UKGPL Season 17 (2009) Novices Trophy - Monza (GP 1955-71) - Jul 7

[NHance]

Once again I typed a race report & it hasn't posted maybe I take so long it loses connection. Anyway thanks to all at UKGPL who make this all possible. My first full season & its been great. Thanks to Clutch who does all my computer stuff & keeps an eye on me.
The race - Clutch gave me his set up - it was mint. Had some good racing early on. Aplogies to Billy after the race. Mistaken identity I'm afraid it goes with my age!. Norbert has passed me in the championship so well done to him. All I had to do was stay close to him but 3 spins & 2 crashes put paid to that.

Season highlights - Rouen & Mosport for me were the best races I had all year. My team mate is (provisional champion. Glyn's race reports.

In the off season I will practice at Mountside's test facility - that's Mosport to you.

Next season it's Honda the car nobody as yet wants. But I/we may get access to the mighty Hiki Waza vast resources if we're a satelite team. I may get an audience with "Her". I see a windswept circuit "somewhere in the UK", a limo approaches with blacked out windows. A window comes down about an inch & a perfectly manicured hand passes me all Hiki Waza set ups for the seasons tracks. "She" disappears in a cloud of tyre smoke. In my dreams..........
Norm H

[Billy Nobrakes]

First the Monza race. Digging deep into my trusty book of excuses / reasons for a shabby performance – beware of track regrooving. Whilst my regroove got me through Parabolica 21 out of 22 laps I could not find a decent line through the Lesmos - back to the original Pappy tyre marks for me. Finally managed a qualifying lap in the 1.39’s. I got caught up in a couple of incidents in the first few laps where the cars in front had span. I took the cautious approach & the next time there was a yellow flag waving at Lesmo 1, I backed off,lost control & ended up facing in the wrong direction. Turning the car 180 degrees between the Armcos is extremely tight & to avoid disrupting other cars I took a Shift R. This should attract a S&G but I invoked the little known Billy Nobrakes rule – S&G can be overlooked if you are trundling round at the back of the grid. Stuck around for the rest of the race waiting for drop outs but they were few and far between.
Congratulations to Clutch, our new champion & Al Hellar for his maiden win.

A passing comment on Season 17. This was my first season & despite the dismal performances it was tremendous fun. Whilst there were some starting grid pile-ups that few us will be proud of it was great racing & the standards seem to have improved. Novices seems very popular, evidenced that our top drivers want to stay on rather than move up to the Amateurs. This is fine – people should race where they want to but I’ll just make one point. The Nov’s grid at Monza was almost full. Assuming we want to attract new drivers next season there may be a need to make room. See previous suggestion from Vos that would allow mid-term changes with drivers taking their points with them.

A quick thanks to the Mods & organisers for making this all possible. Thanks also to Vos & the Clark-Hill boys for trying to make me a better racer.

Finally, just to get my order in for next season. No question of anything other than the Novices. As the Ant Hill Mob (sorry - Clark Hill) are diversifying into the BRM I’m looking for a new carriage. I’m also organising a brand new team for Season 18 & we will probably all run the Brabham BT11. Full post to appear on the main forum in the next day or so. 

[Al Heller]

Pre-race I picked up some handy driving tips about Monza from the original GPL game manual (p.10): "Monza has a fork in the road just past the grandstands. Make sure you stay on the left side of the road here, since the right lane leads to a barricade." Hmm yes, thanks for that.. Reminds me of a classic old Buick my neighbours owned which had "Brake" written on the left pedal & "Gas" on the right .

So thanks to the manual I'd discovered that it was quicker to drive around the barriers rather than through them, but no matter what I tried I still couldn't get Monza quite right. Then the day before the race, after fumbling around with the only 3 bits of the setup I vaguely understand (tyre pressures, roll bars & gears) I stumbled onto a setup that really improved my times. No idea how

Did the best I could in quallie but I knew there was no way I'd beat James Rye's time so practised on race fuel for a bit. Not sure if I got a good start or Mr Rye got a stinker but actually changed the habit of a lifetime (ok 6 races) and managed to overtake someone off the grid. Didn't last long anyway as James breezed past me on the straight pretty easily & despite following in his slipstream I didn't have enough grunt to repass safely. Then a piece of good fortune for me when James spun on the approach to Lesmo 1 so I slotted in behind leader Rog. Me & Rog had had an epic 12 lap battle on the practice server the night before so I knew it was going to be hard but fair. Sure enough we started passing & repassing each other for a few laps but then I spoilt the fun by doing a bit of hedge trimming at Parabolica & Rog scooted off into the distance. Tried hard to catch up but without the slipstream it was hard going - then another stroke of luck when Rog's engine went pop & I found myself in the lead. Couldn't relax for a second as Prib was showing the guys behind gaining ground - must have been a battle royal as the names were changing every lap - but I think there must have been a few tangles & I managed to hang on until the end for my first novs win . I wasn't the quickest out there, as the fastest lap table shows, but I was reasonably consistent & I got a bit of luck. Hey, I remembered to "stay on the left hand side of the road" 23 times - that's got to be worth a podium

Anyway in the spirit of Tim's Oscar speech, I'd also like to thank Dave & the Clark/Ant-Hill Mob for their welcome & invaluable advice. Especially Geoff, John R, Tim & the Black Knight Sir Bill of NoBrakeshire for all the late-night sparring sessions. Hearty congratulations to Clutch as a worthy champ - commiserations to Mike for a fighting second & roll on next season!     

[Clutch4]

Billy NoBrakes makes a good point about full grids and people moving on.

On reflection, it would be wrong for me to stay in Novices as (provisional) Champion, even in a Honda, if it meant new people were being denied a place.

After a chat with my Mountside Racing colleague, i'm happy to move to the Amateurs and see how it goes. As long as we have full, popular grids i'm happy.

I consider myself of the same pace as a few other drivers in the Novices, so we'll have to wait and see how it all pans out next season for registration. As long as we have 2 full Championships, then its all good, and i'm happy to move to the Amateurs regardless, (In a faster chassis though    )

Cheers

[maestro57]

 

WOW what a race!!!

Qually 8th, and looking at the times we were all very close 2nd to 10th covered by less than a second.

L3 to 5 close racing with Me, Nicky, Clutch and Fabio with us changing places
L8 to 13  Clutch and Fabio are dicing for 2nd and 3rd and I am watching behind them in 4th waiting for a coming together, but they didn't. Well done lads
End of L13 I came off at Parabolica, but I hang onto 4th.
L13 to 16, I start catching Clutch and Fabio and I can see James R catching me
End of L16 I slipstreamed Billy into Parabolica, up the inside, and Billy goes off. Don't think we touched, but apologies If I caused anything there
L18 Fabio is off the track and I'm now 3rd
L19 3 way battle with Clutch James and me
Something happens with Clutch and James and Clutch goes for a SnG
L19 to L22 James and I dice with each other, overtaking each other 2-3 time search lap.
L22 Disaster coming into parabolica, Overtake James with the slipstream, up the inside but drift to middle of circuit and James has nowhere to go and I get a gentle tap. Shame the physics made it seem like he hit me at over 100mph. and off into gravel Again
L23 Still 3rd. But Clutch gets past, I loose it AGAIN at parabolica and Rog does me as well

3rd to 5th on last lap is not good. But a very enjoyable scrap all the way through

Thanks to Admin and server people for all organisation during season. You've done a great job

Looking forward it next one

Cheers

Peter

[miner2049er]

Billy NoBrakes makes a good point about full grids and people moving on.

Well, I made it too but no matter .

On reflection, it would be wrong for me to stay in Novices as (provisional) Champion, even in a Honda, if it meant new people were being denied a place.

Well, I think the champ should always strongly consider moving up, and it has been suggested (even in jest) the top 3, and I am going to take the plunge as I feel it is better to have spaces on the novice grid than a full grid with no room for new recruits.

Also, how much further can we take it other than racing under Pro rules? The prospect of perhaps never winning another race is not encouraging but imagine the feeling of glee when passing Steve Bucket and Phil Thornton as they try to extract their cars from the hedgerows and roll downhill to the finish before you blast past (providing you were behind them in the first place).

It would be good to do battle with you again, as well as a few of my team mates too, and moving up would mean 4 Clark-Hill drivers in each division rather than 5 in Novices which is bordering on a cartel.

My only decision is my choice of chassis, BRM or Lotus again, and for that matter yours too.

You need to specify a preference.

[Clutch4]

Fair comments Mike, Amateurs it is.

You started racing online about the same time as me last season if i remember, so lets move up and see what happens.

As for the car, its gonna have to be a fast one if i'm allowed. I may stick with the BT11 to avoid having to work on a set up for some circuits, but should go for power to try and compete so may go for a Ferrari, with second choice being a Lotus.

We'll see when the Registration thread comes out before next season

[miner2049er]

As for the car, its gonna have to be a fast one if i'm allowed. I may stick with the BT11 to avoid having to work on a set up for some circuits, but should go for power to try and compete so may go for a Ferrari, with second choice being a Lotus.

Well, you could do worse than renaming a setup file.

When experimenting with BRM setups I took my Lotus ones from this season and renamed the files from setup.lo1 to setup.br1 and they worked. Obviously going from the 5 speed Lotus to the 6 speed BRM the gearings were wrong but if you are going from a BT11 to another 5 speed chassis then that shouldn't be a problem other than slight alterations allowing for different engine strengths and torque ranges etc.

[NickyIckx]

 
First  big hand to Clutch on his well deserved win of Novices Championship !!! WD.
And congratulations  to Mike for an fantastic second in that .

Of course big hand to Al for his brilliant drive here at Monza , very nice one !!


Special thanks goes to Mike , who serves me an fantastic tow due qualifying , rocket up my Cooper into the 37 zone . woooow.

----------

Well as to my race  :
Start was ok , then I did have some thrilling laps together with Maestro.
But at L6 I watched my mirror part of second too intensive  , check  what Clutch is on in my neck. Hit the Armco then on own mistake  .Sorry Vosblod wasn’t any change for you to avoid my spinning Cooper.
Well L6 to L12 was lonely and slow , without any slipstream effect around .
 At L12 Rye and Rog65 catch me up and I followed them in their tow…. Rye slipstreamed Rog65 out at the arrive to Para , unfortunately Rog65 brakes hard and early then .Only way to avoid any chrash to me was braking hard as I could , same Mike did behind me . He went right off and I left off track…
Due to luck my car was still working…. Well last half of the race I tried several times to stay in the Ferrari`s tow . ; dreaming of help each other and catch up some driver in front by this .
But  turned out more practise is  needed for that .
Anyroads  , it was still fun to me , very relaxing race anyway to me as me 3rd overall was secured  at Silverstone.

 
Only thing  really droves me up the wall this time : those drivers tried to overtake me to the right sight on both long straights. ? hey what , Curva Grande as well Para are righthander turns aren’t they ? so there is NO way to overtake an slow car on his `defending line `, which of course is the right side of the track , well.
Next time I will simply close the door and sent  those cars into orbit .lol   

-------------

  As to next season  : still Pro races don’t fit to me due to  the fact I have to go to work quit early the next day.  As the race starts at 10pm my time here  , end off a whole race would be to late for me.
As Mike and Clutch decided to step up to amateurs  , ( btw. I am sure you both will do well there , wish best of luck )  ,  two fast drivers less here at Novices , so unsure if it would still be acceptable  , if I stay.
 
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I like to thank the admins for making this season so good working  and enjoyable.
As well I like to thank all the drivers for nice and fair racing  . To me it was an fantastic season full of joy.
I am still looking forward to next season to come .

Regards
Nicky Ickx
 

[Asbjeurn Tverberg]

A crappy race on my part. Qualified in the middle of the field, and managed not to lose too many places on the first lap. Followed a Lotus for several laps, but did not have enough power to get past it. The slipstream could only help me up on the side of the Lotus, but once I got there, the Lotus powered back into the lead. I got more and more desperate, and ended up breaking too late and so rear-ending it into the sand trap at Parabolica. A lap later I spun at Lesmo 1, and had to wait for the backmarkers to pass before I could continue. Managed to take back a few places, but towards the end of the race I spun again at Lesmos, got dead last again, and logged off.

As for next season, I have the same issue with the pro length races as Nicky Ickx do. They start too late, so it gets past midnight before I get to bed, wich makes it difficult to get up in the morning after. I have not decided whether or not I will continue with the Coop in a new Novices' season, though. I felt that it went a bit better at Silverstone than the previous races, so I am perhaps starting getting to grips with the car. On fast tracks like Monza, though, it is more of a handfull than on the more technical tracks, where sheer power is not that important.

I'll use the summer to decide on championship and car.

[bernie]

Likewise Aspjeurn (did I speel it rite ) totally frustrated with the cooper (as ive said previously) and the other race series are far too long for an old git like me (hence the reason i was in novices ) I still maintain ther should be a handicap for the faster boys plus it's unfare to be handicapped with the same slow chassis all season .
As Asp says the biggest problem I found was having to push the coop so hard that was forced to take too many stupid risks in a foolish attempt to get on the same lap as the leaders . as for the coopers slipstream effect ,forget it ! no good unless you can see down the car in fronts pipes .
Have to see what s18 brings before  decide where to go next .

Grats to Clutch and Mike but a special award goes to Nicky whose drive to 3rd spot in the Coop was fantastic , think we would have seen a different name up top if he had a chassis choice .  no disrespect to Clutch or Mike,  I know how tough it is to stay up there but I do think your task was made easier with having the best cars
For myself this has to be the worst season I ever did in UKGPL  , not sure about the future,  perhaps the time has arrived to hang my UKGPL hat up  

PS I can already here the flack coming in  

[EvilClive]

Once again I typed a race report & it hasn't posted maybe I take so long it loses connection. Anyway thanks to all at UKGPL who make this all possible. My first full season & its been great. Thanks to Clutch who does all my computer stuff & keeps an eye on me.
The race - Clutch gave me his set up - it was mint. Had some good racing early on. Aplogies to Billy after the race. Mistaken identity I'm afraid it goes with my age!. Norbert has passed me in the championship so well done to him. All I had to do was stay close to him but 3 spins & 2 crashes put paid to that.

Season highlights - Rouen & Mosport for me were the best races I had all year. My team mate is (provisional champion. Glyn's race reports.

In the off season I will practice at Mountside's test facility - that's Mosport to you.

Next season it's Honda the car nobody as yet wants. But I/we may get access to the mighty Hiki Waza vast resources if we're a satelite team. I may get an audience with "Her". I see a windswept circuit "somewhere in the UK", a limo approaches with blacked out windows. A window comes down about an inch & a perfectly manicured hand passes me all Hiki Waza set ups for the seasons tracks. "She" disappears in a cloud of tyre smoke. In my dreams..........
Norm H

" Man who stands waiting for a sign in rain, only get cold and wet. But, he who go and seek the true path, will find shelter and guidance in Her shadow"  
(ancient Waza proverb)  

Those who swear allegiance and wear the fundoshi and headband with pride are blessed by her guiding palm.
The foolish round eyes who drive the green things scoffed, when it was foretold that the Wazas would return this season and sweep all before them  But, they have seen their laughter turn to dust, as her mighty team crushed their puny resistance like rice paper in a closed fist wherever they dared to challenge us.

The Novices were fortunate indeed that this season, there were no apprentice ninjas ready to take this title for her glory, but next season a tsunami of new Wazas will take this title too. Scoff if you dare!!! you have been warned.

All our victories are belong to her

[bernie]

Once again I typed a race report & it hasn't posted maybe I take so long it loses connection

Try copy and paste to notepad , so's if it crashes you can slap yer copy back in there .


Simples 

[Podkrecony_Ziutek]

The Novices were fortunate indeed that this season, there were no apprentice ninjas ready to take this title for her glory, but next season a tsunami of new Wazas will take this title too. Scoff if you dare!!! you have been warned.

All our victories are belong to her

CHR will put Wazas to the test

All our victories are belong to Him:

[miner2049er]

I still maintain there should be a handicap for the faster boys plus it's unfair to be handicapped with the same slow chassis all season.

Well, a Lotus did await you in Ams bernie.

Grats to Clutch and Mike but a special award goes to Nicky whose drive to 3rd spot in the Coop was fantastic , think we would have seen a different name up top if he had a chassis choice .  no disrespect to Clutch or Mike,  I know how tough it is to stay up there but I do think your task was made easier with having the best cars.

Nicky has had a great season in the Coop and came close to winning Rouen with it, but he has scored so highly for consistently finishing well rather than for winning races, and there is no argument from me that in any given chassis Nicky would be a faster driver than me, as are several others, but the handicap system used in 65s has allowed for some great battles all through the field.

Nicky has shown what the Coop can do where others have struggled with it. In theory chassis allocation improves every season so hopefully you will have a better season next time round.  I can't see a future where we introduce something like pitstops to 65 Novices though. The day we do is the day I leave 65s.

For myself this has to be the worst season I ever did in UKGPL  , not sure about the future,  perhaps the time has arrived to hang my UKGPL hat up  

Well, hitting me twice at Spa didn't get you off to a great start,   but making such a rash decision so soon after the season would be a mistake.

Chill out Bernie, relax for a while, go on holiday to Hindley Green and forget about things until Season 18 when all this disappointment will seem a million miles away.

PS I can already here the flack coming in  

That will be the migrating birds leaving Haigh Hall.