UKGPL Season 24 (2013) Formula 2 Trophy - Solitude - Jun 9

[PaulV]

Hi Badblood,


Server / race report shows me as a disco... did finish race even though as expected i was last.

all points needed and greatly received Boss !


Paul V.

[BadBlood]

Happens that the server loses track of you Paul. I will check and adjust the result accordingly.

[Billy Nobrakes]

The season seems to have flown by. So, congratulations to Hristo as Light’s champion (winning the last race from the back of the grid!) & to David Rainier who won the Heavy’s without even starting the final race. As David will be promoted the Black Night team will need to work harder to retain the team title next season.

Thanks to all the drivers for supporting the Formula 2 series in Season 24. The turn out was slightly down last & Solitude can be a lonely place if the field gets stretched out. (I didn’t see a single car from lap 2 onwards – apart from Nigel who’d found a nice spot in the trees for a picnic). Poor lap 1 & made a couple of silly mistakes on the last lap but the bit in the middle was consistent enough for the bottom step of the podium. Next season I suspect Race 10 will finish with a shorter track.

I’ve noticed the last couple of races that I’ve lost places off the start grid. I generally use the default gear ratios & lengthen 4th & 5th for long fast tracks. Do other people use a short 1st gear – or I am I just slow away?

[maddog]

I am sometimes amazed at how slowly some racers start.  It must be either lack of practice, or lack of skill.  Practice takes very little time.  Skill requires enough imagination to treat the cars realistically.  You don't see real cars crawl away from traffic lights, because everyone has learnt to slip the clutch.  Racing clutches bite hard, so it's the tyres which do most of the slipping.

There are occasions where cars are late off the grid.  Chatting to a girlfriend, or general distractions can affect your race, and those behind you.  At Solitude, instead of a demo, I made a disco as the grid was forming.  Apparently, this also requires practice.

[EvilClive]

Whilst in no way defending the chat during qually Colin, we have a rule about it and we should all respect it, simples.

 I put my hand up as guilty of posting a "grats" to the pole sitter as I crossed the line, I should have checked first that everyone had finished their laps.

 But I do wonder why you find it so distracting, unless you are using a font size much bigger than it is on my prib? Any chat message on my screen appears in red in the top left corner and is actually so small that it takes a conscious effort to look for it and even more to read it. So it is easy to ignore. In fact I very often miss any messages that might be relevant, simply because they do not even register within my field of vision.

Please do not misunderstand this post, I am not suggesting that you are anything but correct in asking that we all respect the rules, but I am curious to know why you find it such a distraction when I can hardly see the chat text.

As to the technique of getting the F2's off the line....

I fall into the "make the tyres do the slipping" camp. This is OK, but I find that I need to adjust 1st gear to ensure that the revs will not drop out of the max torque range when you drop the clutch/bang it into 1st as the flag drops. This might mean that I have to be revving against the red line for the start. Then it is a case of balancing the wheelspin against grip until you can slip into 2nd gear and make your getaway.
Ideally, when you engage drive the revs will drop just to the bottom of the max torque range and no lower as the tyres spin and work as a clutch. Once the tyres are spinning and the car is moving forward it is a case of modulating the gas so that the slippage slowly reduces as the velocity increases and you get full drive without bogging down. Too much wheelspin and it is possible to do a "Rouen a la Evil" where the car will lose all directional stability and skewer sideways suddenly....only total numpties do this! 
The dilemma with the F2's ( and to a certain extent 65's) is that it can be very useful to run a high ratio 1st gear if the circuit has some very slow corners. Maybe somewhere like Mosport where a good exit from Moss is vital you will need a sweet 1st gear, but at Monza you will only use 1st off the grid so set it up for a demon start as you will only use 1st once ( unless you visit the gravel traps of course!).

The difference between a slow corner and a racing start is that you are already rolling on a slow corner and the car will respond more quickly when you give it some welly and then the longer 1st gear ratio comes into it's own. But that same ratio might be just a tad too high to pick up off the grid and if it bogs down you are a dead duck and will certainly cause a log jam at best or lose several places as cars sweep past!!
The alternative is to use 1st ONLY for the start and arrange your other ratios to accommodate all the corners on the track. This means a bigger spread across the remaining gears, which might be less than ideal for some corners, especially as these F2's require driving at 100% to extract the ultimate lap times ( kind of obvious I know!  )

[Billy Nobrakes]

Thanks Evil. The slow start is more of an issue with F2’s. For 65’s most download set ups have quite 1st gear high ratios (10:1 – 12:1 ish). Conversely anything higher than 1:8:2x in a ’67 usually results in the car going in any direction but straight. My starts in ’65 & ’67 mod are about average. To be honest I don’t know what the default gear is for the F2 but the rev counter drops to almost nothing when I dump the clutch & one or two cars sail past before I get traction. I’ll try some different ratios.

[Hristo Itchov]

While I respect the chat ruling and it bothers me when people chat while others are driving, personally I've simply turned off chat. Instead of relying on people always keeping quiet, which is impossible really, why not just get rid of in-car chat completely through the options menu? I don't really see the point in having in-car chat while driving in a league race anyway...

Additionally, you can't turn off system messages, so any time someone quits the server, it's as a distracting as normal chat. If you can deal with system messages, chatting shouldn't bother you. If you can't, turn off chat and only get distracted by system messages.  

As for my race, it was very intense, which was to be expected because of my slower car (on the straights anyway) and my start from the back of the grid. The latter was because I totally forgot about the race, and when I saw it was past :30, I thought I had missed it and thus most likely lost the title. Fortunately the start was moved forward because of the F1 race, so I could just about test my Mosport setup with adjusted gears and managed to set them just about right.

I knew T1 would be risky, so I was glad that there was no big pile up as it usually happens at Solitude. The top drivers were very quick though and it took quite a couple of laps until I could increase my pace enough to catch up with them. Passing anyone was difficult because as soon as they would get behind me, I would lose the position again down the long straight. With some people making mistakes though, I managed to move up to 2nd and chase the leader. I thought it was Tristan, but was surprised to find out a lap later that it was Fulvio. He really was flying and it took my very best to not only pass him, but manage to remain in 1st by opening enough of a gap before the long straight.

From there on I was just maintaining my pace and enjoying the track. Apart from the long straights, it was a good drive with the F2 Cooper (and F2 cars in general). They're so forgiving that you can really push without fear and catch any slides with ease.

About starting with these cars, I can only do it properly if I rev up in neutral and change into 1st without lifting up. A risk for the engine and clutch, but the only way to keep the revs up after the gear engages. I suppose it's possible to start with a clutch if you have a pedal instead of a button, but I don't so I don't know. I agree it's difficult on some tracks, especially with cars that have narrow torque range engines and 5 gears, but most of the time it's not so bad.

[PaulV]

Happens that the server loses track of you Paul. I will check and adjust the result accordingly.

Paul,

I think its because Im so slow... the server thinks I have stopped or something.  :0)

Paul V.

[Rainier]

So, congratulations to Hristo as Light’s champion (winning the last race from the back of the grid!) & to David Rainier who won the Heavy’s without even starting the final race. As David will be promoted the Black Night team will need to work harder to retain the team title next season.

Unfortunately, I could not race at Solitude because there was a violent orage in Rambouillet where I live on last saturday evening... and my Internet box was seriously damaged.
Now I just install a new one and I hope it will work fine for the next races.

I did several tests with the BT14 and was regular around 3'47 - 3'48 at Solitude.

[Arf Arf Arf]

re Hristo and Clives' comments;

I have never changed the settings for the chat, which means that what I assume H refers to as system messages, e.g. "Hristo Itchov has connected"/disconnected appear in red, and chat appears in white. Unless someone is having a really bad night with their connection these only appear at the start of a session, or very infrequently through the session for late joiners. I barely notice the red anyway. I do notice the white, and in a race/qually environment, I actually want to;

I have always found the Pit Out / Pit In messages useful** for avoiding rear ending someone slowing down, or more usually getting some warning that a car may appear in the pit exit as I'm passing. For these reasons I don't want to turn the chat off. (I have even seen once/twice Mods asking people to leave the server for tech reasons - not sure if there is a reason they can't just switch it off...but anyway, not my main point..). The problem with chat is that you can get used to seeing PO/PI in the corner of your eye and not being fussed by it, but if its something else less predictable it becomes irritating, as your brain tries to read it - last night someone asked something about the race length, a question that could have easily been answered by reading the race post *whilst you were picking up the password* (or checking the in-game menu) - I think it is unfair to expect me to turn off chat just so some lazy git can ask an unecessary question.

I think the 'WDs' are well deserved, 'GLA's good sporting behaviour and the 'Careful at T1/2/3' messages a good reminder in the heat of the moment, so I'm happy that we chat between the end of the session and the start of the race - after all, we'd be pretty anonymous to each other if we didn't have some contact. However, to see loads of these flicker over the screen whilst you're on track is just not fair.

Arf

** I do not find someone attaching their name to it at all useful, e.g. ARF ARF PIT OUT, they're very irritating (and WHY THE CAPITAL LETTERS???). I guess it might be useful for Pit In messages if you know who is around you, and therefore whether it will affect you, but you already have the initials to go by.

[maddog]

There were no radio's, or onboard visual communications in the 60's.  Chat while cars are on the track, should be reserved for emergencies only, IMHO, during an official race.  'PO' is of no use, without being used precisely on time, on a few dangerous tracks, for those who don't ignore it.  The original drivers coped without it, though rarely crawled out of the pits, as some do now.  

[Phil Thornton]

His solution was to hit me from behind on the last lap - purely accidental, and GPL rather unfairly decided to send me into orbit, thus requiring a reset when I re-entered the atmosphere. Dean got past and so I was looking at P8, but Phil sportingly slowed and let me past on the S/F straight..

Sorry about that Arf, I was looking forward to a last lap dice and I just got too close trying to position myself for a pass down the long straight.  I've submitted a report.  Don't know what the outcome will be but there was warp involved so I might not get a penalty.  So just in case that happens I gave the place back, you didn't deserve to get punted off like that.  The UKGPL rules specifically state that drivers shouldn't hand places back and leave the decision to adjust the finishing position to the moderators (it just gets too messy on track with cars crawling along waiting for someone to get going and retake the position) but I pulled over in a very safe place so there was no chance of causing an incident.

[Hristo Itchov]

TBH I find all the "POs" and stuff very irritating and useless. That's why I have my chat turned off completely. Why should I care there is a car exiting the pits or running full fuel? Am I supposed to scrap my flying lap because someone is exiting the pits and doesn't care to get off the line?

I agree chatting should be forbidden, of course, but my point is, if it really bothers you so much, turn the chat off. It's impossible to control everyone every time and chats do happen frequently, regardless of that rule. It's just like incidents, even if you hand out penalties, as we do, incidents still do happen. People won't suddenly stop chatting completely just because there is a penalty. Sometimes you just miss that someone is still on a flying lap and start chatting. I was actually aware of people being on a flying lap at the end of Q in this event, and as soon as I wrote something, I realized it and stopped, but I guess not everyone considered it.

Perhaps the main culprit for chats is that not everyone is aware a session is not over when the clock runs to zero, but when it says Complete instead of Stand-By in the session status. That seems to be the main reason, not a lack of manners.

[Cookie]

TBH I find all the "POs" and stuff very irritating and useless. That's why I have my chat turned off completely. Why should I care there is a car exiting the pits or running full fuel? Am I supposed to scrap my flying lap because someone is exiting the pits and doesn't care to get off the line?

I agree chatting should be forbidden, of course, but my point is, if it really bothers you so much, turn the chat off. It's impossible to control everyone every time and chats do happen frequently, regardless of that rule. It's just like incidents, even if you hand out penalties, as we do, incidents still do happen. People won't suddenly stop chatting completely just because there is a penalty. Sometimes you just miss that someone is still on a flying lap and start chatting. I was actually aware of people being on a flying lap at the end of Q in this event, and as soon as I wrote something, I realized it and stopped, but I guess not everyone considered it.

Perhaps the main culprit for chats is that not everyone is aware a session is not over when the clock runs to zero, but when it says Complete instead of Stand-By in the session status. That seems to be the main reason, not a lack of manners.

Yeah, I am with you Hristo!

But I don't turn it off, expecting only serious chat. Most irritating for me are the auto PO's...

I am guilty too to have written "Grats" after some others... SORRY for that!