Season 18 Novices Trophy - Round 10 - Oulton Park

The last race of the season is at Oulton Park situated near the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire.  This is quite a narrow track with some long straights and difficult braking areas.  Turn 1 (Old Hall) will be busy on lap 1. There isn't a lot of room and anyone hitting the advertising hoardings on the outside will probably bounce back onto the track so please be careful.  The circuit occupies much of the area which was previously the Oulton Estate. The track is set in the grounds of Oulton Hall. The circuit was originally developed by the Mid-Cheshire Car Club, with the track attracting crowds of 40,000 during the 1950s. Oulton Park regularly hosted the International Gold Cup event which attracted many Formula One teams (Stirling Moss won it 5 times), but as the F1 calendar shrank to include only Grand Prix events, the Cup became less well-known.  The track is characterised by its rapidly changing gradients and blind crests leading into unforgiving corners. Among many British and foreign drivers it is considered one of the most challenging and thrilling circuits ever constructed.

The restriction that reserve drivers should not join the race server until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left is being relaxed for this race.  We have enough grid slots to accomodate all the full-time and reserve drivers so there is no risk of a reserve driver taking a full-time driver's grid slot.

No drivers should go out on track until there is 30 minutes of qualifying left - this helps to ensure all the drivers have joined the server successfully before qualifying begins.

Please restrict chat to "pit in" / "pit out"  messages, and at the end of the race avoid chat until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Please be in the IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.
(You will need to set up a channel called #ukgpl if you haven't already done so)
IGOR and Race passwords: see above

Server = UKGPL_T7_2
IP Address = 62.149.202.160
Race Date = 09-02-2009
Time = 21:00
Track = Oulton Park
Variant = 65F1
Damage Model = Intermediate
Qually Time = 30 minutes.
Race Length = Long
Password: see above

Driver lists can be found on the championship standings page

Chassis allocations are below, and the same chassis will be used for all races this season unless there is an adjustment agreed by the moderator.  Please note chassis adjustments can be made at any time not just at the mid season review.  Good luck!

FULL TIME DRIVERS
Burtoner - Brabham BT7
G Poole - Brabham BT11
Vosblod - Lotus
Happy Al - Lotus
Maestro - Brabham BT11
Nicky - Cooper
Bookie - Ferrari
Norbert - Ferrari
NHance - BRM
Al Heller - BRM
Il Lupo - Ferrari
RogUK - BRM
Mark65 - Brabham BT11
Barry De La Rosa - Ferrari
Billy Nobrakes - Brabham BT11
Bernie - Honda
Tussman - Cooper
Roberto Motta - Lotus

RESERVE DRIVERS
Viss - Ferrari
Karlisss - Honda

Please use the updated 65 mod for this race.
If you have re-installed UKGPL over the summer break or are joining us for the first time, please don't forget to use the updated 65 mod which is available here: Jamesonline.net/UKGPL

Congratulations Ross.  Hope to see you in Season 19 (if you manage to get some sleep )

Congratulations Ross - a future GPL racer...

RACE REPORT :

Blimey!  Nail biting stuff here - not the race, the blasted wireless connection!  It's already made me miss out on Monza - the carnage, the accolades, the Spumante on the rostrum - one does get carried away . . .  (note:  must watch old Star Trek episodes, as Scotty seems a wizz at transporters)  I suspect a hard wired connection is the preferred option.   

Finaly materialised at the track, and it was all downhill from there - which must be why I went so fast!  It's good to drive a car, where things seem to happen in slow motion.  I'd thrashed out the perfect setup online, in the days prior to the big race, and slowly learned that these cars go slower backwards. 

From third on the grid, my only challenge was to keep it on the track.  Uneventful, apart from minor detours while trying to beat my best laptime.  Finaly did so on the last lap!

Nice to finish one of these, and a lot of skill shown by all.  But just my luck - the champagne was English.                   

First few laps enjoyable as I had a good clean race with Pete Maestro for 5th which became 4th but then we both made a mess of it & Bernie took 4th. Engine blew which was probably my fault as I was using a lot of revs downshifting in places where braking made the car unstable. Already blown one in qually so I should have known. Shift R & S&G dropped me down the field.
My last 3 races I have qually'd in top 5 but its no good being a "one lap wonder". Still I have scored more points than last season so its getting better.

Next season - tracks.  Drop Adelaide & Oulton please definitely. Bring in Zeltweg, Mosport, Imola or Hockenheim. Please keep Solitude, I know its wasn't popular but it will grow on you. I like the longer tracks with a gradient & a few blind corners/brows. Schottenring anybody?

PS well done Ross

Norm H

Yesterday was simply not the right night for me to race.

I was thinking to something else than the race so, when I made a mistake, I decided to left.

Thx all mate for the wondeful season

CU soon on track.

PS
Grats Ross - I guess Gilles would suit better to your son, but maybe your wife didn't agree... Grats to her as well