New Director of UKPnG Found

[Legzy]

How much time to you estimate you spend per week organizing and posting results of each race Legzy?

Posting a race on forum = 5 mins (but you could do it like Tony, rattle them all off in one hit. Would probably be an hour for the season )
Starting the server = 5 mins
Posting Results = 15 mins (once you've done it a couple of times)

The only thing that takes time is trying to find balanced cars for tracks. This probably takes me longer then most, because untill I have a seriously worked setup for a car that I'm happy with, I'm about as fast & consistant as Tony my times can be all over the place.

Just to add, I intend to still race most of the time & so would be happy to help out with servers etc on occaision if the new organiser needed.

[Wiltshire Tony]

If I'm in the mood and I have all the historic and technical data to hand I can rattle of a series in a lunchtime. Did one today  

Just starts with an idea. A "what if"? probably thought about on the drive to work. Develop the idea into a race series, then tweak and tweak and test and test and refine. I find the hardest part is actually testing the cars on the tracks. I know Legzy is much more thorough than me in this respect.

[Mike Miller]

The testing is the part I'm comfortable with. If Tony has his hands full, I can come up with a series. I would be in favor of handicapping the faster drivers; not with tokens, but tiers. Faster drivers get slower cars. Slower drivers get faster cars. Pit strategy would come into play. This type of racing gives an opportunity for everyone to not only be competitive, but learn something new each race.

[Mark J]

Pit strategy would come into play.

Noooo !...lol  only joking, i would enjoy some pitting in longer races but would it be necessary in our 40min events? unless you use 2x tyre wear perhaps. 

My only qualm with an alien gifted driver like your good self testing Mike, is that you may be able to get a lot more pace out of a certain car than us mortal drivers could manage. Maybe someone like Ade, who's fast in most of these classics but not quite yet at alien status, could also test your car choices in advance as a backup  He's always on the P&G server anyway, as is Matt !

ps in my earlier post it said "interspersed with single seater races"..that meant to say 'single make' races, ie IROC or whatever.

[ginsters sponsored]

My only qualm with an alien gifted driver like your good self testing Mike, is that you may be able to get a lot more pace out of a certain car than us mortal drivers could manage.

Maybe. However, for me, better that than someone else testing and aliens being outta sight on race day cause whoever tested didn't get the best outta out of it (it happened back in my day rather a lot).

I'm sure whoever is lucky enough to get the post will have their own ideas but, using a system that does away with the endless comparison testing would make sense. In my opinion, there really are very few perfect match ups in PnG so tokens, the MARA way, Mikes way would be the best way forward. I would run that "clubmens" series one week and a one make series the week after.

[pribeiro]

Mike got my attention. 

Personaly, I don't enjoy too much one car make race, the spirit of historic cars are the so different
weights, powers and handling, that using a one make car reminds me todays GT1 cars (same weight, same height, same HP, same design, same paint, same....).
It would/should  be possible to use several sub-classes from a class at a same race, i.e. using the year and/or c.c. of each one. Another thing I hope to be done is a points scenary that who doens't finish a race would be penalized for that. Maybe points for all but with a huge difference between who finish and who not. Perhaps a success points for the race laps done...it should avoid the quiters after one spin or a crash that doesn't kill the engine. This is one subject I have been speaking for years and tried to raise to all.
Just as an example, last race at Nordscheleife I have done 1 lap without the rear wing at the GP layout to went to the pit repairs, which put me in last, I lost almost 5 minutes, but got back on track and finished. I really don't like to see grids of 20 drivers become 10 because of the spins and crashes that can be repaired.

Thank you. 

[Mike Miller]

Mike Kolar from NASRL at Race 2 Play has agreed to share his Tiered approach to a "clubmans" series. You can read about the details here... http://www.nasasimracing.com/homepage/show_posts/15720

I'm of the opinion that people learn more (improved driving, setup skills, etc..) when driving 1 or 2 cars for an extended period of time. Because of this, I would suggest sticking with 1 set of cars (say the brute squad) the entire season. Track selection is key here because something like Lemans wouldn't give the slower tier cars a chance to finish well. Crystal Palace wouldn't give the bigger power brutes a chance.

I'd also like to analyze this past season at Race 2 Play using average points scored within each race participated to determine your car tier. This would help with any latecomers to the series not jump in a car quicker then needed after the 1, 2 race opener with the slower cars.

I agree with PR on some kind of penalty for not finishing x% of the race distance or better yet, some sort of benefit for finishing x%. I'm thinking finishing 90% race distance in 4 races gives you a credit to use a car from the next tier down (higher tier #'s are slower cars) in the next race. Credits could not be banked and saved at the end of the series for an unfair advantage. If you get a tier credit and you are in the highest tier (fastest cars available) then you could get the opportunity to drive a very quick car like a 906/8 or something like that within the Brute squad.

If there is interest, I'll do the testing. If we go with something like this, I could manage the testing, track selection, and tier management, but because I can't make it to every race, I wouldn't be able to run the server and the like.

[ginsters sponsored]

Interesting idea Mike. For me, such a series would have to have a GT tier. Running just a brute or bees tier runs the risk of alienating those not liking those choices? Running Brute Squad, Busy Bees and then GT tiers sounds great to me.

[Mike Miller]

Good call Ian. The GT cars are my favorites. Testing would have to determine a selection that could be broken into tiers.

[Mark J]

Running just a brute or bees tier runs the risk of alienating those not liking those choices? Running Brute Squad, Busy Bees and then GT tiers sounds great to me.

   anyone know what they are talking about?     

Great ideas Mike and Ginsters. I would shy away from forcing people into cars they really dont like as that would just impact on attendance. So a decent field spread and/or classes would be the way to go. I think we need the odd single car-type race and special track event so that we can use some tasty cars throughout the season.

Track wise for a season we just need a decent range of fast and slower tracks so that no one car type can theoretically dominate all the time.

[Legzy]

Mike,
Are you offering to run the show if you can get a 'server starter/results poster' type assistant?

If so, surely somebody who enjoys racing here would be happy to step up?




(Reminder - Starting server = 5 mins before race  /  Posting results = 15 mins after race)

[Mike Miller]

Mike,
Are you offering to run the show if you can get a 'server starter/results poster' type assistant?

Yes

[LigelC]

I'm of the opinion that people learn more (improved driving, setup skills, etc..) when driving 1 or 2 cars for an extended period of time. Because of this, I would suggest sticking with 1 set of cars (say the brute squad) the entire season. Track selection is key here because something like Lemans wouldn't give the slower tier cars a chance to finish well. Crystal Palace wouldn't give the bigger power brutes a chance.

I have always found in previous series that driving different cars each week was the main attraction.  The possibility of driving the same one or two cars for a whole season fills me with horror.    I don't argue with your belief that it aids drivers development but I join in races for fun - I have no aspirations of ever winning a race.  My main aim is not to be the last car on the road at the flag by keeping ahead of my fellow "backmarkers".

Well thats my twopence worth.

Laurie

[Mike Miller]

If you are in the highest tier (lower season points total or lower average points/race) then you are free to choose any car from any tier. I think the brute squad has something like 10 cars available if memory serves me right. You could easily drive a different car each race and still have some left over.

[Mark J]

checked out the link, all seems interesting enough but it leaves out a lot of cars that are available in P&G, like the e-types and normal fezzas etc. I suppose you cant have it all ways though and there seems a decent enough spread to try out different cars. We can only try it for a season and see how it goes. Then like the FIA (or not!) we can change the format if it proves generally unpopular.