UKGTL Season 22 1987 World Touring Car Champ. - Brno - Jul 27

[Wiltshire Tony]

Championship standings HERE

Grid/server capacity: 22

Car/Track download available by pm to WT

Track: Brno (GP)

Car restrictions: Check your car allowance here

Practice: ~19:20 (60 mins)
Qualifying: 20:20 (20 mins) Drivers must not leave qualifying to change car make.
Race: 20:40 (25 laps)

Time of Day Setting: 14:00
Start: STANDING
Tyre wear: 2x
Fuel consumption: 2x
Pit stops required: YES

Server: simracing.org.uk Monday
Password: see above

Notes:
(1) It's best if all drivers can make sure they are connected before the Qualifying session as drivers on track during qualifying will not see cars that join after they are on track until they go back to the garage.
(2) Please make sure you are fully aware of the SimRacing.org.uk Rules.
(3) The AI control should be turned off so that you have control of the car at all times, including pitting. Your player file should therefore read
Autopit="0"
Force Autopit Off="1" // Forces autopit always off
No AI Control="1" // AI never has control over car
If you still finding pitting problematic, experience tells us that its less to do with positioning and more to do with approach speed. A slow approach to pit crew chief has proved most reliable.

Special Notes: Drivers must complete over 75% of the published race distance in order to score points.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Results and replay now posted.

[EvilClive]

Grats to Daz and the podium, plus of course all finishers  

I guess that I have only myself to blame.... "Race at Brno" it said on the race post, so I was picturing that long snaking circuit through villages and countryside with long fast sections. Well, I know that track don't I  , so no need to do any pre race practice, it will probably suit a faster car maybe the Sierra? if I can control the tyre wear.

Needless to say I was more than a little surprised by what I found when I joined the server lol.   I was grateful that my wife had taken control of the TV remote and announced that she was watching "her" programme. That sent me to my PC at around 7:30 and gave me plenty of time to discover my error.

Half a lap on a strange circuit with the Cosworth made the decision easy...Toyota for an easy drive !!!
Most of practice and qually was spent a) learning the track and b) tweaking setup and gear ratios, rather than worrying about outright lap times. It was clear that the Toyota was never going to bother the faster classes, but when Erling entered the server in a Toyota I knew that I had a fight on my hands.
Once the race started and the noisy hooligans had cleared off into the distance Erling and I got down to many laps of close racing. It was more intense than I had planned as I was planning zero pit stops and wanted to save some rubber for the later laps......but Erling appeared intent on pushing the pace  
We swapped positions a couple of times and it was comforting to note that, when Erling was ahead, the slipstream eased my fuel consumption a little. So I planned to shadow him until that last few laps and hope to steal the class win in brilliant fashion on bald tyres.  

However around lap 12 Erling threw a very large spanner into that plan when he swerved into the pits and took his slipstream with him!!!! I had assumed that he would also be avoiding the dreaded pitstop??

For the next 3-4 laps I was worried that I had made a major tactical boob, and that Erling with his nice new rubber and greater pace would simply swallow me up in the later laps. My tyres ( especially the front left) were at 40% or below thanks to the fast pace in the early laps and I wondered if I could make them stretch to the finish. But I found that with a softer foot on the gas pedal and some short shifting I was able to sacrifice only a second or two per lap to the hunting Coyote.
With around a 60 sec lead over Erling after his stop and only 12 laps to go I could afford to give away 4 secs a lap. Provided that I kept just a thin band of rubber on that front left rim I might just hang on for the class win. With about 4 laps to go right hand corners were becoming more and more difficult so I resorted to hanging the tail out in Rally fashion to get the nose around and pointing the right way.
TBH I was so grateful that I had been lapped and only needed to get my tyres to 24 laps to finish the race, although I still had ( just ) enough fuel for a very careful 25th lap if I had needed it.

[phspok]

Pit stops required: YES....

Or was that only for the other classes?

Rather enjoyed that one. I had several laps dicing with Tony, who would pull away on the straights
and I could annoy him in the corners. I eventually got out of shape and hit a wall, but the car was
still driveable if a little wayward. So, I goes into the pits following a road, and no pit people.. huh?
so had to go round again with melted tyres, and this time followed the correct road into the pits
ah good now they see me, 2nd stop put me way behind, but carried on to try to catch Clive
managed that and finished ok.

[Erling G-P]

...However around lap 12 Erling threw a very large spanner into that plan when he swerved into the pits and took his slipstream with him!!!! I had assumed that he would also be avoiding the dreaded pitstop??

It's beyond me how you could do this without a pitstop. XD showed I could do 22 laps on a full tank, and that was stretching it. Even with a shortened race thanks to being lapped (which I hadn't considered), I still see no way I could have made it to the finish without stopping.  And tyres were gone after 5 laps, so with 2.5 times that on them at my stop, all grip was gone.

[EvilClive]

Hmmmmm. I interpreted the pitstop info as "pitstops SHOULD be necessary" unless you can avoid one and not, that "a pitstop is mandatory" . If I have read that incorrectly, then I apologise.

As it is just about impossible to compare how I drive and how Erling drives, I cannot explain how my car was capable of (just ) reaching 25 laps??  I did raise the gear ratios a couple of clicks and worked on taking some corners one gear higher, which definitely stretched the m.p.g. During practice it looked pretty certain that the Sierra, at the very least, would put a lap on me, requiring only a range of 24 laps...that also helped the decision.

 I was however, heartened to read that Erling's tyres were also shredding themselves....I thought that was my particular forte 

[SpecialKS]

Result

[Daz9]

No Clive, you were not alone in the tire destruction...

Not driven the Cosworth at all, but figured on a wide track like Brno it should be half decent, the only issue might be someone in an M3 I thought....

Tweaked and played with the setup, but to be fair the RS500 is quite a friendly beast, the last version I drove was the one in PC2 with the boost turned right up!! This was quite gentle, and even when getting some slip form the rear was easy to catch, although the tires didn't enjoy that so much.

Was not surprised about how close Geoff got in quali, but still reckoned I had enough pace as long as I got away ok. I did, but he was then stuck behind Ziu for a couple of laps, allowing me to pull the gap quite quickly. Only concern then was managing the tires, which were being chewed up voraciously if there was any slip or slide from either end of the car.

Managed to get to lap 13 but the laptimes were all of a sudden a couple of seconds slower, the tires needed changing at that point really. Noticed that Geoff had just pitted, so hung around to see what he was up to for a couple of laps before then pitting for fresh rubber. Came out of the pits with a 12 second lead or so, and that was not going to possible for him to close if I didn't do anything daft.

Proceeded to lunch the second set of tires over that 10 laps, and took the flag with a bit more margin than I thought would be possible, I'm guessing Geoff played safety first with a nice gap behind him.

Enjoyed the car, and I've always enjoyed this version of Brno.

Grats to all.

[Wiltshire Tony]

Result

Thanks Kurt 

[Geoffers]

Steady, uneventful race but quite enjoyable.

I was never in the picture to trouble Daz's Sierra, in general he was a couple of seconds a lap faster & once I had found a way past Ziu's well pedaled Alfa it was a fairly lonely affair. Like Daz, I like the modern circuit at Brno so it was far from a chore reeling off the laps. The M3 is quite fun to drive only problem with it being the awful sounds.

Congrats to Daz on an untroubled win & to Clive on 1600 victory.