UKGTL Season 19 1972 French Formula 3 - Nogaro - Oct 7

[EvilClive]

LOL, slower than I expected but still not within the scope of my talents 

[SpecialKS]

Around 1:43 without risking too much  - at the end ot the pack for sure 

[Erling G-P]

#34 for me please Tony.

[Wiltshire Tony]

#34 for me please Tony.

Done

[phspok]

Am at my secondary location today, and after it CTD on 3 different installations here.
I downloaded a clean zip, (which I can make available if you PM me) and I have it now working.
Plainly there is something that a previous mod, which only I seem to have   is doing that screws up this one
One of the installations at primary location had a .gal, and .plr in two places, but here non of them had that.
Will do a few laps later to see what times I can get down to...

[roguk]

Hi guys unfortunately will not make this, gone down with some horrible bug, have a good race and hope to see you all next week.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Hi guys unfortunately will not make this, gone down with some horrible bug, have a good race and hope to see you all next week.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Rog

[EvilClive]

Get well soon Rog.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Results and replay now posted.

[Erling G-P]

Don't really want to do this series. Two race nights a week is truly more than I can cope with, but on the other hand missing out on some good racing is a shame.   Wanted to at least sample the car, but didn't get round to installing it and the tracks until 00:30 last night. Then wasted a not inconsiderable amount of what was supposed to be my night's sleep on practicing and fiddling with setup.  Arrived at an enjoyable car and posted a 34.2 time which, based on postings here, should have a chance of being competitive.

Should have followed my first instinct and stayed away; then I wouldn't have bumped Geoffers off on L1 - big apology for that     These cars change velocity very rapidly, so I found it very hard to judge what is a safe distance from a car in front of you.

Geoffers made a brilliant start, shooting ahead of me, but then was slower than expected through T1-T2, leading to me lightly tapping him already here.  Had to back off, which Clive sought to exploit. Only held him off with some aggressive cornering. Then at the end of the straight, I misjudged the braking and bumped Geoffers off. Waited for him to rejoin while the rest of the field went past.  Followed him at some distance while he worked his way up the field.  Kurt kindly held the door open for me when I caught him - thanks for that!  Passed Bob with some very late braking at the end of the straight, and did the same with Patrick a couple of laps later.  With Clive's exit, I was then up to 4th.  Pit board suddenly showed me in 3rd, despite no one having left, and me not noticing having passed anyone in trouble.  Didn't know Suti had gone for a tyre change at the time.

Geoffers was slipping away, and helped by mistakes from me, the gap was up to 8 secs. Suddenly it dropped to 5 secs however, and it seemed I was catching him, apparently struggling with worn tyres. Surprising, as he normally seems to cope better with that than me.  Got past when he shot off and back across the track.  Matt was 27 secs ahead and still moving away, and car behind was 12-14 secs back, so rest of the race was uneventful, except for the challenge of driving the car on rubber worn down to the rims!   Had a semi race with a lapped Suti, who had no trouble keeping up on his fresher tyres.

Grats to Matt on a very convincing performance, and to Patrick for completing the podiun.  Commiserations to those who suffered early exits - and a get well soon to Roger!

[phspok]

Enjoyed that. Did my best to make a stable setup, not as fast as it could be, but these things
are awkward to drive, so went for consistency. Seemed to work. Surprised to poll and after
a less than lightning start, ran away while others were getting in each others way.
Geoffers accepted a bit of contact, but didn't seem to do damage, Clive took over the chase
with Suti close I think. Managed to stay in front and eeek out a gap, slowed in the last few laps
to try not to slide and save what was left of the tyres. Funny cars, feels to be really sloppy
so I made everything hard to try to reduce the rolling about.

[SpecialKS]

Although I found about 5 seconds still a bit off pace.

Decided to change my fading tyres after about 10 laps and found - I don't know whether it's a track and/or a car issue - that pit stops didn't work here
(pit board did not appear). So I left pits again and noticed that the automatic pit limiter did not switch off. Tried again twice to make a pit stop but failed again.
Already far behind I decided to leave for good. 

Grats to Matt and podium & get well soon, Roger.

CU next time.

[EvilClive]

Grats to Matt, Erling and Patrick on the first podium for this series...you guys seem to have a handle on these cars.

Until qualifying last night, my PB was a single fluke of a lap that registered a high 1:35 during offline practice. Something that I was unable to replicate no matter how hard I tried  ( perhaps trying too hard?? ).
Matt appeared to have found a sweet spot with these cars and was clearly favourite for pole and the win, if he could hold things together.
Erling ( as I suspected ) had got his act together and was close to Matt's times...and of course Geoffers was within striking distance  of the front row.

So, I was pleased to have got a time in the mid 1:34's for qualifying, but very concerned at what it had cost me in tyre rubber over a single lap!!
Gradually ( very gradually)  I had been evolving the setup to try and minimise that fatal oversteer on corner exit that I had somehow dialled into the setup. The start was a little hectic and a "luv nudge" from Erling at T2 eased me onto the grass but did not really adversely change my fortunes as he conveniently tried to outbrake me through T3 and collected Geoffers in the process....I was in P2 behind a very quick and disappearing Matt.
Maybe the prudent thing to do would have been not to try and catch Matt who was clearly faster and concentrate on keeping my driving clean and smooth? but....when the red racing mist descends and there is a target ahead.. a simracer has gotta do, what a simracer has gotta do???
Pushing hard for 2 laps with Patrick ever threatening had cooked my front left tyre, but it was the snap oversteer that finally got me out of the hairpin. The car decided that we were going to continue going left even though the correct route was straight ahead  . A large handful of opposite lock initially made zero difference, but suddenly something gripped and the car snapped to the right and hurtled into the Armco ripping off a front wheel
Well that finished the race as I did not feel that a 3 wheeled French Formula 3 car was going to be competitive?

This setup definitely requires more work...so does the driver 

[S.Cargo]

Grats to Matt, Erling and Patrick on the first podium for this series...you guys seem to have a handle on these cars

Obviously Matt & Erling have, but I cannot say the same (by the way how could I have a handle when the car has no door ?...  )

As could be seen in quali I am way too slow, so I did not expect much from the race.
During my private practice I had been concerned about tyre wear, so I tried to find a setup that would limit it: Fail! 
So during the race I tried to save the tyres, trying as well to believe that was why I was slow... 
Anyway I managed to stay on the black stuff and that was good enough for a podium (but not for any glory)

I share Clive conclusion:

setup definitely requires more work...so does the driver

[Geoffers]

Congrats to Matt (dominant win), Erling & Patrick, well driven all.  

Did quite a lot of testing for this, the car being quite tricky here I found. Made it quite driveable, although still had a problem with it understeering on part throttle transforming into oversteer on full throttle. Wasn't bad on the faster corners but I was slow out of the tighter turns for fear of doing a Clive (see above).

Got away well after qualifying 3rd & beat Erling into T1, got a slight bump from Erling on the exit but nothing much so settled into 2nd place behind a fast disappearing Matt. All went well until the end of the back straight when I braked a bit earlier than Erling expected & I spun out. Erling graciously waited & we set off after the pack. Caught up after 3-4 laps but I found it quite difficult to overtake, mainly due to my slowness out of the tight turns, hence had several side by side moments with Kurt, Bob & Patrick.

Eventually got up to 3rd & started to close on Suti, but he spun at T1/2 & gifted me 2nd place. Matt was well ahead & still pulling away so I just had to worry about Erling behind, initially I was opening the gap, but as the tyres wore I started making mistakes & Erling got closer. Inevitably I ended up spinning at T1/2 which was becoming very tricky to negotiate on worn tyres, & I dropped to 4th. A few laps later I spun there again, this time clouting the barrier & losing both front wheels . Race over.

Regarding setup. I was using a different GTL install for this series to my normal one. After the race I had a thought about my controller setup, so checked it against my normal one, all sensitivities (steering, brake & throttle) were set quite different! So I set them the same as my regular GTL install & tried a few laps at Nogaro. First timed lap on full fuel 1.34.0, half a second quicker than my previous best, & the car seemed to turn much better with far less part throttle understeer. So controller setup can make quite a difference.