SimRacing.org.uk

Round 9 and we cross the Atlantic to the classic circuit of Laguna Seca 67 where there have been many races with these GT cars over the years

A track with the tortuous Corkscrew to catch out the unwary and those deadly polos around various corners, that will happily remove a wheel for you if you stray just a little off the racing line.

You all know the difficulties with the poor rear view in these cars so please be aware that the car in front maybe cannot see you and does not know you are there. Particularly on the first racing lap! The use of the "virtual mirror" may not be exactly historically accurate but it makes things a lot safer..it is your choice.

REMEMBER TO CHECK YOUR USAGE OF THE DIFFERENT CARS BETWEEN TEAM MEMBERS AS THE SEASON PROGRESSES.

DRIVERS IN THE GREY AND PINK TEAMS NEED TO LOOK CAREFULLY AT WHAT CARS HAVE BEEN USED. BECAUSE THERE HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT DRIVERS IN THESE TEAMS, EACH CHASSIS MUST BE USED EQUALLY. THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE TEAM HAS USED EACH CAR IS SHOWN BELOW.


Race List = IGOR
Server = UKGPL_T7_2
IP address = 62.149.202.168
Race date = Sunday Aug 21st
Time = 21:00 UK time (21:00 GMT)
Track = Laguna Seca 67   http://gpltd.bcsims.com/?dis=L&menu=Show_Letters
Race length = approx 50 minutes (45 laps)
Variant = GT mod
Damage Model = Intermediate (see rules below re resets)
Qualifying time = 35 minutes. Don't start until 30 mins left on clock to allow everyone to join the server.
Password: see above
Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R;group=307;theme=6)

There will be rolling starts for all races with full moderation of both the warm-up and first lap.

Guidelines for rolling starts...

The car on pole will lead off the grid and maintain a steady pace for the 1st lap around 175kph
All drivers should form up in single file behind him leaving 3-4 car lengths between each car.
There is NO OVERTAKING on the 1st lap until the exit of the last corner.
It is the reponsibility of the lead car to ensure that all drivers are with him as he approaches the final corner.
Racing and overtaking begin AFTER the exit of the last corner, so you may overtake between the exit of the last corner and the S/F line.

Any driver who loses his position on the rolling lap, by going off, blowing his engine or through contact with another car ( regardless of fault) must rejoin at the back of the field.
Incidents on the rolling lap ( Lap 1) will be fully modded and anyone found to have caused another competitor to lose position through bad driving will be penalised appropriately.
Also, please make sure that you know which car you should be following on the rolling lap, so that you do NOT get out of position.

The teams have been chosen and the cars are polished and ready to go.

TEAMS

RED TEAM          HRISTO ITCHOV,  Evilclive, Paul Badblood  
 Chap 2F / Mirage / Porsche
                                                                
BLUE TEAM        SAMB, Fulvio, Happy Al  
Chap 2F/ Lola/ Mirage

GREEN TEAM     ZACHARIA BLITO, Phil Thornton, Axel Cookie
Chapp 2F/ Ferrari P4 / Mirage

ORANGE TEAM        NIGEL SMITH, Tim FMG,Dave RAndall  
Ferrari P4 / Chapp 2D / Ford GT MK2.

GREY TEAM     Captained by Tim Vosblod who is looking after the part time drivers who cannot be sure to attend every race.

The cars for the Grey team for this season will be
Chapperal 2D.................   USED 7 TIMES
Mirage............................USED  4 TIMES
Ford GT40 MK1.................USED 6 TIMES

a NEW pink team HAS BEEN FORMED TO ACCOMODATE A FEW MORE OF THE TEMPORARY DRIVERS IN THIS SERIES

The Cars for the Pink Team are
Ferrari  ........................USED 1 TIMES
Mk2 GT40.....................USED 1 TIMES
Porsche


All drivers must drive all 3 team cars at least 3 times. At the end of the 10 race championship any TEAM found to be in breach of this rule will have its BEST TEAM points result of the season cancelled. Each driver will drop his worst 2 results, in line with the other championships, this gets over the problem of missed races and 2 man teams looking for a sub at the last minute.

The events will be run on Intermediate damage and allow ONE Shift-R with a compulsory 10 second pit stop regardless of fault. (This means 10 seconds in your pitbox without moving). Any driver who fails to take a 10 second stop within 1 lap after a Shift-R, will be disqualified from the results. For this division the full moderation of lap one now applying across all divisions will include both the warm up lap and lap one proper.

Please check the Season 21 pages for details (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=301&theme=6) regarding rules and the GT Team Challenge pages (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=307&theme=6) in particular.

I am away on my hols until Sunday so I will not be able to update the spreadsheet but you still have last time's race to look at.

Have a good break Paul.  ;D

Be aware that the pink team porsche is taken... by me! Already drove mk2 3 times, so im done with it.

T7 and GPG.8 servers are set for 45 laps Long race and listening on Igor.
I'll be late to join so I hope someone will substitute Paul to launch server.
Ciao

Any volunteers to start the server?   ::)

ME - I'm home.

phew!! thanks Paul  ;)

wierd racing, i was 4th on warm-up lap but after couple of laps gpl put me to 9th?

i did alot of mistakes and crash now and then,after make a 10 sec pit stop and when i was leaving pit, i see few cars passed me finely but Hristo crashed to the "steel" cones, no i dont think i was guilty to his accident, but luckily he was able to continue.  :o

another accident with FMG i was leaving him room to left to drive normal race line but he was decided to pass from the right with full throttle with no lifting ,he collided and pit stop ? sorry about the incident Tim.

i decided to retire as it seems i was having another bad race and car engine was broke.

no good . :(

Super terrible here.

Tried to keep out of the way. Had no setup after my holiday and I could not get the b^%@y thing to turn. Was a full ten seconds slower than everybody else and although the faster drivers might not have been amused I was trying my hardest. I had practised contrary to popular opinion BUT I just could not find any consistency and thus confidence so I was braking very early and that meant I spent the whole race looking at blue flags and staring into my mirror.

Apologies due to several drivers but in particular, Fulvio, Evil and Tim. Particularly the last named as I was trying to get out of the way and forced him off which ruined a promising battle with Hristo. Good for the team though  ;D Seriously though, considered retiring as I was so far off the pace (>25%). Only kept going for the team but perhaps I should have retired for the good of the field.

Hard. Knackered now and I muffed up the server launch... :(

Phew, this was hard work!

Did not become save on this track before the race...
So I decided to do this frightening race in the "cool and quiet" mode.

In the rolling 1st lap got a bump initiated by Fulvios wife ;D
But could keep my position...

In the race I became more and more confident and learned the groove of the the track.
Surprisingly my engine exploded in lap 29 without a prewarning, it did not affect my position but I had full fuel load again.  >:(

It was a weird feeling, being in the middle between lapping and being lapped at the same time...
The lapped drivers behaved well and I had no problems, as I hope the lapping ones had none with me ;)

Hope to get my teammates back for the LeMans grande finale!

:chef:

Yeah sorry Axel, my wife popped in my racing room asking something during rolling lap when I had to brake for T3, distracted I braked at the usual point and bumped you  :(
Luckily we could regain easily the time lost during the rest of the lap thx to the cars ahead giving room, but I'm not sure I did the right thing passing cars after my crash  ??? :angel:
Forth in the end was over my best expectations in the Mirage, but I was hot after 90 min. race with iRacing GT40 so almost all went well in the race.  :)
Ciao

Just to show how terrible it was - I span on the warm up lap at the last turn and then rolled the car on the first racing lap at the Corkscrew so Lap 3 started with a stop n go. It got marginally better after that...

Quiet race from me. I was driving the Lola, and in the past 2 races I've driven the Lola I've blown the engine. So this time I was very careful with my revs, down changes etc. As a result I couldn't really push too much in the early laps.

At the start I was behind Sky, I was just about staying with him but I have my own wife moment when she asks me something mid corner sending me into my own spin. After that I couldn't push too much and Sky was gone. I went into bring it home mode. I tried to stay out of the way of lapping cars, but had a couple of bumps with H, but nothing too serious I hope.

WIth about 20 laps to go I picked up my pace a little, thinking that I could afford a shift & r if my engine blew. I was surprised to see that Sky was stuck in teh bales at one corner, so I picked up a place after all. I wanted to just bring it home then, in the last 2 laps was the only time I really pushed and got my fastest time of the race, to be honest I was just trying to keep myself busy most of the race, and trying not to spin again.

Looking at the championship, Red's are out in front and can't be caught now. I think that we Blues are quite safe in second too :) not that I can claim any credit for many of our points.

In qually I never hooked up a clean lap that I would have expected to be in the low  1:09's and as a result started 3rd behind Hristo's 2F and Tims Ferrari. I knew that it would be an interesting race, as they would have the outright speed advantage but my Porsche would be faster through the corners.

I was so busy wondering what had happened to the rest of the grid on the rolling lap that I was almost left way behind the front two and just managed to catch them at the final turn.
I was quite happy with the handling of the Porker and could push hard even on cold tyres, so staying with the 2 aliens up front was not too difficult. They blasted away on the straights but I easily closed the gap under braking and through the corners. I was quicker through the corkscrew and closed on Tim and I knew that I could take the next downhill left hander flat in 3rd, with a chance to make a move at the bottom of the hill. But where the Porsche was glued to the track on cold(ish) tyres Tim's Fezza cried "enough" on the left hander and slewed sideways just as I had nailed the gas pedal to the floor. I tried to tighten my line, but I could not get any more grip from the front end and although I felt nothing, it seems I waza'd Tim off the circuit with a deft blow to his rear end. Sorry Tim!  :-\

Next up was Hristo in his awesomely powerful 2F. That car really makes a Porsche driver feel so inadequate when you get to a straight!!! I was nailing the throttle early and felt like I was almost acheiving escape velocity out of some corners and that 2F just drove away!! But once again I could close up huge distances under braking and through some of the tighter corners so was keeping in touch. Then Hristo got caught up amongst some of the first lappees and suffered a spin just before the final turn and I found the cars parted and left me with a clear road through to 1st place.
I knew that Hristo would be breathing fire and that his qually time was about 1 sec faster than my PB, so I needed to build as big a gap as I could.
The laps clicked past and  I seemed to be almost holding the gap back to Hristo , until on 3 or 4 consequetive laps I caught backmarkers at the wrong place and lost a couple of secs each time. Not their fault, just bad luck on my part. Then as Hristo got within striking distance I caught a couple of cars going into T1, where the Porsche was very quick...but they were not  ::) :-\ and I ended up losing all my momentum as we cleared the Esses. The power of the 2 F allowed Hristo to simply blast past before I could get anywhere near up to speed again. The next few laps were interesting as I tailed Hristo, losing ground on the straights but on some occasions actually held up through some corners!! until I got rather more of a tow than I had anticipated on the run to T1 and ran fractionally wide just clipping a tyre. That sent me spinning into a tree and required a Shift-R...Hristo was gone!!
A quick look at Prib showed that Tim was recovering from my early attentions but was still about half a lap behind..maybe just enough time to get into the pits and do my 10 second wait.
Things worked out well and I emerged from the pits still in 2nd spot and with a reasonable lead over Tim, but miles behind Hristo. Unless Hristo had a problem I was never going to catch him, so my focus was on the gap back to Tim which varied with each lap as we both dealt with lapping other cars. The gap closed dramatically over a couple of laps as I encountered cars at the wrong place again, where there was just nowhere for them to get out of the way, but then Tim hit the same traffic and dropped back. With about 3 laps to go I had a comfortable cushion and eased off, but came upon Paul right at the entry to The Corkscrew and came to a complete halt before we both squeezed through.
Finished a comfortable second place but it would have been good to continue the battle with Hristo and his 2F for longer.

Grats to all finishers and to the cars that got lapped on a regular basis. This circuit is one of those where passing is not easy and with the GT's the performance/handling  difference between cars just makes it even more difficult. It was obvious that people were trying to make room, but with the closing speed we had it was not always easy to read which side you expected us to pass. lol.....made it quite exciting though  ;D

Sorry about that Clive, I knew you were there and tried to let you past on the entry but nearly lost it altogether under the brakes. I was waiting for the race ending crunch... very impressed with your car control.

One other thing - there were 13 laps to go  ;D

lol    13 laps...1 lap,  whats a few laps between friends???

To be fair it was probably 3 laps for you...  :laugh:

I was away on hols for this but I'll be around for the Le Mans race.  I wouldn't want to miss that one!  For me the GTs are synonymous with Le Mans; a GT season without it just wouldn't be the same.

TBH I'd rather skip that one if I could, lol. It's most likely to be a huge bore fest, driving for hour and a half on endless straights. Just not my idea of racing, so I pray to at least have someone to slipstream around without having to lift up and wait. Perhaps the strong slipstream of GTs would help.

That was a great read, Clive.  My sentiments are similar to Phil's, and I'd like to join in at Le Mans, as a guest driver.  Car and team are as yet, a mystery, but at least the drivers talents are dubious! 8)