UKGPL Season 23 (2012) Porsche Cup (GT) - Cernes Wood - Jul 13

[francesco]

Retired due to a strange phenomenon.At the start of the race my gas was unable to reach the maximum.So on the straight was impossible to use the 5 gear.Someone  that have done an incident can have noticed this.They have overtaken me like lightning.

[EvilClive]

Grats to Tom Mark and Sergio who survived this race.

Pedro asked me to step into 7Porsche7 team as their "PRO" driver for the rest of the season now that Alex has decided not to continue..thanks for that invite, but I am sorry to hear that Alex will not be racing with us as he was a very quick driver. 

Well..... what can I say?  I struggled to get the Porsche setup right during qually and ended up some way down the grid. I was hoping to drive a careful race and pick up some places as others went tree hugging. which I thought was bound to happen on a track like this. I ust needed to be careful and let the race come to me.......a good plan I thought?

I thought the rolling start was a bit quick and now I know what happened, I can understand why the field appeared to be so spread out. 

Just my luck, that as the cars in front picked up speed down the back straight towards that dangerous right hander, my frame rate dropped to about 20fps!! As a result I totally misjudged the corner and was the first person to go tree hugging!!! ...not part of the plan!!!

[Hristo Itchov]

Sorry  guys , but in to the rolling zone, not had to go at moderate speed?

Now I have seen the replay I can see why things got so stretched from the start. Tom shot off the line like a bat out of hell and obviously those up front who could see him disappearing up the road eventually gave chase before the agreed start point. Meanwhile those further back with no idea of what was going on simply lost the tow immediately and were at a severe disadvantage. Not the greatest advert for a rolling start.

I would really prefer if we do a full pace lap on normal tracks and only use the rolling section approach on longer tracks where doing a full lap would take too long. And also, there should be some speed limit imposed, because Tom was going way too fast and went full speed way too soon. The leader should slow down and bunch up the field before accelerating off for the start of the race.

[Cookie]

Of course Tom had not intended to do a rolling start!

Marc an I had not followed him in full speed!

The idea of doing a flexible start point is to avoid a T1 like in Cerne...

[clouds]

Usually rolling starts are intended to avoid a heap that could occur at T1 and at the same time they aim to keep the group compact as long as the finish of the yellow zone is reached. To accomplish this, the leader have to proceed at slow speed until the end of the yellow zone, we say in 2nd gear.

Obviously everything can be improved but...it is required a minimum of adaptive behaviour by drivers.

[clouds]

Nice race for me also if I was in the possibilities to do much better first of all remaining closer to the leading group of 4 or 5 cars that almost immediately have took distance from the other drivers and then trying to avoid some stupid mistakes that almost made me throw the race away. I didn't have the necessary time to practice to have at least the possibility to be competitive against Tom and in fact my position down the grid says enough about this practice that I made during the real race, in fact my race best laptime has been better that my laptime in qualify.
It has been an elimination race and at a certain point pribluda has shown me, Mark in front of me and Tom behind me, none else !?!?!? Some tracks needs the necessary respect to be digested otherwise they became immediately a nightmare and so few drivers to the finish line say just this. Lack of preparation. I think Tom will be Disqualified because he has been launched in the hyperspace at the green flag. Lack of reading.
Anyway congrats to Tom and Mark that I followed on the podium and sadness for my team mate Axel who was struggling for the podium too but... he made acquaintance of a Tree crossing his race line   and also to Tristan who has to be considered a Missing In Action = MIA because he vanished in nowhere !  

P.S.: Hey G.Giovani where are you ??...We're here racing !!  

Another race missed also for our Jason Blito 

[Cookie]

Tom will not be penalized, as it was also the fault of the moderator, not having the "rolling zone" rules explained completely in the race post...

We have the Rolling ZONE for the start where no overtaking is allowed. (Read the registration thread!)

[clouds]

Tom will not be penalized, as it was also the fault of the moderator,¬ having the "rolling zone" rules explained completely in the race post...

We have the Rolling ZONE for the start where no overtaking is allowed. (Read the registration thread!)

This is not completely true. Let's take a look for this
https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=10783.msg196223#msg196223

Can the remainders drivers be considered stupids just because they have been following these rules ?  

[Hristo Itchov]

Tom will not be penalized, as it was also the fault of the moderator, not having the "rolling zone" rules explained completely in the race post...

We have the Rolling ZONE for the start where no overtaking is allowed. (Read the registration thread!)

Not asking to penalize him, but that's a bit selective of you. You jumped on me for my comments for not understanding the rolling zone at Daytona, yet you're being protective of Tom here as if he's done nothing wrong. Even when I didn't understand the zone back then, I went on the cautious side and almost lost the lead, rather than be selfish and pull out a gap before the actual start line.

I hope in the future we set a speed limit and that anyone who is not following it become subject to warnings and penalty. It should not be a strict speed limit, but some speed limit range, for instance 120-170 km/h. It may also change from track to track, depending on the layout.

We should also not use a shallow bend to mark the end of the rolling zone, but rather let the race begin out of a slower corner, otherwise it becomes difficult to judge the moment of acceleration.

And lastly, the leader should slow down and bunch up the field 1-2 corners before the start, checking his/her mirrors to make sure all cars have gathered behind, not just the 1-2 cars immediately behind, but those further back as well. You can see enough cars drawn in your mirrors to do that and I've always done it in the past in the GT division.

It's all common sense really, so nothing complex in the end. Writing it down makes it seem more complex than it actually is.

Oh and, I don't really agree there is much benefit from not doing a full lap and avoid tight corners for the start. With the grid in single file column, there is hardly any risk involved, regardless of the type of corner that happens to be T1 after the start.

[Cookie]

Tom will not be penalized, as it was also the fault of the moderator, not having the "rolling zone" rules explained completely in the race post...

Of course it was a fault of Tom not to do a proper rolling start!

The next race post will be clear:
"We have the Rolling ZONE for the start where a moderate speed of maximum ~90 mph (150 kmh) is required and no overtaking is allowed. (Read the registration thread!)"

[maddog]

There was a time, when starts started from stopped.  Stopping them, has not stopped starting problems it seems, so why not restart, starting stopped - it's simpler than this.

[Hristo Itchov]

Tom will not be penalized, as it was also the fault of the moderator, not having the "rolling zone" rules explained completely in the race post...

Of course it was a fault of Tom not to do a proper rolling start!

The next race post will be clear:
"We have the Rolling ZONE for the start where a moderate speed of maximum ~90 mph (150 kmh) is required and no overtaking is allowed. (Read the registration thread!)"

It's not just about speed, Axel... If the leader keeps up that speed all the time and disregards how far the other cars are behind, the cars will spread too much before the start and that's unfair. The field has to be bunched up and that's the responsibility of the leader.

Also, I suggest linking to the registration thread in each race post instead of just saying read the registration thread. I'm sure many don't bother to search for it, but if there was a link, everyone who have doubts would click it.

[clouds]

It's not just about speed, Axel... If the leader keeps up that speed all the time and disregards how far the other cars are behind, the cars will spread too much before the start and that's unfair. The field has to be bunched up and that's the responsibility of the leader.

Also, I suggest linking to the registration thread in each race post instead of just saying read the registration thread. I'm sure many don't bother to search for it, but if there was a link, everyone who has doubts would click it.

I agree.

[Cookie]

IMO its all common sense!

It is obvious that Tom did not read the race post and had no idea of a rolling start.
I wrote in the pre start chat: "ROLLING START", but he seems not to have got it.

I think we all look at TV the F1 races and so we do well know how a race is restarted after a pace car.

[clouds]

It is also obvious that when you join a community that already has his rules and laws, the 1st thing you should have to do is...become aware of why, what, whom, when, where to move and in case you cannot get all the infos...just ask for !
I've nothing personal against Tom, this to speak clearly, but... if we have a sort of rules then I think we should have to follow them.