Preseason race with LBGPL?

[Jack O'Ferrall]

I've been trying to organise a race together with Fred Gubbels of LBGPL for some time, but our midweek schedules conflict.  However, there is an opportunity to have a race in our offseason break in February.  Fred would also like the race to form part of their championship series, and has devised some special rules for us.  He has proposed that we have a two-part race using the 66 mod, if there's enough interest.

"I propose the following meeting between drivers from UKGPL and LBGPL:

Event:

Brands Hatch 67 - mod 66
30 min qualifying session at 20.00 GMT, 21.00 GMT+1
40 laps intermediate

rules :

-1- UKGPL and LBGPL drivers have to spread plus or minus the chassis to equilibrate strengths, i.e., fastest take slower chassis according to WR
-2- shift-r authorized without restriction
-3- gentleman behaviour, i.e., in case of contact between 2 drivers, the driver behind wait for the other and give him the way
-4- If more than 19 people are registered, we do a semifinal on Tue 17th February. Based on time at finish line the first 19th are qualified for the final on 24th February. If we have less than 19 drivers we do the event on Tue 24th February

details:

-1- I have 1 server that can be used and I hope you can add one on Tue 17th
-2- We will consider this event as part of our championship, as all our races are events. This race is going to be one of them and is referred in our championship to as the "British Event". Most of our drivers can chat in English.
-3- In our championship the chassis attribution is by default spread according to strength, but drivers have bonuses they can use to buy chassis. I will ask them to determine their chassis in advance in order to see if the spread becomes disequilibrated. If this is the case, then you can adjust the spread in your team to re-equilibrate.

Keep in mind this is a proposal. I'm open to any suggestion from your side.

If you are ok with the principle, then let me publish this as soon as possible in the LBGPL forum to gather opinions. You can do the same on your side."

We'd like any comments or suggestions you may have.

[Hristo Itchov]

Sounds good! Brands 67, mmm... 

Two questions/issues pop up as I read the above:
1) How is the pre-qualifying event going to work, are we going to use 2 servers and combine the finish results? It might end up with some unfortunate folks outside the top 19 due to crashing, d/c, mechanical failure etc., so perhaps we can do just qualifying runs and take the best times combined?
2) I hope we're going to run strictly 3 liters or 2 liters and not a mix. You know how ugly it can get and from experience at Brands in particular, I know how much faster 2L can go around corners and how much later they can brake, yet 3L would blow them away on the straights. In other words a formula for disaster. 

But in any case, count me in! 

[FullMetalGasket]

'66 mod = formula disaster 

 
Sounds interesting, might be in 

[fgubbels]

Sounds good! Brands 67, mmm... 

Two questions/issues pop up as I read the above:
1) How is the pre-qualifying event going to work, are we going to use 2 servers and combine the finish results? It might end up with some unfortunate folks outside the top 19 due to crashing, d/c, mechanical failure etc., so perhaps we can do just qualifying runs and take the best times combined?
2) I hope we're going to run strictly 3 liters or 2 liters and not a mix. You know how ugly it can get and from experience at Brands in particular, I know how much faster 2L can go around corners and how much later they can brake, yet 3L would blow them away on the straights. In other words a formula for disaster. 

But in any case, count me in! 

Good afternoon.

Regarding your first point, if we are more than 19 drivers, I'm proposing to make two races the week before the event and have the 19th first drivers to be part of the final race based on the total time. We can calculate it from the time difference with the best leader from the two races and then take into account lap difference. In case we have to select pilots having the same number of laps, we will have a look on the replay and make our judgement based on the time. For unfortunate drivers crashing or disconnected, they will be out of the final except if we have less than 19 pilots. In this case we will select pilots based on the time difference with the leaders.

Regarding your second point, I think that Brands Hatch is a track that makes differences between 3 liters and 2 liters on one lap rather equal. The variety of chassis is one of the nice feature of Mod 66. It would be a pity to remove half of the cars. At LBGPL we have split the chassis according to the strength of the drivers, in view to enable any driver to win. It is up to UKGPL to decide how you want to spread or not the chassis. You can let the choice or attribute them, we will be happy about your choice.

Is the date OK for you ?

[Hristo Itchov]

Thanks for the reply. While I agree that laptimes are just about equal in both 2 liters and 3 liters, it wasn't what I meant. It's the difference in speed at various points of the track that's a major issue at close racing. 2 liters can brake much later and carry much more speed through corners thus it's very easy for a 2 liter car to rearend a 3 liter. At the same time 3 liters just rocket past by 2 liters on the straights and when that happens the only chance for a 2 liters to stay ahead is either just qualify better and never lose a position to a 3l or the 3l making a mistake. Otherwise the 2l simply gets stuck behind the 3l. So you see it's not about laptimes, they're similar on most tracks, but they're achieved by having advantage in different areas which makes racing quite impractical and risky imo.

[Clive Loynes]

Sad but true H.

The 2ltr car ends up glued to the gearbox of the 3ltr car and as soon as the latter slows at mid corner the 2ltr car just clouts it.

When you add in the slipstream effect of 66mod I know that I am just not good enough a driver to cope with a full 66mod race.

We don't get enough practice at 66mod to really come to terms with it.  Unlike 67 mod where you can drop in on VROC at almost any hour and find something to join with people already in it, iGOR usually has one 66mod race at somewhere obscure.

We have run 66m on BREASTS League since it came out but realised after a few "Crash Feasts" that it was necessary to split it into 3ltr and what I call "Formula Hooligan" due the the number of times that the smaller cars punted their bigger brethren into the undergrowth.

[EvilClive]

sigh!....
 just one small indiscretion ....and it haunts me everywhere

I swear, even elephants forget...eventually?

[fgubbels]

In this case let's only use the <3L chassis, which is more fun than 3L chassis on Brands Hatch, according to me. Could you let me know who would participate in the race? I would like to make the list of participants to better organize servers and the event 

[fpolicardi]

If there is a place I'll be glad to race in a Ferrari 246.

Ciao

[Clive Loynes]

I quite enjoy the little Eagle at Brands.

[FullMetalGasket]

I'm not fussed what I drive really, Guess I could take the Lotus 33 as I've been racing it this season anyway....

[fgubbels]

Hi all,

up to now I then have the following pilots registered:

fpolicardi
Clive Loynes
Fullmetal Gasket
evilclive

Let me know if there is more to come 

[EvilClive]

I'll take the baby Brabham if that is available. 

[fgubbels]

Up to now we have 12 drivers registered for this event 

UKGPL

fpolicardi
Clive Loynes
Fullmetalgasket
evilclive

LBGPL

Pascal
Eric
Jieffe
Alain
Jan
Fred
Yves
Hervé

I suspect more to come from our side, but wait for their reply

[fpolicardi]

Mmmhhh...Jan, Pascal, Eric...I think to know their surname from MARA league