Season 43 - 1955GP - Round 2 – Brands Hatch

The second 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	=	UKGPL04_60fps
IP address	=	146.198.64.161:32766
Password	=	see above
GPL Mod	=	67F1
Damage model	=	PRO
60fps Patch	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track download	=	Brands Hatch 1967
Track directory	=	brands67
Qualifying starts	=	20:45 UK time - 45 minutes
Race starts	=	~ 21:30 UK time
Race length	=	25 laps
Replay	=	HERE

Please do NOT post chat messages during qualifying or racing until ALL drivers still qualifying or racing have crossed the line.

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

Please note: A total of 19 drivers registered for the Works and Privateers so there is no need to run two servers. Consequently one server will be used but the Privateers will have their own championship.

Pete , if it was left to me you would be 55 GPL Champion 

Points on the board!  lol   I had forgotten just how much fun this is, even at the back.  I've only had the 55 installed for a couple of days so clearly I need to work on that drifting technique, and handle these pesky brakes better, but very glad I managed to not tangle with the leaders as they came past.  OK two weeks to learn Brno49. 

 "OK two weeks to learn Brno49"

Go to the replay server - Season41 - and get the replay from Dec-04-22 55s!

True but I'm not too sure about where your gearbox might have been.  I thought it was somewhere near your feet or perhaps you would have been sitting on it?

Anyway, by the time that I got the move done on Phil, I had no brakes and went to visit the barrier at Druids.

After a start like that, my brakes were never in the state that I would have liked and I owe someone an apology for a contact at Druids a lap or so later.  I will look at the replay. I waited on the grass and let someone through but I'm not sure that he was my victim.

I managed to climb to 4th by the end but it takes its toll on the brakes when you have to overtake another car, even when they were all as well behaved as they were in this race.

Congrats to Evil, Fulvio and Doni.

That's two out of two that I have messed up now!

Consistency is everything in this game Clive 

Not hard to score this one over at GPLWeekly.  An easy 5/5.

WOOHOO!  Evil Clive scores a superb win and after the calamity of Aintree, it could hardly be more welcome.  Well done, champ!

Fulvio a splendid run to P2.

My run a near-perfect effort to P3 with no major errors but somewhat lucky in that others ran into grief.

On the grid, Jonny was directly ahead and knowing that his Gordini gets a pitiful launch off the line, he pulled left and let me pass cleanly.  Clay was on the right ahead and got a poorish getaway, too, allowing me to split the pair right up the middle.  Two places gained before T1.  Can't be bad.  Up ahead, it was looking like British marques were going to have sweep of the podium places with Evil Clive, Phil, Clive Loynes and Fulvio all aboard the green cars.  Lap03 and major dramas as Clive Loynes overshoots Druids by a ton and shunts off.  Clay was hot on my tail but he came to misfortune in South Bank by dropping a wheel off on the infield and being helpless to avoid a major hit on his chances.  Two challengers down in a matter of a few seconds.  Lap04 and it would seem that Phil was sporting the same engine that Evil Clive used at Aintree.  From a solid P2, the engine went on to 2-1/2 cylinders.  Sigh...  No option other than just pull over and weep.

All this left me with a tidy P3 and not far behind Fulvio.  For the next 20 laps, I did my best to challenge but came up short.  A couple of times, I was right on FP's tail but he held strong and prevailed.  Got to the line just a second behind after a breath-taking race.

Clive Loynes recovered for P4 and Gentelman Jonny nabbed P5 and this after falling to dead last on Lap01 after a hip check into the bales at Paddock.  OUCH!  Nice recovery, JJ!  Clay managed a P6 which just as easily could have been a podium if the fates were kinder.

Edit: Nice job by the lapped cars to give way cleanly.  Well done.

Rest assured that I have already begun practice for Brno, to ensure that the next round will be just as bad!