UKGPL Season 32 (2017-18) 1955 Grand Prix - Monaco - Oct 10

[Phil Thornton]

I've loaded the chassis the drivers used into the token calculator spreadsheet.  For the next race the available tokens will be as declared in the table below (the table will also appear in the next race announcement).  The calculated values are automated but selecting the cars is a manual process so please check your tokens to make sure I haven't made a silly error.  There was no token overspend for this round so no one is disqualified.

Available Tokens:
Note: These are the tokens available to each driver before the 10 tokens are added for making the race start.

Driver	Tokens	Status
Robert Fleurke	10	Pro
EvilClive	15	Pro
Ronniepeterson	30	Pro
DLogan	13	Pro
FullMetalGasket	15	Pro
Doni Yourth	15	Pro
Clive Loynes	30	Pro
Samb	25	Pro
MagicArsouille	18	Pro
Turkey Machine	10	Pro
GregT	15	Pro
Carlos Cendejas	10	Pro
Billy Nobrakes	18	Am
maddog	15	Am
bagrupp	17	Am
Geoff65	20	Am
Jeep	20	Am
Gareth	20	Am
Rainier	17	Am
Phil Thornton	25	Am
dave curtis	16	Am
francesco	20	Am
ReiverEcosse	30	Am
Syd Drake	20	Am

[Phil Thornton]

Sorry for the confusion over the server but we had a good race in the end.  Please let me know if anyone had any difficulties with the server (connecting, lag etc).  Hopefully the recent connection issues have been resolved.

The race itself was fun. I think it was a wise decision to allow resets in the inaugural year of this championship.  I found myself running out of brakes at the Gazométres on numerous occasions! Thankfully only needed 1 reset.

[Clive Loynes]

Thanks for the backup server Phil.

And many thanks to the three gentlemen who binned it on the way to T1.  This resulted in a podium for me in the Gordini, which was much more than I expected.

Congratulations to Sam and Bastian.  I tried to give chase but in a car that has brakes made from cheese it was never going to happen without Tim's skill of being able to scrub off just the right amount of speed to make some corners possible without using the brakes.  When I try it I lose too much speed or sometimes all of it when I hit the wall!

[Doni Yourth]

Fine run by Sam to score.  Grats!  Bas & Clive exemplary drives to fill the podium.  Well done.  And Martin gets a creditable P4 as well.  Good one, maddog! 

A gruesome start to my UKGPL '55 career.  Profuse and profound apologies to all...but especially to Phil...for that Lap01, T1 mega-shunt.  As we moved down to Sainte Devote, I used the 'look right' button on my G25 to see where PT was and it seems that I drifted to the right and collected him.  Not my bad.  Rather, my VERY bad.  So sorry for that, Phil.  You were dynamite here.

I felt bad enough at killing off PT's race that I staged a pit stop at the end of Lap01 even though I didn't reset.  I felt some degree of penance was most certainly in order and looked to take up position behind Phil after he stopped.  Little did I know that I'd visit the pits again and soon.

I got moving again only find that Phil was behind so pulled over for a wave-thru.  Steadily moved up thanks to assorted carnage for others to find myself in about P7 around half distance.  More than I had hoped for at the time.  Then...  POW!  Coming off the Gas Works, the engine grenaded.  Quite a surprise as I had been keeping the R's largely in check.  It took forever to stop in the pits and cars roared by.  Finally got the reset and proceeded only to have to stop next lap and serve the required penalty stop.  Sigh...  Looking rather dismal at this point.

I hooked up with Dean for some fun laps until he finally gave me a wave-thru and I set off after Ray.  Down to the closing laps and it wasn't looking too promising for a pass as Ray was going well til he swept a bit wide at the Gas Works and I powered out on inside on the exit.  WAMO!  A big collision but my Connie straightened out and I continued.  In my mirrors, the sky-blue Gordini vaulting in the air.  Sigh, again...  Sorry, Ray.

Managed to hold off Dean for P8 and some lessons learned.

[Rainier]

Sorry for the confusion over the server but we had a good race in the end.  Please let me know if anyone had any difficulties with the server (connecting, lag etc).  Hopefully the recent connection issues have been resolved.

The race itself was fun. I think it was a wise decision to allow resets in the inaugural year of this championship.  I found myself running out of brakes at the Gazométres on numerous occasions! Thankfully only needed 1 reset.

I had lags during several seconds at the start.
I can't see any cars and I can't see the flagman ...so I started 10 seconds after the others.
Hopefully, I was on the last line of the grid.
Finally, it was good for me as I could avoid the accident between several cars on the first turns.

For the race itself, it was an horrific one for me. I never could manage the brakes after 2 or 3 laps and I find only one solution : slow down and gear shiftdown a long time before the turns.
I hope to be more competitive on the speedy tracks. 

[Cookie]

David the full Monaco track is very heavy with lots of gimmicks. So lag is normal...
For online racing I use the original CD version of Monaco and had no more problems since

[FullMetalGasket]

No fair! A Connaught has the lap record

[bagrupp]

Well, gplracer was taking more time due to a crash and i was still not really healthy so i was asking myself to drive.

On the real clock there should have been ten minutes but you had problems as well i realised. I had no lags btw.

I first logged on my mercedes when i realised there was some of a token system and i really wouldn't need a fas car.
Without looking what the others have i decided for the connaught. My first lap brought me to surprisingly 2th.

At the start i could speed out Sam but my brake management wasn't good enough. Last corner brought me to tricky situations,
even a too early downshift spun me in the first hayball and i got stuck, needing a reset.

I tried to controll the race more and let sam go, clive was still far away

Grats to Sam and Clive and all other finishers. toughest 55er Race i guess.

[Rainier]

David the full Monaco track is very heavy with lots of gimmicks. So lag is normal...
For online racing I use the original CD version of Monaco and had no more problems since

Thanks Axel.
But I have almost no lag at Spa67.
And Spa67 seems to be heaviest than full Monaco.

[francesco]

Someone could explain me what mean revs,revs- and average revs in GPL replay analyser using Gearchange analyser?

[Cookie]

Revolutions per minute = giri al minuto

[Samb]

I was pleasantly surprised to win this one, given my poor efforts in the fun race. Using the Connaughts slightly-better brakes to good effect, I landed the Pole, only to lose it to Bastian across the line. It was a curious battle, more of tactics than anything to see who could best manage the brakes. It turns out we both struggled!

Once Bastian made a slight error at Tabac, I squeezed past on the approach to Gasworks. From there it was a clean run to the flag. Many thanks to everyone for their diligence in being lapped. No easy feat to manage in Monaco. Dean, almost T-boned me on the approach of Gasworks. A spinning car in my mirror, I opened the steering to let him through, only for me to nudge him into the barrier  . Sorry about that Dean, but it did make me chuckle  .

Well done to Bastian and Clive for rounding the podium. I'm intrigued to see how racing at Indy goes.

For the record, I still had issues joining UKGPL 9 yesterday. I re-booted the computer and finally managed to join the server afterwards. Great I thought, but Dave Curtis had a similar problem and he could only join when nobody else was in the server. When I did finally join, also nobody was in the server. When I couldn't join earlier Clive was in the practice server. Coincidence?  More investigation needed  .

[francesco]

Revolutions per minute = giri al minuto

Since the high number of engine burned,I'm investigating on my error or possible malfunction of my gas pedal.
Comparing lap 4 at Roeun in the cooper with other cooper(Reinier and Andreas) i have found this:
My average revs in order 1->2,2->3 and so on is:10356,10247,10235,10055
Andreas:9643,8621,8753,9057
Dave R:8940,9556,9568,9429
This number are rev. minute during the gear change?And this could explain my engine explosion?
If yes now i must understand if is my driving style or my gas pedal that,while released,don't reach the zero.
Thank you Axel for the explanation.

[Clive Loynes]

Hi Francesco,

You may be hitting the throttle pedal a little early but what about the downshifts?  As I recall is was usually an early downshift that the motors didn't like.

[Clive Loynes]

No fair! A Connaught has the lap record

Sorry Tim, I was a poor substitute on the Gordini squad! 

You will just have some extra work to put in once you are home.