UKGPL Season 17 (2009) Amateurs Trophy - Mexico City - Apr 28

[Geoff65]

Qually went without a hitch, but at one stage....I was sitting in 9th position, only .8 of a scond off pole. The top 10 were quite close until Clive and then Hristo threw in 51's to bust it wide open....

Lined up on the grid and cars were flashing on and off and the latency meter went full red. Settled down as the flag dropped.....then started going intermittently nuts. I cautiously completed 2-3 laps to see if it was gonna improve. It didn't, so I pulled in and retired...as by that stage I couldn't see any other cars, and figured they couldn't see me either.
Found out the missus (pissed) was streaming music on our slowed down broadband connection (she'd already used up our bandwidth allotment 7 days earlier than usual) Apologies if I caused any dramas to other runners......NOT a happy camper. I'd divorce her if I'd married her in the first place....
Never a bloody white slave trader around when you need one!!
Grats to the podium and all finishers.
Geoff.

PS :I was going to pull her line from the router too, just in case....but figured she'd have enough sense not to go online. You'd think I'd have learned by now, wouldn't you?.....

[MikeBeattie]

Made it through witjout taking out half the team or Hristo.....Phew what a relief

Happy with qualifying, 6th spot in the little Cooper without a tow, and a new PB.

Good start off the line, got in behind Evil on the inside, and most folk seemed to brake early for T1, however JR ended up on the barrier and was recovering back to speed when he & Evil now had what  is becoming their traditional bash as both went for the apex from different angles.

Et Voila now I'm 4th behind Fulvio, and so started a race long dice, I got ahead and started to close on Vlive, until a spin dropped me back behind FP. We exchanged the 3rd spot a few times more before I finally broke clear and he fell into the hands of Ken.

Grats to the firdt two and to everyone else who finished

[FullMetalGasket]

My dislike for Mexico made itself obvious again with my lowly qualifying spot, it may have been better had I found a tow but was still pretty poor anyway.

The start of the race went well, everyone at the back got a similar start. I managed a slightly better one and gained some room rearwards on the approach to T1 - I considered this important as intended to take it very easy first time around.
Got to T1 and got half way through thinking 'wow! no pile up!' when stationary/slow moving cars then decided to apear out of thin air on the exit of the Esses.
Had already started accelerating by this point so what braking I could do was near useless. The car directly in front hit something - Evil then choose this point to appear in front of him in mid air, along with several near stationary cars scattered about the track - I then screached into the back of the guy infront of me. Turns out that was Dave Randals car - Sorry about that, nothing I could do though as I didn't know Clive was there either 

After getting clear of the carnage I found myself in 6th with a miraculously damage free car, so set of to reel in anyone I could catch.
Sam disposed of himself as I watched, briefly giving me 5th. Then Ken stormed past and rapidly dropped me on his own charge back up the order dropping me back to 6th again.

Stayed there until Fulvio dropped out/retired in the closing stages of the race gifting me with 5th.

Overall I'm happy with my consistency (Approx half my race laps were 1:54's and the odd very low 1:55) but not so happy with my setup. The car handled more like a D1 drift car than an F1 car which was clearly costing me bigtime, also the near molten tyres from the midpoint on where only making things harder.....

Congrats to H for scoring a win for HER, also to Clive for a well fought race and all other finishers for finishing 

[Clive Loynes]

Many thanks to Hristo for his kind words.  I think that Mike deserves a slap on the back as well for the way he was pedalling that Cooper.

I did my qually lap on my second timed lap.  It is my PB so I didn't waste too much time after that trying to go any quicker.  Instead I concentrated on full fuel runs and tyre pressures.  Oh, and making sure that I didn't give Jethro a tow.

I think that I must have got it about right as my fastest lap came late in the race when Hristo dropped back to tease me.

It was unfortunate that my rear left wheel disposed of John in T1 but we were three abreast and I was trying to plot a central course between Hristo and him.

I stuck like glue to H's gearbox for the first eight laps but, as he has said, I had a lap with a couple of minor errors and he was gone.  Hristo put in some fearsome laps at mid-race and I must say it was a source of great disappointment to me that I didn't see his BT7 as a smoking ruin in the last few laps.  Not that he wasn't trying for me as in addition to his mid-race crisis he also belted the wall on lap one as he exited the hairpin.  Well he did on my replay anyway.  These 65 beasts are well built.




It was good to go out on a high.

This was my last UKGPL race.  I find that my views on how warp incidents should be viewed are at odds with the administration of UKGPL and it makes no sense to continue to expend the time and effort if the races are not being adjudicated, in my view, correctly. I actually prefer to race with GBGPL where there is little or no pretense of moderation.  At least what you see is what you get.  I can attempt to educate an individual but as they say, you can't fight city hall.

I hope to be racing with GPL Racer next Tuesday.

Many thanks to everyone at UKGPL.  It looks as though I will not make 200 races after all but you can't have it all.  It has been great fun racing with you all and perhaps I will see some of you at the BREASTS races on Wednesday evenings.


I am hoping that Steve or Mike will take over running the SBRC team in UKGPL and who knows, perhaps I will start a GPL Racer Wing.


Good luck

[john roberts]

It was unfortunate that my rear left wheel disposed of John in T1 but we were three abreast and I was trying to plot a central course between Hristo and him.

very unfortunate , because it was shaping up to be classic race...

I'd got a good run on you up to turn one and fancied my chances around the outside . 

however that tap put me into the Armco for a second before i was on my way again , but not for long . Evil Clive was beside me on the exit of turn one / entry turn two and  I guess he thought that i was either crumpled in the wall or more slowly recovering and turned in as normal , as a result he had a little spin on the exit of two .
After that all hell broke lose with cars flying everywhere .

This was my last UKGPL race.  I find that my views on how warp incidents should be viewed are at odds with the administration of UKGPL and it makes no sense to continue to expend the time and effort if the races are not being adjudicated, in my view, correctly. I actually prefer to race with GBGPL where there is little or no pretense of moderation.  At least what you see is what you get.  I can attempt to educate an individual but as they say, you can't fight city hall.

Have the rules on warp incident changed ?

it's a pity that makes racing ukgpl no longer a option for you Clive .

john

[Hristo Itchov]

Not that he wasn't trying for me as in addition to his mid-race crisis he also belted the wall on lap one as he exited the hairpin.  Well he did on my replay anyway.  These 65 beasts are well built.


It was good to go out on a high.

This was my last UKGPL race...

Eh, Clive, why are you quitting all of a sudden? 
I hope you reconsider in the near future... Since my days of racing for the Soggies I've always associated UKGPL with a handful of people and you are one of them.

And yeah, I hit the wall on lap 1, but was lucky to avoid damage.

[Dave Randall]

This was my last UKGPL race.  I find that my views on how warp incidents should be viewed are at odds with the administration of UKGPL

?!!!! I really hope you reconsider Clive, you would leave a gaping big hole in UKGPL, 
(almost as big as the one my con rod came through in Mexico!)

BTW what is the general opinion on how warp incidents should be viewed?

I do find the unforgiving collision detection to be the only down side with GPL.  It would be great if you could get away with the odd unintentional wheel banging.  As regards moderating, my own view would be that where possible we should give a metre instead of rubbing wheels.  But unless someone is deliberately aggressive or very careless and causes a collision I don't see why they should be punished by an obvious warp incident.

Is this how the moderating currently works?  What does everyone else think, presumably this has this been discussed before?

[b_1_rd]

I had a pretty quiet race, after getting through the T1 / 2 incident unscathed, just, I seemed to end up on my own between 6 - 20 seconds in front or behind the drivers either side of me.

I tried to push a little to catch Tim a couple of times but never got anywhere.

Sorry to hear Clive is heading away.  I'm not sure it's a good time for me to take anything over as it's likely I'll be away from the UK for 4 months from June or October, when they make their mind up.

However, if team members are happy to put up with my minimal input for now, I would be happy to continue the long standing 'Soggie' name in UKGPL in the absence of anyone else wanting to do it.  Of course if Clive were to (hopefully) change his mind then he would assume the helm once again, without question.

Anyway, all that can be sorted out another time.

Good racing guys.  I'm still working on being a bit more competitive.

[Jack O'Ferrall]

Clive, I'm as surprised as everyone else by your decision to quit UKGPL for GBGPL over the moderation of UKGPL races?  Phil has had difficulty with his connection recently, but neither of you have said anything about this to me?

With the Amateurs, though Mike is very new at moderation, as you would expect we haven't left him on his own.  I've looked at every reported incident, and I agree with every decision that's been made.  I have been surprised that there have been so few incidents reported, but that's up to the drivers- we had made it clear that only reported incidents would be considered this season.

The rules on lag incidents haven't altered since you were a moderator, so perhaps you are questioning the application of them?  With previous incidents you've been able to produce screenshot sequences to demonstrate your points, that have proved very useful- if it's annoyed you so much that you're prepared to quit, I would have hoped that you'd be able to show us why?  How about a thread on the subject, if there are separate incidents to deal with?

[Ken Murray]

I was reasonably happy early in the qually when I was lying second to Clive but as the time ticked away I was gradually pushed down the standings and ended up about 6th or 7th. I blamed it on not getting a tow, but I see Clive claims his lap was tow free anyway!!

As has been commented everybody took it really steady through T1 but at the bottleneck there must have been some contact because suddenly cars were flying everywhere. I virtually came to a standstill but I seemed to be attacked from all sides and my car took a hell of a bashing, but unbelievably at the end of it all it drove away without any signs of damage!!

The leaders were well gone by now though. I despatched a couple of cars quite quickly and after Sams mistake I was running 5th. It was a hard slog after that in what seemed like a very long race but gradually I was catching the two cars ahead. Late in the race I caught Fulvio and started to apply some pressure. This was my first run in this 65 update so I wasn't really sure how strong the slipstream was. I soon found it wasn't anywhere near as strong as the 66's and it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought to make a pass. I was being careful through the twisty bits and kept trying to get a good tow on to the final straight. When Fulvio got it a bit ragged through the esses on one lap I closed in but unfortunately we fell foul of Clives pet subject. I just got a bit too close and warp did the rest. I'm truly sorry and will let the moderators be the judges.

I initially slowed hoping Fulvio might have recovered but it was terminal for him. After that I just had a really steady run home. It was a shame the T1 incident had spread the field so much because the first 5 or 6 were running pretty much the same pace.

I was really sorry to hear Clives bombshell, he will be a massive miss if he doesn't reconsider his decision.
  

[EvilClive]

I think John had it right about the T2 melee. Sorry guys   


I saw a car ( that I now know was John) bouncing off the armco at T1 and kept a very cautious pace around the inside  checking my mirrors  as I went .
I could see a car ( Mike I think ) following me and thought it was clear to take the racing line through T2 and away..but then the world just flipped!!

It seems that John's conatact with the armco was exaggerated by my end of the connection and what I thought had been a terminal or certainly a very retarding contact was not, and he had kept his foot down around the outside lane. I just never saw him in my mirrors and did not think anyone could be alongside me when I turned in to T2 or I would have stayed wide and given room.

I was looking forward to some close racing, judging by the qually times and was really miffed to say the least that it ended so soon.

Sorry guys.

May I add my voice to those calling for Clive to reconsider his withdrawl from UKGPL. Your experience and advice will be sorely missed.

It was Clive who was instrumental in my joining the online racing community and provided endless support and advice to get me up and running when I was being ( and still am) a complete computer disaster.

[bernie]

Its a sad day for UKGPL when Clive decided to throw the towel in . Still hoping you will reconsider mate , we will all miss your input and worldclass banter .

[fpolicardi]

I'm a bit lost, where can I find the server replay?
Ciao

[john roberts]

I'm a bit lost, where can I find the server replay?
Ciao

http://www.jamesonline.net/ukgpl/2009.04.28_Mexico_Amateurs/

john

[miner2049er]

You may now submit your reports.

Come on then, what happened in T1?

[/runs and hides]