Crashed 4 times but somehow the car survived!!! ??? ???

Settled down to put in a few decent laps (for me) making up a few places as people dropped out.  Managed to get on Martin's tail for the last lap and then binned it on one of the fast tree lined left handers.  Got stuck in a straw bale but with a lot of 1st gear and then reverse wheel spinning managed to extract the car.  Amazingly all four wheels were still on and I managed to complete the race distance.

That's 2 races and not been lapped yet  ;D

Forgot to hang around for the Thruxton test.  Started IGOR up again but no race in progress.  Assume it was postponed because of Goran's power probs??

Started auspiciously, quallyed 2nd about .5 of a sec off Hristo's time. First lap and a half were brilliant, I slowed H loads at one point and got passed by Tom as a result  ::) but got him back under braking for the hill at Zebetin  ;D
Then managed to scrabble back close enough to H to catch his draft on the long S/F straight and blow past him into the first vilage (Ferrari power! :angel:)

Shame we both managed to tangle with the trees a few miles later - this time it was me who suffered massive damage and H who got off scott free.
I actually thought my own car was still good until I hit the next right hander (at about 160mph!) and discovered the rear left suspension had semingly collapsed  :o

Don't know how the resulting spin didn't hit anything solid. but it didn't so i choose to soldier on in the hope that the majority wouldn't finish and I'd score a good finish still  ;)

My inabilty to turn right under power soon resulted in Tom (Hiro) passing me, followed about half a lap later by the fight for 3rd (David Vs Goranof (See what I've done? Eh? ;) :D)). All 3 of whom I had to wave by as I was in no state to contest places  :(

I suprised myself when I checked my laptimes on one straight - despite the heavy damage I was still circulating at just over the 6 minute mark and holding off the remainder of the field.
Then Joy of Joys I pass Dave who's window shopping in one of the villages and re-inherit 4th  ;D

Which is where I stayed as Dave heroically fought to ensure I kept it  ;)

Was a very good race, shame about my early damage though as I was in with a shout at the win - WD H, Tom and Goran. And of course to everyone who survived Brno!


Phil: Thruxton was tested with no probs - but we only had 6 drivers so time will tell.....

Very magnaminous of you Clive, I was half expecting a barrage of abuse here and I spent the race gutted that our contact was to put you out of the race on the very first corner, I'm sure you were even more so  :(

Got a good start and was surprised at how slow some of those in front got away so took two places to be clear of Clive for T1.  Turned in slightly early for T1 and clipped the curb to send me drifting with reduced speed to the middle of the track where unfortunately Clive was too close to avoid me.  Sorry for not keeping it more tidy Clive.

After that things improved a bit for a while and I stayed on Gorans tail for a few laps as his pace was similar to my own limit and we both passed an ailing Tim.  However my race deteriorated with a worsening pc performance and very offputting stuttering although the frame rate reported around 30fps.  I can't fully blame that though, my driving could still have been much better and I couldn't even beat Tim in the end who was driving with a bent wishbone!

Congrats to Hristo for the win, the podium + Tim for a great qualifying time and commendable recovery.

Got involved with Clives sideways Eagle (sorry mate , nowhere to go ) then I got rear ended , that was my race  :-\

Another waste of practice, getting to be a bit of a habit so far this season.  Couldn't even manage 2 laps for a qualifying time so poor all round again.

I sit with a good feeling after this race. However my gap in laptimes between practice and race is still there. I did 58,55,52,52,54,52. thought I was at least below 50. Had to try a couple of really safe laps after the race and at least they were 51 s and I felt I was more careful than in the race. with a pb at 43 and a qual at 45ish I should be able to at least stay around 50 s..but...In this race this differense would have made no impact on the final standings.
 The opening was really exciting with me grabbing 2 nd after some battle with H and Tim that slowed them somewhat through the fast bends. I lost it again in the second  hairpin and Randall almost passed me too due to my early brakeing.I managed to pull away from Randall and the duo up front pulled away from me although they were battling. I hoped to stay with them if for nothing else xpt watching. It looked great the short period I had them in view and they were in a class of their own. I was alone for a while until they had an incident and H popped up a couple of seconds in front of me. Shortly later Tim with chassis problems let me pass him in the tricky bendy part of the track. cruised on alone to a nice 2 nd place :) (thinking I was doing high 40s) ::)

It was really close in Qualifying and it was nail-biting watching Tim complete his last run at the end of the session, but he only improved by 2 tenths or so.

The start was semi-cautious, because with just a 6 laps race one couldn't afford to ease off too much. I was expecting a 9-10 laps race (which would've given us a ~50 mins race) and I think that would've made a big difference in terms of attrition, but it turned out to be just a sprint race.

Tim's Ferrari was on steroids and I couldn't do much to stop him from passing on the straights, but after the first village the slipstream pulled me in front, but only until we exited the slow right at the low part of the track.

Tim attacked hard on the straights that followed, but had to ease off when we hit those slight kinks downhill, probably as a precaution. That allowed Dave to pass him and slot behind while I tackled the tricky left-handers.

Surprisingly we all managed clean through there and Tim was back into 2nd again, but then we went into the twisty bits and although Tim seemed faster, he had no room to make a pass and I think he nearly lost it in one of those slow lefts after the forest section.

As we motored towards the end of the lap, it became clear that it won't be possible to escape Tim, despite taking some risks in some corners and pulling away slightly - his Ferrari would instantly recover the gap! I was wondering if leading him out of the last slow corner would be enough to cross the line before his beast would pass me, and that proved to be the case when we completed lap 1, but only just!

He took the lead into T1 on lap 2 and again, I had a run on him towards the slow right at the bottom of the track. This time he managed to repass me on the exit and I eased off a bit to avoid risks, and settled behind him. Then came the nasty moment when we both turned in too late for the 2nd of those 3 left-handers, went wide and had to combat the mighty trees.

While Tim seemed to have clipped a tree on the outside, I managed to slide my car towards the inside and avoid initial contact, but overdid it and went into the inside line of trees, clipped one of them and spun around. I managed to continue pretty quickly, but estimated a 5-6 seconds gap to Tim by that time.

Surprisingly Tim's car appeared just after the 2nd village and was going noticeably slower, then he just let me through in the forest section and soon disappeared from my mirrors. From there on I just had to avoid any mistakes and take it to the finish. Pushed for a fast lap near the end, but avoided taking too big risks.

BTW, there was a very funny moment during Qualifying - me and Dave spinning at one of those 3 fast left handers, then getting stuck to a haybale on the outside and struggling simultaneously to get detached from it.  ;D

Oh, sorry! You're right of course, I was thinking of you but wrote "Dave", lol.

We have had shorter 66 s as long as I ve been here, but I can t see any reason for this. Bringing 66 up to 50 mins as ams and grads is something I would strongly vote for. I practiced hours for this one and could surely stay on track for another 20 mins.(not that I see that as an argument in itself since reallife 100 m runners practice years for their few seconds. However the default gpl long is simply too short to get the feeling were doing a proper race and not just a sprint.Note "get the feeling".50 mins is still short for a race, but maybe not short for what amount of time ppl can spend. I d like the races to be at least 1 hour, but 50 mins at least gives a feeling of a start mid and end term of the race.)

I'm gutted. Spent some great times in Czech in my youth and don't remember ever upsetting anyone, so why did a bunch of malevolent spectators grab my car and not let go. I gave up after three minutes of trying to free myself and  watched the rest of you having fun. Wd to all the finishers and commiserations to everyone in the same boat as me. BTW Steve I think it was me having a sniff at your rear end in the first village, apologies to you. I'd slowed right down anticipating problems up ahead in this first section, But a blocked track ? Maybe the Nurburgring will bring better results.

True, Tom, we've always had shorter Historic races, but I don't remember going down as much as to a 35 minutes long race such as this one. I suppose it has to do with expected lap times?

It was my first outing with these cars, so I planned to sit back, and have a nice quiet time. Managed to avoid entanglement in Clives wreckage, first corner, and settled into seventh or eighth.  Resisted chasing after Als Eagle, prior to its demise, and caught only a glimpse or two, of those further up the road.  This allowed for the sedate country jaunt, I'd planned.  Behind me, Phil was many seconds back. 

I don't carry Pribluda - extra weight, so was a little surprised on lap 5, to find a Brabham hounding my tail!  My nice quiet race was suddenly rather busy, and for the next lap, I threw caution to the wind, to avoid getting blown away!  It was the flying Phil.  Finally managed to fend off his attack, and stroked it home to a sensible sixth.  Fabulous track - fun race!  :)

First, as I understand things, the Historic races has been default Pro Long so that is what I have put up. But if you would like longer races I will be happy to fix it. I do rather think that would be good because I also have had a sprint race feeling.

If you look at the race, and quali, in terms of lap times I must say that I guess the race craft come into play as we can see that both Tim and H put up laptimes around their PB`s while Tom and myself did not. I was like 10 sec off my PB, so I am even more off than you Tom, but I think it just is that if I go in PB speed I just do to many mistakes to make the race distance.

So, the race was overall a good one for me. Nowdays I seem to have many problems not really about the race it self. This time I sat in a house all black because of a power cut until 15 min before the start of the race. That meant that the shakedown practice was out of the window.

I was one of the slow starters so maybe some of the T1 problems lies on my shoulders too, but at least I managed to get by with a car in one piece. When things settled after a lap or two I found myself in front of Dave. I remember thinking that I should be able to shake him but I did not, and that was due to my lack of speed as I was lapping like 10 sec off my PB. Anyway after some time I saw a red car in front of me an was kind of sad as I knew it had to be Tim and that meant no Black Night win this time. Then Dave was gone and I could relax a bit but that led to that I allmost lost it on the last lap, but only allmost so I managed to grab the final podium. The only downside is that I am back in a group 2 car for the next round.

Grats to H for the win, I am just a little sad that the dice with Tim did not go all the way, and to Tom for another steady drive to second.

Btw, I really like seeing H back on the GPLRank. That means we all can get his WR replays.  ;D

Göran

I don't really intend to go for any other WRs, especially in the faster cars. Besides, I don't think I have much chance to better the current WRs, at least of the original 11 Papy tracks, unless it's a car/track combo that nobody of the top aliens has given much effort.

And I should avoid helping Tim with videos in the future as it nearly cost me the win... at least until he rejoins the Wazas!  ;D

I hadn't actually seen your vid when I broke the 5:40 barrier  :P

And only watched it once prior to the race and my slightly faster qually time  ;D


So Nyeer!  ;D

Bu**er,!!bu**er!! bu**er!!!!!! :death:

I thought that a DNF at T1 would at least give me the benefit of a better car next time. But it looks like the WAZAS are penalised with a pair of group 1 cars for the next race.

Al's experience of the Eagle gave me some comfort and explained why I could get nowhere near the fast times being posted. I knew the Eagle was down on power, but being blown away on each straight explains a good 10 secs a lap. add to that the gutless acceleration out of the several very slow corners and things begin to look better.

At least that's how I see it.... ::)

 True pro long as long as I ve been here I think. I ve been complaining about short racetime before and gave it up.after all there are leagues out there who do fulltime, but I am in ukgpl and I like it here and just don t have time to do more leagues atm. I saw H s comment as a chance to put the topic up again.If you are god and can change it so why not? I don t think anyone would complain...and if the majority of 66 drivers are against (why would they? ::) ) you can just change it back.or not.youre god of 66 s after all..



Yes Gøran it s the good old mind thing.I t s better to have the increased laptime and live to see the finishline.But..I just want to be able to drive somewhat closer to practicetimes.it s impossible it seem cause my arms are stiffer my reactions too jumpy.situations that I saw as scary in the race didn t seem scary at the rpy.anyways the mind has a different type of awareness in a racesituation and things just seem different. I get tricked to think the car actually handles different..could write a book about this.There has certainly been written books about sports performance and the phsychologic aspects of it

Haha, then what was all that drama about being 10 seconds off?!  ::)

I won't fall for it next time!  ;D


I think everyone experiences these things, Tom. It takes self-awareness (which can be improved) and experience to overcome it, but it depends on the person. I still feel anxious despite a decade of GPL driving, heh. Sometimes it's so bad that I need half a race to relax.

I was 10 secs off in the BT19 and BRM  :)
Was only 5 off in the Fez and got that to within about a second by Lunchtime on Tues.
Trouble is you'd knocked another second off yourself by then  :hammer:

I recon I can knock maybe 2/3 seconds off the Brab, I guess the same would apply to the BRM if I spent some time on the setup but can't be bothered now the race is done with  ;D

I'm happy with the 5:38. That's gotta be pretty high on GPL-rank itself  :yes:

It s good to hear more people share that race excitement and it s effect. I m not new to online racing either though I had a comeback with gpl now.I did other racing games on lan with friends from 91-97. gpl 98 and 99. self  awereness is a keyword ,a basis to work from, and to overcome shouldn t neccesarily mean to remove all stress I think.stress has positive affect as well, but when it reaches a surtain amount it gives a choking effect and consentration gets flickery.I had to take a course in pshycology when I took my private pilote lisence.a small book called aviation psycologhy and  learned some stress/effectivness stuff there.(and oh yes..I have had chokestress in extremely unpleasant episodes in the air ..)stress/effectiveness is surely important to understand in competitions too...now out to drive train again ..sorry for babbling so much about this but I think it s so interesting ;)

I didn't mean it in a way to prevent stress, but to know yourself better which allows you to cope with stress better and understand the reasons for anything that happens against your will. I've read a couple of psychology books for the past year and it's really a matter of becoming aware what's causing your energy blockage as that is what is really causing a drop in performance. Basically it's things in your subconsciousness that you're unaware of that affect your conscious efforts.

Focus and thought-control is a good way to minimize the effects of any psychological issues you have and although that doesn't really lead to long-term improvement, it creates useful habits. That's how I cope with these problems. For example, it really helps to focus as much as possible on the little things like braking points, gear shifts, throttle application and so on, and take away your mind from abstractions like the pressure to win, to deliver a lap time, to beat someone, to score points, to win championships and so on.

As you say, there's a lot to be said on the topic, but in reality, it's up to each individual to figure these things out and find the best solution, because it's such a personal topic that no absolute rules apply to it.

I almost go Zen in GPL and often find myself winning/finishing highly by not trying to go fast and ignoring the competition if I'm chasing someone/being chased. The first of my 2 flying laps in qually last night wes a perfect example as it was supposed to be a slow and steady 'safe' lap but resulted in a 5:38xxx regardless.
Racing against H in the BT7's is somewhere I should apply this more - But we simply have no choice in how hard we have to push to make good lap times  :D

Anyway, here's my fastest qually lap from last night. It has several errors in it that I'm now amazed I managed to catch on the night. It seems I was determined to smash the car up but just kept missing the hard stuff  ;D
You'll want to update your rank again H as it currently has me holding the WR at Brno - given you're half a second faster I think this is a little missleading  ;)

Anyway - here's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XROW9odtM20) a youtube link  :)

Nice run, though lots of sideways action that definitely lost you 1-2 seconds minimum, imo.

Thats excactly what I thought you ment by overcoming the problem H. I was just adding some thoughts.
Very inerresting good points from both of you H and Tim. Heard similar from a high ranked kendofighter who gave me advice.
And you obviously have your points based on a solid study H.
Funny why I put myself through all this torture lol.I genuinly want longer races, but still , If I m in a good position and have press from cars catching up from  behind parts of me want my engine to unexplainly explode so I can lean back and say at least it wasn t my fault :D

Very nice lap Tim..I agree that it could have been even faster. Amazing how you handle the car on the edge all the time.

Yes, the desire for self-inflicting damage is sometimes hard to control, lol. I think motivation helps a great deal with being relaxed and positive, and that's why I rarely practice before races, or if I do - I try not to do too much of it.

It helps in two ways - it lowers/lessens (or completely gets rid of) expectation for good results and performance, plus it allows you to maintain a higher level of desire to get into the car and just drive.

I guess I have the privilege of not needing to practice most tracks as I've ran them so many times already, but it wasn't the case with Brno, so it took its toll!

Tried the Fezza btw, Tim. What a great car! Managed a 33, but I think a 32 is possible.

I agree totally, But as the previous lap had been a 5:38.6 (Or whatever) I was out on a do or die run  ;D
Tempted to go back and do some more serious lapping and see if I can get down to a 5:36 - as I consider that to be a realistic target in the 312.
Not easy though!  :D

(I think the idea of you doing 33's is going to make me cry afer all my efforts :wetfish: )

Believe it or not, it's faster when you don't overdo it or push too much. Just try taking advantage of that insane amount of torque the Fezza has in a controlled and straightforward manner. BTW, do you use the full revs? I'm not sure, but it seems that taller gears work better, but I didn't have time to do too many adjustments and attempts. Fortunately the default setup (except ARB) was close to what I had in mind, so I stuck to that. It's funny how a 5speed gearbox is easier to set on this car than the 6speed on the BRM.

I know, although I suspected that was a way to go around the problem instead of having to control the preassure and actually take advantage of the practice.
Me too had never tried this track before and I had some time off work.Last evening with practice I ended up sitting 20 hours in on go and just slept a few hours before the race.I went to bed but ideas about this and that turn came up and I got out of bed time and time again to try things out.Right before the race I knew I had fell into the overpractice trap and felt just horrible :'(.Didn t help that I tried to practice to be consistant instead of getting faster.I ended up hotlapping 95 percent of the session

and omg 5.33? :o

What I've noticed over the years is that the benefit of practice is rather long-term and it may produce temporary negative effects in short-term. You get to see the positive effects a week or more after you've stopped practicing (though it depends on the person), as if it takes time to accumulate and be properly digested by your mind and body. It's when you stop thinking and forget about it that it settles in.

And yes, 5:33, but I didn't save the replay as I thought I could do a 32, but then the electricity went out just when I was completing a potentially better lap!  ::) Might have a final go at it if I find time today.

OK, did one last offline session and went down to 5:30.59. Here's the replay and setup:

http://racingleague.co.cc/hikiwaza/downloads/66_HI_brno49_ferrari312_53059_replay_and_setup.zip

I also included the previous lap which was a 31 something.

How does he do it  :)

Fantastic H ,  watching Lap1 thought it was a bit raggedy in the esses before the downhill bit , I thought you could do better with a clean lap , forgot you had posted 2 laps  ::)

2nd lap you really hooked it up there , made the fezzer dance , how you get so much traction , unbelievable .

 8) 8) 8) 

Thanks for the driving lesson  ;D

Thx H thats a point I haven t given much thought really and I m sure it s true. I sometimes try to drive other tracks with the same setup or just something completely different when I feel I have come into a vicous circle trying to do the same track faster and faster and I just do more and more mistakes without improving.That might be related somehow to what you say but still not the same. Now I m off to see those laps of yours .. :o

I know exactly what you mean and I think it's the same thing. For instance, when I was trying to beat the 65 Nurb BT7 WR, I did about an hour of running and had to stop because I started doing more and more errors, getting frustrated and not really improving. I ended up 3 secs slower than the WR and didn't really think I could do it.

After 24 hours I had another go and this time it went better, as if the practice from the day before had given fruits - I was just a second off the WR and I started to believe it's possible. Again though, I had to stop because mistakes started creeping in and lap times deteriorated.

On the 3rd day I was struggling initially and kept doing mistakes, and thought I'm trying too much too soon, so I stopped after 2-3 attempts. A couple of hours later though, I managed 2 laps under the WR and that was it.

I remember back a few years ago when I was hotlapping for my Lotus Nurburgring time, I took a 2-3 weeks break from it and when I came back it was a PB on my very first attempt.

Similar thing with Brno here, though it was more about figuring out where I can improve and it was usually little things like braking points, gearing and lines, but still needed 3 days to put it all together and it still took a fair number of attempts, but once it clicked it worked well.

I guess the more experience you have with it, the quicker you recognize where and how to improve your lap time, or learn a (new) track in more detail. Nothing is guaranteed though, as we saw in Pebble Beach.  ::)

P.S. Thanks, Bernie! As much as I do it for showing off  ;D I also hope it can help others to get ideas that may help them out. I think the key was really not going too sideways and trying to put the power down as smoothly as possible. With the abundance of torque this Fezza has, it was a joy to drive the car like that rather than push beyond the limit to compensate as I usually have to do with the weaker cars. It just felt more normal, lol. BTW, very stiff setup seems to work well here because you can run rather low and still avoid (excessive) bottoming. Makes it a bit tricky in the slow bits though, very slippery there and easy to overdo it.