Surprise Santa - Spa (1967) - Dec 29

[Turkey Machine]

I love that. Brilliant idea!

[bernie]

dont care if my team captain is Santa or an Elf 

Just as long as he isn't a fairy 


and I wanna be on the winingest team please 

[Turkey Machine]

Who's up for punting bernie towards the front?

[vosblod]

Not got the replay yet (didn't finish) so will sort out the team results later.
Just a note to apologise to those who weren't allowed to race. To be honest we were the victim of our own success, I never envisaged so many would turn up. Splitting 22 drivers in two would take the fun out of a 'team' event...
As regards it looking a bit like a p*ss up in a brewery in chat this was down to oh dear we have 22+ drivers and we can't get the server to run pro. Next time we run a team event will post a lot earlier and allocate the teams well beforehand, lesson learnt. At least I know how the captain of the Titanic felt.
I still feel the team thing was fun and getting 2 slightly slower drivers (ahem) to pick teams a la 'footy in the playground' is interesting (ace stroke picking Bookie - has he ever not finished a race  ). I also feel you have to run a team event on PRO or it takes the point out of it.
Last note. I again had my problems with all cars dissappearing as the flag drops (any solutions welcome). Not checked replay yet but if I seemed too slow I was driving blind for first few seconds and guessing who was where. Will be looking into that one...

Anyway, as already said, proper team results to follow once I have the full replay. Thanks for being there and bearing with a potential crisis   The next one is on INT

PS: Big thanks to Mike for making his server available  

[Samb]

A nice way to return. A great race, but it's a shame about the calamities during the first couple of laps. My race started off reasonably enough, missing a gear at Les Combes and pitching the car in a half spin in front of Evil  . But after that I passed King and Niki and tried to catch the leading trio of Alain, Clive and Fulvio. A couple of laps in Fulvio's engine decided to smoke and I was promoted to 3rd. Another few laps followed and I ran wide at Malmedy, gave the chicken wire a mighty clout and spun round allowing Steve to pass me. By this stage Evil's engine cried enough too, and Alain slowed, out of sheer kindness I suppose, for the rest of us  . Steve also slowed when he caught Alain, but me...... Well, I shot past them both   .

And so, I was leading the race with Steve nipping at my heels, but he too lost it approaching Le Combes, due to my car gaining a cloaking device for a second, which distracted him enough to lose the back end. After than, I enjoyed a quite run to the finish, only for Van to ambush we when I parked next to the pit after crossing the line! Anyway, it's great to be back, and congrats to the rest of the Elves for finishing  See you all soon.

[bernie]

Great fun while it lasted , was just getting int the race when everything went tits 


(note to self) Must go better next time , perhaps try some V Power 

Thanks for hosting and everything , enjoyed the pizz take and banter , some of you guys should be barred for taking this too seriously , you'd think it was a race or sometink 

[Billy Nobrakes]

Starting nearer the back of the grid I missed most of the carnage on Lap 1 only to have my screen freeze 3 times. Third one caused a disconnect.
Seems like most of the Santa team imbibed in a little too much mince pies & booze over the Xmas period and did not last the distance. Next time we will ditch out 1500cc engines for 6 reindeer.

The format seemed like a fun idea & hopefully we can run a similar race in next pre-season.

[NickyIckx]

Last note. I again had my problems with all cars dissappearing as the flag drops (any solutions welcome)

did you try to reduce the detail level inside GPL via slider from 100 to 75 ?
( could be done inside GEM as well , under Graphics section )


 
really did enjoy the chat before the Santa race did start , very funny.
race wasnt fun to me coz I got shot down at Masta.


anyroads , thanks for creating and hosting this Santa race !

  Happy New Years`s Eve !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fpolicardi]

Last note. I again had my problems with all cars dissappearing as the flag drops (any solutions welcome)

did you try to reduce the detail level inside GPL via slider from 100 to 75 ?
( could be done inside GEM as well , under Graphics section )


 
really did enjoy the chat before the Santa race did start , very funny.
race wasnt fun to me coz I got shot down at Masta.


anyroads , thanks for creating and hosting this Santa race !

  Happy New Years`s Eve !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Nicky, I think I was the cause of the Masta carnage at lap 3.   
I got second in qualy with a very clean lap without a tow and got a perfect start when Alain bogged down his engine and took the lead with Sam on my tail. When Sam lost it at La Combes Clive was soon on my tail and we did a little train with Alain gaining a couple of second gap on 4th.
At lap3 I revved too much at Malmedy and my engine began to smoke on the way to Masta. I was shocked and at the moment and I continued trying to stay out of the line on the left, but when I arrived at Masta Nicky and a Brabham came side by side with the Braby trying to pass. Maybe the Braby driver got caught by my slow car and lost it the car involving Nicky's Fezza. I had nowhere to go and crashed on Nicky. Some cars were following close so others cars were involved and three or four of them had to retire 
Grats to elf Sam 

[EvilClive]

It was great fun while it lasted

Maybe the pre race delays and banter only added to the fun? after a forced absence of GPL for a few days it was great to get back together.
I have to confess that I was not intending to take this race seriously ( but then, there are very few races I take that seriously!!)
Qually was not too clever as Icould not get a tow to gain the vital extra second for a front end place and ended up 6th or 7th on the grid. Never a good place when you are staring at Eau Rouge with a pack of 19 cars!!!
But, I got an absolute blinder of a start passing a few cars down the hill and exiting Eau Rouge in 3rd

I was desperate to get my tow rope onto the front two guys and was on Samb's tail as fast as I could hoping that he would in turn stay in touch with Fulvio.
It all worked well until SAmb's half spin...most inconsiderate as I was enjoying the lazy life sat in the slipstream , now I had to push hard to get my hooks into Fulvio's green thing!! Once I had accomplished that, I relaxed again thinking that at least we could ease away from the chasing pack.
But Alain had a different plan and the speed with which he closed the gap was scary!!!! He was soon nibbling at my gearbox as I increased the pressure upon Fulvio. The failure of Fulvio's engine through Malmedy almost caught me by surprise and I was lucky to avoid  any contact. Alain eased past down the straight and I took up my lazy "towee" position allowing me to ease off the revs and preserve the engine...I hoped

Suddenly, but slowly, if that makes any sense!! the gap to Alain started to grow and my car just did not pick up the revs properly out of La Source. Eau Rouge I took flat in 4th with no lift as usual but the exit speed was slower than usual?? and Alain was now over a second away??? Instead of pulling 12500 rpm down towards Malmedy I was only around 11000 and in almost exactly the same place as Fulvio retired, my engine went very quiet  
Alain indicated that he was waiting, but I was out and very surprised that the engine had failed as i was letting everyone else do the work.

The dice with Alain was shaping up to be a race long cat and mouse game as we were quite evenly matched for speed, probably would have come down to some demom braking into LA Source, i think, on the last lap.
Grats to the Elves and to Tim and Billy for some festive fun.
,

[kinghiro]

Last note. I again had my problems with all cars dissappearing as the flag drops (any solutions welcome)

did you try to reduce the detail level inside GPL via slider from 100 to 75 ?
( could be done inside GEM as well , under Graphics section )


 
really did enjoy the chat before the Santa race did start , very funny.
race wasnt fun to me coz I got shot down at Masta.


anyroads , thanks for creating and hosting this Santa race !

  Happy New Years`s Eve !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Nicky, I think I was the cause of the Masta carnage at lap 3.   
I got second in qualy with a very clean lap without a tow and got a perfect start when Alain bogged down his engine and took the lead with Sam on my tail. When Sam lost it at La Combes Clive was soon on my tail and we did a little train with Alain gaining a couple of second gap on 4th.
At lap3 I revved too much at Malmedy and my engine began to smoke on the way to Masta. I was shocked and at the moment and I continued trying to stay out of the line on the left, but when I arrived at Masta Nicky and a Brabham came side by side with the Braby trying to pass. Maybe the Braby driver got caught by my slow car and lost it the car involving Nicky's Fezza. I had nowhere to go and crashed on Nicky. Some cars were following close so others cars were involved and three or four of them had to retire 
Grats to elf Sam 

.
I was one of those coming from behind and I saw your slow car  so when the Brab and Fezza still decide to go side by side so close to Masta(wich is hazardous enough without a slow car upfront) I thought I  give them a 50 50 to come through without crash and lifted off and went from 6th to 5th.Half way through it looked from my view like they might come through and I had another fezza coming up fast from behind so I don t slow down to much. Full mayhem appears upfront and I aim for the left side of the road but got one wheel clipped.I usually aim for where the spinning car is cause most likely it won t be there anymore when I reach there but the problem was that there were three so the fezza bounces right to hit you in the middle of the road and then back left to where I was aiming. As far as I can remember the fezza behind me came flat out and joined the mayhem.
I qualed 3 d and got caught behind a slow start from the polesitter.Anyways the start was clean but soon I drop down a couple of places more cause I don t push to hard and would like to finish.Ironic that this leads to my early sorti lol.
gz winner and elves.looking forward to snowglen.

[Turkey Machine]

Apologies for the 2 cockups at Eau Rouge and Malmedy. Eau Rouge was caused by a Honda squeezing me into the brickwork on the inside of the corner after a really good start (victim of my own success - cars appeared from nowhere since I was making such headway through the field, and that one came out of nowhere thanks to the cars ahead/behind setting). Malmedy was my mistake after following a Ferrari (think it was Nicky) and getting a wobble in the middle of the corner. Suffice to say, I was pointing the wrong way, and after realising this, the words "oh shi", closely followed by "t" when somebody t-boned my helpless Brabham. It killed the engine, so much so I could floor the throttle from Les Combes to La Source (the long way round) and not fall off the track. 4 minutes or thereabouts was the best lap time I could muster as a consequence. The Climax engine doesn't like to work too hard, and maybe in hindsight I should have gone for the Honda....

[vosblod]

OK the results are in. Firstly the teams were;

Santa's	Elves
Billy Nobrakes	Vosblod
Jethro W	Fulvio P
Evil Clive	Nigel Smith
Tussman	Alain Maurice
D Rock	Steve B
King Hero	Sam B
John Thacker	Nicky I
Tim Butler	Bookie W
Bernie	Norbert

It looks like we had an Elf wipeout. Out of the six finishers, who were also the only ones to make 60% and score, five were Elves.
So, the scores on the doors; Elves 114 - Santas 28

Well done the Elves...