Season 40 – 1955 Grand Prix – Round 6 – Works - Brands Hatch

This race announcement is for the WORKS.

The sixth race in the 1955 Grand Prix series finds us at Brands Hatch in England. The first race to be held at Brands Hatch took place on 16th April 1950, it featured 500cc cars competing over a version of the "Indy" circuit (without Druids Hill Bend) in an anti-clockwise direction. During the 1950s the track was extended to include Druids Hill bend, Paddock Hill bend and the racing direction was changed to clockwise. It wasn't until 1960 that the full Grand Prix circuit was created. The British Grand Prix has been held at Brands Hatch on 12 occasions and the European Grand Prix has been held there twice.  The 1967 Grand Prix was won by Jack Brabham and the 1968 race by Jo Siffert driving a Brabham Repco BT19 and a Lotus-Cosworth 49B respectively.  There have also been numerous non-championship Formula 1 races most notably the Race of Champions in 1967 which was won by Dan Gurney in the Eagle-Weslake T1G.

Race list	=	iGOR
Server	=	UKGPL05_60fps
IP address Server	=	146.199.161.253:32666
Password	=	see above
GPL Mod	=	55
60fps Patch	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track download	=	link
Track directory	=	brands67
Qualifying starts	=	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race starts	=	~ 21:30 UK time
Race length	=	25 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
bagrupp	13	Works
Claudio Navonne	30	Works
Clive Loynes	16	Works
Cookie	10	Works
Doni Yourth	45	Works
Enrique Farina	21	Works
EvilClive	20	Works
fpolicardi	1	Works
Giovanni Centorame	7	Works
GrandPrixYannick	16	Works
JonnyO	26	Works
Leo Menegucci	2	Works
Pete Bennett	12	Works
Phil Thornton	21	Works
romanov	12	Works
Sebastian Skinner	10	Works

excellent race yannick and especially leo who ran perfect with that gordini.
   I apologize to Doni for the blow we gave each other, it seemed to me that it was coming at me from the inside, where I was coming from and when we braked we touched, a little, later due to that touch, we lost control of the car two and we touched again generating a spin between the two. I reiterate, I apologize to doni, fortunately he was able to continue and well, me too.
 

8/1000 second !
They don't come much closer than that 

Quite a thrilling wrap to our race coming up just 8/1000 of a tick shy of P2.  Groan...  Well...  Can't be too disappointed with a podium finish and indeed, it was a nice way to celebrate March 27, my 73rd birthday. 

Another standout job by Yannick to score the win.  Leo doing a fine job in the Gordini and scoring a most-worthy P2.

As already noted, it was a dramatic race.  More than that, however.  It was at times, traumatic.  See the last paragraph below...

In qualifying, I missed my pre-race practice time by several tenths which could have seen me start P3 on the grid.  This could have been crucial for later developments.  Off the start, I got away well to hold position behind Ricky and just ahead of Jonny.  I was being very careful on the opening lap playing myself in gently for the long haul.  Bad luck for Jonny on Lap02 as he flung it off the road in Druids.  Fulvio took up the chase.  Over the next several laps, I was able to put some distance on Fulvio who's attentions were fully occupied with EvilClive, Phil, Pete and a recovering JJ hot on his tail.  As well, I was able to close on Ricky who was fully engaged with CliveL.  Starting Lap05, CliveL went very wide in Paddock opening the door for Ricky to slide through and take up P3.  I had a chance to do likewise on the run up to Druids but thought the better of it deciding that discretion was the better part of valour.  I had a sneak peek at a pass on CliveL coming off South Bend with a run on him down to Hawthorn on the very same lap but it just wasn't on.  Lap06 and drama.  CliveL has thrown his Connie off the road big time in Druids and I'm now up to P4 with Ricky just a couple of seconds up the road.  Lap07 and I was closing slightly on Ricky and it was at this time that I short-shifted coming off South Bend to get into top gear as rapidly as possible to facilitate taking a sip from my coffee cup next my steering wheel.  Nothing like some mid-race refreshment.  Lap09 and Ricky has slid wide in Clearways opening the door for me to sneak by on the inside to cop P3.  Better and better!  Leo was only about four seconds up the road at this point in P2 but I did not fancy my chances against him.  More to the point, it was just hold off Ricky.  Over the next half dozen laps, I was actually making some inroads on Leo's advantage pairing it down to just under three seconds.  Starting Lap17, I had about a one second margin over Ricky and as I done on Lap07, I took the opportunity to take another swig of coffee.  Then, trauma of the highest order and the details I'll save for the last paragraph.

I choked on the coffee.  I spit about half a mouthful up the front of my Mika Hakkinen T-shirt and sprayed the monitor.  I made a poorish run through Hawthorn and up the hill to Westfield.  Down the hill in the sweep up to Dingle Dell, Ricky tagged my tail just ever so slightly but it was enough to send me off the road and into a frightful effort to maintain control.  I managed that to some degree but Ricky was so close behind that he couldn't avoid and we collided.  Not his fault in the least.  I got off lucky compared to Ricky as I ended up facing down-track and was able to accelerate away to a clear advantage before he could resume.  Over the last laps, I was surprised to realize that I was closing rapidly on Leo.  Starting the last lap, I held little hope of making any headway in my charge but coming off Clearways with the flag in sight, I gassed it hard to pull alongside for a photo finish.  PHEW!  What a thrill! 

Sorry to see that JJ shunted off from a decent finish in the last laps.  Bad luck, amigo.

Now for an explanation of events and the trauma.  Some years ago, my family physician diagnosed me with COPD.  Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  It's a form of the lung disease, emphysema.  As a smoker from my teen years, I have nobody to blame for this but myself.  Have I given up smoking?  Not on your life!  One of the symptoms that can hit one so afflicted is to become lightheaded and dizzy.  When I choked on my coffee on Lap17, I actually started to black-out from oxygen starvation.  This is not altogether rare for me and indeed, it has happened once previously under similar circumstances of a GPL race.  That I was able to maintain a semblance of control and navigate through Hawthorn and Westgate without flying off the road was something of a triumph really.  Again, I cannot fault Ricky for the tail bump as I was not fully at speed.

Some links below on my condition...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncope_(medicine)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755001708000122

https://www.lifeline.philips.com/resources/blog/2014/06/lung-disease-and-copd-greatly-increase-fall-risk.html

    A very bad race for me.
  I was looking forward to the race, but a series of things made me arrive without any preparation, I took a good part of the qualy to try to change something, but each attempt the car got worse, and I went to the grid with the default car, only with a change in the fuel . In fact this is almost standard for me with mod55.

  In the race my plan was to stay close to Doni, but I made a childish mistake and lost 4 to 5 positions. I was all running in this group, and really the best I could was to accompany them, nothing more than that. In the end, an exit worthy of those who were not perfectly concentrated and I ended up in the bales....... stuck like a spear!!!

  Congratulations to the podium!!!! Yannick's pace was impressive, as was Leo's speed aboard the Gordini. Special to see Doni's great performance, I'm very happy for my friend.

  I hope next time I can finish the race again.

Me neither Phil.  Think I'm getting to old for this lark!  When you take a slow car, the one thing that you must not do is throw it off the road, because you will not have the performance to make good the deficit.  Unless you are an alien.

I made a good start and fought Leo up to Druids but had to give him best there.  I settled into 3rd but had Enrique closing on me.

I decided that I would be better off letting my teamie through but hadn't banked on Doni being all over me like a bad suit.

Then something strange happened.  I lost my brakes at Druids!  All through my limited amount of practice it had been tyre temperatures that were causing me problems and I was having to keep things very quiet when it came to tail-out cornering.  But under race conditions I suddenly had a brake problem.

That dropped me back behind the monumental battle that was going on from about 5th spot to 10th. 

I found myself yet again trying to persuade Pete to take to the grass but on this occassion I failed.

In the 55's I have always worked on the assumption that the car in front was there to reduce my momentum, or by simply throwing the car sideways to scrub off speed  .
 I will have to search out these new tech "brake" things. Maybe there is a button on my steering wheel  

 
Happy Belated Birthday Doni..... All the best Mate, take care and happy GPL'ing

Paul V.