UKGPL Season 26 (2014) Works Trophy (67) - Snetterton - Jan 26

[DLogan]

I am also questioning my involvement with this league.

1 (count 'em, 1) finish (a lap and a half back, mind) in two seasons so far = no fun.

3 seconds off the pace (prolly worse once I switched to BRM to at least save some tokens), erratic driving due to I HATE TEH BRM (no setup time helps that a lot ) = no fun at all.

Fighting an evil car for 18 laps while trying to figure out when I'm going to be lapped (no prib here, tech issues) = no fun.

When I'm anywhere near the pace, engine blows up = no fun.

Sorry to Tbot (I assume) for slowing you down and almost taking you out.

[Tom van Ostade]

Well, I messed that one up pretty bad...

I had the BRM set up pretty good, even had P3 in the early stages of quali untill I fell back and had to start ninth. Still, pleased with the pace. No start crash and I managed to pass Evil in the Honda and got up to P6, untill I messed up at the Esses. Hit the wall and a billboard but carried on. The engine and suspention had some damage but by pushing a bit harder I was able to keep the pace going somewhat. After a relatively innocent spin in front of Evil (who had fallen back) I messed up again at the Esses, this time ripping a wheel off. Unfortunately it was just before the halfway point so no points for me At least I've got 10 tokens in the bag .

[Turkey Machine]

Happy with 5th, not happy with the mistakes I made in the race, but tis progress!

[Artiglietti]

Bad race for me, Honda engine let go L6 or something, and I wasn't even wringing its neck...I tried to continue with what remained of the pistons, just to get half way and score some points, but there were 10 laps to go to mid race and I was going to be too much of a liability for everyone. So, did one lap and then decided to park it. Shame, as there were quite a few cars on very similar pace, it would have been tight to the end..Apologies to the couple of guys to whom I gave a bit of a scare during that slow lap   See you next time.

[GregT]

Whew! Tough race. Computer crashed while I was watching Iestyn qualify. Got back into the server while Igor was saying "transitioning". Sometimes my force feedback doesn't work right but reentering the server usually corrects it. No time to reenter the server so I was stuck with a constant level of force the entire race. It put a significant dent in my lap times and I was never confident of what the car was going to do entering the hairpin. I likely could have put some pressure on Clive, maybe even Jethro without the FF problems.

I was a but slower than I would have liked. It seems to be a common occurence for me. I can't reproduce the times practicing prior to the race. I was getting 1:25s before the event. If worked on it more I think I could get the Cooper close to 1:25 flat but that's for another day. Ran the race significantly slower than I could have. Should have been in the 1:26s most of the race. I ran very few laps that fast.

I got a decent result though. 6th or better is very pleasing in the Cooper. Didn't quite make it today but I can't complain.

Thanks for the fun guys. I'm looking forward to the Nurburgring.

[Robert Fleurke]

Sorry to hear Sam, Dean and my teamie Tommie   Art, that was an AWESOME lap in the Honda in quali, just wow!

In quali I just couldn't get close to my PB, in every lap I seemed to make little mistakes, and messed up the last sector in my fastest lap. At that point I was in P2 and thought not much was to gain, so sat out last 10 minutes. Lost a spot, and it was very close P2-P5 in the end, within a tenth!

Wanted to make sure I finished in the race and kind of ran conservatively. Start was reasonable and held a defensive line towards the Hairpin, holding off Iestyn. Almost lost the car under braking, but held it together. Then Iestyn easily passed me on the Home Straight with his Lotus' superior grunt and topspeed, but went wide in the Esses and I was back in P2. Was able to keep Tristan at 4s, but I think he managed his tires/race as well. Later on Iestyn charged up and was way faster than me, he blew past me on the Norwich straight. Then it was just a matter to keep it on track and finish, which I did...

Got lucky when others had trouble or bad luck behind me, my pace wasn't that good, and made many little mistakes. However a solid result, and pretty consistent without fast laps. Maximum result, very happy with the podium and my first points after that false start at Brands Hatch

Congrats Tristan and Iestyn, very fast pace, and well done finishers!

See you all at the Nürburgring, where I want to finish again, which will be a very difficult task. With Pro damage you can't afford to hit/touch anything...

PS: I qualified 3rd, that's a mistake by GPLRA. I did set the 23.991 first! And finally thanks to Paul for doing double duty as mod, and finishing 5th in the Privateers race!

[Iestyn Davies]

Exciting race! My first decent result back in GPL league racing (oAo and ukgpl).

Got comfortable with a GH2 modified setup (possibly from Pierre Fabre's setups) and reset the ffb to 340 (was testing ffb2's 400 in core.ini early qual but it seemed too light). Eventually got 2nd, after some close lap times indeed. The flagman caught me out (it was instant!) and I was slowing a rapidly starting Art behind in the Honda (yeah.. with a Lotus) off the line. Rob got by on the inside and I chased him down to the hairpin. Tried to get on the inside, but Rob had it covered! I knew if I could catch Tristan early on I could make a race of it. But his pace (my eventual pribluda sectors equalled his pole time) meant he just controlled the race from the front.

So, I should have passed Rob into the esses, but missed my braking point on cold tyres (and was more concerned with not coming across on Rob and risking contact early on), and fell back. Next, I saw cars overshooting at the hairpin in the mirrors (rapidly approaching Brabham) and had to go straight and leave space, avoiding contact, so now I was behind Ronnie P. Passed him at the hairpin, but ran a car length deeper than I would have liked, coming off the brakes on the inside line, and may have squeezed him off his line around the outside (hope there wasn't contact.. think DC and Schumi at Magny Cours.. uhoh).

Caught Rob eventually, after going too slow in the esses and catching the inside grass, causing a mini-spin, and eventually got down to a reliable low 24 pace. Braked deep when lapping Greg (my oAo team mate, who spun trying to not hold me up when braking infront) at the esses, and a lazy spin out of the hairpin put paid to my hopes of catching Tristan (3 seconds the closest I got). Frustration made me PB on the last lap by getting most of a lap together - so with better focus perhaps I could have made a good race out of it with Tristan near the front. But I only really felt truly comfortable in the Lotus again from about half way onwards.. with too much oversteer on lock not helping until then!

Great pace from Rob in the Brab and Art in the Honda.. sounds like others were unlucky not to get a result as well. Lapped cars were also very courteous which does help out in a long race. Congrats to Tristan on the win!

PS.
Sam b - Yes, I remember my uni halls the connection was terrible. When the torrent client got around the locks once every so often however there was a very rapid connection there indeed.
Dean - I just decided to go for a fast car to get some enjoyment back. Perhaps you can start and park lap 1 in the BRM at some events and drive better cars at others you cherry pick?
Tommie - Unlucky in the BRM! You were getting some pace out of it! I did have half a mind to be cautious until mid-way (for points scoring), but that caused me to lose track positions with colder tyres..
Jethro - I do find the teams in UKGPL a bit confusing, but I was invited to rejoin the old Hiki-Waza squad at Blue Moose and accepted.
Rob - at one point I was equal with your time as well... could have had a Jerez 1997 there!

[DLogan]

...Dean - I just decided to go for a fast car to get some enjoyment back. Perhaps you can start and park lap 1 in the BRM at some events and drive better cars at others you cherry pick?...

That may have been an option last season (at least I'd have scored points for crossing the S/F line once) but not so much this season.

I'm in a no-man's land, too fast for (some of) the privateers, not good enough to avoid embarrassing myself in the works (while having no fun lapping by my lonesome and only moving up through other's misfortunes).

The only "better" car for me would be a Brab that doesn't explode.

[Robert Fleurke]

...Dean - I just decided to go for a fast car to get some enjoyment back. Perhaps you can start and park lap 1 in the BRM at some events and drive better cars at others you cherry pick?...

That may have been an option last season (at least I'd have scored points for crossing the S/F line once) but not so much this season.

I'm in a no-man's land, too fast for (some of) the privateers, not good enough to avoid embarrassing myself in the works (while having no fun lapping by my lonesome and only moving up through other's misfortunes).

The only "better" car for me would be a Brab that doesn't explode.

Dean, in GPL67 Pro Damage you can't afford to consistently overrev and/or speedshift and thinking you can get away with it. Maybe in F2 Advanced, but not in GPL67 Advanced/Pro. Also you might try to use taller gearings.

I suggest you run the Eagle, Brabham or Cooper, which can take the most abuse in my experience, especially the Brab. You're a good racer, enjoy racing you, and at certain points when you would run the Eagle and Brabham you should/could run for solid results or even podiums. Give it some time/thoughts, I'd hate to see you leave/quit Works. If I can help out in any way, PM or mail me please.


(Don't see the point in getting points for not finishing (apart from getting free points for championship). 50% is even on the low side, IMO. Finishing races takes a lot of effort and discipline (and luck, I'll admit to that), and should be awarded accordingly. This isn't NASCAR with 43 cars. Glad the mods decided 50% race distance for points, although I would prefer 75/90%.)



@ Iestyn: didn't notice you also had a 1m23.991s for a while like Art and me, funny and what a ridiculously small chance  

[EvilClive]

Grats to the podium trio for some stunning race pace and a very tight quali.

It seems that the bar has been raised again in Works this season and we have some seriously quick drivers at the sharp end. Very impressed with Art's quali in the Whale, I just could not nail a decent lap and anyway I doubt that I could have equalled that!!!

I knew that the fuel load on the Honda would limit my chances of pushing too hard in the early laps and I proved that to myself by spinning a couple of times when I should have been more careful  .  Eventually I settled down to some steady race pace, but I think I was a little too careful as all my tyres stayed cool blue for the whole race ( I think I must be ill, that never happens   !!).

I can only echo Robert's comments to Dean.
  If you find you are blowing engines, when you push hard, on a regular basis in Works then take a look at a couple of replays of your laps.
It is easy to downshift too early, not be aware of it and just flick the needle against the max rev point, or to run gears that take you to 100% max revs too often.  There was a period a couple of seasons ago where I blew engines in a few races and was getting frustrated, but when I reviewed the races and watched what I was actually doing, it was all my fault. I had been downshifting maybe 0.5secs too early and occasinally pushing the revs just a little too high before upshifting. Once I concentrated on correcting those small faults, engines stayed in one piece.

Some cars are more fragile than others, especially the Honda and although the red line is at about 11k I use the gear ratios to try and max out at 10.5k, and I watch very carefully if I get into a slipstream situation. The other side effect of running very close to max revs is that the engine oil temp will creep up and ALL of the cars have a point at which the engine will fail if it gets too hot. The Honda is 260F and that is hardwired into my brain after using the car so often. In last nights race I did not see temps higher than 247F, so I had capacity in hand if I needed to really fight for places.

I find that the Brabham is just about the most reliable car ( as it was in the 1967 GP season), not quite the fastest, but it has bucket loads of torque. I use this torque to protect the engine in races ( If I do a low fuel quali, I might drop the final drive ratio a notch and max out the revs) by moving each gear ratio UP one notch. This has a double advantage by reducing wheelspin out of tight corners and keeping the pointy thing on the dashboard from hitting the red line.

Believe it or not, I have set myself a challenge of taming the Beast of Bourne, so far with zero success. In all my years of GPL I just have not "clicked" with that BRM monster and am going back to it occasionally offline, as I try and work out a) how to set up this car and b) then how to drive it effectively. It seems to me to react in ways that other cars do not to changes in the setup, but I am going to study very carefully the recent posts about diffs etc and start from zero assumptions about how to prepare a car.

[Iestyn Davies]

I wouldn't think about the championship points Dean, just which races you want to drive which car and then scrap the others in a BRM on lap 1. Else, Brabham all season isn't too bad (if you like the car), and I'm considering doing some races in it now where I would have picked Lotus (from losing the ten coins from Brands). I think the championship battle will go to the consistent finishers, as losing a few results could put you almost a hundred points back. This is why I think the points loss is enough from not finishing already.. although participation numbers seem to be high enough that no incentive to participate is needed (yet), i.e. still getting points even after a retirement. Much like F1, the worthy champion will probably still be crowned under most circumstances anyway.

The BRM is a tricky animal.. I think it's the most rearward in weight distribution. I managed to click with it at a few rank tracks, but even now can still struggle with trying to get it dialled in on new tracks (e.g. Cadwell from a Monaco setup in oAo). I try and use the gears to the full extent, to get the torque out of it, but I've gotten the pace I can get out of it so far from just comparing to WR laps. I think it could be about the low speed grip/line in the BRM, and keeping the momentum up (as it takes longer to get it back up to speed). This can be from Senna-like throttle application, as much as trying to keep speed up. Driving it I think about the similarities with F1 2014.. but the throttle lag is gone in F1 this year as the turbo is always spooled.

I need to remember the Honda number, as I've blown it up a similar amount in the past when trying to finish Pro races. I simply tried to minimise the revs as much as possible during the race! But the 'race gears' tip is good as well. Running a 30/85/1 slowed me early on here, on the cold tyres, and 45/85/1 was much more comfortable for most of qualifying. My tyres were also slightly cool, but I've gotten used to running a lower tyre pressure and getting the car up to speed via more sliding (also in the BRM, else it overheats on long runs and I'm not smooth enough). Add this all together and you can have a much smoother race with less action behind the wheel. Near the end I relaxed in the Lotus and got smoother (in tune with the car again, e.g. when trailing brakes), such that I drove a smooth PB on the last lap of the race. If only that was every lap!

[Ronniepeterson]

so now I was behind Ronnie P. Passed him at the hairpin, but ran a car length deeper than I would have liked, coming off the brakes on the inside line, and may have squeezed him off his line around the outside (hope there wasn't contact.. think DC and Schumi at Magny Cours.. uhoh).

Hard but fair, is how I saw and felt it Iestyn. You seemed to just twitch into me at the last second trying to hold a tight inside line but I don't blame you and I don't do incident reports. You were a man in a hurry and certainly faster in that Lotus of yours. Great drive.

A few silly mistakes from me followed so I put off any ideas of reeling Robert in and focused on keeping Jethro behind. Happy enough with 4th. Grats again to the podium of Tristan, Iestyn and Robert, the class of the field last night.

[GregT]

Braked deep when lapping Greg (my oAo team mate, who spun trying to not hold me up when braking infront) at the esses,

I forgot about that until you reminded me. I braked late and stayed as far right as I could hoping you'd quickly get by on the inside, then I couldn't hold the wide line I was on. Once the car had slid 180 degrees, I expected to see you fly by on the inside. For a moment I couldn't figure out where you were or what happened to you. Next lap around when I came out of the hairpin I checked pribluda because I could see another car closing on me. It was Robert. Then I noticed you had already gone by, and I thought, "he passed me so quickly I never noticed it." Actually you had passed me slowly and I was in a state of confusion at the time that I didn't even realize it was you until almost a lap later.

Luckily it didn't hurt either of us much or at all. I should have stayed to the left on the straight and ran slow to let you by.

I'm in a no-man's land

The only "better" car for me would be a Brab that doesn't explode.

Good description. I'm stuck in no-man's land in another league. About all I can do is use it as an opportunity to get familiar with driving the Cooper. I'm using this Works division to gain more experience in the Cooper too. The only 67 car I feel I am actually competent driving is the 312. Part of the reason for driving the 312 almost exclusively is I would always blow the engine in the Lotus, Brabham, and Eagle on realistic damage. I've improved since then but still not real confident I can keep the engine together. When I first started driving GPL a few years ago I'd edit ini's to run full length races on the Novice setting. I would always speedshift. The 312 was the only car that would make 60 laps at Rouen doing that. Lotus would detonate rather quickly (maybe 15 laps) and the Brabham never made it more than 35 laps. I tried repeatedly.

Dean, if you were repeatedly getting slowed off the line by other cars at the start, losing positions to much slower cars, then being stuck behind somebody taking 1-2 seconds off your pace, and later blowing your Maserati engine : would you feel any better? That's my no-man's land. I let it go the 2nd time pretty easily until I watched the replay.

I hope you keep racing. I think you're faster and more experienced than I am but I might have an advantage on you when it comes to patience. oAo is severely testing my patience.

Just do it for the sheer pleasure of driving or use it to learn something. Hopefully, we'll both get out of our own little purgatories some day.

[MagicArsouille]

 HI guys

hey! Dean, absolutly no problem , it can append to anybody , anytime ....and come on ! Dean, don't give up, you are good driver just keep concentration and be mutch more carefull when changing gear , it's the "pic" of rpm ( over maxi rpm ....too mutch trottle when gear is not engaged ) who broke the engine

Good race for me,I choose the lotus to have a chance to win and score points at the champ, Iestyn and Robert was never faraway and I have to manage the gap and the car.....I finish the race whith 17 litres in the tank !!...that's why I did'nt push for the FL.......

thx to all and c  u next one

Ihave 0 tolkens, but I will receive 10 for the next race

[BadBlood]

Save your tokens Tris and take the BRM - ideally suited to the Nurburgring