UKGPL Season 18 (2009) Inter-League Series - Donington Park (National) - Nov 8

[vosblod]

Just logged in to say the replay is up (http://www.jamesonline.net/ukgpl/2009.11.08_donnington_Ileague/) and saw your note Doni.
Very sad to hear you are retiring from racing but you are doing the right thing, look after yourself. Glad to hear we might see you around and can't wait to see your tracks.
Got my fingers crossed that everything works out on the health side.
... Tim (Vos)

[Hristo Itchov]

Very sorry to hear, Doni, I always like reading your well thought out posts around here and also the respectful way in which you always behave on the track.

Hope your situation improves eventually and that you can do at least some bit of racing now and then.

See you around,

-=Hristo=-

[Samb]

I can't offer enough sympathy Doni and it'll be sad to see you go. It was a pleasure racing against you over the past season. Hope to see you stick around the forums on occasion  .

[bo bruce]

Several items from me..  1st and foremost a most enjoyable competition (again) regardless of the outcome, i find this inter-league stuff intoxicating, and if we could only get more commitment from both league members it would be something to make regular. as it is, the difficulty in rounding up 9 drivers is the hardest part for me. happily this time, i did get 10 drivers, and only 1 had to bow out so we were covered. 

Big Thanks to UKGPL for setting up and organizing it again.

Next - Doni... with regard to brake checking you. i apologize - but honestly if i knew how to do it on purpose, i wouldn't do it. i'm not that sort of driver!  that you would think that of me is distressing, seeing as how much i've admired you and your abilities,and was so happy with our duel. i never EVER would do such a thing to you or anyone else to steal a position, let alone 5th (at the time)   - but i sincerely apologize for the fact that it happened none-the-less.

Last - the Vroc/iGor question.  I don't know why there are such divided issues on the choice, but many of oAo'er in the past have preferred Vroc. And since its the one no one complains about, its the one we use. In the past UKGPL has been gracious enough to revert back to Vroc just for us, and for that i am thankful... however that it affected so many of you and quite possibly the results takes much of the joy from the results. 
should we hold a 4th such competition in the future, i will extend the invitations to oAo'ers that can join via iGor - of course that offers the distinct possibilities that we'll have to pass if there aren't enough of us to do so.

Wishing you all the very best continued success at UKGPL and condolences to Doni regard his eyesight 

[EvilClive]

Just read Doni's post 

Truly sorry to hear about your probs my friend, but undoubtedly you are doing the right thing. I must admit to not having picked up on your "condition" before and was dismayed to hear that you had such problems.

Along with everyone else at UKGPL, I trust that your retirement from active competition will allow things to ease and that your eyesight does not suffer further.

Please be sure to keep in touch via the forums, where your wit and keen observations are always a highlight and we will look forward to your track projects as they come to completion.

[bernie]

Echo the sympathy for Doni , I'm sure you are doing the right thing no matter how much it hurts to give up gpl .

 

 

[Turkey Machine]

Tough call Doni, but the right one. Good you found it soon though, as the earlier you catch eye problems, the sooner they can be cured, the sooner they cause less damage.

[FullMetalGasket]

Agred with the above - I have hugely enjoyed racing with you over the past year Doni, and will miss being able to do so in the future 

That said, you are doing the right thing. Your sight is far more important than a computer game.
Hopefully you might make the odd appearence, but we'll all understand if you have to stay off the black stuff.

Hope you've caught it in time to reverse any damage 

[b_1_rd]

Firstly - Donnie! Gutted! You have been around for my full time in GPL, when I started at ADC you were one of the first I raced with.  Well I say raced....more like followed at a long distance.  That hasn't changed really, your still too damn quick!  I really do hope you stay around the Sim Racing scene as your input and development is essential to the community, although I recommend trying Flight Sim, it's easier on the eyes    Best regards and hope to catch you around these parts on a regular basis. P.S. Can I have all your setups  

Secondly - The race.  Initially it was quite intimidating racing a bunch of guys who I hadn't been on track with before but, for a debut with the 'inters' it went OK.  I wasn't on a great pace but thankfully I wasn't quite last on track and more importantly in this type of event, finished! I've always like Donington, in any sim and indeed in real life too.  It's a fantastic track.  I just hope it can survive the failure to get F1.  I wish they never bothered trying, the track is great as it is and has long been a motorcycling circuit at all levels so hopefully it wont have too much of an affect on that.  The BRM was quite fun, and seemed to handle better with a heavy fuel load.  All good fun.

Thanks for the chance to race, and although don't anticipate being a regular participant, pleased to have taken part.

Cheers.

[EvilClive]

Grats to oAo for their revenge win. I'm glad that the Interleague racing is enjoyed as much by other leagues as it is here in UKGPL.

Maybe in an ideal world it would be possible to organise a true league for the teams with points going towards a seasons championship? But, it would need someone with more time on their hands than anyone I know and the patience of a saint to liaise, cajole and organise the various interested parties into any sort of schedule that would be workable.

When I quit the server after my contact with John I thought it was all over, with oAo in the first 3 places and a couple of mid rank runners. To see that there were a few more dnf's and that only 9 finished does not actually make me feel any better, given that i was responsible for 2 UKGPL cars dropping out 

Having said that, I was amazed to be so close to the front of the field anyway. During my short bouts of practice during the week it took me a long while to get used to the Eagle again after such a long time.
All private practice ( and qually) was done on race fuel in an attempt to "dial in" on the Eagle handling, but I could not reproduce my PB of a high 1:08, which still would not have got me on the front row!!

Given that the VROC gremlins were still trying there best to disrupt my controls, my pace was not too bad. A couple of times there was a 1 second delay in the steering response which caused me to run wide and allow Jethro and Chris to regain the ground I had worked so hard for.
As the race progressed the Eagle felt more comfortable, despite the best efforts of the gremlinsd, and I was hustling along quite happily until the "incident" with John.

Passing backmarkers was a tad frustrating as there was really only a couple of places where that could be accomplished safely, but as the same applied to all cars it was not an unfair handicap and the speed of the Eagle allowed passing on the straights easily.

I did notice almost every lap that there was a glitch in the graphics/frame rate at T1, was this just me or was it a server/track issue?? I was getting concerned because I know that some people have experienced the dreaded mass disco at Donington in the past and that would have spoiled the fun.

[Phil Thornton]

Very sorry to hear you're having to give up competing Doni .  An intense race like last night can be very demanding on the eyes and concentration so I'm not surprised you found it tough.  Hopefully you'll gain as much enjoyment from your other GPL activities as you've had from league racing.  Good luck with your Calabogie track development.

[Phil Thornton]

.....1st and foremost a most enjoyable competition (again) regardless of the outcome, i find this inter-league stuff intoxicating, and if we could only get more commitment from both league members it would be something to make regular. as it is, the difficulty in rounding up 9 drivers is the hardest part for me. happily this time, i did get 10 drivers, and only 1 had to bow out so we were covered. 

Big Thanks to UKGPL for setting up and organizing it again.

Very pleased you enjoyed the race Bo

I've imported the results and it's now official, oAo won by 71 points to UKGPL's 55.  Well done to Bo and oAo, congratulations on a fine win.  That's 3 races now and the results table isn't looking too good for UKGPL, hopefully we'll have better luck at the next round

[MikeBeattie]

Err........ Phil I have to say the Teams Points Scoring table looks a tad disingenuous   They get to score once and we get a running total !!!      Proves my point, you don't have to win to lead the Championship 

Yes, I do realise its a standard template.

Oh BTW re the results Drew crashed out he didn't get a Disco, with 5 laps to go, just for the sake of History and future generations !!

[Phil Thornton]

Err........ Phil I have to say the Teams Points Scoring table looks a tad disingenuous   They get to score once and we get a running total !!!      Proves my point, you don't have to win to lead the Championship 

Yes, I do realise its a standard template.

Yes the total is irrelevant but it does show the individual results for each race. 

Having said that what if we had a proper Inter League Championship where all the leagues competed in the same number of events (instead of us being in 10 and the other leagues in one each)?  The Inter league results table would work perfectly wouldn't it .  I've already been discussing such a possibility with Luca Varani of GPFun, he is quite keen to extend the Inter Leagues into a full "big race of leagues" as he calls it.  I think it would work quite well but I have a couple of reservations:

1.  I don't have time to organize it so someone else would have to do it.  The UKGPL Inter Leagues have been hard enough to coordinate.  I don't think it will be a problem though I suspect there will be someone keen enough to take it on.  As a league admin for UKGPL I would expect to be involved in the organization (as would the league admins from all the other participating leagues), I just don't have the time to be the main man.
2.  We don't have enough good servers so each league would have to provide their own.

I'd be happy to import the race results though, our Inter League table should be able to host the results no problem   At least in the initial stages.  If it really took off someone might decide to create a dedicated web site?

Oh BTW re the results Drew crashed out he didn't get a Disco, with 5 laps to go, just for the sake of History and future generations !!

Updated that.  It's easy to correct the table if people post the real reason for not finishing, I just don't have time to trawl through the replay looking for it.

[vosblod]

Having said that what if we had a proper Inter League Championship where all the leagues competed in the same number of events (instead of us being in 10 and the other leagues in one each)?  The Inter league results table would work perfectly wouldn't it .  I've already been discussing such a possibility with Luca Varani of GPFun, he is quite keen to extend the Inter Leagues into a full "big race of leagues" as he calls it.  I think it would work quite well but I have a couple of reservations:
1.  I don't have time to organize it so someone else would have to do it.  The UKGPL Inter Leagues have been hard enough to coordinate.  I don't think it will be a problem though I suspect there will be someone keen enough to take it on.  As a league admin for UKGPL I would expect to be involved in the organization (as would the league admins from all the other participating leagues), I just don't have the time to be the main man.
2.  We don't have enough good servers so each league would have to provide their own.

Even though I don't currently compete I think that's a brilliant idea. Could run it like the world cup, ie knock outs until 2 go through to the finals?
Afraid I would be pushing it to find the time to administer. The drawback with a knock out basis is we could end up running something we aren't involved in during the latter stages - of course we'd make it through to the final though