Season 38 – 1955 Grand Prix – Round 1 – Works - Oakes Field

This race announcement is for the WORKS.

The first race in the 1955 Grand Prix series sees us taking a boat to Nassau in the Bahamas. The first Nassau Trophy Road Races meeting for Sports Cars was held in 1954 on the Windsor Field Course. For 1957, the meeting was moved to another airfield location, the 5 mile Oakes Course, which was closer to the main population areas on the island. The new course, despite being quite bumpy in places, was relatively well-received, though there were a number of close shaves near the pits as it was too close to the racing line. To combat this, the race direction of the track was changed to clockwise in 1958. The circuit was also shortened to 4.5 miles by cutting out the original Blackbeard's Bend and Ecky's Twist, whilst a new left-right-left corner combination was built to connect the Sassoon Straight and Bethell's Pass, cutting out the tight hairpin which had previously taken the cars off the runway. Due to much needed track repairs and the lack of additional funding by the Bahamian government, as well as competition from more races running in December, the event was discontinued after the 1966 meeting. It is the clockwise 4.5 mile Oakes Course that we will be using for tonight's race.

Race list	=	iGOR
Server	=	UKGPL04_60fps
IP address Server	=	86.6.125.152:32766
Password	=	see above
GPL Mod	=	55
60fps Patch	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track download	=	link
Track directory	=	nassau
Qualifying starts	=	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race starts	=	~ 21:30 UK time
Race length	=	16 laps
Replay	=	here

Please restrict chat to emergency messages only including at the end of the race until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Driver lists and division specific rules can be found on the championship standings page.

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
Alain Maurice	10	Works
bagrupp	10	Works
Carlos Cendejas	10	Works
Clive Loynes	10	Works
Doni Yourth	10	Works
Dulima	10	Works
Enrique Farina	10	Works
EvilClive	10	Works
fpolicardi	10	Works
Gaizka López C	10	Works
JonnyO	10	Works
Phil Thornton	10	Works
Raoni Frizzo	10	Works
romanov	10	Works
tagomago	10	Works

Yes you were correct Clive. Luiz (covisi2016) had registered but I hadn't processed his entry. Done that now so we are up to 22 drivers. I don't want anyone to miss out on Sunday so I'll provide 2 servers, one for the Works and one for the Privateers. We had to do this with the 65s yesterday, both races and both passwords will appear in the same thread.

I originally had Gaizka as a Privateer until I checked his ranking in GPL Rank  . To be fair, he hasn't got a GPL55Rank but I'm sure that will be addressed over this season.

Opps yes, I'll fix that.

Yes that's right, the "Combined" series is redundant when we use 2 servers.

Yes you are right Martin, I was making it too confusing. I've created 2 race announcements each with their own password.
This announcement has become exclusively the "Works", the other is exclusively the "Privateers".

Hopefully this is less confusing 

Please go to

https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=23372.msg447611#msg447611

for my opinion about splitting the league

Cheers

I am absolutely livid!!!!!

Welcome to the new drivers and great to see a big grid. Well done Jonny for getting the Gordini almost onto the podium!!! Grats to all finishers for surviving a tricky circuit for 16 long, hard  laps.

I truly sympathise with Clive Loynes who appeared to have this race comfortably won with around 6 laps to go. Then it appears that it all went wrong very quickly, and very comprehensively  I only witnessed the first part of the tragedy as I passed his Connaught emerging from the undergrowth at T1, as I chased Peter's Maserati in the closing laps.
I don't know what happened once Clive re-joined the race, but I can imagine that he was already spitting nails about whatever had put him out of the lead, To then tumble down the finishing order as he did regardless of the reasons must have been soul destroying. Peter's last lap excursion when he too had the win safely in his pocket must also have been galling.

After a great launch off the grid which snatched me 2nd spot, the early laps were not great for me and I thought that any hopes of a win, or even a podium,
were lost. Further mistakes and very close escapes through the race further reduced any thoughts of tasting champagne and by half distance I was focusing on trying to gain a few places just to score some good points.
Throughout the race I was chasing Peter's distant 250F, but he was always 4-5 secs ahead and his extra speed on the straights kept him ahead. A long battle with Phil and Alain hindered him and just as I was about to get within attack range, he passed them both and sped away!! Fortunately for me, but not so good for Phil and Alain, they both managed to slide off and allow me a free pass in the following laps and I resumed my chase of Peter.
With around 5 laps to go our pace was drawing Clive's leading Connaught closer, but I was convinced that although we might catch the old campaigner, I doubt that we would get the time, or the chance, to pass.
One or two small errors from Peter had allowed me to get within slipstream range and a sniff of 2nd spot, but the Maserati was probably just too strong.
Then Clive suffered his first stroke of misfortune and Peter and I inherited 1st & 2nd with a lap to go.
I was a fraction too eager on the gas out of the Esses and two wheel got tangled in the weeds. I watched Peter pull a 100mtr gap and fully expected Clive's recovering Connaught to be all over my tailpipes, or even sweeping past  . Once I got back up to speed along the following straight I re-checked
my mirrors and Prib for Clive, only to discover an empty space.
So, with only half a lap left, 2nd looked like the best I could finish. But, given the number of errors I had made it was probably better than I could have expected. Then drifting through the long right hander I see a red Maserati in the undergrowth!!?? Was that Peter?? I had to resist the temptation to look at Prib until I had got the car settled on the next straight...no Maserati ahead, and Prib confirmed that Peter was now behind me  .
With a comfortable lead of 200mtrs I was ultra cautious for the last 60 seconds until I crossed the line.

I suspect that this series is going to swing back and forth between maybe 5 or 6 drivers who each suffer their share of misfortune/mistakes. Only another 9 races to go