UKPnG Season 4 - Christmas Special - IROC's at 1970's Riverside - Dec 30

[johnw]

I think that the "_" disappeared as part of the attempts to get Mike into the server.

It's been like that since I started online racing, there was a reason...but I've long since forgotten what it was!

Also, I've filled in my nationality and driving name in my profile, is there anything else I need to do?

[Wiltshire Tony]

Just finished watching the replay, wow great racing guys. But why is Mike Miller in an Orange car? Must be a replay glitch?

So glad that it appears to have been a successfull event, thanks to Mike for allowing me to run with it.

Perhaps a repeat event on August Bank Holiday Monday Mike? He He.  

Oh almost forgot, grats to Matt and Clive for running this thing in my absence, cheers guys. 

[Mike Miller]

I just squeaked into the server. I was really having troubles. I even tried different cars. So when I landed a grid spot in an orange car, I didn't dare leave and try again. Many thanks to all who helped me get into the server.

I was hoping to find the last few tenths I was missing in the last turn during the quali session, but 15 minutes wasn't enough to do that.

During the 1st stint of the race, I knew I wouldn't be able to beat John and FMG on pace alone. I originally wanted to change tires in the 1st stop as I had a feeling they'd be threads if not changed the entire race, but based on my pace, I'd have to risk not changing them. My 1st stop was quite a bit quicker than John's. He lally gaggled and took his sweet time entering pit road. I entered full boogie knowing there wasn't a speed limit. My crew also serviced the car quicker, but not quick enough to confirm he took tires.

I left the pit lane with roughly 10 seconds in hand, but I knew John would close the gap before the next stop. Not only did he close the gap, he passed me and opened the gap. I was still losing .5 seconds in the last sector every lap. I was hoping he would change tires.

John hit the pit lane a couple laps before I did for the 2nd stop. While in my stall, I hit the tab key to see the players as they raced by and sure enough, I saw John's car flash by. He didn't take tires. I felt like it was over and then fumbled to refire my car. I lost a few seconds trying to get the key back into the ignition. There was no way I could make an impression into John so I conserved the tires. They were on threads at this point. My only hope at this point would John would suffer a puncture. A few laps later, I was shocked to find John back into the pits. I flashed by getting an second lead with roughly 12 laps to go. He could close the gap. Sure enough, he did so on the penultimate lap getting me in the last turn. I simply had nothing for him on the last lap.

Good race John. Fantastic pace FMG. Congrats to all those who finished and all those who participated in making this an outstanding event. Hope to see you out on track again in the future John. I want another chance.

[Clive Loynes]

I think that the "_" disappeared as part of the attempts to get Mike into the server.

It's been like that since I started online racing, there was a reason...but I've long since forgotten what it was!

Also, I've filled in my nationality and driving name in my profile, is there anything else I need to do?

Is there an option to add the name that you actually raced under?  Just so that I can see Soggy Bottom Racers Club against the race win. 

[Legzy]

Is there an option to add the name that you actually raced under?  Just so that I can see Soggy Bottom Racers Club against the race win. 

Sadly not Clive, he mustn't have accepted him team invite before the race results were posted... :'(

[johnw]

What a great race, really enjoyed it!

Got a good start and just managed to stay in the lead off the line, Mike and FMG had me on the back foot for a while and it was only after they started fighting amongst themselves that I was able to pull out a small gap on them.

I had a lead of nearly ten seconds when it was time for the first pit stop, but came into pit lane far too hot and overshot my crew by a mile! Decided to carry on and try again next lap, rather than reverse up as there was no speed limit and I only lost a few seconds. Problem was, I then had to fuel save heavily and cut the ignition on the straight to try and eke out that last litre of fuel. Mike cruised by on the entry to pit lane as I coughed and spluttered my way in.

Came back out ten seconds behind Mike and on a bit of a charge as I was annoyed that my own stupidity had cost me the lead. I was originally planning on an early second stop to change tyres, but knowing that I'd thrown away all that time to Mike and the fact the the car was still feeling alright I thought I'd see how it went. Also, I'd noticed that the gap to FMG was staying at a fairly constant 20 seconds and assuming that he'd taken tyres on his first stop, he wouldn't be needing them again and would pass me in the pits if I took tyres.

As it was, I was able to catch Mike again and pass on the straight (shorter gearing was really helping). Built up a small gap again before the second stop and managed to find my crew this time! Fueled and ready for the last stint, all was going well until I noticed that XD was reporting only 7 laps of fuel left, instead of 14. Thought it was a bit strange until the realization dawned that I'd calculated fuel earlier offline (without the multiplier), and was going to have to pit for a third time!

So, third stop out of the way and caution to the wind I somehow managed to catch Mike again on the penultimate lap and scraped a somewhat dubious pass round the outside - Sorry again,  I thought I was all the way through at the time! Held on through the last lap with a rather messy slide through the esses then reached the safety of the straight and then the line. Great awareness and courtesy by those guys that were lapped as well, by the way 

Grats to Mike and FMG. Thanks for the invite Clive and grats to you and Mark for the team win as well, good driving and team effort 

Hope to see you out on track again in the future John. I want another chance.

I'm sure you'll get it, Mike especially if you pop over to NG for the GTL/P&G races. Admittedly, I did get quite a lot of practice for this one, so I might not be able to give you such a challenge next time!

I can't usually do Thursdays but will try to pop in if I'm free (racing for SBRC, of course ), was good fun racing with you guys.

Cheers
John

[Clive Loynes]

Is there an option to add the name that you actually raced under?  Just so that I can see Soggy Bottom Racers Club against the race win. 

Sadly not Clive, he mustn't have accepted him team invite before the race results were posted... :'(

I don't think its a problem of not having joined in time as John's racing history shows:
        Team                            Series                            Joined                                         Left
Soggy Bottom Racers Club       all    December 29, 2010, 01:02:24 PM +0000   

So it must be that the results don't think that John_W is the same person as johnw?

Anyway, I would like to thank both John and Mark for their efforts in this one and to welcome them both to SBRC.  Whilst I expect the main SBRC effort to come from the stalwarts of Lorenzo, Stig and myself, we do hope to have the odd visit from John and Mark when RL and their other racing schedules permit.

Happy New Year!!!!

Still working on other data and a report of my trip through the sand.  This was a good team effort, with setup and race planning information being swapped at an ever increasing pace as the race approached.  It was Mark's tip of putting the radials on the back to increase the gear ratio that gave John the last half second and no doubt contributed to his own pace too.  I did the whole race on the same set of tyres but spent a lap and a half stuck in the sand.

Can't think what Legzy was up to to let me pass him after that.   

[Mike Miller]

I like to consider myself a setup expert in some shape or form so how did I miss the shorter gearing? I thought these cars had fixed gearing. I knew there were slight differences in gearing between the bias ply and radial tire (presumably different diameter). I chose the bias ply because it was more controllable in a slide. How did you guys get shorter gearing?

I plan to run some NG races in the future John. I have to dance around my work schedule.

[Clive Loynes]

I chose the bias ply because it was more controllable in a slide. How did you guys get shorter gearing?

The radials gave longer gearing which enabled the shorter final drive ratio to be used without reving the nuts off the poor thing.

[Legzy]

Can't think what Legzy was up to to let me pass him after that. 

sadly mate, I had a few to many excurtions off track & had to stop to repair my front splitter for 40secs, but still did 75% of the distance with a broken suspention, it was just going to take too long to fix.  

Quite happy to see the back of the iroc for a while now!

[FullMetalGasket]

I chose the bias ply because it was more controllable in a slide. How did you guys get shorter gearing?

The radials gave longer gearing which enabled the shorter final drive ratio to be used without reving the nuts off the poor thing.

I just used Bias-plies as they handled nicely and revved the nuts off it anyway 
Wish I'd thought of sticking the radials on the rear though as John always had the legs on me into the final turn - we were too close in pace through there (And each used different lines) for me to feel confident of a safe pass when I was near enough..
I also should have only done the 1 tyre change I think, changing on each stop may have kept my laptimes well down (FL was on lap70! ) but I spent too long in the pits 

[Clive Loynes]

RACE REPORT
Analyser report www.planet-venom.co.uk/PnG/IROC Christmas/index.html.


What a great way to end the year and many thanks to Tony for organising the event.

As you will have gathered from the reports from Mike and John, the scrap for first spot was far from straight forward.  Congratulations to John on his fine win and to Mike for for a hard fought second.  Grats also to Tim in third spot and for his Fastest Lap.  Guess you sneaked some fresh rubber at your last stop. 

Although many people shied away from the IROC and many were less than taken with Riverside, the combination provided a good race and, I think just the right level of difficulty to separate the aliens from the rest and to keep the rest of us occupied as well.  It was a combination that demanded your full concentration for two hours.  (I failed)

Six drivers went the full distance, finishing on the lead lap.  In addition to the top three these were H@L9000, Mark Craggs and API.  No mean feat.

Two drivers were just a lap down, namely Stig and Lazlow, who were also lapping at a rapid rate.

On the team front, Team Black took the honours comfortably with 60pts and three drivers in the top ten.  Team Yellow were second but I think that Legzy and Ade were at the circuit quite late trying to find all the pieces of yellow Porsche.  Should have been a big pile of them at what they call turn six.  Why it's called turn six when it must be at least turn ten is anyones guess.

I am now being shoved off the pc so I will just have to mention how well SBRC have done and to thank the admin fairy who has put John's SBRC membership in place on the results board.

Looks like the Kerb Crawlers are a spent force.  You can't keep proping them up like this Mike.  Come to a proper team.

Happy New Year all!

Captain Black